TNG S06E20 & S06E21...and a reboot!

In this installment:
(viewed Monday, April 14th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E20 - "The Chase"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E21 - "Frame Of Mind"

---

"The Chase"

• Professor Richard Galen:  The only person in the galaxy who doesn't have to call Jean-Luc Picard "Captain".
• "I, uh...can't go on a field trip right now.  I've this whole 'starship captain' thing to do at the moment.  But thanks."
• Professor Galen mentions Deep Space 4, a station that will come up again in the VOY episode "The Gift".
• "Captain, I'm going for a walk in the arboretum.  I wouldn't mind some company."
  
  In a flying city of barely over 1,000 people, where everyone knows that you're the resident head-shrinker, that's not actually a very discrete way to ask the captain if he wants to talk about his feelings.  Smooth move, Troi.
• Although the species has appeared before, I believe this is the first time we see a Yridian warship.  They're not generally considered a major galactic power, so their somewhat brazen attack on Professor Galen's shuttle reinforces the importance of the archeologist's impending discovery.
• "I'm aware of the Federation's timetable, Number One."
  
  SO SHUT YOUR DAMNED PIE-HOLE.
• When testing various DNA to check for matches for the gaps in the "puzzle", it's mentioned that there are 17 members of the Enterprise-D's crew that are from non-Federation worlds.
• Cardassians!
• Klingons!
• Although seriously:  At this point, isn't everyone who's anyone in the Klingon Empire aware of who Jean-Luc Picard is and why they shouldn't f**k with him?  I mean, he was only the Arbiter of Succession and a direct factor in Gowron's rise to power.  You'd think he would have a reputation.
• And it seems like the Empire has upgraded from rogue captains commanding Birds-of-Prey to rogue captains commanding full-blown  attack cruisers.  Hooray for political instability!
• Speaking of rogue captains, I know the Klingons have a history of military officers doing whatever they want with no regard for interstellar law...but shouldn't that situation be a teensy bit improved post-Khitomer?  I'm guessing that completely destroying the biosphere of a planet is ever-so-slightly illegal.
• There's a discussion in here about Cardassian and Klingon biscuit recipes.  As someone with family roots in the American south, I'm known to enjoy a good biscuit.  And I can't think of anything I'd like to try less than Cardassian or Klingon "biscuits" :P
• Silly Klingon, you can't beat Data at a feat of strength.  Just ask Worf.
• Cardassians!
• Romulans!
• The ancient humanoid species that appears in the recording triggered by the "puzzle" is played by Salome Jens, who we'll come to know and loathe in her role as the Female Founder on DS9.
• In a somewhat elegant exception to the usual Star Trek tendency to leave scientific oddities unexplained, this episode gives us a lovely--if somewhat simple--rationale for why most (but not all) of the intelligent life found in the Milky Way Galaxy shares a similar humanoid form.

---

"Frame Of Mind"

• Oh, hey kids.  It's a Riker episode.  I'll try my best not to be too big a prick about it, but no promises :P
  
  After all, the man did leave a love note on my desk at work not too long ago...
  
  
  
• This is just...seriously, the most thespian crew in the Federation.  All the time with the plays.
• It's dangerous business, being a Federation research team. 
• "This Tilonian pendant is equipped with a communicator circuit."
  
  "Hrm...it doesn't really go with the outfit."
• Slicing your first officer's face open during a pre-mission briefing?  Probably not a smooth career move, Worf.
• Speaking of plays, apparently Dr. Crusher wrote a pretty metal play with "Frame of Mind".  This is some real Operation: Mindchrime stuff here.
• Spiny lobe-fish?  Probably goes great with Klingon biscuits.
• "Don't let them tell you you're crazy."
• This entire episode gives me flashbacks to 2009, when I was ill and in a medically-induced coma for a few weeks.  Because of the medications, my brain blurred conscious events with dreams.  When I finally came out of sedation, I thought I'd been hospitalized against my will and accused of several crimes.  It was...surreal.  Even as much as I bag on Riker, this episode actually has a fresh level of interest for me after that experience.
• Yeah, 'cause one big hospital orderly and a chump with a phaser are going to stop Worf and Data.
• "I still have a phaser.  Why do I still have a phaser?"
• "I'm setting this to level 16, wide field.  That should destroy half of this building."
  
  That's a thing they can do with the hand-held Type 2 phaser?  O_o
• Commander William T. Riker:  one-man stage crew.