Categories
Season 05 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Next Phase

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate not given: A small Romulan ship is stranded, its crew threatened by the imminent danger of an engine explosion. An Enterprise away team beams aboard to assess the damage, but when Geordi and Ro try to return to the Enterprise with a piece of Romulan equipment, they are apparently lost in a transporter malfunction, and the rest of the crew assume they are dead. Geordi and Ro both awaken on the Enterprise, but they cannot be heard or seen by anyone else on the ship, and their bodies are able to simply pass through solid walls and doors due to their molecules being “phased.” While Ro attempts to come to terms with her apparent death, Geordi discovers that he and Ro are leaving a trail detectable by the ship’s sensors. The two try to alert the Enterprise crew of their predicament, and discover that the Romulans can intentionally phase themselves and are nearing the conclusion of a plan to destroy the Enterprise.

Order the DVDswritten by Ronald D. Moore
directed by David Carson
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro), Thomas Kopache (Mirok), Susanna Thompson (Varel), Shelby Leverington (Brossmer), Brian Cousins (Parem), Kenneth Meseroll (Ensign McDowell)

Notes: Kenneth Meseroll may not be a familiar face, but he is a familiar voice to many SF and anime fans – he played the part of Derek Wildstar in Star Blazers, the U.S.-translated version of Space Battleship Yamato.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 06 Star Trek The Next Generation

Face Of The Enemy

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 46519.1: Counselor Troi, waking up after being kidnapped from a neuro-psychology seminar, finds herself aboard a Romulan Warbird, posing as a member of Romulan intelligence to participate in a carefully plotted defection attempt by a Vice-Proconsul of the Romulan High Council. With the clandestine guidance of a member of the Romulan crew, Troi plays her role convincingly. In the meantime, a former human defector to Romulus returns to the Federation and arrives on the Enterprise with a message to Picard from Ambassador Spock, who remains in hiding on Romulus assisting defectors and dissidents. The message sends an unwitting Picard to rendezvous with the ship carrying Troi and the defector, an encounter which forces Troi to make a split-second decision to either break with the intricate plans of the defection scheme, or to follow her Romulan confidant into what may be a trap.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Naren Shankar
story by Renè Echavarria
directed by Gabrielle Beaumont
music by Don Davis

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Scott MacDonald (N’Vek), Carolyn Seymour (Toreth), Barry Lynch (DeSeve), Robertson Dean (Pilot), Pamela Winslow (Ensign McKnight), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 06 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Chase

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 46731.5: Professor Galen, Picard’s beloved archaeology professor from his days at Starfleet Academy, comes aboard the Enterprise in an attempt to recruit Picard for a private expedition, the conclusion of which Galen claims to have profound implications for the entire galaxy. Picard regretfully turns down Galen’s offer, but later finds himself taking up the professor’s work when Galen’s ship is unexpectedly attacked and destroyed. Following his late mentor’s vague leads and secretive trails, Picard takes the Enterprise to distant worlds, attempting to piece the puzzle together. But it is discovered that others – a great variety of others, at that – are also attempting to finish Galen’s work, and the end result could be a secret of vast power.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Joe Menosky
story by Joe Menosky and Ronald D. Moore
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Salome Jens (Humanoid), John Cothran, Jr. (Nu’Daq), Maurice Roeves (Romulan Captain), Linda Thorson (Gul Ocett), Norman Lloyd (Professor Galen)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 06 Star Trek The Next Generation

Timescape

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 46944.2: Returning via runabout from a Starfleet conference, Picard, Troi, Geordi and Data encounter strange disturbances in time that seem to have limited physical range. Finally locating the Enterprise, they find her in some kind of exchange of fire with a Romulan warbird, in a zone of time that moves so slowly it appears to be still. Altering escape equipment to allow freedom of movement in the other areas of time, Picard and the others try to determine whether the Enterprise was invaded by Romulans, or if it was simply caught in a rescue attempt gone wrong – and whether or not they can restart the flow of time without bringing events to their inevitably disastrous end.

Order the DVDswritten by Brannon Braga
directed by Adam Nimoy
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Michael Bofshever (Romulan), John DeMita (Romulan), Joel Fredericks (Engineer), Patricia Tallman (Romulan)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Pegasus

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47457.1: The Enterprise is assigned to head for an asteroid belt in a sensitive area between Romulan and Federation space, with Admiral Pressman from Starfleet Security aboard. Along the way, it is clear that the Enterprise’s objective is top secret, and that Pressman and Commander Riker have some old business to discuss. On his first Starfleet mission as an ensign, Riker served aboard the USS Pegasus and witnessed a shipwide mutiny against that ship’s captain – Pressman. Riker defended Pressman at the time and they were among a handful of survivors who escaped before the ship was apparently destroyed by a mishap in engineering. Now, twelve years later, Pressman reveals to Riker that the Enterprise’s secret mission is to search for the Pegasus – Riker’s first starship still exists, and still harbors the treacherous secret that once sparked a vicious mutiny whose nature is still a dark, closely-guarded secret in the files of Starfleet Security.

