TNG S04E21, S04E22

In this installment:
(viewed July 10th, 2013)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S04E20 - "The Drumhead"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S04E21 - "Half A Life"

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"The Drumhead"

• J'Dan is one of the first on-screen examples of a Klingon outside of the warrior caste, in this case an exobiologist.
• Yeah, try to bribe Worf.  Because he's totally corruptible.
• This is one of the few times that the events of the episode "Conspiracy" are referenced again.  In this case, it's mentioned in Captain Picard's log that now-retired Starfleet Rear Admiral Norah Satie (who, incidentally, signed Picard's initial orders to take command of the Enterprise-D--which we'll later find out in "All Good Things...") was instrumental in uncovering said conspiracy.
• A modified hypospray that can encode digital information into proteins that can be carried in the bloodstream of a courier?  Pretty ingenious, if you ask me.
• So Admiral Satie has her pet Betazoid with her at these "informal hearings", but Captain Picard doesn't think to bring his along too?
• This episode isn't the first time Star Trek will address issues of civil liberties, and it won't be the last.  In my opinion, episodes like this are the finest examples of Trek's tendency to reflect our societies and fears back at us in a critical manner.
• "Sir, if a man were not afraid of the truth he would answer."
  
  "Oh, no.  We cannot allow ourselves to think that."
• The Seventh Guarantee of the Constitution of the United Federation of Planets is clearly modeled after portions of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
• Don't try to out-lawyer Picard, lady.  You're gonna have a bad day.
• Captain Picard has only violated the Prime Directive nine times since he's taken command of the Enterprise?  Seems par for the course.
• "Tell me, Captain.  Have you completely recovered from your experience with the Borg?"
  
  OH NO SHE DIDN'T.
• "We think we've come so far.  The torture of heretics, the burning of witches...all ancient history.  But then, before you can blink an eye, suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
  
  "I think, after yesterday, people will not be so ready to trust her."
  
  "Maybe.  But she, or someone like here, will always be with us; waiting for the right climate in which to flourish.  Spreading fear in the name of righteousness.  Vigilance, Mr. Worf.  That is the price we have to continually pay."

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"Half A Life"

• "My only wish has been to find a way to revive our sun before I die."
  
  Which is in like, five minutes.  But you guys don't know that yet.
• "...and it is Worf, madam.  Not 'Wolf'."
• 220,000,000° Kelvin is 468×10⁶ °F.  That's...really, really hot.
• "I'll go...check the pattern buffers."
  
  ^^^ This has now become my new fake excuse to get out of an awkward situation.
• "The women of Betazed used to wear these enormous wigs with large holes in the center for tiny, caged creatures."
• For every major power that threatens the Federation (e.g. the Cardassians, Klingons, Romulans, especially the Borg), there are a thousand little pissant planets who will send their tiny little warships up to fire on the Federation flagship because their pride's been hurt. 
• Although she will go on to sci-fi stardom first as Ensign Ro Laren on TNG and later as Admiral Helena Cain on Battlestar Galactica (and even later as the evil maenad Maryann Forrester on True Blood), Michelle Forbes first appeared in this episode as Dara, daughter of the Kaelon scientist Timicin.
• "We are ready, Mr. O'Brien."
  
  Yeah, well.  You never apologized to him for yelling before.