ST:TNG Season Four, Episode Twenty-Four "The Mind's Eye"

ST:TNG Season Four, Episode Twenty-Four "The Mind's Eye"
Production Order: 24
Air Order: 24
Stardate: 44885.5
Original Air Date: May 27, 1991

 Geordi's Log 44885.5: "Going to Risa for this conference thing, but Picard has insisted that I get in some fun time while I'm there. Not gonna argue."

Geordi is chilling in the shuttle on route to Risa, drinking a cool drink and listening to music. For some reason, even though he is off-duty, and going a few days early to get some R&R in before the conference, he's in his uniform. Is it because he's taken a Starfleet shuttle and is therefore a representative of Starfleet? I dunno. Anyway, it's his downtime, so I'm gonna call him Geordi instead of La Forge.
He asks Majel if he can play a game. And... and she asks what a fucking game is. Is the computer not an encyclopedia? Has it never been asked to play a game before? I seriously find that hard to believe. In the last episode, Odon-Riker asks for a specific drink from the replicator, and it sounds like the drink was Trill-specific, and it asked for a molecular recipe, and I get that. It's a Federation replicator on a Starfleet ship, so it won't have everything.
But not knowing what a game is?
So he explains what he wants, and she's like, "cool, I'll ask trivia questions, you get 20 seconds to answer, and they'll get harder as you go along."
Majel: "List the resonances of the sub-quantum states associated with transitional relativity..."
Me: "Whut?"
Geordi: "That's easy -"
Majel: "... in alphabetical order."
Geordi: "Whut? Okay, crap -"
He gets them, but he can't quite get the last one in time. I didn't understand like 90% of what she asked for, and he knew all of them within 25 seconds, so I'd still call that a win.
She asks a second question (of which I understand the word "warp"), and he starts to answer, but then

Oops.

Geordi swings his chair around for funsies, and spots the Romulan cruiser.
"Whoa, shit! Shields up! Kill the music!"
(Seriously? She knows the phrase "kill the music" but not what a game is? Okay, I'll drop it.)
But it's too late. The shields fail, and Geordi is beamed off the shuttle.

Dramatic music! Opening credits break!

Picard's Log 44891.6: "We're escorting an emissary of the Klingon Empire to the Kriosian system. One of their colonies is fighting for independence."

Picard is in his ready room with Riker and Ambassador Kell. Kell is complaining that the Klingon Empire used to just squash uprisings like this, and now it's "tolerated."
Oh, wow. So sorry your people have figured out that peace is sometimes the way.
Picard, a bit surprised, asks if Kell is going to grant the colonists independence.
"Ehh, we got too much shit going on right now to devote energy and resources to put them down," Kell admits. "We can re-conquer them later if we feel like it."
I roll my eyes at this, and wonder if I am feeling a bit too anti-politician at the moment to watch this show. "We'll give you freedom now because it's more convenient, then take it back when we feel like it" is certainly honest, but also makes me want to cut a bitch.

"Why am I here?" Picard asks bluntly.
"The governor of Krios says that the colony uprising is receiving aid from the Federation," Kell explains. "I'm going as a rep from the Council to see if that theory holds any water. I picked you to come with me because a lot of Council members have respect for you."
Picard humbly thanks him in Klingon, and says it has been his pleasure to help in Klingon matters before. But he does say that he doubts that the Federation has interfered here.
"I hope so!" says Kell. "It would completely destroy our alliance!"
Picard starts to tell Kell that he'll go ahead and set Worf to work on reports for this shit, but here comes Kell with the fucking discommendation discrimination bullshit, and the "I don't want to work with this guy because he isn't fit to wipe my boots blah blah blah."
But like before, Picard lets Kell know that that shit won't fly with him, that Worf is a trusted member of his staff, and the best person for the job, and honestly, this is how you get employees to do their best work.
We've all had garbage managers that just let clients or customers or other employees talk shit about us, and the manager shrugs it off and lets them get away with it. And are you willing to go the extra mile for that manager? Of course not. This is why people die for Picard. Why they willingly walk into dangerous situations for him. Why Worf asked him to be second to him when he was forced to go before the council. And why, when my friend was lamenting being let down by celebrities and heroes, stated that she only trusted Picard. Picard has never let her down.
Riker looks at Kell in that same way that says that isn't putting up with that crap, either.
Kell smiles with his mouth, but not his eyes.

