TNG S07E24

In this installment:
(viewed Tuesday, May 20th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E24 - "Preemptive Strike"

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"Preemptive Strike"

• This is the last episode of TNG before its two-hour series finale, "All Good Things...".  It's also one of my favorite late-season episodes, for two primary reasons:
  
• We get more background on the Federation-Cardassian War, as well as the treaty (or treaties) that ended it and the conflict that springs forth into a full-fledged anti-Cardassian resistance by former Federation colonists.  This story arc really sets the stage for many of the more excited episodes of the earlier seasons of DS9 (before the Dominion War story arc kicks into high gear).  And as I mentioned in a previous post, the history and political drama along the Federation-Cardassian border is a favorite topic of mine.
  
• Ensign Lt. Ro Laren.  'Nuff said.
  
  
  
• Lt. Ro enjoys welcome home parties about as much as Lt. Worf, it would seem.
• Starfleet's Advanced Tactical Training, with its 50% wash-out rate, would seem to place it in the "special operations" category (if we use modern-day equivalencies, which may or may not be apt).
• "Hey Ensign Gates, I know you've been a really awesome helm officer for like two seasons...but get up and move out of the way.  Our favorite ne'er-do-well is home."
• "Sir, sensors indicate that the attacking vessels are...Federation ships."
  
  Well, that's going to complicate things.
• I believe the Maquis attack on the Cardassian Galor-class ship early in this episode is the first on-screen appearance of a new type of small, auxiliary craft used by the Federation.  It's sometimes called the Peregrine class, although to my knowledge that name never actually appears in a canon source.
  
  
  
  (image courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
  
  They're described here as small courier vessels that have been modified with offensive capabilities by the Maquis.  These are used extensively by the Maquis, although later on DS9 we see them deployed in large fighter-style formations by Starfleet itself during the Dominion War.
  
  There's some debate about to which ship style the name "Peregrine" actually belongs, and as usual the outstanding Trek website Ex Astris Scientia has a great article on it for all of your geeking-out enjoyment.
• Mixed in with the Federation "couriers" is another small ship, unidentified in this scene but which we'll later hear described as a "Bajoran raider".  There's another type called a Bajoran "assault ship" that fits the bill, too.
• Hey kids, it's Gul Evek!
• Hey kids, it's Admiral Nechayev!
• Lt. Ro describes an instructor she had at Advanced Tactical Training--a lieutenant commander--who left Starfleet to join the Maquis.  It's never established on-screen, but there were apparently tentative plans to later identify this instructor as none other than Chakotay himself.
• All undercover missions start in a seedy bar.  All of them.
• Hasperat:  THE SPACE BURRITO!
• This is also, I believe, the first mention of "biogenic weapons"--a broad classification of biological and chemical weapons.  It was probably originally intended to be a generic futuristic equivalent of modern day bio-weapons, but over time (especially on DS9) the term was applied to weaponized organisms and deadly chemical compounds alike.
• "No yeah, I can totally break into the Federation flagship and steal you some Band-aids.  No problem."
• The ship that Ro and Kalita take to "steal" medical supplies from the Enterprise-D is slightly larger than the single-person Peregrine-class couriers/fighters.  Sometimes called a "Maquis raider" or "Maquis fighter", its own size and designation (along with what--if any--overlap it has with the "Peregrine") is discussed in the EAS article that I linked above.
• "Now we know what they mean by 'advanced' tactical training."
• Okay, so now sympathetic old Macias is tapping into Ro's daddy issues.  Well, if a phrase as banal as "daddy issues" can apply to "saw her father tortured and murdered in front of her eyes when she was a small child".
  
  Oh, and then watching a bunch of Cardassians murder the old man who was rapidly becoming her paternal substitute.  There's that, too.
  
  Screw it, I want to join the Maquis too now.
• "When...an old fighter...like me...dies...someone always...steps forward...to take his plaaaaaaace...."
  
  Well, yeah.  That seals it.  She's never going back to Starfleet.  We'll never hear from her again either, but she's definitely never going back to Starfleet.
• "Okay, and now you need to snuggle with Captain Picard for a minute."
• "I feel it necessary to have Commander Riker go back with you."
  
  Ouch.
• "So long, Ro.  Take care of yourself."
  
  Well, Riker's taking it pretty well at least.
• That look on Picard's face at the end.  Yikes.