Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.24

Ménage à Troi

Commander Riker and Counselor Troi and her mother are abducted by Ferengi captain Daimon Tog. Lwaxana Troi finds Tog repulsive but he is infatuated with her and her telepathic abilities which he hopes to use to make money. She has no interest in changing her mind but in the interest of getting herself, her daughter, and Commander Riker away from the Ferengi ship on which they are being held against their will, Lwaxana feigns interest in Tog.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.26

The Best of Both Worlds

The Enterprise arrives at Jouret IV after receiving a distress call from the colony located on the planet. Commander Riker beams down with Lieutenant Commander La Forge, Lieutenant Commander Data, and Lieutenant Worf only to discover that the Starfleet colony is gone.

Lieutenant Commander Shelby, an expert in the Borg, joins the investigation into what happened. She settles in on the Enterprise and takes part in a poker game hosted by Commander Riker. The next day she gets on Riker’s nerves when she and Data beam down to Jouret IV without telling Riker. She and Data find evidence that confirms that the Borg have been on Jouret IV.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.19

Captain's Holiday

Captain Picard returns from mediating a treaty exhausted. He has no interest in taking some time off but the crew conspires to make him take some time off on Risa.

Picard finds himself caught in the midst of some intrigue involving a human archaeologist, a Ferengi, and a pair of Vorgons from the 27th century. All of them are looking for the Tox Uthat, a device of great power that originated in the 27th century and that they believe to be hidden on Risa in the 24th century.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.06

Booby Trap

The Enterprise locates a thousand-year-old ship drifting in the midst of an asteroid field. The ship is fully intact. Captain Picard, Data, and Worf beam aboard the ship to investigate. They discover the skeletal remains of the crew still at their stations. They don't learn terribly much but when they return to the Enterprise they discover that the Enterprise is trapped.

A network of devices are slowly draining power from the Enterprise. They just have a matter of hours until the shields will be down and the Enterprise will be bombarded with lethal radiation.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.21

Hollow Pursuits

Lieutenant Reginald Barclay retreats into Holodeck simulations that include recreations of crew members. He has trouble dealing with the outside world. Lieutenant Commander La Forge, Barclay's supervisor, and Commander Riker complain to Captain Picard about Barclay's performance. They want to transfer him to another ship but Picard denies their request and urges La Forge to put more effort into getting more out of Barclay.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.16

The Offspring

Data creates an android which he names Lal. He allows it to choose its appearance. It chooses to look like a young, adult, human female. It looks more human than Data. 

Data instructs Lal as she starts to learn. He tries enrolling her in classes with humans but she does not possess the knowledge or experience to interact with most other humans. Data takes Lal to Ten Forward and places Lal under Guinan's supervision. The job allows her to learn by observing human behavior. 

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.23

Sarek

The Enterprise takes Ambassador Sarek to a peace conference. He is over 200 year old and his age is starting to get to him. He can no longer control his emotions, although he seems to be unaware or in denial of this fact. His assistant tries to unknowingly keep his emotions in check but there is some spill over and people aboard the Enterprise find themselves getting into heated arguments and fist fights with little to no provocation.

Captain Picard tries to talk Ambassador Sarek out of taking part in the peace conference. Sarek insists on going forward with his plans. Captain Picard proposes a solution, a mind meld between himself and Sarek. The ambassador accepts the captain's suggestion although he warns him that it will be a painful experience for Picard, and it is.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.07

The Enemy

Commander Riker, Lieutenant Commander La Forge, and Lieutenant Worf beam down to Galorndon Core to see if there are any survivors of a Romulan ship which crashed there. They find one but they are operating in a tight window due to storms on the planet's surface. Geordi gets separated and left behind when the window of opportunity closes and his location is unknown.

The Enterprise makes contact with a Romulan warship that is preparing to cross into Federation space to come looking for its missing ship. Captain Picard warns them not to do so and promises to return the survivor whom they found.

The efforts to rescue Geordi continue. Wesley comes up with a way to send a signal through the storm to Geordi. In practice it works but Geordi is unable to respond after he encounters Bochra, another Romulan survivor from the crashed spaceship. Bochra insists on holding Georgi at gun point until it is almost too late.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.05

The Bonding

Lieutenant Maria Aster, is killed during an away mission led by Worf. Lieutenant Aster was a widow and now her nine-year-son Jeremy (who lives aboard the Enterprise) and is an orphan. Worf feels responsible for what happened even though it was not his fault. Lieutenant Aster was killed by an explosive on a world that had long since been devoid of intelligent life. The explosive was not detected by any scans that the away team conducted.

