From memory alpha: Riker actor Jonathan Frakes was disappointed with the computer graphics used to depict the game. He stated, "They told me it was going to be this incredible graphic, and all it was... was a tuba on a checkerboard." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 231) Yep.
He should have been more disappointed that Riker, and the others, were lacking enough willpower to avoid getting hooked, and even tried to get everyone else hooked.
@@charlesvan13 Eh, I'm not sure willpower had much to do with it since they didn't know at the time that they needed to resist it. Really the only people who knew before being subjected to it were Wesley and Robin. Not only were they relatively inexperienced, they also had everyone around them literally forcing it on them and Wesley knew he only had to resist long enough to give Data time to create the antidote. Think of it like someone being prescribed an _extremely_ addictive drug but not being told it's addictive. Once they're hooked its far too late for mere willpower to overcome.
I just want to know how the fuck they got Geordi to play the game when he's blind, and the game clearly works by some sort of laser/light stimulation through the optic nerve
I think it's called "we need the whole crew brainwashed except Data so we're gonna make Geordi play the game off screen because we can't explain it " 😂
One thing I never quite understood about Geordi's blindness - and I may very well be remembering this incorrectly - but I thought it was his optical nerve that didn't work, so the visor shot the information right into his brain. So why did he not have irises or pupils? Those contact lenses could not have been comfortable. But maybe the creators just thought the audience wouldn't get it otherwise. EDIT: But as to the question at hand, I have no friggin clue. They could've just injected him with an off-button hyperspray while he was checking on Data in sickbay. Would've made more sense.
And wouldn't their engineers just isolate the pleasure/reward function of the game, so you get the shot of space drugs without having to play the stupid game.
The second most unbelievable fiction in this episode was that on a Risa, a planet full of beautiful women, Riker would waste his time with a butter face like Etana.
That comment about Farmville or Candy Crush getting to the ship made me giggle. Different franchise, but in Stargate Atlantis there's a scene where the captain of the Daedalus comes into the office of Dr. Weir and gives her a look and asks "Hard at work?". She turns her computer around and she's playing Solitaire. He just nods and says "We purge it from the Daedalus' systems every few weeks, but somebody always sneaks it back in". That's humans for you. 😅
I always found it weird that they told Wesley to go to his mom's quarters. What if he was just like, "okay." Would they have just stood in the conference room in the dark until they got bored and gave up?
Actually, Data's arrival was machina ex machina. And it was pretty awesome how they did it, even though you know he's emotionless, he still looks like he's pissed as hell and not gonna take it anymore.
This is one of my favorite episodes from childhood. The whole addictive game thing felt pretty spot on to the way small children experience screens. Certainly wasn't perfect, but I like it.
This is one of those episodes I remember my reaction upon seeing it on its initial air date; Ensign Lefler was a total hottie and I was immediately smitten.
Geordi was busy being depressed and drinking himself into a stupor because Wesley managed to pick up Lefler in about 30 minutes while he was dropping creepy hints for six months.
The Ktarians are a frequently referenced race in Star Trek. Kirk even references them in Generations even though first contact with them should have been a quarter of a century after he "died." What I like most about them though is their irreverence for Federation protocols. Their attitude is basically "Okay, we'll join the Federation, but we're gonna keep our own fleet, and keep using money, and we're not going to follow any of your rules." And of course the Federation acquiesces.
It would kind of deepen the rather poor foreign policy record the Federation seems to rack up during their Golden Era. Yes the galaxy is at peace, and they can focus almost exclusively on exploring, but a lot of these peace treaties seem built on giving away the farm as it were.
2:54 The reason why characters crowd the corridor like that is because characters next to each other is considered more artistic and photogenic than characters in single file. After all, if one character is behind another, you can't seem him/her, and the actor would complain that not being visible onscreen is a breach of their contract and SAG rules.
I appreciate this episode for some of the subtle things it does, like how Riker immediately picks out Deanna who is already displaying signs of addiction with the ice cream for instance.
Don't you think this was a "The more you know..." type episode warning viewers of the dangers of either too much computer gaming or too much masturbation (or both)? I mean, look at the demographic who was watching Star Trek at the time. Yes, the close up shots of the characters having orgasms was a little creepy. But hey, the actors were expanding their acting repertoire for possible post-Star Trek careers . . . Was also sorry we didn't see Lefler in later episodes. Not sure the Traveler would approve of Wesley seeing other people.
