The Old Man was a Younger Old Man Once

Patrick Stewart could have been a good action star twenty-nine years ago. There are a few moments in "Starship Mine", a 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation I watched last night, where he even gets to be quietly menacing. He casually delivers a "Then give them my regards" line almost like James Bond to the group of arms dealers he's trapped on the Enterprise with. But the episode's more usually seen as "Die Hard in space." It's clearly a lot cheaper than Die Hard, though, and was likely designed so to fill out the twenty-six episode season.

It makes almost exclusive use of pre-existing sets, the only exception being a reception at the space station where the Enterprise was dry docked for the procedure that necessitated her temporary evacuation.

And sure that's a cheap set. It almost makes Darth Vader's throne room on Obi-Wan Kenobi look good. They also couldn't afford extras so this reception involves only the command crew of the Enterprise and three guest stars--Commander Hutchenson, the Starfleet commander of the station, and the two alien guys who are about to betray them. Presumably the rest of Hutchenson's staff are off-screen somewhere but they're never mentioned, even when the aliens are keeping the Enterprise crew hostage. I suspect the production just forgot that it wouldn't be logical for a Starfleet commander to be all alone on this massive station.

Meanwhile, Picard has five arms dealers to handle on the Enterprise and for some reason he never attempts to contact anyone onboard the station, despite not knowing his crew had been taken hostage.

I guess, despite a few bright spots, TNG's heyday was over by this point. Still, it's a pleasure seeing Patrick Stewart in his prime, before he started to perform every role like he was constantly on the verge of tears. He's steely and badass, running around with Worf's crossbow (according to the Memory Alpha wiki, the prop was a real crossbow rented from a shop for 125 dollars). He also wins a fistfight with a woman.

I can't help feeling we were truly more progressive in the '90s.

This fight happened despite Stewart insisting in recent years that he'd always refused to do such a thing, no matter what the script said. As Ben Whishaw's Richard II said of Stewart's character in the Shakespeare play, "So much for that."

Star Trek: The Next Generation is still available on Netflix. Is Paramount+ ever going to lock down the good Star Trek shows before Disney buys Paramount?