TNG S07E06

In this installment:
(viewed Thursday, April 24th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E06 - "Phantasms"

---

"Phantasms"

• I'm telling you, dreaming/feeling androids are just bad news.  If TNG has taught me anything, it's that when we aim for artificial intelligence we should aim just shy of Lt. Cmdr. Data.  Sure, he's awesome and saved their butts more times than I can count.  But when things go wonky with him?  Whoo boy.
• In this episode, the Enterprise-D receives, installs and tests a new warp core.  Presuming this is the first totally-new warp core they've had, that means they got more than six seasons of galaxy-hopping out of the last one...including some pretty wild "anomalies" (or interventions by other beings) that hopped them a little too far.
• The Admiral's Banquet sounds...awesome.
• Poor Ensign Tyler.  The one woman who knows Geordi exists, and he doesn't want to have anything to do with her.
• "Bridge to Engineering...Mr. La Forge, why isn't my ship moving?"
•  "Data, you shouldn't be afraid of dark imagery in your dreams.  It's an expression of your unconscious...if you have an unconscious."
  That's what goth kids have been telling their parents for years, Counselor Troi.
• I love how fully Data tries to mimic the act of sleeping, right down to fluffing his pillow and "yawning".
  
  
• I could totally go for a cellular peptide cake with mint frosting right about now.
• Oh, man.  Given that large portions of this episodes are depictions of Data's "dreams", it's just rife for hilarity.  Like so...
  
  
• This is the episode where Counselor Troi is a cake, which automatically makes it one of my favorites.
• Data spends some time with Sigmund Freud, and he doesn't once recommend cocaine?  Shenanigans!
  
  
• Also?  This is not good.
  
  
• "I'd almost call it the beginnings of a neurosis."
  
  Neurosis is a pretty decent band.
  
  
  
  
• Did Geordi just tell Captain Picard to get the hell out of the kitchen?  I think he did!
• It's okay, Data.  We've all want to stab Troi from time to time.  Don't beat yourself up about it.
• "Ever since you gave Alexander that music program, he's been playing it all night...every night."
  
  "I just wanted to broaden his horizons.  Besides, he likes it!"
  
  "It is screeching, pounding dissonance.  It is not music!"
  
  "Worf, it's better than music.  It's jazz."
  
  There's a subtle rivalry and playful back-and-forth trolling between Worf and Riker that I hadn't noticed until this re-watch of the series.  It's especially developed in the last couple of seasons, and it blows into full-blown hostility when Troi comes between them toward the ends of the series (notably in the future events of "All Good Things...").
• "And you must talk to him.  Tell him he is a good cat, and a pretty cat, and..."
  
  "I will feed him."
• Ew, space leeches.
• Yes, Worf.  We get it.  Mint frosting.  Very good.
• So Starbase 84 is handing out infected warp cores?  It's going to get a reputation.
• "Data, sometimes a cake is just a cake."
  
  Great, now I want cake.

TNG S07E04 & S07E05

In this installment:
(viewed Tuesday and Wednesday, April 22-23)

• Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E04 & S07E05 - "Gambit"

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"Gambit" (Part 1 & Part 2)

• As with other two-part episodes, I'll cover both parts in a single running commentary.
• Like the sixth season's "The Chase", I've always considered this "mystery in deep space" episode to be one of the highlights of late-season TNG.  I haven't watched it in a few years though, so we'll see how it holds up...
• The man that Riker and Worf interrogate in the bar on Dessica II is Yranac, a Yridian.  They're known as information merchants, smugglers, etc.--sort of a poor man's Ferengi.  We've seen them before on TNG, and we'll see them multiple times on DS9.
• "I told him we were looking for a man who impregnated your sister."
  
  I do believe that's Worf getting you back for that dress comment a couple of episodes ago, Commander :D
• This is one of the few TNG episodes to make reference to gold-pressed latinum as currency, which makes sense given that the crew has ventured outside the credit-dominated Federation.
• Of course Captain Picard would fake his own death.  He's a space-boss.
• Scenes between Riker and Troi can always go either way, but this one where she's yelling at him for being blinded by his anger over the (at this point very much believed) death of Picard?  This is pretty solid.
• "Alright Commander, I'm officially placing the Enterprise on 'detached duty'.  Your mission is...at your discretion.  Good luck."
  