Counselor Troi talks to Worf about what and how he is feeling. He expresses a desire to help Jeremy by sharing a Klingon ritual with the young boy. Troi expresses doubts about conducting such a ceremony.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.15

Yesterday's Enterprise

The Enterprise encounter a rift in space. One moment everything is normal, the next everything has changed. Tasha Yar, is alive once again and still serving on the Enterprise. The crew's uniforms have changed. Another starship appears before the Enterprise, NCC 1701-C, the Enterprise. Only Guinan recognizes that things aren't as they were moments before.

Captain Picard sends a team over to the Enterprise C. In the present the Federation is still at war with the Klingons. The away team finds survivors and that the Enterprise C is in bad shape. The away team stabilizes the Enterprise C.

Guinan talks to Captain Picard. She tells him that something, everything is wrong. She remembers how things were and tells him. He can't believe it.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.04

Who Watches the Watchers

A team of Federation archaeologists are secretly studying the Mentakkens, a primitive Vulcan-like race, when they are discovered. Liko, one of the Mentakkens, is taken aboard the Enterprise after he is injured. He thinks the crew of the Enterprise are gods, especially Picard. The crew of the Enterprise attempts to cover up the discovery but they only succeed in making the situation worse.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.13

Deja Q

The Enterprise is tasked with saving Brial 4 from imminent destruction as its moon's orbit is decaying and will soon crash into the planet. Lt Commander La Forge works on how to use the Enterprise to pull the moon off of the collision course with the planet. Q shows up unexpectedly. He claims to have been stripped of his powers by the Q Continuum. He experiences what it is like to be human for a time.

Geordie's attempts to use the Enterprise to restore the orbit of the moon are interrupted by the Callimarane, an alien race. They are there to exact revenge on Q for some past transgression of his. Just as Q is about to give himself up to the Callimarane, in order to save the Enterprise and Brial 4, his powers are restored. Q fixes things before he leaves and briefly gives Lt Commander Data the ability to laugh.

This was a fun episode to watch. Most of the entertainment value is in Q discovering what it means to be human. He experiences back pain and hunger for the first time. He talks to Data, who isn't human but has studied humanity, about what it means to be human. In a way it is a comedy of manners as it is about how Q treats those around him now that he is a mere mortal with the memory of what it was like to be a god-like being.

Data laughing was a weird sight to see. It looked so strange. He looked and sounded almost human when he laughed. I didn't know what to make of it. All of a sudden he was laughing. Why he was laughing wasn't exactly clear. It brought a smile to my face and confused me at the same time.

Corbin Bernsen makes a brief appearance in this episode in the role of another member of the Q Continuum. I believe it is his one and only appearance in any production of Star Trek.

I have been a bit reluctant to go back and watch the Q episodes of Star Trek. They can be entertaining but they aren't my favorite type of Star Trek stories. I suspect that the the culture clash that occurs when Q shows up is part what makes these episodes, or at the very least this one, fun to watch. Based on my positive experience with this one I'm now thinking about giving the earlier Q episodes a try, some of which I have probably seen before.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 3.10

The Defector

While traveling near the Neutral Zone the Enterprise is hailed by a Romulan warship. Aboard the ship is a single Romulan. He claims to be a low level logistics officer with information about a Romulan base that is under construction within the Neutral Zone. He has no evidence. He sets his ship to self-destruct before he is taken aboard the Enterprise. It seems that he must be lying. He must be a spy.

Eventually the defector reveals himself to be Admiral Jarok. He claims he is doing this because he wants peace between the Romulan Empire and the Federation for the sake of his children. Picard is moved enough to enter the Neural Zone and investigate the planet where the base is being constructed. They get there only to discover that there is no base. Jarok truly believed that there was a base but he was being tested by his superiors.

The Enterprise just barely escapes a potentially fatal encounter with a couple of Romulan warships thanks to some help from the Klingons. The Romulan ships were led by Admiral Tomalak who previously appeared in 3.07 (The Enemy) and would make two more appearances on the Next Generation. His only other appearances would be in Star Trek books and comic books.

The crux of this episode is the veracity of Admiral Jarok. Up until the final scenes in the episode the question seems to be is he leading the Enterprise into a trap or is he telling the truth. Other possibilities including the one that turns out to be the case might be true but the way the episode is presented makes it seem as if there are just two possibilities. Jarok is beyond emotional hurt when he discovers that he was fooled and commits suicide.

I found the performance by the actor playing Jarok to be very compelling.

Also worth mentioning is that the episode opens with Data practicing the part of King Henry V from the Shakespearean play of the same name, under the tutelage of Captain Picard. The play is mentioned more than once in subsequent scenes. If I was more familiar with the play then the quotes probably would have carried a little more weight than they did.

Overall this is a better than average episode and well worth watching. It reminded me in part of the a cold war movie. Not so much of any one film in particular but of the genre.