In "The Drumhead", there's an explosion on board, while secret info on the Enterprise is sent to the Romulans. An admiral (played by the celebrated film actress Jean Simmons) comes out of retirement to lead the investigation. She ends up starting a witch hunt against the Enterprise crew and Picard in particular. Both Mindy and I thought this episode was rather stilted--there's a lot of speech-making rather than dialogue.- Lwaxana Troi is back in "Half a Life"--which means Picard is jumpy. She invites herself to a meeting with a reclusive alien scientist, played by David Ogden Stiers. Lwaxana has fallen in love with him--unfortunately, his race practices ritual suicide when they reach a certain age. Lwaxana insists Picard stop him, but the Prime Directive is in the way. Lwaxana breaks down in front of Deanna--a rare dramatic performance by Majel Barrett Roddenberry. Lwaxana manages to convince the scientist to live on, but his daughter (Michelle Forbes, in an early TV role--she'll be back as Ensign Ro Laren) comes onboard and reminds him of their way. He returns to his planet, and Lwaxana joins him for the "ceremony". A much more subtle "message" episode than the previous one.
- Crusher is in love--which means her paramour is doomed. In this case, she's infatuated with "The Host" (played by Franc Luz) of a symbiote. She only finds this out when he's critically injured. He's needed for delicate alien negotiations--they call for a new host from the same race, but it will take too long to get there, so Riker volunteers. Riker/Symbiote wants to continue their relationship, but she's confused. Troi's also in the mix, since Crusher asks for her advice--she obviously has mixed feelings. Unfortunately, Riker is dying from the treatments to keep the symbiote alive--he gets Crusher to agree to remove him from Riker. In the end, the new host arrives--and it's a woman. Crusher loses again.
- Geordi's on his way to Risa for shore leave after a seminar--in a shuttle. Of course, he gets attacked by Romulans in "The Mind's Eye". They capture him and go all "Clockwork Orange" on him, sending horrible images directly into his neural implants and brainwashing him. They then send him back to the Enterprise, where they are handling a diplomatic crisis with the Klingons. Data's monitoring strange transmissions, figures out that Geordi's visor is the receiver, and stops him from completing an assassination. In the end, the Klingon ambassador (Edward Wiley) turns out to be the turncoat.
- We get another character episode "In Theory". A crewwoman (played by Michele Scarabelli, best known for her work on Alien Nation) is getting out of a relationship while working with Data. She decides that he is so kind and generous that she initiates a romantic relationship. Of course, Data treats this as a scientific experiment, asking his friends what he should do. He makes the leap--or at least he writes a new subroutine for her, drawing from literature on the topic of love. He oscillates from charming to creepy, even starting a "lovers' quarrel" with her. She's clearly delusional--Data told her multiple times that all he can do is simulate his "love" for her. In the end, she cuts off the romance. There's also a technobabble crisis about dark matter and warps in space time, blah blah blah...
- We finish the season with another cliffhanger--this time, it's all about the Klingons. In "Redemption Part 1", Picard completes his duties as Arbiter that he began in "Sins of the Father", officially making Gowron (googly-eyed Robert O'Reilly) leader of the Klingon High Council. Worf is looking for his family's name to be cleared, there's intrigue with sisters of the traitor Duras (who Worf killed earlier), and the Romulans are sneaking around. Gowron initially refuses Worf's plea. but after Worf fights alongside him in a ship battle, he relents. Worf wants to fight in the inevitable civil war, but Picard says that's a conflict of interest as a Starfleet officer--so Worf resigns his commission. There's an impressive scene with the crew lined up in the corrdiors to honor Worf as he leaves the Enterprise. In the end, there's a big reveal--someone who looks a lot like Tasha as a Romulan (even has the Moe haircut) steps out of the shadows. TO BE CONTINUED...
Star Trek: The Next Generation is available on Netflix--more to come!