TNG S07E13 & S07E14

In this installment:
(viewed Sunday, May 4th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E13 - "Homeward"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E14 - "Sub Rosa"

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"Homeward"

• Atmospheric dissipation?  That sounds...terrifying.  That's not a thing, right?!?
• "Dr. Rozhenko may not have had sufficient warning."
  
  Or he could be a huge d-bag.  Either way.
• "Hey Michael, we're going to surgically alter Worf so he can fit in with the aliens of the week on this episode.  Is that okay with you?"
  
  "Works for me.  It'll actually mean less time in the chair."
• Dr. Nikolai Rozhenko, Worf's half-brother and our key jerkface for this episode, is played by veteran actor Paul Sorvino.  Many of you will recognize him from his role on Law & Order, but I still think of him as Paulie Cicero from Goodfellas.
• Boraalans have funny nose ridges.  Bajorans have funny nose ridges.  No one damaged any brain cells on production design for this episode, did they?.
• Nikolai's Boraalan baby-momma, Dobara, is played by Penny Johnson.  She's been all over television, but most Trekkies will immediately recognize her as Kasidy Yates--the freighter captain and wife of Captain Benjamin Sisko.
• Captain Picard's lectures about the Prime Directive rings hollow for the same reason any Trek captain's lecture about the Prime Directive rings hollow:  Because the writers are constantly having the captains violate the Prime Directive :P
• You really can do anything with a holodeck.
• Using holdeck technology to covertly transport a pre-warp civilization without their knowledge is a concept that will be re-used in the film Insurrection.
• "It is the sign...of La Forge.  It is a message to travelers.  It is said when these lines appear and disappear in a pool of water, the road ahead will be filled with good fortune."
• What?  Worf's too good to get holo-married to the cave girl?
• Also...the Boraalans appear to be pre-industrial in almost every regard.  Yet the lights they're carrying around almost look like they're using incandescent- or flourescent-style technology.  What's up with that?
• There's always one that gets off the holodeck.  Always one.
• A cave-wife and a pregnant sister-in-law?  This is a big week for Worf.
• They're not neurologically similar enough to known humanoids for Dr. Crusher to be able to wipe Vorin's memory...but they can successfully mate with humans?
• A ritual suicide is pretty hardcore for TNG, if you think about it.

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"Sub Rosa"

• This is widely regarded as one of the worst episodes in TNG, if not all of Trek.  It's an opinion with which I strongly agree, so much so that realizing that I still had this episode ahead of me when I started S7 actually depressed me.
  
  But as a friend of mine pointed out, I did this to myself.  I'm the idiot who decided that I would watch all of the Star Trek.  So I'm going to try and put on a fake grin and make it through this episode with minimal psychological trauma.
  
  Wish me luck.
• We learn that Caldos II was one of the first terraformed planets colonized by the Federation.  And apparently their operating model was "Space Scotland".
• Governor Maturin tells Captain Picard of his childhood visit to Glamis Castle, which is a real-life estate in Angus.  It's a little over 150 miles north of the much more humble Fergus(s)on ancestral home, Craigdarroch House.
• Ned Quint, caretaker of Felisa Howard's home and stereotypical "superstitious old guy with a moustache and funny hat", is played by actor Shay Duffin.  The reason he has a terrible Scottish accent is because he's actually from Dublin.
• The governor also mentions a caber toss.  Because...why not?  So this episode is not only just friggin' terrible, it's also almost the most offensively stereotyped "Scottishness" in Star Trek since they first made James Doohan do his own terrible Scottish accent :)
• "I did fall asleep reading a particularly erotic chapter in my grandmother's journal."
  
  
• So...this episode is both really bad, and really creepy.  Like, REALLY CREEPY.  Dr. Crusher getting ghost-raped?  That's pretty uncomfortable to watch.
• "Jealousy doesn't suit you, Jean-Luc."
  
  Pfft.  Like intergalactic explorer, warrior and diplomat Jean-Luc Picard could be jealous of some douchebag with a bad accent and an even worse hairdo.  Ronin can screw with the weather satellites all he wants, but Captain Picard's got a freaking starship.
  
• Wow.  Transporters make grave exhumation the cleanest process, like...ever.
• This is another one of those "So, one of the bridge officers of the Federation flagship did WHAT?" episodes where you're shocked that they just resume their duties without six months of hearings and psych evaluations.