Date: May 20, 2020

Season 6, Episodes 24 and 25

Musical Accompaniment: Shadows and Chaos

Interstellar News: Today was another day of rain and meetings. Happy birthday to my Father-in-law who is a Trek fan.

Favorite Quote from “Second Chances”:

Worf: I am not easy to get along with.

Data: But Commander Riker and Lieutenant Riker are. Yet they seem to have trouble getting along with each another. I have found that humans value their uniqueness, that sense that they are different from every one else. The existence of a double would preclude that feeling. Could that be the source of the friction?

Worf: Or perhaps it is more a matter of seeing something in your double. Something you do not like in yourself.

Same, Worf. Same.

“Second Chances” begins with the Enterprise attempting to retrieve data from a science station on Nervala IV that was abandoned eight years earlier. There’s a distortion field that makes it impossible to beam in or out at certain times, and they won’t have much time to do what needs doing. Riker, Data, Worf, and random security guard #358 beam down but someone is approaching them, and it’s… Riker, but in yellow. Dun dun dun. Yellow Riker explains how he never made it out of the transporter beam and assumed everyone thought he has died. La Forge figures out what happened and it’s true, both Rikers are real. Yellow Riker is super happy to see Troi, but Troi explains what happened to her and red Riker.

The original team and yellow Riker beam back down during the second break to try and make the computers work again, but need to beam back to get parts. While back on board, yellow Riker leaves notes for Troi in a scavenger hunt that leads to Ten-Forward where they chat for hours about the last eight years. Picard consults with red Riker about the plan and decides to go with yellow’s plan, even if it’s riskier. The two Rikers work together to implement the plan, and there’s some drama with a catwalk, but they are able to retrieve the data. Yellow Riker decides to go by “Tom” and begin an assignment on the Ghandi, but it hopeful that Troi will join him at some point in the future.

So Tom doesn’t die and there are just two William T. Riker’s running around in Starfleet? Wouldn’t that be a little confusing? They have the same voice pattern, the same name, the same looks, the exact same date of birth, you get the picture. I guess you can just tell everyone that Tom was an identical twin, maybe. I will say that Frakes did an amazing job at helping me tell the difference between the two Rikers, even if I had the extra clue of them wearing different colored shirts. It’s a great play on “The Best of Both Worlds” where we see Shelby and Tom are suuuuuuper alike, right down to going to Picard behind Riker’s back and Tom crashing the poker game. To be fair, both times Riker never went to Picard he just shot them down instead of letting the captain decide. I wonder if he gave away his trombone in order to not have Troi ever ask him to play “Night Bird” again. In the end this ends the same as “Lessons” where the guy chooses his career, asks his lady love to give up her career to follow him, and they part as friends who will probably lose touch sooner than they would like. Also, if the catwalk collapsed, how did they get back? I can think of so many better ways they could have handled this episode, so this earns a 5 of diamonds from me.

Favorite Quote from “Timescape”:

Data: It would appear that I am not capable of perceiving time any differently than my internal chronometer.

Riker: Well why don’t you turn it off?

Data: Sir?

Riker: Data, people do not have internal chronometers. Why don’t you see what happens if you turn yours off.

Data: Thank you, sir. I will try that.

Riker: Just don’t be late for your shift.

Riker having a find brainstorming session with Data, but then reminding him what is really important.

“Timescape” has the Enterprise responding to a Romulan distress call while Picard, Data, Troi, and La Forge are en route back to the ship from a conference. The foursome decompress about the lectures they attended; Troi does a great impression of a horrible pickup line, Picard joins in an does an impression of his presenter, but La Forge had a wonderful time… until everyone but Troi freezes and she is super concerned and they unfreeze just a few seconds later. They start to try and figure things out, but then Troi is frozen for three minutes and more things start freezing because they have entered a temporal disturbance minefield. They’ve essentially run out of gas and are running on fumes and time is running at a different speed in each pocket, so they have to be slow and deliberate.

