Category: The Next Generation

Stardate 44143.7: Finding a Talarian training vessel in deep space, the Enterprise crew discover that one of the ship’s crew is actually a human teenager. Dr. Crusher’s examinations reveal that he has been injured in the past as well – and it’s likely that these came about on purpose. When the boy’s Talarian foster father appears to reclaim him, Picard is left with a choice – either return the boy to a society whose people may have abused him, or face the possibility of starting a war.

teleplay by John Whelpley and Jeri Taylor
story by Ralph Phillips
directed by Gabrielle Beaumont
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Sherman Howard (Endar), Chad Allen (Jono), Barbara Townsend (Admiral Rossa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 44215.2: Rushing into dangerous territory on Turkana III, a planet whose government once warned that any Federation personnel would die if they visited there again, the Enterprise is looking for an escape pod containing two men who left a critically damaged vessel. The pod has landed on Turkana III, requiring an away team to visit. They find two “cadres” – urban gangs so large they have replaced the government and now conduct their street fighting on a warlike scale – one of which is willing to help find the Federation shipwreck survivors. The Enterprise’s liason to the cadre is the younger sister of the late Tasha Yar, and no one knows whether or not to trust her.

written by Joe Menosky
directed by Robert Scheerer
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Beth Toussaint (Ishara Yar), Don Mirault (Hayne), Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Vladimir Velasco (Tan Tsu), Christopher Michael (Man #1)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 44286.5: While investigating suspicious energy readings on Alpha Onias III – a planet that would be ideal for a secret Romulan base – Riker, Geordi and Worf are overcome by toxic gases. Geordi and Worf, however, are rescued via transporter, while the Enterprise loses all trace of Riker. Riker awakens in the sick bay of the Enterprise, told by an older Dr. Crusher that sixteen years have passed since that event, and that a virus he contracted on the mission to Alpha Onias III recently became active, causing him to lose all memory back to that event. He is now the ship’s Captain, Data is First Officer, and Picard – now an Admiral – is completing the final arrangements for the signing of a peace treaty between the Romulans and the Federation, and Riker has a teenage son as well. But glaring mistakes soon point out to Riker that this scenario is not, in fact, happening, and that it’s all a nearly perfect simulation. But the question remains – who’s behind it, the Romulans…or someone else?

written by J. Larry Carroll & David Bennett Carren
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Andreas Katsulas (Commander Tomalok), Chris Demetral (“Jean-Luc Riker”/”Ethan”), Carolyn McCormick (Minuet), Patti Yasutake (Nurse), Todd Merrill (Gleason), April Grace (Transporter Chief Hubbell), George O’ Hanlon, Jr. (Transporter Chief), Dana Tjowander (Barash)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 44356.9: Shortly after counseling crewmember Janet Brooks over the loss of her husband, Troi begins to experience severe pain, and at the same time, the Enterprise is suddenly unable to go to warp speed. Data and Geordi determine that they’re caught in a field of steadily moving two dimensional particles that seem to be alive, while Troi realizes that she’s lost her empathic sense. When it is discovered that the entities are heading toward a black-hole-like cosmic string and carrying the Enterprise with them to destruction, Picard relies on Troi for an answer, although she has lost confidence in herself.

teleplay by Hilary J. Bader and Alan J. Bader & Vanessa Greene
story by Hilary J. Bader
directed by Chip Chalmers
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Kim Braden (Janet Brooks), Mary Kohnert (Ensign Allenby), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 44474.5: The Enterprise arrives at Ventax III to retrieve a Federation anthropological team, only to discover that the planet is in a state of chaos and the team has been taken hostage by the Ventaxians, who believe their peaceful way of life is about to end with the “second coming” of Ardra – the devil. But when Ardra takes a dangerously personal interest in Picard, he must quickly find some way to discredit her.

teleplay by Philip Lazebnik
story by Philip Lazebnik and William Douglas Lansford
directed by Tom Benko
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Marta Dubois (Ardra), Paul Lambert (Dr. Clark), Marcelo Tubert (Acost Jared), Thad Lamey (Devil Monster), Tom Magee (Klingon Monster)