  Whoah.  That's so un-admiral like.  Maybe Admiral Chekote is one of the "good ones"?
• Data is a crazily better first officer than Riker.  Just...so much better :P
• One of the helm operators seen in both parts of this episode is Ensign Giusti, who is played by Sabrina Le Beauf--better known to TV viewers of my generation as the occasionally-seen eldest Huxtable daughter Sondra on The Cosby Show.
• Data's not a half-bad captain, either.
  
  
• The "neural servo" devices used by Artus Baran to control prisoner and crew member alike through the remote administration of painful corporal punishment are reminiscent of the agonizers used in the various Mirror Universe episodes.
• Hey kids, it's Robin Curtis (playing Tallera)!
  
  
  
  
  
  ...otherwise known as "Hot Saavik". Okay, it's possible that I'm the only one who calls her that.
  
  
  
• He's not dead, he's just dressed like an extra from Willow!
  
  
• "It looks like you've got a control logic lockout in your regulator subsystem.  I'm going to attempt to run an active bypass through the plasma flow converter.  You!  Start running a phase-lock feedback through that regulator.  I want about a six-second delay."
  
  That has to be one of the finest pieces of technobabble ever written in TNG.  I'm going to start using it in client emails.
• Data informs us that the Debrune, among whose ruins the crew first encountered Baran's mercenaries, were an ancient offshoot of the Romulan race.
• Captain Picard's chosen alias for his undercover identity as a smuggler, "Galen", is the same as the last name of his (now-deceased) former archaeology professor, Richard Galen.
• Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes sure got to punch each other a lot in this episode :)
• "Yeah, I'm in command now Mr. Worf.  You'll do what I say and you'll like it.  Got it?  Good.  Still friends?  Good.  Carry on."
• SURPRISE!  IT'S VULCAN, NOT ROMULAN!
• "Will, you always seem to be after my job."
  
  :RikerTrollFace:
• SURPRISE!  SHE'S VULCAN, NOT ROMULAN!
• "Tallera" is actually T'Paal (no, not T'Pol), an undercover member of the Vulcan security service known as the V'Shar.
• "Stone of Gol" will make an excellent song title for my hypothetical lounge-funk-industrial-blackened-crust-metal band, the Fissles of Häng.
• The small Klingon ship that the Enterprise-D encounters in the Hyralan Sector, carrying the smuggler Koral, is a Toron-class shuttle.
  
  
• "health and safety inspections"
• Koral, our extra-tall Klingon friend, is played by basketball legend James Worthy.
  
  
• "It's alright, he's only stunned."
  
  "I must admit, I am experiencing a similar sensation."
• "Commander, I believe there is a problem.  We have no operative aboard a mercenary ship."
  
  "Oh, yeah.  That's totally a problem."
• So, the "psionic resonator" feeds on hate, fear and anger?
• "Empty your minds of violent thoughts!"
  
  "What did you do, Ray?"
  
  
  
• "The resonator cannot be stopped by phasers and shields.  But it can be defeated by peace."
  
  That's so Gene Roddenberry.
• "As I'm supposed to be dead, I'm going to go get some sleep.  Data, I suggest you escort Commander Riker to the brig."
  
  
  
  
  
  :PicardTrollFace:

TNG S07E02 & S07E03

In this installment:
(viewed Monday, April 21st)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E02 - "Liaisons"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S07E03 - "Interface"

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"Liasons"

• "I do not understand why it is necessary to wear these...ridiculous uniforms."
  
  "Protocol."
  
  "They look like dresses."
  
  "That is an incredibly outmoded and sexist attitude.  I'm surprised at you. Besides...you look good in a dress."
  
  
  
  :rikertrollface:
• "We should have another episode where Troi talks about dessert."
  
  "Yeah, I think we should do at least one more of these before we wrap the show."
• Ambassador Byleth's attempts to provoke Worf make for some good comedy, at least.
• Captain Picard gets in kind of a lot of shuttle accidents...
• "I used to talk to myself, but then I thought that it might mean I was crazy."
  
  Bullsh*t.  I talk to myself all the time, and I'm not...
  
  Oh, right.
• "I love you."
  
