TNG S07E11 & S07E12

In this installment:

(viewed Tuesday, April 29th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E11 - "Parallels"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E12 - "The Pegasus"

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"Parallels"

• The shuttlecraft being piloted by Lt. Worf at the beginning of this episode is the Curie, one of the now-ubiquitous Type 6 shuttles carried by the Enterprise-D.
• So...was the competition just not that ferocious at the Forcas III bat'leth tournament?  I mean, I don't have any trouble believing that Worf did well...but champion standing? ;P
  
  I kid!  I kid because I love!  I like to give Worf crap because he's constantly being shown up by Data.  But it's hard to be the strongest and the toughest when your competition is a friggin' android.
  
  But the Klingon story lines on TNG and DS9 are some of my favorite, and once he transitions to DS9 and gets out from underneath Data's shadow?  He truly becomes awesome in his own right.  He's not my favorite character on DS9, but he's up there.
• Cmdr. Riker mentions technical problems with the Argus Array, which we've previously seen in the S4 episode "The Nth Degree".
• And now we all know that Worf's birthday is May 23rd.  And he was turning 30.
• What part of "I am not a merry man!" don't they get?
• "That was not a Klingon song!"
  
  "It wasn't easy to translate.  There doesn't seem to be a Klingon word for 'jolly'."
• The cast of Alexander's forehead cracks me up.
• "So, how old are you?"
  He's 30, Picard.  Do the math, like we did.
• Counselor Troi as soh-chim to a Klingon child?  Seems like a natural fit.
• Cardassians!
• Klingons can get concussions?
• Ninth place?  Yeah, that seems more like it ;)
• Gotta love Riker's "MOVE!" maneuver when he pushes the disoriented Worf aside so he can take the tactical station and dish up a few photon torpedoes for the Cardassians.
• Speaking of which, I've always found it curious that the big, powerful Galaxy-class starships have what appears to be a single forward torpedo launcher and a single aft torpedo launcher.  This is fewer forward launchers than their much smaller predecessor, the refit Constitution-class (which had the distinctive twin forward torpedo bay).  The Excelsior class (and others) also featured twin forward torpedo bays.
  
  
  
  The refit Constitution class' twin fore torpedo launcher, compared
  to the Galaxy class' single fore torpedo launcher.
  
  Now, of course the lack of a second forward torpedo launcher doesn't mean much.  The Galaxy class seems to be able to launch more torpedoes in succession than its predecessor (probably a more rapid automatic reloading system, or something along those lines), and 24th Century photon torpedoes are undoubtedly more powerful than their 23rd Century counterparts.  And that's to say nothing of the Galaxy's more powerful phasers, laid down on the hull in collimated phaser arrays rather than individual phaser banks.
• Riker's "this is all your fault" look is pretty good.
• I'm a little bit disappointed in the Internet that the sequence with Worf peaking around the corner at Counselor Troi wasn't already an animated .gif (or at least I couldn't find one).  I'm a good guy though, so I went ahead and fixed one up for you.  You're welcome.
  
• Panicky, getting-touched-by-Troi Worf may be my favorite Worf.
• "I am not privy to the details of when, where or how your first coupling took place.  I could investigate.."
• In one of the timelines (the one where Worf is married to Troi), Dr. Crusher appears to have been replaced by Dr. Ogawa.  And poor Geordi buys the space farm :(
• In the first timeline triggered after they make the connection between Worf's "jumps" and Geordi's VISOR, Worf is the first officer--he wears a command red tunic and everyone is wearing the comm badge style first seen in S4's "Future Imperfect".  It's unknown if this is the same alternate timeline as in that episode, but William T. Riker is also the captain of the Enterprise-D in this particular "fork".
  
  
  
• And in this alternate timeline, Wesley Crusher makes a guest appearance--as what appears to be a full-blown lieutenant--at the tactical station.
• In this timeline, the Bajorans not only fought against the Cardassian occupation but overthrew the Cardassian Union altogether and became a major power in the quadrant--even attacking the Federation.
• This is the "episode of a million Enterprises", where the quantum fissure causes versions of our beloved starship from other timelines emerge into the same space.
• "Captain, we're receiving 285,000 hails."
• I've always thought it was odd, this late in the series, that they decided to start laying the ground work for a romantic relationship between Worf and Troi.  Her history with Riker is so well-established, and they just don't seem like a very good match for one another.  As tired as some fans got of the Dax-Worf relationship on DS9, Dax was a much more fitting "mate" for him.
  
  
  

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"The Pegasus"

• Hey kids, it's Captain Picard Day!
• Right off the bat, the Enterprise-D is ordered to rendezvous with USS Crazy Horse, an Excelsior-class starship.
• And Admiral Blackwell authorizes Captain Picard to exceed the warp "speed limit" set in the earlier episode "Force of Nature" for the duration of their assignment.  I'd bet this is the first time the writers realized that a Warp 5 limit was going to put a damper on their more urgent stories :)
• Our villain for this episode, Admiral Erik Pressman, is played by Terry O'Quinn.  Mr. O'Quinn is better known to most TV viewers as John Locke on Lost.
• "As a matter of fact, the Pegasus is the reason I'm here."
  
