Not sure how many people watched TNG here...

There were 5 lines. Bald guy snorted one badly...

What a shame.

@CoreFusionX have you seen the TNG episode this is from? If not or if you don't plant to watch it, I can explain.

Guess this is Picard and we're talking star trek: next gen.

Unpopular opinion incoming:

In a recent post regarding favourite sci-fi series, I didn't even mention star trek...

I find star trek boring, in all its incarnations.

@CoreFusionX that is fine. I talked to a coworker a while back and he had never even seen any of them. I think it has lost a lot of popularity.

It's a pretty decent arc. Enterprise senior officers are out on some dangerous mission they probably shouldn't all be on at the same time, get caught snooping about some cardassian thing IIRC; the interrogator guy decides he wants to try and break Picard; he tortures him and then shows him 4 lights but says Picard must tell him there are 5, and Picard resists. Eventually, he is freed and shouts "there are 4 lights!" before leaving, but admits later that had he not been saved he would have given in and said there were 5.

I watched all of star trek except for the old movies a year ago for the first time and I remember that episode :)

IMO, TNG is the only real Star Trek. At least, they try to actually act on the principles instead of ditching them in favour of shooting whenever they become inconvenient.

Though there are some bad episodes where they favoured story arcs over implications - such as "Measure of a Man" that paints a pretty dark picture of the Federation as a whole.

@Fast-Nop I never really understood why so many arcs involve corruption in the Federation. This was the one world government that was the pinnacle of human achievement and people are constantly fucking it up. I get there are only so many bad guys they can come up with in a season, but it doesn't paint a very idealistic picture of what I assume was Roddenberry's dream future.

@spongessuck Measure of a Man wasn't even about corruption. The question rather is what kind of system level fuckup you need that basic "human" rights need to be decided in an improvised military court on the spot.

I get it that this was for the story arc in that episode, but it was written with no consideration of the overall picture.

@Fast-Nop honestly I enjoyed the darker, grittier DS9 as much, or more. Stronger writing overall imo. I know Trek is supposed to have the "hopeful, principled future" vibe but I liked how in DS9 they try to uphold the Federation in a much more difficult and murky context, with much more interesting "is this actually for the greater good or are we crossing a line" dilemmas.