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.