30th Anniversary TNG Episode Discussion Marathon

[Nate the Great]

October 29th, 1990, "Legacy"

Fiver by Wade the Sane Commodore

This will come up again, so let me get this out of the way: I hate long-lost relative episodes. I really do. I'll skip the long speech, so let's jump to this particular instance. Tasha should've evacuated all of her old family members and friends by now. And oh yeah, we SAW HER FUNERAL! Ishara deserves at least a namedrop there!

The Episode

DATA: I will raise you three.
RIKER: No cards? The best poker face I've ever seen.

Would Data's poker face get worse after he gets emotions? That's a whole other rant I could make.

RIKER: Take five. Throw them away.
(He does, literally, over his shoulder)

Troi has the best facefault. Just look at it.

Captain's log, stardate 44215.2. The Enterprise has bypassed its scheduled archaeological survey of Camus Two in response to a distress call from the Federation freighter Arcos, which has assumed an emergency orbit around Turkana Four, birthplace of our late comrade, Tasha Yar.

It gets painful sometimes how often the Enterprise is detoured away from actual exploratory missions to do something else. Incidentally, what's an "emergency orbit"?

DATA: The last Federation vessel to make contact was the Potemkin, six years ago. They were warned that anyone transporting down to the colony would be killed.

Yeah, that's cause for a coup if you ask me. The Klingons and Romulans would never agree to those terms, so why should the Federation?

RIKER: Are you offering to help us?
HAYNE: In return for some consideration. Phasers are in short supply down here. A starship isn't going to miss a few.

I'll buy that the necessary manufacturing infrastructure for proper phasers doesn't exist down here, but if these people have been fighting as long as claimed, you'd think they would've kluged together primitive equivalents by now.

RIKER: Riker to Enterprise. Energise.
(The team beam away)
HAYNE: I want everything there is to know about the starship Enterprise.

How would they have ANY information on the Enterprise or past crewman? The whole planet has been left to its own devices since Tasha escaped, or so we've been told. If anything their database should have info on the Enterprise-C.

TAN TSU [on monitor]: Enterprise, I'm being held by Turkana Four Alliance. I've been instructed to say that you have twenty hours to make reparations for Federation intrusion into this colony, or my pilot and I will be killed.

Federation intrusion? It's a damaged freighter!

I really don't like the entire premise of this colony. The government broke down until civil war broke out? The Federation wasn't maintaining contact? A starship wasn't visiting once a year to check up on things? This whole thing would fit so much better in an episode of TOS.

LAFORGE: Captain, if I could get to the myographic scanner.
ISHARA: What's that?
DATA: A sensing device from the escape pod. It monitors the bioelectric signatures of the crew, in the event they get separated from the pod.

Myography is the study of the mechanics of muscle contraction. It has nothing to do with bioelectric signatures. I'm not disputing the practicality of this kind of tracking device, but myography is not the right name for it.

ISHARA: You have Tasha's DNA on file?
CRUSHER: The ship's computer does. There's always some differentiation between sonomic chromosomes, but not enough to affect results. It should take me a few hours to run the sonomic comparison.

Gates McFadden mispronounces "somatic" here. A somatic chromosome is any chromosome that isn't X or Y. Technically correct, but I still would've used simpler Treknobabble.

ISHARA: That wasn't too bad. So, all that's left of my sister is a file in a computer.

Really? Putting aside Data's little holostatue, Tasha should've had other belongings that were put in storage for a time, just in case. Besides, there's other evidence of Tasha's presence, like all the lives she saved.

SHARA: Are you able to have friends?
DATA: Yes.
ISHARA: But you don't have feelings, do you?
DATA: Not as such. However, even among humans, friendship is sometimes less an emotional response and more a sense of familiarity.

TROI: Have you ever heard Data define friendship?
RIKER: No.
TROI: How did he put it? "As I experience certain sensory input patterns, my mental pathways become accustomed to them. The inputs eventually are anticipated and even missed when absent."

RIKER: In all trust, there is the possibility of betrayal. I'm not sure you were prepared for that.
DATA: Were you prepared, sir?
RIKER: I don't think anybody ever is.
DATA: Then it is better not to trust.
RIKER: Without trust, there's no friendship, no closeness. None of the emotional bonds that make us what we are.
DATA: And yet you put yourself at risk.
RIKER: Every single time.
DATA: Perhaps I am fortunate, sir, to be spared the emotional consequences.
RIKER: Perhaps.

A good message, but a bit hamfisted.

The Fiver

Data: The last starship here was warned not to beam anyone down. The colonists executed their first officer as a demonstration of their power, and threatened to do it to any other ship that came to the planet.
Picard: I see. Commander Riker, assemble your away team.
Riker: Aye sir. Oh, by the way, I made sugar cookies. You should grab a few before Troi scarfs them all down.
Picard: Ah, sugar cookies, my favorite! I think I'll have an Angel One.

I get the joke, but I'm not sure how much Angel One parallels this episode.

Hayne: The Alliance is holding your men. Our Coalition could get them back if we had some of your fancy heaters.
Riker: Oh no, only Federation types get to play with these guns.
Hayne: Come on, we only want a piece of the action.

