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The Drumhead, TNG S4 E21 Review, The Battle Bridge
An overzealous Starfleet admiral begins a witch-hunt aboard the Enterprise, determined to find a conspiracy, and eventually accusing Captain Picard of treason.
Today James and Lou discuss (The Drumhead) and what we think of it, with tonight’s guest hosts Bryan Detamore and Data Logan .
Credit: Main Title Theme (TV Edit) was arranged by Dennis McCarthy and composed by Gerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage
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This is one of those episodes that excited my mind. I was intrigued to catch the info on nuclear reactors.
Data, I think the term you were thinking of was biracial or multi racial
I loved the treatment of the direction in this episode. I love how freaked Stu up a lot of these shots.
Great job guys. I promise I am still listening.
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LikeDislikeHas the Qpid feedback thread gone missing?
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LikeDislikeFinally got round to listening to this. Sorry, the festive period threw me out and then work changes have had an effect on my ability to listen to podcasts so I cannot keep up any more.
I’ll figure out a solution to that eventually.
This was well worth getting around to though. The episode is great, and while the measure of a good courtroom episode will more or less always be the measure of a man, this one comes close. It shows how things can become a witchhunt if left unchecked, and how massive mountains can be made out of molehills.
But it does it in a way that you go along with the ride. You can see the Admiral’s point a lot of the time, even if she does go too far.
On top of that, the discussion was wonderful. I hadn’t considered that maybe the Admiral herself had been set up to fail. I’m not sure if that was the case or not, but I could see how that was possible.
And what did happen to Simon Tarses after this episode? I always reckoned he was run out of Starfleet for lying – rather than merely for being of Romulan descent as we know others who have been there – but I think he turns up in books later on and he’s still in Starfleet. Maybe Picard put in a good word for him. I’m sure his record probably showed he was worth keeping on.
The discussion on Klingon honour versus Klingon glory was terrific as well, and I’ve had my own issues with whether or not Klingons are an honourable as they claim but that’s another discussion for another time. Suffice to say Duras wasn’t the first as there were plenty in TOS that were underhand and sneaky – more like Romulans than Klingons as we like to believe. The exceptions would be those that turned up in DS9. They get better in TNG, but clearly not all of them!
This episode never bored me, even when I was younger. It’s a five out of five for me, and I’d happily watch it any time it happens to be on.
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LikeDislikeQuick question – is the list for season five around anywhere to view yet? I think I’m down for a few, I just wanted to double check!
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