Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

šŸ––Star Trek TNG S07E17 Full Length Reaction (Patreon)

Published:
2025-08-29 22:57:37
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

S07E17 MasksThis week we saw Picard in his element unraveling an archeologically-flavoured mystery. Engage! šŸ––

** See THIS COLLECTION for episodes posted in airdate order!** We're following this watch order: STAR TREK EPISODE GUIDE BY AIRDATE

Direct link*Note: You can change the quality of the video by clicking the settings icon (little cog) and making it a higher resolution!*

Files

ST NG 7x17 Full Length Reaction

Download options: https://www.patreon.com/posts/update-on-full-99864012 Main Channel https://www.youtube.com/@jenmurrayxo

Comments

Ian

love these Friday uploads noone does trek reactions as Vulcan awesome as lady Jen . Engage šŸ––

Sean Jackson

Yeah it's clear that by season 7 much of their creative juices were running dry. Still I enjoy seeing Brent Spiner act all crazy.

Summer

This episode is more tolerable here

Brian Straight

This episode.... This I do not like. It's just Spiner chewing the scenery.

Kane Is Able

I hate this episode. I probably won't join you for a full rewatch. Maybe when it's on the YouTube.

Desmond

You tend to be pretty diplomatic with your reactions, Jen, but this one is considered to be one of the worst episodes of TNG, lol.

Summer

Probably this and the next five I will only watch with reactors like Jen

Jason Scade

She learned diplomacy well from Picard.

Vina

It's an oddball episode but I've always liked it, mostly for Brent Spiner but also I like the little glimpse we get about this culture via its mythology (I really like paleontology, and would be obsessed with it if I lived in the Trek universe)

Alexis Vorian

I don't know, i think it was a great premise not developed in the right way, probably.

Curran Dobbs

When it first came out, I didn't like this episode but it's grown on me. I'm more open to the weirdness of it now that when I was a kid.

Curran Dobbs

I think Troi technically outranks Data so she could pull rank on him but she doesn't work in the command department and I think one of Data's "jobs" is second officer so if Riker and Picard were gone, Data would take command (like in the episode Gambit where Data was in command and not, say, Commander Beverly Crusher despite her outranking him).

Michael Tuffin

One of the worst episodes, but youā€™ve made it through the great the good the mediocre and the bad. Soon it will all culminate in one of the greatest TV episodes of any show of all time

Preaching to the Horse's Mouth

I enjoy it also. I always like it when shows get a little weird, and the Brent Spiner masterclass is a lot of fun.

Preaching to the Horse's Mouth

The common refrain re S7 is that the writers were running out of ideas but to my mind this is creative as heck.

rubberkidney

maybe riker jamming out with sound waves or some other music type patten around him.

Geoff S.

Spiner thought his acting was ridiculous in this episode. I think the cast made a lot of jokes at his expense on this one. I like the aesthetic of the sets and objects though. I kept thinking eggplant every time they said Masaka.

Cinedazed

A really intriguing premise that doesn't really go anywhere narratively and concludes with a whimper of an ending. I like the idea of Picard saving the Enterprise with the power of ACTING, but I think the whole thing needed to be in a louder, more melodramatic register to work, and instead it's all too mellow and low-key. The best that can be said about it is that parts of it have a creepy atmosphere that would make it a nice episode to put on in the background during Halloween, but the plot just never gels.

TigerMyth

Interesting. Is this the first time you mentioned you would skip an episode on rewatch? I think the early creepy factor make this one ok. Not great, not good but watchable for me. Unlike Bev and Sex ghost which I still haven't watched your reaction to that one. lol. That and the clip show, although I did watch your reaction to the clip show. Eventually I will soldier on and watch sex ghost but not yet. Maybe when season 7 is done.

Lintrinsic

Troi doesn't outrank him. They're the same rank, Lieutenant Commander (correction she did get a promotion to commander, but Data is ahead of her in the command structure, just as he is with Dr Crusher.) he's Second Officer, so third in command. But as counsellor she can relieve people of duty and give orders on mental health grounds, similar to Dr Crusher with medical.