See the previous comment, only substitute A Piece of the Action.

Crusher: I could take a blood sample! Let me go find an empty barrel!
Ishara: (gulp) How much does she need?
Riker: Just enough to prove you're not a changeling. But I'm asking the questions here. For instance, have any of your siblings served on previous Enterprises?
Ishara: No.
Riker: Correct. Now, do you have any nieces living on Romulus?
Ishara: No.

How would Ishara even know about Sela? I'll buy that most of Tasha's service record is probably public, but Sela's parentage claims are probably classified.

Data: Ah, Ishara, I'm gratified to see you've been issued a standard Starfleet catsuit.
La Forge: I'll say, kinda makes me want to go run some stimulations on the holodeck.
Barclay: (over the comm) You mean simulations, right Commander?
La Forge: Uh... yeah. I guess you've had enough experience to tell the difference.
Barclay: Holo-Janeway never hurts my feelings....

Just for funzies, I looked up what Janeway would be doing right now. It's 2367. No clue, this is after her command of the Bonestell (she left before it was destroyed in the Battle of Wolf 359) and before the launch of Voyager. Somewhere in here she meets Tuvok for the first time.

Ishara: Anything else you can tell me?
Data: I can't. I gave her my word.

For a fiver this is oddly open-ended.

Worf: You want me to sponsor your application to Starfleet Academy?
Ishara: Frankly, I think I can be quite an asset to Starfleet. With my extensive experience I could skip the lower ranks entirely and begin my career as a Commander. Maybe you should suggest that in your letter. Tell them you'd be honored to serve under me.
Worf: You have no desire to join Starfleet, do you?
Ishara: No, I'm afraid I don't.
Worf: Then why all this deception?
Ishara: Because lying is a skill like any other and if you want to maintain a level of excellence you have to practice constantly.
Worf: (to Riker) At the first sign of betrayal I will kill her, but I promise to return the body intact.

I get the reference to "In Purgatory's Shadow", but as Obscurus Lupa says, a reference is not a joke. There's no variation here, no subversion, no commentary, just pasting "Ishara" over "Garak."

Ishara: Commander, we have got to get out of this tunnel!
Worf: We need breathing room!
Data: Earth, Hitler, 1938.

Again, a reference is not a joke. And this one is even more of a stretch than the last one.

Ishara: Whatever it looks like, I am not overloading the Alliance's reactor.
Data: I cannot permit this to continue. (raises phaser)
Ishara: But... I thought we were friends.
Data: Ishara, I'm only going to tell you this just once. It never happened.

At least this time the references had twists. Although I must say that the idea of Data sleeping with Ishara is a little icky.

Memory Alpha

* 80th episode of TNG, thus breaking the TOS number. Although I'd argue that "Shades of Grey" doesn't really count as an episode.

Nitpickers Guide

* Data collects the chips as though Riker lost the bet. But Riker won, he found the card with Data's help! Did Data think that Riker wouldn't use tricks?
* Why didn't Crusher put Ishara's proximity detector back?
* Phil agrees with me, the colony's database is 15 years out of date. How did they know about Tasha's service on the Enterprise?

[Nate the Great]

November 5th, 1990, "Reunion"

No fiver (Zeke, is this one claimed already?)

The Episode

Captain's Log: Stardate 44246.3 We're investigating radiation anomalies reported in the Gamma Arigulon system by the starship LaSalle. Preliminary readings are inconclusive.

I hate disposable missions that the "real" plot distracts our crew from. Of course, I wouldn't want an episode about radiation anomalies, but the radiation anomalies can be the backdrop to some character work.

PICARD: Lieutenant, please receive our guest.
WORF: Captain, I must request permission to send another officer.
PICARD: May I know your reason?
WORF: My dishonour among Klingons may offend Ambassador K'Ehleyr.
PICARD: Lieutenant, you are a member of this crew, and you will not go into hiding whenever a Klingon ship uncloaks.
WORF: I withdraw my request, sir.

I get the need for a quick recap here, but not the application to K'Ehleyr. She doesn't care about "Klingon nonsense."

K'EHLEYR: Sorry. I just thought you might want to talk. A few minutes ago, you looked like someone with a question to ask.
WORF: Must I ask the question?
K'EHLEYR: Yes, you must.

So K'Ehleyr's old character trait of trying to take control of every conversation with Worf continues. I don't like it in this case. She's about to declare her desire to marry him, she should be more mature than this.

K'EHLEYR: The Klingon Empire is at a critical juncture. We may be facing civil war.
RIKER: War over what?
K'EHLEYR: The usual excuses. Tradition, duty, honour.
DATA: The word excuses implies ulterior motives for a conflict.
K'EHLEYR: I won't bore you with the intricacies of Klingon politics.

I don't associate this conflict with "tradition", "duty", OR "honor". "Glory" by all means, "power", "reputation", etc.

PICARD: Do you believe there is a threat to the Federation in this struggle?
K'EHLEYR: Klingon wars seldom remain confined to the Empire. Sooner or later they'll drag in the neighbouring star systems, then the Tholians, the Ferengi. The Federation won't be able to stay out of it for long.

