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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

Final Mission

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44307.3: Picard reveals that Wesley has been accepted into Starfleet Academy. Wes’s final assignment on the Enterprise is to accompany Picard on a trip with an independent miner, Captain Dirgo, to settle a dispute between mining colonies. En route, Dirgo’s battered shuttle breaks down, forcing them to land on a desert world – but help is nowhere near because the Enterprise is attempting to move an abandoned freighter whose highly radioactive contents threaten the Enterprise and a nearby planet.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Kacey Arnold-Ince and Jeri Taylor
story by Kacey Arnold-Ince
directed by Corey Allen
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Nick Tate (Dirgo), Kim Hamilton (Songi), Mary Kohnert (Ensign Allenby)

Notes: With this episode, Wil Wheaton officially leaves the regular cast. Guest star Nick Tate is no stranger to flying shuttles; as hotshot pilot Alan Carter, he flew Space: 1999’s Eagles during the 1970s.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Loss

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 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.

Order the DVDsteleplay 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

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

Devil’s Due

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 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.

Order the DVDsteleplay 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

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

Clues

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 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.

Order the DVDsteleplay 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

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

First Contact

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 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.

Order the DVDsteleplay 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

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

Galaxy’s Child

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 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.

Order the DVDsteleplay 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

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

Night Terrors

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 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…

Order the DVDsteleplay 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

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

Identity Crisis

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 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.

Order the DVDsteleplay 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

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Nth Degree

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44704.2: Shortly after very nervously performing a scene from “Cyrano de Bergerac” with Dr. Crusher, Lt. Barclay is assigned to accompany Geordi on a close examination, via shuttle, of an alien probe that has impeded the functioning of a subspace telescope array. But after being scanned, the probe somehow singles Barclay out to receive a massive mental “upgrade,” doing away with the lieutenant’s legendary reclusiveness and shyness, and replacing those traits of his personality with knowledge and learning abilities beyond human experience…and arrogance.

Order the DVDswritten by Joe Menosky
directed by Robert Legato
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Dwight Schultz (Lt. Barclay), Jim Norton (Holodeck “Einstein”), Kay E. Kuter (Cytherian), Saxon Trainor (Lt. Larson), Page Leong (Ensign Anaya), David Coburn (Ensign Brower)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

Qpid

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44741.9: Picard is readying a speech on the subject of the planet Tagus 3, whose archaelogical digs are off-limits to outsiders, to be delivered to a group of distinguished archaeologists, and is surprised to find that Vash, a very fondly remembered acquaintance from his visit to Risa, is present as well, no doubt to fulfill her nefarious urge to go treasure-seeking. She and Picard seem to be able to agree on nothing, which catches the attention of Q, who, to force Picard to admit that he does indeed love Vash, sends the crew, Vash, and even himself, into Sherwood Forest. Picard, of course, becomes Robin Hood, his crew become Robin’s merry men, Q becomes Guy of Gisbourne, and Vash, naturally, is the damsel in distress…a role she doesn’t play willingly, or, indeed, correctly!

Order the DVDsteleplay by Ira Steven Behr
story by Randee Russell and Ira Steven Behr
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Jennifer Hetrick (Vash), Clive Revill (Sheriff of Nottingham), John de Lancie (Q), Joi Staton (Servant)

Notes: Clive Revill, the Sheriff of Nottingham in this story, also has another well-known science fiction saga in his resume: he provided the voice (and a shimmering but fuzzy image) of the Galactic Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 (Ian McDiarmid took that role over in 1983’s Return Of The Jedi when the Emperor finally made a personal appearance in the saga).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Drumhead

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44769.2: After an apparent sabotage of the Enterprise’s warp drive committed by Klingon exchange officer J’Ddan, Starfleet sends Admiral Nora Satie out of retirement to investigate the possibility of a Klingon faction cooperating with Romulans. But Satie goes beyond that, accusing a shy junior crewman of Romulan collaboration and even accusing Captain Picard of aiding Romulans and the Borg.

