"TNG" Subplots Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Survivors

The music came from a music box belonging to the Uxbridges, who were the only apparent survivors of the devistation on Rahna IV. It turned out that Mr. Uxbridge was an alien being who had taken human form, and he had wanted to live out his life as he remembered it. Mr. Uxbridge had amplified the music so that Deanna could not sense that Mr. Uxbridge was really a powerful immortal being trying to protect his identity.

Answer: The Measure of a Man

Captain Philipa Louvois (Amanda McBroom) was the JAG officer who had prosecuted Picard's court martial about the Stargazer. The two had also become lovers some time in the past, presumably before the court martial. As a result, the relationship between these two was both tempestuous and stimulating.

Here, she became the judge in the case that determined whether Data was a sentient being, with Picard defending Data (due to lack of JAG staff); she eventually ruled in favor of Data.

Answer: Cost of Living

Here, Lwaxana Troi is set to marry a fellow named Campio, but they had never met in person (It seems Mrs. Troi used the 24th Century equivalent of personal ads!). Unfortunately, Campio was too prudish to adapt to certain Betazoid traditions (like appearing at weddings in the nude). And she and Alexander teach each other lessons on life and how to live it.

By the way, I love the way this episode ends. Deanna, Lwaxana, Alexander, and Worf are taking a mud bath, and the last line, from Worf, is classic: "You're just supposed to sit here?"

Answer: Final Mission

This episode is the last for Wil Wheaton as a regular cast member. Here, Wesley and Picard board a small craft operated by Captain Dirgo (Nick Tate) to settle a dispute on Pentarus V. But engine failure forced a landing on a desolate moon orbiting Pantarus III.
Meanwhile, the distress call at Gamelan V involved an old waste barge full of radioactive material, and its unstable hull was leaking radiation to the planet below.

Answer: Thine Own Self

Data is sent to Barkon IV, so that he may recover radioactive fragments from a crashed probe. But something goes wrong and he suffers amnesia. Completely unaware of what he is doing, Data drifts into a nearby town and inadvertantly contaminates the indiginous population with the radioactive material. Meanwhile, Troi, inspired by the quantum filament incident ("Disaster"), as well as a recent reunion, decides that she wants to take the Bridge Officers' Exam so that she may get a promotion to Commander.

She passes all the tests with flying colors, except one, which involves a situation in which the ship is in imminent danger. But once she realizes that the only solution is to send someone to his/her likely death, she passes the exam and is granted her promotion.

Answer: Violations

One of the Ullians, Jev (Ben Lemon), is actually a criminal, in that he uses his telepathic abilities against the will of those whose minds he probes. Troi is the first to slip into a coma because of this "telepathic rape," and Riker and Crusher soon follow suit.

Answer: Reunion

Here, Ambassador K'Ehleyr (Suzie Plakson) delivers Chancellor K'mpec (Charles Cooper) to Picard, so the two may speak. It seems the Chancellor has been slowly poisoned for months, and he wants Picard to choose the next leader of the Klingon Empire: Gowron, or Duras? We report, you decide. Meanwhile, the Ambassador has a present for Worf: Alexander Rozhenko (John Steuer).

Unfortunately, events involving the selection of the Klingon Chancellor result in the murder of K'Ehleyr. Though Alexander was then sent to live with Worf's adoptive parents, he did return to live with Worf about a year later. Brian Bonsall assumed the role of Alexander in subsequent episodes.

Answer: Déjà Q

In this episode, Q (John de Lancie) is kicked out of the Q Continuum and sent to the Enterprise, whose crew has become skeptical of his status. At first, he adjusts poorly to being human. Add to that the attack from one of Q's enemies, the Calamarain. Ironically, it was Data who became Q's "Professor of the Humanities," and Q committed the selfless act of luring the Calamarain away from the ship by taking a shuttlecraft.

After this, the Continuum restored his powers (and Q returned the stray moon to its proper orbit).

Answer: Rascals

The episode begins with Picard, Guinan, Ro, and Keiko O'Brien en route to the Enterprise in a shuttle, when an energy field turned them into children. This amusing episode includes Picard (as a boy) throwing a tantrum until he sees his "daddy" (Riker). Also, in a tip of the hat to the Fizbin scene in the "TOS" episode "A Piece of the Action," Riker shows the Ferengi Morta how to "exactly" operate the ship's computer. And the episode closes as Ro, still a child, draws a picture of her mother.

Answer: The Host

The dispute in question involves the two aforementioned moons, with one of them tapping the magnetic field of Peliar Zel as an energy source, and the other facing environmental catastrophe because of it. The name of the mediator here is Odan, the first Trill encountered in "Star Trek".