Lintrinsic

Brent Spiner has described this episode as "the most preposterous acting" he ever did in his life and talks about Marina Sirtis laughing in his face at one point. I think this was also the episode where he got the script in the early hours as filming ended on the previous episode right before filming started on this one and was horrified that he was leading it again (and I think he's mentioned having shingles at the time). They usually took turns, would get all the scenes with the other cast members out of the way early in the schedule then they'd get a few days off while the leading character or characters remained to work since around season 3. This gave the actors some downtime they lacked in earlier seasons which had a grueling schedule with all needing to be present throughout filming. When he complained to producers it was multiple characters and another full schedule on the trot their reply was "We have faith in you."

Summer

I will say for this episode, Geordi is a great friend one reason over the years he has been my off and on favorite, Dr. Crusher is more my favorite.

Julian Meeks-Wagner

Tori is a full commander same rank as Riker and does out rank data. It just Troi is technically a science medical officer hence blue uniform and data is a tactical/engineering officer hence the gold and Riker is a command officer hence the red.

Clay F

Skipping this episode. The last episode "Thine Own Self" (and your reaction) was excellent.

Curran Dobbs

Troi was promoted to full commander in the previous episode.

Henchman Twenty1

I always thought it an odd choice that they chose to air back-to-back Data episodes where something affects him. First android amnesia and now this. I didn't care for this one, though I wonder if Spiner enjoyed it as it gave him another chance to do some acting outside of Data's character.

Ian

Overall I can see this not being a favourite but there's always something great about seeing an evil , almost Loki type data , much like lore evil data is always an entertaining watch and ofc Jen's joy at every make it so! we hear is always fun to see . Watching for the first time along with Jen I just enjoy every episode good or bad id definitely rewatch a Jen reaction to them all and never be disappointed šŸ™ŒšŸ‘Œ

Lintrinsic

No, he's described it as the "most preposterous acting" he ever did. He was unhappy it meant another full filming schedule for him to be one the leads after the previous episode and short notice to play multiple characters. IIRC he had shingles at the time and when he protested to one of the producers was simply told "We have faith in you." He's recounted this story a few times over the years

Lintrinsic

I agree with what you're saying, but I'd find that too vague to be helpful with my phobias. I don't think "potential arachnophobia warning" is a spoiler for episode 19. Especially for someone who has said they can handle it if they know it's coming.

Henchman Twenty1

I'm fine with that as it's my least favorite Data episode. As far as having the shingles - Yikes! Reminds me of when Milhouse was playing Fallout Boy. Milhouse: Hey, I think I'm lying on a broken bottle. Director: Beautiful! Use it!

Ian

Warning Jen regardless of it being a phobia or otherwise is still a spoiler and something Jen doesn't want , as she's repeatedly said she prefers to go into every episode completely blind

Ian

That would be much appreciated better to be respectful of Jen's wishes šŸ‘

Lintrinsic

I thought it was accreditation as a bridge officer rather than a promotion. I stand corrected. But Data is still above her in the command structure, as Second Officer he's third in command after Riker.

Curran Dobbs

Data's rank is Lieutenant Commander. As of the episode Thine Own Self, Troi's rank is full Commander.

Zapp Rowsdower

You asked where Worf was in the beginning. He was instructing his class, as mentioned by Deanna and Beverly in Deanna's quarters.

Zapp Rowsdower

I don't care if Brent Spiner didn't enjoy doing this one, or that there are apparently so many people who don't like this episode. I still do, even though the story wasn't fleshed out enough. The resolution came too quickly and easily. I still enjoy the temporary change in tone

Theodore Mangini

30 years later, I can see the technical weakness of the episode. It's slow, ancient culture library has been done several times before on the show (Inner Light, etc...), the stakes seem low for a "virus taking over the ship" trope episode, and the writing does not do a good job of tying it's themes of Imagination and Myth together. In spite of the technical weakness, when I was 10, this episode slapped and really impacted me. Data in the mask is Iconic in my mind, when I close my eyes and think of Data, the mask is one of the first things I think of (and that moment from Generations. You're almost there!). I made a mask a few weeks later for school. When I wasn't watching Star Trek at that age, I was wearing out our VHS's of Cleopatra and The Ten Commandments. After this episode I ran to the bookshelf and grabbed my Egypt books. In 1,500b.c.e the bronze age Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Canaanites all had these kinds of sun god myths. They believed "as on earth, so in heaven" and so for festivals and religious celebrations they would play-act rituals (like Data and Picard at the end) in hopes that acting it out on earth would produce the same results in the heavens. The Winter Solstice festivals for example. The shortest day of the year, and also a very deadly time of year, it's winter, low food, people getting sick from the cold, etc. Hardest time of the year. And they didn't know the earth revolved around the sun, so the sun's return was not guaranteed. So they would play-act, and the (usually) Priest-King (the representation of the sun god on earth) would be "sacrificed" (ceremonial acting, not actually killed) and would go into the temple for 3 days where he would battle the underworld and death (probably get really high on cannabis), only to three days later be resurrected and return, ensuring a return to warmth and a good harvest. Turns out, this myth and practice is still alive today, with a deity celebrated at the winter solstice who was dead for three days and returned having conquered evil and death ensuring the future for everyone. It's not a great episode of TV, but it still reached me at a time where the themes of myth and imagination resonated with me, and opened up my curiosity in a way that helped define who I am as an adult (as so much of Star Trek did).

