TNG S02E18, S02E19

In this installment:
(viewed 6/5/2013)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S02E18 - "Up The Long Ladder"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S02E19 - "Manhunt"

---

"Up The Long Ladder"

• This episode is one of a handful of times when something associated with Earth is referred to as "Terran".  
• It also references the European Hegemony, a forerunner of what would eventually become the United Earth government. 
• "I'm fine."
  
  "You're not fine.  You fainted."
  
  "I did not faint.  Klingons do not faint."
  
  "Excuse me, I'll rephrase:  This Klingon suffered a dramatic drop in blood pressure, his blood glucose level dropped, there was deficient blood flow resulting from circulatory failure.  In other words, he curled up his toes and lay unconscious on the floor."
  
  "Doctor, there is no need to insult me."
  
  Just when I thought I hated Dr. Pulaski, she goes and teases Worf like that.  I mean, I still hate her...but that was awesome.
• The SS Mariposa, the ship transmitting the ancient SOS signal that causes Enterprise's trip to the Ficus sector, is listed as a DY-500 class.  This is clearly a nod to the DY-100 class SS Botany Bay (Khan's vessel from "Space Seed").  In fact, Captain Kirk originally mistakes Botany Bay for a slightly-newer DY-500 class ship.
• Was anyone else a little worried that Worf and Pulaski were going to get it on after that Klingon tea ceremony?
• Oh, right!  This is the episode with the filthy Irish potato farmers Bringloidi.
• We have a cargo hold full of drunks and pigs.  No time for love, Commander Riker!
• The Mariposans seem to be suffering from the same issue that plagued poor Michael Keaton in Multiplicity.
• And really...if you're going to kidnap some folks and involuntarily clone them, Riker and Pulaski are just about the last members of Enterprise's crew that I'd want.  Pulaski may be brilliant, but she's very ill-tempered.  And Riker's pretty much George of the Jungle in a jumpsuit.
  
  And Geordi was right there, too!  He may be the human equivalent of Socially Awkward Penguin, but he's good-natured and smart!
• I love how the ethical dilemma of phasering clones in their pods doesn't even come up.
• "Cloning isn't the answer.  What they need is breeding stock."
  
  Hey, we've got a cargo hold full of hillbillies!

---

"Manhunt"

• Everybody loves those early TNG dress uniforms.
  
  
  
  (image from Star Trek: The Magazine, courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
• I've got a very vivid memory of finding the Antedeans and their food pretty gross when I was a kid.
• "What a handsome race."  <-- I'm beginning to think that Worf got the bulk of the unintentionally funny lines in TNG.
• Oh, yay.  It's Lwaxana Troi.
• Mr. Homn downing an entire bottle of what looked like Romulan ale was pretty awesome.
• So Betazoid women hit their sexual peak in their 60s?  Seems legit.
• How do you make me less interested in a Lwaxana Troi episode?  Do a Troi/Holodeck mash-up.  Yeah, that's the ticket.
• "The last time we had a case, Hitler and Stalin were bosom buddies."
• "Computer, this isn't what I wanted at all.  It's much to violent.  I'm here to relax, not to dodge bullets."
  
  So...a noir detective novel, then?  Makes perfect sense.
• And apparently the computer doesn't know what the word "violence" means.
• Riker's 1940s name is "Nails...from Chicago."
• Fish-head people:  Always trying to blow up conferences.