Star Trek: The Next Generation — 1x24 — We'll Always Have Paris
Synopsis
Captain Picard is reunited with an old flame.
Remarkable scenes
- Picard's fencing match in the beginning.
- Picard: "Enough of this self-indulgence." Regarding his time on the holodeck.
- Picard's strange behavior on the bridge when he reaches his old girlfriend before anyone else know just who's down there.
- Picard, Data, and Riker meeting themselves from 5 seconds ago is awesome.
- Picard confronting his lost love regarding their unfinished business.
- Beverly fantasizing about Picard.
- Data navigating the obstacle course lab.
- Data talking to his three selves.
Review
What this episode lacks in its attempts to be profound it makes up for in being a great character story for Picard with a wonderful action sequence for Data. Even by now, stories about characters being reunited with "old flames" are becoming something of a cliche on Star Trek. It's not necessarily unrealistic that in the course of scampering across the galaxy that some of the characters would meet up with people they used to spend a lot of time with, but at the same time it strikes me as a somewhat unimaginative way to force character development out of an episode. I can't help but roll my eyes and say "oh, of course there's somebody Picard used to know on that planet!" Despite this, the episode was solid and entertaining, if a bit unrealistic at times.