Yeah, this episode was perhaps the first in a series of 1990s media portraying virtual reality as a personal or societal end. The Lawnmower Man, Existenz, Strange Days, The Matrix, and multiple episodes of Law & Order: SVU are some others. This episode was so ham-fisted I thought it was supposed to be an allegory to traditional drugs when I first saw it, even though they already had a "say no to drugs" episode in season 1.
I just watched the episode again today. It's not great, but somehow it has always stuck in my mind. Your review was hilarious as usual. Keep up the great work guys! I always look forward to your Star Trek: TNG reviews.
I always found this episode extremely tedious. It's just unbelievable that Golden Boy and his crypto-girlfriend are the only two people on the entire ship skeptical about the game. In real life it's very difficult to get more than half a population to buy into anything, so a ship-wide division would have been a lot more interesting, especially if each side said personality-revealing things in anger or frustration. I guess it's a good thing DS9 was in development by now because it handled these internal struggles a lot better. Odo would think the game was stupid and a waste of time and Kira would feel free from her violent past for the first time and both characters would make sense. Benjamin would find a way to turn the game into a baseball simulator and Quark would turn it into portable porno paid by the minute. Speaking of games, in 1991 we had Super Mario World, Street Fighter II, Sonic the Hedgehog, Road Rash, Monkey Island 2, Lemmings, Civilization, and Neverwinter Nights, so real life gaming was way more advanced than stupid discs and cones. It's funny how bad this show was at practical design. It nailed things that didn't exist yet like tablets, touch screens, and voice command but completely dropped the ball when it came to long-solved problems like bowls and binders. I mean, really, bowls? You can literally find better clay bowls made by Stone Age cave dwellers.
I think the whole skeptical thing comes from the fact that others may have been and were forced into playing. That's what I got out of it. Also didn't like the tell don't show aspect they did with Data at the end of this episode. Not any backstory whatsoever on the villain either she's just kind of there. I'd give this episode a D wouldn't watch it again.
LMAO. Hardy Boys/Nancy drew level of writing, that made me laugh This clearly was Star Trek finding this funky new thing called 3D CGI, And shoehorning it into an episode. I’d think they’d have better games then that in the future lol
Yeah I get times when I get brainwashed by my Oculus…. I don’t know about you. But I eat my ice cream out of a seriously similar bowl, just to be UNIQUE. And. She doesn’t give him a book. That’s the dvd set for this season. What was up with Star Trek DvD cases? Weird plastic shell things!
Yeah, DS9 is the smart one, TNG fluctuates between being smart and thoughtful (at times in the middle seasons anyways) and very very mindnumbingly dumb, and Voyager is just pure dumb straight from the tap.
Picard is constantly letting someone or something take over his ship---to include a holodeck creation (moriarty), who took over the ship not once, but twice. lol
There was so much dumb in this episode. Firstly, if these devices existed in the future, they would be thought of as we think of heroin today, not harmless games. Second, the addicts all seem to randomly shift between acting completely normal, completely stupefied or cooperating in evil deeds with no logical explanation. Third, we never discover who the evil aliens were or why they wanted to take control of Starfleet. Finally, I'm not epileptic, but that flashing was still very unpleasant. The only good thing about this episode was Worf baking a cake for Wesley. That was wholesome AF. 🤣
Some people just don't know how to enjoy themselves. Everything has to be about character development or has to make sense. This was a very entertaining episode. And if you want to talk about making sense: if you want to be part of Starfleet it doesn't make any sense to learn Latin or creative writing. Jezus. And why had Data to go to the Academy? He can learn all the courses in a few minutes and know them better than the teachers.
How much trouble would you get on say on a navy ship after coming back on board from a foreign country you brought some random electronic device. And when they went to disable data why did they do so little to shut him down? Cut a few cords? Should have hit him with a level 16 phaser blast or have him beamed over to the alien ship immediately
In 91 video games were still 2Dimensional. Even most VR Boy Nintendo games are not at all 3D....2 or 3 of the games were. Playstations might have existed but, I never even saw one at another person's house until like 96-97.....those were the 1 st real 3D games....like Resident Evil and Dino Crisis....you could actually move in 3 dimensions.
