TNG S05E24, S05E25, S05E26, S06E01

In this installment:
(viewed September 15th & 16th, 2013)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S05E24 - "The Next Phase"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S05E25 - "The Inner Light"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S05E26-S06E01 - "Time's Arrow" (Parts 1 & 2)

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"The Next Phase"

•  The Romulan ship whose distress call the Enterprise-D is answering at the opening of the episode is a small science vessel, similar but not identical to the Romulan scout ship first seen in the third season episode "The Defector".
  
  
  
• "This is not a bright idea."
• I think we could all guess that going through the transporter with a broken graviton generator with a "pretty strange setup" (La Forge's own words) would lead to some pretty serious shenanigans.
• It's nice to know that it's not just Federation warp core ejection systems that never, ever work when you need them.
• "Section 23-Baker" is an odd designation.  It conforms to the older United States military phonetic alphabet, rather than the current (and more likely to exist in the future) NATO phonetic alphabet.
• "We're dead, Geordi."
• Although no details are given, Captain Picard states in this episode that Commander Riker new Lt. Commander La Forge longer than anyone else on board.  We can only assume that the two of them had served together prior to their respective postings on the Enterprise-D.
• The interphase device and the concept of the "phased cloak" with which the Romulans are experimenting will be revisited in much more detail in the seventh-season episode "The Pegasus".
• "Muon Feedback Wave" sounds like a genre of ambient nerdcore music.
• Hang on a second.  So, because they're phased they can pass through solid matter (e.g. running through walls, etc.).  And apparently this includes the thick bulkheads and outer hull of a Starship (Geordi shoves the Romulan officer through the hull of the Enterprise-D and into space).
  
  How can they stand up on the floor?
• "We should build our own interphase device.  If it can teach Ro Laren humility, it can do anything."

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"The Inner Light"

(apologies to David Byrne)

• Captain Picard seems to be alarmed by waking up in what seems at first to be another man's life, on the distant planet Kataan.  And yet he doesn't at all seem to be alarmed by the pants he's wearing.
• Kamin's good friend Batai is played by character actor Richard Riehle.  Riehle will make at least two more appearances on various Trek series, but is best known among my generation for playing Tom "Jump-to-Conclusions Mat" Smykowski in the cult comedy Office Space.
• "This is not my life!"
• One of the best parts of this episode?  Picard's hair as he gets older.  Seriously, go watch it.
• "But never, in all of your stories, have you mentioned anyone who loves you like I do."
  Yeah, he's not much of a heart-breaker back home.
• Oh, and of course he's Frenching the place up with "Frère Jacques".
• "Solid propellant?!?"
  
  Right?
• I don't know if it's just audience conditioning from years of seeing him portray a character with very little interest in having a family, but all of the scenes with Picard/Kamin and his kids are a little awkward and stiff.
• So it's not enough that you kidnap him and send him to live out another person's life in the blink of an eye, but you also gotta give the guy Space Alzheimer's? :P
• While well-written and fascinating in its own right, stories like this and many others produced during Star Trek's 47-year history often stretch the limits of what we imagine the human psyche can withstand.
  
  After his experience, Captain Picard is clearly impacted by it--but he is seemingly not traumatized.  He carries with him the positive part of the experience, but he doesn't even need a five-minute visit with Counselor Useless to work through any lingering emotional issues.
  
  But hey, at least he gets a cool flute out of the deal.
• One of TNG's most celebrated stories, "The Inner Light" was written by Morgan Gendel, who went on to write one more episode for TNG and two for DS9--all rather unremarkable.  But he won a Hugo Award for "The Inner Light", which was much-deserved in my opinion.
  
  This episode is a fan favorite, and widely held to be one of the best episodes of the entire Star Trek franchise and certainly one of the best of TNG.
  
  While I enjoy the story and think it deserves every bit of that praise, I'm not personally as fond of it as some fans.  Perhaps I'm just not very sentimental :)

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"Time's Arrow" Parts 1 & 2

 

• Why would they recall the Federation flagship to Sector 001 because they've uncovered some artifacts indicating that extra-terrestrials had visited Earth in the 19th Century?  Even if the artifacts are quite remarkable (and even if Captain Picard is an amateur archeologist), I have to think they've got better things to do with that big, fancy Galaxy-class starship.
• The firearm which Lt. Commander Data identifies as a "forty-five caliber, double-action cavalry pistol, invented by Colt Firearms in 1873" actually appears to be a Colt Single Action Army (aka "Peacemaker").  It was introduced around 1872-1873, did come in (and was most commonly chambered for) .45 Colt, and--while it wasn't exclusively a cavalry weapon--was used by American Cavalry (and the cavalry of many other nations).  However, as its very name suggests, it was a single action revolver and not a double action revolver.
  
  
  
• "I'm curious, Doctor.  There are far greater experts on Earth to investigate your mystery.  Why bring the Enterprise all the way home?"
  
