ONGEG Video: The Outrageous Okona

[Sonnenburg]

A two-part look at The Outrageous Okona, aka, the one I hate.

There were some issues over 99 Luftballoons, so I had to swap out the theme song.

Video

[Bounty]

Brave man.

I remember watching this episode as a toddler; the one thing that stands out is the weird set design for the alien sets.

[Crazedwraith]

Man its weird hearing that music and not having Harry Kim blown out a hull breach to a slow painful death.

Even if Okona hadn't been a live action and unheroic Philip J Fry; the basic plot of 'all the main characters stop what they're doing to pay attention to the one shot guest star' is highly suspect anyway.

[Themightytom]

I was surprised you didn't touch on the one GOOD joke the entire episode. I think it was Picard who said something to the effect of "Well we might have to Surrender". Even if Troi the racist deemed the "lesser" societies "archaic" (Way to fail diversity class Troi) there was an evident technological disparity which supported the joke.

I feel like the sword of Damocles is hanging over Wesley's head.

Teri hatchers quarters only have a bed.

Also you apparently are too classy to point out our initial impression of Okana was foreshadowing, he's jsut an ass.

[tim31]

'Take my Worf, please!'

I wet the seat!

[Ted C]

I notice you pronounce the name "Okana", even though I think everyone in the show pronounced it "O-CONE-uh". Is that just because you hate the episode so much?

[Ghost Rider]

Wiki Breastathon with SW winning for now!

A glorious tangent from this piss poor episode. And hell my problems were how bad the thing is. Bravo, man, bravo.

[Darth Lucifer]

I remember thinking the exact same thing about Guinan. Not funny, bitch.

[Ted C]

The bit with Guinan would have made a hell of a lot more sense if she'd point out that not only was he not laughing at her appallingly bad pun, he wasn't groaning either, which is just as much an indicator of his lack of a sense of humor.

[The Romulan Republic]

I didn't remember this episode being that bad (just rather dull), though its been a while since I've seen it.

I loved the Obama jokes though. And as far as the music is concerned, I actually prefer the change.

[tezunegari]

Just watched it and now my eyes are bleeding. in hindsight I can't believe I liked this episode as a kid when it first aired.

Is it just me or did the TNG writers try to clone Han Solo - down to the clothings color scheme?
I wonder how a 1on1 between Okona and Solo would end... (Solo will shoot first )

[Ambassador]

There were some issues over 99 Luftballoons, so I had to swap out the theme song.

The rights holder contact you? I tried your "All Good Things..." TNG review and the theme was intact, so a WMG-style "purging" hasn't occurred.

A two-part look at The Outrageous Okona, aka, the one I hate.

Not even the Ron Jones music could save this one.

the one thing that stands out is the weird set design for the alien sets.

Most of them were just reuses of the Enterprise-D battle bridge. You can see this clearly on the bridge of the alien with the pregnant daughter; the viewscreen is behind him.

BTW, the actor playing Okona was originally the 2nd choice for Riker. After seeing this episode, we may want to be grateful that he wasn't the final pick.

[Patrick Degan]

I didn't remember this episode being that bad (just rather dull), though its been a while since I've seen it.

It's a natural defence mechanism of the mind, to block out the memory of extreme trauma so as to enable the subject to remain functional.

I absolutely hated this episode —not only because of the wholly puerile A plot involving the pregnant daughter (which is not what I watch any science fiction television series or a Star Trek series for), or the inane B plot involving Data's witless exploration of humour. The mere presence of both these elements in the script were enough to make me loathe the writers of this one. But when I was subjected to the spectacle of both Brent Spiner and Joe Piscopo doing lame impersonations of monkey-mode Jerry Lewis (a "comic" who has always grated on my nerves to begin with for many of the same reasons I can't tolerate Jim Carrey) as a duo, that's when I wanted the long and painfully protracted deaths of the writers and anybody on the production staff who greenlighted this travesty for airing.

This is one of the episodes I make a point to avoid, for the rather negative associations it tends to engender in me.

[Patrick Degan]

I almost didn't get through that review. And it ends with the Piscopo/Data Jerry Lewis-a-thon as well...

