Well, hmm. If the Kataan probe customizes its story to whomever it finds to deliver its message, that would make some sense, e.g. it would conquer the assumption that the person who finds it is male or attracted to women. It might also change the appearance of the Ressikan species. #TNGSunNight

Serious question for other TNGSunNighters: Am I the only one who gets the munchies after doing the watchalong? I mean down BAD for some fat and carbs. I’m lucky that tonight, I’ve got Thanksgiving leftovers. Because tomorrow I have an appointment that involves getting probed. 🙂‍↕️ #TNGSunNight

“The Inner Light” is a pinnacle of TNG’s storytelling. It’s also very much a product of 90s environmentalism, but also, still timeless. Maybe not a perfect episode, but close enough. Go(od)watch, everyone! Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. #TNGSunNight

It strikes me that whoever bought the Ressikan flute probably got the most important prop ever used in Star Trek. I can’t think of another prop from any live-action Trek that is more important. I mean, maybe an original Horga’hn? #TNGSunNight

I had the same thought just now. Was this story the story of a real person in Ressik, or was it a fictional narrative that Kataan decided to send out as their message in a bottle? #TNGSunNight

But he doesn’t tell them… #TNGSunNight

Star Trek gives Picard several sons. Or at least, boys and men who see him as a father figure. #TNGSunNight

Has Patrick Stewart’s son gone on to do any more acting? #TNGSunNight

Ohhhhh I just realized that there are actually two Ressikan flute melodies. #TNGSunNight

Even on Kataan, the doors are automatic. #TNGSunNight

OK, so Geordi has lines in this episode. #TNGSunNight

“Make now always the most precious time.” Thesis statement of the episode. #TNGSunNight

Meribor really favors Eline. I’ve never noticed this before. #TNGSunNight

It would be a little more than half of the episode, if true. I haven’t checked either, but I feel like it’s not 25 minutes exactly. #TNGSunNight

The first time—but hardly the last—that we hear the melody of the Ressikan flute. #TNGSunNight

The Ressikan mullet. The inner mullet? #TNGSunNight

Even in Kataan, Picard is an explorer. #TNGSunNight

“Batai. GO HOME.” #TNGSunNight

Atmospheric condensers are actually pretty similar to one scientific idea for combating climate change. #TNGSunNight

HOLY CRAP #TNGSunNight

….ouch, Beverly. #TNGSunNight

There are lots of little, subtle things that show that time is passing on Kataan. It’s so skillfully woven into this episode’s narrative. #TNGSunNight

I’m trying to remember now if Geordi or Troi appear in “The Inner Light” at all. #TNGSunNight

Some very dramatic lighting in this heart-to-heart between Kamin and Eline. #TNGSunNight

It’s…weird, right? To see Picard in a domestic situation. “This is not my life!”, indeed. #TNGSunNight

I love how, by this point in the series, the Holodeck is so well established that the characters—not to mention the audience—just automatically go there when a strange situation arises that has no explanation. #TNGSunNight

On this planet, the sun is up…indeed. #TNGSunNight

THE FLYING LOGO MEANS QUALITY #TNGSunNight

Shove this up your mind. 10 minutes to one of the best episodes of TNG ever! #TNGSunNight

I just realized that we hit the earliest sunsets of the year at my latitude in the last weekend of Nov, which is Thanksgiving in the U.S. X-mas Day is the first day after the solstice where we gain more than 10 seconds of daylight. Then we hit the latest sunrises of the year v. soon after 1 Jan. 🤔🤔🤔

For a beginner like me, this is a pretty good overview of Tollywood, the burgeoning Telugu-language film industry of India whose films you’ve definitely heard of by now. What I don’t love is the repeated use of the R-word, regional. “Non-Hindi,” “non-Bollywood,” “outside Bollywood,” try? #DesiWatch

FFS. They really are. 🤢

“When people ask about how I took the risk of making such a subject work at the box office, the truth is the thought did not cross my mind when I decided to direct it. I was only excited about telling a story that is not seen or heard in Indian or world cinema.” #DesiWatch #Mollywood

Seated for De De Pyaar De 2 📽️ (Hindi). Not expecting much, but I need a laugh.

