TNG S01E09, S01E10

I don't have a funny caption here.  Something about "flip-top" Riker,
or "Hey Q, try to get that popcorn in my mouth".  I'm too tired
to think of something coherent.

In this installment:
(viewed Sunday, May 12th)

Star Trek: The Next Generation, S01E09 - "Hide and Q"
Star Trek: The Next Generation, S01E10 - "Haven"

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"Hide and Q"

• I hate, hate, hate the early TNG iteration of the Type II phaser.  The later iterations aren't a lot better (I know they were trying for a less-military aesthetic, but I greatly prefer the more pistol-like design of the 23rd Century models), but the early one is just terribad.  It looks like a dustbuster had a baby with a stick of roll-on deodorant.
  
  
  
  
• Also, there are approximately 457,932 different "admiral" uniforms throughout TNG/DS9/VOY.  I think they finally settled on one sometime during DS9, but there were just variations all over the place for most of the 24th Century Star Trek series. 
• I do enjoy how much Q teases Worf.  "Macro-head, with a micro-brain!"
• "Q's Penalty Box" sounds like a great song title for my band, the Fissles of Häng.
• "So...what are we doing with this episode?"
  "What about, I don't know...pig-faced Napoleonic soldiers?"
  "Yeah, that'll work.  Write it up!  John de Lancie will polish up this turd for us."
• Let's pretend I'm a crew member aboard good ol' NCC-1701-D and Q offers me omniscience, omnipotence and immortality.  I'd accept.  End of episode.
• Riker's increasing arrogance as he considers accepting Q's offer has shades of Gary Mitchell.  Obviously not as amoral, but you can certainly see it going there if the episode hadn't taken a different turn.
• "Let us pray for understanding, and for compassion."
  "Let us do no such damned thing!"
• The Klingon woman dreamed up for Worf, the first one we've seen since Valkris, dresses like a heavily-armored Cher.
• "How did you know, sir?  I feel like such an idiot."
  "Quite right, so you should."

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"Haven"

• "Such a beautiful world.  Legends say it has been known to mend souls and heal broken hearts."
  "Legends which are totally unsupported by fact, Captain."
  
  I love you, Data.
• Armin Shimerman, better known for playing Ferengi (most notably Quark on DS9), makes a rather unusual appearance in the episode as a Betazoid gift box.
• In some of these early TNG episodes, Troi calls Riker "Bill".  It cracks me up every time.
• This is our first encounter with Lwaxana Troi, played by the incomparable Majel Barrett-Roddenberry.  Hate the character, love the actress.
• Ah, the Tarellians.  The first of many so-called "T-races" on TNG.
• "Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing."
• I've always hated the Betazoids.  That is all.
• "So the fate of our entire species rests with a douche in a turtleneck named Wyatt?"