I agree whole hearted on that B- 😂😂 There are plenty of cringe worthy plots for any Trek series, but if the over all plot works. And its not rushed exposition the whole time Then its rewatch able, episode i think 3 season 1 was so cringe worthy i refuse to rewatch 😂😂🤦♂️ Data got a Win, but other then that it was cringe all cringe
BOLLOCKS!! This is exactly what is missing from the new generic shite which could be renamed to something other than Star Trek & be just some Sci-Fi battle show! The only thing better than this episode is this review of it!! 🤣 What level are you on? I'm on level 59! LMFAO!! Classic stoner material, & wesley's bit of crumpet is pretty peng! Not gonna lie!!
"Worf has made cake witch is weird." How true is this comment. When we all know they have food replicates lol. And yeah those close up shots of the characters faces were REALLY uncomfortable. The game itself has to be one of the worst looking and boring games I've ever seen in television.
This is one of my Few F ranked episodes. It felt like an anti-video game propaganda episode. The Deus ex Machine-ah that commander data is felt hollow.
From memory alpha: Riker actor Jonathan Frakes was disappointed with the computer graphics used to depict the game. He stated, "They told me it was going to be this incredible graphic, and all it was... was a tuba on a checkerboard." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 231)
Yep.
He should have been more disappointed that Riker, and the others, were lacking enough willpower to avoid getting hooked, and even tried to get everyone else hooked.
@@charlesvan13 Eh, I'm not sure willpower had much to do with it since they didn't know at the time that they needed to resist it. Really the only people who knew before being subjected to it were Wesley and Robin. Not only were they relatively inexperienced, they also had everyone around them literally forcing it on them and Wesley knew he only had to resist long enough to give Data time to create the antidote.
Think of it like someone being prescribed an _extremely_ addictive drug but not being told it's addictive. Once they're hooked its far too late for mere willpower to overcome.
I just want to know how the fuck they got Geordi to play the game when he's blind, and the game clearly works by some sort of laser/light stimulation through the optic nerve
I like to think he was pretending just so the rest of the crew would like him....
I think it's called "we need the whole crew brainwashed except Data so we're gonna make Geordi play the game off screen because we can't explain it " 😂
One thing I never quite understood about Geordi's blindness - and I may very well be remembering this incorrectly - but I thought it was his optical nerve that didn't work, so the visor shot the information right into his brain. So why did he not have irises or pupils? Those contact lenses could not have been comfortable. But maybe the creators just thought the audience wouldn't get it otherwise.
EDIT: But as to the question at hand, I have no friggin clue. They could've just injected him with an off-button hyperspray while he was checking on Data in sickbay. Would've made more sense.
that's why Riker grabbed Geordi early on and said he's GOT to try it . if it didn't work Geordi might have died in an airlock "accident"
And wouldn't their engineers just isolate the pleasure/reward function of the game, so you get the shot of space drugs without having to play the stupid game.
The most unbelievable fiction in this episode was that Robin leffler liked Wesley.
The second most unbelievable fiction in this episode was that on a Risa, a planet full of beautiful women, Riker would waste his time with a butter face like Etana.
@@FlintIronstag23
Fun fact: "Etana" means "snail" in Finnish 😂 🐌
7:30 He's obviously rerouting power from engineering to that door....lol
why not just kick his fingers with his boots ?
Lol! Laughed for a whole 30 seconds there. Thank you, that was great!
I thought he was continously reversing the polarity on the door
@@NitpickingNerd because he's Starfleet, and Starfleet doesn't kick people in their fingers
This is one of the most relevant episodes and way ahead of it’s time.
Yup.
Technology addiction.
Gaming, social media, smartphones...
That comment about Farmville or Candy Crush getting to the ship made me giggle.
Different franchise, but in Stargate Atlantis there's a scene where the captain of the Daedalus comes into the office of Dr. Weir and gives her a look and asks "Hard at work?".
She turns her computer around and she's playing Solitaire.
He just nods and says "We purge it from the Daedalus' systems every few weeks, but somebody always sneaks it back in".