They arrive to see the Enterprise and a Romulan ship stuck in time and firing at each other. The devise a plan that allows them to move around and not get trapped in their time, so Data, Troi, and Picard beam over to the Enterprise first. They find Crusher about to get axed by a Romulan, typical, but then they find Worf beaming over Romulans, the warp core is breached, and some other things that indicate maybe both ships were in trouble. Picard has an adverse reaction, so he and La Forge swap out and the trip move onto the Romulan ship. They find the Romulans were in the midst of evacuating as well as trying to help the Enterprise, and an aperture that allows time to resume briefly, forwards and then backwards. They also find one Romulan is awake, but that’s because he’s not really a Romulan. Turns out some time aliens thought the Romulan’s core was a good place to put their babies to nest, but it wasn’t, and caused all this mishegos. Picard and crew figure out a way to run time backwards, dispense of the runabout so the power transfer doesn’t blow everyone up, and we end with Riker wanting answers from Picard and and helping Data with his experiment.

I love seeing Troi and Picard do their impersonations at the beginning, it was good to see them all decompressing after a long conference. Picard drawing a smiley face on the cloud in engineering and then laughing was hysterical and a bit creepy at the same time. I realized I started to notice things before they were brought to my attention, like the alien lady who “woke up” in sick bay or when Picard enters and the fruit was rotted. For once, they had all the time they needed to implement a plan. It was also very interesting for the first impressions to be so wrong; Crusher was not the intended target, Riker was being helped up, the two crews were actually helping each other! There were also great bits of humor. Of course Crusher is a cat person and Riker isn’t, I mean it totally fits. Also, Data gives great face at the end of the episode and I think even Spock would have been proud, but Spot could care less. A litter of 6 kittens for this episode, and they’re all named spot!

TA Out!

Date: May 19, 2020

Season 6, Episodes 22 and 23

Musical Accompaniment: The Ultimate Movie Score playlist, as found on YouTube

Interstellar News: It rained, all day. I also almost broke my work laptop, but thankfully my electrical engineer of a husband is my personal IT guy.

Favorite Quote from “Suspicions”:

Guinan: You know, I’ve never been to a formal inquiry.

Crusher: Well I’ll see if I can arrange one for you. All you have to do is disobey orders, violate medical ethics, and cause an interstellar incident.

Guinan: Well I guess that would do it.

Crusher freaking out and Guinan agreeing with her assessment.

“Suspicions” opens with a distraught Dr. Crusher in her room when Guinan comes in, complaining of tennis elbow, and Crusher reveals she’s no longer a doctor on the Enterprise. As Crusher tries to help, she tells Guinan what happened over the last few days that brought her to this point and we get treated to flashbacks and voice-overs.

It all started with a Ferengi scientist named Dr. Reyga who needed a little more exposure, so Crusher arranges for scientists who are Vulcan, human, Klingon, and Takaran, to come discuss the project. They all decide a test is the best course of action and Dr. Jo’Bril, the Takaran, will pilot the modified shuttle so he can be impartial. The test works until it doesn’t and Jo’Bril dies. During autopsy there is no cause of death and Reyga is having no luck either with the shuttle. Unfortunately, Reyga is found dead under suspicious circumstances.

Crusher believes he was murdered but cannot prove it without an autopsy and, unfortunately for her, the Ferengi death ritual means she cannot do one. For some reason she, and not Worf or security, questions the other scientists but doesn’t get anywhere so she decides to disobey orders and do the autopsy, where she finds nothing and then tells Picard. We come out of the flashback to current time where Guinan helps Crusher to see she has nothing to lose for the next 24 hours, so Crusher continues to investigate (even though she has no privileges on board). Ogawa helps Crusher with the files and investigation which leads Crusher to following a hunch and takes a shuttle out to the star, proving Reyga’s shield did work but was sabotaged. Suddenly Jo’Bril pops out of the shuttle because he apparently wasn’t dead and wanted to develop the technology himself. They struggle and she kills him, leaving behind no damn proof. She also doesn’t face any consequences at the hearing and Guinan admits she never played tennis.

This episode boils down to the coroner playing detective ala NCIS or CSI or one of the acronym police procedural. The problem with this one is it’s lame. Okay so I totally didn’t see Jo’Brill being alive at the end, they got me there. I also loved how Guinan was her usual self and then came clean about not playing tennis. Aside from those two things, though, Crusher is just not a compelling story teller. She disobeys orders and fucks up another culture’s death ritual all because she thinks she’s right. She’s right that his invention works and it was sabotaged, but she was totally wrong to interfere without consent. She also steals a shuttlecraft and I’ve got to blame Worf and security on this one because there’s at least one shuttlecraft theft a damn season, come on! The other characters were not so great either. Dr. T’Pan had too much sass and not a lot of lines, Kurak was to pouty, and Dr. Christopher was far too emotional for someone married to a Vulcan. Like I said above, there were really only 2 things I liked about this episode… so there’s that.

