TNG S06E12, S06E13, S06E14, S06E15

In this installment:
(viewed October 13th, 2013)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E12 - "Ship In A Bottle"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E13 - "Aquiel"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E14 - "Face Of The Enemy"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E15 - "Tapestry"

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"Ship In A Bottle"

• The opening scene in the holodeck, with Lt. Commander Data as Sherlock Holmes and Lt. Commander La Forge as Dr. Watson?  Yeah, nobody's winning any awards with their British accent in this scene.
• So, your playtime holodeck program isn't working right so you make poor Lt. Barclay fix it?  A guy you didn't even invite to play along.  That's cold-blooded.
• Oh yeah, and don't warn him about those Professor Moriarty files either.  No need for that.
• "Professor Moriarty appeared out of nowhere."
  
  "What?"
  
  "And he wants to talk to the Captain."
  
  "Whoops.  I guess we kind of forgot all about him.  I hope he's not holding a grudge or anything."
• "I think, therefore I am."
  
  Yeah, but...holodeck.  Photons, etc.  What the what?
• I don't remember if they explicitly mention the parallel later on in the episode, but there's a serious Adam and Eve vibe here.  Moriarty is the first of his kind, and he wants a companion.
• "Picard command codes are no longer valid."
  
  Well, that's not good.
• It's stated explicitly in this episode that both the holodeck and the transporter have the ability to transform matter into energy, and back again.
• "Got to wear trousers...the whole time!"
• Have I said before how much I love Lt. Barclay?  I love the dude.  His little head-tilt when Moriarty comes in and kisses the Countess, where he kind of looks like "Aww, shucks...even the holodeck characters get more action than I do" is simultaneously adorable and hurt-y.
• Data's all "Wait just a second...", and then he figures out what Moriarty did.  The smartest dude in Starfleet (probably in the galaxy, not counting beings like the Q), for sure.
  
  Explain to me again why he's not in charge of everything?
• Well, if you're going to get locked into a holodeck trap...I guess you could do worse than getting trapped with Data and Barclay.  If only the "real" La Forge was there too, you'd have the three smartest guys on the ship.
• The wonder of it gets a little lost in the script, but the idea that the Enterprise-D's computer has the power to not only generate an entire world within the holodeck, but to create a holodeck within that holodeck.
  
  It's the ultimate in virtual machines.
• Oh, those Heisenberg compensators!
• "There are force-fields blocking our access to the holodeck.  It will take time to disable them."
  
  "Keep trying."
  
  "Oh, okay.  'Cause me, being an unstoppable Klingon machine made from determination and stubborn pride, had kind of figured on just giving up right here.  But I guess I'll keep going, if you say so."
• Fake shuttlecraft, bro.
• I wonder what happened to Moriarty's cube.  I don't think we ever see it again.  It probably got put on a shelf, and then destroyed when the Enterprise-D is lost in Star Trek:  Generations.

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"Aquiel"

• Apparently Starfleet doesn't mind if you take your dog with you on assignments to small, deep space communications relay stations?
• As they try to piece together what happened aboard the relay station, Commander Riker asks Dr. Crusher if Lt. Uhnari could have been killed by a Klingon disruptor.
  
  Captain Picard urges caution in jumping to conclusions, stating that there hasn't been a Klingon raid against the Federation in "over seven years".
  
  Given that the First Khitomer Accords were signed in 2293 and the Battle of Narendra III (which solidified the friendship between the Klingon Empire and the Federation) occurred in 2344, one would assume that any more recent raid was unsanctioned.
  
  It was probably by one of those pesky rogue Bird-of-Prey captains with which the Empire has so much trouble :P
• Geordi La Forge:  Turns on include dead, holographic or otherwise unavailable women, and ice coffee.
• This Morag dude sounds like kind of a d*ck.
• "Governor Torak, I apologize.  I can see that you honestly didn't know what happened aboard the station.  I'll just have to take this matter up with Gowron.  I'm really sorry that we bothered you."
  