That's humans for you. 😅
Too bad Weasley went to the party... if he went to the quarters O'Brian hired him a Dabo girl!
@2:55 this seems to be a reoccurring theme. they walk through the corridors in such a way that nobody can pass.
but like water they kinda go around them pretty well because they've had to do it so many times
I always found it weird that they told Wesley to go to his mom's quarters. What if he was just like, "okay." Would they have just stood in the conference room in the dark until they got bored and gave up?
Nope... He would have meet the hooker O'Brian hired for him...
I think they knew that Wesley was going to ask if he could say hi to his mother.
Actually, Data's arrival was machina ex machina. And it was pretty awesome how they did it, even though you know he's emotionless, he still looks like he's pissed as hell and not gonna take it anymore.
This is one of my favorite episodes from childhood. The whole addictive game thing felt pretty spot on to the way small children experience screens. Certainly wasn't perfect, but I like it.
This is one of those episodes I remember my reaction upon seeing it on its initial air date; Ensign Lefler was a total hottie and I was immediately smitten.
Me too! She is SO damn hot.
Who knew at the time that this episode would pretty much come to fruition in real life decades later
Use this game on the borg... They would become Facebook...
Add it to your species 😂
How did the game work on Geordi? 🤨
That’s what I thought.
it didn't . Geordi just went along with the evil plan out of his free will
Geordi was busy being depressed and drinking himself into a stupor because Wesley managed to pick up Lefler in about 30 minutes while he was dropping creepy hints for six months.
@@NitpickingNerd Likely the result of being tortured every couple of seasons.
The Ktarians are a frequently referenced race in Star Trek. Kirk even references them in Generations even though first contact with them should have been a quarter of a century after he "died."
What I like most about them though is their irreverence for Federation protocols. Their attitude is basically "Okay, we'll join the Federation, but we're gonna keep our own fleet, and keep using money, and we're not going to follow any of your rules." And of course the Federation acquiesces.
It would kind of deepen the rather poor foreign policy record the Federation seems to rack up during their Golden Era. Yes the galaxy is at peace, and they can focus almost exclusively on exploring, but a lot of these peace treaties seem built on giving away the farm as it were.
2:54 The reason why characters crowd the corridor like that is because characters next to each other is considered more artistic and photogenic than characters in single file. After all, if one character is behind another, you can't seem him/her, and the actor would complain that not being visible onscreen is a breach of their contract and SAG rules.
All hail the Hypno-Picard.
How did it work on Geordi ?
I don't think most people got the Hypnotoad reference from Futurama. It cracked me up though.
You've never seen Ashley Judd in Heat or that film with Denzel Washington? Along Came A Spider I think it was.
Double Jeopardy is the first one that comes to mind for me
I want be there when Ashley judds in heat
ALONG CAME A SPIDER
was
MORGAN FREEMAN
MONICA POTTER
KISS THE GIRLS
was
MORGAN FREEMAN
ASHLEY JUDD
2:35 Brick : *LOUD NOISES!*
Imagine if those aliens from Contagion teamed up with Etana.
I appreciate this episode for some of the subtle things it does, like how Riker immediately picks out Deanna who is already displaying signs of addiction with the ice cream for instance.
Don't you think this was a "The more you know..." type episode warning viewers of the dangers of either too much computer gaming or too much masturbation (or both)? I mean, look at the demographic who was watching Star Trek at the time.
Yes, the close up shots of the characters having orgasms was a little creepy. But hey, the actors were expanding their acting repertoire for possible post-Star Trek careers . . .
Was also sorry we didn't see Lefler in later episodes. Not sure the Traveler would approve of Wesley seeing other people.
Yeah, this episode was perhaps the first in a series of 1990s media portraying virtual reality as a personal or societal end. The Lawnmower Man, Existenz, Strange Days, The Matrix, and multiple episodes of Law & Order: SVU are some others. This episode was so ham-fisted I thought it was supposed to be an allegory to traditional drugs when I first saw it, even though they already had a "say no to drugs" episode in season 1.
it’s an incredibly obvious drug allegory, they’re not fucking cumming
Yeah, I like all the addiction episodes.
I just watched the episode again today. It's not great, but somehow it has always stuck in my mind.