Picard knows your Council's dirty little secret, so maybe don't be a whiny
little petaQ, mmmkay?

Back on the cruiser, a pair of Romulans have forced Geordi into some kind of creepy torture-device chair and strapped him down.
He is welcomed by the oily Taibak who, according to the script, is either a doctor or a scientist. Maybe both. He's certainly a Romulan military officer of some kind, because he's wearing the Working Girl shoulder pads that come standard-issue in that group.
Geordi starts slinging the sarcasm.
From out of the shadows steps a Geordi look-alike in a Gold uniform, probably a Romulan who has undergone plastic surgery. He puts on a VISOR and leaves. Taibak tells him not to enjoy himself too much on Risa, and now we know that this doppleganger intends to takes Geordi's place at the conference so no one will be alerted to his absence.

The Roms take Geordi's VISOR.
"I want to show you something," says Taibak.
"Yeah, that'll be a neat trick," snaps Geordi. "You basically stole my eyes."
"Nah, gonna do something fun," Taibak replies.
He starts talking to some unknown Romulan commander that we can't quite see, cuz they're standing in the shadows. It seems that the chair that Geordi's strapped to has hook-ups to his cerebral cortex, and he's feeding Geordi god-awful images of others suffering. And Geordi, being a good guy, is reacting by flinching and moaning. This is not enjoyable.

Taibak switches the image. Now Geordi is looking at a spring meadow, and his physical reaction changes. His heartbeat slows. This image is pleasant. Taibak apologizes to Geordi for making him watch those other shitty images, and it's very much in the same attitude and tone as Count Rugen recording Westley's response to torture in The Princess Bride. Or, you know, how one would assume Nazi doctors reacted when torturing innocent people for "medical reasons."
*shudder*
You know how I complain when they show the Roms doing a whole lot of dick-waving, and the Federation is like, "those guys are terrible," and I respond "whatever"? If you tell me that someone is terrible, I need to see it, or I won't be convinced. Now I'm seeing the Romulans doing something uber-shitty, and I can believe that they're terrible. (Or at least, these particular Romulans are. I'm guessing that your average Romulan cafe owner is perfectly lovely.)
Taibak gives Geordi that crappy images again, and explains that once he's finished his "conditioning,"Geordi will act normally, and that he'll be "a great tool."
I think you're calling the wrong person a tool, Taibak, but go on.
"Will there be physical evidence of what you did?" asks the Shadowy Commander.
OOOH! That voice is familiar! If you've seen these episodes, you know who it is, but I'm not saying anything here because

Taibak assures her that no one will know anything is wrong with Geordi, and that he was chosen specifically, because they can fuck with the existing neural implants Geordi's parents put in so the VISOR would work. No one will suspect. And they're going to put him through a bunch of tests both before and after sending him back to the E, just to make sure that he'll do what they want him to do.

On the E, Kell and Worf are working in the tactical laboratory concerning the uprising and which ships the rebels have attacked and where.
"They'll attack a freighter, but I doubt that they'd do anything to a Federation ship," Worf remarks.
"They might be okay with a Federation ship if they were getting aid from them," says Kell in a sly voice, as though he's being clever and not one of those aforementioned tools.
And you know he saved that shit specifically for Worf.
"Are you insinuating that Picard has lied to you?" demands Worf. "If he says there is no aid from our side, there isn't. Do you think I would be disloyal to Picard and give you information because I have no honor in your eyes?"
I gotta admire Worf's ability to hold his temper here. Every fucking Klingon who has come aboard this ship has given him shit about that discommendation. And then Satie and Sabin, a human and a Betazoid who presumably who have no fucks to give about Klingon culture or politics, did the same. They treat him like crap without knowing who he is, or how he treats others, and give him hell based on what they think his father may have done when he was a small child. It's like when people treat others like garbage for Doing Anything While Black. Or currently, Being Asian At A Time When A Disease Is Going Around That Originated In China.
Stop being a racist piece of shit. Quit discriminating against people for things they can't control. In fact, if you are a racist piece of shit, quit reading my blog. I don't need your clicks.

