“The Offspring”
Written by René Echevarria
Directed by Jonathan Frakes
Season 3, Episode 16
Original air date: March 12, 1990
Star date: 43657.0
Mission summary
Data summons Wesley, La Forge, and Troi to his lab for some Really Big News. After a drumroll, he unveils… a thing! They’re not really sure what it is–it seems to be a Soong-type android in beta–until it calls Data “father” and Data explains that this is his child, Lal.
“Booby Trap”
Teleplay by Ron Roman and Michael Piller & Richard Danus
Story by Michael Wagner & Ron Roman
Directed by Gabrielle Beaumont
Season 3, Episode 6
Original air date: October 30, 1989
Star date: 43205.6
Mission summary
La Forge is weirding out his first (and last) date by laying it on way too thick in a Margaritaville holoprogram (probably came with the machine, surely the designers didn’t expect anyone to use it), and soon his date can’t take another second and begs off. Just another day on the love boat…
At least Picard is having some fun, exploring a Promellian ship from a forgotten battle waged over 1000 years ago that’s still broadcasting its distress signal. After he beams down, there’s a slight energy blip on the Enterprise–clue #1. The dead ship is full of corpses who have died at their posts–clue #2. But what could possibly go wrong out here in space, isolated, and as lonely as Geordi on a Saturday night? And the law of television says you need three clues, so they’re probably fine, right?
“The Bonding”
Written by Ronald D. Moore
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
Season 3, Episode 5
Original air date: October 23, 1989
Star date: 43198.7
Mission summary
An Enterprise away team is rummaging through the remnants of yet another alien civilization that destroyed itself, the Koinonians, when it stumbles across a booby trap that explodes and instantly kills Lt. Marla Aster, the ship’s archaeologist. The sudden, violent death is all the more tragic because she leaves behind a 12-year-old son, Jeremy.
“The Survivors”
Written by Michael Wagner
Directed by Les Landau
Season 3, Episode 3
Original air date: October 8, 1989
Star date: 43152.4
Mission summary
Enterprise responds to a distress call at planet Rana IV, which was reportedly under attack by an unknown ship. But by the time they get there, the enemy is gone—along with all life and buildings on the surface. Eleven thousand colonists have been wiped out. No wait, make that 10,998. Scans show that there are two survivors located in an improbably intact square of land that contains a house and plant life.
“Pen Pals”
Written by Melinda M. Snodgrass, story by Hannah Louise Shearer
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
Season 2, Episode 15
Original air date: May 1, 1989
Star date: 42695.3
Mission summary
Enterprise enters the Selcundi Drema sector to investigate unusual geological instabilities that are destroying its planets, and Commander Riker decides this would make a great test of young Wesley Crusher’s ability to command a survey team to study the problem. Wesley is eager as always, but apprehensive about his performance and whether he’s qualified to give orders to officers who are older and more experienced than him. Meanwhile, Data is experimenting with enhancing the ship’s sensors and picks up a troubling transmission: “Is anybody out there?”
“The Royale”
Written by Keith Mills
Directed by Cliff Bole
Season 2, Episode 12
Original air date: March 27, 1989
Star date: 42625.4
Mission summary
A Klingon cruiser alerts Enterprise to some strange debris orbiting around Theta 8, an unmapped, poisonous ball of nitrogen and methane. They beam a chunk of the debris over and it’s a panel from a 21st-century spaceship, with the American flag and NASA’s logo emblazoned on it. But we’re too far from home! How can this be?
PICARD: We’ve got ourselves a puzzle, Number One.
Do we? Must we? Can’t we just tape the pieces together, pat ourselves on the back, then maybe dissolve it in acid over a live flame?
“The Dauphin”
Written by Scott Rubenstein & Leonard Mlodinow
Directed by Rob Bowman
Season 2, Episode 10
Original air date: February 20, 1989
Star date: 42568.8
Mission summary
The Enterprise picks up two mysterious otherworlders: a teenager and head of state named Salia, and her overbearing, somewhat slithery governess Anya. Troi thinks the two may not be what they seem, but can’t offer any more details or else it’ll ruin the twist. The two are headed to their home planet of Daled IV after a long period of exile. Salia’s parents were on opposite sides of a massive civil war that has engulfed the planet. They died shortly after her birth, and now it’s up to the dauphin to start the healing. Unfortunately she’s been in isolation her whole life and has built up a swell of hormones, so a chance encounter with Wesley and his superconductive magnet sparks a powerful attraction*.
*Believe it or not, I didn’t write this stuff.
“Loud as a Whisper”
Written by Jacqueline Zambrano
Directed by Larry Shaw
Season 2, Episode 5
Original air date: January 9, 1989
Star date: 42477.2
Mission summary
Enterprise has been tasked with delivering a famous mediator to a planet torn by centuries of war, with strict orders not to interfere directly. When they arrive at the mediator’s planet a long distance away, Riker interrupts Picard’s re-watch of The Planets so the captain can make a “simple ceremonial greeting,” though he urges Picard to be careful. There doesn’t seem to be anything to worry about because when Picard, an exceptionally grumpy Worf, and Troi beam down, no one is there.
“We’ll Always Have Paris”
Written by Deborah Dean Davis and Hannah Louise Shearer
Directed by Robert Becker
Season 1, Episode 24
Original air date: May 2, 1988
Star date: 41697.9
Mission summary
The Enterprise is headed to Sarona VIII for some shore leave, but Picard has gotten a headstart by fencing with a lieutenant. Though he loses the first point he wins the second–twice, as time seems to repeat itself in an eerie deja vu effect. The bridge confirms the temporal anomaly, and they pick up a distress signal from a Paul Manheim, reknowned wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey tinkerer who left Earth fifteen years ago to experiment with multiple dimensions and nonlinear time.
Picard reacts strongly to news of Manheim. Because he’s got a few hours to kill before the ship reaches Manheim, Picard goes to the holodeck to recreate Paris twenty-two years earlier. There he runs into a woman waiting for a man who never shows. She asks Picard why her beau did not come, and Picard tells her it was because of Nazis he was afraid. He then chastises himself for indulging in such fantasies and goes back to the bridge.
“Skin of Evil”
Written by Joseph Stefano and Hannah Louise Shearer
Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan
Season 1, Episode 23
Original air date: April 25, 1988
Star date: 41601.3
Mission summary
Since not much is going on, Chief-Engineer-of-the-Week Leland T. Lynch decides to polish the Enterprise’s dilithium crystals; fortunately, chugging along at impulse just means it will take that much longer to pick up shuttlecraft 13, in which Counselor Troi is returning from a conference on “How to Succeed in Starfleet Without Really Trying.” Then sensors read an emergency on the shuttle, interrupting Worf and Tasha’s long-overdue bonding moment—she’s really looking forward to a martial arts competition in a few days, and Worf’s betting on her, even though they don’t have any money in the future. (Or maybe because they don’t have any money in the future.)
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