  Oh, okay.  Wow.  That's....that's really nice.  I think you're swell, too.  It's just that I'm awfully busy, and I'm not really looking for a relationship right now...
• Don't take Lt. Worf's poker chips.  What an a**hole.
• I like how Worf throws Byleth across the room, and pretty much no one says anything until he gets to throw a few more punches.  Then all of a sudden, Commander Riker's all "HEY MAN STOP IT".
• As countless other alien species have discovered, you can only pull the wool over Jean-Luc Picard's eyes for half an episode...maybe three-quarters, tops.
• I'm pretty sure "Show Me Your Love or I'll Jump" was a Cure song.
• "It's very nice to find a culture that's willing to take an experience to its furthest extreme."
  
  Wait, what?  They kidnapped and tongue-raped you.  Worf got totally beat down for like eleven hours.  The jerk with the sweet tooth was the least-damaging of them all and he completely wrecked poor Counselor Troi's digestive tract.
  
  How is "Hey, no problem dude.  I think your approach is refreshing.  Have a good time, groovy trip back to your planet, space froods!" an appropriate response to this experience?!?

---

"Interface"

• Is this the "Geordi misses his mommy" episode?  I think it is.  I've always felt that Lt. Cdmr. La Forge got a raw deal on TNG.  He's smart, capable and in so many ways a complete space bada**.  His best friend is an android, for pity's sake!  How awesome is that?
  
  But they seem to take every possible opportunity to make him an emotionally-crippled momma's boy who's a disaster with women.  It bums me out, man.
• As is so often the case, this episode's call-to-action is distress call--in this case, from the science vessel USS Raman.  Although we never see her exterior on-screen, non-canon sources describe her as an Oberth-class ship.  This makes sense, as these were plentiful and still in extensive use by both Starfleet and civilian research teams during TNG's timeframe.
  
  
  
  First appearing in The Search for Spock, the venerable Oberth-class is right up there with the Miranda and Excelsior classes as some of Starfleet's most long-lived spaceframe designs.  Based on the registry of USS Grissom (NCC-638)--and assuming registries are chronological--it's even possible that it's the longest-serving class in Starfleet history at the time of TNG.
  
  As of this episode, the newer Nova-class vessels probably hadn't entered service yet.  They quite possibly weren't even very far into their design phase at the time (they don't make their on-screen debut until VOY, at least).
• The missing ship commanded by Captain Silva La Forge, the USS Hera, is not shown on screen.  It's reported in non-canon sources to have been a Nebula-class starship. 
  
  Admiral Holt informs Captain Picard that the USS Noble and our old friend, USS Excelsior, have been involved in the search efforts.
  
  We know was sort of ship the Excelsior is, of course :)
  
  The Noble is never seen or mentioned again, although the similarly-named USS Nobel appears on a display of ships lost during fighting with the Dominion in DS9.  According to non-canon sources, the two ships are one in the same.  If that's the case, then the ship mentioned in this episode is an Olympic-class hospital ship--the only canon Starfleet class besides the Daedalus to feature spherical primary hull.
  
  I'll refrain from posting a picture, because we'll see this class on-screen at the end of the season ;)
• With the whole interface suit / interface probe thing, I know there's an Oculus joke to be made here.  I just can't put it together :P
• One notable fact about the Raman is that it apparently only had a crew of seven.  That's low, even for an Oberth-class vessel.  That being said, it's probably even further testament to that class' versatility and mission-specific adaptivity.
• The Hera is notable in that it apparently had a mostly-Vulcan crew, like the USS Intrepid before it.  No reason is ever given, in either case, for such a concentration of Federation citizens from one particular member planet on a single ship--other than narrative expedience, of course.
• Geordi's parents are played by Madge Sinclair and Ben Vereen, both of whom also appeared in Roots with LeVar Burton.
• "Geordi, report!"
  
  "HANG ON DOCTOR, TALKING TO MY MOM HERE."
• "It uses trionic initiators in the warp coil."
  
  Yeah, that sounds like a thing.
• "I just don't like the idea of one of my best officers putting himself in unnecessary danger."
  
