TNG S03E05, S03E06, S03E07, S03E08, S03E09, S03E10

 In this installment:
(viewed 6/9/2013)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S03E05 - "The Bonding"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S03E06 - "Booby Trap"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S03E07 - "The Enemy"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S03E08 - "The Price"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S03E09 - "The Vengeance Factor"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S03E10 - "The Defector"

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"The Bonding"

• I wonder if the crew of the Enterprise-D considers themselves very lucky to have Captain Picard commanding them...except when he volunteers them for every archeology-related mission under the sun.
• There's an exchange early in this episode on the bridge between Commander Riker and Ensign Crusher.  They're discussing how difficult it's going to be for the now-orphaned Jeremy Aster, and Wesley compares it to his own experience (when his father was killed in the line of duty).  Scenes in which either of these characters show genuine heart and don't make me laugh, or irritate me, or make me roll my eyes are pretty rare.  This is one of them.
• And then Captain Picard is voice of the audience as we all ask "Kids on the Enterprise?  Whose idiotic idea is this, anyway?"
• "Jeremy, on the starship Enterprise no one is alone.  No one."
• Lt. Worf and Counselor Troi are having a therapy session in what looks like one of the ship's computer cores.  I guess "Evolution" isn't the only time we see it afterall!
• Did Troi not just say to leave the kid alone, Worf?  You big, dumb bastard.
• Oh, great.  Space ghosts.  And not the good kind, either.
• "Chief O'Brien, Jeremy and I are going down to the surface."
  
  THE HELL YOU ARE, GHOST LADY.
• I love the fact that, after playing cat-and-mouse around the ship for a while, Picard's just all "Enough of this nonsense.  I'll take care of this right now!" and marches down to confront the alien lifeform posing as the late Lt. Aster.
• We also get another touching Captain Picard & Ensign Crusher After School Special, this one about grief and dealing with our emotions.
• Hey kiddo, that ceremonial joining of Worf's house?  That's not going to seem like such a good idea in a couple of seasons :P

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"Booby Trap"

• This episode opens with Geordi getting shot down in flames on a holodeck date with Christy Henshaw, who is played by Julie Warner.  Warner would go on to play a character who dates Chris Farley in Tommy Boy.  So that probably doesn't feel very good.
• "Survivors on Orelious IX after all this time?  Not possible."
  
  "Well...hardly possible, Number One."
  
  You tell 'im, Captain.
• Picard:  "Didn't anyone here build ships in bottles when they were boys?"Worf:  "I did not play with toys."Data:  "I was never a boy."O'Brien:  "I did, sir."Picard:  "Thank you, Mr. O'Brien."
• Looking for a solution to their entrapment in the same Menthar trap that ensnared the Promellian battlecruiser a thousand years before the Enterprise showed up, Geordi brings up records by one of the Galaxy class' designers.  It's the first time we see and hear of Dr. Leah Brahms.
• You know, between La Forge and Barclay, I wouldn't be surprised if post-TNG Starfleet regulations prohibited the use of a living person's likeness in holodeck recreations without their express consent.  Buncha creepers up in here, I swear to dog.
• Sentiment aside, does anyone think it's slightly ridiculous to have Captain Picard pilot the ship out of the booby-trapped debris field?  I mean, I know he's awesome and at one time was probably a hotshot pilot and all that--but he's over the hill, and you've got a ship full of freshly-trained and certified helmsmen (helmspersons?).  Oh, and that android you guys keep forgetting about.
• All joking aside, this sequence of the episode contains some really great motion-controlled model work by the special effects team.
• "You have used the asteroid's gravitational pull as a slingshot."
  
  Yeah, Data.  That's kind of an old trick.
• Creepy Geordi is creepy.

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"The Enemy"

• I've always liked Romulans, especially the TNG/DS9-era ones.  But in hand-to-hand combat they're not, generally-speaking at least, going to be a good match against a Klingon.  Stupid Romulan is stupid.
• Unlike Jim Kirk, Geordi must've been a Boy Scout.
• Ah, neutrinos!  Is there anything you can't do with a neutrino?
• Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back a wonderful Romulan and friend of the show, Commander Tomalak!
• When expressing his hesitation to escalate tensions with the Romulans, Captain Picard says that he fears Galorndan Core would be remembered in history in the same way as Pearl Harbor or Station Salem-One.  Although there's no on-screen description of what may have occurred at Salem-One, the comparison with Pearl Harbor and Picard's dialog indicate that an interstellar war of some sort may have started with an incident at a place called "Station Salem-One".
• I've always been a fan of the design of the TNG-era Romulan disruptor pistol.  I think it's more functional-looking and less "generic alien ray gun"-looking than many other non-Starfleet weaponry designed by the prop masters for the various Star Trek series.  As a major alien power in the Star Trek universe, I think it's important for the Romulans to have a distinct aesthetic (much like the Klingons). 
  