Favorite Quote from “Rightful Heir”:

Picard: If he really is an imposter then you have nothing to worry about.

Gowron: Kahless has been dead for a thousand years, but the idea of Kahless is still alive. Have you ever fought an idea, Picard? It has no weapon to destroy, no body to kill. The idea of Kahless’ return must be stopped here, now, or it will travel through the Empire like a wave and leave nothing but destruction behind.

Gowron and his bulgy eyes have a point…

The Teachings of Kahless: “Perhaps the words are more important than the man.”

“Rightful Heir” begins with a shift change on the Enterprise, the first one where Worf is late. So naturally Riker believes something is wrong and shows up to Worf’s quarters where Worf is totally in a vision quest. Picard comes to reprimand Worf and Worf goes on and on about how unfulfilled he feels after the events of “Birthright“. Picard suggests a spiritual retreat and Worf takes a leave of absence to visit Boreth in the hopes of seeing a vision of Kahless, or as I like to call him… Klingon Jesus. After almost two weeks Worf begins to show impatience, but tries one more time at the urging of Koroth. This time Kahless does appear but he’s no vision, he’s real flesh and blood… just ask the tricorder. Kahless tells those gathered about how he made the bat’leth, but Worf is skeptical and challenges him to a fight. During the fight Kahless just stops and begins a chant about how Klingons are awesome and Worf is confused.

Back on the Enterprise, Gowron joins the crew and the Khaless entourage and proposes a test of the DNA from the blood on a holy artifact of Khaless and the Klingon formerly known as Kahless. Science doesn’t lie and he really is Kahless, except Gowron pokes holes in every story and challenges Kahless to a fight, and Kahless loses. Worf gets the truth from Koroth that they made a clone of Kahless to give the people someone to believe in again. Worf and Data have a chat about faith and Worf gives the proposal to Gowron that Kahless could be the moral leader, the emperor, and just like that Worf fixes the Klingon empire.

I’ve got to say, I really like Worf with his long hair… especially when he wears it down. Kahless sounds very much like Marie Kondo when he talks about joy, I mean can’t you just hear him saying “this Klingon does not spark joy”? I will say I did not see a clone coming and thought that it was a nice touch. I also think Worf is amazing when he comes up with compromises and plans that seem to work for everyone. He’s like the great Klingon ambassador who has never actually lived on the home world. Maybe that’s what it takes to be the “ideal” of something is to study the fuck out of it but never actually live in it so you cannot be corrupted. This episode has so much going for it; religion and faith discussions, political maneuvering, cloning, and even some bits about self-care (you can’t perform your duties if you’re sweating and chanting into a fire). The actors all played their parts well and even though we missed Troi, La Forge, and a few of the other regular crew, we got another excellent Klingon story and got to find out more about another culture and their faith practices. Kahless is absolutely correct, though, the words are always more important. I’ve got 9.5 important words for you: Wear your damn masks and stay inside you rat bast…

TA Out!

Date: May 18, 2020

Season 6, Episodes 20 and 21

Musical Accompaniment: Fantasy Forest Music

Interstellar News: Today absolutely felt like a Monday, but the last two days each had a moment of unexpected awesomeness and I’m trying to hold onto those feelings.

Favorite Quote from “The Chase”:

Picard: But until we assemble it, we will never know its purpose.

Ocett: He’s right. As far as we know, it might just be a recipe for biscuits.

Nu’Daq: Biscuits? If that is what you believe, then go back to Cardassia. I will send you my mother’s recipe.

A humorous conversation between three captains.

“The Chase” begins with the Enterprise on a three week mission evaluating protostars when Picard is called to the observation lounge and encounters his old archeology professor, Galen. The professor makes a compelling case to take Picard with him, but Picard turns him down and Galen leaves in his shuttlecraft. Suddenly a Yridian ship appears, they board the shuttlecraft, and start to tractor beam it in. Worf blows up the ship in one shot, to everyone’s disbelief, but Galen was mortally wounded and dies. Picard decides to say “to hell” with Starfleet orders and tries to figure out what all the mystery is about. The first planet is a bust, the second planet is undergoing a plasma reaction that destroys all life on it, and the third planet is where the Enterprise encounters two Cardassian ships and a Klingon vessel. They’ve all come to realize Galen’s found parts of a DNA puzzle written over four billion years ago, and they all have separate pieces.

