TNG S07E02 & S07E03

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

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

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"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?!?

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"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."