I can't really see the Ferengi being pulled into this war. The Breen or the Gorn would be a better fit here.

K'MPEC: No one on the Council can be trusted.

I'm dubious at this, but that's a whole other speech.

K'MPEC: You are an accomplished mediator. This is no different than any other dispute requiring your services.

I'd argue that the Federation doesn't choose leaders of other governments, but you could argue that if there was such a law Kirk broke it several times. "Plato's Stepchildren" comes to mind immediately.

K'MPEC: Find the assassin. The Klingon who kills without showing his face has no honour. He must not lead the Empire. Such a man would be capable of anything. Even war with the Federation.

There's a whole speech about the malleability of the Khitomer Accords to be had here, but I'd be tempted to compare it to Brexit and other such nonsense.

Captain's log, supplemental. K'mpec, who ruled the Klingon Empire longer than anyone in history, is dead.

Memory Alpha doesn't state how long he served, but there's a novel that states that he became Chancellor in 2346, dying in 2367. Twenty-one years being the longest term is a little disturbing, but not unexpected for Klingons. Although I do wonder why nobody challenged this guy, K'mpec doesn't seem fit enough for a bat'leth duel.

FYI, Azetbur only served 18 years, being assassinated in 2311. Gorkon only lasted for a year.

ALEXANDER: Where are the other Klingons?
WORF: There are no others on board.
ALEXANDER: Why?
WORF: The Federation and the Klingon Empire were enemies for many years. No other Klingons have asked to serve in Starfleet.

Insert Klingon civilian scientists joke here. I've made enough of them in the past.

WORF: He knows nothing of our ways!
K'EHLEYR: Our ways? You mean Klingon ways, don't you?
WORF: He is Klingon!
K'EHLEYR: He is also my son and I am half-human. He will find his own ways.

I gotta ask, how long were they living in Klingon space? How long has K'Ehleyr been Ambassador? Has it been only a year or four since she was on the Enterprise?

K'EHLEYR: What would you have done? That's right. You would have insisted that we take the oath, just as tradition would demand.

This is a whole other discussion. I would've forgiven the "sex=marriage" thing as early NextGen weirdness, but Dax makes reference to this later. Plus we know that Klingon prostitutes exist.

K'EHLEYR: Why did you accept discommendation from the High Council?
WORF: My father was accused of collaborating with the Romulans at Khitomer.
K'EHLEYR: I know. And I also know that you challenged it.
WORF: Yes at first. Ultimately I withdrew my challenge.
K'EHLEYR: But why, Worf? I can't believe you'd just give up. What really happened?

Over at TVTropes I asked why he wouldn't tell her, the only plausible explanation is that Worf knows that she has poor impulse control and would cause a scene.

PICARD: The Sonchi ceremony will take place in one hour aboard K'mpec's ship.
DURAS [on viewscreen]: One hour? What is the delay?
PICARD: There is no delay. It is the time I have chosen.

I like it when Picard gets petty, it humanizes him.

PICARD: Worf, the next few days will be difficult for you
WORF: You have made it clear that I am to perform my regular duties, sir.
PICARD: I want you to know that I am aware of your discomfort.
WORF: Thank you, sir.

A good exchange, it's a pity that Janeway never had a similar scene to humanize her. Then again, such a thing would require a plot to be about someone other than her, and how often did that happen?

WORF: Well, I know little of Gowron. Only that he is an outsider who has often challenged the Council.

A funny moment that I added to TVTropes. Worf will grow to know Gowron VERY well and will be the one to kill him!

PICARD: Qab jIH nagil

This is a challenge: "Face me if you dare!"

WORF: As Head of Security, it is my duty to be concerned.
K'EHLEYR: Is that it? Just official concern for my well being?
WORF: You know my feelings.
K'EHLEYR: Maybe I've forgotten.
WORF: You were right. I would have insisted we take the oath. But not just because of tradition.
K'EHLEYR: I thought about telling you. Wanted to tell you. But I wasn't ready. When I left, you said you'd never be complete without me. It took some time but, I came to realise I need you too. You're part of me, Worf.
WORF: jIH dok.
K'EHLEYR: maj dok.

A nice scene, it's always nice to see K'Ehleyr with her guard down. He said "my blood" and she said "our blood." Not very romantic to me, but I'm not a Klingon.

WORF: No, I cannot allow you to suffer my humiliation.
K'EHLEYR: There would be no suffering I don't care what other Klingons think of you.
WORF: But what of the boy? He may want to live in the Empire someday.

"And if he did he'd be the most pathetic soldier in the fleet! Why, I wouldn't be surprised if he flooded a corridor with superheated hydraulic fluid someday!"

[Nate the Great]

K'EHLEYR: Captain, what do you know about Worf's discommendation? My interest is personal. I understand that you were there. You stood by him before the Council. I'd like to know what happened.
PICARD: I'm sorry, I can't discuss it.

You'd think Picard would ask Worf about it, but I guess he can guess that she already asked Worf and wanted to respect his wishes.