So, Worf. Constantly hassled by assholes. I'd have decked someone by now, but dude keeps his cool. Credit to him, and the Rozhenkos, who probably spent a lot of time patiently telling him that he couldn't go around dropping people.
Kell gives him some fake-ass non-apology, and as Worf starts to exit, he mentions that many members of the Council would thank him for killing Duras, as he probably would have become Head of the Council, and a lot of them didn't want to deal with his shit.
"I did it for personal reasons, not political," Worf states firmly.
"So what?" asks Kell. "You acted like a true Klingon that day."
Worf just kind of gives a little formal "good day to you" nod and leaves, because why the fuck does he care if Kell thinks he acted correctly or not?

Down in Ten Forward, O'Brien is having a drink and a chat with a couple of other Golds, but then it turns out to be not Ten Forward, because Geordi, now back in his VISOR, is standing near the bar with Taibak and some of his cronies.
Taibak is asking him questions ("How long have you served with Chief O'Brien?", ect), and then he's all "take this phaser, and kill Chief O'Brien."
"Cool," says Geordi. He takes the phaser and walks to the table, but then he pauses and looks back at Taibak. "I, uh... I just...?"
Taibak messes with the equipment he has on the bar, and you can see the readout on Geordi's VISOR alter slightly. "I said kill Chief O'Brien."
So he does.

"Now have a drink with your friends," says Taibak.
And Geordi politely asks the remaining Golds at the table if he can sit with them. The Golds, who have not reacted to the death of O'Brien, cheerfully tell him to sit down. He takes O'Brien's chair and finishes his drink.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Picard's Log 44896.9: "Orbiting Krios, waiting for a meeting with the governor. La Forge has come back from his conference on Risa."

Data meets La Forge in the shuttle bay, and La Forge tells him that Risa was awesome, and that the conference was great. They go to the bridge, where Data presumably has a shift, and Picard introduces Kell to La Forge. Picard and Riker then tell La Forge that the Kriosian governor has accused the Federation of aiding the rebels, and they'll need his help in getting to the bottom of things. He replies that he'll help however he can, and Troi accompanies La Forge off the bridge.

Governor Vagh tells the E that he is ready to receive them, and Picard and Kell head for the transporter room. Data calls Riker over to his station to tell him that he's getting weird signals in the E-band readings. They briefly discuss what might be causing it, and Riker orders a scan from Data.

Troi walks Geordi back to his quarters, asking for details about his trip.
"I sense something special happened."
He lists off banal things, like swimming and walking and taking second place in a chess tournament, but she's just bursting to know what better tea he has to spill.
He pauses at his quarters. "Her name is Jonic," he grins. "Bye, Counselor."
He disappears inside, and she's left in the hall, saddened that he wasn't willing to give her better gossip than just a name.
I'm gonna pause here and ask, WTF? Did Taibak invent some memories of Risa and implant them, or did the weird surgically-altered Romulan double give his memories of his time on Risa over to the cause? If so, how did the double's memories jive with Geordi's brain? Like, would they have made the same choices, and if not, would the real Geordi have asked, "why the hell did I do that? Doesn't sound like me"? If the double did give his memories of the trip, what of Jonic? How far did they go? Surely she had no idea that she was getting down with a surgically-altered Romulan and not a human. Was the double weirded out about sharing that kind of thing? I mean, if I were him, I would have avoided those kinds of activities on purpose so as not to have to share them, but that's me.
And if the double was just meant to be a placeholder, and none of his memories were given to Geordi, then that means that Taibak assigned some flunkies to write some memories of Geordi's missing trip to implant in his brain, and the choice was made to give him a romantic encounter.
Does a woman named Jonic actually exist? Did she "make some memories" with the double, which were then shared with Geordi? Or did the double come back and describe her to the memory-writing flunkies, who then created a 24th century Sim to implant in his brain? Or maybe they made her up completely? Is this another Leah Brahms situation? WHY DO THEY GIVE ALL OF THE FUCKED-UP ROMANTIC ENCOUNTERS TO GEORDI?

