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Lwaxana Troi seems to be tired, even depressive, in the presence of the telepathic Cairn who until recently didn’t have a spoken language. When Lwaxana breaks down, Maques, one of the Cairn, discovers that some buried traumatic memory must have resurfaced. Maques acts as a telepathic bridge, so Deanna can read her mother’s mind, but she doesn’t find a definite clue. When she reads Lwaxana’s diary, she finds that seven years have been deleted. The reason is that Lwaxana’s first daughter Kestra drowned in a lake a long time ago. Feeling guilty about this tragical accident, she suppressed any memory of Kestra. summary by Ex Astris Scientia
Uhm… two nightmare episodes one by one… someone must have planned it bad. I certainly prefer the one with Data (guess why) but this one is not dab either.
OTOH, finding out about a long deseaced sister feels more like an episode of “Dynasty”. Still, not a bad one to see.

Data becomes troubled by disturbing nightmares from his dreaming program, including a “cellular peptide cake” in the shape of Deanna Troi and workmen apparently disrupting a plasma conduit. When Data begins seeing strange mouth images on his crewmates and finally stabs Deanna into the shoulder, he is confined to quarters. Beverly, examining Deanna, finds an interphasic creature just where the wound is located. These lifeforms are extracting cellular peptides from their victims. With the help of Data’s dreams which symbolized the effects of the alien attack, a high-frequency interphasic pulse is devised to expel the creatures. summary by Ex Astris Scientia

Excellent horror episode. The visions Data has… extraordinary! He’s certainly more creative and imaginative than a lot of humans. If not most humans, really. Also the idea of being able to walk into someone’s dreams… hm… do androids dream of electric sheep? How cool is that?

It seems Picard was vaporized in a bar weeks ago, but Riker, unwilling to accept that his captain is dead, follows the trace of the possible murderers to Barradas III. Suddenly the away team is ambushed by a group of mercenaries. They kidnap Riker who is surprised to find Picard alive - as one of them. Taking a cue from Picard who plays the archeologist “Galen”, Riker assumes the role of a renegade Starfleet officer eager to follow them. The Enterprise follows the mercenary ship to Calder II which is, like Barradas III, the home of a Romulan offshoot civilization. Picard and Riker play their parts by firing a low-level phaser burst that leaves the Enterprise unharmed but impresses the mercenary leader, Baran. Tallera, an alleged Romulan, reveals to Picard that she is actually Vulcan and that the mercenaries are seeking an ancient psionic Vulcan weapon. When they finally reach Vulcan to deliver the weapon to an underground movement, Tallera turns out to be among those who want the weapon. With the power of her bad thoughts she kills the other mercenaries, only to see that the weapon is useless against those who don’t share the hatred. summary by Ex Astris Scientia

Just one recommendation: you gotta see Picard as the bad guy! Galen! Cool! And how romantic! I loved the play-out between him and Riker. There’s really some good stuff to watch. Not to mention that everything ends well, of course…

Fitted with a new interface that converts sensor data to VISOR inputs, Geordi is ready to take on the retrieval of the lost U.S.S. Raman which is stuck in the atmosphere of gas giant Marijne VII. Geordi is sad to hear that the U.S.S. Hera, his mother’s starship, is missing with all hands, but he carries on with the mission. He receives sensor inputs that seem to indicate that his mother is still alive and her starship located still lower in the atmosphere, but this turns out to be a message by lifeforms which are trapped on the Raman and need to be brought back to their realm in the lower atmosphere. summary by Ex Astris Scientia
Sad episode, really. Watching Geordi struggle with the images of his mother… You’ve got to see that one. It’s not like they’re all uber-heroes, larger-than-life etc. Sometimes they’re human, too. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I prefer TNG to TOS so much. TOS was certainly fun but IMHO it was a little shallow, compared to TNG. Okay, I know, times were different and TOS must have been really revolutionary back then. It’s just that I wasn’t even born in the 60s yet, so you gotta forgive me.

Picard welcomes two Iyaaran ambassadors aboard his ship before departing in their shuttle to meet with their leader. Worf is confronted with Byleth, who does everything to enrage the Klingon. Troi, on the other hand, finds herself escorting the gentle Loquel, who is longing for any kind of culinary pleasures. When Picard’s shuttle crashes on a hostile world, and the Iyaaran pilot Voval is knocked out, he finds a human woman, Anna. She apparently lives there for seven years, after her freighter has crashed. Picard initially likes the sympathetic woman, but soon notices she is doing everything to sabotage his attempts of rescue. It turns out that the Iyaarans arranged this whole scenario to test the human emotion of love, as their two ambassadors on the ship were to experience rage and pleasure, respectively. summary by Ex Astris Scientia

I was sooooooooo disappointed with the final turn of events! I really think it would have been much more convincing if the plot with the rescued woman was a genuine post-stress trauma.
OTOH, seeing Deanna refusing anymore chocolate! 8-o Either way, I see enough material here for two amazing episodes. Crammed together, well… it makes it a bit messy but still enjoyable to watch.