Your review was hilarious as usual. Keep up the great work guys! I always look forward to your Star Trek: TNG reviews.
Everyone who watched this episode has lost "The Game".
Wesley knows a lot about how the human brain works good thing his mother is a doctor
I dunno. It gets an A in my book for essentially predicting smartphone addiction and companies using digital addiction for profit.
As someone who appreciates flash warnings, I thought the flashing as the solution made sense but was horribly unpleasant to experience.
I always found this episode extremely tedious. It's just unbelievable that Golden Boy and his crypto-girlfriend are the only two people on the entire ship skeptical about the game. In real life it's very difficult to get more than half a population to buy into anything, so a ship-wide division would have been a lot more interesting, especially if each side said personality-revealing things in anger or frustration.
I guess it's a good thing DS9 was in development by now because it handled these internal struggles a lot better. Odo would think the game was stupid and a waste of time and Kira would feel free from her violent past for the first time and both characters would make sense. Benjamin would find a way to turn the game into a baseball simulator and Quark would turn it into portable porno paid by the minute.
Speaking of games, in 1991 we had Super Mario World, Street Fighter II, Sonic the Hedgehog, Road Rash, Monkey Island 2, Lemmings, Civilization, and Neverwinter Nights, so real life gaming was way more advanced than stupid discs and cones.
It's funny how bad this show was at practical design. It nailed things that didn't exist yet like tablets, touch screens, and voice command but completely dropped the ball when it came to long-solved problems like bowls and binders. I mean, really, bowls? You can literally find better clay bowls made by Stone Age cave dwellers.
I remember playing Railroad Tycoon and Civilization at a friends house after class or work. Addicting fun !
I think the whole skeptical thing comes from the fact that others may have been and were forced into playing. That's what I got out of it. Also didn't like the tell don't show aspect they did with Data at the end of this episode. Not any backstory whatsoever on the villain either she's just kind of there. I'd give this episode a D wouldn't watch it again.
Omigoodness this is the funniest review ever. This is exactly what I need on my umpteenth TNG rewatch. New subscriber!
LMAO. Hardy Boys/Nancy drew level of writing, that made me laugh
This clearly was Star Trek finding this funky new thing called 3D CGI, And shoehorning it into an episode. I’d think they’d have better games then that in the future lol
They have the holo deck to provide games and other entertainment for them. So it really makes folks think WHY would they need this game?
Yeah I get times when I get brainwashed by my Oculus…. I don’t know about you. But I eat my ice cream out of a seriously similar bowl, just to be UNIQUE.
And. She doesn’t give him a book. That’s the dvd set for this season. What was up with Star Trek DvD cases? Weird plastic shell things!
When mine brainwashes me I just get motion sickness
2:18 The entire time she was describing that ice cream dish I was asking myself what kind of weed she was smoking 😂
I wonder why he didn't already know about her love for chocolate?
@@catnewskawai9367Everybody knew about her chocolate addiction. I think his behaviour was part of the game...
Loving the Power electronics with the Picard Stare. Excellent
I always thought was the “smart” show but watching your reviews if these episodes has proven me wrong.
the show has no continuity. every episode has to be seen as its own interpretation of the TNG-universe. thats why its illogical often times.
Yeah, DS9 is the smart one, TNG fluctuates between being smart and thoughtful (at times in the middle seasons anyways) and very very mindnumbingly dumb, and Voyager is just pure dumb straight from the tap.
Picard is constantly letting someone or something take over his ship---to include a holodeck creation (moriarty), who took over the ship not once, but twice. lol
There was so much dumb in this episode. Firstly, if these devices existed in the future, they would be thought of as we think of heroin today, not harmless games. Second, the addicts all seem to randomly shift between acting completely normal, completely stupefied or cooperating in evil deeds with no logical explanation. Third, we never discover who the evil aliens were or why they wanted to take control of Starfleet. Finally, I'm not epileptic, but that flashing was still very unpleasant. The only good thing about this episode was Worf baking a cake for Wesley. That was wholesome AF. 🤣
Why does the enterprise have huge air ducts big enough for crew members to crawl through?
The definition of a C tier episode.
To be honest, if there was a game that gaves me that kind of stimulation every time I play it, I will be playing it all the time too.
5:50-6:15 where can I download this?
