TNG S06E22 & S06E23

In this installment:
(viewed Tuesday, April 15th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E22 - "Suspicions"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E23 - "Rightful Heir"

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"Suspicions"

•  Forty seconds into the episode:
  
  "I'm not a doctor on this ship anymore."
  
  Okay, you have our attention.
• "A Ferengi scientist?"
  
  Yeah, Guinan.  They're not all arms-smuggling ear perverts.
• One of the scientists invited aboard the Enterprise-D by Dr. Crusher for a demonstration of Dr. Reyga's metaphasic shield technology is a Vulcan named T'Pan.  Dr. Crusher mentions in her flashback that Dr. T'Pan was the head of the Vulcan Science Academy.  This is is the same institution that Spock had the opportunity to join, but turned down in favor of joining Starfleet--an event first described in the TOS episode "Journey To Babel", and depicted in 2009's Star Trek.
• Dr. T'Pan is married to a human, a fellow scientist named Dr. Christopher.  At the risk of propagating a stereotype, it does appear--at least based on depictions of Vulcans in the film and television we've seen so far--that they have a taste for humans.
• Dr. Reyga is played by veteran Trek guest star Peter Slutsker, who not only has a hilarious last name (so hilarious he apparently goes by "Peter Marx" now)--he also plays Ferengi like they're going out of style.
• Oh, no!  We've killed the one scientist who's from a world no one's ever heard of before!
• "I saw...the sun!"
  
  Yeah, ya did buddy.  Yeah ya did.
• "I knew that if anyone could understand that, it would be Captain Picard."
  
  ...or not.
• Kurak, the Klingon scientist, is played by Tricia O'Neil.  She also played a Cardassian intelligence officer in the DS9 episode "Defiant", but she's probably better-known for playing Captain Rachel Garrett, the commander of the ill-fated Enterprise-C.
  
  
  
  (Kurak and Capt. Garrett were both played by actress Tricia O'Neil)
• "I was beginning to find out that investigating a murder was a little more perilous than I'd thought."
  
  Really?  Exactly how safe did you think it was going to be?!?
• "Jean-Luc, do you remember that thing you told me I wasn't allowed to do?  Yeah, so here's the thing..."
• Guinan's primary method of helping people seems to consist of being a jerk to them until they stop feeling sorry for themselves and sort out their business.  It's not ineffective.
• "It seems unlikely that Jo'Bril would perform sabotage that would result in his own death."
  
  "I agree."
  
  UNLESS...
• "The best thing for you to do right now is to go to your quarters and read a good book."
  
  As though Riker knows what a "good book" is ;P
• "AUTOPSY FILES ARE RESTRICTED TO ACTIVE MEDICAL PERSONNEL ONLY.  ACCESS DENIED."
  
  :bum bum bum baaaa...whaaaaaaaaa:
• Of course Nurse Ogawa will help.  She's the Christine Chapel to Crusher's Leonard McCoy.
• Friggin' tetryons.  Amirite?!?
• I love how, when they detect the unauthorized shuttle launch, everyone looks at Riker like he's supposed to know (which I guess may be one of the duties of the first officer).
  
  And he's just all "NO IDEA, DUDES."
• The Justman, the shuttle modified by Dr. Reyga, piloted by Jo'Bril and later by Dr. Crusher, is a familiar Federation Type 6 shuttlecraft.  It was named for veteran Trek producer/director Robert Justman (who passed away in 2008, fifteen years after this episode aired).
• "I'm testing a theory."
  
  You mean a hypothesis.  Why are you so bad at science?
• "You can't be sure of that.  You're betting your life on a hypothesis!"
  
  See?!?  Picard gets it.
• The external temperature of the shuttlecraft as it approaches the star's corona is "1.9M Kelvin", or 1.89973*10^6 degrees Celsius (3,419,540.33ºF).
  
  I'm not an astrophysicist, but given that the corona of our own sun is about 5M Kelvin and the star around which they're performing this experiment is supposed to be particular hot and unstable...I'd say the shield works pretty well--at least at first!
• Oh hai.  It's scientist guy we thought was dead.  With a phaser.  Womp womp.
• Tennis, a theater troupe...they just don't do any damned work on this ship.
• "Yeah, hi.  My name's Guinan and I'm a lying liar who lies."

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"Rightful Heir"

•  Alright, a Klingon episode!  I usually enjoy Klingon episodes--even the silly ones (like this one).
• ...and we learn that what Data considers interesting is very different than what Riker considers interesting.  I guess that's why they make him work the night shift.
• I guess you've got a pretty solid reputation for punctuality when you don't show for work and the first officer goes to find you and brings a security team because he assumes something is terrible wrong--not that you just, you know, overslept or something.
• "Hey yeah, Worf?  We discourage shipboard campfires, buddy.  And you're late for work."
• Kahless is pretty much the Klingon Jesus.
  
  In fact, "Kahless Loves The Little Children" would be a pretty good name for a Star Trek-themed gospel group.
• Captain Picard is pretty accommodating of all this preachy Klingon nonsense.
• The Klingon monastery at Boreth lends its name to the non-canon Boreth-class battlecruiser developed by Bernd Schneider over at Ex Astris Scientia.
  
  
  
  (Image courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
• "So...you are a skeptic, Worf?"
  
  "Yeah, I grew up in the Federation.  They have science there."
• "In the absence of empirical data, how will you determine if this is the real Kahless?"
  
  "It is not an empirical matter.  It is a matter of...faith."
  
  "Faith?  Then you do believe Kahless may have supernatural attributes?  As an android, I am unable to accept that which cannot be proven by rational means."
  
  You and me both, buddy.  You and me both.
• Warnog?  Bloodwine?  Klingon beverages are super metal.
• "Do not stand before the wind, Gowron."
  
  (image spoilered for profanity)
  
  
  
  
  
• "It's cool, we can totally lie and say he cheated!  That sounds like something an honorable Klingon would do!"
• "It doesn't matter that this whole thing is a sham, the people need to believe!"
  
  Yeah, that's a pretty common argument on 21st Century Earth, too...
• So...would the post-(clone)-Kahless Klingon Empire be considered a...oligarchical monarchy?