Notes: The script for this episode actually originated in the 1970s, when it was originally written for the planned but abandoned Star Trek: Phase II series, which would have told new tales of Captain Kirk and the original Enterprise.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 44502.7: The Enterprise is on a routine mission, giving everyone a chance to relax, when an investigation of an unknown class-M planet sends the Enterprise through a wormhole that appears without warning and renders everyone but Data unconscious. But as the rest of the crew investigates what happened, they begin the discover that someone’s keeping secrets from everyone…and that someone happens to be Data.

teleplay by Bruce D. Arthurs and Joe Menosky
story by Bruce D. Arthurs
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Pamela Winslow (Ensign McKnight), Rhonda Aldrich (Madeline), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Patti Yasutake (Nurse), Thomas Knickerbocker (Gunman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate not given: Riker, having undergone facial surgery to look like a Malcorian and beamed down to Malcor III to coordinate other surgically disguised cultural observers from Starfleet, is injured in a riot and taken to a hospital, where his true nature is slowly deduced by Malcorian doctors while Riker remains out of touch with the Enterprise. Picard and Troi try to find open-minded individuals among that planet’s leaders and scientific minds, but discover that, like on late 20th century Earth, such people are few and far between.

teleplay by Dennis Russell Bailey, David Bischoff, Joe Menosky, Ronald D. Moore and Michael Piller
story by Mark Scott Zicree
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: George Coe (Chancellor Durken), Carolyn Seymour (Mirasta Yale), George Hearn (Berel), Michael Ensign (Krola), Steven Anderson (Nilrem), Sachi Parker (Nurse), Bebe Neuwirth (Lanel)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 44313.0: Geordi is delighted to welcome Dr. Leah Brahms aboard the Enterprise, having already gotten to know her – so he thinks – through a friendly holographic simulation in a crisis situation in the past. But the real Dr. Brahms is nothing like her holodeck alter-ego. Meanwhile, the Enterprise inadvertantly destroys a free-floating space creature and helps to deliver its newborn child, but the child thinks the Enterprise is its mother and attaches itself to the hull to “nurse” energy from the power reserves – and Geordi and Dr. Brahms are left to find the solution to this problem…if they can cooperate with each other.

teleplay by Maurice Hurley
story by Thomas Kartozian
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Susan Gibney (Dr. Leah Brahms), Lanei Chapman (Ensign Rager), Jana Marie Hupp (Ensign Poppin), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), April Grace (Transporter Technician)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 44631.2: The missing starship Brittain is found by the Enterprise, but Riker and an away team find that the entire crew of the Brittain went berserk and murdered one another, leaving a single survivor – a Betazoid who can’t speak and whose telepathic “ramblings” to Troi are puzzling. When the Enterprise is immobilized by a dangerous natural phenomenon, no one suspects that the survivor’s riddles may have some meaning, and members of the crew begin hallucinating slowly edging toward the same kind of madness that drove the Brittain’s crew to kill themselves…

teleplay by Pamela Douglas and Jeri Taylor
story by Shari Goodhartz
directed by Les Landau
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Rosalind Chao (Keiko), John Vickery (Andrus Hagan), Duke Moosekian (Lt. Gillespie), Craig Hurley (Ensign), Brian Tochi (Ensign Lin), Lanei Chapman (Ensign Rager), Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Deborah Taylor (Captain Zaheva)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Stardate 44664.5: Starfleet officers who were on an away team five years ago investigating a mysterious migration of previous explorers to the planet Tarchannen 3 are beginning to mutate into alien life forms and migrate to the planet themselves. Among them are Lt. Commander Leitjen, visiting the Enterprise, and Geordi La Forge. While Dr. Crusher keeps Leitjen in sick bay when her mutation begins, Geordi’s mutation goes unchecked and, more alien than human, he beams to the surface to join the other members of the away team, who have fully mutated.

teleplay by Brannon Braga
based on a story by Timothy de Haas
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Maryann Plunkett (Suzanna Leitjen), Patti Yasutake (Nurse), Amick Byram (Lt. Hickman), Dennis Madalone (Transporter Technician), Mona Grudt (Ensign Graham)

LogBook entry by Earl Green