We begin with a two-parter that brings The Original Series and TNG together...
- "Unification Part 1" begins with a mission for the Enterprise--find out why Ambassador Spock (yes, that Spock) went to the Romulan Empire. Picard visits Sarek to get some info, but he's mentally fading (it's one of Mark Lenard's last performances). Picard gets Gowron to loan them a cloaked ship, so off go Picard and Data to Romulus while the Enterprise investigates the wreckage of a Vulcan ship. There's a lot of wackiness with a ship junkyard and Picard on a Klingon ship--then word comes that Sarek has died. Picard and Data get to Romulus, but are taken to a cave, and we finally run into Leonard Nimoy as Spock. Three more TOS connections: their contact on Romulus is played by Malachi Throne who played a Commodore on the TOS two-parter "The Menagerie", this episode was a kind of sequel to Star Trek VI which hit the box office shortly after, and the most significant--Gene Roddenberry died just before this episode originally aired.
- In the second part of "Unification", Picard tells Spock of Sarek's death. Spock is there to foster a peace initiative between Vulcan and Romulus--there's a movement on the latter world. Riker and Worf have a subplot at a bar, but it's immaterial. There's court intrigue back on Romulus--Sela (Denise Crosby) is sneaking around. Picard is suspicious, while Spock wants to play things out. Spock and Data have an interchange about humanity. Sela captures our heroes--she wants Spock to announce a fake peace mission, and she has a holographic Spock if he won't do it (and he won't of course). They fool her with their own holograms, and they screw around with the Spock hologram as well. In a lovely touch, Data takes her out with the ol' Vulcan Nerve Pinch. Picard and Data manage to escape, but Spock decides to stay behind to help the resistance.
- In "A Matter of Time", the Enterprise is assisting a distressed planet (an ecological catastrophe is causing a nuclear winter) when a visitor (Matt Frewer) arrives on the bridge--he says he's a historian from the 26th century. The crew seems to accept this fairly easily. At one point, the historian hits on Crusher! Meanwhile, the ship's attempts to save the planet make the problem worse. Data and Geordi come up with a new plan--but if the technobabble is just a wee bit off, it will burn off the planet's atmosphere. Picard tries to get the historian to tell him how things turn out--but he can't, since it would change history. Lots of philosophical speeches follow. In the end, Picard chooses to try--and because this is TV, it works. The historian attempts to leave, but Picard notes that items have disappeared (he's been collecting tech all over the ship)), and he demands to see his ship. Only Data is allowed on the ship--it turns out the "historian" is an inventor from the 22nd century that happened to get a hold of a timeship from the 26th century. The ship returns to it's own time without him.
- Worf has some "New Ground" to cover--his son Alexander (Brian Bonsall) drops by with Worf's "Earthly" mother (Georgia Brown) for a visit. He happens to mention that he's not going back. Mom explains that they are too old to keep up with him, and that he needs to be with Worf. Alexander is a handful--he lies to his teacher. Worf's not the best dad either. There's also a subplot about a new type of propulsion that would mean building a huge facility on every planet--seems impractical. It goes badly, and Geordi has to save the day. This plot seems like "episode helper" to pad out the time. However, it does cause a fire that brings father and son together. In the end, Worf decides to keep Alexander on the Enterprise, making him the "Cousin Oliver" of TNG.
- Again with the kid episodes! In "Hero Worship", a derelict ship is found near a technobabble cluster with a single survivor--a child (Joshua Harris) that Data saves. The kid's parents were on the ship, so now he's alone. He imprints on the emotionless android, adopting his speech patterns and mannerisms. Data helps him through the process. Meanwhile, the ship goes into the cluster to find out what happened. The kid believes that he's the cause of the ship's destruction, but he couldn't have done it. He then helps Data figure out why the ship is being buffeted in the cluster--their shields are being reflected back at them, smashing into the ship. That's what destroyed the other ship. One other point--this episode is the Bermuda Triangle for guest actors. Harris did one other TV gig, then became a minor-league baseball player, and ended up producing. There's an ensign at the Conn position (Sheila Franklin) who played the same role three more times, playing a doctor in an earlier episode, then had one minor movie role, and then left the business.
Star Trek: The Next Generation is available on Netflix--more to come!