Picard encourages them to cooperate, to which they agree initially, but Gul Ocett betrays the alliance and beams away as soon as the last piece is “found”. The problem is that Picard knew ahead of time and gave them misinformation, so they take Nu’Daq with them since his ship needs an hour to go. They arrive at the real location but are met by the Cardassians and the Romulans, who all start arguing over who should get the last piece. Picard and Crusher use that time to scrape off some rock-bed, put it in the tricorder, and then a message appears ala Leia’s message in A New Hope. The message is from a humanoid woman who explains that her kind is where many of those gathered originally came from and her kind hopes that their memory can be kept alive. The Cardassians and Klingons are disgusted but the Romulan captain is hopeful.

It was an absolute delight to see Picard geek out over archeology and also be right back in that student-teacher relationship that you never grow out of, no matter how old and important you get. There was also a fantastic scene between Nu’Daq and Data, and to be honest they guy who played Nu’Daq totally looked like he was having a blast. I also loved Gul Ocett who made not only an excellent Cardassian captain, but also put so much emotion in her performance. There was so much mystery and entertainment in this episode that the ending felt like a bit of a letdown, much like last episode. There was the promising bit from the Romulan captain, but he was kind of boring and dull. This episode did have a little bit of everything a good mystery needs, but I felt like the ending could have used juuuuuuuust a little more work and also, why was no one concerned about the Yridian ship? I’m sure there was a heavy loss of life and someone should have at least taken a look at the phasers. 6 more pieces of DNA to find for Picard!

Favorite Quote from “Frame of Mind”:

Data: Commander, I must compliment you on your performance this evening.

Riker: Oh?

Data: Your unexpected choice to improvise was an effective method of drawing the audience into the plight of your character. You gave a truly realistic interpretation of multi-infarct dementia.

Riker: Thank you.

Data always knows just what to say

“Frame of Mind” begins with crazy eyes Riker talking to a doctor who sounds an awful lot like Data, which is true because he and Data are rehearsing for a play. The Enterprise is heading on a rescue mission where Riker will have to beam down alone and undercover as a merchant, so he’ll spend the next five days preparing. His first stop is with Worf, who accidentally cuts him, which leads to a strange encounter in sick bay. He shares his uneasiness with Troi and keeps seeing the same strange alien around, including at the play. All of a sudden he finds himself in Ward 47, a psychiatric facility, on Tilonus IV where they tell him his life on the Enterprise is a delusion.

The rest of the episode is spent with Riker bouncing back and forth between the facility and the Enterprise. On the Enterprise he’s either getting ready for the play, rehearsing, or performing it. At the facility he is told that he’s there because he stabbed a man and they’re trying to figure out what happened. They decide to try reflection therapy where Troi, Worf, and then Picard all manifest as holographic images and tell the story of how Riker got there, but then so does that same alien who keeps popping up. Riker has decided the mental facility is real life, so he reacts badly when Dr. Crusher comes to visit and also when Worf and Data try to break him out. Eventually Riker figures out all of it is really fake and he wakes up in his merchant outfit while the aliens are doing a “neuro drain”. He escapes, beams back to the Enterprise, and then dismantles the stage in the what will be the best therapeutic catharsis.

Riddle me this Batman. Why is it that when Riker gets captured he always winds up in the damn hospital or has a total mind freak? So this episode kind of reminds me of the show Awake where the lead detective lives two realities, one where his wife survived the car crash and the other where it was his son instead. Riker is trying to figure out the whole time which reality is real, but he comes to realize everything is fake and he’s going to play out the last five minutes of “Schisms” where he rage quits and busts out of his captivity. I was also super stoked they mentioned Jung in this episode, as I totally studies him in graduate school. If you’ve ever taken a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test, it’s based on Jung’s work, though your type can change over time. I’m always an “ENTJ” but sometimes I score “ENTP”. But I digress. This episode sucks you in the minute it begins and had you guessing the entire time. Was his whole world a lie? What are they doing to him and why? Is Riker just really getting into method acting and turning into Heath Ledger after his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight? None of these are true, aliens just hijacked Riker’s mind and he he-mans it out of there and then proceeds to do the only logical thing, tear that set down. 9 out of 10 dentists agree that Riker should choose their next brand of toothpaste.

