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Star Trek: The Next Generation 1x18 "Home Soil" - Full Watch-along (Patreon)

Published:
2025-12-12 19:00:05
Edited:
2025-12-12 19:10:27
Imported:
2026-10

Content

Follow along with me using your own copy of the episode!

Files

Star Trek: The Next Generation 1x18 "Home Soil" - Full Watch-along

Comments

Squeesher

Any Trek where we deal with a new form of life is a good Trek in my view! One of the better S1 episodes imo. I really dig that pink top! 😍 Hope you're having a good day 👋

Preaching to the Horse's Mouth

I'm excited to watch this one, its probably one of my top 3 S1 episodes. #'s 1 & 2 being ones we haven't gotten to yet

Greg

I do like this episode, despite it's slow pacing, some uneven guest start acting, and the usual plot holes and heavily reliance on TOS ideas and episodes that was so common in Season 1. However, I agree with Bunny it's not AS good in rewatches as you know what is going on. That problem is hardly unique to this episode though. It's fun we learn more about terraforming and how it operates and what kind of people are needed to make it happen. Also I can understand the director not wanting to see the facts in front of his face. Everyone missed there being life on this world, including all the Federation survey teams. As the others team member said, it's a lot easier to look back in hindsight and realize 'oh yeah, I can see now what was going on.' Troi actually was quite useful here, as the writers started to realize by now how to write for her character and how they could use her. Walter Gotel was the biggest guest star in this episode, playing the Director. He was a movie star with a lot of credits to his name, perhaps best known for being in James Bond movies. This is yet another episode that was plagued with production and script problems and it shows in the final result, I feel. To quote from the Wikipedia article on this episode: Re-writes on "Home Soil" continued throughout shooting, with Corey Allen receiving pages on the day before filming, something that Allen described as a "struggle". Of the story in general, The Next Generation writer and producer Maurice Hurley said it was "An interesting idea, but the execution fell apart." He felt that in addition to the script, there were issues with casting, sets and the time in which to shoot. All in all, pretty average episode. Not bad, not great, good ideas, not the best execution, best on a first watch, but not a terrible episode.

William Terry

I'm getting tired of Captain Picard and hope Starfleet retires him and promotes Riker as captain. Good story for bringing up the definition of life. Bunny nails it with her comments on Devil in the Dark. It's odd in retrospect that the miners could just live with the Horta after it fried those guys and they broke 99% of its eggs. So Home Soil has a more reasonable conclusion.

John DiGiantomasso

I always liked this one. Yeah, very Devil in the Dark. In the 1980s there was a group (maybe it was SETI) that wanted farmers in the midwest to plant crops in multi-statewide geometric patterns so that any alien life passing by or looking from a distance had to conclude that those could NOT be natural and had to be the result of intelligent life. I always thought that sparked the idea for this episode in 1988.

Desmond

Always loved the ilfe form's description of humans as "ugly bags of mostly water". That's a memorable one. Although the Enterprise crew's name for it of "micro-brain" is memorable for precisely the wrong reason lol.

Jack

Bunny is a very attractive bag of mostly water. 😁

Matthew Graves (Graviton)

“Maybe they’re all sleeping. The ETERNAL sleep!” Whoa! Bunny going dark out of nowhere😆 “Ok, gettiing some Riker and Troi action going down…” Now THAT would be an interesting episode! 😉 But seriously, this is an ok episode. A bit thin and a bit slow, but perfectly serviceable sci-fi. While it has some similarities to “Devil in the Dark” (which is one of my top 5 TOS episodes) I don’t think it has nearly the suspense, atmosphere, or heart. It’s not bad by any means, just doesn’t stand out fo me personally. Glad to hear you enjoyed “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy “ It’s a big favorite of mine and the gold standard for sci-fi comedy fo e. Douglas Adam’s has a very unique, somewhat dark, absurdist sense of humor that’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I love it. The other books in the series are all also great, though I will warn you the, free wheeling, all-over-place nature doesn’t really settle down much until the third or fourth book. Personally, I love the chaos of the early books but it can take some getting used to. The fundamental underlying fabric of Adams’ stories is that the the universe is a big, random, absurd mess and things just happen, so all you can do is go with the flow..

Carlos Stevens

OMG! Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Please tell me you did not forget to bring your towel. Excellent book choice. Oh yes... and of course... Oh Fredeled Gruntbuggly, Thy Nicturations are to me... As Purdeled Garble Blotches, upon a lurgid bee...

Carlos Stevens

... (I think I said it before, but this is what I post instead of posting a spoiler) ...

Carlos Stevens

This is a very Gene Roddenberry inspired episode. The pacing, the dialog, the plot... very Roddenberry.

bunnytails

I think they have a nice dynamic in these early episodes 😁

bunnytails

It was a really cool book. Are the others direct sequels?

bunnytails

Are the other Hitchhiker books all following a continuous story, characters and plot wise?

bunnytails

I didn’t know there was a movie! Or maybe I forgot. Might have to check it out then!

bunnytails

Ohh, that sounds like it could be the case!

bunnytails

Ohh, exciting! I wonder what they will be!

Matthew Graves (Graviton)

Yes. Some characters drop in and out at times, naturally. And the story can veer pretty wildly. But it’s mostly a more or less continuous story

Mark Gosine

"Troi actually was quite useful here, as the writers started to realize by now how to write for her character and how they could use her." Yeah, I agree. Her blabbing out loud or without a mute seems to be a bit rude to those she's talking about. Like, if I while I was talking to Picard, and Troy leans over and says, "He's a sneaky bastitch, don't trust him."

Matthew Graves (Graviton)

To clarify a bit further, the first two books are adaptations of a weekly radio show written by Adams for the BBC. By the third book it was a new, original story and there’s a bit more of a conventional novel-style plot. The books/radio program were then adapted to a BBC TV series. Then there was a (notoriously difficult) text based computer game. Then there was a movie. Adams, ever the eccentric, changed the plot to varying degrees with every new incarnation. The tv show is interesting but very limited by the effects of the time (Zaphod’s second head is… unconvincing). The movie is high budget and looks great. It’s got its good points and not so good. The best part is Arthur is played by Martin Freeman (Bilbo in The Hobbit among many other things). And Marvin is voiced by the late, great Alan Rickman. Both absolutely nail it. Mos Def is good as Ford. YMMV on Zoey Deschanel as Trillian and Sam Rockwell as Zaphod. It’s worth a watch, just keep in mind that as I said, at a certain point it just veers off in its own completely different direction plot-wise.