  "Sir?"
  
  "She's still out there, Will.  And the Romulans have found her."
• The titular starship of this episode, USS Pegasus (NCC-53847), was William Riker's first assignment out of Starfleet Academy.  It was an Oberth-class scout...although of course, we come to learn that it was rather more than that.  As a technology testbed, it was where many of the technologies that ended up in larger, newer ships such as the Galaxy class were proved.  And were, as we find out later, Starfleet Intelligence tested some somewhat less-than-legal technology as well.
• Our other "villain" is Sirol, commander of the IRW Terix, a member of the ubiquitous-but-powerful D'deridex class.
• We've known previous to this (as early as the series premiere) that Cmdr. Riker served on board the USS Hood, but I think this is the first time that we find out that served as the first officer under Captain DeSoto.  DeSoto appears briefly in the S3 episode "Tin Man", still commanding the Hood.
• This is one episode where I really, really like Riker.  There's a good deal of real moral conflict, some solid acting on the part of Jonathan Frakes, and some strong action later in the episode in defense of principle.  It's good stuff.
• "Mutiny?  On a Federation starship?  That's shocking.  It's unthinkable."
• "Mr. Data, would you note in the ship's log that this action is being taken over my explicit objection?"
  
  "It is so noted, sir."
• Oh hey, the Enterprise-D has headlights!
• And now we find out what the Pegasus was carrying--a Federation cloaking device, secretly developed in contravention to the Treaty of Algeron.  But it's not just any cloaking device.  It's a "phasing" cloaking device, which renders a ship not only invisible but also allows it to pass through solid matter.
  
  
• "You just ended your career, Will."
• In Admiral Pressman's defense, it does seem a little silly to sign a treaty that would prohibit one side from developing technology but permitting another side to continue to develop it.  Of course, the production reason is another of S7's retcons--this one explaining why the Klingons, Romulans and other species use but is rarely shown being used by Federation starships.
  
  This isn't, of course, the first time a Federation starship has used a cloaking device.  The Enterprise (NCC-1701) famously used a stolen Romulan cloaking device in the episode "The Enterprise Incident".  And the USS Defiant is equipped with a Romulan cloaking device, the use of which is carefully negotiated and--at least initially--restricted to operation by Romulan personnel, and only for use in the Gamma Quadrant.
  
  And in at least one possible future timeline, an upgraded version of the Enterprise-D will also be equipped with a cloaking device ("All Good Things...").
• "I have a lot of friends at Starfleet Command, Captain."
  
  "You're going to need them."

TNG S07E10

In this installment:
(viewed Monday, April 28th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E10 - "Inheritance"

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"Inheritance"

• "Ferroplasmic infusion":  Treknology that crosses the bullsh*it line so hard that it doesn't even get its own Memory-Alpha entry ;P
• So, I guess S7 is when they decided to do episodes with everyone's mom?  First Geordi ("Interface"), then Troi ("Dark Page") and now Data.
  
  Ron Moore--who later when on to helm DS9 and the reboot of Battlestar Galactica--is reported to have said that these episodes were when he began to feel that TNG was running out of steam and needed to be ended.
  
  I can't say that I disagree with him, either.  As much as I adored TNG, and as funny as some of the Tweets from @TNG_S8 were, there's no denying that the story lines were getting a little ridiculous by this point.  There was still plenty of great stuff (including the series finale), but there was an awful lot of fluff too.
• Speaking of moms, the actress who plays Dr. Juliana Tainer (née Soong, née O'Donnell) is played by veteran Irish actress Fionnula Flagan.  Along with her various guest roles on Star Trek, she's known for her appearances in several other sci-fi/fantasy/horror films and television series--including The Others, Lost and Defiance.  Oh, and she was in The Ewok Adventure.  But let's not hold that against her ;)
• This episode contains references (although brief) to the mysterious Crystalline Entity.  I always enjoyed that particular "adversary".  I felt that it played nicely to the "Roddenberry-esque" side of Trek, being an unknown creature that was primarily dangerous only because it could not be understood and with whom communication was difficult (bordering on impossible).  It's more subtle than Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians or even the Borg.
  
  Don't get me wrong--I love those baddies.  As I've said before, with apologies to the Great Bird of the Galaxy, I've always (slightly) preferred the more militarized Star Trek of Nick Meyer (TWoK/TUC) and Ron Moore (DS9/FC) to the more exploratory Star Trek of--to put one example--The Motion Picture.
  
  But that doesn't mean that I don't love Roddenberry's vision for Trek almost as much, and I enjoy seeing it on the screen. It's something that I hope they'll turn to for the third of the Ambramsverse films, although have my doubts.  The writers of those movies are good at what they do (action, action, action!), but I don't know that they have that kind of grand, exploratory sci-fi film in them.
• So Juliana's mother thought that Dr. Noonian Soong was too old an eccentric to marry her daughter?  Based on what we know of Dr. Soong, that doesn't seem like an unreasonable opinion.  Brilliant though he may have been, every portrayal we've seen of him does make him seem a bit off his rocker.
• "This has been an interesting encounter, and an altogether unexpected one.  I would like to corroborate your story before we proceed further.  Excuse me, Doctor."
  