  "Gowron won't bother with such a minor incident."
  
  "Well, ordinarily he wouldn't.  But of course, I was his Arbiter of Succession.  I'm sure that he will be happy to come here and investigate this matter.  You needn't worry about it any longer."
  
  SNAP.
• This Lt. Rocha dude also sounds like kind of a d*ck.
• Speaking of lieutenants Uhnari and Rocha, why are they both wearing Sciences Division tunics?  Shouldn't technicians aboard a subspace communications relay station be wearing Operations Division tunics?
• Aquiel seems like kind of a whiner.  I can see why Geordi likes her.
• Governor Torak's ship, the IKS Qu'Vat, is one of the imposing Vor'cha-class cruisers that served as the front line combat vessels for the Klingon Defense Force in the latter part of the 24th Century. 
  
  
  
  (image from the Starship Schematics Database)
  
  It wasn't until the larger Negh'Var class was introduced just prior to the Dominion War that the Vor'cha was displaced as the largest and most powerful ships of the Klingon fleet.  Although much like its predecessor, the K't'inga class, huge numbers of Vor'cha-class starships served as the backbone of the Klingon forces during that conflict.
• Lt. Uhnari isn't dead!  Dun dun DUUUUUUUUN!
  
  
  
• This week in Geordi La Forge Creepily Violates the Privacy of a Woman...
• Type 2 phaser on a Type 6 shuttlecraft?  That's no good for the defense.
• Evidence tampering?  Also not great for the defense.
• "There's something I want to share something with you."
  
  "What?"
  
  "A way that we can become...more intimate.  My people are partially telepathic.  They use something called the 'canar' to help focus our thoughts.  They also use the canar for a stronger emotional link during love."
  
  
  
• These "coalescent organisms" sound an awful lot like The Thing.
• "I can see you!  Ooooh, and I can...feel you."
  
  Eww.
• And just like in The Thing...IT'S THE FREAKING DOG!
  
  
  
• "Don't be surprised if you see my name on that list."
  
  You're never going to hear from her again, dude.

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"Face Of The Enemy"

• We learn two very important things (i.e. they overlooked these in the script) about the Romulans right from the opening scene of this episode:
  
  
  1. Apparently their voice recognition software isn't as good as the Federation's.
  2. Apparently they make their officers sleep in those ridiculously pointy uniforms.
• With a lot of plastic surgery and a little bit of luck, Counselor Troi finds herself aboard the D'deridex-class warbird IRW Khazara. 
  
  She is masquerading as Major Rakal, a member of the Tal Shiar, the Romulan Star Empire's primary intelligence organization.
  
  This episode is the first time the Tal Shiar is mentioned by name.
• Subcommander N'Vek is played by Scott MacDonald.  In addition to several other Star Trek roles, I remember him best as a drill instructor in the movie Jarhead.
• Commander Toreth is played by Carolyn Seymour.   She previously played another Romulan officer, subcommander Taris, in the second season episode "Contagion".  She also had other guest roles in Star Trek.
• Ensign DeSeve?  Totally has moobs.
• "Find some civilian clothes.  I don't want to see you in that uniform."
• This episode is replete with references to the Romulan dissident movement and Ambassador Spock's involvement with it, first seen in the two-part episode "Unification".
• This episode also gives us some additional glimpses of the state of the Romulan government and the society it governs, from the complicated relationship between the Tal Shiar and the Romulan military to the existence of "vice proconsuls" (e.g. M'ret) in its highest positions of authority.
• "On Romulus, you learn to not volunteer information."
• Why in the wide galaxy does a ship's counselor have access to the codes required to bypass the gravitic sensor net and other Federation border defenses?
• And apparently anti-protons are a tell-tale residual sign of the use of Romulan disruptors.
• Dressed as a Romulan and yelling may be the most attractive I've ever found Counselor Troi.
• "The effect would only be intermittent.  They might not even detect it."
  
