Even when I first saw this episode, when I was still a college student, and had never served a day in uniform, Riker's behavior struck me as childish and unprofessional. After serving in the army... well, it amuses me when so many Trek fans try to defend Riker and castigate Jellico. Jellico did nothing wrong -- and in fact, in the second part, when he needed Riker as the most qualified available pilot for a mission, he put aside any pride and did what he had to do to get Riker in the pilot's seat, because he put the mission first. Riker's desire not to leave Picard at the mercy of the Cardassians, while understandable, has to be balanced against the necessity of completing the mission and preventing a war. Picard thought that important enough to accept his own very dangerous assignment, and risk his life, and he wouldn't have thanked Riker for saving his life at the cost of blowing the mission and starting the war the Federation was trying to avoid.

And I rather suspect Jellico wouldn't have come across as such a hard ass if his order had simply been obeyed without question. Riker's foot-dragging over the schedule change, to take just one example, is representative of this. As someone who has worked difficult, high-stress jobs, where time is a critical factor, it is intensely irritating when minor matters that you thought settled crop up again, because someone didn't do what he was supposed to do, and now you have to back up and take time out to go over that ground again. And again, the Trekkies that defend Riker over this, saying something like "Jellico wasn't even willing to listen to the finest crew in Starfleet!" are really something. If "the finest crew in Starfleet" can't handle a schedule change, then that speaks extremely poorly over the quality of Starfleet crews.

I recently rewatched the original film for them first time on a few years. It's a enjoyable as ever. While I was watching, I realized I hadn't seen the sequels since they first premiered, and I only ever watched them once. I realized I had forgotten almost everything about them. I ed a few scenes, a couple of character names. I ed seeing Monica Belluci in them. That's really it. I couldn't describe the plots of the sequels if my life depended on it.

It was perfect. I can enjoy the original as much as I ever did, and the sequels basically don't exist, from my point of view. They have almost completely faded from my memory, and that's all to the good.

I'm pretty sure it was the other way round with Pettigrew. Harry reminded him he owed Harry his life, and when he was stirred to act mercifully and so are Harry and Ron, the silver hand given him by Voldemort, still loyal to its creator, turned on him, and strangled the life out of him. The final result is the same, but happens in a more ironic, more karmic, less direct way.

Sorry, but TOS was not an ensemble show like TNG and later Trek. Like most 1960s shows, it was built around a main star, and one or two secondary stars. The rest were ing characters. That's the show people fell in love with, and that dynamic carried over into the movies.

I hate to say it, but Koenig, Takei, and Nichols spent the 70s and making their money from convention appearances, where legions of fans, who were thrilled to meet any actor from their favorite show, would tell them how much they loved them, and I think it led them to overestimate their importance to the show. The truth is that any of them could have been replaced -- like Grace Lee Whitney was -- and it wouldn't have affected the show very much. The same can't be said of Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, or even Doohan.