Down on Krios, we meet Governor Vagh, and he is pissed. He wants to put the smack-down on the insurgency, but Kell tells him that it doesn't matter what they think, because the High Council wants to keep the peace. Vagh accuses the Federation of aiding the rebels.
"We don't do that," states Picard. "Tell us your proof."
"We found Federation medical supplies in their hideouts."
"The Federation doesn't restrict access to medical supplies," says Riker, practically rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, how about weapons?" demands Vagh.
He throws a phaser rifle at Picard.
"Fuck me," mutters Riker. "That does look like ours."
Picard requests that the rifle go back to the E for examination, but warns that if it's genuine, it probably came from a third party. "We're not in the business of arming rebels."
"Fucking convenient, as this is the only Klingon colony on the border of Federation space," Vagh snarls. "Krios getting independence would make you less vulnerable to attack."
"Bitch, I thought we were friends?" says Picard.
Vagh swears at him in Klingon. Picard swears back at him. Swearing in Klingon is kind of a fine art, and Vagh is actually impressed when Picard does it well.

La Forge takes a tour through Engineering, checking the specs of everything and congratulating his crew on doing an awesome job while he was gone.
(Again, this is how good managers keep employees.)
There's a cool shot here next to the warp core. He gives them a routine thing to do before the shift ends, then excuses himself to "take care of something."

La Forge goes to Ten Forward and orders a drink. When the camera pans across the room to follow him, we see that Chief O'Brien is sitting at a table by himself working on a padd. La Forge orders a red drink like the one O'Brien was drinking in the simulation earlier, and we see him look at O'Brien via the VISOR, watching the Romulan information change. The audience asks what will happen, especially when the dramatic music swells in the background. His objective was to kill O'Brien, right? But he doesn't have a weapon, just a drink. La Forge approaches O'Brien from behind, then promptly pours the drink all over the chief's shoulder.
Both immediately react with "WTH?"
Kell, Riker and Crusher, at a table nearby, look up in surprise.
La Forge, confused as to why he did that, apologizes profusely. O'Brien, convinced it was an accident, smiles and brushes off the incident, saying that it's no problem, and he can just swing by his quarters and change.
La Forge is left standing in Ten Forward with a partially-empty glass, wondering wtf is wrong with him.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

We're back in Engineering with La Forge and Data, and they're checking out the phaser rifle. They fire it into some equipment to test it, and everything looks fine, but then Data notices that it's way more efficient than normal. They fire it again to look at more numbers and notice that it's been charged in a way that Starfleet and the Federation do not charge weapons.
"How many species charge weapons like that?" asks La Forge.
"327," Data replies.
"Uh-huh. And out of those 327, who has the most to gain from a conflict between the Klingon Empire and the Federation?"

Down on Krios, La Forge puts the phaser rifle on the table in front of Picard, Kell, and Vagh. "Romulans made these. They look like ours, but they had to charge it with their own energy sources."
"Krios is too far from Romulan space to be useful to them," Vagh argues.
"They don't want Krios," Picard answers. "They want us at each other's throats so they can do evil shit unchecked."
"Typical Romulan ploy to sow distrust," replies Kell. He thanks La Forge for figuring it out.
"I want my own people to look at the phaser rifle," Vagh insists.
Picard promises full cooperation from the E.

Data is sitting at a science station when he is approached by Riker.
"I found more e-band emissions, but it's coming from a few different places," Data tells him.
"Do the Romulans use e-band for communications?" Riker asks.
"I don't think so? But if there are more, we can use the primary sensor array to track where they're coming from."
"Make that shit so," says Riker.

La Forge is in cargo bay 4, doing his brainwashed double-agent thing, moving isolinear chips around, rerouting power, and making sure that Majel erases everything he's doing as soon as it's completed. Then he beams an entire crate of weapons down to the surface of Krios and walks away.
He shows up on the bridge a few minutes later and casually strolls to his station.
"Vagh calling," announces Worf.
"Picard, WTF?" Vagh barks when he comes on screen. "We caught you transporting weapons to the surface just now!"
"Wait - whut?" demands Picard.
"Don't leave orbit!"
A bunch of Klingon ships uncloak in front of the Enterprise.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

After some searching, Data confirms that weapons were transported down a little bit ago, and La Forge, working furiously at his station, tells Picard and Riker that he isn't sure how it was done, but that the records are blank, and it was done in a very round-about way.
"Not that many people on board could do it."
Kell enters the bridge and tells the group that he's convinced Vagh not to attack the Enterprise until they've heard from the High Council, but they only have a few hours until an answer arrives.

