Category: The Next Generation

Stardate 41509.1: Wesley and the most intelligent children of the Enterprise are kidnapped by the powerful Aldeans, aliens of lore who have the power to cloak their planet from view but do not realize that the energy powering their miraculous world is responsible for the sterility of their race. At the insistence of Dr. Crusher and other parents of the other kidnapped children, Picard tries to negotiate with the Aldeans, which only angers them.

written by Hannah Louise Shearer
directed by Kim Manners
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Jerry Hardin (Radue), Brenda Strong (Rashella), Jandi Swanson (Duana), Paul Lambert (Rellien), Ivy Bethune (Katie), Dierk Torsek (Dr. Bernard), Michele Marsh (Leda), Dan Mason (Accolan), Philip N. Waller (Harry Bernard), Connie Danese (Toya), Jessica Bova (Alexandra), Vanessa Bova (Alexandra)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 41463.9: The Enterprise arrives to check up on a terraforming station, where the researchers and the visiting Away Team are unaware that the unseen killer in their midst is an intelligence whose existence is threatened by the changes to be effected on the planet.

teleplay by Robert Sabaroff
story by Karl Guers, Ralph Sanchez and Robert Sabaroff
directed by Corey Allen
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Walter Gotell (Mandl), Elizabeth Lindsey (Louisa Kim), Gerard Pendergrast (Bjorn Bensen), Mario Roccuzzo (Arthur Malencon), Carolyne Barry (Female Engineer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 41416.2: Wesley is faced with a challenging test of his intelligence as he auditions to be a Starfleet cadet, but hedoes not realize that the psychological exam he is to receive is the more grueling barrier. Aboard the Enterprise, the Captain is investigated by a pair of Starfleet officers who seem to have one thing on their minds: finding some fault in Picard’s logs with which to begin a court-martial to take him out of the command chair, suspecting Picard is part of a conspiracy within the ranks of Starfleet.

written by Sandy Fries
directed by Michael Vejar
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Ward Costello (Admiral Quinn), Robert Schenkkan (Commander Remmick), John Putch (Mordock), Robert Ito (TAC Officer Chang), Stephen Gregory (Jake Kurland), Tasia Valenza (T’Shanik), Estee Chandler (Oliana Mirren), Brendan McKane (Technician #1), Wyatt Knight (Technician #2), Daniel Riordan (Rondon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 41798.2: An Away Team consisting of Riker, Data and Yar runs headlong into danger when Riker is put in suspended animation by an intelligent robot weapon which proved to be too powerful for its creators – and it looks as if it may eliminate the away team, joined by Picard and Dr. Crusher, while its counterpart attacks the Enterprise, where Geordi fears his experience may not be enough to help the crew survive.

teleplay by Richard Manning and Hans Beimler
story by Maurice Hurley and Robert Lewin
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Vincent Schiavelli (Salesman), Marco Rodriguez (Captain Rice), Vyto Ruginis (Logan), Julia Nickson (Ensign Tsu), George De La Pena (Lt. Solis)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate not given: The Enterprise beams four passengers of a freighter aboard just before their vessel explodes in a planet’s atmosphere, but the two pairs of survivors can’t agree on who gets a barrel of felicium, an “elixir” which Dr. Crusher soon recognizes to be a narcotic – but the manufacturers of the drug soon see an opportunity to exploit their dependents by entangling Picard and Dr. Crusher in the prime directive.

teleplay by Robert Lewin, Richard Manning and Hans Beimler
story by Robert Lewin
directed by Win Phelps
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Judson Scott (Sobi), Merritt Butrick (T’Jon), Richard Lineback (Romas), Kimberly Farr (Langor), Kenneth Tigar (Margan)

Notes: Judson Scott and Merritt Butrick were on opposite sides in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan as well, with Butrick playing Kirk’s son David and Scott as one of Khan’s henchmen; this was one of Butrick’s last acting roles before dying of AIDS. Though it airs before Skin Of Evil, Symbiosis was produced after it, and you can see Denise Crosby’s true swan song here – look for her waving to the camera as the cargo bay doors close.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 41697.9: Picard and the crew investigate the source of distortions in time that are being felt across the galaxy and discover the ailing temporal scientist Dr. Manheim’s experiments have malfunctioned, sending his consciousness into an alternate dimension and leaving his body to die in Dr. Crusher’s sick bay, while his wife turns out to be the girl Picard left behind to join Starfleet.

written by Deborah Dean Davis and Hannah Louise Shearer
directed by Robert Becker
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Michelle Phillips (Janice Manheim), Rod Loomis (Dr. Paul Manheim), Isabel Lorca (Gabrielle), Dan Kern (Lt. Dean), Jean-Paul Vignon (Edourd), Kelly Ashmore (Francine), Lance Spellerberg (Transporter Chief)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 42193.6: Picard is confronted by an invincible alien intelligence who can alter the crew’s very perceptions of reality, and is horrified to learn that the entity plans on using half of the humans on board as lab animals to determine how many ways humans can die, so the captain, after exhausting all the options, sets for self-destruct.

written by Jack B. Sowards
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Ron Jones

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Diana Muldaur (Dr. Pulaski), Earl Boen (Nagilum), Charles Douglass (Ensign Haskell), Colm Meaney (Transporter Chief)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 42402.7: A nonchalant space rogue is welcomed aboard the Enterprise by Picard and the crew, but the pleasantries of his visit are cut short by two representatives of rival worlds demanding Okona’s life for crimes he claims not to have committed – yet he does know who the guilty parties are and it’s up to him to unite the aggressors.

teleplay by Burton Armus
story by Les Menchen, Lance Dickson and David Landsberg
directed by Robert Becker
music by Ron Jones

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), William O. Campbell (Okona), Douglas Rowe (Debin), Albert Stratton (Kushell), Rosalind Ingledew (Yanar), Kieran Mulroney (Benzan), Joe Piscopo (The Comic), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Teri Hatcher (Transporter Chief)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 42477.2: The Enterprise is forbidden to interfere in negotiations to be conducted by their passenger, the deaf, mute mediator Riva, who seems more interested in Counselor Troi than in seriously bringing two warring factions together. It is only when his Greek-like Chorus, a vital element in his task since they translate his thoughts into speech, is destroyed by a trigger-happy alien that Riva truly worries about the task he must accomplish.

written by Jacqueline Zambrano
directed by Larry Shaw
music by Ron Jones

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Diana Muldaur (Dr. Pulaski), Marnie Mosiman, Thomas Oglesby, Leo Damian (The Chorus), Howie Seago (Riva), Colm Meaney (Transporter Chief), Richard Lavin (Warrior #1), Chip Heller (Warrior #2), John Garrett (Lieutenant)

LogBook entry by Earl Green