TNG S02E12, S02E13, S02E14, S02E15, S02E16

I don't really have a funny caption for this.  But it's Data in a cowboy hat,
so I kind of think it writes its own funny caption.

In this installment:
(viewed 6/3/2013)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S02E12 - "The Royale"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S02E13 - "Time Squared"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S02E14 - "The Icarus Factor"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S02E15 - "Pen Pals"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S02E16 - "Q Who"

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"The Royale"

• This is a problem endemic to Star Trek...but why do they never send a probe first?  In the real world, humanity has sent unmanned probes everywhere imaginable.  But in the Trek universe (which is supposed to be a semi-realistic portrayal of humanity's possible future), they send an away team of live people (and/or androids) down into all kinds of crazy situations.
  
  In this case it's a planet with an environment unbelievably hostile to humanoid lifeforms, yet when a pocket of breathable atmosphere mysteriously appears on its surface it's WHEE LET'S ALL GOT THE TRANSPORTER ROOM!
• This episode also makes me wonder a bit about the range of Troi's empathic and telepathic abilities, and if there's a difference between the two.  She's able to sense Riker's emotional state from orbit, but she can't communicate with him (she's shown in previous and subsequent episodes to be able to project her thoughts to him telepathically, even if he can't respond).  I know her abilities in general are more limited than they would be if she were fully Betazoid, but I still wonder if they ever really establish those parameters.  I don't think that they do.
• So which are the other two states*?  The obvious guesses would be Puerto Rico and Guam, but I like to believe that the United States sold Florida to Cuba and Texas to Mexico, and then made nice with the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia and they became states.
  
  (* - The flag on Col. Richey's uniform had 52 stars, which according to Riker dated it between 2033 and 2079.  Then again, Riker's a moron.)
• We do, of course, learn that Richey's vessel--the Charybdis--was a NASA mission intended to leave the Sol System and was launched in 2037.
• DON'T WORRY CAPTAIN, WE'LL GAMBLE OUR WAY OUT OF THIS MESS!
• "Baby needs a new pair of shoes."  Gambling Data is the best Data.
• At the end of the day, this episode is a silly little fluff episode meant as a diversion.  It shares a lot with episodes of TOS like "A Piece of the Action" or "Patterns of Force", where a single aspect of Earth culture is exaggerated into an entire alien setting that our intrepid Starfleet heroes encounter.  Unlike those episodes however, "The Royale" actually manages to be entertaining and only modestly groan-worthy.

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"Time Squared" 

• Nobody likes Riker's stupid eggs.  Except Worf.  GIVE IT TO WORFEY, HE'LL EAT ANYTHING.
• The shuttlecraft shown in this episode is the El-Baz, a Type 15 shuttlepod (much smaller than the bulky Type 7 shuttlecraft frequently used in the early seasons of TNG).
  
  
  
• Riker and Worf trying to piece together why there are two shuttlecraft with the same name is pretty awesome.  Again, not the two members of the Enterprise crew that I'd want solving my riddles for me.
• It's Khaaaaaaaaan a faaaaaaaake Picaaaaaaaaaard!
• It's Opposite Day on the Enterprise.
• "So...the video from the future shuttlecraft, where the ship explodes?  That's bad, right?"
• The Theory of the Moebius:  Holy crap, Worf had a theory!
• I think that Picard is just a bit disgusted with his future self who appears to have abandoned his ship.
• Picard and Riker discussing what could theoretically cause the time-travel that they appear to have encountered makes me think that the Trek writers may not have told them that they were going to be using it over and over...and over and over again.
• Random energy vortexes are very rarely a good sign.
• I have no idea how much of it was practical effects and how much digital (very little of the latter I suspect, given that it was produced in 1989), but the visual effects of the Enterprise in the energy vortex--even on the non-HD original footage streamed via Netflix--is pretty impressive looking for a 1980s television series.  I think it's easy to forget, when we look at the goofy uniforms and other "fashion" choices, how sophisticated the exterior starship effects were in TNG/DS9 before the jump to CGI.
• So, Picard has to leave the ship for the Enterprise to escape.  Hey, I guess it's lucky that we have two Picards then, eh?
• I've had some pretty bad days, but I've never had a forced-to-phaser-my-future-counterpart-in-a-shuttlebay bad day.

