star trek tng boothby

Star Trek: Who Was Boothby The Gardener?

Boothby was the true guiding light of Starfleet in The Next Generation, but his character was almost ruined by Voyager.

It’s hard to say whether Gene Roddenberry could have ever imagined how popular Star Trek would become over the years, spanning various TV shows, movies, video games, and novels. Now, the franchise consists of entire universe full of narrative that creators are constantly expanding.

When he first devised his crew of highly diverse cast in The Original Series , Roddenberry could not imagine the array of new fictional lives that would be born from their creation, from blading Starfleet captains, all the way to sentient holograms . One such character that gained almost legendary status was Boothby the gardener — but who exactly was this green-fingered hero?

RELATED: Star Trek: Why Did Q Leave Captain Sisko Alone?

Boothby's first introduction was during The Next Generation, and he was a gardener for Starfleet academy on Earth . He wasn’t a war hero, an important ranking officer, an official teacher, or even a military man — but he was presented as potentially the most important presence at the academy, simply down to his innate ability to listen, advise, and help those who are struggling. Liam Boothby, played by Ray Walston, was the epitome of a normal man, a working, down-to-earth character who was incredibly in touch with nature. It’s important to remember that in this period of time, far off into the future, there was very little need for a gardener, everything being automated or replicated. But Boothby chose to garden and tend the plants with his own hands rather than relying on technology, doing it though a genuine love of his craft rather than money . It was likely because of this that he was humble and patient, contrasting wonderfully with the cocky cadets at the academy.

Boothby was an old man right from his introduction to audiences. He had been around, since the golden days of Kirk, witnessing the Federation change and adapt over the years and through wars with Romulans and Klingons, and thus was a fountain of wisdom. He remembers each and every cadet along the way, and would always offer a shoulder for them to cry on, helping many a troubled officer tackle whatever obstacle they were facing. Some of these cadets just happened to be Picard, potential war criminal Janeway, and even Chakotay. Boothby helped them through difficult times and consequently guided them to become the people whom audiences see in the shows. He is potentially the most influential person at the Academy, and without his help, none of these pivotal protagonists would have achieved so much.

Boothby first appeared in the TNG episode “The First Duty.” He is mentioned before this in passing, but this was the first time he appeared on-screen, and the appearance really resonated with audiences. The episode explores the idea of truth and personal integrity, revolving around Wesley Crusher being involved in a shuttle accident, which results in the death of one of his friends and fellow cadets at the academy. As Picard tries to learn more about this incident, he seeks out the wisdom of his old mentor Boothby, who ultimately helps him navigate the complex minefield of honesty and doing the right thing despite the consequences.

The point of his character is that he is no one special, not a superhero or an infinite wealth of knowledge as he was sometimes presented previously. Rather, he is just a normal man, a groundskeeper who just so happens to listen and help those he speaks to find their way to a truth they already know. Seeing him guide and continue to mentor Picard, even after so many years, really emphasized how important his counseling and influence were on the captain, who still respects and relies on him as a grown man.

It’s a shame then that Star Trek didn’t leave things there. The episode was fantastic, and presented Boothby in the perfect way. There would perhaps be ways to sneak him into episodes again, but it wasn't really necessary. Then along comes Voyager , which has always received mixed feelings from fans , but this goes double for what they did with his character.

The show's ratings were fairly bad even when it was being released, much lower than TNG and even DS9, so they tried to boost things by trying to reference as many previous Star Trek shows as possible. There were multiple episodes where the crew ‘went back in time,’ and many more where they brought in random cameos from fan favorite cast members such as Riker. However, the icing on the cake was bringing Boothby back in the episodes “In The Flesh” and “The Fight.” These episodes were a disaster, relying on a nostalgic callback for audiences, without considering that it didn't make any canonical sense.

“The Fight” involved Voyager getting caught in what they creatively name ‘chaotic space,’ which is a pocket of space that doesn't adhere to the same laws of physics. It’s here that Chakotay starts to hallucinate being in the boxing ring guided by Boothby — who was apparently not only a gardener, but a boxing coach too? Many fans felt this was not only a terrible way to shoehorn the man in, but that it also broke completely with his character. He went from a simple old gardener that is in touch with nature and the planet, to a coach shouting at a man to punch another man as hard as possible.

“In The Flesh” was even worse, and involved Voyager stumbling across a recreation of Starfleet academy floating in space, created by the Borg antagonists Species 8472 . For some reason, not only was this elaborate place created, but they chose to put a Boothby replica in charge of it, yet again shoehorning the character in without any regard to whether it made sense or not. For what possible reason would he be in charge of Starfleet? He was important personally to a lot of people, but had nothing to do whatsoever with command.