DURAS: The Council must have a leader now!

Really? Then why did it take nine months for Gowron to officially take charge?

PICARD: mev yap!

"Stop already!"

ALEXANDER: What is this?
WORF: A bat'leth. It belonged to my father. It has been in our family for ten generations.

I was surprised when SF Debris pointed out that this is the first appearance of the bat'leth. How did Worf get this? Did Kahlest grab it for Worf? Was it left behind with Kurn's adoptive father?

GOWRON: What do you want? Command of a ship? A seat on the Council? There are many opportunities for you in the Empire.

Command of a ship? I'm pretty sure that you can't just be given command of a Klingon ship, you have to have a record as a warrior for that.

LAFORGE: And the entire device couldn't have been more than three cubic millimetres in size.

Three cubic millimeters? A single grain of rice is 20 cubic millimeters! I don't think you could even build a matter/antimatter bomb that small, so what's in this thing and where was the space for the detonator?

LAFORGE: Klingons and Romulans working together? They've been blood enemies for seventy five years.

So that's 2292. In other words, around the time of the Khitomer Conference. Was this fallout from the Chang Conspiracy (2293, FYI)? Did Ambassador Nanclus screw things up that badly? Incidentally, Nanclus was a Tal Shiar agent.

RIKER: A new Klingon alliance with the Romulans?
DATA: If true, it would represent a fundamental shift of power in the quadrant.
PICARD: Indeed. It would put the Federation in a very difficult position.

It stands to reason that Duras would dissolve the Khitomer Accords, but you have to imagine that the Council has anti-Federation AND anti-Romulan members. Could Duras tip the scales that much, even as Chancellor?

PICARD: As Chief Security Officer, you will accompany me to the next transition proceeding.
WORF: Captain, they will be incensed. My presence will be disruptive.
PICARD: Yes, it will.

And people have the gall to call TNG boring.

K'EHLEYR: Computer, list stardates of the last Enterprise mission to the Klingon home planet.
COMPUTER: Stardates 43685 through 43689.

That's a day and a half. This is clearly a reference to "Sins of the Father", was that really only a day and a half? And does this really count as a "mission" as opposed to a "visit"?

K'EHLEYR: How many ship's logs during that period?
COMPUTER: Forty three officer's logs. Ten personal logs.

This number seems a little small. Even if only half the Starfleet personnel on board makes logs on a daily basis, that's still at least two hundred.

RIKER: It's considered an honourable way for a Klingon to die, a suicide that takes an enemy with it.

Once again, there's a whole spiel here that could be discussed. Even if I'll agree to this thinking in general, I don't think it applies to implanted bombs, that seems too deceitful to be honorable.

(Worf removes his baldric, takes the bat'leth from the wall. As an afterthought, he takes off his comm. badge too)

I get the baldric thing, given Duras' reaction in "Sins of the Father". What confuses me is Worf being allowed to beam off the ship without a commbadge. Did he know where an empty transporter room was?

CRUSHER: Multiple stab wounds to the chest and abdomen. Too much trauma to the internal organs. There wasn't time enough to take her into stasis.

I wonder if Worf couldn't have taken care of this BEFORE beaming over to Duras' ship.

KLINGON: He has claimed the right of vengeance.
DURAS: You have no rights here, traitor!
WORF: K'Ehleyr was my mate.

The idea that there are still challenges that Worf can make is confusing to me.

PICARD: Mister Worf, the Enterprise crew currently includes representatives from thirteen planets.

This number seems a little low. I also question the use of "planet" instead of "species."

PICARD: If anyone cannot perform his or her duty because of the demands of their society, they should resign. Do you wish to resign?
WORF: No, sir.
PICARD: I had hoped you would not throw away a promising career. I understand your loss, We all admired K'Ehleyr.

Great exchange. Seriously, I wish they hadn't've killed K'Ehleyr.

ALEXANDER: Are you my father?
WORF: Yes. I am your father.

"No, that can't be! That's impossible!" Sorry, had to do it.

[Nate the Great]

November 12th, 1990, "Future Imperfect"

Fiver (by Derek)

The Episode

Captain's Log, Stardate 44286.5. The Enterprise is conducting a security survey of the Onias Sector near the Neutral Zone.

I guess a "security survey" is checking up on the defenses of the border outposts, but they could've worded that better.

PICARD: Mister Data, we must hurry or we'll miss Commander Riker's party.
DATA: Sir. I find it interesting how much importance humans place on celebrating the day of their birth. A day they cannot possibly remember.

It is a bit arbitrary, but whoever said the human race was logical?

RIKER: What about energy readings?
WORF: Magnetic clutter is increasing. I cannot make an accurate determination.

Magnetic clutter? That's an odd way to refer to EM interference.

CRUSHER: That day on Onias three, you were infected with a strain of Altarian encephalitis, a retrovirus that incorporates its DNA directly into the cells of its host. It can lie dormant for many years and then suddenly become active again, as it did in your case ten days ago.

The point of a virus is to reproduce, I don't think one can evolve to lie dormant for that long. Furthermore, is this a recent discovery? Did they know that one day Riker would just collapse and lose his memory?