  Now that's how you greet your long-lost mother.  It's kind of cold, even for an emotionless android :P
• "Don't you believe her?"
  
  "I neither believe nor doubt.  I am simply trying to verify her assertions."
  
  I love you, Data.
• In this episode, they reconfigure the ship's phasers to form a tightly-focused particle beam in an attempt to re-heat the rapidly-cooling core of the planet Atrea IV.  Setting aside the absurdity of that plan, it's a good example of the schizophrenia surrounding the nature of phaser technology.  Is it an electromagnetic weapon?  Is it a particle weapon?  Is it a hybrid?
  
  Ultimately, the technical answer is that phasers are generally described as particle weapons, because they fire a focused beam of nadion particles.  The fact that the "nadion" is a fictional particle allows then to ascribe to it particle- or wave-like behavior as needed by the script :)
• "I am incapable of embarrassment.  Please continue."
  
  No child has ever regretted a statement more.
• "Someone's checked his calculations, of course?"
  
  Did your wife forget to tell you that her 'son' is a hyper-intelligent computational machine?
• "Even so, he is a machine.  Someone should check up on him."
  
  We're kind of all machines, dude.  Also, if that's your attitude then we're going to have some bad news for you in about 20 minutes.
• "Computer, please replicate one viola."
• Dr. Tainer learns in the course of a couple of days that both her estranged husband and her "granddaugther" are dead.  Bummer.
  
  
• Data's "mom" tells him that Dr. Soong created three prototype androids before Lore.  We don't know for certain, but it's safe to assume that one of them was B-4.
• "I've followed your progress for years.  I'm very proud of what you've accomplished."
  
  "Then...why did you never attempt to contact me?"
  
  YEAH MOM, WHY?!?
• Dude, your mom did the 24th Century equivalent of abandoning her baby in a supermarket parking lot.  Except the "baby" was an advanced artificial lifeform and the "supermarket" was a deeps-space outpost.  But, you know.  Same diff.
• Hey m an, just because your mom can adjust a plasma beam by hand and play the viola at 1,000,000kph doesn't means he's not who she says she is.  Or I guess, yeah.  Never mind.
• While examining Dr. Tainer's unconscious body, Geordi comments on her "aging program".  He states that it causes not only her appearance to change with age "like Data", but that her vital signs change with age as well (presumably not "like Data").
  
  To my knowledge (meaning "according to my terrible memory"), this is the first on-screen mention of a built-in mechanism by which Data's appearance changes as he ages.  Presumably this is to make him more human-like and acceptable to his biological colleagues.  But of course it's actually a clever little retcon to account for the fact that Brent Spiner is incredibly talented, but not ageless ;)
• Build an android to hold your dead wife's memories?  Nope, that's completely rational.
• "Wouldn't she be better off if she knows the truth?  Dealing with the reality of her existence?"
  
  "I don't think so.  She's believed she's human all her life.  The truth might be devastating to her."
  
  Neither of our doctor pals are wrong, Data.
• In the end, Data proves capable--unlike (allegedly; disproven multiple times) Vulcans--of telling a lie.
• "Take care of yourself, son."
  
  "Goodbye, mother."
  
  Right in the feels, man.  RIGHT IN THE FEELS.

TNG S07E09

In this installment:
(viewed Sunday, April 27th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E09 - "Force of Nature"

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"Force of Nature"

• The core theme of TNG?  Data's cat sucks, and hates everyone.
• This episode beings with the Enterprise-D investigating the disappearance of the medical transport USS Fleming.  Although it's never seen on-screen or specifically referenced, non-canon sources describe the Fleming as a Wambundu-class transport.  As usual, Ex Astris Scientia's Advanced Starship Bureau has what I think is a pretty nifty speculative design for the class.
  
  
  
  (image courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
• Geordi mentions his rivalry with the chief engineer of USS Intrepid.  It's unclear whether or not this is the same ship that would be the lead of the Intrepid class or not.  But given that there's only a few years' gap between this episode of TNG and the launch of VOY, it makes sense that it's the same vessel.  The Intrepid, being the first ship of its class, may well have been launched several years before USS Voyager.
  
  However, the variable-geometry nacelles of the Intrepid class are said to have been designed specifically to address the environmental damage caused by conventional warp propulsion--which are first confirmed in this episode (although initial research was apparently reviewed by the Federation Science Council some years prior, and dismissed).
  
  It's possible that the Intrepid launched with fixed-geometry nacelles, and that follow-on ships in the same class (e.g. Voyager and Bellerophon) were built with variable-geometry nacelles after the discovery of the subspace issues caused by conventional warp drive.
  
  In any case, we'll never know for sure because we never see the Intrepid on-screen.  And by the time of the launch of post-Intrepid starship classes (e.g. the Sovereign class), the variable-geometry nacelles were apparently no longer necessary.
  
