TNG S04E02, S04E03

In this installment:
(viewed June 18th, 2013)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S04E02 - "Family"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S04E03 - "Brothers"

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"Family"

• McKinley Station, where the Enterprise is receiving repairs and refit after the events of "The Best of Both Worlds", is the largest drydock-type space station that we see in Star Trek--it's clearly designed to facilitate work on the gargantuan Galaxy-class starships.
• When Lt. Worf's parents visit, we learn that his adopted father was a chief petty officer aboard the USS Intrepid (one of the starships that responded to the Khitomer Massacre, where they rescued and later adopted a young Worf).
• I know it's the 24th Century and people have migrated and blended and all that...but this episode reminds us rather harshly of the inconsistency of having a British stage actor play a Starfleet captain of French origin.  Even his family have British accents :P
• You know...compared to his brother, Jean-Luc Picard is downright laid back.
• We learn in this episode that a project, called Atlantis, is being pursued on Earth at this time--an effort to raise the floor of the ocean and produce a new sub-continent on the planet.
• Smiling Worf is a little bit creepy.
• People seem to think Picard won't throw a punch.  I'm not sure where they get that idea.  Dude'll throw down if he has to.
• "So, my brother is a human being after all."
• I very much appreciate the fact that they worked hard in this episode to reflect on the aftermath of the Borg attack in "The Best of Both Worlds"--both the damage to the ship, and the damage to Captain Picard.  Compared to a modern science fiction franchise like the Battlestar Galactica reboot or even the last few seasons of DS9 before that, they don't do a lot of serialization in TNG.  But it's nice that they don't just sweep the huge, traumatic events of the previous two episodes under the rug and give us another "alien of the week" episode right away.  It speaks volumes about the generally high level of writing and producing that TNG enjoyed starting in its third season.
  

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"Brothers"

• If you screw up in school, you get sent to the vice principle.  If you screw up on board the Enterprise, you get sent to the First Officer.
• All of these years that Data has been in Starfleet, and no one thought to check him for malware?  :P
• "ONE-SEVEN-THREE-FOUR-SIX-SEVEN-THREE-TWO-ONE-FOUR-SEVEN-SIX-CHARLIE-THREE-TWO-SEVEN-EIGHT-NINE-SEVEN-SEVEN-SEVEN-SIX-FOUR-THREE-TANGO-SEVEN-THREE-TWO-VICTOR-SEVEN-THREE-ONE-ONE-SEVEN-EIGHT-EIGHT-EIGHT-SEVEN-THREE-TWO-FOUR-SEVEN-SIX-SEVEN-EIGHT-NINE-SEVEN-SIX-FOUR-THREE-SEVEN-SIX.  LOCK."
     
  That's amazing.  I have the same combination on my luggage!
• When your hyper-intelligent android decides to hijack your ship, there isn't a whole hell of a lot you can do about it.
• The Star Trek writers love the name Noonien/Noonian (e.g. Singh, Soong).
• Hey kids, it's Lore!
• This is the episode where Data (almost) receives his emotion chip.
• "Often-Wrong's got a broken heart,
  Can't event tell his boys apart"
• "They're brothers, Data.  Brothers forgive."
  
  Uh.  Some has apparently forgotten what just happened to Data, like...five minutes ago.