  
  
  
  Although I liked the Valdore-type warbirds shown in Star Trek:  Nemesis, one of the (many) things I didn't like about that movie was how the Remans--although a Romulan off-shoot--had a "style" that was just all points and no real functionality.  From their disruptor rifles (which, in fairness, I think was actually a design change to the Romulan disruptor rifle during DS9) to the atrociously ugly Scimitar, it was all way too "alien of the week".  But I can gripe about Nemesis when I get to it :)
• "Yeah, the Romulans kind of killed my parents.  So I'm not so much on board with helping out here.  This guy can go whistle."
• Centurion Bochra seems a little delusional.  I know the Romulans are fiercely proud and violently nationalistic, but to believe that humans will be extinct and the Romulan Empire will span the entire galaxy?  He's clearly not working with a full bowl of soup.
• Similarly, his surprise that Geordi's parents allowed him to live despite his disability paints a picture of a barbaric, warrior culture more like the Klingons or the Spartans of Earth's history.  At this point in TNG, the real texture and flavor of Romulan culture was clearly still being fleshed out.  Eventually the picture we get of them is of a sophisticated, if proud, people with traditions much more like Earth's Roman Republic.  They'll come to be known more for their cunning and ingenuity than their ferocity, although they're certainly depicted as capable warriors when the situation calls for it.
• "The first Federation-Romulan joint venture!"
  
  Yeah, the second one's kind of going to be a doozy.
• I kind like the fact that Worf doesn't change his mind and save the Romulan's life at the last minute, overcoming his own prejudices and old hatreds--despite being encouraged to do so by his Captain, his Executive Officer and his Chief Medical Officer (all of whom also happen to be his friends).  It's a little glimpse of real life and darkness underneath the shiny veneer of Roddenberry's 24th Century utopia.  I wouldn't be surprised to find out that this episode was written by Ron Moore.
  
  (As it turns out, it was not.  But it was written by Michael Piller, who's almost as awesome.)
• Ah, that big, beautiful D'deridex.  I had a lovingly-painted model of this class (from the AMT "Adversary Set" that also included a Ferengi D'Kora and Klingon Bird-of-Prey).  I should build another one sometime.
  
  
  
• "If Commander La Forge has located a second survivor..."
  
  It might mitigate the damage Worf did by letting the first one die :P
• Geordi's going to need a new uniform.  Like...a lot.

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"The Price"

• The Manitoba Journal of Interplanetary Psychology?  Seems legit.
• The replicator totally just put Counselor Troi on a diet.
• The Barzan Wormhole is thought to be, at the time of this episode, the only known stable wormhole in the galaxy.  Of course, this would later prove to be untrue (although the Bajoran Wormhole was technically an artificial creation of the Prophets, so it may not count).
• "Then who gets the chairs?!?"
• Oh, joy.  Ferengi.
• Well, I don't care for this Devinoni fella at all.  Not one bit.
• This episode is the first time we see a Ferengi shuttle.
  
  
  
• Between Devinoni's creepy wooing of Counselor Troi and his condescending attitude toward Commander Riker in the negotiations...well, I'm not normally one to embrace traditional macho shenanigans.  But even though I'm no fan of Riker's, I kind of want him to knock this guy's block off.
• Also:  24th Century sensual massage is unbearably uncomfortable to watch.
• I wonder if Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis got extra pay for agreeing to wear these ridiculous leotards and stretch with their butts facing that mirror?
  
  
  
• These forks keep showing up on TNG, particular when Troi or her mother are eating.  Leave it to the Betazoids to have needlessly ornamental eating utensils.
  
  
  
• Speaking of which, is there anything less interesting than two Betazoids arguing?  I guess they could be doing it on a holodeck reproduction of 1940s Siam or something.
• Gah, this guy is such a douchebag.  He sucks so bad that he has me rooting for Riker.  DOWNVOTE.
• I don't think there's anyone that Captain Picard shouts "screen off!" about more often than the Ferengi.
• "You could be my conscience."
  