While these appearances weren’t totally disastrous, they annoyed a lot of fans because it represented a systemic problem with the Voyager series. Boothby's nonsensical cameos were considered lazy writing, with the producers having little faith in the actors and writers of the show to keep audiences entertained, instead forcing references. TNG is often considered one of the best shows in the Star Trek universe ( despite its rocky first season ), not because all the episodes were great all the time (in fact, there were quite a few terrible ones ) but because it was intelligent and knew how far to take its concepts and storylines, and when to stop. The decisions were thoughtful. TNG ’s Boothby being a very subtle yet incredibly important cornerstone for understanding Picard and how he became the man he did, rather than a show horse dragged out when audiences' attention was lagging .

MORE: Star Trek: The Biggest Unsolved Storyline Mysteries

Den of Geek

Revisiting Star Trek TNG: Final Mission

It's Wesley Crusher's last appearance as a regular crew member! Join us to wave him off in this week's Star Trek: TNG look-back...

• Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Linkedin (opens in a new tab)
• Share on email (opens in a new tab)

This review contains spoilers.

4.9 Final Mission

As he prepares to leave for one of his many important mediation meetings, Picard summons Wesley to the bridge. He immediately begins to chastise Wesley for taking ten minutes to arrive (what was he supposed to do, site to site transport!?) Wesley begins to apologise, before Picard reveals that they won’t accept that kind of behaviour at… STARFLEET ACADEMY. You know, the school Wesley got rejected from twice.

That’s right, the day is here: Wesley’s finally going to stop being an unpaid intern and become an unpaid (presumably) crew member. As his final mission, he is to accompany Picard to boldly go and resolve a mining dispute. The fun never stops on the Enterprise. Nor, indeed, does it start.

Ad – content continues below

The Enterprise meets up with the mining shuttle of one Captain Dirgo. Wesley mocks this idea, pointing out that he’s the only crew member and probably hasn’t earned the rank, quite unlike his achievement of being promoted to Acting Dogsbody. Dirgo emphasises that it’s his ship and he is the captain, which is good because minutes later an engine blows up and he’s forced to go down with it along with Wesley and Picard.

Unfortunately, the Enterprise has already headed off to its next mission where an errant garbage scow has arrived in orbit around a colony and is threatening to irradiate an entire civilisation. Unfortunately, without Wesley around no-one can figure out how to attach the tow rope (basically), so when they realise the shuttle didn’t arrive at its destination, they can’t just up and leave.

On the desert moon of Pentarus III, Dirgo gives Wesley and Picard the good news: there are no emergency supplies. They’re forced to trek (GET IT?) to some mountains to find shelter. Dirgo and Picard differ, but Picard brought his own lickboot so democracy favours his leadership. When they reach the caverns, Dirgo accidentally drops a bottle of fluid which turns out to be alcohol. After mocking Dirgo for his rudimentary understanding of science, Picard declares that this gin would be better used as coolant and confiscates it.

In the cavern they find the precious water they need, only it’s in a fountain which is protected by a weird whooshy energy thing. Dirgo tries to shoot it but accidentally causes a landslide. Picard pushes Wesley out of the way but is severely injured. Picard passes command of the mission down to him, urging him to dissuade Dirgo from any more rash actions. Unsurprisingly Dirgo doesn’t want to listen to Wesley, but the next time he tries to breach the forcefield he’s encased in weird crystal. Nice work, Wes.

As Picard begins to lose consciousness, Wesley tries to keep him talking while disabling the forcefield. As the situation gets more desperate, Picard reveals his envy of Wesley’s youth and urges him to go meet Boothby the groundskeeper when he gets to the academy. Wesley says he just wants Picard to be proud, and Picard says he’s always been proud of Wesley (although not proud enough to not hit on his mother).

Back on the Enterprise, they finally manage to tractor the barge away from the planet, narrowly avoiding a lethal radiation dose for the crew (instead, presumably, they all got a near-lethal dose and will have a much slower death. Yay.) When the asteroid is gone they head back to Pentarus to find the crashed shuttle.

On the planet, Wesley figures out the right combination of techno-nonsense to disable the energy sentry and forcefield, then delivers Picard the water he needs to survive. Then he collapses in exhaustion himself. When he wakes up, his mother is congratulating him on saving Picard’s life. Picard is being stretchered off, but stops just long enough to tell Wesley he will be missed. Which, let’s be honest, is a sentiment most notable for its tactful indirectness.

Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

TNG WTF: Aside from the frequent Trek plot shortcut of what constitutes a “lethal” dose of radiation (9 seconds? We’re all fine. 10 seconds? DEAD!), you have to admire Picard’s lack of perspective. “You’re tell me there’s no water?” he says as if it’s the dumbest thing in the world, apparently oblivious to the good fortune he’s just had in surviving an orbital crash on a planet which actually has a breathable atmosphere, normal gravity and various other non-instantly fatal conditions. But oh no, some idiot forgot to pack the Evian! The whole near-death experience has been ruined!

TNG LOL: Apparently Wesley Crusher has been studying the effects of outpost judiciary decision on Federation law. To be fair, that does seem to be most of what the Enterprise does these days. Speaking of which…

To Boldly Go: Picard is going to leave by Shuttlecraft to mediate a dispute between the Pentarus Miners.

Mistakes and Minutiae: Wesley’s last appearance as a regular crew member!

