TNG S04E13, S04E14, S04E15, S04E16, S04E17

"Data, we need to talk about your choice of off-duty clothing."

In this installment:

(viewed Sunday, July 7th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S04E13 - "Devil's Due"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S04E14 - "Clues"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S04E15 - "First Contact"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S04E16 - "Galaxy's Child"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S04E17 - "Night Terrors"

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"Devil's Due"

• HAIL SATAN ARDRA
• Trying to bribe Picard with sex?  Clearly Ardra hasn't seen the first three seasons of TNG.
• "The advocate will refrain from making her opponent disappear."

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"Clues"

• An episode that includes both Dixon Hill and Whoopie Goldberg in thigh-highs?  Eep.  D:
• Apparently Lt. Commander Data is an expert at passing through unstable wormholes.
• Apparently Commander Riker doesn't know how wormholes work.
• You think your hyper-intelligent, hyper-capable, nearly-indestructible android with super-human strength and unparalleled access to the ship's most critical systems (not to mention its second officer) might be lying to you?
  
  So...that's not a terrifying prospect or anything.  O_o
• I've always thought that Data's head contained an absolutely unnecessary number of blinkenlights.
  
  
  
• Evasive Data is evasive.
• "There are very few individuals on board capable of breaking my wrist.  Commander Data is one of those individuals."
  
  Come on now, Worf.  All kinds of people could break your wrist.  You haven't transitioned to Awesome Worf™ yet.
• "Let's see what happens when it hits the shields."
  
  ...which is always the best way to test something out.  :P
• Between androids, Vulcans, Betazoids and other non-humans who regularly get tampered with and/or taken over by hostile aliens, it's a wonder that the humans within Starfleet isn't more xenophobic.
• Paxans:  What a buncha c**ks.
• Emergency Plan Zed Zed Alpha?
  
  I hear that's like, frickin' impossible to play on the drums.
  
  NEIL PEART STANDS ALONE!
  
  (modestly NSFW)
  
  
  
• Haha!  See, Worf?  You got your wrist broken by Counselor Troi.  COUNSELOR TROI, DUDE.
• I wonder if Data ever tells anyone about all of this, after their second attempt to "erase" the encounter with the Paxans is (apparently) successful.

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"First Contact"

• I remember thinking how ridiculous the Malcorians' hands looked, like "How did the evolution on this planet let that happen?"
  
  
  
• This episode isn't a particularly important one, but it's solid.
  
  It aired in 1991, and the 90s were a time of renewed interest in UFOs.  One of the most popular television shows of the decade was The X-Files (although it would premiere a couple of years after this episode), and there were television specials and movies about Area 51, Roswell, supposed alien autopsy videos, and hundreds of bulletin boards, mailing lists, newsgroups and websites devoted to the topic sprung up on the fledgling Internet.
  
  I was an adolescent and teenager throughout much of that hysteria, and my natural enjoyment of science fiction led to a brief fascination with UFO culture.  Eventually the lack of real evidence and the existence of alternate explanations for almost every aspect of the UFO "phenomenon" changed my opinion on the topic ;)
  
  This episode is an interesting mirror of all that hysteria, from the perspective of a culture in which humans are the perceived "alien visitors".
• The episode is also kind of a cool portrayal of another species' development of warp technology.
• I guess a species just needs to be capable of warp flight to warrant First Contact, and not to have actually made their first warp flight?
• Leave it to Riker to screw up a mission this important.  DAMN IT, RIKER.
• I'd like to think that humans really would immediately get aliens drunk upon first contact.
  
  HI, WE'RE ALIENS.  DRINK UP!
• Every time I see an episode with an in-depth analysis or explanation of the Prime Directive, I can't help but think to myself "Wow, white people really should've come up with this about 600 years ago."
• All the ladies love William T. Riker.  Still.
  
  
  
  "I'll call you next time I pass through your star system."
• Boy, I bet Krola is glad that thing had a stun setting.
• At the end of the episode, Captain Picard asks Chancellor Durken how he'll explain all of the sightings and encounters members of Malcorian society have had with "aliens".  The chancellor delivers pretty much the text-book scenario claimed by real-life UFO enthusiasts:  Stories are told, but witnesses are discredited.  Evidence is lost, there are accusations of a government conspiracy.  Eventually everyone goes back to watching the fiction programming on their TVs :)

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"Galaxy's Child"

• "La Forge?  So you're the one who's fouled up my engine designs?
• It's a, uh...space slug?  Space ray?  Space dumpling?
• Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge:  Engine Whisperer, Woman Repulser.
• She's married, you dumb bastard.
  
  
  
• Caesarean by phaser!
• Circassian plague cat:  On Earth, we just call them "cats".
• {insert your own joke here about the Enterprise's teets}
• "It's a holographic program set in the drafting room at Utopia Planitia."
  
  "I'll run it on Holodeck 3."
  
  Uh, wait noooooo!  I can't watch!  Okay, I can watch.
• This is why we password-protect your porn, Geordi.
• And stop arguing, man.  She's actually right, this is pretty creepy.
• Despite how stalker-ish Geordi comes off and how cold Leah is at first, there's at least one possible future ("All Good Things...") where they end up together.

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"Night Terrors"

I really struggled to come up with a "raise the roof" / "throw your hands in the air"
joke for this, but I couldn't make it happen.  I know, I'm disappointed in me too.

• USS Brattain is a Miranda-class starship, serving as a science vessel.  The model was mislabeled "Brittain", but contradictory canon evidence gives us the correct spelling--"Brattain".
  
  
  
  
• Another Betazoid?  Oh yeah, that's exactly what we need.
• "Hey, everyone on this ship went nutso and killed each other."
  
  "Think we ought to quarantine this shiz?"
  
  "Nah, we're probably fine."
• The Brattain seems to have had a crew of 34, much smaller than the compliment of a Miranda-class starship when operating in its fleet role as a light cruiser.
• EYES IN THE DARK.  ONE MOON CIRCLES.
• Bed linens in the 24th Century are super shiny.  Do not want.
• Keiko and O'Brien fighting because of the space craziness?  This was a perfect time to have him snap and kill her, and it wouldn't even be his fault!
• The perpetually-ringing doorbell on Picard's ready room?  HI-LAR-I-OUS.
• "We're adrift."
  
  "Just like the Brattain."
  
  Yeah, no one saw that coming.
• Tyken's Rift:  A significantly less-popular game that Falken's Maze.
• How unfocused, irritable and confused everyone feels in this episode as a result of being deprived of REM sleep?  That's pretty much how I feel at least half of the time.  :P
• EYES IN THE DARK.  ONE MOON CIRCLES.
  
  Figure it out, Troi.
• Data's the only one not impacted by the lack of REM sleep, and he's pretty much capable of operating the ship on his own.  Why not put everyone into stasis until he figures it out or until help arrives?
• Klingon knives are so jagged and crazy.  Trying to sharpen one has to an exercise in frustration.
• Oh, hey.  Troi's goofy-ass powers actually come in handy for a change.
• BARFIGHT!  Also, who told Guinan she could keep that crazy gold-plated phaser rifle in Ten Forward?
• Ordering the captain to bed LOL.