TNG Star Trek - Season 3 Reviews

Ensigns of Command - Meh. Data beams down to a dangerous planet. His Job? Convince the recent humanoid settlers to leave before the rightful owners of the planet exterminate them. This episode has an interesting story but is let down by the awful acting/casting of the planet settlers and their awful dress. They all look and act like LA Community College drama students. The Clothes are from JC Penny circa 1986. We get the obligatory female character who - unlike everyone else - takes Data's side, falls in love with him, and helps save the day. Meanwhile, on the USS Enterprise, Picard plays lawyer and finds Treaty contract clause number 1,045 subparagraph B, which causes the aliens to back off. Yawn. **

Who Watches the Watchers - Simply cornball. Picard is mistaken for a God, when he saves a life on a primitive planet. What a talkfest. What a snoozefest. I think TNG was trying to be philosophical and that's always bad for a TV show with bad actors and space aliens. It justifies the Prime Directive, but that really didn't need to be proven. *

The Enemy - This has three suspenseful plots going on at once.  Georgi is lost on a planet and must cooperate with a Romulan to survive.  A Romulan prisoner has to be given medical treatment and Wolf = who hates Romulans - has to give him medical treatement.  Finally Picard has a showdown with a Romulan commander who wants his POW back or else.  This is another episode let down by bad acting/casting.  Georgi is a charisma-free character, and the Romulans are played by 3 very mediocre actors in bad makeup.  One yearns for Mark Lenard.  Further,  we get TNG's usual boring "We'll just talk this out, and come to a peaceful resolution"  trope.  Cooperation may be fine in the real world, but Conflict makes for better TV.  **1/2  

The Bonding -  Picard must deal with an orphaned 12 year old boy when his "Redshirt" Mother is killed by a land mine. Good God this was horrible.  Evidently, even in 2400 AD, no  one is smart enough to keep mothers out of combat.  The absurd "You Go Girl" feminism which created this situation is never questioned.   Instead, the whole episode revolves around Klingon customs, the kid and some aliens who pop up.  Rating *