Homeward

Why the hell does paint at Sherwin Williams cost so much? I was at Menards today and they couldn’t confidently match a can of paint so I had to go to Sherwin Williams to get another can of the same paint and it was $54 for the gallon..WTF! The gallon of paint at Menards was $24 and truth be told the white paint from SW that I already had was shitty paint! It scuffs easily and doesn’t wash well. I feel I was ripped off big time today. I felt so screwed that initially I didn’t want to buy the paint at all and I walked out of the store balking at the price. Well after my mother talked some sense into me and reminded me that if it didn’t match I would want to do the whole thing over again and well the ceilings in that location are about 20 feet tall. And well I am not getting on a ladder that high up and I certainly don’t want to pay someone hundreds of dollars to do it for me. So after storming out of the store in a minor huff, I had to walk back into the store and order a can of paint. The clerk at the store, who I am guessing was also the owner, had a smug look on his face the whole time! To top it off he looked and sounded like William Hurt who is maybe one of my least favorite actors, even if he was phenomenal in Kiss of the Spiderwoman, I haven’t seen too much good since that one.  It may seem like nothing but annoying shit has happened all day but it has actually been a very good day here!

Elliptical Machine- Calories: 589, Miles: 3.37

Homeward

The Enterprise has been sent to retrieve Dr. Nikolai Rozhenko, a Federation scientist observing a race of people known as the Boraalan. The planet is dying and soon the atmosphere will be completely gone resulting in the death of the entire population. Worf beams down to rescue Nikolai, his adoptive brother, and bring him back to the Enterprise. What he finds is that Nikolai has made an attempt to rescue some of the population and has become involved with their daily lives. The problem here is that Nikolai was supposed to be observing from a distance and remaining unseen and hidden. Nikolai is brought up to the Enterprise and told that he cannot rescue the group of Borallans because it would interfere with the prime directive. Nikolai agrees to this but is not happy about it. As the Enterprise is about to leave there is a technical malfunction but things seem to be fine until there are unusual energy readings coming from the Holodeck. Worf and a security team head to the Holodeck to find that Nikolai has beamed up the Boraalans in hopes to relocate them to a new world where they can continue their lives with no knowledge of the change. Nikolai informs Picard that they must find a planet for the Boraalans and that Nikolai will use the Holodeck to guide them through the rugged terrain to a new place that will look like their new home. Picard is not happy about this plan but now must oblige with the request as he has no other choices. Nikolia and Worf are assigned to guide the Borallans through the Holodeck and try not to fuck up their culture any more than they already have. The problem is the Holodeck is being overworked and the system is close to shutting down the whole time. Things get worse when somehow one of the Boraalans gets out of the Holodeck and onto the ship. Just a questions… They didn’t think to lock the damn doors?? Really? Well now the Boraalan is faced with the choice of staying on the Enterprise or going back to his people and keeping a secret forever. He eventually makes a choice and kills himself to save him from both options. The Boraalans are eventually transplanted onto a new world and Nikolai stays with them as he has fathered a child with one of the women of the population. Talk about a shitty scientist, I mean he really became involved with his subject didn’t he?

This episode features a guest appearance by Penny Johnson who later goes onto play Cassidy, Ben Sisko’s girlfriend on Deep Space Nine. It also has a guest appearance by Paul Sorvino as Nikolai Rozhenko, in a very strong supporting performance. I’m most familiar with him from a little movie called Mambo Italiano in which he plays a conservative Italian father who has trouble dealing with his son being gay. It is a total comedy and my favorite line is “Nobody is a gayer than my son!” LOL

Also of note is that the plot line involving using a Holodeck to unknowingly transport a whole group of people was recycled for use in Star Trek Insurrection in 1998.