Star Trek: The Next Generation 1.08

The Battle

Captain Picard starts to experience headaches just before an encounter with a Ferengi vessel. Dr. Ceusher checks him out but can't figure out what is wrong with him.

DaiMon Bok plus his first and second officers beam over to the bridge of the Enterprise. Bok explains that they have something for Picard, the USS Stargazer, his old ship. The ship was believed lost after a battle nine years earlier in which the Stargazer blew up a Ferengi ship that opened fire on it. The Ferengi want Picard to accept it as a gift and ask for nothing in return.

Picard's headaches continue. Data, Tasha, Worf, and Geordie beam over to the Stargazer to check it out. Everything seems okay. Picard beams over and checks it out. The headaches continue and seem to get worse. Picard starts hallucinating. He brings back a box of belonging that he had to leave behind when the Stargazer was abandoned.

Wesley discovers that there is something strange being transmitted from the Stargazer. He believes that it has to do with the captain's headaches. The captain is supposed to be resting but then he beams over to the Stargazer and raises the shields.

Worf finds something in the box that Picard brought back from the Stargazer. There is a similar device aboard the Stargazer. Geordie examines it and surmises that it may be responsible for the Captain's headaches and his hallucinations.

Picard turns the Stargazer around to face the Enterprise. He seems to be reliving the battle from nine years prior. It seems like he getting ready to open fire on the Enterprise when Riker finally gets through to Picard and convinces him to blow up the device on the Stargazer that is affecting his thoughts and giving him headaches.

Thoughts

I've seen this episode referenced a number of times when researching other episodes. I wasn't sure what to expect but this episode didn't really measure up to what I hoped it would be. 

I did not, as is frequently the case, describe every scene in this episode. On the whole I found it to be somewhat jumbled and rushed. There might have been a good episode somewhere in here but I couldn't find it. There were no interesting guest stars. The only guest stars for that matter were the three Ferengi who beamed over early in the episode.

Notes

Frank Cosentino played the part of DaiMon Bok. This is the first of two episodes of this show in which he appeared. The other episode was 3.24 Ménage à Troi.

The story for this episode was written by Larry Forrester. It is the only episode of Star Trek that he wrote and it is his last screen writing credit. Herbert Wright wrote the teleplay for this episode. It is one of four episodes of this series that he had a hand in writing. The only other one of those four episodes that I have seen is 1.19 Heart of Glory. He was the producer for 21 of the first season episodes and six from the second season.

This is the second of 13 episodes of this show that Rob Bowman directed. I have now seen nine of those episodes. The last one he directed was 4.03 Brothers.