Two days before Advent even begins, I find myself WHAM’D, everyone. In a SBUX in the afternoon. The original song. While I was doing my cybershopping. Which, I guess I could be picking safety glass out of my face w/a totaled car after last night, so, small blessings, right? 😓 #Whamaggedeon

After an uncharacteristic lull in Indian 📽️ output over the past two weeks, a new Bollywood movie is premiering today in the U.S. But strangely, it’s only playing in matinée slots. No evening showings. I’ve only ever seen special event movies getting this treatment. The power of Wicked 2? #DesiWatch

Now that I’ve slept on it: One of the remarkable things about Ekō 📽️ is that it is a period piece that does not announce itself as such. It’s not set in the present day. Also: The subtitles are among the best I’ve ever seen, at times in both English and Malayalam. No musical numbers! #DesiWatch

OOOOOOOOK. I’ve pulled over at a barren gas station a little after midnight. After I left the theater, I was in a left turn lane heading to a light when a Lexus SUV barreled into the turn lane going the wrong way, coming right at me. If I hadn’t been flashing my high beams and leaning on the horn???

Ekō (Malayalam) is a ravishing thriller. Think Usual Suspects 📽️ X Cujo X Rashomon, but in the mountains and jungles of Kerala. With an ending that may not be so satisfactory, but also some incredible cinematography of the Kerala landscape. So unlike Bollywood! Highly recommended. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ #DesiWatch

#DesiWatch, trying to decide on a movie to watch tonight. What do you think of Ekō (Malayalam)? Or maybe Middle Class (Tamil)? Not much selection right now.

Just now looking at the news. That shooting happened pretty close to where a friend of mine works. I must have gotten off Metro at Farragut West station a hundred times. Only one stop from the Washington Post. The longer this goes on, the more dangerous it is for everyday people who work in D.C.

Honest question to anyone in New England: Can you get WABC radio all the way up in Massachusetts? It’s in a scene in The Holdovers 📽️. Is this true?

Seated for The Holdovers 📽️. Revisiting one from 2023 that I really love. I think Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa are just now starting to see the fruits of this labor. If you haven’t seen it, I think it’s the most recent film that can be considered a Christmas classic. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ #FilmSky

Dammit. I *really* wanted to see Kaantha 📽️ (Tamil). It was full up on Saturday, so I had to see The Girlfriend instead, and now Kaantha is no longer playing locally. #DesiWatch

I think Little Women 📽️ by Greta Gerwig is almost perfect. I’ve never seen that era in the U.S. so sensitively portrayed on screen. The ending—even without knowing the book—is, uh, hmmm. But the rest is so well told. (LMA’s life wasn’t like this.) Now I wanna read the book. No spoilers, please. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Seated for Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (2019) 📽️. If you can believe this, I’ve never read the novel. I don’t even know how to say Saoirse Ronan’s name! I have completely missed this train.

Lots of famous deaths reported today, but please don’t let this one pass you by. Udo Kier had a great face. It’s a shame he never did any Star Trek. RIP.

“But despite delivering dozens of hits, Dharmendra never made it to the ‘number one’ slot in Bollywood - losing to contemporaries such as Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan - and was passed [over] for the prestigious Filmfare awards several times.” #DesiWatch

And as I recall—correctly, I hope—at the beginning of Huck Finn, he mentions his friend Tom and how somebody wrote a book about them, and how annoyed he is at that author. A rather postmodern move for a 19th C. novel. (Please let me be right about this)

Before I forget: Happy Thanksgiving, #TNGSunNight fam! One of the finest episodes of Trek—and television—ever, next Sunday.