  Of course, the real-world reason is that the production staff thought they looked cool on the Voyager model (I disagree--but we'll get into that when I start watching/commenting VOY) and the production staff designing the Enterprise-E model did not.  But it's fun to think of the in-universe justifications they give to production decisions.
• "Geordi, I cannot stun my cat."
• While searching for the Flemming in the Hekaras Corridor, the Enterprise-D comes across a Ferengi vessel.  It's a D'Kora-class ship, known at various times as a "marauder" and a "transport".  I think the general intention was that they were multi-purpose vessels used by the Ferengi for both military and commercial purposes--which, for the Ferengi, are one in the same most of the time.  In any case, it's the only capital ship of the Ferengi Alliance ever shown on-screen and it only appears in TNG.
  
  
• Friggin' verterons.
• The Hekaran ship carrying the sibling scientists Rabal and Serova is a redress (or possible a re-use of existing footage) of the Talarian warship model.
• Well, I'll say this for her:  She is (was) dedicated.
• Friggin' tetryons.
• "I believe I have an idea..."
  
  That has to be the most encouraging phrase ever, when it's uttered by your hyper-intelligent, hyper-capable android.
• Geordi's discussion with Data, and follow-up discussion with Rabal (and later Captain Picard), about how the technology most integral to interstellar civilization (warp drive)--and very obviously dear to his heart as a chief engineer--being hard to re-examine in the light of newly-found dangers? 
  
  That's a pretty clear general allegory for various technologies that humanity developed in the 20th Century (e.g. the internal combustion engine and reliance on fossil fuels)--technologies that dramatic increased our productivity and improved our overall quality of life, but that also have negative environmental impacts.  Like Geordi, we've been reluctant to abandon or even reevaluate our dependence upon those technologies.
  
  The writers definitely got to check off their "moral to the story" box the week they penned this episode :P
• This episode gives us the "speed limit" of Warp 5, intended to ease stress on subspace in the hopes of reducing the spread of subspace rifts like the one that appeared in the Hekaran Corridor.
  
  This environmental impact and speed limit will be--as I mentioned above--retconned into the reason why Voyager has its characteristic variable-geometry nacelles.  But both the speed limit and these types of nacelles are pretty quickly abandoned in post-TNG Star Trek.
  
  The production reasons, of course, are that it wasn't very exciting to have new shows and movies where your spacefaring adventurers were limited to Warp 5.  But it can be reasoned that Federation scientists were able to develop adjustments to warp propulsion that avoided the damage to subspace seen in this episode.

TNG S07E07 & S07E08

In this installment:
(viewed Friday & Saturday, April 25th-26th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E07 - "Dark Page"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E08 - "Attached"

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"Dark Page"

• "Don't worry, the Cairn couldn't read your thoughts if you wanted to.  Your brain isn't sophisticated enough."
• No, I don't believe this episode was exclusively intended to cause me psychological harm through the infliction of Lwaxana Troi.  But I do think it was the writers going "You know what?  Let's do one more episode in which we demonstrate how truly horrific and dangerous telepathy is!"
• Giving Majel Barrett-Roddenberry a chance to yell at Jonathan Frakes is fun, though :)
• Metaconscious?
  
  Sounds legit.
• Yeah, and this is where this episode goes completely off the rails for me.  Counselor Troi, crawling inside her mother's head with help from a creepy telepath? 
  
  I don't fault the writers or the production staff here, and certainly not the actors (I have mad respect and love for both Majel Barrett and Marina Sirtis)...but this is a great example of the kind of TNG episode that I personally find boring, bordering on unwatchable.
• Also, I would like to take this opportunity to say how dumb I think it is when grown human beings call their parents "daddy" and "mommy".
• But again!  Scream-o Lwaxanna is kind of fun :D
• As Counselor Troi and Captain Picard go through Lwaxana's journals, trying to find a source for her apparently psychic trauma, I thought to myself "See, in the real 21st Century you could tell just by examining the tone of or gaps in someone's social media posts."
• "Captain, I have to go back inside my mother's mind.  It's the only way we're going to get any answers."
  
  "Are we sure?  There's nothing else we could do here--anything more...interesting, perhaps?"
• During the viewing of this episode, I thought "You know, this is sort of like Counselor Troi's very own 'Sub Rosa'...but not quite as bad."
  
  And then I realized that "Sub Rosa" still lies ahead of me, and became immediately depressed :(
• Well, I had to sound cruel here--but I'd consider it a net positive that Kestra Troi died as a child.  Can you imagine a Trek universe with three Trois? :P
• Also?  I just now realized that the actress who plays Hedril/Kestra is a young Kirsten Dunst.  Although apparently another, less-familiar, actress plays Kestra in some of the dream sequences...although I couldn't pick out which ones.  Apparently little blonde kids all look alike to me.

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"Attached"

• This is the penultimate installment of the tedious "Will they or won't they?" story that is the relationship between Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher.  Of course, we find out in "All Good Things..." that--at least in one version of reality--they ultimately "did".
• We learn in this episode that--at least up to this point in history--every civilization to join the Federation had done so as a unified world, having overcome any geopolitical fractures on their home planet.  Kesprytt III is the first planet where the opposite possibility is being considered.
• We also learn that Earth's "world government" was formed in 2150, a mere five years before the Coalition of Planets and only eleven years before the founding of the Federation itself. 
  