In Engineering, Data and La Forge discuss how the transfer could have been done when there were no power drains on any of the transporters on board. They start checking all of the drains on power at that exact time, and trace it back to cargo bay 4. They call Worf to meet them there, maybe thinking they will catch the culprit in person?
They meet up in the cargo bay, where O'Brien runs a diagnostic on the transporter. Nada.
La Forge suggests how it might have been done, but it's complicated.
"Who could have done that?" asks Worf.
"Maybe me," says La Forge. "Um, O'Brien? Data? Lt Costa?"
"Where were you guys at the time of transfer?" Worf asks.
Each of those people has an alibi with witnesses, except La Forge: "I was alone in my quarters."

Data and La Forge report their findings to Picard and Kell in the ready room: everything was erased, but the isolinear chips were tampered with, and things left an almost-indetectable trace. If they keep working at it, they could maybe find the perpetrator's authorization code.
La Forge admits that, of the people who could have done this, he is the only one without an alibi. They talk more about how to find the culprit, and La Forge says cargo bay 4 has had some heavy traffic that day, so it could be any number of those people.
Riker calls Data: he's found more e-band emissions.
"What's that?" asks Kell.
"Maybe Romulan communications," admits Data. "We're looking into it."
He and La Forge leave.
Kell suggests to Picard that he extend and invitation to Vagh to come up to the ship to witness the investigation himself. When Picard wonders if Vagh would accept, Kell says he will convince the governor to come.

Vagh is enjoying a Klingon feast in his quarters when La Forge shows up. Then the Klingon gives the whole damn thing away, via instructions to the head engineer: La Forge is in danger of being exposed too early because he and Data are doing a good job hunting down clues, so Kell will go to get Vagh and bring him to the E. La Forge should kill Vagh with a hand phaser and claim that he's acting on behalf of Starfleet, in support of Kriosian independence.
La Forge simply says, "I understand," and leaves.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Geordi is sleeping fitfully when he wakes in a sweat and frantically calls for O'Brien. But when the chief finally picks up, a baffled Geordi apologizes for disturbing him.
Geordi goes to sick bay (again in his uniform - is this hours later, just before his shift starts? Or does wardrobe just not have that many off-duty outfits for him?). He tells Crusher that he can't sleep, and she does a quick exam, scanning him with her diagnostic tools. The normal battery of questions, plus asking about his VISOR, ect. She says he's fine, but she'll get him something that will help him sleep.

Up on the bridge, Data tells Riker that the calls are coming from inside the hooooouse!
"E-bands emissions from inside the E?" asks Riker. "You sure?"
"Yep. First two on the ship, then a third on the surface of Krios."
"So we have a spy on board, now maybe a covert signal? That's some shit. Can you find out where it's coming from?"
"I'll give it the ol' Academy try," Data promises.
Riker leaves, and Data asks Majel if the e-band emissions match up to any kind of communications.
She confirms no, then he expands the search, and she eventually tells him that it matches to brain waves in humans.
"What kind of receiver would you need to get those e-bands?" he asks.
"The kind that carries electromagnetic signals to the brain."

La Forge grabs his hand phaser and leaves his quarters.

Data goes to the shuttle bay and links Majel to the shuttle's computer, then asks for weird log discrepancies. When she turns up nothing, he asks about anything else that's weird.

Now La Forge is traveling in the lift, accompanied by Dramatic Music!

Data asks Majel if the physical structure of the shuttlepod is different.
"Yeah, it's got stresses from being towed by a tractor beam."

Dramatic Music! follows La Forge down the corridors and into cargo bay 4. Picard is showing the Klingons around - Kell, Vagh, and two bodyguards.

