TNG S07E15

In this installment:
(viewed Monday, May 5th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E15 - "Lower Decks"

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"Lower Decks"

• This episode centers on four junior officers and their involvement in events that take place as the Enterprise-D is deployed near the Federation-Cardassian Border:
  
  • Ensign Alyssa Ogawa -- sciences division (medical)
    Nurse Ogawa is our familiar face in the group, having been Dr. Crusher's right hand for a number of seasons at this point.
  • Ensign Sam Lavelle -- operations division
    He's our eager go-getter, obsessing over an upcoming promotion (or lack thereof).
  • Ensign Sito Jaxa -- security division
    Another familiar face, the newly-minted Ensign Sito is a Bajoran who was classmates with Wesley Crusher at Starfleet Academy.  She was part of Nova Squadron, and received disciplinary action as a result of their actions in the S5 episode "The First Duty".
  • Ensign Taurik -- engineering division
    A typically stern Vulcan, played by Alexander Enberg who will later play the nearly identical character Vorik on VOY (I call this "Nick Locarno / Tom Paris Syndrome"--where you play a character on TNG and then play pretty much the exact same character on VOY).  Enberg's mother is long-time Trek producer and writer Jeri Taylor.
• "The Vedeks of the Janalan Order maintain a round-the-clock for the benefit of the Bajoran people."
  
  "Considering the history of your planet, that doesn't exactly validate what he's doing."
• "One 'aye' is sufficient, helmsman."
• "Hey, I'm definitely promoting you.  And how's your boyfriend doing?"
  
  Sickbay:  The least-professional place to work on the Enterprise-D.
• "He's convinced that Commander Riker doesn't like him."
  
  "Why?  Did you crash the ship into something."
• "He likes jazz, poker...he's Canadian."
  
  "Yeah?  My grandfather was from Canada."
• "Bio readings indicate passenger is humanoid.  Attempting lifeform identification."
  
  "No one told you to that, Ensign."
• Getting yelled at by Picard?  That's never fun.
• Lt. Cmdr. La Forge is a brilliant guy and all, but I like how he thinks he can fool the genius Vulcan kid for the entire episode :P
• The dueling poker scenes are kind of cute.
• Ben?  Ben irritates me.
• "I'm Bajoran.  No one knows better than I do what Cardassians do to their prisoners."
• "Launching a probe into Cardassian space would be a treaty violation."
  
  "Mr. Worf, prepare a probe and launch when ready."
• I've always liked this episode.  Not only does it give us a glimpse of the life of the junior officers and non-"stars" of the world of Star Trek (something many fans say they'd like to see more of), but they also had the guts to tell that story by way of killing one of those junior officers.  Not just any officer either, one that we'd met before.
  
  According to her Memory-Alpha page, there were tentative plans to have Ensign Sito appear on DS9--not dead at all, but having been captured by the Cardassians and interred at a prison camp.