  "I guess I just feel like I should be the one to decide whether it's unnecessary or not."Yeah, that's not so much the way it works when you're in uniform, dude :P
• Geordi tells Data that there are "over 300 people on board the Hera", which seems quite low for a ship that has essentially the same internal volume as the Galaxy-class.  It's possible that she was outfitted with extra cargo or research compartments that cut her available space for crew, or otherwise had a mission-specific reason to have such an unusually low crew compliment.
• In order to disconnect Geordi from the probe safely, Dr. Crusher hatches a plan to feed his nervous system data from one of his previous interfaces with the probe to fool it into thinking it's still connected (thus avoiding neural shock). 
  
  It's basically the Star Trek equivalent of looping the security camera feed so the fat bank guard eating doughnuts and watching the monitors sees an empty hallway instead of your team of burglars :P
• "I'm very disappointed in you, Mr. La Forge.  I'm giving you five demerits, and you'll be with me for detention after school for the next week."

TNG S06E26 & S07E01

In this installment:
(viewed Thursday, April 17th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation:  S06E26 & S07E01 - "Descent"

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"Descent" (Part 1 & Part 2)

• As with other two-part episodes, I'll cover both in a single running commentary.
• This has generally been one of my favorite late-season episodes of TNG, but I haven't watched it in a couple of years.  We'll see how it holds up.
• This the episode that famously opens with Lt. Cmdr. Data playing poker with holographic representations a trio of the most notable physicists in history:  Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. 
  
  Dr. Hawking  played himself in the episode.
  
  And...Newton is kind of a grumpy prick, which according to historic accounts is pretty accurate.
• The mysterious vessel that the Enterprise-D encounters in orbit around Ohniaka III, later designated by Starfleet as the Borg Type 03, is unusual for a Borg vessel in that it doesn't have a simple or even symmetrical design (e.g. a cube or sphere).
  
  
  
  Of course, it wasn't built by typical Borg either.
• "You have killed Torsus.  I will make you suffer for this."
  
  Uh...say what now, drone?
• Chuck Norris Data is the best Data.
• "What happened?"
  
  "I got angry."
  
  Yeah, that's not really what you want from your hyper-intelligent, hyper-strong and nigh-indestructible android O_o
• "The only Borg who had a name was Hugh, and we gave it to him."
  
  Ding ding ding ding ding!  I think Counselor Troi actually gets smarter as the series progresses.
• "Perhaps you could describe how it feels to be angry.  I could then use that as a frame of reference."
  
  Yeah, but Geordi doesn't really get angry.  He just gets sad and lonely :(
• Oh boy, it's time for another visit from Admiral Nechayev.  That's never good news.
• It only takes two officers' voice overrides to disable the safety protocols on the holodeck?  Only two?
• The "subspace distortion" that the Enterprise-D observes as the Borg Type 03 makes its repeated escapes is the first on-screen example of what we'll later know as the Borg's transwarp conduit technology.
• "What is your designation?"
  
  "I do not have a 'designation'.  My name is Crosis."
• "Did it feel good to kill?"
  
  "Yes."
  
  Again, just...really not what you want out of an android.
• The shuttlecraft stolen by Data during his escape with Crosis is the El-Baz, one of the tiny Type 15 "shuttlepods".  It was named after real-life planetary geologist Farouk El-Baz.
  
  
  
• I adore Dr. Crusher, but I don't know that she'd be my first choice for command of the skeleton-crewed Enterprise-D.  I guess they didn't have a lot of options :P
• "That's not Data..."
  
  
  
• Chief Salazar, who is operating one of the Enterprise-D's transporter rooms during her "skeleton crew" phase, is played by actor Benito Martinez.  Martinez is better-known to most television viewers for his role as Captain Aceveda on the critically-acclaimed series The Shield.
  
  He's also had a small part as "Luis", lieutenant to Danny Trejo's character on the last couple of seasons of another of my favorite shows, Sons Of Anarchy.
• "Counselor Troi herself told me that feelings are not 'negative' or 'positive'. It is how we act on them that makes them 'good' or 'bad'."
  
  Yeah, well...maybe we should stop listening to Counselor Troi so much.
• Lt. Barnaby, who relieves Ensign Taitt at tactical, may look familiar at a glance.  But no, that's not the awesome Marc Alaimo with a fancy hairdo.  It's another veteran Trek guest actor, James Horan--less well-known perhaps, but no less awesome.
• "Here is the VISOR.  May I ask why you wanted it?"
  
  "I thought it might look good on me...whaddaya think?"
  