  This means that the titular starship of ENT was launched only one year after the establishment of the one-world government.
  
  
  (the seal of the United Earth government)
  
  However, other canon sources indicate that the United Earth government may have come into existence fairly shortly after First Contact in 2063, and that 2150 is the year that the last hold-out nations (including Australia, according to Dr. Crusher in this episode) joined.
• You mean transporting your captain and CMO to a politically-fractured planet, alone and without a security escort, didn't go off without a hitch?  I'M SHOCKED.
• Mauric's (the Kes ambassador) paranoia is very clearly meant as an ironic display, given the accusations of paranoia and xenophobia leveled against the Prytt.
• Psi-waves.  A-yep.
• Dr. Crusher and I have at least one thing in common--acrophobia.
• Every alien lab or installation portrayed in Star Trek seems to do its shopping at Spencer's Gifts.
• "You don't actually know which way to go.  You're only guessing.  Do you do this all the time?"
  
  "No.  But there are times when it is necessary for a captain to give the appearance of confidence."
• "Is that a beard, or is your face dirty?"
  
  Ha!  Stealing it.
• The Kes and the Prytt?  Turns out their both a**holes.
• "When I said 'Jack and I', I felt this sudden wave of...something.  I didn't know you felt that way."
  
  "Didn't you?"
  
  Yeah, didn't you?  Because the rest of us did.
• "And then, little by little, I realized that I didn't have those feelings anymore."
  
  WOMP WOMP.
• "Now that we know how each of us feels, perhaps we should not be afraid to explore those feelings."
  
  "Or perhaps we should be afraid...I think I should be going."
  
  That has got to be the longest, slowest trip to the friend zone in galactic history.

TNG S07E06

In this installment:
(viewed Thursday, April 24th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E06 - "Phantasms"

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"Phantasms"

• I'm telling you, dreaming/feeling androids are just bad news.  If TNG has taught me anything, it's that when we aim for artificial intelligence we should aim just shy of Lt. Cmdr. Data.  Sure, he's awesome and saved their butts more times than I can count.  But when things go wonky with him?  Whoo boy.
• In this episode, the Enterprise-D receives, installs and tests a new warp core.  Presuming this is the first totally-new warp core they've had, that means they got more than six seasons of galaxy-hopping out of the last one...including some pretty wild "anomalies" (or interventions by other beings) that hopped them a little too far.
• The Admiral's Banquet sounds...awesome.
• Poor Ensign Tyler.  The one woman who knows Geordi exists, and he doesn't want to have anything to do with her.
• "Bridge to Engineering...Mr. La Forge, why isn't my ship moving?"
•  "Data, you shouldn't be afraid of dark imagery in your dreams.  It's an expression of your unconscious...if you have an unconscious."
  That's what goth kids have been telling their parents for years, Counselor Troi.
• I love how fully Data tries to mimic the act of sleeping, right down to fluffing his pillow and "yawning".
  
  
• I could totally go for a cellular peptide cake with mint frosting right about now.
• Oh, man.  Given that large portions of this episodes are depictions of Data's "dreams", it's just rife for hilarity.  Like so...
  
  
• This is the episode where Counselor Troi is a cake, which automatically makes it one of my favorites.
• Data spends some time with Sigmund Freud, and he doesn't once recommend cocaine?  Shenanigans!
  
  
• Also?  This is not good.
  
  
• "I'd almost call it the beginnings of a neurosis."
  
  Neurosis is a pretty decent band.
  
  
  
  
• Did Geordi just tell Captain Picard to get the hell out of the kitchen?  I think he did!
• It's okay, Data.  We've all want to stab Troi from time to time.  Don't beat yourself up about it.
• "Ever since you gave Alexander that music program, he's been playing it all night...every night."
  
  "I just wanted to broaden his horizons.  Besides, he likes it!"
  
  "It is screeching, pounding dissonance.  It is not music!"
  
  "Worf, it's better than music.  It's jazz."
  
  There's a subtle rivalry and playful back-and-forth trolling between Worf and Riker that I hadn't noticed until this re-watch of the series.  It's especially developed in the last couple of seasons, and it blows into full-blown hostility when Troi comes between them toward the ends of the series (notably in the future events of "All Good Things...").
• "And you must talk to him.  Tell him he is a good cat, and a pretty cat, and..."
  
  "I will feed him."
• Ew, space leeches.
• Yes, Worf.  We get it.  Mint frosting.  Very good.
• So Starbase 84 is handing out infected warp cores?  It's going to get a reputation.
• "Data, sometimes a cake is just a cake."
  
  Great, now I want cake.