  Oh, they'll detect it.  They've got an android.
• This is the first reference to the Romulan use of a forced quantum singularity to power their warp drives.
• Toward the end of this episode, it takes on a real The Hunt For Red October vibe (RIP Tom Clancy).

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"Tapestry"

• If you have to return to the ship cradled in the arms of your Klingon security chief like a wounded lamb...that's not a good sign.
• The compressed teryon beam:  One of an entire rainbow of fancifully-named energy weapons that we only see or hear of once or maybe twice in the Star Trek franchise.  This one apparently can screw up someone's artificial organs something fierce.
• Hey kids, it's Q!
• "Q, what is going on here?"
  
  "I told you.  You're dead, this is the afterlife...and I'm God."
  
  "You are not God!"
  
  "Blasphemy!  You're lucky I don't cast you out, or smite you or something."
• Captain Picard's dad seems like a bit of a bastard.
• This episode is pretty gruesome for a pre-DS9 Star Trek script, what with all the stabbing through the chest.
• Although how hardcore is Young Indiana Jones Picard, laughing when he gets stabbed through the heart?
• It's not an exact remake, but this episode is sort of Star Trek's take on It's A Wonderful Life.
• I've always thought that Picard's not-quite-sweetheart at Starfleet Academy, Marta (played by J.C. Brandy), was quite fetching.  I think it's the hair being up and the smirk.
  
  
  
• Q's statement that, should Picard die, they will spend eternity together, is somewhat interesting.  I wonder if Q's intentions remained the same after this incident.  Whenever Picard finally does die, presumably sometime very late in the 24th Century or very early in the 25th Century, does Q sweep in to take him away with him on eternal adventures?
  
  I wonder if there's been a poorly-written Trek novel about that.  Probably so.
• "You never told me you were such a ladies' man."
  
  "I wasn't.  I was a puerile adolescent who allowed himself to be led by his hormones instead of his head."
• The game featured in the bar at Starbase Earhart's Bonestell Recreation Facility is dom-jot, which will be featured again later in DS9 (it's a particular favorite of Jake Sisko and Nog).
• I'm just going to say it, and risk being called a racist:  All Nausicaans are a**holes.
• Ooh, ooh!  This episode is the one where Q (posing as a flower delivery guy), pronounces Picard's name "JOHN LUCK PICKARD".  That's how I say it in my head all of the time, and have ever since I first saw this episode.
• Picard's other Academy friend, Cortan Zweller ("Cory"), is assigned to USS Ajax (NCC-11574).  The Ajax is an Apollo-class starship, and it later serves as part of Picard's blockade during the Klingon Civil War of 2368.
  
  The Apollo class seen on screen in other contexts is an oddly-shaped transport or freighter of a clearly Vulcan design, but I tend to think that USS Ajax was probably not of this type.
  
  There is a non-canon "Apollo" class seen in many Star Trek computer games (e.g. Star Trek:  Legacy).  It's a small, fast, destroyer-like starship that shares design elements with the Miranda, Constellation and refit Constitution classes.  I prefer to pretend that the Ajax was a ship of this type.
  
  
  
  (image from Starship Schematics Database)
• I don't recall if it's been stated in earlier episodes of TNG, but Picard's "Here's to the class of '27" toast nails down the year of his graduation from Starfleet Academy--2327.
• In the "Mr. Picard" version of the present, the Enterprise-D is commanded by Captain Thomas Halliway.  Although we never see him on screen, it's safe to assume that he's a real Starfleet officer in the "normal" timeline.
  
  
  
• Captain Picard's rejection of his "Mr. Picard" existence is a bit insulting to all of the junior officers who make Starfleet hum, running reports and whatnot :P
• And here we have our moral to the story:  Our regrets and mistakes are part of who we are, and if we were able to undo them we wouldn't be the people we are today.
  
  There you have it, kids.  Also:  Stay in school, and stay off drugs.