RIKER: Main Bridge.
COMPUTER: Repeat command.
RIKER: I said main Bridge.
CRUSHER: Computer's been slow all morning. A processing accelerator's down. Commander La Forge has running a level one diagnostic to isolate the problem.

I get the foreshadowing with having to give Barash time to set up the next setting, but it could've been done better than this. As for a "processing accelerator", I want to say that this has to do with using subspace to get computer signals to move faster than light.

(Worf is at Ops, and a Ferengi at helm)

We know now that not all Ferengi are satisfied with the usual way of life of their people, but we didn't back then. At this time in TNG's history, the idea of a Ferengi in Starfleet is just stretching incredulity a bit too far.

RIKER: Commander Data. You're my First Officer?
DATA: Do you remember, sir?

There's a lot to unpack here about everyone except Picard staying on the Enterprise all this time. Yeah, yeah, they'll stay together through the movies, but realistically half of the senior staff should've moved on by now. Furthermore, I always hate it when senior officers from one department step into the shoes of a senior officer from another department. Worf wasn't trained to be Operations Officer in "Data's Day", and Data isn't suited for Command.

RIKER: Deanna, who's his mother?
TROI: She died two years ago. A shuttle accident. I'm sorry, Will.
RIKER: I have no recollection of her at all. What was she like?
TROI: Min was beautiful, of course, strong, intelligent, patient.
RIKER: Well, if she was married to me, she had to be patient.

I'm sorry, but this whole "Minuet is the woman Riker had the strongest feelings for, so she should be his wife" thing is a bridge too far. Riker never loved Minuet, he loved the idea of Minuet. Oh, and using "Min" instead of "Minuet" at this point of the episode is just lazy plot hole filling. Riker only knew her as Minuet, and even if he started using "Min" as a pet name, I doubt that Troi would as well.

TOMALAK: Thank you, Admiral. It is an honour to be the first Romulan to freely walk about a Federation Starship.

Oh boy, where to start with this one. Do we ask how plausible this is? Do we talk about how hamfisted this statement is? Do we bring up T'Pel/Selok from "Data's Day"?

CRUSHER: Will, how old were you when you first started playing parrises squares?
RIKER: Alright, I was probably a little younger than he is.

With all the times they mention Parisses Squares, I wish we could've seen an actual game.

DATA: Pardon me, sir. I am experiencing subspace interference which limits my abilities. I can't operate as quickly as
RIKER: What did you say?
DATA: I said I cannot operate
RIKER: No! That's not what you said. You said I can't. You used a contraction, didn't you?
DATA: Sir, I can explain if you would just give me a moment.

Once again, I get what they were going for, but this is not the ideal way to prove Will is in a simulation. It's been sixteen years, plenty of time for Data to modify himself to use contractions.

TOMALAK: With the help of our neural scanners and what you would call a holodeck.

So the Romulans don't call them holodecks? What was the purpose of this line?

The Fiver

Riker: So Data's my first officer now?
B4: Actually, I'm not Data.
Riker: Sure, whatever.

Whether or not Data's memories actually made it into B4 is a long discussion by itself. The problem here is the use of that contraction. If the episode is going to make a big deal about it, so should the fiver.

Riker: I've never trusted Romulans, and I never will. I can never forgive them for the death of my boy.

Cute reference, but what "boy" is Riker referring to here?

Jean-Luc: Will, you are my father.
Riker: No, that's not true! That's impossible!
Troi: Um, no, it's not.

I can't decide if the Star Wars reference was stretched too far for this joke or not.

Jean-Luc: Try giving it a stardate. Computer, show the picture of mom from stardate 11001001.
Riker: Isn't that kind of long for a stardate?
Jean-Luc: Um, it was a leap year.

Stardate 11001001 would be January 1st, 12931. Future dates in Trek rarely go that high, but at least we can be sure that the Andromeda galaxy is completely uninhabitable by then.

Riker: This is all a hoax, and I can prove it! Worf, where'd you get that scar?
Worf: In battle against the Dominion.
Riker: Ha! Whoever heard of the Dominion?

Nice one.

Memory Alpha

* First appearance of Ogawa.

Nitpicker's Guide

* Phil points out the fact that the communicators double as rank insignia. I have to point out that Ogawa is apparently still an ensign. That's weird.
* Ogawa apparently won't age in sixteen years. Oops.

[Nate the Great]

November 19th, 1990, "Final Mission"


Fiver by Admiral Sab

The Episode

Captain's log, stardate 44307.3. I am preparing to leave by shuttlecraft for Pentarus Five, where I have been asked to mediate a dispute among the salenite miners, a contentious group unfortunately prone to violence.

This is the only mention of salenite. You wonder why they didn't use a preexisting mineral. Not dilithium, but maybe boronite, gallicite, topaline, etc.

PICARD: I just received a message from Admiral Nsomeka. She expects you to report in two weeks. A position has opened up in this year's class.

The Academy has a quota/class size this strict? Weird.

PICARD: Ah, Captain. It's good to meet you.
WESLEY: Captain? Of a mining shuttle?
DIRGO: Yes, Ensign, Captain.

