Two character studies begin the next batch of episodes:
- In "The Loss", Troi's empathic abilities desert her. It turns into a standard medical drama, with Deanna going through the stages of grief like a newly blind person ("I'll be fine"--"get off my back"--what am i going to do?"). Finally, after some speeches from Picard, Riker, and Guinan, she decides to trust her human instincts--and just in time. She saves the ship from two-dimensional beings dragging the ship into a "cosmic string".
- "Data's Day" covers a day on the ship from the android's point of view. It's a rare look into the life of the ship's crew. We see the ship's barber shop, gift shop (what is this--a mall?), and have a dancing lesson with Beverly. The lesson is particularly amusing. Data can immediately pick up Crusher's lessons, although at one point we cut away to to a shot of their feet--Spiner can't keep up with McFadden, since she's a professional dancer in real life. We also meet Data's cat Spot, and a Vulcan ambassador who takes them into the neutral zone--she ends up being a Romulan spy (the Vulcan, not the cat--I could have skipped that part of the storyline). Then, it's the marriage of O'Brien and Keiko (Rosalind Chao, in her first appearance). Data is the "father" of the bride. We end up the day with the birth of a baby boy.
- "The Wounded" introduces the Cardassians, the main bad guys in the later DS9 series. The Cardassian captain is played by Marc Alaimo, who also played the first Romulan seen on TNG, and went onto a recurring role on DS9. O'Brien gets a big role in this episode, as his character has a history with the Cardassians. There's also a showdown with a Starfleet captain (Bob Gunton) who attacked Cardassians with little reason (following the rule that all Starfleet personnel not on the Enterprise are idiots or crazy).
- "Devil's Due" is a rewrite of an unused script from the aborted "Star Trek: Phase II" series, which means it was designed for Kirk, and it shows. A civilization is being threatened by a mythological devil (played by Marta DuBois) who appears to have magical powers. She even visits him in his quarters! Picard is convinced she's a con artist, using a transporter and holographic projection. So, he plays Daniel Webster (with Data's help) and takes her to court. In the end, Picard outcons the "Devil".
- We start "Clues" with the crew enjoying some leisure time--Picard is playing Dixon Hill, this time with Guinan. Both are doing horrible Noo Yawk accents for some reason. A wormhole appears that knocks everyone out (except for Data) for 30 seconds--no one is hurt. As they continue on, a number of minor mysteries keep popping up, indicating that a whole day elapsed while they were out--this makes Data a possible suspect. Picard decides to investigate, going back to the "scene of the crime". Troi goes to Data, sounding like a female Barry White. It turns out that an alien race doesn't want anyone to know about them--the wormhole was a ruse. Because Data wasn’t knocked out, he woke up the crew, and found Troi taken over by the aliens. They announce the ship must be destroyed, but if this happens, other ships will investigate. They come to a compromise--clean up the clues, knock out the crew again, and zapping their memories. Picard orders Data to keep it quiet. A bizarre episode.
Star Trek: The Next Generation is available on Netflix--more to come!