  Wow.  What woman could resist that offer?

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"The Vengeance Factor"

• I had completely forgotten everything about this episode.
• In what will become a recurring theme, Lt. Worf is shown up by Lt. Commander Data when he tries (and fails) to open a jammed door that Data waltzes over and opens without any trouble.  I've often thought that one of the reasons many Trekkies don't think that the Worf character really got good until he moved to DS9 is that it's hard to be the baddest mofo in the room when you share the room with an android who's superior to humanoid lifeforms in almost every measurable way--including strength and endurance, things upon which you pride yourself.
• Stop hitting on the Sovereign's chef, Commander Riker.  We've got Gatherers to track down.
• "Your ambushes would be more successful if you bathed more often!"
• I'm running a little short on witty commentary for this episode (it's not bad, just a little slow), but I do think it's interesting that "Acamar" is one of the available battlefields in the multiplayer version of Star Trek:  Legacy.
• Whoah, lady.  He may want to sleep with you, but he'll still totally kill you.  If we've learned one thing, it's that Commander Riker is both a lover and a fighter.
• That said, Riker seems pretty good at handling the emotions associated with being forced to personally kill someone with whom you were having sex O_o

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 "The Defector"

• Honestly, I watched as much TNG today as I did because I wanted to get to this episode.  It's one of my favorite TNG episodes, certainly one of the best out of the third season.
• And I'm pretty sure this Henry V scene at the beginning of this episode is a result of Patrick Stewart reminding the writer (it's a Ron Moore episode, whee!) that he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
• Although it's referred to in non-canon sources as the "Talon" and "Lanora" class, the Romulan scout ship shown in this episode--the first Romulan ship we've seen in TNG other than the much larger D'deridex-class warbird--is never called anything other than "scout ship".
  
  
  
• Sublieutenant Setal / Admiral Jarok is played by Trek vet James Sloyan, who will go on to play the Klingon K'mtar (TNG, "Firstborn"), Bajoran scientist Mora Pol (DS9, "The Alternate" & "The Begotten") and alien-of-the-week Ma'Bor Jetrel (VOY, "Jetrel").
• Heh.  I enjoy that Dr. Crusher kind of shoots Worf a dirty look when they refer to the "incident" at Galorndan Core (in which Worf allowed a Romulan officer to die rather than permit some of his cellular material to be used to save him).
• When Captain Picard gets his secure transmission from Starfleet Command, it's one of the relatively few times that the realities of communication across the vast distances of space--even with subspace radio--is acknowledged.
• The two ships dispatched to assist the Enterprise are USS Monitor and USS Hood.  They are Nebula- and Excelsior-class starships, respectively.
• Although we won't see her on-screen until the fourth season, the IKS Bortas--the Klingon ship that communicates with the Enterprise during the incident in this episode--is a Vor'cha-class "attack cruiser" and will serve as the flagship for future Chancellor of the High Council and master of crazy eyes, Gowron (my personal favorite Klingon).
• "Somehow I think we're going to catch the Romulans with their pants down on Nelvana III, just like he says."
  
  "With their...pants...?"
  
  "A metaphor--catching them in the act."
• "Arrange a meeting between myself and Captain Picard.  Tell him Admiral Jarok wants to see him."
• Picard asks Jarok if he will help them overpower the "B-type" warbirds they are likely to encounter if open conflict between the Romulans and the Federation occurs.  This is mostly likely a Starfleet designation for the D'Deridex class, the only type of warbird seen for the duration of TNG.
• Lt. Commander Data's log entry describing the Enterprise's crossing into the Neutral Zone is the first time the treaty between the Federation and the Romulan Empire is called by its name--the Treaty of Algeron.
• "Permission to withdraw from the Neutral Zone."
  
  "At your earliest possible convenience, Number One."
  
  Uh, too late guys...
  
  
  
• And back for an encore guys and gals, it's Commander Tomalak!
• "I expected more from you than an idle threat, Picard."
  
  "Then you shall have it."
  
  
  
• "...a letter to his wife and daughter."
  
  "Sir, he must have known it would be impossible for us to deliver it."
  
  "Today, perhaps.  But if there are others with the courage of Admiral Jarok, we may hope to see a day of peace when we can take his letter home."