  Hot damn, Lore pretty funny for a sociopath.
• A carrier wave?  What an a**hole.
• Hey kids, it's Hugh! This episode is like a friggin' family reunion.
  
  
  
• "Tell me about my friend."
  
  "Friend?"
  
  "The human called 'Geordi'."
  
  Oh man, Geordi attracts androids and cyborgs like they're stray dogs.  If only he had that kind of luck with women :P
• Data's voice-imitation of Captain Picard while Geordi is blind is...kind of a d*ck move, really.
• "If he dies, Lore will blame you!"
  
  That's one of the best things and worst about any autocracy (depending on if you're inside or outside of the autocratic system:  You can often use its subjects' fear of their leadership to manipulate them.
• Having trouble with your android's ethical subroutine, are you?
  
  
  
• "Sir, that heading takes us directly into the sun!"
  
  "Well, it's a good thing we just had this episode where I figured out how to handle that sort of thing then, isn't it?"
• I can only assume that the story Geordi tells about Data sinking when he decided to go swimming during a sailing trip is why the writers decided to retrofit him as a flotation device in Nemesis. 
  
  
  
  
  Because the real reason (they needed a cheap laugh)...well, it just makes me too furious.
• "How can actions that are wrong lead to a greater good?"
• "Without me, you will never feel emotion again."
  
  "I know, but you leave me no other choice."
  
  "I...love you...brother..."
  
  "Goodbye, Lore."

TNG S06E24 & S06E25

In this installment:
(viewed Wednesday, April 16th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E24 - "Second Chances"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E25 - "Timescape"

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"Second Chances"

• Any episode that starts with Will Riker playing trombone in what's clearly a pajama top?  That's going to be a quality episode right there.
• The starship on which Riker had previously served, and was originally involved in the evacuation of the science station on Nervala IV eight years prior to this episode, is the USS Potemkin (NCC-18253).  It is of the long-lived Excelsior class, and is encountered on several other occasions over the course of TNG and shows up briefly in at least one DS9 episode.
• Hey kids, it's William T. Riker!
  
  ...wait a second.  Where's your trombone?
  
  YOU'RE NOT WILL RIKER!!!
• "So Rick...am I going to need to shave the beard to pull of this whole 'past me' thing?  Or lose any weight?"
  
  "Nah.  Just scruff yourself up a bit.  And we'll find an old first-season uniform and have wardrobe let it out a bit for you."
• "Alright, take my doppelgänger back up to the ship.  Let's get to work!"
  
  Denialist Riker is in denial.
• "The containment beam must've had the exact same phase differential as the distortion field."
  
  Yeah, sure.  I can see how that would work.
• "We now have two Will Rikers on board."
  
  Well, damn.
• I've said it before and I'll say it again:  If either of motherf**kers says "Imzadi" one more time, I'm shutting this episode down and canceling my Netflix account.
• Again with the friggin' EPS couping?!?
• "It pulses unendingly all through the night / Seek out the crystal that powers our flight."
  
  Okay, three things:
  
  1. Technically, warp flight is powered by a matter/antimatter reaction.  The dilithium crystals are the mechaism by which the product of that reaction (enormous amounts of energy) is regulated and directed.
  2. You can just put a sticky note and a flower on the warp core without someone in Engineering being all "Hey, I know you look like our first officer...but you're really not supposed to do that"?
  3. I didn't think there was anything more nauseating about the Riker/Troi will-they-won't-they romance than the term "Imzadi".  I was wrong.  This part?  This right here?  WAY WORSE.
• Hey, phaser art!
• Klingon tai chi is like...my third or fourth least-favorite thing about TNG.
• Lt. Riker (who goes by "Thomas Riker" by the end of this episode) is offered a posting on the USS Gandhi (pronounced "GAND-ee" by both Lt. Riker and Capt. Picard).  According to non-canon sources, it is an Ambassador-class starship with the registry NCC-26632.
• Lt. Riker is even more of a prick than Cmdr. Riker, if that's possible.  Seriously, the two of them at teh end of this episode?  It's like Battle of the A**holes down there.
• You totally should've let go of him, Commander.  You'll find out why in like...two years.

---

"Timescape"

("Is that what you want?")