The main plot of this episode centers around Dr. Crusher's romantic relationship with Odan, and her discovery that Odan was not man, but a slug-like organism that lives symbiotically within a humanoid host. Unfortunately, the body hosting Odan died and the symbiont had to be transferred to Riker until a new host, a female (!), could arrive. NOTE -- The appearance of the Trill changed by the time "DS9" aired. Odan had an elongated face, with hairless arched brow ridges; Dax looked very human, save for an intricate pattern of spots down the sides of her body.

Answer: New Ground

This episode is about Worf's son, Alexander, coming aboard to live on the ship. At first, it isn't easy, as Worf realizes he must adjust his schedule to take care of him, and Alexander turns out to be a difficult challenge (He even stole, and lied about it!). Eventually, Worf and Alexander do form a bond.

By the way, the soliton wave experiment seemed successful at first, until it started excelerating out of control.

Answer: Brothers

The two brothers here are Jake and Willie Potts, and it was Willie who had eaten the fruit of a Cove Palm on Ogus II. The fruit that Willie had eaten contained harmful parasites that required special treatment at a Starbase, but Data intervened when his "homing signal" was activated by Dr. Noonien Soong. Oh, and Lore shows up, too!
This is among my favorite episodes because Brent Spiner played three roles (Data, Lore and Soong) here. Any episodes that showcase his talents as an actor are, in my opinion, among the better ones to watch.

Answer: The Wounded

One of the first scenes in the episode shows the two eating a breakfast that she had prepared, made from kelp leaves and seaberries (Miles: "I'm not a fish"). For dinner that night, he prepared a potato casserole, about which Keiko asked "What are these little black things?" (They were capers).
The main plot centers around a renegade Starfleet captain named Ben Maxwell, whose family had been killed years before in a Cardassian rade, and his vendetta against the Cardassians. O'Brien, who had served under Maxwell, also comes under a personal conflict between his perception of Maxwell and the incidents that Maxwell has caused within Cardassian space.
Look for Marc Alaimo in his first Cardassian role, as Gul Macet (He was Gul Dukat on "Deep Space Nine"). Between October 1987 and July 2003, he has played an Antican, a Romulan, two Terrans (humans), and two Cardassians.
By the way, in case you don't know, capers are pickled crysanthemum buds, usually used in salads.

Answer: Hollow Pursuits

This is the first episode featuring one Lt. Reginald Barclay. Here, "Broccoli" (Oops! I meant Barclay!) is receiving a less-than-satisfactory rating from La Forge and Riker. Meanwhile, this mystery involving malfunctioning gravity pods and melting glasses has been assigned to him. And he did make the discovery of the contamination coming from the leaking tissue sample containers.

Answer: Samaritan Snare

This episode centers around a distress call from a Pakled ship, and La Forge goes aboard to make repairs. But the Pakleds have an ulterior motive: They want powerful weapons, too. Fortunately, Pakleds aren't that intelligent.
As for Picard, one problem after another in surgery forced the doctors on Starbase 515 to call in the only doctor who could save him: Katherine Pulaski (This is a second season episode).

Answer: The Best of Both Worlds, Part I

Lt. Commander Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehy) was the hot-shot officer eager to take the First Officer reins from Riker; she had even confronted him in the turbolift and told him "You're in my way." In the second half of this exceptional episode, she did temporarily achieve her goal; Riker was granted a field promotion to Captain of the Enterprise after the Borg abducted Picard, and Riker appointed Shelby as First Officer due to her knowledge of Borg tactics.

By the way, had Riker accepted the Chair on the Melbourne, he would have died.

The Melbourne was among the many ships destroyed by the Borg at Wolf 359.

Answer: Booby Trap

This episode opens with La Forge in the Holodeck on a hot date, but everything he tries with her doesn't work. Later, the Enterprise-D finds an ancient warship stuck within an asteroid belt, the result of a trap laid by its enemy. When the Enterprise-D falls under the same trap, La Forge resorts to creating a simulation of Utopia Planetia, where the Enterprise was built, in the Holodeck.

While in the Utopia Planetia simulator, a holographic representation of design engineer Dr. Leah Brahms appears.

They work together to save the ship, and La Forge found himself in love with her. The real Dr. Brahms later paid the Enterprise a visit in "Galaxy's Child," and she discovered La Forge's "fantasy." Needless to say, she was not pleased. Fortunately, they were able to become friends afterward.

