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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

When The Bough Breaks

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41509.1: Wesley and the most intelligent children of the Enterprise are kidnapped by the powerful Aldeans, aliens of lore who have the power to cloak their planet from view but do not realize that the energy powering their miraculous world is responsible for the sterility of their race. At the insistence of Dr. Crusher and other parents of the other kidnapped children, Picard tries to negotiate with the Aldeans, which only angers them.

Order the DVDswritten by Hannah Louise Shearer
directed by Kim Manners
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Jerry Hardin (Radue), Brenda Strong (Rashella), Jandi Swanson (Duana), Paul Lambert (Rellien), Ivy Bethune (Katie), Dierk Torsek (Dr. Bernard), Michele Marsh (Leda), Dan Mason (Accolan), Philip N. Waller (Harry Bernard), Connie Danese (Toya), Jessica Bova (Alexandra), Vanessa Bova (Alexandra)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Home Soil

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41463.9: The Enterprise arrives to check up on a terraforming station, where the researchers and the visiting Away Team are unaware that the unseen killer in their midst is an intelligence whose existence is threatened by the changes to be effected on the planet.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Robert Sabaroff
story by Karl Guers, Ralph Sanchez and Robert Sabaroff
directed by Corey Allen
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Walter Gotell (Mandl), Elizabeth Lindsey (Louisa Kim), Gerard Pendergrast (Bjorn Bensen), Mario Roccuzzo (Arthur Malencon), Carolyne Barry (Female Engineer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Coming Of Age

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41416.2: Wesley is faced with a challenging test of his intelligence as he auditions to be a Starfleet cadet, but hedoes not realize that the psychological exam he is to receive is the more grueling barrier. Aboard the Enterprise, the Captain is investigated by a pair of Starfleet officers who seem to have one thing on their minds: finding some fault in Picard’s logs with which to begin a court-martial to take him out of the command chair, suspecting Picard is part of a conspiracy within the ranks of Starfleet.

Order the DVDswritten by Sandy Fries
directed by Michael Vejar
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Ward Costello (Admiral Quinn), Robert Schenkkan (Commander Remmick), John Putch (Mordock), Robert Ito (TAC Officer Chang), Stephen Gregory (Jake Kurland), Tasia Valenza (T’Shanik), Estee Chandler (Oliana Mirren), Brendan McKane (Technician #1), Wyatt Knight (Technician #2), Daniel Riordan (Rondon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Heart Of Glory

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41503.7: Worf’s loyalties are tested to the limits as renegade Klingons who at first seem to be refugees of an unjust system of law are rescued from a doomed freighter by the Enterprise. But the survivors soon turn out to terrorists who favor a return to the Klingon ways of old and see the Enterprise as the ideal weapon with which to begin a new reign of terror.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Maurice Hurley
story by Maurice Hurley, Herbert Wright and D.C. Fontana
directed by Rob Bowman
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Vaughn Armstrong (Korris), Charles H. Hyman (Konmel), David Froman (K’Nera), Robert Bauer (Kunivas), Brad Zerbst (Nurse), Dennis Madalone (Ramos)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Arsenal Of Freedom

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41798.2: An Away Team consisting of Riker, Data and Yar runs headlong into danger when Riker is put in suspended animation by an intelligent robot weapon which proved to be too powerful for its creators – and it looks as if it may eliminate the away team, joined by Picard and Dr. Crusher, while its counterpart attacks the Enterprise, where Geordi fears his experience may not be enough to help the crew survive.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Richard Manning and Hans Beimler
story by Maurice Hurley and Robert Lewin
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Vincent Schiavelli (Salesman), Marco Rodriguez (Captain Rice), Vyto Ruginis (Logan), Julia Nickson (Ensign Tsu), George De La Pena (Lt. Solis)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Symbiosis