Sykonee

Have a strange soft-spot for this one, due to reading a completely unrelated TNG novel with the same title, and having to do a grade school report on it in the form of pictures. Suffice to say, my 'artistry' was about as comprehensible as Spiner's acting.

Bobby Coolbreeze

This was a forgettable episode. I havenā€™t seen this one since it first aired. Only watched this one again cause Iā€™m watching along with you lol. Yes moving on.

William Rosmer

i'm sure that i'm in the minority but i really like this one

Summer

Jen if you are considering if you should start Voyager soon I have one word: THEME, that is all.

Jeff Seely

'Masks' is a forgettable one for me. It's the epitome of a filler episode: something that doesn't do anything to develop the characters or any overarching story but isn't necessarily bad. That said, I do love it when Brent Spiner gets to show off his acting chops. For that reason alone, I think I would give this episode a 6 out of 10 (it would be a 5 otherwise).

scott osborne

ALL this episode shows is that the aztecs were aliens

Dante Hopkins

I really like this one, too. I only found out people didn't like it from being on the internet.

Andrew Skow

It has grown on me over the years.

AzureSolas

I used to not like this episode. However, I began to see it from an archeological, anthropological, and even astronomical perspective and then started finding it interesting. And of course, Dataā€™s different personalities have become a meme around the house.šŸ˜ Also, I wouldā€™ve used a treble clef to signify music too. In fact, I have. Got my face painted and wanted to have something painted that represented something about me. So I had a flaming sun with a treble clef in the middle painted on my face. What happens in this episode(as I understand it), is Picard unraveling the mystery of how this culture symbolically represented its own celestial objects. When you understand that this culture is using symbolism and metaphorical personalities to represent its own celestial bodies, you can then go back and watch the episode from that perspective, and the things the different personalities say can then be used to understand the nature of what it is they represent or speak of. For example, Masaka represents the sun and Ihat speaks of how she lets people die of thirst, and burns them alive. This could mean that the sun for the planet this culture lived on may have been extremely hot and hard to survive. People from this culture may have frequently suffered death from dehydration or from fatal doses of radiation from their star. Also, Masakaā€™s father describes being cold. Put this together with how he speaks of having too many children to know who is who, and we could theorize that the father is a supernova remnant that forms other stars, including the star represented by Masaka. He is cold because he no longer generates the heat he once did as a star, and since it is theorized that supernova remnants produce stars, perhaps thatā€™s what Masakaā€™s father represents. Maybe the planet this civilization lived on exists closely with this supernova remnant. Close enough to be greatly effected by the hot star represented by Masaka in their cultureā€™s mythology. Itā€™s possible that the archive is a mythological representation of that civilizationā€™s star system. When looked at from that perspective, then it becomes a really fascinating episode about how this culture represented its own home star system, and it becomes clear that through that cultural archive alone, the Enterprise crew may have discovered the physical nature of the star system that culture lived in. Instead of discovering and learning of a new star system in the normal way-by traveling there-they may have discovered it through the archiveā€™s symbolic representation of that system. Perhaps the crew of the Enterprise could even trace the archiveā€™s path back to its system of origin, go to that system and through what they learned from the archive, understand the ancient history of that system relative to what the Enterprise crew would see of it in their own present time. Fascinating isnā€™t it? Itā€™s a much more intelligent and interesting episode than I understood it to be for many decades really. It feels much more well-written to me than it used to.

AzureSolas

It does develop Picard more as someone we know to be a student of archeology and anthropology. This episode fleshes out that aspect of who he is more, in an interesting way to me. Iā€™m with you on Brent Spinerā€™s part in the episode. As I said above, aspects of his performance in this episode have become memes around the house.