Order the DVDswritten by Ronald D. Moore
directed by LeVar Burton
music by John Debney

Guest Cast: Nancy Vawter (Admiral Blackwell), Terry O’Quinn (Admiral Pressman), Michael Mack (Sirol)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

All Good Things…

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate not applicable (prehistory): On the planet Earth, the crucial moment in which life is sparked in primeval chemicals fails to occur. The planet remains uninhabited and the human race never comes into existence.

Stardate 41148: A vaguely disoriented Captain Jean-Luc Picard arrives aboard the starship Enterprise to take command, shortly after which he suddenly orders a red alert. After this incident passes, he issues a number of inexplicable orders, trying to deliberately bring about a meeting with an entity known as Q, and later setting the Enterprise on a fateful course for a spatial anomaly in the Devron system…

Stardate 47998.1: A very disoriented Captain Picard reports that he has been shifting from the present to two very specific points in the past and future – seven years ago when he first arrived aboard the Enterprise, and 25 years into the future. En route to the Neutral Zone to investigate a massing of Romulan forces near a spatial anomaly in the Devron system, Picard is accosted once more by Q, who finally pronounces the verdict of humankind’s trial which began at Farpoint – guilty.

Stardate unknown (the future): A retired Jean-Luc Picard, suffering from a degenerative neurological disorder, has settled in France to tend to the family vineyards. Geordi, now a writer, visits Picard, who complains of unsettling images from nearly three decades ago. In the course of tracking down the cause of Picard’s visions, nearly all of his old crewmates are recruited in the quest, made difficult by strained relations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, as well as those among the crew. Their destination is the Devron system, where, to Picard’s surprise, there is no sign of the existence of a spatial anomaly. At the heart of Picard’s mystery lies the secret needed to restore the flow of human history.

Order the DVDswritten by Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: John de Lancie (Q), Denise Crosby (Lt. Tasha Yar), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Andreas Katsulas (Tomalak), Clyde Kusatsu (Admiral Nakamura), Patti Yasutake (Nurse Ogawa), Pamela Kosh (Jessel), Tim Kelleher (Lt. Gaines), Alison Brooks (Ensign Chilton), Stephen Matthew Garvin (Ensign), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 03 Star Trek

The Search – Part I

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 48212.4: Preparations are being made aboard DS9 for an inevitable visit from the Dominion, but no one can escape the fact that the station would wither under an attack from the Jem’Hadar. Commander Sisko, having gone to Earth for Starfleet briefings on the threat from the Gamma Quadrant, arrives in the experimental Federation vessel Defiant, a small ship originally created to do battle with the Borg. Carrying more firepower than any other Starfleet ship and a cloaking device loaned by the Romulans, the Defiant is to go to the Dominion before the Dominion arrives in the Alpha Quadrant; if need be, the ship is also to take the fight to the other side of the galaxy. Another innovation brought about by Starfleet Command is the transfer of a Starfleet security officer to the station, relieving Odo of all but station-bound security matters. The shapeshifter withdraws in anger while Sisko assembles a crew for the Defiant’s mission to seek out the Dominion for negotiations, but joins the Defiant crew at the last minute. A trade contact of Quark’s offers some information but little help in the search for the Founders of the Dominion, but does point the crew out to a planet through which most Dominion communications pass. When the Defiant arrives there, Dax and O’Brien beam down and find the possible coordinates of the Dominion command center – and are captured by the Jem’Hadar, who have also arrived in force in orbit. The Defiant manages to take out only one Jem’Hadar ship and barely survives the withering assault of the remaining attackers. The Defiant is boarded and Kira is blasted unconscious in the ensuing melee. Odo takes her and evacuates in an escape shuttle, heading not back to the station, but to a planet in the Omarian Nebula with which he has been preoccupied since arriving in the Gamma Quadrant. The planet turns out to be the home of a race of life forms very like Odo himself, one of which welcomes him home.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Ronald D. Moore
story by Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
directed by Kim Friedman
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Salome Jens (Female Shapeshifter), Martha Hackett (SubCommander T’rul), John Fleck (Karemma), Kenneth Star Trek: Deep Space NineMarshall (Lt. Commander Eddington)