Time Until Meeting: No meetings in this episode, it’s all action. And by “action” I mean standing around talking in various different rooms while nothing happens.

Captain’s Log: Well, it only took 82 episodes, but Wesley’s finally gone. And after all that time, was he really so bad? Certainly in the early episodes he was overused, but from season two onwards he was conspicuously in the background. Is the show richer for his leaving? Maybe not. Is it, at the very least, less irritating? Well, yeah.

Still, it’s easy to appreciate Wesley’s arc when episodes like this roll around, but it’s also easy to see why people saw him as a sort of Scrappy Doo figure. Perhaps the problem was that Wesley just didn’t get enough people his own age to interact with. When you’ve got a starship full of crew members to use, it was probably a bad choice for the cabin boy to essentially hang around with the senior staff. He gave off a real senior prefect vibe, and it’s no surprise that made people hate him.

As episodes go, though, this wasn’t a bad send-off. It’s maybe not the Yesterday’s Enterprise that Yar eventually got, but nor is it the Skin Of Evil she originally got. This episode does, at the very least, break out the red filter, which makes it a very special occasion. The structure is quite unusual too. It feels more like a weird adventure game cut scene than a Star Trek episode, where there’s a puzzle to solve and a time limit to solve it. It’s weird, but I like it. And let’s face it, as Wesley episodes go it’s not exactly up against stiff competition.

So yeah. Let’s pour one out for Wesley Crusher. A non-alcoholic one, of course, because there’s studying to do in the morning, new life to invent in the afternoon and a centuries-old trap to spring the ship from in the evening. Uh-oh. What will they do without him?

Read Ryan’s look-back at the previous episode, Future Imperfect, here .

Follow our  Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here . And be our  Facebook chum here .

065: TNG: The First Duty

The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth!

On this episode, Jeff Akin reviews Star Trek The Next Generation, The First Duty (Season 5, Episode 19). He will examine the leadership approaches of Captain Picard and Nick Locarno.

Podcasting For Business Conference Use Code: starfleet

What does truth mean to you, as a leader? What impacts can it have? They can be huge! In fact, telling the truth would have saved Walter White's life in Breaking Bad!

We meet Nick Locarno in this episode. All the makings of a strong leader. But he misses the mark. He focuses and unites his team to the team itself, and not their greater purpose. Learn from Nick's mistake and hear how you can better unite your team.

Starfleet Leadership Academy Online Store: www.starfleetleadership.academy/store  

Follow the Academy and connect through:

Website: https://www.starfleetleadership.academy/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SFLApodcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jefftakin/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/groups/sflapodcast/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCebdT7xtm2237q0f857BBuw

Find and follow Starfleet Leadership Academy on all your favorite podcast streaming platforms!

Got friends who are fans of Star Trek or interested in topics on leadership? Don't forget to share the podcast!

Support the Starfleet Leadership Academy Podcast on:  https://patreon.com/sfla

And if you visit the episode page at https://www.starfleetleadership.academy/ , you'll find a transcript of this episode.

The Starfleet Leadership Academy is a proud member of the ElectraCast Media Best Business Network . 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A quick heads-up on the content of this episode. I will be sharing stories and talking about friends and loved ones dying. I realize this can be an emotional topic and just wanted to let you know ahead of time.

<<Intro>>

Welcome! Thanks for joining me today. The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based! And so is this episode. We’re going to talk about how the truth can set you free by helping you grow and develop. We’re also going to look at the importance of experience as a leader as we watch an absolutely episode. It's the 19 th of the 5 th season of The Next Generation, The First Duty.

<<Transporter>>

The Enterprise on its way to Earth and Starfleet Academy. Captain Picard is giving the commencement address. They’re also eager to visit Wesley Crusher, who is in his second year there. En route, the superintendent, Admiral Brand calls Picard, privately to share some difficult news “There’s been an accident.” 1:42

Now the show sets this up to make us think something happened to Wesley, dropping right into the credits from this message, but right afterwards, we find out that he’s ok. He’s part of an elite flight group, Nova Squadron. They suffered a terrible collision during practice. All 5 ships were destroyed and one of their classmates, and friend of Wesley’s, Joshua Albert died. The superintendent says a flight recorder was recovered and they will be initiating a full investigation.

Picard and Dr Crusher, Wesley’s Mom, visit him. We meet the squadron leader, Nick Locarno, he was also checking in on Wesley. Wes asks Picard and Crusher to excuse them so he can talk with Locarno. We get our first glimpse at Nick’s leadership style, “Don’t worry about. We’ll be fine as long as we stick together.” 9:19 He has united Nova Squad as a very tight-knit team.