TNG S07E04 & S07E05

In this installment:
(viewed Tuesday and Wednesday, April 22-23)

• Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E04 & S07E05 - "Gambit"

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"Gambit" (Part 1 & Part 2)

• As with other two-part episodes, I'll cover both parts in a single running commentary.
• Like the sixth season's "The Chase", I've always considered this "mystery in deep space" episode to be one of the highlights of late-season TNG.  I haven't watched it in a few years though, so we'll see how it holds up...
• The man that Riker and Worf interrogate in the bar on Dessica II is Yranac, a Yridian.  They're known as information merchants, smugglers, etc.--sort of a poor man's Ferengi.  We've seen them before on TNG, and we'll see them multiple times on DS9.
• "I told him we were looking for a man who impregnated your sister."
  
  I do believe that's Worf getting you back for that dress comment a couple of episodes ago, Commander :D
• This is one of the few TNG episodes to make reference to gold-pressed latinum as currency, which makes sense given that the crew has ventured outside the credit-dominated Federation.
• Of course Captain Picard would fake his own death.  He's a space-boss.
• Scenes between Riker and Troi can always go either way, but this one where she's yelling at him for being blinded by his anger over the (at this point very much believed) death of Picard?  This is pretty solid.
• "Alright Commander, I'm officially placing the Enterprise on 'detached duty'.  Your mission is...at your discretion.  Good luck."
  
  Whoah.  That's so un-admiral like.  Maybe Admiral Chekote is one of the "good ones"?
• Data is a crazily better first officer than Riker.  Just...so much better :P
• One of the helm operators seen in both parts of this episode is Ensign Giusti, who is played by Sabrina Le Beauf--better known to TV viewers of my generation as the occasionally-seen eldest Huxtable daughter Sondra on The Cosby Show.
• Data's not a half-bad captain, either.
  
  
• The "neural servo" devices used by Artus Baran to control prisoner and crew member alike through the remote administration of painful corporal punishment are reminiscent of the agonizers used in the various Mirror Universe episodes.
• Hey kids, it's Robin Curtis (playing Tallera)!
  
  
  
  
  
  ...otherwise known as "Hot Saavik". Okay, it's possible that I'm the only one who calls her that.
  
  
  
• He's not dead, he's just dressed like an extra from Willow!
  
  
• "It looks like you've got a control logic lockout in your regulator subsystem.  I'm going to attempt to run an active bypass through the plasma flow converter.  You!  Start running a phase-lock feedback through that regulator.  I want about a six-second delay."
  
  That has to be one of the finest pieces of technobabble ever written in TNG.  I'm going to start using it in client emails.
• Data informs us that the Debrune, among whose ruins the crew first encountered Baran's mercenaries, were an ancient offshoot of the Romulan race.
• Captain Picard's chosen alias for his undercover identity as a smuggler, "Galen", is the same as the last name of his (now-deceased) former archaeology professor, Richard Galen.
• Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes sure got to punch each other a lot in this episode :)
• "Yeah, I'm in command now Mr. Worf.  You'll do what I say and you'll like it.  Got it?  Good.  Still friends?  Good.  Carry on."
• SURPRISE!  IT'S VULCAN, NOT ROMULAN!
• "Will, you always seem to be after my job."
  
  :RikerTrollFace:
• SURPRISE!  SHE'S VULCAN, NOT ROMULAN!
• "Tallera" is actually T'Paal (no, not T'Pol), an undercover member of the Vulcan security service known as the V'Shar.
• "Stone of Gol" will make an excellent song title for my hypothetical lounge-funk-industrial-blackened-crust-metal band, the Fissles of Häng.
• The small Klingon ship that the Enterprise-D encounters in the Hyralan Sector, carrying the smuggler Koral, is a Toron-class shuttle.
  
  
• "health and safety inspections"
• Koral, our extra-tall Klingon friend, is played by basketball legend James Worthy.
  
  
• "It's alright, he's only stunned."
  
  "I must admit, I am experiencing a similar sensation."
• "Commander, I believe there is a problem.  We have no operative aboard a mercenary ship."
  
  "Oh, yeah.  That's totally a problem."
• So, the "psionic resonator" feeds on hate, fear and anger?
• "Empty your minds of violent thoughts!"
  
  "What did you do, Ray?"
  
  
  
• "The resonator cannot be stopped by phasers and shields.  But it can be defeated by peace."
  
  That's so Gene Roddenberry.
• "As I'm supposed to be dead, I'm going to go get some sleep.  Data, I suggest you escort Commander Riker to the brig."
  
  
  
  
  
  :PicardTrollFace:

TNG S07E02 & S07E03

In this installment:
(viewed Monday, April 21st)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E02 - "Liaisons"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E03 - "Interface"

---

"Liasons"

• "I do not understand why it is necessary to wear these...ridiculous uniforms."
  
  "Protocol."
  
  "They look like dresses."
  
  "That is an incredibly outmoded and sexist attitude.  I'm surprised at you. Besides...you look good in a dress."
  
  
  
  :rikertrollface:
• "We should have another episode where Troi talks about dessert."
  
  "Yeah, I think we should do at least one more of these before we wrap the show."
• Ambassador Byleth's attempts to provoke Worf make for some good comedy, at least.
• Captain Picard gets in kind of a lot of shuttle accidents...
• "I used to talk to myself, but then I thought that it might mean I was crazy."
  
  Bullsh*t.  I talk to myself all the time, and I'm not...
  
  Oh, right.
• "I love you."
  
  Oh, okay.  Wow.  That's....that's really nice.  I think you're swell, too.  It's just that I'm awfully busy, and I'm not really looking for a relationship right now...
• Don't take Lt. Worf's poker chips.  What an a**hole.
• I like how Worf throws Byleth across the room, and pretty much no one says anything until he gets to throw a few more punches.  Then all of a sudden, Commander Riker's all "HEY MAN STOP IT".
• As countless other alien species have discovered, you can only pull the wool over Jean-Luc Picard's eyes for half an episode...maybe three-quarters, tops.
• I'm pretty sure "Show Me Your Love or I'll Jump" was a Cure song.
• "It's very nice to find a culture that's willing to take an experience to its furthest extreme."
  
  Wait, what?  They kidnapped and tongue-raped you.  Worf got totally beat down for like eleven hours.  The jerk with the sweet tooth was the least-damaging of them all and he completely wrecked poor Counselor Troi's digestive tract.
  
  How is "Hey, no problem dude.  I think your approach is refreshing.  Have a good time, groovy trip back to your planet, space froods!" an appropriate response to this experience?!?

---

"Interface"

• Is this the "Geordi misses his mommy" episode?  I think it is.  I've always felt that Lt. Cdmr. La Forge got a raw deal on TNG.  He's smart, capable and in so many ways a complete space bada**.  His best friend is an android, for pity's sake!  How awesome is that?
  
  But they seem to take every possible opportunity to make him an emotionally-crippled momma's boy who's a disaster with women.  It bums me out, man.
• As is so often the case, this episode's call-to-action is distress call--in this case, from the science vessel USS Raman.  Although we never see her exterior on-screen, non-canon sources describe her as an Oberth-class ship.  This makes sense, as these were plentiful and still in extensive use by both Starfleet and civilian research teams during TNG's timeframe.
  
  
  
  First appearing in The Search for Spock, the venerable Oberth-class is right up there with the Miranda and Excelsior classes as some of Starfleet's most long-lived spaceframe designs.  Based on the registry of USS Grissom (NCC-638)--and assuming registries are chronological--it's even possible that it's the longest-serving class in Starfleet history at the time of TNG.
  
  As of this episode, the newer Nova-class vessels probably hadn't entered service yet.  They quite possibly weren't even very far into their design phase at the time (they don't make their on-screen debut until VOY, at least).
• The missing ship commanded by Captain Silva La Forge, the USS Hera, is not shown on screen.  It's reported in non-canon sources to have been a Nebula-class starship. 
  
  Admiral Holt informs Captain Picard that the USS Noble and our old friend, USS Excelsior, have been involved in the search efforts.
  
  We know was sort of ship the Excelsior is, of course :)
  
  The Noble is never seen or mentioned again, although the similarly-named USS Nobel appears on a display of ships lost during fighting with the Dominion in DS9.  According to non-canon sources, the two ships are one in the same.  If that's the case, then the ship mentioned in this episode is an Olympic-class hospital ship--the only canon Starfleet class besides the Daedalus to feature spherical primary hull.
  
  I'll refrain from posting a picture, because we'll see this class on-screen at the end of the season ;)
• With the whole interface suit / interface probe thing, I know there's an Oculus joke to be made here.  I just can't put it together :P
• One notable fact about the Raman is that it apparently only had a crew of seven.  That's low, even for an Oberth-class vessel.  That being said, it's probably even further testament to that class' versatility and mission-specific adaptivity.
• The Hera is notable in that it apparently had a mostly-Vulcan crew, like the USS Intrepid before it.  No reason is ever given, in either case, for such a concentration of Federation citizens from one particular member planet on a single ship--other than narrative expedience, of course.
• Geordi's parents are played by Madge Sinclair and Ben Vereen, both of whom also appeared in Roots with LeVar Burton.
• "Geordi, report!"
  
  "HANG ON DOCTOR, TALKING TO MY MOM HERE."
• "It uses trionic initiators in the warp coil."
  
  Yeah, that sounds like a thing.
• "I just don't like the idea of one of my best officers putting himself in unnecessary danger."
  
  "I guess I just feel like I should be the one to decide whether it's unnecessary or not."Yeah, that's not so much the way it works when you're in uniform, dude :P
• Geordi tells Data that there are "over 300 people on board the Hera", which seems quite low for a ship that has essentially the same internal volume as the Galaxy-class.  It's possible that she was outfitted with extra cargo or research compartments that cut her available space for crew, or otherwise had a mission-specific reason to have such an unusually low crew compliment.
• In order to disconnect Geordi from the probe safely, Dr. Crusher hatches a plan to feed his nervous system data from one of his previous interfaces with the probe to fool it into thinking it's still connected (thus avoiding neural shock). 
  
  It's basically the Star Trek equivalent of looping the security camera feed so the fat bank guard eating doughnuts and watching the monitors sees an empty hallway instead of your team of burglars :P
• "I'm very disappointed in you, Mr. La Forge.  I'm giving you five demerits, and you'll be with me for detention after school for the next week."