Notes: Salome Jens had previously appeared in a very Odo-esque makeup in the sixth season Next Generation episode The Chase; no connection was intended between the two characters. Martha Hackett would later surface on Voyager in the recurring role of Seska. This episode introduces the Defiant to Deep Space Nine; the new ship was intended to convince disgruntled Next Generation fans that the series’ action wasn’t simply confined to the station.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 03 Star Trek

The Search – Part II

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: Odo has arrived on his home world, greeted by his fellow shapeshifters. He at last learns of his origins – he, along with hundreds of other newly-formed shapeshifters, were dispelled into the far reaches of space and genetically programmed to return home with their knowledge later; Odo is the first to make it back. But his homecoming is not without its complications – his fellow shapeshifters consider him tainted by the many years he has spent in the comapny of “solids,” and he has much to learn about his heritage. In the meantime, Sisko and Bashir, having escaped the Defiant in a shuttle, are picked up by Dax and O’Brien, who return them to DS9. Negotiations are now apparently underway between the Dominion and the Federation, but some of the proposed treaty’s stipulations have sinister undercurrents; the Romulans are being excluded from the talks, though the Cardassians, Ferengi and Klingons are being welcomed, and it is revealed to Sisko that the station – and Bajor – are being handed over to the Dominion. As the Jem’Hadar being walking over the station’s inhabitants, Sisko and his crew – and unlikely ally Garak – take up arms to try to take DS9 back from its new owners. Meanwhile, on the planet of the shapeshifters and unknown to all, the Founders lie in wait, conducting a terrifying experiment.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Ira Steven Behr
story by Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Salome Jens (Female Shapeshifter), Andrew Robinson (Garak), Natalija Nogulich (Admiral Nechayev), Martha Hackett (SubCommander T’rul), Kenneth Marshall (Lt. Commander Eddington), William Frankfather (Male Shapeshifter), Dennis Christopher (Borath), Christopher Doyle (Jem’Hadar Officer), Tom Morga (Jem’Hadar Soldier), Diaunte (Jem’Hadar Guard), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 Star Trek Voyager

Eye Of The Needle

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate 48579.4: Harry’s sensor sweeps for space anomalies detect a wormhole which Janeway diverts Voyager off course to investigate. Though a probe is able to determine that the wormhole leads homeward to the Alpha Quadrant, the wormhole is too small to travel through. When the probe is scanned by a ship on the other side, the crew begin using it as a relay satellite and make contact with a Romulan ship. Though the Romulan captain is skeptical of Janeway’s claim that Voyager is in the Delta Quadrant, he eventually realizes the truth and offers to help transmit messages home. Later, B’Elanna discovers a possible way to beam through the wormhole to the Romulan ship, but this method of returning to the Alpha Quadrant is halted by an unforseeable problem.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Bill Dial & Jeri Taylor
story by Hilary J. Bader
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres), Jennifer Lien (Kes), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim), Vaughn Armstrong (Telek), Tom Virtue (Lt. Baxter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 03 Star Trek

The Die Is Cast

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: One of the first priorities of the alliance between the Cardassian and Romulan secret police is to extract whatever information on the Founders that Odo may possess. At the wormhole, they briefly appear to the crew of DS9 as they decloak; Starfleet orders Sisko to keep the Defiant at the ready in the event of Dominion retaliation against the Alpha Quadrant. Starfleet is also sending more ships to the station as well. Sisko, however, deducing that Odo and Garak are aboard one of the ships, decides to leave DS9 ahead of schedule and retrieve Odo. What he does not know is that the Dominion has planned for the Cardassian-Romulan assault for a long time, and that he’s about to take the Defiant into the biggest space battle the galaxy has seen since Wolf 359.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Ronald D. Moore
directed by David Livingston
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Andrew Robinson (Garak), Leland Orser (Lovok), Kenneth Marshall (Lt. Commander Eddington), Leon Russom (Admiral Toddman), Paul Dooley (Enabran Tain), Wendy Schenker (Romulan Pilot)

Notes: Leon Russom also wore the braids of the Starfleet Admiralty in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 04 Star Trek Voyager

Message In A Bottle

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: Seven of Nine uses an alien communications relay to locate a Federation starship in the Alpha Quadrant. Janeway decides to send the Doctor through the relay as a data stream with orders to tell Starfleet of Voyager’s misadventures. When the Doctor arrives aboard the U.S.S. Prometheus, however, he discovers that the experimental warship has been hijacked by Romulans, and the Starfleet crew are all dead. He can’t return to Voyager without drawing attention to himself, so he passes himself off as the ship’s holographic doctor when he is discovered. But he discovers that the Prometheus has its own EMH program – supposedly an improvement on the original Zimmerman model – who is hiding from the Romulans. The Doctor must put his years of unprecedented experience to work to thwart the Romulans single-handedly, while trying to prove to the next generation of the holographic doctor that there’s more to life than waiting to be activated in sick bay. Meanwhile, a lone alien tries to warn Voyager away from the communications array, and Seven tires of attempts at diplomacy and kills him, unwittingly alerting the rest of his race that Voyager is there.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Lisa Klink
story by Rick Williams
directed by Nancy Malone
music by Paul Baillargeon