As Picard is strolling around the Academy, he runs into the groundskeeper, Boothby. Boothby is someone we’ll talk about quite a few times here on the Starfleet Leadership Academy. He’s kind of a mentor to a lot of the people that have moved through the Academy. He was around when Picard was a cadet and they had quite a connection. And he continues to share his wisdom, this time on the incident. “Nick Locarno is what keeps that team together. He’s their friend, coach, and father.” 30:16

The investigation begins. Locarno leads the testimony and says they were practicing for a maneuver called a Jaeger Loop. The rest of the Squad supports him and his testimony, but the Admiral isn’t quite buying it, “That was not the question I asked you.” 14:59 It’s honestly kind of ridiculous. It’s like they think these wildly experienced officers have never flown maneuvers before. They honestly come across as incompetent in this scene, at least in my opinion.

And then it goes south. Locarno decides to take a different approach, “Josh was having problems.” 17:03 With Josh’s dad in the gallery, he straight up throws him under the bus. Ouch. At that, the Admiral calls for recess until the next day when they should have the data from the restored flight recorder.

The cadets meet afterwards – which is kind of weird. Like, don’t you think they’d separate them or have them under some kind of surveillance? Well, regardless, the cracks are showing, “You said we weren’t going to have to lie to them.” 19:33 They are not ok with blaming this on Josh. Nick gaslights the team into backing him up, “None of us have wanted to say it but we all have the same thought.” 19:55 and he starts telling them how to respond to the flight recorder questions.

The investigation picks back up and Wesley is talking them through the flight recorder data. He sticks to the talking points Locarno laid out, and then the bottom drops out, “Mr Crusher, are these in ships in a diamond-slot formation? No, sir.” 27:34 Sensors picked up footage that directly refuted his testimony.

Picard asks Geordi, the Engineer, and Data, to review all the evidence and testimony. He’s looking for anything that could possibly help Wesley out. What they find, though, isn’t helpful at all. “The engine would ignite the plasma. That’s what they were trying to do.” 32:03 Picard figures it out. They were trying to perform Kulvoord’s Starburst. A wildly dangerous maneuver that looks amazing, but has been banned because the last time it was done, all 5 pilots died.

He confronts Wesley. This is an iconic Picard speech that I’ll talk about in the Command Codes. But he’s figured out this was Locarno’s way of trying to become a legend. Wes doesn’t agree with it but he doesn’t deny it either. He tries to stick to what he said, but Picard knows what’s up. “A lie of omission is still a lie.” 34:41 He tells the story of when they met, back in Encounter at Farpoint. Tells him how brilliant he is and how much potential he has. Then he outright tells him to come clean or he will tell the Admiral what happened.

Wesley checks in with Locarno who tells him to lie. That if they stick to their story, don’t say anything more, they’ll get through it. But Wesley’s integrity is shining through, “I’m going to tell them what happened.” 37:23 And Locarno’s desperation does too. Makes it Wesley’s problem and tells him he’s betraying the team. “Must have been a pretty good speech to turn your back on your friends.” 38:17 Locarno storms out and Wesley is left to consider where his duty lies.

We get to the conclusion of the investigation. It looks like Nova Squad is going to keep their mouths shut. For that, they’ll get formal reprimands in their permanent records, and that’s it. But then, at the last minute, Wesley speaks up. “Yesterday I testified about the loop. That wasn’t the whole story.” 41:19

The consequences dished out are severe. Locarno gets expelled, and Wesley loses all his credit hours and has to repeat his 2 nd year. He takes it well, well, professionally. He feels very, very guilty. “They should have expelled all of us.” 43:00 Locarno, though, stood up for the team and asked to take full responsibility. He did what a leader should do in this situation. And Wesley does as well. He accepts his punishment, “You have difficult times ahead.” 44:06 and is thankful for the opportunity to continue his studies. Picard wishes him well and returns to the Enterprise.

<<Red Alert>>

What a great episode! Wil Wheaton in top form and, in a weird way, a redemption story for Wesley Crusher. This is what Star Trek is all about. Duty, integrity, truth, justice and the Federation way! TNG did courtroom stories pretty well and this one ranks up there with classics like The Measure of a Man and The Drumhead, for sure!

Quarks – Ads

Sometimes Star Trek tries to be something it’s not, and this episode had a moment of that. When Picard and Boothby are catching up, they’re talking about some epic wrestling match Picard was in. Boothby says, “Except that time you caught the Ligonian in a reverse body lift.” 10:51 This is what happens when a group of sci-fi writers try to do sports. Do you know what a reverse body lift is? A body drop…yeah, Picard literally dropped a dude. You know, the thing you do in wrestling. Yeah, Picard did that and apparently it was epic.

Wil Wheaton is honestly next level good in this episode! He literally sounds like he’s throwing up in his mouth when he’s responds to the Admiral. So good! He, and the character of Wesley Crusher, were pretty universally hated ever since Encounter at Farpoint. He was just too perfect. He was a kid and understood the physics and warp dynamics in a way the professionals on the flagship of the Federation had trouble with. And he had this kind of know-it-all attitude too. Just not an easy character to like.

But in this episode, not only do we see that he has real flaws, but he has some actual, emotional depth. Wil Wheaton has always been a skilled actor, just watch Stand By Me if you don’t believe me, but he was pretty hampered in Star Trek, until now. He brought so much of the tension to life in this one. Just really, really well done.