This thing can't be that much smaller than Okona's ship the ''Erstwhile.'' I have more trouble accepting the idea that a one-man crew automatically earns the name "Captain."

WESLEY: Sir, one of the moons around Pentarus Three registers as class M, barely. The mean temperature is fifty five degrees Celsius.

55 degC is 130 degF. I really don't think these guys could survive that long without water.

PICARD: Surely you have emergency supplies?
DIRGO: This isn't a starship. I have to choose what I carry.
PICARD: Are you telling me there's no water?

I'm having trouble believing that fifty pounds of emergency water and food would make that much difference for any spaceship. Furthermore, mass may matter at sublight speeds but at warp it's the volume of the ship that matters.

LAFORGE: The radiation levels from that ship are off the scale.

I hate it when scifi series say that. When you have ships being sent outside of known space by advanced aliens, you should have larger scales. Furthermore, if the radiation levels are THAT high everyone on board should be dying already.

WORF: Commander, a message from the mining settlement on Pentarus Five. The shuttlecraft carrying Captain Picard has not yet arrived.
CRUSHER: They left here at oh eight hundred hours.
WORF: They have asked if we are beginning a search.
RIKER: Tell them we have an emergency situation. We'll begin a search as soon as we've completed that.

Couldn't the saucer handle this drifting vessel situation while the stardrive goes back to look for Picard and company? With all this nonsense you almost wonder why the saucer was designed to detach in the first place.

TROI: We've contacted the nearest Starbase for a search vessel. I'm afraid the closest one is almost a week away.

Really? Are we that far into the sticks? Shouldn't there be an acceptable radius to space these starbases out? Like, no more than two days at Warp 8 from everywhere in the Federation?

(some things rush into the cavern, rather like the seraphim from Raiders of the Lost Ark)

It's been too long since I watched the Indiana Jones movie. Incidentally, if you haven't watched Crystal Skull yet, DON'T. I have no idea if Indy 5 will be any good.

First Officer's log, stardate 44307.6. Radiation levels on the Enterprise continue to rise. The ventilation system has started pumping hyronalin into our air supply to counteract the effects.

Seriously, even if they didn't have Picard to worry about, this is a prime situation for saucer separation and a skeleton crew. And they should be wearing spacesuits as another layer of radiation protection.

CRUSHER: Crusher to Medical unit one, evacuate and seal off all non-operational areas. Group the crew and their families in the interior corridors of decks nine and ten. Radiation exposure protocol.

Crusher should've already been doing this!

COMPUTER: Warning. Radiation levels at one hundred fifty millirads per minute and rising. Lethal exposure in thirty five minutes.

I've probably already mentioned this in another episode, but everyone is not going to die at the same level of radiation. Age, species, health, etc. will play a factor. Just say "casualties expected in 35 minutes"!

First Officer's log, supplemental. Mister La Forge has diverted power from auxiliary fusion generators in an attempt to stabilise the tractor beam. This is the only hope of increasing our towing speed so we can clear the asteroid belt before radiation levels become fatal.

You should've already been doing that!

PICARD: I was selfish. I thought I wouldn't see you again. I'm sorry.

He thought he wouldn't see Wesley again? Wesley would've been on the first shuttle back as soon as he had vacation time!

LAFORGE: Most shuttlecraft hulls are made of duranium.

Most SPACESHIP hulls are made out of duranium, Geordi!

PICARD: Aupres de ma blonde, il fait bon, fait bon, fait bon.

These are lyrics from a French song called "Aupres de ma blonde" ("Next to my Girlfriend"). It's used as a drinking song and nursery rhyme. The transcriber accidentally used "il" instead of "qu'il." It means "Next to my darling, how good it is, it is, it is."

PICARD: There's so much I wanted to tell you. The Academy, there's someone, someone who meant a great deal to me. He's been there forever. Someone you must get to know. His name is Boothby. Now, you tell him that you and I were friends. Now, when I was there, he helped me. Listen to him.
WESLEY: What does he teach?
PICARD: He's the groundskeeper. One of the wisest men I ever knew.

Nice setup.

PICARD: One moment. Mister Crusher?
WESLEY: Yes, sir.
PICARD: What are you doing in such a filthy uniform?
WESLEY: You don't look so ship-shape yourself, sir.
PICARD: Wesley, you will be missed.

Nice moment.

The Fiver

Wesley: What a piece of junk!
Dirgo: She may not look like much, kid, but she's got it where it counts.
Picard: Nice to meet you, Captain Solo.

See, this time it's not merely a reference because Dirgo is actually like a hardened, more cynical version of Solo.

La Forge: It's a radioactive garbage scow! We came all this way to take out the trash!
Riker: Hmm...I wonder if the Malon had something to do with this?
Data: Who?
Riker: Um, never mind. Wrong quadrant.

I wonder if Admiral Sab knew that Riker was considered for the command of Voyager.

Wesley: Here's a fire to warm you up.
Picard: There's something about the flame...the smell of the smoke....
Wesley: Sir, you're delirious.
Picard: Never mind.

Nice nod to "Attached."