Guest Cast: Andy Dick (EMH-2), Judson Scott (Romulan Commander), Valerie Wildman (Romulan Officer), Tony Sears (Starfleet Officer), Tiny Ron (Hirogen), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

Notes: Judson Scott appeared in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan as Khan’s right-hand man, Joachim, as well as with Trek II co-star Merritt Butrick in the early Next Generation episode Symbiosis.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 06 Star Trek

In The Pale Moonlight

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 51721.3: With things looking grim for the war effort against the Dominion, Sisko becomes convinced that he must somehow bring the Romulans into the conflict on the Federation side. He enlists Garak to find evidence of possible Dominion plans to attack Romulus; but such evidence can’t be obtained legitimately, so Garak persuades Sisko that they can manufacture the evidence – a fake holoprogram. What lengths will Sisko go to, and what rules will he break, even if it saves lives?

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Michael Taylor
story by Peter Allan Fields
directed by Victor Lobl
music by David Bell

Guest Cast: Andrew J. Robinson (Garak), Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun), Casey Biggs (Damar), Howard Shangraw (Tolar), Stephen McHattie (Vreenak)

Original title: Patriots

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 07 Star Trek

Image In The Sand

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: On Earth, three months after the wormhole closed and the Orbs went dark, Sisko has a vision of uncovering a woman’s face in the sands of Tyree. He learns that the woman was his real mother, Sarah, and that she had left behind a locket with ancient Bajoran writing on the back, which reads “Orb of the Emissary.” Despite an attempt on his life by a member of the Cult of the Pah-Wraith, Sisko resolves to seek the Orb on Tyree, accompanied by his father and Jake. Meanwhile, on DS9, a Romulan military presence is established, but when they take over a Bajoran moon in order to build a hospital complex which also serves as a weapon storage facility, the Bajoran government wants them out; and Worf, Bashir, and O’Brien decide to undertake a dangerous mission in Jadzia’s name.

Season 7 Regular Cast: Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko), Nicole de Boer (Ezri Dax), Michael Dorn (Lt. Commander Worf), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Alexander Siddig (Dr. Bashir), Nana Visitor (Colonel Kira)

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun), Casey Biggs (Damar), Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross), J.G. Hertzler (Martok), Megan Cole (Cretak), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), James Darren (Vic Fontaine), Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko), Johnny Moran (Bajoran Man)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 07 Star Trek

Shadows And Symbols

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 52152.6: With Ezri Dax, Jake, and his father, Sisko goes to Tyree to seek the Orb of the Emissary. On the way there, and as he is digging in the desert, he begins having visions again – but are they from the Prophets or their enemies? Meanwhile, Kira leads a blockade against the Romulans in order to stop more weapons from being brought to Durna; and Worf, Bashir, O’Brien, Quark, and Martok go to Monak IV to destroy a Dominion shipyard so that Jadzia’s soul can get into StoVoKor.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun), Casey Biggs (Damar/Dr. Wyckoff), Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross), J.G. Hertzler (Martok), Deborah Lacey (Sarah Alien), Megan Cole (Cretak), Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko), Lori Lively (Siana), Cuauhtemoc Sanchez (Bajoran Crewman)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 07 Star Trek

Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: On the eve of a trip to Romulus for a conference and seminar on the Dominion, Bashir is visited by Sloan, who wants him to gather data on the Romulan leadership. Sisko advises Bashir that this might be a good way to learn more about Section 31 as well. At the conference, Sloan tells Bashir that he is to diagnose Chairman Koval of the Tal Shiar, who is suspected to have a disease called Tuvan syndrome. Believing that Sloan may be planning to use the disease as a cover to assassinate Koval, Bashir has no one to turn to except a Romulan senator.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Ronald D. Moore
directed by David Livingston
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Andrew J. Robinson (Garak), Adrienne Barbeau (Cretak), John Fleck (Koval), Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross), Hal Landon Jr. (Neral), William Sadler (Sloan), Cynthia Graham (Wheeler), Joe Reynolds (Hickam)

Notes: The U.S.S. Bellepheron is an Intrepid class starship, meaning that the producers could cut costs by shooting on the standing sets of its fellow Intrepid class ship, Voyager. The episode’s title is Latin for “in times of war, the law falls silent.”

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover