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troperville

Series:Star Trek: The Next Generation
Episode: Season 1, Episode 1
Title:"Encounter at Farpoint"
Previous: —-
Next: The Naked Now
Recapper: Insert Witty Name Here

The Enterprise-D is out on its maiden voyage to Deneb IV to pick up Commander William Riker when suddenly she encounters a giant space net of some description, and a being that calls himself a "Q". After a reflex action results in the freezing of a Gold Shirt, Q decides to challenge the crew: If they can prove that mankind has put aside their military "nonsense", he'll let them go.

The challenge involves them solving the mystery of Farpoint Station, an outpost on Deneb IV that has been the site of some absolutely bizarre goings-on, mostly in the guise of apples that appear from nowhere and fabric that suddenly changes texture. Of course, all is not as it seems, and the head of Farpoint Station, Groppler Zorn, has a lot to answer for.

Tropes:

The Cameo: DeForest Kelly as 137-year-old Admiral McCoy
Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys: "Commander, signal the following in all languages and all frequencies: We surrender."
Chekhov's Lecture: In the holodeck, we're treated to some mild technobabble on how it converts energy to matter to make objects. Later on, it is revealed that the Starfish Aliens live on energy and use it to create objects in order to please people on the Farpoint station.
Early Installment Weirdness: Lots. It's obvious the actors and the writers hadn't quite found the characters yet.
Hey, It's That Guy!: Shang Tsung is the bailiff in Q's courtroom.
Humanity on Trial
Starfish Aliens: Jellyfish Aliens, to be exact.
Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: Q is capable of transporting himself and other people around at whim, and disables the Enterprise a couple of times.
Values Dissonance: Dr. McCoy's use of "boy" to refer to Lieutenant Commander Data is... disconcerting given the Unfortunate Implications of that word in American history, combined with Data's own civil rights struggles later in the series.
- Debatable. It's likely he meant "boy" with it's actual meaning?! Considering he's over 130 years old and Data is hopelessly naive, of course he appears just like a child in comparison!