Some people just don't know how to enjoy themselves. Everything has to be about character development or has to make sense. This was a very entertaining episode. And if you want to talk about making sense: if you want to be part of Starfleet it doesn't make any sense to learn Latin or creative writing. Jezus. And why had Data to go to the Academy? He can learn all the courses in a few minutes and know them better than the teachers.
This episode was the longest PSA for D.A.R.E ever
1:11 riker wad face
How much trouble would you get on say on a navy ship after coming back on board from a foreign country you brought some random electronic device.
And when they went to disable data why did they do so little to shut him down? Cut a few cords? Should have hit him with a level 16 phaser blast or have him beamed over to the alien ship immediately
The episode about smoking crack....
congratulations, weve reached another ST tech-milestone with mobile-games
Ashley Judd was a hottie back then.
What kind of man would want her
They would of had to restrain Worf to get him to put the game headset on.
This was a classic episode
She's got balls on her head
No matter how many times I hear that girl's name, I still don't know what it is. ...What is it, really? Whistler? Laughler? Westward? Deptmare?
Riker got the doctor hooked first... that would have been a great scene of awkward flirting
Wouldn't Geordi be immune too? He's completely blind. That was dumb.
I always wondered that. How TF did Geordi even play the damn game?
In 91 video games were still 2Dimensional. Even most VR Boy Nintendo games are not at all 3D....2 or 3 of the games were. Playstations might have existed but, I never even saw one at another person's house until like 96-97.....those were the 1 st real 3D games....like Resident Evil and Dino Crisis....you could actually move in 3 dimensions.
I agree whole hearted on that B- 😂😂
There are plenty of cringe worthy plots for any Trek series, but if the over all plot works. And its not rushed exposition the whole time
Then its rewatch able, episode i think 3 season 1 was so cringe worthy i refuse to rewatch 😂😂🤦♂️ Data got a Win, but other then that it was cringe all cringe
This episode could be considered a sexual metaphor, but season 1 left no room for question 😂🤦♂️
All cringe when they added "adult" themes
01:21 to 02:01
ASHLEY JUDD
Wonderful! ♥
So great
Reminds me of the early days of the Covid plague where everyone was chasing me around to tty to get me vaccinated.
I think they could have made it even cringier if these events made Leftler create a brand new rule special for Wesley 🤣
Yeah, oddly I liked this enough to give it a fairly neutral grade...C+.
I would have loved it if we never got to see the origin of the game.
Riker really should have been court martialled after this episode or at least been treated for his sex addiction
If Pokemon Go ran on Android
It does run on Android.
I lost The Game
So to be clear, "Disaster" was a huge failure but this episode worked at some level? I guess it's time to look elsewhere.
As Picard stares into our souls... It looks like Worf is about to grab some of Troi's ass!
BOLLOCKS!! This is exactly what is missing from the new generic shite which could be renamed to something other than Star Trek & be just some Sci-Fi battle show! The only thing better than this episode is this review of it!! 🤣
What level are you on? I'm on level 59! LMFAO!! Classic stoner material, & wesley's bit of crumpet is pretty peng! Not gonna lie!!
"Worf has made cake witch is weird." How true is this comment. When we all know they have food replicates lol.
And yeah those close up shots of the characters faces were REALLY uncomfortable. The game itself has to be one of the worst looking and boring games I've ever seen in television.
Data es machina!
[DING!] - CinemaSins.
Show don't tell. Instead they did a tell don't show at the end there. Felt kind of rushed.
I just bought an Oculus Go 2 so I make the same face now. B from me.
This wasnt about gaming. This was about drug addiction.
its about game addiction, which is quite similiar.
Stupider isn’t a word
You kids don’t play VR?
100th view!
👍🏾 Nice hat.
Leffler is just too perky for me
This is one of my Few F ranked episodes. It felt like an anti-video game propaganda episode. The Deus ex Machine-ah that commander data is felt hollow.
Jumangi.
I can't believe I somehow agree with both reviews. Also, that wasn't two minutes you frauds.
The game
the game's afoot
It's out of character, that all it takes is a future version of oxycontin for them all to become traitors.
Strong minds can resist drug addiction.
This seemed like a stupid episode
Google glass 2.0