• Do we ever actually see people playing parrises squares?  That seems like something they may have slipped into an episode of VOY when I wasn't paying attention.
• Data's cat, Spot, is the biggest badass aboard the Enterprise-D.
• I'm pretty sure you're not really supposed to just throw a phaser around Sickbay, dude.  IT'S NOT A TOY.
• Romulans!
• Although DS9 premiered a few months prior to this episode in real-world time, this the first time outside of that show where we see the Danube-class runabout.
• Apparently Ktarians have the same bad Hollywood Scots-Irish accents as most of the cast of Braveheart.
• "Did you help him with his research, Counselor?"
• Physiognomy?  So that's a thing I'd never heard of before.
• Okay, who paused Counselor Troi's TiVo?
• Those pesky, pesky temporal anomalies!
• "It looks like the Enterprise has been damaged...there, on the port nacelle."
  
  See, Troi?  Those command classes paid off.
• This episode marks the second appearance of the emergency transporter armband, the first being its use by the rescue teams that beamed aboard the Borg cube that captured Captain Picard during the events of "The Best Of Both Worlds".
• WATCH OUT FOR THE BLINKY ROMULANS, GUYS.
• "Captain, I believe I have found the cause of the power surge.  There is a warp core breach in progress."
  
  Ah...yep, that'll do it.
• Temporal-drunk Picard is the best Picard.
  
  
  
  (This image requires no caption.  You're welcome.)
• Counselor Troi gives us a nice engineering lesson on Romulan warp technology, recounting to Data and Geordi the fact that Romulan warp engines use an artificial quantum singularity as their means of generating the massive amount of power necessary to generate a warp field. 
  
  She learned this during her time impersonating a Tal Shair operative, Major Rakal, aboard the D'deridex-class warbird IRW Khazara ("Face Of The Enemy").
• I TOLD YOU TO WATCH OUT FOR THE BLINKY ROMULANS!
• They're just protecting their eggs, guys.  Duh.
• "We basically just rewind the VCR guys.  It'll totally fix this whole mess."
• "It's going to take...a little time to explain, Number One."
  
  
  
• Yeah, suggesting that your android turn off his internal chronometer sounds like a great idea.
  

TNG S06E22 & S06E23

In this installment:
(viewed Tuesday, April 15th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E22 - "Suspicions"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E23 - "Rightful Heir"

---

"Suspicions"

•  Forty seconds into the episode:
  
  "I'm not a doctor on this ship anymore."
  
  Okay, you have our attention.
• "A Ferengi scientist?"
  
  Yeah, Guinan.  They're not all arms-smuggling ear perverts.
• One of the scientists invited aboard the Enterprise-D by Dr. Crusher for a demonstration of Dr. Reyga's metaphasic shield technology is a Vulcan named T'Pan.  Dr. Crusher mentions in her flashback that Dr. T'Pan was the head of the Vulcan Science Academy.  This is is the same institution that Spock had the opportunity to join, but turned down in favor of joining Starfleet--an event first described in the TOS episode "Journey To Babel", and depicted in 2009's Star Trek.
• Dr. T'Pan is married to a human, a fellow scientist named Dr. Christopher.  At the risk of propagating a stereotype, it does appear--at least based on depictions of Vulcans in the film and television we've seen so far--that they have a taste for humans.
• Dr. Reyga is played by veteran Trek guest star Peter Slutsker, who not only has a hilarious last name (so hilarious he apparently goes by "Peter Marx" now)--he also plays Ferengi like they're going out of style.
• Oh, no!  We've killed the one scientist who's from a world no one's ever heard of before!
• "I saw...the sun!"
  
  Yeah, ya did buddy.  Yeah ya did.
• "I knew that if anyone could understand that, it would be Captain Picard."
  
  ...or not.
• Kurak, the Klingon scientist, is played by Tricia O'Neil.  She also played a Cardassian intelligence officer in the DS9 episode "Defiant", but she's probably better-known for playing Captain Rachel Garrett, the commander of the ill-fated Enterprise-C.
  
  
  
  (Kurak and Capt. Garrett were both played by actress Tricia O'Neil)
• "I was beginning to find out that investigating a murder was a little more perilous than I'd thought."
  
