Final Mission

Wesley Crusher is headed to Starfleet Academy. He just needs to run a quick errand, survive a shuttle crash, solve a logic problem, and save the life of Captain Picard. Also, the Enterprise does a stint as the galaxy’s most luxurious tugboat. Asteroids! Deserts! Radioactive waste! See it all when we finally put Final Mission in the Mission Log. Hrmm, yes it was weak, but I think you guys may have missed something. Stepping up to command does not just mean command of others, but also of yourself. I always thought THAT was the point here with Wesley being faced with a situation where he was… alone. For once he was the actual officer in charge with the other two adults fully incapacitated, including the man he idolized. Where he needed to step up to was not giving into the fear, or quitting, or just abandoning Picard and conserving his own strength, but to keep on going. As they say, you cannot command others till you command yourself. Otherwise known among geeks as “the great Star Trek/Space:1999 connection ” episode.I remember at the time being so happy to see Nick Tate in the episode I found it odd that you slammed this ep for the reasons you did. Picard isn’t really in danger, because he’s never going to die. The Enterprise can’t fail at its emergency mission, because… they always succeed. Haven’t you just condemned not only every TNG ep, but 99.9% of tv eps prior to the kill-em-all! era we’re now in? But sometimes those moments play better than others. Of course we know that Picard won’t die from week to week (though they did a good job of holding suspense in the summer of 1990). The problem (for me anyway) was that it all felt of little consequence and a much better story was missed in the process. Good enough. I’ll withhold snark on this ep. I’ve recently rewatched some late season eps that will require maximum snarkiness. As always, diggin’ the podcast! I agree. Sometimes they get the tension right and you are legitimately concerned. This one, no concern at all. Help me identify this extra from S2-3…we won’t see him anymore…but I can’t figure out his name! This pic is from “Evolution” S3E1 The sentinel was probably the weakest part for me. It did feel like a TOS thing without a TOS resolution. If this had been a TOS episode they would have found a way to communicate with it and everything would have been fixed by a Kirk Speech. They could have given Wesley a Kirk Speech to finish the episode, that would have been awesome, instead we got a close up of a tricorder. A Wesley Kirk speech! Now that would have been interesting to see! I enjoyed this episode. Command, coming of age type story w a little environmentalism thrown in there. All trash should be incinerated in the sun right? 1. I like the “Airplane-esqe” Picard grabbing of the broken overhead bar in shuttlecraft. 2. NO WATER?!!? dang, I would have been happier if the small supply cache were destroyed, more believable. 3. Seatbelts!! really a shortcoming in design realism..everything fails! gravity, inertial dampeners…life support.. 4. I actually liked the lack of clear resolution to the Energy Guardian. not always neat endings and explanations in life. Perhaps Wesley transmitted universal peace greetings or please help, water? 5. The fiberglass encasing of Dirgo…great kill scene. 6. The lack of utility to Starfleet uniforms is again highlighted…. 7. I think it should have been explained that going around the asteroid belt would have taken too long/risked destroying the Garbage ship early = environmental disaster…. 8. What a bummer that Wil Wheaton wanted off the show…sigh, oh well, at least it was one way to change the cast dynamic… “Uh, we just need to guide this barge through the asteroid field.” “You know asteroid fields aren’t like this, right? The odds of the barge hitting something in there are astronomically unlikely.” “Quiet, you!” “So, I probably shouldn’t mention that, in 3d space, you could just move it normal to the plane of the solar system to