  THAT'S WHAT I WAS JUST SAYING.
  
  Oh, a severed Data head you say?  Okay, yeah.  That's pretty unusual.
• "Data, how can you look inside that, analyze the decomposition, without..."
  
  "Emotion, sir?"
  
  "Yes."
  
  I don't know.  Maybe because he's a freaking android.
• Data has a Type R phase discriminator.  I'm surprised Dr. Soong didn't spring for the decal.
  
  
  
  (I'm not proud of that graphic, if it makes you feel any better.)
• "Your head is not an artifact!"
  
  Get it together, Riker.  I know you're having trouble understanding things, so just shut up and let the big brains do their jobs.
• Data's reflection on how the foreknowledge of his own death brings him comfort (knowing that he is, definitively, mortal--and there for closer to "being human") is a really good piece of dialog.
• "It's just that our mental pathways have become accustomed to your sensory input patterns."
  
  "I understand.  I am also fond of you, Commander.  And you as well, Counselor."
• "Captain, there is no rational justification for this course."
  
  "Then I'll be irrational."
• "My god, Will.  They're human."
  
  Are you sure?  'Cause you've been really wrong about this sort of thing in the past.
• Data's description of the lifeforms he encounters when he is "out of synch" with the rest of the away team on Devidia II sounds like something straight out of a book about alien abductions or something from the old Art Bell radio show.
• Horses?  Well, that's certainly not what we were expecting.
• "I require large amounts of whiskey, as a liniment."
  
  "I am sorry, but I have no whiskey to give you."
  
  "I'll take a dime."
  
  "I am sorry, but I have form of legal tender."
• Hey kids, it's Marc Alaimo!
• The duty uniforms introduced in DS9/VOY really should've looked more like Data's post-gambling outfit.
  
  
  
• It's somehow comforting that alien, time-traveling serial killers mainly target hobos, too.
• Riker is really out of sorts in this episode.  He's all kinds of upset about Data, is about to jeopardize the safety of the entirety of 19th Century humanity to save Picard, etc.  If I were a sexist who implied that menstruation made women emotional and unpredictable, I would make a joke here about Riker being on his period.
  
  If I were a sexist.
• I love Worf's idea of a constructive comment:  "Hey, don't worry about it.  We may have lost Data.  But for all we know, the rest of us went down there and we're dead too!"
• It was suggested previously, in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise", that--in addition to being extremely long-lived--Guinan's species (El-Aurian) have some property that allows them to be conscious of events occurring outside of the normal flow of time.  This will be further reinforced in the film Generations.
• Because of that "special property", I'm guessing that an unofficial general order for the crew of the starship Enterprise goes something like this: 
  
  "Always do whatever Guinan says, even if it seems wildly irrational.  She's our magic negro."
  
  (My apologies to anyone offended by that term--but it's what they call that literary and cinematic phenomenon.)
• This episode gave most of the cast, but especially Brent Spiner, a chance to ham it up a bit.  I particular enjoyed his attempt to fake having injured his arm when lifting the anvil brought to him by the bellhop (a young Jack London).
• "You have had a considerable spectrum of occupations."
• Samuel Clemens holding forth on the age of the planet and humanity's role in its history and prehistory is an interesting scene.
• "What ship was it?"
  
  "The Enterprise."
  
  "Is that a clipper ship?"
  
  "It is a starship."
• Mark Twain was kind of an a**hole, wasn't he?
• So, one a single away team (which ends up in the past, mind you), we have:  The captain, the first officer, the chief engineer, the chief medical officer and the ship's counselor (okay, so that last one's not that important).
  
  Who's left to run the ship?  Chief O'Brien and Nurse Ogawa?  Oh, and Worf I guess, after they make him go home.  But even then, that's TNG Worf.  TNG Worf is only worth 1/2-2/3 of DS9 Worf.
• Speaking of which, how pissy is Worf when Picard tells him to take a hike?  It's hilarious.  He's all like "But sir!" and Picard's all "Go back now, something something ship's security" and then Worf just pouts and goes "One to beam up" or whatever.
• The Devidians, when we finally see them, are every bit as freaky as when Data described them.
  
  
  
• Oh, so now Troi's one of the Ghost Hunters?  :rolleyes:
• "Don't go into the light, Carol Anne Captain Picard!"
  
  
  
• I learned all about cholera on this week's episode of Hell On Wheels, and I'm pretty sure there would be more poop if those people had died of cholera.
• I didn't want to say anything, but I think Dr. McCoy was better at being a doctor in the past than Dr. Crusher.
• Data's machine for detecting the time syncs looks like what I used to use to check my Juno account.
  
  
  
• Hey, douchebag!  You knocked off Data's head and almost killed Guinan.
• "A werewolf!"
• "I'll see you in 500 years, Picard."