  Really?  Exactly how safe did you think it was going to be?!?
• "Jean-Luc, do you remember that thing you told me I wasn't allowed to do?  Yeah, so here's the thing..."
• Guinan's primary method of helping people seems to consist of being a jerk to them until they stop feeling sorry for themselves and sort out their business.  It's not ineffective.
• "It seems unlikely that Jo'Bril would perform sabotage that would result in his own death."
  
  "I agree."
  
  UNLESS...
• "The best thing for you to do right now is to go to your quarters and read a good book."
  
  As though Riker knows what a "good book" is ;P
• "AUTOPSY FILES ARE RESTRICTED TO ACTIVE MEDICAL PERSONNEL ONLY.  ACCESS DENIED."
  
  :bum bum bum baaaa...whaaaaaaaaa:
• Of course Nurse Ogawa will help.  She's the Christine Chapel to Crusher's Leonard McCoy.
• Friggin' tetryons.  Amirite?!?
• I love how, when they detect the unauthorized shuttle launch, everyone looks at Riker like he's supposed to know (which I guess may be one of the duties of the first officer).
  
  And he's just all "NO IDEA, DUDES."
• The Justman, the shuttle modified by Dr. Reyga, piloted by Jo'Bril and later by Dr. Crusher, is a familiar Federation Type 6 shuttlecraft.  It was named for veteran Trek producer/director Robert Justman (who passed away in 2008, fifteen years after this episode aired).
• "I'm testing a theory."
  
  You mean a hypothesis.  Why are you so bad at science?
• "You can't be sure of that.  You're betting your life on a hypothesis!"
  
  See?!?  Picard gets it.
• The external temperature of the shuttlecraft as it approaches the star's corona is "1.9M Kelvin", or 1.89973*10^6 degrees Celsius (3,419,540.33ºF).
  
  I'm not an astrophysicist, but given that the corona of our own sun is about 5M Kelvin and the star around which they're performing this experiment is supposed to be particular hot and unstable...I'd say the shield works pretty well--at least at first!
• Oh hai.  It's scientist guy we thought was dead.  With a phaser.  Womp womp.
• Tennis, a theater troupe...they just don't do any damned work on this ship.
• "Yeah, hi.  My name's Guinan and I'm a lying liar who lies."

---

"Rightful Heir"

•  Alright, a Klingon episode!  I usually enjoy Klingon episodes--even the silly ones (like this one).
• ...and we learn that what Data considers interesting is very different than what Riker considers interesting.  I guess that's why they make him work the night shift.
• I guess you've got a pretty solid reputation for punctuality when you don't show for work and the first officer goes to find you and brings a security team because he assumes something is terrible wrong--not that you just, you know, overslept or something.
• "Hey yeah, Worf?  We discourage shipboard campfires, buddy.  And you're late for work."
• Kahless is pretty much the Klingon Jesus.
  
  In fact, "Kahless Loves The Little Children" would be a pretty good name for a Star Trek-themed gospel group.
• Captain Picard is pretty accommodating of all this preachy Klingon nonsense.
• The Klingon monastery at Boreth lends its name to the non-canon Boreth-class battlecruiser developed by Bernd Schneider over at Ex Astris Scientia.
  
  
  
  (Image courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
• "So...you are a skeptic, Worf?"
  
  "Yeah, I grew up in the Federation.  They have science there."
• "In the absence of empirical data, how will you determine if this is the real Kahless?"
  
  "It is not an empirical matter.  It is a matter of...faith."
  
  "Faith?  Then you do believe Kahless may have supernatural attributes?  As an android, I am unable to accept that which cannot be proven by rational means."
  
  You and me both, buddy.  You and me both.
• Warnog?  Bloodwine?  Klingon beverages are super metal.
• "Do not stand before the wind, Gowron."
  
  (image spoilered for profanity)
  
  
  
  
  
• "It's cool, we can totally lie and say he cheated!  That sounds like something an honorable Klingon would do!"
• "It doesn't matter that this whole thing is a sham, the people need to believe!"
  
  Yeah, that's a pretty common argument on 21st Century Earth, too...
• So...would the post-(clone)-Kahless Klingon Empire be considered a...oligarchical monarchy?

TNG S06E20 & S06E21...and a reboot!