And then there’s Nick Locarno, played by Robert Duncan McNeill. If you’ve been following along the last few years, you know McNeill as Tom Paris on Voyager. Now, the rumor is that the original idea was for Paris to be Locarno, like reprise the character, but Jeri Taylor and the rest of the Voyager producers felt that is wasn’t redeemable enough for what they had in mind, but they loved McNeill. Understandably too! He’s great as Tom Paris and he’s great in this one too. The other rumor, though, is that they didn’t want to pay the writer the created the character any kind of royalties or fees in Voyager. Either way, we still got McNeill in an awesome role on an excellent show. All good!

You know how, a lot of times, the guest stars are just that? Guests on a show. Like, they do well enough but you can tell they’ve been there for a day. That was not McNeill. He felt like a regular on the series, like he belonged there. Now, that could also be recency bias, but, either way, he was great in this role.

Now, I’m not the only one that thinks this episode is great. Shortly after it aired, it became required viewing for cadets at the US Air Force Academy. They have said it demonstrates the honor code perfectly and is a launchpad – see what I did there? – for in-depth discussions on it.

Super cool!

I was pretty disappointed in the Voyager episode, Good Shepherd, because the time Janeway spent with the underperformers never led to anything. Like, it all just happened and then life moved on. But that’s not the case with this episode! No, it’s a pivotal moment in the development of Wesley Crusher, and we see one of the member of Nova Squadron, Sito, returns in the amazing 7 th season episode, Lower Decks.

Oh, and one other fun note. The sort of rank pins they use for the cadets are great! Cool uniforms and rank pins that make sense. And, helped inspire the t-shirts early subscribers to the Starfleet Leadership Academy patreon!

<<Command Codes>>

Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth. That’s a quote from William Faulkner, one of the great American writers, and it is so appropriate for this episode. I’m going to talk about why the truth is a crucial part of leadership.

I’m also going to look at Nick Locarno and how strong leadership skills do not necessarily make for a good leader. He brought a team together, united them, but focused them on the wrong things, and someone died because of it.

Picard also did an incredible job in this episode of demonstrating compassion for Wesley. I’m going to look at how you can do this in a healthy way.

The Starfleet Leadership Academy is supported by listeners, just like you. Click the link in the show notes to support the ongoing production of this podcast.

But before we get to these amazing topics, I want to share a story. A sad story, but one that has guided much of my life since it happened. Back, around 10 years ago I worked in HR. I was one of three administrators that reported to the director. It was far from my favorite job, but the director was one of my favorite people and favorite supervisors I’ve ever had. She developed me into an industry that I didn’t have a lot of experience in, and she challenged me to be a stronger leader.

To relax, she and her family enjoyed cruises. In fact, she said she measured time in BC and AC – Before Cruise and After Cruise! She had taken about 2 weeks off to go on a cruise. When she came back to the office, she was tan, happy and well rested. We met and talked through what had gone on in her absence and she had some very kind and encouraging words for me. The day ended and we all went home.

The next morning, the CEO asked to meet with me and my two peers at 8:15 in the morning. She told us that the director had passed away in her sleep that night. Completely unexpected. We were devastated. But, we had a team of around 50 people that we had to inform next. We were a good team, the three of us, so we worked together to share the news. The rest of the day was filled with crying, hugging and sharing stories.

Then a little after 3pm, the other two administrators and I met to talk business. How were we going to continue business while the CEO worked to fill the position? Seems like a normal and expected thing to happen, right?

Well, to be honest, it haunts me to this day. We were able to grieve for 7 hours, and then we were back to work. A person who had literally given their life to help others and support their team and we took 7 hours for her. Fast forward about 10 years and now, most people don’t even remember who she was, or even remember her name. It breaks my heart.

Now, normally, when I tell stories about my work experience I don’t share names, out of respect for their privacy. But, I’m going to share her name, to say it, and to recognize the impact she had. Carolyn Ross. Carolyn, I miss you and thank you for everything you taught me.

Ok, I didn’t just randomly decide to share this story. It’s related to the episode. Early on, the Admiral says they considered canceling the graduation ceremony because of Joshua’s death. But then she says, “We’ve decided the commencement will continue. Life goes on.” 6:11 Now, I took exception to that statement and decision, based on this story, but, but the thing is…she’s not wrong.

Like so many things that involve people, it’s not simple. Life does indeed go on. Work does still need to happen. But there is something more important than our work, and that’s the people we work with.

So, this is ‘world according to Jeff’ stuff here, so take it as you will. But, as a leader, the lives of the people you work with should be sacred. Honor them, respect them, and treat them with dignity and respect all the time. When something terrible happens to them, you take time for them and for the team. When you do go back to work, you do it with them in your thoughts and intentions.

You see, the thing we did wrong, which was partially an organizational thing, but more an impact from the leadership of me and my peers – impact of our leadership failure – was we saw grieving and working as an either/or, as a binary choice. We could do one or we could do the other. But the reality is you can do both, and it’s important that you support people in doing both.

