The Fifth Season of TNG contains some remarkably strong episodes while continuing to push the boundaries of what could be achieved within an episodic television format. It is notable for the tragic loss of creator, Gene Roddenberry, who died on 24th October 1991 at the age of 70. His influence upon the positive depiction of humanity and diversity in Science Fiction endures to this day. Senior Trekker continues to score all episodes with a 5.
This rousing Klingon/Romulan conflict concludes with the the threat of full-on war against the Federation averted at the last minute. Modern audiences may be a little surprised by the minimal amount of computer-game style space battles seen on the screen. That sort of stuff was very expensive and difficult to produce back then, meaning that the tension had to be built up by the quality of the scripts, the direction and the acting. Maybe it wasn't actually Art with a capital A but it was certainly artistry and is fully deserving of its continuing sound reputation.
Earlier in the episode we had a brief glimpse of the traditional Klingon victory celebration, complete with fights, roaring laughter, back-slapping and blood-wine spilling, Look too closely and you can see that not very much is actually going on but the IDEA was very skilfully conveyed. So much so that cosplay Klingons became very popular in the 1990's, with honour guards turning up at press events all over the world.
Robert O'Reilly, Tony Todd and the scheming sisters are back to delight us on the Klingon side while Denise Crosby makes a welcome return as the Human/Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar. The writers had to jump through a few hoops with the storyline in order to get her involved but the results are splendid as she gives us an unexpectedly chilling villain.
Data's turn at a leadership, when ordered to take command of the Sutherland, proves to be more difficult when Lt Hobson challenges his every decision because of a distrust of androids. Timothy Carhart makes a convincingly irritating sceptic in the role and it's a shame we never saw him return to Star Trek. Neither did the highly respected theatrical actor, director and teacher, Fran Bennett, who played Admiral Shanthi. Star Trek must have been gaining quite a reputation within the business to be able to attract such varied talent away from their usual employment on detective and medical shows.
This rousing Klingon/Romulan conflict concludes with the the threat of full-on war against the Federation averted at the last minute. Modern audiences may be a little surprised by the minimal amount of computer-game style space battles seen on the screen. That sort of stuff was very expensive and difficult to produce back then, meaning that the tension had to be built up by the quality of the scripts, the direction and the acting. Maybe it wasn't actually Art with a capital A but it was certainly artistry and is fully deserving of its continuing sound reputation.
Earlier in the episode we had a brief glimpse of the traditional Klingon victory celebration, complete with fights, roaring laughter, back-slapping and blood-wine spilling, Look too closely and you can see that not very much is actually going on but the IDEA was very skilfully conveyed. So much so that cosplay Klingons became very popular in the 1990's, with honour guards turning up at press events all over the world.
Robert O'Reilly, Tony Todd and the scheming sisters are back to delight us on the Klingon side while Denise Crosby makes a welcome return as the Human/Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar. The writers had to jump through a few hoops with the storyline in order to get her involved but the results are splendid as she gives us an unexpectedly chilling villain.
Data's turn at a leadership, when ordered to take command of the Sutherland, proves to be more difficult when Lt Hobson challenges his every decision because of a distrust of androids. Timothy Carhart makes a convincingly irritating sceptic in the role and it's a shame we never saw him return to Star Trek. Neither did the highly respected theatrical actor, director and teacher, Fran Bennett, who played Admiral Shanthi. Star Trek must have been gaining quite a reputation within the business to be able to attract such varied talent away from their usual employment on detective and medical shows.