TNG S06E26 & S07E01

In this installment:
(viewed Thursday, April 17th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation:  S06E26 & S07E01 - "Descent"

---

"Descent" (Part 1 & Part 2)

• As with other two-part episodes, I'll cover both in a single running commentary.
• This has generally been one of my favorite late-season episodes of TNG, but I haven't watched it in a couple of years.  We'll see how it holds up.
• This the episode that famously opens with Lt. Cmdr. Data playing poker with holographic representations a trio of the most notable physicists in history:  Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. 
  
  Dr. Hawking  played himself in the episode.
  
  And...Newton is kind of a grumpy prick, which according to historic accounts is pretty accurate.
• The mysterious vessel that the Enterprise-D encounters in orbit around Ohniaka III, later designated by Starfleet as the Borg Type 03, is unusual for a Borg vessel in that it doesn't have a simple or even symmetrical design (e.g. a cube or sphere).
  
  
  
  Of course, it wasn't built by typical Borg either.
• "You have killed Torsus.  I will make you suffer for this."
  
  Uh...say what now, drone?
• Chuck Norris Data is the best Data.
• "What happened?"
  
  "I got angry."
  
  Yeah, that's not really what you want from your hyper-intelligent, hyper-strong and nigh-indestructible android O_o
• "The only Borg who had a name was Hugh, and we gave it to him."
  
  Ding ding ding ding ding!  I think Counselor Troi actually gets smarter as the series progresses.
• "Perhaps you could describe how it feels to be angry.  I could then use that as a frame of reference."
  
  Yeah, but Geordi doesn't really get angry.  He just gets sad and lonely :(
• Oh boy, it's time for another visit from Admiral Nechayev.  That's never good news.
• It only takes two officers' voice overrides to disable the safety protocols on the holodeck?  Only two?
• The "subspace distortion" that the Enterprise-D observes as the Borg Type 03 makes its repeated escapes is the first on-screen example of what we'll later know as the Borg's transwarp conduit technology.
• "What is your designation?"
  
  "I do not have a 'designation'.  My name is Crosis."
• "Did it feel good to kill?"
  
  "Yes."
  
  Again, just...really not what you want out of an android.
• The shuttlecraft stolen by Data during his escape with Crosis is the El-Baz, one of the tiny Type 15 "shuttlepods".  It was named after real-life planetary geologist Farouk El-Baz.
  
  
  
• I adore Dr. Crusher, but I don't know that she'd be my first choice for command of the skeleton-crewed Enterprise-D.  I guess they didn't have a lot of options :P
• "That's not Data..."
  
  
  
• Chief Salazar, who is operating one of the Enterprise-D's transporter rooms during her "skeleton crew" phase, is played by actor Benito Martinez.  Martinez is better-known to most television viewers for his role as Captain Aceveda on the critically-acclaimed series The Shield.
  
  He's also had a small part as "Luis", lieutenant to Danny Trejo's character on the last couple of seasons of another of my favorite shows, Sons Of Anarchy.
• "Counselor Troi herself told me that feelings are not 'negative' or 'positive'. It is how we act on them that makes them 'good' or 'bad'."
  
  Yeah, well...maybe we should stop listening to Counselor Troi so much.
• Lt. Barnaby, who relieves Ensign Taitt at tactical, may look familiar at a glance.  But no, that's not the awesome Marc Alaimo with a fancy hairdo.  It's another veteran Trek guest actor, James Horan--less well-known perhaps, but no less awesome.
• "Here is the VISOR.  May I ask why you wanted it?"
  
  "I thought it might look good on me...whaddaya think?"
  
  Hot damn, Lore pretty funny for a sociopath.
• A carrier wave?  What an a**hole.
• Hey kids, it's Hugh! This episode is like a friggin' family reunion.
  
  
  
• "Tell me about my friend."
  
  "Friend?"
  
  "The human called 'Geordi'."
  
  Oh man, Geordi attracts androids and cyborgs like they're stray dogs.  If only he had that kind of luck with women :P
• Data's voice-imitation of Captain Picard while Geordi is blind is...kind of a d*ck move, really.
• "If he dies, Lore will blame you!"
  
  That's one of the best things and worst about any autocracy (depending on if you're inside or outside of the autocratic system:  You can often use its subjects' fear of their leadership to manipulate them.
• Having trouble with your android's ethical subroutine, are you?
  
  
  
• "Sir, that heading takes us directly into the sun!"
  
  "Well, it's a good thing we just had this episode where I figured out how to handle that sort of thing then, isn't it?"
• I can only assume that the story Geordi tells about Data sinking when he decided to go swimming during a sailing trip is why the writers decided to retrofit him as a flotation device in Nemesis. 
  
  
  
  
  Because the real reason (they needed a cheap laugh)...well, it just makes me too furious.
• "How can actions that are wrong lead to a greater good?"
• "Without me, you will never feel emotion again."
  
  "I know, but you leave me no other choice."
  
  "I...love you...brother..."
  
  "Goodbye, Lore."