Memory Alpha

* Wheaton wanted to leave the show so he could be in movies. A quick look at his IMDB page shows that he didn't do too well at it. I don't recognize any of his work until Flubber in 1997. (Incidentally, I don't think he did very well in that film, he's certainly no Tommy Kirk from the original).
* I was surprised to learn that Boothby only made three appearances, "The First Duty", "In The Flesh", and "The Fight."

Nitpicker's Guide

* Wouldn't Geordi's safety inspection before the shuttle left reveal the lack of emergency supplies?
* Who made this fountain and installed the sentry? (a mention of the Preservers would've been a great namedrop for this episode)
* Why didn't Riker just let the ship crash into the asteroid field?

[Nate the Great]

December 31, 1990, "The Loss"

Ugh. A bad example of a Troi episode. I have to imagine that there are diseases that can take away a Betazoid's telepathy and she'd be trained to deal with this scenario.

Fiver (by Kira)

The Episode

BROOKS: It's been five months since Marc's accident. I haven't missed a single hour of my duties. I volunteered for extra time in the nursery. My language studies are better than they've ever been. Somebody else might have given in, but I didn't.
TROI: Given in to what?
BROOKS: Death is a normal part of life. Maybe some of us are better at facing that than others.

Ugh, stupid Gene and his "humans don't grieve" nonsense.

DATA: An aggregate field of plane-polarised objects has just appeared. And disappeared.

A what? Can asteroids generate a magnetic field large enough to align all of the rocks in the same direction? Weird...

DATA: A resumption of our present course at warp six will place us in the T'lli Beta system in six days, thirteen hours, forty seven minutes.
RIKER: What, no seconds?
DATA: I have discovered, sir, a certain level of impatience when I calculate a lengthy time interval to the nearest second. However, if you wish
RIKER: No, no. Minutes is fine.

I get the idea, but actually at this scale "almost six days and fourteen hours" would be fine. Do the official records rely on bridge dialogue for stuff this important, rather than the helm display?

PICARD: Full impulse. Rotate heading in five degree increments.

You do know that headings consist of TWO angles, right Jean-Luc? "His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."

DATA: Integrity field stress exceeding eighty two million kilodynes.

The dyne is the unit of force for the cm-g-s system. Why Data doesn't use 820 kilonewtons is beyond me. Incidentally, the episode "Gravity" introduces the isodyne, which the Star Trek Encyclopedia calls a unit of measure for the energy of warp particles.

TROI: No, I don't think so. No. There's nothing. Nothing. I sense nothing.
PICARD: It's alright, Counsellor. Perhaps there's nothing out there to sense.
DATA: Indeed, there are many races that are not empathically detectable. The Breen, the Ferengi, the
TROI: No, you don't understand. I don't sense anything. Not out there, not in here. All of you, you're all blank to me.

Listing species that are likely immune to telepathy would be interesting. Tholians come to mind immediately. It would be interested to see what races a full Betazoid can read but Troi's weaker powers can't.

I don't understand the "blank" comment. This field is overloading her mind with physic static, she shouldn't detect anything. "Blank" implies she can read everything except the holes occupied by people.

CRUSHER: And you may not. Now, I'll do my homework. I'll see what I can do to regenerate those cells. In the meantime, I want you to talk to someone. There are several people on board who have degrees in psychology, who are qualified therapists.

Troi has to be TOLD this? Aren't they members of her staff? Doesn't she have an assistant counselor to go to?

TROI: You know what the worst part of this is? And I've seen it happen to so many patients.
RIKER: What?
TROI: The way other people change. How they start to treat you differently. They walk on eggshells around you. Sometimes they avoid you altogether. Sometimes they become overbearing, reach out a helping hand to the blind woman.
RIKER: I'm sorry if I
TROI: I will not be treated that way!
RIKER: Hey! Imzadi.
TROI: Oh, please.
RIKER: Deanna, I've never seen you quite so scared.
TROI: I'm fine. If I get better, I get better. If I don't, I'll adapt. Life goes on.

I don't like this exchange. I get the parallel with Brooks, but it doesn't work like this. Troi is acting like she can be perfectly fine without her powers, but she should know that denial can't be encouraged.

TROI: Because I can't tell how you're feeling this morning, but it seems to me that one night of crying can't make up for months of denial.
BROOKS: No. You're wrong. I feel better today than I have in ages. You're absolutely wrong, Deanna.

Troi will tell Guinan later that there are other ways to gauge the emotional state of a person, is she just having a brain fart right now? There's denial and there's refusal to accept the truth.

DATA: The probe's point of view reveals that the objects exist entirely in two dimensions, on a single plane.
LAFORGE: They have length and width, but not height. Virtually flat.

"Virtually" flat implies a very small third dimension. This is a problem that I always had with Flatland. A line has no width, we just represent it with a very small width to be able to see it. These "border lines" don't exist in the real world unless there is a small third dimension.

DATA: That is why the ship's forward sensors did not detect them initially. We were looking at them along their edge. There was no surface to read.

