 Non stop action, 2000-03-26
Picard must save the ship from thieves and he is the only one on the ship because the starbase is performing a maintenance sweep on the ship. A lot of non-stop action, one of Picard's best next to Chain of Command and Best of Both Worlds.
 Captain Picard in Die Hard: The Next Generation, 2000-07-04
Sometimes Star Trek: The Next Generation gets bogged down by pretentious moral studies or pompous political agendizing in it's storytelling. Once in a while, though, TNG steps back from it's oft-times arrogant posturing and gives us a solid action-adventure yarn. "Starship Mine" is such an episode and it succeeds because it is simply this: Picard is trapped alone on the Enterprise with ruthless thieves who are trying to steal "trilithium resin", a lethal substance given off by the Enterprise's engines that can be used to make terrorist weapons of mass destruction. This episode greatly resembles the first Die Hard movie in it's plot and Captian Picard is Bruce Willis here. Picard foils the plans of the thieves and saves the day through cleverness and a few fist-fights. Fun episode and a welcome change of pace for this excellent series that need not have an important moral tale to tell every single episode. It's okay to step back and present the viewer with a rousing adventure such as "Starship Mine".
Captain Picard = Bruce Willis, 2003-08-27
The episode's nickname "Die Hard on a Starship" is the perfect way to describe it, a highly un-Trek-like violent adventure. While the ship is undergoing a routine baryon sweep to cleanse it of the excess particles, the senior staff is attending Commander Hutchinson's reception, an affair to be noted for its extremely boring nature. Captain Picard soon escapes to retrieve his saddle on the ship so that he can do a bit of horse back riding only to discover a plot to steal the volatile trilithium resin from the ship's engine, a byproduct whose only use is for weapons. As Picard attempts to stop them on the ship, the rest of the senior staff is taken hostage by the terrorists' helpers on the planet. Using Geordi's visor, they hope to knock their captors out and regain control. This episode is a refreshingly different 45 minutes from the usual plots and allows the actors to stretch a little bit. Picard has some of the best sequences here, next to "Best of Both Worlds" and "Chain of Command", and Data gets off some really funny lines by imitating the boring Commander Hutchinson at the reception. Watch for Tim Russ of Voyager's appearance, and try to count the nostrils on one of the male terrorists (I got up to about twelve). A great episode and well worth paying for.
Die Hard in Space, 2002-03-17
This one could have been called Die Hard in Space. It's about a terrorist group on the Enterprise while the entire crew are stuck on a space station ...waiting for the "barion sweep" to get rid of some radioactive particles on the big E. Well as Picard returns to the ship to get his saddle he bumps into the terrorists. This is a real action intense episode that actually expands on the character of Picard. If you think he's a wimpy starfleet captain your in for a surprise here.
I bought this episode partly because of the nickname..., 2006-09-05
While I've never watched Die Hard, I was intrigued by the parallel (one guy vs. a bunch of nasty terrorists). Plot: The Enterprise needs to be decontaminated, so everyone has to abandon ship temporarily until the decontamination process (baryon sweep) is complete. Well, Capt. Picard isn't too thrilled about this in the first place (I mean, no captain probably likes to leave a Galaxy-class dreadnought sitting unmanned for very long) as well as the problem of surviving the commander of the base. The commander is really, really good at small talk, much to exhaushtion of the crew. Except Data. Only Data could match wits (or pointless discussions) with someone who is notorious at small talk. It's hilarious to watch, as well as the reactions from the other crew members as they watch Data and the commander. Meanwhile, Capt. Picard has ingeniously managed to excuse himself back to the Enterprise to get his saddle and go horseback riding (and thus avoid being killed by an overdose of pointless discussions). But, something goes wrong of course. Someone has been tampering with the ship. But, since captain is there, we don't have to worry. While we know that the captain will win in the end, as stated in other reviews, it's really neat to see Capt. Picard make traps, weapons, and the like to hamper and stop the terrorists. The only negative is the killing of the base commander. On the whole, an excellent episode with plenty of action and humor.
|
![Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 144: Starship Mine [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FA4ZJP8HL._SL160_.jpg "Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 144: Starship Mine [VHS]")
![Read more information about Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 144: Starship Mine [VHS] at Amazon.com](/images/read-more.gif "Read more information about Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 144: Starship Mine [VHS] at Amazon.com"){kind=small}