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate not given: The Enterprise beams four passengers of a freighter aboard just before their vessel explodes in a planet’s atmosphere, but the two pairs of survivors can’t agree on who gets a barrel of felicium, an “elixir” which Dr. Crusher soon recognizes to be a narcotic – but the manufacturers of the drug soon see an opportunity to exploit their dependents by entangling Picard and Dr. Crusher in the prime directive.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Robert Lewin, Richard Manning and Hans Beimler
story by Robert Lewin
directed by Win Phelps
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Judson Scott (Sobi), Merritt Butrick (T’Jon), Richard Lineback (Romas), Kimberly Farr (Langor), Kenneth Tigar (Margan)

Notes: Judson Scott and Merritt Butrick were on opposite sides in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan as well, with Butrick playing Kirk’s son David and Scott as one of Khan’s henchmen; this was one of Butrick’s last acting roles before dying of AIDS. Though it airs before Skin Of Evil, Symbiosis was produced after it, and you can see Denise Crosby’s true swan song here – look for her waving to the camera as the cargo bay doors close.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Skin Of Evil

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41601.3: The Enterprise rushes to rescue a shuttlecraft carrying Troi, and the Away Team discovers that Armus, an evil entity, is preventing them from saving Troi and the shuttle pilot. To make sure that its point is clear, Armus kills Tasha Yar and torments Troi and the rest of the crew.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Joseph Stefano and Hannah Louise Shearer
story by Joseph Stefano
directed by Joseph L. Scanlan
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Mart McChesney (Armus), Ron Gans (voice of Armus), Walker Boone (Leyland T. Lynch), Brad Zerbst (Nurse), Raymond Forchion (Ben Prieto)

Notes: Denise Crosby officially leaves the regular cast with this episode – though she would appear later in the series, but not always as Tasha.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

We’ll Always Have Paris

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41697.9: Picard and the crew investigate the source of distortions in time that are being felt across the galaxy and discover the ailing temporal scientist Dr. Manheim’s experiments have malfunctioned, sending his consciousness into an alternate dimension and leaving his body to die in Dr. Crusher’s sick bay, while his wife turns out to be the girl Picard left behind to join Starfleet.

Order the DVDswritten by Deborah Dean Davis and Hannah Louise Shearer
directed by Robert Becker
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Michelle Phillips (Janice Manheim), Rod Loomis (Dr. Paul Manheim), Isabel Lorca (Gabrielle), Dan Kern (Lt. Dean), Jean-Paul Vignon (Edourd), Kelly Ashmore (Francine), Lance Spellerberg (Transporter Chief)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Conspiracy

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41775.5: Picard is taken into the confidence of his good friend Captain Walker Keel, who warns that Starfleet is slowly being taken over by a conspiracy that plans to use the resources of Starfleet for conquest. After the shocking destruction of Keel’s ship and a series of grisly discoveries about the High Admirals of Starfleet, Picard learns that Earth is the home of the queen of an alien swarm…

Order the DVDsteleplay by Tracy Tormè
story by Robert Sabaroff
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Henry Darrow (Admiral Savaar), Ward Costello (Admiral Quinn), Robert Schenkkan (Commander Remmick), Ray Reinhardt (Admiral Aaron), Jonathan Farwell (Captain Walker Keel), Michael Berryman (Captain Rixx), Ursaline Bryant (Captain Tryla Scott)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Neutral Zone

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41986.0: Data, curious about three cryogenically frozen earth people from the 20th century found in a derelict preservation satellite, brings them back to the ship and Dr. Crusher revives them. Meanwhile, Picard and Riker must be prepared to negotiate or fight as the Romulans return to the borders of the neutral zone – and the 20th century visitors only complicate matters.

Order the DVDstelevision story and teleplay by Maurice Hurley
from a story by Deborah McIntyre and Mona Clee
directed by James L. Conway
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Marc Alaimo (Subcommander Tebok), Anthony James (Subcommander Thei), Leon Rippy (L.Q. “Sonny” Clemonds), Gracie Harrison (Claire Raymond), Peter Mark Richman (Ralph Offenhouse)

Notes: Although not actually seen in this episode, the Borg are later said to have caused the destruction of the Federation and Romulan outposts.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 02 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Child

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 42073.1: Counselor Troi, impregnated by an alien entity, gives birth to a child whose mind is not that of a child but of an alien wishing to discover the variety of human experience. Meanwhile, the ship’s newly promoted chief engineer, Geordi, and newcomer Doctor Katherine Pulaski are faced with the possibility of a fatal shipwide epidemic…