Data calls La Forge, but doesn't get an answer. Data leaves the shuttle bay and asks Majel where La Forge is. When she responds "cargo bay 4," and La Forge does not answer, he skips straight to Worf.
"Take Commander La Forge into custody immediately."
Worf is confused and quietly asks, "Sir?"
"That is an order," Data replies.
Worf is up on a scaffolding ladder, and has a great view of cargo bay 4: the Klingons, the Starfleet officers, and Geordi La Forge steadily approaching the unaware group. But when he hops down and tries to move past the Klingon bodyguards to La Forge on the other side, the bodyguards start a fist fight.
Worf manages to yell out "LA FORGE!" before Picard turns around, sees the weapon, and grabs La Forge's arm. The phaser goes off, but is now pointed at the ceiling.

Picard takes the phaser, but La Forge does not struggle. Vagh looks startled. Picard tells Worf to take La Forge away, and the bodyguards grudgingly give him up to do so. Vagh is immediately accusatory, because hey, it looks bad. Picard says he wishes he could explain, but here's Data coming from behind, and he says he has answers.
"Hey so, I think Romulans kidnapped La Forge on his way to Risa. They conditioned him to behave a certain way, and have been sending e-band emissions to his VISOR to give him directions."
"I saw no Romulans," says Kell, trying to salvage his FUBAR'd spy mission. "He was acting alone."
"Why would the Romulans want me dead?" scoffs Vagh.
"The Roms want to destroy our alliance," Picard tells him for the thousandth time. "If Commander La Forge had killed you, it probably would have meant war."

"Who sent the signals?" demands Kell. "A cloaked Romulan ship nearby?"
He's grasping at straws to save this shit. Maybe he can't start a war between the Klingons and the Federation, but he can throw the Romulans under the bus.
"Nope. Had to be closer than that. There were only two people with La Forge all three times I detected e-band emissions," says Data. "You, Ambassador... and Captain Picard."
"They might be hiding an e-band transmitter. We could search them," he continues to the group at large.
Well, now this has fully spiraled out of Kell's control. "Hell no, you're not searching me! I'm a member of the High Council!"
"Cool," says Vagh. "We'll take the ambassador back to the planet, and search him ourselves."
The bodyguards grab Kell, and he panics. "Captain, I want asylum!"
"You can have asylum with us... when you've been proven innocent," say Picard smoothly.
The Klingons beam back to the surface.

The ship leaves Krios.
La Forge and Troi are in her office, and he's struggling to coincide the fact that he's been brainwashed into assassinating the Kriosian governor with the fact that he didn't actually go to Risa.
"But I remember being there! There was this Andorian waiter, who couldn't get our orders right...!"
"It'll take a lot of time to untangle this," she says gently. "Let's talk about the shuttle. What was the first thing you did when you saw the Romulan ship? Did you call for help?"
"No, I -- damn." And he realizes that there was a Romulan ship, and all of his Risa memories are crap.
He's at a loss for words.
And the ship continues on, to slightly sinister music.

*******

Not gonna lie: I like it so much better when my sci-fi touches on things that are relevant today, but are not actively destroying my hope in humanity. This episode is pretty good. Some intrigue, some politics, and some psychological fuckery. Plus, we get to see the Romulans actually doing something worthy of the title Big Baddie. Previously, they didn't do anything. They just talked a big talk, and everyone gasped. Maybe history provided them with reasons to gasp, but the audience doesn't have that privilege. We have to take their word for it that these guys suck. So now we have them doing things. And they're extra-shitty things. Things that you would actually gasp at, because hey, psychologically conditioning someone to assassinate someone else is some straight Nazi shit. Good on ya, Romulans, for walking the walk. (It'll get worse, but no need to go there yet.)

There were definitely some loose ends here, like with the memory/double thing, but those are not issues of canon. Those are things that one could use to create a lively debate in fan chats. They aren't necessary to make the story make sense.

Overall, a nice little episode that could be a one-off but ends up become part of a larger arc later.

