‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Retro Recap – ‘The Next Phase’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

What’s fascinating about every television franchise/genre out there, is how each and every one of them have certain storytelling concepts that they cling to. For instance, a great deal of crime shows love to use serial killers to create grand and compelling arcs for their detectives and horror shows have no qualms with using homages or commentary to tell their story and science fiction shows… well they love to take one fascinating idea and find new ways to make it interesting over and over again and for proof… then look no further than the Star Trek Universe. For this storied saga loves to find new perspective on how the transporter can bring about harm and that’s led to an interesting mix of stories.

The kind that has ranged from downright ridiculous, such as the supremely dubious Voyager episode, ‘Tuvix’, to downright engrossing… as is the case with today’s Retro Recap. For the next episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, features a transporter flub and that allowed for ‘The Next Phase’ to ponder upon some fascinating concepts. Such as how we face the end, oddly enough, something that was handled by Ensign Ro. For it was she and Geordi that found themselves in a strange place after their respective transporter accident. Because they were conscious and aware and aboard the Enterprise, but no one could see them or interact with them, and they could walk through walls. Which prompted Ro to believe that she and Geordi were dead, and this was a form of purgatory.

One where she and Geordi needed to make peace with any unfinished business before they parted this plane of existence and that was quite the philosophical notion to plop into this tale. Since it really does ask the viewer to ponder upon how we would handle saying goodbye if given the extended chance and what’s amazing… is that this episode had more to explore in regard to death and how we face it. For there was also a subplot revolving around Data’s planning of a memorial service for his ‘fallen’ comrades and that too, takes the viewer to task. Because we don’t think about how we want to be remembered in that moment, but perhaps we should… so the celebration of our life is handled in the right manner. If anything, all of these elements made this perhaps the most philosophical transporter accident episode to ever grace the franchise.

But while it is fascinating to be challenged in that manner and be left with some interesting concepts to chew upon… make no mistake about it, there’s a lot of science fiction stuff and plot to chew on here. Since it turns out, that the Romulans caused this conundrum by way of the development of a secret phase drive and rather than have that truth exposed to the Federation, they planed to destroy the 1701-D and make it look like an accident. Which meant it was up to Ro and Geordi to shed their cloaked phasing to save the crew from an ugly fate and that brought about a bevy of action sequences and of course… a happy ending. Because this is Star Trek and leads rarely die in this particular universe and well… that’s not a bad thing since Geordi La Forge and Ro Laren are pretty darn awesome.

In the end, this is quite the solid episode for certain. Simply because it offers up a fascinating one-off episode. One that is filled to the brim with juicy concepts that are timeless in nature, and it lets a guest star and a different lead play the hero for a change. Plus, you can’t go wrong with the unique take on the age old ‘transporter malfunction’ trope that this episode offers up and well, that’s really all there is to say about this story. Because this kind of self-contained story, leaves the deeper analysis to the viewer, which means it is time we turn our attention to the next mission in this crew’s seven-year journey and well, this is one to definitely get excited about. Because what comes next is a beautiful story about the wonder and the meaning of life and it would turn out to be, one of the finest episodes in the history of the franchise. Until next time.

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