One last takeaway from this story and I’ll move on. And I’m going to be pretty blunt about it. Your work does not care about you. It will not give its life for you so you should not give your life for it. We lost an incredible human and we paused for 7 hours. In most cases, organizations don’t even pause for that long. This is me telling you to be sure your priorities are in order. Yourself, your family, your friends, the people that are important to you – this is where you should place your worth and focus your efforts; not your job and not your employer. Yes, you might matter to the people you work with, and that’s great, but the organization will barely notice you’re gone; it will just keep moving. And that’s ok. Just know this and don’t give so much of yourself to a thing that will never do the same for you.

You know, I’ve done this a few times now; telling a quick story at the top of the command codes that ends up taking a huge chunk of time. Maybe I should plan these things a little better…

But, this is a good pivot into compassion. That’s a thing we hear a lot about these days, right. Leaders must show compassion. I couldn’t agree more, but the danger is that, in showing compassion, we often assign so much of our emotional selves to what the person is expressing that it impacts us too. And that doesn’t help anyone. Picard is faced with that in this episode. Before we know anything about the starburst or the cover-up, all we know is that Wesley lost a friend.

When Picard first sees Wesley, he immediately shows care and compassion. “Would you like to talk about it? I’m available should you change your mind.” 7:37 This is especially notable because it’s Picard! I mean, he’s great, but he is not necessarily knows for forming emotional attachments with people, especially younger people. But, he is doing exactly the right thing here.

When you find yourself in this situation, where someone you work with may need someone to listen to them, you do that. And, you should have the awareness to offer to listen, like Picard does here. That means knowing your team; talking to them; getting to know them.

But, the point here, is that you have to listen, you have to be engaged, but you cannot participate in their emotion or their situation. Your role is to listen, not solve. If you’re a manager, like me, you are kind of hardwired to try and solve problems when you see them, but compassion doesn’t require that. In fact, it’s counter-productive to showing compassion.

Had Wesley taken Picard up on his offer, I am very confident we would have gotten the perfect example of this behavior from Picard. He would have listened, acknowledged what he was saying, and then thanked him for sharing it with him. That’s it! He wouldn’t try to solve anything, he wouldn’t have talked about the time a friend of his died. None of that. The key to compassionate listening is exactly that: LISTEN!

And speaking of listening, Nova Squadron very much listened to Nick Locarno. Let’s listen to him to talk to the team and you’ll see why it’s easy to want to follow him. “We have some tough times ahead.” 13:04

You see? He connects the team, he’s up front with them and makes them feel better about the challenges that are coming. Boothby described him as a coach, a father-figure and a friend. All of that sounds great, doesn’t it?

But it really isn’t. You see, in my experience, these are all mistakes that inexperienced leaders and managers make. They think that connecting with people means some type of friendship and they often end up considering themselves a parental figure of some kind. A leader shouldn’t be seen as either of these things. Friendly, not necessarily a friend, and a partner, not a parent. In fact, going back to the Starfleet Leadership Academy episode on Voyager, Once Upon a Time, parentalism is one of the aspects of the toxic dominant culture that pervades most workplaces.

The other thing Nick does is unite the team to the team. We’ll be fine if we stick together; don’t forget your duty to the team; you don’t get to decide the fate of the team. “Resign your appointment. For the team!” 38:59 And on the surface, this seems great. But it’s short of the mark. Yes, you need to be united with your team, but to what end? Like, why does the team even exist? What is it working towards?

Focusing on the team itself becomes self-defeating; an ouroboros, to use one of my favorite words. The snake eating its own tail. If the team exists to do something really hard, let’s say supporting a team of salespeople that are only focused on their numbers, but the leader of the team brings the team together solely for the purpose of the team, eventually, they’re going to stop doing the hard and tedious work the sales team depends on them for. Why? Because it sucks! And eventually, someone will say they don’t want to do something anymore and the team will stand beside them because it’s always team first. Next thing you know, they’re doing their own thing and have left the rest of the organization in the dust.

Again, Locarno is likely doing this because of his inexperience. It is far easier to bring a team together by focusing on itself. The hard, and more rewarding work is uniting the team to a greater purpose and the mission and purpose of their organization. And that’s exactly the wall Locarno runs into in this episode. He believes, and has encouraged the rest of Nova Squad to believe, that if they just stick together, stand united as a team, everything will be ok. But they haven’t been brought together as a team to be ok and help cover-up their mistake. Now, they’ve been brought together to demonstrate some of the finest qualities in Starfleet Academy. To give other cadets something to aspire to so that they can support the mission of Starfleet and the Federation. Had Locarno united his team to that, this would have been a very different episode.

