20 – Heart of Glory

Grade: C+

Summary

Starfleet sends info to the Enterprise about a battle in the neutral zone. They ask Picard and crew to investigate. There is a chance it could be the Romulans or the Ferengi who were responsible for it. They find a Talarian ship, with possible survivors. Picard wonders if this is a trap.

Commentary

This is one of the best episodes of the first season. Though the music is still pretty bad, the acting and the script have both really improved. The camera angles are finally more in-line with what we expect from later in the series. And it’s great to get some insights into the Klingons for the first time in this series.

As I mentioned, the acting is improved, and I think that’s mostly because Denise Crosby and Jonathan Frakes have small roles, and Marina Sirtis isn’t in it at all. And another plus – Wesley Crusher doesn’t make an appearance, either. Sorry, I’m not a huge fan of these actors. The four of them seemed to take the longest to get into character.

So all things considered, this is definitely one of the better episodes of this first season.

Of Note

At one point in the episode, Tasha Yar is working the transporter. I wonder why she’s not on the bridge. Don’t they have enough people on this ship so that one of the senior officers doesn’t have to work the transporter too?