{"id":5405,"date":"2016-03-10T13:00:57","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T21:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=5405"},"modified":"2016-02-29T15:21:51","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T23:21:51","slug":"mark-watches-the-next-generation-s07e21-firstborn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2016\/03\/mark-watches-the-next-generation-s07e21-firstborn\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘The Next Generation’: S07E21 – Firstborn"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the twenty-first episode of the seventh season of\u00c2\u00a0The Next Generation<\/i>, what the hell. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I think it has taken me until this episode to realize that I don’t really like Alexander.<\/p>\n

I have\u00c2\u00a0tried<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0my best to appreciate the relationship between Worf and his son. I really liked “Reunion”! I still think it’s an exciting episode of\u00c2\u00a0The Next Generation.<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0But aside from “Rascals,” which I can barely defend as a good episode because it’s subjective, I haven’t truly enjoyed a single Alexander episode since his debut. All of them have been weird, and I never quite see how Alexander fits into the world of\u00c2\u00a0The Next Generation<\/i>. If that were an intentional thing, I might appreciate him more, but instead, I get the sense that the writers don’t know what to do with him. Look, after seeing how Jake is included in the show as a son over on\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine<\/i>, it’s very difficult to feel excited about Alexander’s sparse appearances on this show. It makes no sense that he’d be unseen for so long. The only reason I even feel compelled to address this is because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 lord. “Firstborn” is so ridiculous that it earned it.<\/p>\n

It didn’t help that this felt repetitive, first of all. We’ve seen stories dealing with Alexander’s identity. Most of the episodes post-“Reunion” dealt with the complication between his human upbringing and his Klingon side. (Hell, even “Reunion” itself addressed it.) The rivalry between the house of Duras and Worf’s family house has been done to death, so much so that I was genuinely surprised by the show bringing it back up again. And how many times have we seen Worf try to teach his son about Klingon traditions? I don’t feel like it’s an exaggeration to say that this has become rather common for stories involving Alexander.<\/p>\n

So what sets this episode apart? Initially, there’s not much that does so. I expected that the assassination attempt would inspire Alexander to take his Klingon heritage more seriously, but was that enough? Was that enough to get him to leave behind his life on the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0and immerse himself in his own culture? We got real close to that during the Holodeck training sequence, especially when Alexander showed promise but threw it away because he refused to kill his opponent. He knew that person wasn’t real, and yet he still wouldn’t “kill” them. Yet instead on latching on this revelation, the writers take us in a bizarre direction, choosing to pursue a plot where K’mtar threatens to invoke some Klingon law that would challenge Worf’s right to be a parent to Alexander. As quickly as this is invoked, it is\u00c2\u00a0also\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>abandoned while the episode follows\u00c2\u00a0another<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0plot, one that brings back B’Etor and Lursa to our screens. Why?<\/p>\n

So that plot can be abandoned, too.<\/p>\n

I think you can see the pattern emerging here. There are just too many red herrings and nonsensical twists in this story for me to get invested in\u00c2\u00a0any<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0of them. Every time something interesting seemed to happen, the show would twist in a new direction. Again, it’s not even like those new “directions” were new plots, either. They felt like recycled bits of stories we’d seen before. However, it’s when this show DOES do something new and potentially interesting that, ironically, it fails the hardest.<\/p>\n

I simply refuse to accept the Time Traveling Alexander story. I REFUSE.<\/p>\n

It makes so little sense to me that I am actually angry that someone thought I would buy this. So you’re telling me that in forty years, time travel can be purchased, and that\u00c2\u00a0this<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is the first evidence that said time travel exists? Are you telling me that Alexander witnesses Worf’s murder and is so distraught that he could not save his father that he\u00c2\u00a0then<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0travels back to the time period when he was about to become a teenager so that he could\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 NOPE I CAN’T EVEN FINISH THE SENTENCE. Why the\u00c2\u00a0fuck<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0did he not travel back in time to just prior to Worf’s murder and stop it then? If there’s a connection between Alexander’s refusal to pursue the life of a warrior and this future murder, then it’s\u00c2\u00a0barely<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0revealed to us. All we know is that Worf dies, and Alexander sees himself responsible.<\/p>\n

Instead of a million other options, Alexander travels back in time, meticulously inserts himself as a member of his own family (enough so that Worf will trust his claims that he’s there to protect Worf and Alexander), and then does what he can to turn his twelve-year-old self into a warrior. It is, perhaps, the most ill-conceived plan I could possibly think of. Yes, let’s put the fate of saving one’s father into the hands of a TWELVE-YEAR-OLD. Let’s hope that the fickle desires of a pre-teen Klingon\/human match up with your intentions! And when this fails because you DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO CONVINCE\u00c2\u00a0YOURSELF<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0OF SOMETHING, then you should\u00c2\u00a0definitely\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>plan to murder the younger version of yourself, GUARANTEEING THAT NO ONE IS AROUND TO SAVE YOUR FATHER FROM BEING MURDERED ANYWAY. You are literally doing nothing to save Worf!!! YOU ARE MAKING IT CERTAIN IT WILL HAPPEN.<\/p>\n

Terrible. SO SO SO TERRIBLE. Please take the ability to time travel away from people who utilize it so poorly. And how the\u00c2\u00a0fuck<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0did Alexander return to his own time?\u00c2\u00a0Did<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0he? That’s left wide open, so now I have to assume he got home through magic or he’s drifting through the past, and his life is destined to complete this circle forever. What the fuck, y’all! I love time travel more than most things, and this is the worst case of it I’ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

The video for “Firstborn” can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– I am now on Patreon<\/a><\/b>!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME<\/a>.
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be Death Note<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0Neon Genesis Evangelion<\/em>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"