I get that the lateral sensor array is aligned on the saucer's perimeter and would imply a planar scanning region, but there have to be other sensor arrays to make things three-dimensional. Even IF the saucer equator happens to lie on the same plane as these things, the stardrive sensor arrays AREN'T.

RIKER: Can you explain why they're pulling us along with them?
LAFORGE: Somehow, they're able to polarise the graviton field as they move about. We're caught in the wake.

Polarize? They turned the Enterprise into a magnet that's being attracted to the magnetic field of these guys? This is exactly the sort of thing that a warp field should be able to sidestep!

LAFORGE: It's a shame we can't tell if they're sentient.
TROI: What do you mean by that? I'm doing the best that I can.

Ugh! We've seen plenty of sentient life-forms with brains sufficiently different than humanoids that I wouldn't expect a Betazoid to understand. In fact, I wouldn't expect the Betazoids to be able to read anything other than similar humanoids (decedents of the Preservers) Even Q should be a blank.

TROI: How do you people live like this?

Like I said, I hate this episode. It makes Troi less likeable, which is a stupid idea when a lot of the viewers already don't like her. Furthermore, it's like I said earlier, both as a Betazoid and as a counselor she should be trained for this. At this point in the episode Deanna really is acting like she needs to be empathic to be a counselor, which is ludicrous.

.

[Nate the Great]

TROI: I've been working with Ensign Brooks since the death of her husband. She's avoided the reality of what happened, denied it to herself, and I realise I've been doing the same thing about my condition.

Too little, too late, writers! You could've had her come to this realization a lot earlier.

PICARD: There was a teacher of mine at the Academy who had been confined to a wheelchair since birth. She was a woman
TROI: Captain, spare me the inspirational anecdote and just accept my resignation.

"Spare me." I call that insubordination, no matter her condition. Furthermore, if we're still supposed to be in Gene's "humans are perfect, they don't mourn" period, where did this episode come from?

RIKER: You always had an advantage. A little bit of control of every situation. That must have been a very safe position to be in. To be honest, I'd always thought there was something a little too aristocratic about your Betazoid heritage. As if your human side wasn't quite good enough for you.

She wasn't aristocratic because she was a Betazoid, she was aristocratic because she was born to the nobility and her mother was always grooming her for big things.

LAFORGE: The energy we wanted to transfer to the nacelles was absorbed by the graviton wake instead. It set up a torsional wave that rebounded back to the ship.

How does that work? The warp plasma was drained, twisted, then fed back into the nacelles?

TROI: I just know you're not serious.
GUINAN: Have I given you any indication that I might not serious?
TROI: Not really, but
GUINAN: Then how do you know? Are your empathic abilities coming back?
TROI: No. I suppose it's just instinctive. I get it. You're trying to make me see that I have other abilities to draw on. Human intuition, instincts. Guinan, those skills only develop after years of experience. It's not that easy.

So how long as Guinan been a bartender? We sure got the implication that Picard met her as a bartender in the Stargazer days decades ago.

PICARD: If there is a psychology to these creatures, we must discover it. If there is an explanation for their behaviour, we must know what it is. Even in your current condition, you are the most qualified person aboard this ship to assist. Data is in Observation attempting to formulate a strategy. I want you to join him. Deanna, we need you.

I get the plot device, but that doesn't mean it's not forced.

PICARD: How do you simulate a cosmic string? It has the gravitational force of a hundred stars.
DATA: I do not suggest simulating the gravitational field of the string fragment, rather the string's vibration.
RIKER: Vibration? We're not talking about a violin, Data.
LAFORGE: No, Data's right. The principle is still the same. A cosmic string emanates a characteristic set of subspace frequencies as atomic particles decay along its event horizon. I could use the ship's parabolic dish to amplify and reflect those frequencies back toward the cluster. The Enterprise itself would echo the cosmic string.

"Parabolic dish"? I'm pretty sure that the main deflector is nowhere near a perfect parabola given its shape.

The Fiver

Picard: Well, there's nothing to see here. Let's go.
(BOOM)
Ensign Allenby: The ship just stalled. And we're being pulled somewhere.
Riker: See what happens when you steal lines from Archer?

I can't find this quote from Enterprise, but I did find this fiver over at TrekToday.

Troi: You don't understand -- I'm completely useless!
Riker: And you're stating the obvious.
Picard: Am I supposed to be seeing something out of the ordinary here?

Ha ha.

Captain's Log: We're screwed. On the plus side, if you stare at the images of the creatures long enough you can see a picture of a fish.

I could never see Magic Eye pictures. I guess my prescription is too strong.

Picard: I've called you here because we only have a few hours left to live.
Troi: Sir, I'm flattered, but....
Picard: Eew!

I didn't nee that mental image, Kira.

Memory Alpha

* The writing staff considered making the loss permanent, but I do question how you could've made that work long-term. Troi is mainly used as a psychic tricorder as it is, what else would she have to do? Without her powers there's nothing she can do that Guinan can't.
* First mention of the structural integrity field.
* First mention of the Breen.

Nitpicker's Guide

* "Tin Man" clearly said that Betazoids develop their powers at adolescence. Troi should have plenty of experience not having it