Star Trek Retro Review: "The Wounded" (TNG) | Starfleet Gone Bad

So nobody on the Phoenix told the captain that it would be not a good idea to fire at civilian cardassian ships because it would reignite another war with them? Let alone that he attacks the ships based on a hunch?

This potatoes bit is gold 😂

What if the destroyed Cardassian ship had been represented by a dying PAC Man on the space radar? Camera pan to Worf with a smug smile on his face.

Thirteen and a half minutes before making a Bob Gunton joke. That's some admirable restraint.

It was a good episode to show how experiences generate prejudices and how people wrestle with them. Well, how two people wrestle with them. i have an explanation for Cardassian head-cages. They have some sort of sport that they take very seriously.

💙💙💙

The potato bit is really getting me 😂

Cardassian ships remind me of a bug.

I always got the impression from DS9 that the Cardasians like to see themselves as a level peer to peer opponent with the Federation but everything else suggests that the only reason Star Fleet didn’t wipe the floor with them is because they only went to an actual serious war footing when the Dominion turned up 😂

I'm making a potato and chicken piccata pie with extra potatoes in honour of this video. This is funniest I think Steve has been in a while! I know things aren't great at the moment. It's lovely that the episode where O'Brien hardly suffers (apart from his yearning for potatoes) can inspire such comedic brilliance.

Did you watch every episode of the Star Trek the next generation, of every season when they first aired on tv? If not, then nothing you have to say can be taken seriously or worth watching your analysis on Star Trek the next generation 💁

I watched this episode, because The Wounded is one of my favorite TNG episodes.

I know it seems kliche that an alien species, the Cardassians, never have been mentioned before and sudenly The Federation has been in war with them for decades. The whole thing about potatoes. But i always loved how O Brian comes across as a normal human being, that have a lot mental trauma he has never recovered fully from. Like him working with the transporters instead of being on the bridge, is he way to deal with his trauma from being in war. The whole aspect of Picard has to keep the piece, by not suporting Maxwell. It really shows how complex intergalactic politics can be and are one of my favorite aspects of Star Trek. The song O Brian and Maxwell are singing in the end is a touching momoment and shows how music can bind us together.

That we come back to O'Brien doing old school sing songs later on with Bashir is a great bit of character quirk that is used, sparingly, but well. That it's two British actors on that occasion is even nicer. It's a very good bit of 'national' character acknowledgement and a way emotion is shown in a more 'heart on sleeve' way than normal for us.

Nice commentary! But I notice some anger at potatos and capers!

I'd like to think that the last thing that went through Maxwell's head, other than the disarming nostalgia, was to wonder how the hell the Cardassians ever got the best of him.

P-O-T-AT-O

How dare you assume we Irish are obsessed with potatoes. Sweet, delicious potatoes. Mmm, boil em, mash em, put em in a stew.

I forget what I was saying, but I could really go for a plate of spuds right now 🤤

Attention Bajoran workers

I don't remember Maxwell ever being mentioned again. which could have worked with everything that happened in DS9 with the the multiple conflicts involving the cardassians given that O'Brien was a major character.

Nice review of a very good episode.
A couple of ideas for new batches:
Westerns- Spectre of the Gun, A Fistful of Datas, North Star…
Robinson Crusoe- Can’t go more than a season or two without main cast members getting stranded on a deserted planet.

Yeah one of my favorite episodes too. More dramatic psychological acting, less pew-pew. I’m surprised this plot wasn’t turned into a movie.

Here’s hoping the next Retro Review features another Shawshank reference since it will also have another major cast member from that movie in it, too. 🤞🤓

SPOONHEADS!!!

Much like O'Brien, when I need a confidence boost I also Windex my control panel

Episodes like this make me wish that the franchise, instead of going back to the past through reboots or prequels (well…except Strange New worlds which is pretty cool), or trying to stretch the stories of existing characters who had their arcs finished like Picard, we can focus on the best Star Trek side characters.

Like Captain Maxwell. Why not do an episode for example on him? The episode(s) could focus on questions like: What happened to him? What was the public discourse on his actions? Did Starfleet veterans or survivors of cardassian attacks rally to his side? Did the cardassians demand he be sent to their judicial system to receive punishment as he did kill their citizens? Did Captain Maxwell receive a pardon or when the actual war break out? Perhaps we can see that starfleet, in a moment of fear and desperation and even ANGER, releases Maxwell from prison to secretly command a force against cardassia?

The biggest grain of salt with the episode is that in order for Maxwell to do what he did, he would have needed the majority of the crew, or at least, the most of the other senior officers, to feel the same way to go along with his one ship crusade against the Cardassians. Unless he straight up brigged much of the crew, I have to imagine there was at least an attempt at mutiny or something, otherwise, the values of Starfleet and the Federation only apply to our hero characters and hero ship.

My favourite part is at the end, when Picard turns to not-Dukat and goes "We stopped Maxwell, but he was totally right - we'll be watching!". Too often Trek (particularly TNG) insisted on doing The Right Thing, even when it was dumb, so it was good to see Picard being pragmatic as well as principled. Also - is this the genesis of the Cardassian plot to to trap Picard (that comes to fruition in "Chain of Command")?

They should've let Maxwell have a command during the Dominion War.

Miles O’Brien
Brilliant engineer, tactless food critic.

And here I thought he was just being obtuse.

Next week: “Inquisition”
Hmmm…Is that the one where the villain does NOT twirl a mustache, instead opting to clothe themselves in good deeds?

Why does O'Brien have LT pips here, if he's a chief non-com?

Gunton came into a restaurant I was working at back at the day (early 00s)
Big fan of this episode, and The Shawshank Redemption. Nobody else there
seemed to know who he was. Regret not saying hello, or sending him out a dessert.

I just love how sincere and intelligent The Wounded is as an episode. Thank you for the wonderful review.

Love your Dean of a medical school joke about Bob Gunton. Since he actually did in Patch Adams, which had a very familiar theme song.

Great as always! Given the current political climate in the US, I'm really interested to see and hear your take on the now freakishly prescient TOS episode "Patterns of Force."

uh.... did he seriously just pronounce his name... Column Meany??? 🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️

Very powerful episode.

O'Brien's reads as very Blue collar is this class less society

The Cardassian headgear is to protect them from the professor's telepathic ability.

I genuinely love the scene of O'Brien telling the Cardassian, "I don't hate you. I hate what what I became because of you."

He has past trauma

I love "The Wounded," and hate those goofy Cardassian headgears.

O’Brien must suffer….

Maybe you should fill your hateful mouth with Potatoes is a line😂

Of course there’s a Cuellar system. It was ravaged by the Boog Cube known as Powell which blew up its first base.