TA Out!

Date: May 17, 2020

Season 6, Episodes 18 and 19

Musical Accompaniment: Lost Jungle of Mysteries

Interstellar News: I have no actual idea what I did all day.

Favorite Quote from “Starship Mine”:

Worf: Captain, you keep a saddle on board?

Riker: Mr. Worf, I’m surprised at you.

Dr. Crusher: Anyone who is an experienced rider naturally has his own saddle.

Troi: It’s perfectly normal.

Crusher and Troi are waving their hands in sarcasm while Worf is totally confused.

“Starship Mine” begins with the Enterprise docking at the Remmler Array and evacuating the crew so it can go through the baryon sweep to eliminate any radiation on board. Picard deals with all of his department heads and encounters Data who has written as “small talk subroutine” that needs a little work, but Picard suggests he get pointers from Commander Hutchinson down on Arkaria. At the reception Hutchinson talks to everyone and happens to mention horses in from of Picard who is jonesing for a ride, so he runs back to the Enterprise to fetch his saddle. He sees that something is wrong and is attacked by Devor, but is able to subdue him. Unfortunately he runs out of time and the ship runs out of power before he can beam off and the scan begins.

On the ship Picard questions Devor but winds up having to knock him out and leave him in sick bay. Picard is caught, however, by Kiros and taken to engineering where he introduces himself as Mr. Mot, the barber. Picard creates a diversion, is chased by Satler who falls victim to Picard’s trap and dies. Picard head’s to Worf’s room and gets himself battle ready. He also speaks to Kelsey, the leader, and encourages her to forget the resin they’re stealing because it’s so volatile. Picard sets of his traps in Ten-Forward but Kelsey is beamed off the ship with the container. Unfortunately for her, Picard took the control rod.

At the reception, Riker pairs Hutchinson and Data together and the two just babble about the most random of topics. La Forge’s VISOR reads something strange under the table and that causes Orton and the waiter to shoot La Forge and Hutchinson and take everyone hostage. Hutchinson is killed and La Forge is badly hurt. Dr. Crusher modifies La Forge’s VISOR so that everyone, except for Data, collapses so Data can try to save the day. Just then, Data hears Picard’s cry for help, shuts down the array, and inquires about the ship that’s escaping… which then explodes. Back on the Enterprise, Worf finds Picard’s saddle and all is well in the world.

This episode is a little bit Die Hard and a little bit Home Alone, and it’s not terrible but also not amazing. The bad guys had two women from Bablyon 5 on their team and they still lost? They had a plan and some contingencies, but when it comes to money someone always gets screwed over and, in this case, the entire crew died. I bet Worf was pissed he missed the chance to battle and he must have been honored that Picard chose his quarters to arm himself. This is also now time 4,267 that Data has saved the ship and everyone aboard. I’m a little taken aback by how Picard kills *almost* everyone, except I realize he doesn’t do it directly. He medically knocks out Devor, plants a trap for Satler, and uses the crossbow on the other dude, but each ultimately die of the sweep. Neil is killed by Kelsey, Kiros is also killed by the sweep, and Kelsey is killed because she greedily takes the unstable container and doesn’t check that they lock is still on. At least Picard seems a little sad about it each time. 6 crying clowns for Picard.

Favorite Quote from “Lessons”:

Nella: What kind of flute is that?

Picard: It’s Ressikan.

Nella: I’ve never saw one before.

Picard: They’re not made anymore.

Nella: Have you been playing long?

Picard: Er, yes, a long time.

Picard completely underplaying the significance.

“Lessons” begins with Data running the bridge of the Enterprise at 0300 and Picard wanting to work on a personal project but being unable to do much of anything because stellar cartography has most of the systems offline. Picard heads down to see what’s so important and he meets the new head of the department, Nella Daren, who makes him some herbal tea and piques his interest. Over dinner with Dr. Crusher it’s clear Picard is smitten. They head to see Data’s concert where it turns out Nella is playing piano and Troi has a knowing look in the background. The next day Nella stops by Picards quarters and they have a short jam session, which turns into another date where they play music in the Jeffries tubes, and it’s all super adorable.