Order the DVDswritten by Jaron Summers & Jon Povill and Maurice Hurley
directed by Rob Bowman
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Diana Muldaur (Dr. Pulaski), Seymour Cassel (Lt. Commander Hester Dealt), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), R.J. Williams (Ian), Colm Meaney (Transporter Chief), Dawn Arnemann (Miss Gladstone), Zachary Benjamin (Young Ian), Dore Keller (Crewman)

Notes: This story was originally conceived in the mid 1970s as an episode of the aborted late ’70s Star Trek Phase II series, which was to have been a new series with the original crew of the Enterprise. (That production later morphed into the first Star Trek movie.) The script was dusted off to serve as the delayed season premiere after a Writers’ Guild strike brought American TV production to a halt in the summer of 1988. It is also notable for being the first appearance of Guinan.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 02 Star Trek The Next Generation

Where Silence Has Lease

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 42193.6: Picard is confronted by an invincible alien intelligence who can alter the crew’s very perceptions of reality, and is horrified to learn that the entity plans on using half of the humans on board as lab animals to determine how many ways humans can die, so the captain, after exhausting all the options, sets for self-destruct.

Order the DVDswritten by Jack B. Sowards
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Ron Jones

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Diana Muldaur (Dr. Pulaski), Earl Boen (Nagilum), Charles Douglass (Ensign Haskell), Colm Meaney (Transporter Chief)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 02 Star Trek The Next Generation

Elementary, Dear Data

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 42286.3: Doctor Pulaski bets Geordi that Data would be overwhelmed if confronted with an intricate Holmesianmystery he has not yet read or experienced, and when the chief engineer and Data put this to the test, a too-perfect holodeck program almost ensures that not only will Data be beaten, but the Enterprise may be commandeered by Professor Moriarty.

Order the DVDswritten by Brian Alan Lane
directed by Rob Bowman
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Diana Muldaur (Dr. Pulaski), Daniel Davis (Professor Moriarty), Alan Shearman (Inspector Lestrade), Biff Manard (Ruffian), Diz White (Prostitute), Anne Elizabeth Ramsay (Assistant Engineer Clancy), Richard Merson (Pie Man)

Notes: Actor Daniel Davis won the part of a British butler on the series The Nanny largely on the strength of his performance in this episode and its sixth season sequel, Ship In A Bottle. Davis isn’t British at all, but actually hails from Little Rock, Arkansas.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 02 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Outrageous Okona

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 42402.7: A nonchalant space rogue is welcomed aboard the Enterprise by Picard and the crew, but the pleasantries of his visit are cut short by two representatives of rival worlds demanding Okona’s life for crimes he claims not to have committed – yet he does know who the guilty parties are and it’s up to him to unite the aggressors.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Burton Armus
story by Les Menchen, Lance Dickson and David Landsberg
directed by Robert Becker
music by Ron Jones

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), William O. Campbell (Okona), Douglas Rowe (Debin), Albert Stratton (Kushell), Rosalind Ingledew (Yanar), Kieran Mulroney (Benzan), Joe Piscopo (The Comic), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Teri Hatcher (Transporter Chief)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 02 Star Trek The Next Generation

Loud As A Whisper

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 42477.2: The Enterprise is forbidden to interfere in negotiations to be conducted by their passenger, the deaf, mute mediator Riva, who seems more interested in Counselor Troi than in seriously bringing two warring factions together. It is only when his Greek-like Chorus, a vital element in his task since they translate his thoughts into speech, is destroyed by a trigger-happy alien that Riva truly worries about the task he must accomplish.

Order the DVDswritten by Jacqueline Zambrano
directed by Larry Shaw
music by Ron Jones

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Diana Muldaur (Dr. Pulaski), Marnie Mosiman, Thomas Oglesby, Leo Damian (The Chorus), Howie Seago (Riva), Colm Meaney (Transporter Chief), Richard Lavin (Warrior #1), Chip Heller (Warrior #2), John Garrett (Lieutenant)

LogBook entry by Earl Green