Order the DVDswritten by Jeri Taylor
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Jean Simmons (Admiral Satie), Bruce French (Sabin Genestra), Spencer Garrett (Simon Tarses), Henry Woronicz (J’Ddan), Earl Billings (Admiral Thomas Henry), Ann Shea (Nellen)

Notes: This episode begins a build-up to the season finale dealing with a possible Romulan-Klingon alliance. It was also the last episode of Next Generation to be scored by composer Ron Jones, who was fired by the producers for consistently disregarding instructions which Jones said were cramping his musical style.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

Half A Life

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44805.3: Kalon scientist Dr. Timicin has beamed aboard the Enterprise to travel to a star much like his planet’s own sun to conduct tests of a modified photon torpedo that could reduce the level of solar activity – something that needs to be done within decades, or Kalon II’s sun will explode, eradicating his people. When the test fails, Timicin continues, but he is due back on Kalon II so he may carry out the Resolution – a traditional Kalon ceremony in which one ends one’s life by painless suicide at sixty. Lwaxana Troi, also visiting the Enterprise, tries to convince Timicin to continue living, although his request for asylum from his people could result in war.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Peter Allan Fields
story by Ted Roberts and Peter Allan Fields
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: David Odgen Stiers (Timicin), Majel Barrett (Lwaxana Troi), Michelle Forbes (Dara), Terrence E. McNally (Science Minister B’Tardat), Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Carel Struycken (Mr. Homn)

Notes: Dennis McCarthy’s score was nominated for an Emmy in 1991.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Host

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44821.3: Ambassador Odan is being transported to the Peliar Zel system to attempt eleventh-hour mediation between civilizations on two moons. One society’s new power source may mean long-term pollution and deterioration of the other society’s world. Odan intends to settle the dispute, and on the two week trip he and Dr. Crusher have fallen in love. But when a faction of radicals attacks the shuttlecraft Odan has insisted upon taking to the surface of one of the moons – he refuses to use the transporter – Odan is severely injured and is forced to reveal that he is, in fact, a Trill – an alien symbiont within a humanoid host body. When Odan’s fellow Trills cannot send another host in time to save the parasite’s life, and a countdown to war begins on the two moons, Riker risks his own life to serve as a temporary host.

Order the DVDswritten by Michael Horvat
directed by Marvin V. Rush
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Franc Luz (Odan), Barbara Tarbuck (Governor Trion), Nicole Orth-Pallavicini (Kareel), William Newman (Lathal Trose), Patti Yasutake (Nurse Ogawa), Robert Harper (Lathal Bine)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Mind’s Eye

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44885.5: En route to an artificial intelligence conference on Risa, Geordi, alone in a shuttlepod, is kidnapped by Romulans, who send a “copy” of him to Risa. Under the supervision of a female Romulan who remains in shadows at all times, Geordi is tortured and brainwashed to obey, without question, instructions transmitted on a certain wavelength to his VISOR. When he returns to the Enterprise – with “memories” of his trip implanted into his mind – Picard deals with a belligerent Klingon colony governor who accuses the Federation of assisting a rebel political faction. In fact, however, there is another Klingon responsible for this, and he is relaying Romulan instructions to Geordi, who may unwittingly become an assassin…

Order the DVDsteleplay by Rene Echavarria
story by Ken Schafer and Rene Echavarria
directed by David Livingston
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Larry Dobkin (Ambassador Kell), John Fleck (Taibak), Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Edward Wiley (Governor Vagh), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice), Denise Crosby (Sela)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

In Theory

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44932.3: During the Enterprise’s investigation of a dark-matter nebula, Lt. Jenna D’Sora, recently having broken up with a longtime boyfriend, becomes attached to Data, who at first protests that he has no human feelings, and then attempts to emulate emotions. In the meantime, the density of the matter in the nebula pulls off an astonishing disappearing act – making an entire class-M planet fade from existence. And whatever caused that is in the path of the Enterprise.

Order the DVDswritten by Joe Menosky and Ronald D. Moore
directed by Patrick Stewart
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Michele Scarabelli (Lt. Jenna D’Sora), Rosalind Chao (Keiko), Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Pamela Winslow (Ensign McKnight), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice), and Spot

LogBook entry by Earl Green