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"The Icarus Factor"

• The USS Aries, the first of the many commands Riker will eventually turn down over the course of his career before finally accepting command of USS Titan, is a Renaissance-class starship.  As with so many off-screen starships, we never get to see her or any other ships of the class.  But also as with so many of those off-screen starships, the Advanced Starship Design Bureau has what I think is a pretty good speculative design.
  
  
  
  
  

  The Aries will be seen in background computer readouts several more times throughout TNG and DS9
• "Dad, what are you doing here?  You'll embarrass me in front of my friends!"
• I really wish they could've tweaked the script so Worf makes Wesley cry when he yells at him.
• "They know each other."
  
  "No kidding.  I know her too.  We don't do that."
• Of coooooourse Riker's dad and Dr. Pulaski have history.  What's that old saying?  "Buttholes of a feather flock together?"  Something like that?
• A Klingon bar mitzvah?  COUNT ME IN.
• Pulaski describes to Riker an event involving his father that occurred during an apparent conflict with the Tholians, which took place approximately 12 years before the events of this episode.
• Ah, Klingon pain sticks!  I think one of the Playmates action figures I had came with a pain stick.
• Ha!  A little inter-departmental rivalry between O'Brien and La Forge.
• Crying Troi is the worst Troi.
• Anbo-jyutsu?  My dad and I just stick to chess.

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"Pen Pals"

• Stop psychoanalyzing the Captai, Troi.  He just likes riding horses.
• While we're at it...stop hitting on Troi, Captain.  Or whatever you call that creepy European thing you're doing.
• I like Counselor Troi best when she's disagreeing with Dr. Pulaski.
• I also like Captain Picard's tortured sword metaphor.
• Hey, buddy?  This isn't a school science project.  Tell these no-talent butt-clowns that you're in charge of the planetary mineral survey, and they can do it your way or hit the road.  I know it's hard to sound authoritative in unisex coveralls, but give it your best.
• From Captain Picard's heavy sigh, I'm guessing they discourage Starfleet officers from responding transmissions from pre-warp civilizations.  Also, when Data's describing Sarjenka's communications--how she describes in detail her home and family?  Yeah, that's exactly what you're not supposed to talk about with a stranger on the Internet radio wave space transmitter thingie.  I guess her society doesn't believe in "stranger danger".
• Going to Riker for advice on supervising other officers?  Only slightly less stupid than going to him for advice on picking up women.  Although he does give Wesley one crucial and correct piece of advice:  "What would Picard do?"
• Yes, call the Klingon a coward.  Seriously, nobody is worse than Pulaski.  She makes me long for Lt. Barclay.  When does that silly son-of-a-gun get here?
• So these crazy, creepy-fingered aliens have cool disappearing walls but they haven't figured out space travel?  Let 'em die, I say.

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"Q Who"

• Ensign Gomez not only has an eccentric way of dealing with the replicator, but she also violated both the number one and number two rules aboard the Enterprise:  No hot chocolate in Engineering, and no hot chocolate on the Captain.
• Hey kids, it's Q!
• My general attitude toward this episode goes from "meh" to "yay!" right about the time the creepy music starts playing and Guinan starts stalking around Ten Foward with her spidey-sense tingling.  It's then that I remember that we're about to be introduced to one of the biggest threats ever faced by the Federation:  the Borg!
• "Take it easy, Wes."
• I also love the interaction between Q and Guinan.  Hell, I love the interaction between Q and everybody :)
• "Guinan, your people have been in this part of the galaxy."
  
  "Yes."
  
  "What can you tell us?"
  
  "Only that if I were you, I'd start back now."
• "When they decide to come, they're going to come in force."
  
  Except that they totally, totally won't.  They'll just send one ship over and over again :P
• See?!?  Another away team instead of a probe.  I'm thinking unmanned probes and drones must fall out of favor with decision-makers somewhere between the 21st and 23rd/24th Centuries.
• While it has become very familiar to Trekkies over the past 20+ years, I can't overstate how unusual the entire Borg aesthetic was when this episode premiered.  The ideas of the hive mind and the marriage of flesh and machine are both old ones in science fiction, but "Q Who" is when Star Trek got them both in a big, bad way.
• Baby Borg?  The creepiest thing in Trek at the time of this episode's airing.
• "If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed.  It's not safe out here.  It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross.  But it's not for the timid."