I think I'll have my eyeballs scrubbed with Brillo now.

[Lord Revan]

oh yes good example why season 2 of TNG is consired the worst, an episode where the jokes are offensivly unfunny and characters as Sonnenburg pointed out flat and totally devoid of anything that would want us to see them succeed or have any other faith then failing miserbly tbh (I mean damn I got pretty much a snowball's chance in hell of ever getting a date and Okana makes ME(!) look like a good choice for a date compared to him).

a Large part why Han Solo (or similar characters) work is that dispite all their flaws, they're quite likeble in the end, Okana has none of the charisma needed (and tbh his "rogue" status is more of an informed attribute then anything we see), basically TNG writers tried to copy the "rogue" architype but forgot what makes them enjoyble to watch.

there's few TNG episodes I wouldn't willingly watch again but this is one of them.

[Isolder74]

Is it just me or did the TNG writers try to clone Han Solo - down to the clothings color scheme?
I wonder how a 1on1 between Okona and Solo would end... (Solo will shoot first )

Let's be thankful they didn't give him a Chewie clone too.

As for your question,

After 5 mins near him Chewie turns Okana into a Pretzel that W promptly chokes on. Solo sits back and laughs.

[Skylon]

I don't believe I ever made it through this episode. Even as a kid, at the height of my Trek viewing, I stopped half way through to play Nintendo or something that seemed immensely more fun than this. I don't even remember the Joe Piscopo bits.

I'm amused to see Teri Hatcher was on Trek though.

[Anarchist Bunny]

No offense, I love your reviews and always am anxious for the next one, but the whole wiki off fell pretty flat for me. It would of been really detracting in a one part review, but with he time of a two parter its sorta just a 'eh, didn't do anything for me, but didn't hate it'.

I much rather of heard any behind the scene info on this you could find, if it was just a bad script, a mary sue, or a forced attempt to make a reoccuring character.

[Chris OFarrell]

You know, its a funny thing.

I had more or less forgotten about this episode, but saw it very recently on TV. I knew it was hardly the best, but hell, I thought I'd watch it. They had been randomly playing episodes from Season 2 on SciFy, and I had just watched Q-Who which really was as great as I remembered, the Borg actually at their mysterious and terrifying best...then this was on after.


God DAMN I had forgotten just how HORRIBLE it was. I mean we're talking about the worst of Voyager level here...how the characters grated on me and how it just DDRRAGGGGEEEDDDD on forever, with me just pleading for someone to END IT NOW...

[CaptainChewbacca]

I love your reviews, and I was waiting for this one. I'm glad you ripped it the new one it deserved.

I wonder if you could, in your next few reviews, do some episodes that you feel to be GOOD ones. Personally, I always loved the episode 'The Most Toys'. It is, in my opinion, one of the best Data episodes ever. I don't know what you could do for a 'best Voyager episode', but I'm sure you could find something.

[Mayabird]

I think he's backed up with requests, since he'd been putting them off while finishing his Q arc series. All the recent ones have been requests, and I know at least one more is remaining.

[ent0r]

Come to think of it, Austin Powers was made after ST TNG.
So Dr Evil actually imitates Worf ....

[Patrick Degan]

a Large part why Han Solo (or similar characters) work is that dispite all their flaws, they're quite likeble in the end, Okana has none of the charisma needed (and tbh his "rogue" status is more of an informed attribute then anything we see), basically TNG writers tried to copy the "rogue" architype but forgot what makes them enjoyble to watch.

The episode doesn't have time to really do anything to establish Okona's "lovable heroic rogue" persona by actually showing us that he is such a person but merely tries to tell us repeatedly that he is such and we should just take it on faith. It doesn't have time because it's juggling three completely disconnected subplots which really have nothing to do with one another beyond the mere coincidence of being part of the same episode and nothing bridging the three beyond the presence of the alleged "lovable heroic rogue" the writer keeps telling us about but doesn't actually show doing roguish-yet-lovably-heroic things.

Show, don't tell —a cardinal rule taught in Screenwriting 101 which is utterly ignored in this 45 mn. waste of phosphor-dots.