- Fun Facts:

- This episode was inspired by the film The Manchurian Candidate (obviously 1962, and not 2004). First-time director David Livingston was a fan of the film and tried to get an actor from it to appear as an extra in this episode, but he was unsuccessful. However, he did set up several shots in this episode in a similar way to the film.
- Livingston was excited to direct this episode because it contained a lot of short, action-filled scenes instead of longer, dialogue-filled ones.
- The title for this episode comes from Hamlet: "A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye."
- The Familiar Voice is not actually attached to the Familiar Actor it goes with here. The Shadowy Commander is played by Debra Dilley. The Familiar Voice was then dubbed over the actions of the Shadowy Commander, but not credited.
- Larry Dobkin (Kell) directed the TOS episode "Charlie X."
- John Fleck (Taibak) will appear more than seven times between guest starring roles on DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise.
- The Type 15 shuttlepod that Geordi takes to Risa is the Onizuka, named for astronaut Ellison Onizuka, who died during the Challenger explosion in 1986. A tiny replica of the shuttlepod Onizuka was on display at the Ellison Onizuka museum in Onizuka's hometown of Kona, Hawaii.

- The guy playing Geordi's Romulan double was uncredited, and referred to in the call sheet by his last name only - Aikins. I thought maybe he might be a photo double for LeVar Burton, or a stunt double or something, but nothing came up like that. And he doesn't even look like La Forge. The Romulan plastic surgeon is like "Eh, he could pass for a Somalian human, good enough." I would accuse the Romulan surgeon of being racist, but you just assume that he's that kind of asshole, you know?

- This is the first episode where Majel Barrett receives credit for being the voice of the computer.

- This is the first mention of the Kriosians, who are not actually Klingon. They will appear in season five on TNG, and then again on ENT.
- Ambassador Kell wears the same sash worn by Kamarag in movies 4 and 5.

- This is the first time we see the Klingon and Romulan transporter effects.
- In this episode, Krios is blue. But in the fifth season episode "The Perfect Mate," Krios will be green. When the Kriosians appear again on ENT, the differences will be explained by calling one of them "Krios Prime," suggesting that the two colored planets are not the same.
- The star chart describing Krios and the surrounding space will later be reused in season 5 to describe the Typhon Expanse.

- The matte painting used for the Kriosian city was a reuse of the matte painting city used for "Angel One." Klingon details were added to make it different.
- The footage of the three Klingon ships was a reuse of footage from the episode "Reunion."
- This is the first appearance of the Type 3 phaser rifle.
- Edward Wiley (Vagh) will appear again as a Cardassian in DS9.
Debra Dilley Appreciation post: in addition to playing the shadowed Romulan commander, Dilley appeared as a Vulcan handmaiden in the third TOS movie, as an unnamed ensign in no less than 12 episodes of TNG, a Klingon pilgrim, and a double episode as a Borg drone (also TNG). She worked as a stand-in and photo double for Gates McFadden. All of her Star Trek work went uncredited (wth?, but also big ups to the people at Memory Alpha for tracking down her work and making her an MA page).

Red deaths: 0
To date: 0
Gold deaths: 0
To date: 0

Blue deaths: 0
To date: 1
Unnamed color crew deaths: 0
To date: 11,000

Obnoxious Wes moments: 0
To date: 1

Legitimate Wes moments when he should have told someone to go fuck themselves: 0
To date: 0

Sassy Geordi moments: 4
To date: 8

Sassy Wes Moments: 0
To date: 0

Sassy Worf Moment: 0
To date: 4

Sassy Riker Moments: 0
To date: 7

Sassy Picard Moments: 0
To date: 12

Sassy NPC Moments: 0
To date: 1
Sassy Data Moments: 0
To date: 2
Sassy O'Brien Moments: 0
To date: 0
Sassy Crusher Moments: 0
To date: 3
Sassy Troi Moments: 0
To date: 7
Sassy Guest Star Moments: 0
To date: 5

Number of times that it is mentioned that Data is an android: 0
To date: 23

Number of times that Troi reacts to someone else's feelings: 1
To date: 19

Number of times that Geordi "looks at something" with his VISOR: 9
To date: 10
Number of times when Data gives too much info and has to be told to shut up: 0
To date: 1
Picard Maneuvers: 0
To date: 19
Tea, Earl Grey: 0
To date: 11

Bratty got one of those fancy wool cat caves and likes to
lord it over everyone else.