After their tube date, Picard wigs out in the turbolift when another crew member joins them. This prompts a discussion with Troi about protocol and then a discussion with Nella about what will happen if they start to go steady. Picard shares with Nella what happened to him in “The Inner Light“. The Enterprise has to evacuate an outpost pm Bersallis III due to an incoming storm, but they have to do some quick thinking because they need more time to evacuate all 643 people. Nella makes a good point and Riker assigns her to coordinate the effort and Picard is a nervous wreck. Picard ultimately has to give them the order to hold their positions when the storm hits, and Riker reports that teams three and six, including Nella, are missing. Picard falls into the pit of despair but the Worf tells him there are some survivors, and one of them is Nella. While they saved all of the colonists, they lost eight crew members. Picard expresses his love for Nella but realizes he could never put her in danger. She decides to apply for a transfer and while Picard is optimistic that they will still see each other, Nella knows the truth.

This episode started out entertaining, became super adorable, was then very suspenseful – the whole time I was going “oh come on don’t make her die”, and ended on the absolute worst note. Let’s break this down. First, I am in absolutely shock that there is no Starfleet rule about becoming involved with subordinates, even if it’s only that you have to disclose it or something. Second, this story could have benefited from either having their relationship develop over several episodes, or even a season, or from that thing TV shows do where they indicate more time has passed by doing a time montage or something. It was so endearing to see Picard in love, he was so instantly smitten. As someone who has experienced that exact feeling, I totally buy that.

What I don’t buy is his lame ass excuse at the end. If you’re the one who has a problem sending someone into danger, you’ve lost sight of your job as a captain. Go see Troi and get some therapy, but don’t throw away your love or ASK HER TO COMPLETELY UPEND HER CAREER! Like an idiot, however, Nella Daren agrees to ask for a transfer off of the flagship of the Federation because her new boyfriend thinks it’s too dangerous. If you can’t hear me rolling my eyes from here, know that that is what I am doing. Also, how eerie/creepy/weird was it that Nella and Crusher were, ummmm, pretty similar looking. Clearly Picard has a type. I will say there was one saving grace, and that was La Forge. When Nella suggests her idea, he gets all excited and it all “it just might work” and it’s adorable as hell. Three-quarters of this episode were good, but the ending really botched it for me. 7 off-key notes for Picard, and this episode.

TA Out!

Date: May 16, 2020

Season 6, Episodes 16 and 17

Musical Accompaniment: A collection of classical music symphonies.

Interstellar News: Husband and I spent several hours outside cleaning out and rearranging the shed in 80 degree weather surrounded by wasps and spiders, so my brain is totally fried. Did I mention there were spiders?

Favorite Quotes:

Troi: Did the table do something wrong?

…

Troi: Would you like to talk about what’s bothering you or would you like to break some more furniture?

…

Troi: If you’re so sure about that, why are you still so upset? Worf, you can’t deny the possibility just because you don’t want it to be true. If you want to talk about this, you know where to find me.

A collection of three amazing lines by Troi, all aimed at Worf.

Worf’s One-Two Punch: “Delicious.” in response to La Forge saying “I don’t see how you can eat that stuff. It tastes like liquid polymer.”

L’kor: Why did you come here? If you had found your father you would have found only dishonor.

Worf: If he had been captured as you were, if I had found him here, I would be glad to see him. There is no room in my heart for shame.

L’kor: I can only hope that if my son came here, he would be Klingon enough to kill me.

Riddle me this Batman, why couldn’t they all just kill each other at that point? Seriously, don’t shame Worf who probably has a better understanding of honor than you do…

Quick Summary:

Part 1: The Enterprise arrives at the Deep Space 9 station to help the Bajorans. Data goes to check on a breach in sick bay where he meets Dr. Bashier who is trying to analyze some equipment and is fascinated by Data. Bashier, La Forge, and Data decide to test the device in engineering, but Data is hit by a plasma shock and has what I can only describe as an out-of-body experience. La Forge tells him he was offline but Data remembers seeing Dr. Soong, and the plot thickens. Data talks to Worf, who once went on the Klingon version of a vision quest, and Picard and decides to paint and “be inspired”. Data paints 23 images, but some are not quite from the vision he originally saw so he asks Bashier and La Forge to help him recreate the experience. This time Data meets a very young Dr. Soong who explains that Data has finally learned how to dream. Data shares with Bashier that he will take some time to turn himself “off” everyday to see what new experiences he can create.

