Graham Gentz Loves To Playtest
@thismaybegraham
Play & Culture Lead @mythworks.bsky.social Facilitator and Game Designer A puppet sometimes |he/they| Black Lives Matter "Love for the Love Gods!" Cabin in the Woods For Hallmark Movies: shorturl.at/MbEtK
If Breathless: Frightmare Edition hits the next stretch, I'll make a Breathless French New Wave + Neorealism Double Feature www.kickstarter.com/projects/myt...
really can't describe my show any better than this
1. S6 E15 Tapestry my favorite tng ep. wild tiny s2 callback. time travel but not. the choices we make and who we become. we don't always understand or appreciate ourselves or our own choices or their meaning. a different Q, oddly compassionate. maybe it's all in picard's head? perfect ambiguity.
2. S3 E16: "The Offspring" Data as a parent. What a wonderful idea. Pairs nicely with Measure of a Man and Quality of Life. This is the heartfelt big idea scifi I come for. So much is explored here. Inherit rights and freedom. Personhood. Creating life. what THAT means. Some of the finest Star Trek.
3. S4 E12 "The Wounded" Epic. Personal. Profound. This ep...🥲❤️🔥 Making something new for TNG and after. Bridging the realities of our century to ST's morality. The Great Marc Alaimo as Gul Du-not. O'Brien takes center stage. Ending with the song honoring the dead of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Wow.
4. S6 E14: "Face of the Enemy" Ppl hate on Troi, but it's not the chars fault the show didn't know how to write for her. So how bout the best Romulan ep is ALSO is the best Troi ep? 1st app of the Tal Shiar, Carolyn Seymour plays an excellent villain. Tense thriller aboard a Romulan Warbird?? YESS
5. S7 E25+26: "All Good Things..." Finales to shows don't always get to be good. This one is. Perfect final scene. This is the send-off TNG deserved. Q is here but he's a different kind of Q. The movies and the Picard show don't get the chars right. But that's okay. Because we have this 🌠🖖
6. S6 E9 " The Quality of Life" It really doesn't get any more ST than this. Reexamining the definition of "life", have characters argue about it, the entitiy in question looks goofy as hell. Our hero, whose own person and lifehood has been questioned, challenges our beliefs, pulls our heartstrings❤️🔥
Fun Fact I can think of many Star Trek episodes worse than Threshold
7. S5 523: "I Borg" The best Borg ep. Watch the perfect, saintly TNG chars TRULY struggle with their unassailable moral codes. Complicate everyone's favorite unstoppable incomprehensible villain. Change expectations. After this, the Borg became less slowly less impactful. But here it was peak scifi
8. S3 E13: "Deja Q" The best "proper" Q episode. More head games, humor, and worldbuilding. They really knew how to write Q at this point and the new context really brings the larger examination of TNG humanity. Absolute joy of an ep.
9. S4 E26 + S5 E1 " Redemption" So ppl don't like the longform Klingon plot in TNG?? Which is crazy to me. It's all the work of Ronald D. Moore and the 1st time in ST we get in-depth cultural exploration outside of the Federation. Klingon Civil War! Wolf quits!! Huge finale!!! and a fav Data moment❤️🔥
10. S6 E12: "Ship in a Bottle" Hits on every level. Meta commentary on episodic TV. Deep thoughts about identity, sentience, fundamental rights, personhood. It plays with your mind, your emotions, your doubt, makes you believe. Then leaves you to think. That's %$&#in SCI-FI BAYBAY
11. S4 E16: Galaxy's Child The B-plot is the cringe-as-hell follow-up to the "dear god Gerodi why are you like this" plotline. But at least he gets his comeuppance. KINDA. Star Trek has a problem with women. But that's not why we're here. It's a GIANT SPACE PIEROGI. LOOK AT IT. LOOK. LOOK AT IT.
"Hey, X episode is missing!" There's gonna be some glaring seemingly obligatory omissions. Maybe cuz I don't really continue to think about them over the years. Or I don't need to talk about them. Or just that this list is so personal. I may discuss some of those at the end.