Answer: The Royale

Riker, Data and Worf investigate mysterious Class-M conditions on a planet with an otherwise hostile environment, and they find themselves in a re-creation of a hotel featured in a poorly-written novel called "The Hotel Royale." Considering that the book opened with "It was a dark and stormy night..." it must have been pretty bad!
By the way, Mickey D. does show up, and he shoots the bellboy in the back right in the hotel lobby.

Answer: Force of Nature

This is the infamous "speed limit" episode, in which a sector of space has become damaged by overuse of warp engines. A brother and sister had been laying traps to disable warp-capable ships in the area, because they believe that continued usage of warp engines would create a subspace rift in that sector.

The sister, who is either exceptionally passionate or exceptionally radical, sacrifices herself to prove the theory correct. After that, a "speed limit" of Warp 5 is established throughout Starfleet, to be exceeded only in case of emergency. By the way, Data is less than successful in training his cat. :)

Answer: The Most Toys

The tricyanate turned out to be artificially produced and planted by Kivas Fajo, who had created the ruse to attract the Enterprise with the only known solution to the problem: a supply of hytritium. Why did he do this? He wanted Data to become a part of his collection of unique items.

Answer: Data's Day

The name of the "ambassador" (Sierra Pecheur) is T'Pel, but she is really a Romulan subcommander named Selok. A very clever ruse momentarily made the crew of the Enterprise-D believe that she was killed in a transporter accident.
Presented as a letter to Commander Maddox (who appeared in the episode "The Measure of a Man"), this unique episode is actually a mixture of several subplots: The aforementioned ambassador story, the birth of a baby (the first birth aboard a ship in "Star Trek"), Crusher teaching Data to dance, and (of course) the marriage of Miles O'Brien to Keiko Ishikawa (Rosalind Chao), at which Data gave the bride away.
NOTE -- While Counselor Troi gave birth to Ian Andrew in "The Child", it turned out that he was really an alien life form who had wanted to study humans by becoming one himself. Also, Troi's body bore no signs of physical trauma to indicate that she had even had a child in the first place.

Answer: Menáge à Troi

This episode's main plot concerns one DaiMon Tog (Frank Corsentino) and his obsession over Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett Roddenberry). His longing for her was so complete that he even kidnapped her from Betazed to his ship, along with her daughter, Deanna, and Commander Riker! Look for Ethan Phillips (Neelix of "Voyager") as the Ferengi ship's doctor, and Peter Slutsker in his first "Trek" appearance (He would later return in Season 6's "Suspicions," as the Ferengi scientist Dr. Reyga, Season 7's "Bloodlines" as a Ferengi named Birta, and in the two-part "Voyager" episode "Year of Hell" as a Krenim commandant).

Answer: Interface

In a clever weaving of the subplot to the main plot, this episode centers around La Forge's use of a custom-made computer interface to a mechanical probe in order to salvage the science vessel U.S.S. Raman from the atmosphere of a hostile planet. After learning of his mother's disappearance, she suddenly "appears" on the Raman, and he is convinced that her ship is somehow further down in the atmosphere.

It turns out that a non-corporeal being took the form of his mother to communicate with him, in order to save the lives of the being's brethren.

Answer: The Game

In this episode, Riker returns from leave on Risa with a new game, and it becomes the most popular thing on board! It turns out that the Ktarian woman who had given it to him programmed this game to brainwash the crew of the Enterprise, so that her people could commit subtrifuge against Starfleet. The ensign Wes meets is Robin Lefler (Ashley Judd), who was assigned as Mission Specialist for a scientific expedition that was supposed to take place. Because her parents had moved frequently when she was young, she began to put to together "Lefler's Laws" of self-reliance, totalling 102 at the time of this episode.

At the end, Wes suggests Law 103: "A couple of light years can't keep good friends apart." By the way, Wes and Robin discover the addictive qualities of the game, as well as the cause of Data's mysterious shutdown, and try to save the day.

Unfortunately, both of them fell under the influence of the game at the last moment. It was Data, whom Wes did manage to repair, who had saved the ship.

Answer: Yesterday's Enterprise

This standout episode is hailed by fans as the best single (one-hour) episode in "TNG", and arguably among the best in all of "Star Trek". In case you are unaware of what happens here, the Enterprise-C emerges from a temporal rift, resulting in a radical change in the timeline.

In this alternate universe, Worf doesn't exist, Lt. Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) is alive, and the Federation has been at war with the Klingon Empire for over 20 years. Lt. Richard Castillo (Christopher McDonald) was the helmsman of the Enterprise-C.