Worf is approached by a Yridian named Jaglom Shrek who tells him that his father is still alive in a Romulan prison camp. After speaking with Data, Worf realizes he must find out what happened to his father. Worf and Shrek travel to the Carraya sector where Worf finds other 73 Klingons and some Romulans. Mogh, he father, is not one of them as he really died on Khitomer. Disappointed, Worf is still determined to free the Klingons but is instead captured for his trouble.

Part 2: The older Klingons explain to Worf what happened and that he now has to stay there. Worf interacts with the young Klingons, some of whom appear to be just a wee bit Romulan, and realize they have been told lies to “keep them safe”. Worf meets Tokath, creates a diversion, and tries to leave the camp but is captured and confined to stay within the walls. Once he is at the camp he cannot stand for the youngsters to not know of their heritage, their culture, and he takes on the role of teacher quite well… starting with mok’bara and telling them stories. Ba’el and Worf are super flirty until Worf sees her ears and realizes she’s part Klingon and part Romulan. He gets super ridiculous and racist and begins preaching that those two races could never mate, how unholy that is, maybe forgetting that he also bedded and procreated with someone who was half-not-his-species. The next day Worf has the decency to apologize, I mean it is super hard to overcome some deep seeded hatred just like that, and then he decides to teach Toq how to hunt. Toq drinks the Klingon Kool-Aid and leads everyone in the victory song, which totally sounds like when the dwarves sing “The Misty Mountains Cold” in The Hobbit. Tokath decides Worf is too dangerous and decides to put him to death only to have others in the camp stand beside him and his Klingon wife tell him that they should let the kids go explore the universe.

At some point the Enterprise figures out Worf is missing. They head out to find him only to receive a cryptic message about meeting a Romulan vessel. He and those that wanted to leave the Klingon camp beam aboard and, when asked by Picard, Worf lies through his teeth about the others being survivors of a crash. I think we all know Picard sees right through him, but lets it slide. Clearly Picard believes that Worf knows what is best.

My Thoughts and Impressions: I absolutely loved these episodes. Let’s start with Data’s story. When Data first confronts Bashier his first instinct is to help Bashier with the problem but then he’s like “waaaaait a minute, you still need permission”! It’s similar to when he was escorting Kamala around the ship in “The Perfect Mate” and a few other occasions my tired brain can’t remember right now where his positronic brain wants to do the thing someone asked for before something else kicks in and he knows he must do something else. I also think it’s adorable that he’s going to take some time out of his day for himself. Everyone needs self care, even androids.

Worf’s story was excellent from beginning to end. The intrigue that his father might be alive, the processing of his very complicated feelings, and his eventual reunion with some more of his kind… even if it leads to his capture. He sort of embodies the council elder who’s supposed to teach all of the kids about “how to be Klingon”, only he does it on his own and without any prodding. I was practically screaming at him to be like this with Alexander, but maybe it is because of Alexander he wanted to develop the minds of Klingon youths. I think it’s great that Klingons have something similar to a quinceañera, debutante ball, or Sweet 16 tradition, only it’s for mating instead of “introducing a young lady to society” or whatever. All I’ll say is my Sweet 16 was amazing and a lot of folks from my high school still talk about how baller the food was.

Just a few flaws, and all of them are just more in line with my questioning nature. I’m still not sure why the Romulans didn’t just execute their prisoners, or the Klingons didn’t just kill each other. I also don’t know why Shrek even bothered with Worf once he was told he was going to get paid after, and did that even ever happen one wonders. Also, Ba’el can’t really ever leave the colony unless she has surgery, always hides her ears, or someone lies about her parentage… right? I also didn’t like how ridiculous Worf was with Ba’el, as he sounded like someone pre-Civil Rights who thought White and Black people shouldn’t “mix”, ugh get over yourself Worf. Okay so Worf kind of did get over himself not too long after, but I kind of hate it when a character I like isn’t perfect – okay! Overall the first part helped set up the second part beautifully and I loved that Data’s journey influenced Worf’s and they both wound up with something they weren’t expecting but enhanced their lives nonetheless. I also really loved that both episodes focused on alien cultures that I’ve wanted to know more about since introduced. We see a Romulan who chose compassion over career, a Klingon or two who are able to eventually see past cultural differences, and android who will maybe, hopefully dream of electric sheep, and the humans are all superfluous. For a science fiction show set in an intergalactic universe, this is what I’m here for. Together these two episodes earn themselves a 9.9 on the Richter Scale.

TA Out!