In this installment:
(viewed Monday, April 14th)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E20 - "The Chase"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S06E21 - "Frame Of Mind"

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"The Chase"

• Professor Richard Galen:  The only person in the galaxy who doesn't have to call Jean-Luc Picard "Captain".
• "I, uh...can't go on a field trip right now.  I've this whole 'starship captain' thing to do at the moment.  But thanks."
• Professor Galen mentions Deep Space 4, a station that will come up again in the VOY episode "The Gift".
• "Captain, I'm going for a walk in the arboretum.  I wouldn't mind some company."
  
  In a flying city of barely over 1,000 people, where everyone knows that you're the resident head-shrinker, that's not actually a very discrete way to ask the captain if he wants to talk about his feelings.  Smooth move, Troi.
• Although the species has appeared before, I believe this is the first time we see a Yridian warship.  They're not generally considered a major galactic power, so their somewhat brazen attack on Professor Galen's shuttle reinforces the importance of the archeologist's impending discovery.
• "I'm aware of the Federation's timetable, Number One."
  
  SO SHUT YOUR DAMNED PIE-HOLE.
• When testing various DNA to check for matches for the gaps in the "puzzle", it's mentioned that there are 17 members of the Enterprise-D's crew that are from non-Federation worlds.
• Cardassians!
• Klingons!
• Although seriously:  At this point, isn't everyone who's anyone in the Klingon Empire aware of who Jean-Luc Picard is and why they shouldn't f**k with him?  I mean, he was only the Arbiter of Succession and a direct factor in Gowron's rise to power.  You'd think he would have a reputation.
• And it seems like the Empire has upgraded from rogue captains commanding Birds-of-Prey to rogue captains commanding full-blown  attack cruisers.  Hooray for political instability!
• Speaking of rogue captains, I know the Klingons have a history of military officers doing whatever they want with no regard for interstellar law...but shouldn't that situation be a teensy bit improved post-Khitomer?  I'm guessing that completely destroying the biosphere of a planet is ever-so-slightly illegal.
• There's a discussion in here about Cardassian and Klingon biscuit recipes.  As someone with family roots in the American south, I'm known to enjoy a good biscuit.  And I can't think of anything I'd like to try less than Cardassian or Klingon "biscuits" :P
• Silly Klingon, you can't beat Data at a feat of strength.  Just ask Worf.
• Cardassians!
• Romulans!
• The ancient humanoid species that appears in the recording triggered by the "puzzle" is played by Salome Jens, who we'll come to know and loathe in her role as the Female Founder on DS9.
• In a somewhat elegant exception to the usual Star Trek tendency to leave scientific oddities unexplained, this episode gives us a lovely--if somewhat simple--rationale for why most (but not all) of the intelligent life found in the Milky Way Galaxy shares a similar humanoid form.

---

"Frame Of Mind"

• Oh, hey kids.  It's a Riker episode.  I'll try my best not to be too big a prick about it, but no promises :P
  
  After all, the man did leave a love note on my desk at work not too long ago...
  
  
  
• This is just...seriously, the most thespian crew in the Federation.  All the time with the plays.
• It's dangerous business, being a Federation research team. 
• "This Tilonian pendant is equipped with a communicator circuit."
  
  "Hrm...it doesn't really go with the outfit."
• Slicing your first officer's face open during a pre-mission briefing?  Probably not a smooth career move, Worf.
• Speaking of plays, apparently Dr. Crusher wrote a pretty metal play with "Frame of Mind".  This is some real Operation: Mindchrime stuff here.
• Spiny lobe-fish?  Probably goes great with Klingon biscuits.
• "Don't let them tell you you're crazy."
• This entire episode gives me flashbacks to 2009, when I was ill and in a medically-induced coma for a few weeks.  Because of the medications, my brain blurred conscious events with dreams.  When I finally came out of sedation, I thought I'd been hospitalized against my will and accused of several crimes.  It was...surreal.  Even as much as I bag on Riker, this episode actually has a fresh level of interest for me after that experience.
• Yeah, 'cause one big hospital orderly and a chump with a phaser are going to stop Worf and Data.
• "I still have a phaser.  Why do I still have a phaser?"
• "I'm setting this to level 16, wide field.  That should destroy half of this building."
  
  That's a thing they can do with the hand-held Type 2 phaser?  O_o
• Commander William T. Riker:  one-man stage crew.