When the Enterprise is evacuated for a baryon sweep in the Remmler Array, Picard discovers that terrorists are going to steal highly volatile trilithium from the ship’s warp core. The gangsters also capture the planet base and kill its commanding officer, Huchinson, while they hold the Enterprise crew hostages. On the largely disabled ship which is being swept by a deadly beam from the stern to the bow, Picard begins a cat-and-mouse game to prevent the terrorists from completing their plan. He manages to kill or disable all of them, until he and gang leader Kelsey meet in Ten Forward, the last location on the ship which is not yet affected by the beam. Kelsey escapes with the trilithium, but her shuttle explodes because Picard has removed the stabilizer. After the crew has turned tables among the terrorists, they can beam out Picard in the last moment before the baryon beam reaches him. summary by Ex Astris Scientia

An interesting chase. Not much to comment on here, I just liked the atmosphere. The empty ship… the terrorists… and the bald captain. Uhm… I mean bold. Cute.

Picard falls in love with Neela Daren who is heading the stellar cartography department of the ship. They find a common interest in music and use the excellent acoustics of the Jefferies tubes for their private concerts with one piano and one Ressikan flute. Their relationship is put to a test when Neela is missing after a dangerous away mission to evacuate a Federation outpost on Bersallis III which is threatened by firestorms. Even when she is eventually saved, Picard realizes that he shouldn’t be in love with someone who is his subordinate, and Neela opts for a transfer to another ship. summary by Ex Astris Scientia
Yeah, never mix business with pleasure… In my own Star Trek Andromeda I also deal with that. Only I hope to have humans grow up even more and 300 years into the future, there are married couples serving on starships where one of them is Captain or First Officer. I bet it’s not easy but I’d like to tell a story or two about it.

Picard turns down the tempting offer of his old archeology professor, Richard Galen, to accompany him on a quest that could have an impact on the whole galaxy. Galen leaves, only to be deadly wounded after an Yridian attack. Picard traces Galen’s travel, and he finds a puzzle composed of DNA fragments Galen has been collecting from various planets in the galaxy. There is something like a coded message in these fragments. Not only the Enterprise, but also Cardassians, Klingons and Romulans are seeking for the missing fragments to decode the message, which could be the plan for a weapon or something equally powerful or valuable. When finally the different parties meet on a desert planet and struggle for the possession of the code, Picard and Crusher feed a tricorder with the last fragment which they find in the ground of this long-dead planet, and a message is replayed. A humanoid appears and declares that their race was the first to emerge in the galaxy. They found themselves alone, but they preserved their legacy by spreading DNA fragments on many planets, to trigger a development that would finally lead to the formation of humanoids just like them. In a way, Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans and humans are all related to each other. The message of peace, however, isn’t received very well by the various species. Only the remark by the Romulan commander who was obviously impressed and is looking forward to future common missions is a sign of hope. summary by Ex Astris Scientia
Heh! What a nice explanation of why the whole galaxy is filled with humanoids, huh? How about low bugdet and not enough computer effects? Okay, I know. I think it was quite decent one.
The opening scene is very appealing to me. Picard struggling between his lifetime hobby (archeology) and his lifetime hobby (Starflet). Nice.

With a few days rest before leading an undercover mission on Tilonus IV, Riker takes on the demanding role of a patient in a mental hospital in the play “Frame of Mind”. Soon Riker finds himself in what looks like a real mental hospital, and he is not sure if the asylum or the starship is the reality. He finally submits to the idea that he is actually mentally ill. When he is rescued from the hospital by Data and Worf, Riker still can’t believe that he is on the ship. Actually, he has been captured by the Tilonians who have drugged him, and only after he drops both illusions he wakes up and manages to arrange for an emergency beam-out. summary by Ex Astris Scientia

Excellent psychiatrical study. I remember watching this one over and over again, trying to decide where sanity ends and craziness begins. Not an easy question to answer.

Anyways, this is also one of the two TNG episodes that remind me of what was done to people in concentration camps during WWII. Where’s the limits to our humanity?

The Ferengi scientist Dr. Reyga has developed a metaphasic shield that can protect a starship inside the corona of a star. Beverly has arranged a meeting of Reyga with skeptical Vulcan and Klingon colleagues and a Takaran scientist named Jo’Bril who demands to test the device which is installed in a shuttle. Jo’Bril dies, and after some time Reyga is found dead after what appears to be a suicide. Against Takaran customs, Beverly performs an autopsy, upon which she is relieved of duty. In an effort to solve the case, Beverly takes the shuttle herself to test the shield, but Jo’Bril is already waiting for her. He is not dead because his race is capable of a death-like stasis, and he was going to steal the prototype. Beverly gets the upper hand in the following fight, and Jo’Bril is killed, while Reyga’s and Beverly’s reputations are restored. summary by Ex Astris Scientia

Interesting concept. And I don’t mean being able to rise from the death. I mean the good doctor on the rouge. That was nice to watch. Also one of the traces I like in Star Trek: they are bold enough to stand up for what they believe. Wish the real world was more like this, huh?