Truth is a word that gets used by a lot of people and in a lot of ways, unfortunately, not all in good ways. Did Nova Squad attempt a banned maneuver? Yes. And that’s the truth. Was it the Squad, or Josh’s or Locarno’s fault that it went south and Josh died? Well, that’s a complex truth. And it just gets more complicated from there. But, sometimes, oftentimes, maybe, the truth can be a pretty apparent and obvious thing. Picard says it best. In one of his most famous lines in all of The Next Generation, he talks about the importance of truth: "The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based, and if you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform.” 35:31

So, tying this back to Locarno, had he united the team as a force for truth, things would have gone differently. After the crash, Locarno and the team would have found their flight instructor, told them they were attempting an illegal move and Josh died. They would have received reprimands, graduation would have happened, we would have heard Picard’s commencement address and <<CLOSING CREDITS>>

It's actually a thing I like to call the Breaking Bad problem. We got 5 seasons of high drama all, basically, because Walter refused to tell Skylar about his plan or their financial struggles. He refused to tell her the truth and, after 5 seasons, dies because of it. Had he told her, it would have been a pretty boring, maybe 3-episode mini-series. Instead, he becomes a meth lord, a murderer, and destroys his family’s lives. Kind of like Locarno and Wes; Locarno getting discharged and Wes having to repeat his sophomore year.

But it doesn’t feel good to admit you were wrong or that you did something wrong. For some reason, we all think we’re more clever than the universe and think we can hide our mistakes. But we’re almost never right. And the thing is, like so many things with being human, the opposite is actually true. Admitting the thing you did wrong, telling the truth, almost always has a better outcome than trying to hide it.

I’ve talked before about a program that I managed a few years ago that had a really poor reputation. For a few years it had been so focused on its policies and on being right that it forgot about its customers. When I started managing the program I aimed to fix that. I got in front of as many customers as I could, and, believe me, they were eager to talk to me. They had all kinds of things they wanted to say to me! But instead of showing up and just taking the heat; letting them yell at me, I told the truth. I stood in front of them, introduced myself and told them that – over the last few years we have done an amazing job of becoming a barrier to you doing your business, and I’m here to help change that. And then I’d talk about our customer-focused plans. It was incredible! I remember watching the wind visibly disappear from their sales! They were ready to let me have it! But I was just honest with them and owned our mistakes. It actually endeared us to them and went a very long way in repairing our reputation.

This works because we all fundamentally understand that mistakes happen. We also fundamentally understand that trying to cover them up is cowardly and totally lacks integrity. It’s weird to me how difficult this is for people to grasp. We’ve all heard the stories of famous failures that led to huge successes, right? Thomas Edison, Michael Jordan, JK Rowling, the list goes on and on. Yet we still try to hide failure, hide our mistakes. Boothby says it perfectly, “You made a mistake. We all have…The important thing is what you did with your life afterwards.” 11:38 Don’t beat yourself up for mistakes; just own them and learn from them! Walter White and Nick Locarno would have really benefited from following my example, or even the example that Wesley Crusher eventually shows.

Despite all the great things that come with telling the truth, it still takes a lot of courage. For all the times people will be understanding, there are times people won’t be. In this episode, a person died. That cannot go unaddressed. In my short version of the episode earlier, Nova Squad was still reprimanded. But, it wouldn’t be unimaginable for them all to have been expelled or forced to repeat a year in the academy. I think, given what we know about Starfleet and its belief in the truth, owning what happened right away would have had a dramatically better outcome for Nova Squad.

Wes shows that courage as he becomes more uncomfortable with Locarno’s leadership. He’s a second-year in a group of 3 and 4-years and he says, “I don’t know if I can do this, Nick.” 21:00 He understood what I’ve been talking about here. Locarno is telling them to lie, to protect the team. But Wes, with the help and guidance of Picard, understands there is something bigger than the team. There is the truth. He shows the courage to speak up and, overall, things end better for everyone.

Better, Jeff? Really? Had he kept his mouth shut, there would have been a few reprimands and that’s all. But Josh’s Dad would have thought his son to have been less than what he was, Nova Squad would have to live with the guilt and shame of what they did, and they would be directly violating the core mission of Starfleet. In the end, Nick Locarno took the heat for his team. That’s what a leader does. He did it because he saw that there was something bigger than the team, and he followed through with it.

It's honestly too bad we never hear from him again. Given his final act, along with the raw leadership skills we see from him in the episode, I am sure he becomes someone great. But, I suppose we’ll never know.

<<Hailing Frequencies>>

Have you had a situation where you pulled a Wesley Crusher? Where you had the courage to speak up and tell the truth? I’d love to hear about it and I’m curious to hear how it helped your team out.

Reach out on Twitter: @ SFLA podcast or, if you want, on the other social media, @jefftakin Jeff, t as in Truth, a k i n.

Computer, what are we going to watch next time….

The 11 th episode from the 6 th season of Deep Space 9, Waltz. This is, in my opinion, one of THE episodes of DS9. It’s Sisko and Dukat, alone, on a planet and Dukat is not well. I’m always excited when a Deep Space 9 episode comes up, but this is very much one to look forward to!

Until then, Ex Astris Scientia!

Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

• Memory Beta articles sourced from episodes and movies
• Memory Beta articles sourced from video games
• Memory Beta articles sourced from games
• Memory Beta articles sourced from comics
• Memory Beta incomplete articles
• Memory Beta articles sourced from short stories
• 2263 births
• 2382 deaths

Liam Boothby

• View history

Liam Boothby was a male Human , born in the Martian Colonies in 2263 , who was employed as the groundskeeper of Starfleet Academy throughout the 24th century . ( SCE eBook : Aftermath ; TNG episode : " The First Duty "; ST video game : Star Trek Online )

After his death in 2382 , a plaque in his memory was placed on the grounds of the Starfleet Academy gardens. ( ST video game : Star Trek Online )

• 2.1 Connections
• 2.2 Background
• 2.3.1 Appearances
• 2.4 External link

History [ ]

Prior to him becoming the Academy's groundskeeper, Boothby's father held that position. As a young man Boothby helped his father maintain the grounds of the Academy. In the early 2280s he met a young Demora Sulu when her father Hikaru Sulu brought her on a visit to the Academy, where he was working as an instructor. Boothby told the younger Sulu that he would someday take over for his father after he retired. ( TOS novel : The Captain's Daughter )

Boothby would later become the groundskeeper. During his time at the Academy he saw many promising cadets go through the Academy, and would often be sought for help and advice. Among the many cadets he met were Jean-Luc Picard , Kathryn Janeway , Alynna Nechayev , Chakotay , and Arla Rees . ( TNG episode : " The First Duty "; VOY episodes : " In the Flesh ", " The Fight "; TNG - The Space Between comic : " An Inconvenient Truth "; DS9 - Millennium novel : The Fall of Terok Nor )

In 2370 Captain Picard approached Boothby to ask him his opinion on Admiral Nechayev, suspicious of whether she could be trusted while he was investigating a conspiracy within Starfleet . Boothby told Picard about the young Nechayev, but was not sure about her trustworthiness. He also told Picard about whispered rumours he had heard of " people inside Starfleet , a secret group that fights dirty to keep the Federation clean ". ( TNG - The Space Between comic : " An Inconvenient Truth ")

Appendices [ ]

Connections [ ], background [ ].

Boothby's Martian heritage was likely a reference to Ray Walston's well-known performance on the sci-fi comedy My Favorite Martian .

Appearances and references [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• PIC - SA - Picard's Academy comic : " Issue 1 "
• TOS novel : The Captain's Daughter
• ST - The Lost Era novel : Deny Thy Father
• ST - The Lost Era novel : Catalyst of Sorrows
• TNG episode : " The First Duty "
• TNG comic : " An Inconvenient Truth "
• SA comic : " Prime Directives "
• DS9 short story : " The Bottom Line "
• DS9 short story : " Best Tools Available "
• VOY episode : " In the Flesh "
• VOY episode : " The Fight "

External link [ ]

• Liam Boothby article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Boothby article at the Star Trek Timelines Wiki .
• 1 The Chase
• 2 Preserver (race)
• 3 J.P. Hanson

• Show Spoilers
• Night Vision
• Sticky Header
• Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E19TheFirstDuty

Recap / Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E19 "The First Duty"

Edit locked.

Original air date: March 30, 1992

The Enterprise returns to Earth for Starfleet's commencement ceremony, where Picard is scheduled to give the address, only to learn that Cadet Wesley Crusher has been involved in a tragic incident; he is not seriously harmed, but his friend, classmate, and fellow member of Nova Squadron Joshua Albert has died in a flight accident. When Picard tries to learn more about what happened from Wesley, the young cadet is evasive about the subject. The discussion is interrupted by Nicholas Locarno, a classmate and Wesley's leader in Nova Squadron, who is just as saddened over Albert's death as everyone. When Picard leaves, however, Locarno tells Wesley not to worry about the inquiries; they have nothing to fear, so long as they stick together...

When Locarno, Wesley, and their squadmates are called in for the inquiry, Locarno recounts how Nova Squadron was attempting a Yeager loop near Saturn 's moon of Titan in the diamond slot formation, but Albert's shuttle collided with another, causing a chain reaction that lead to all five ships in the squadron being destroyed. Everyone except for Albert were able to transport to safety. Jean Hajar, the squadron's navigator, reluctantly admits that she had changed their flight plan. Sito Jaxa, who was flying in the rear, claims to not be aware of how the accident occurred exactly due to flying by sensors alone—not a recommended procedure for the maneuvers they were attempting. Locarno manages to defuse the situation by placing blame on Albert, who he claims panicked while flying and caused the accident.

The proceedings are dismissed afterwards while data from Wesley's flight recorder is examined. Locarno reminds Wesley to trust in him.

While the proceedings are in recess, Picard and La Forge look into the accident themselves. Meanwhile, Wesley and the other members of Nova Squadron are stressed over the investigation, but Locarno warns them that they must stay together. He tells Wesley that his flight recorder was damaged in the accident and only has data on what happened before the crash, so Wesley doesn't need to testify to anything his recorder doesn't prove. Wesley doesn't feel comfortable lying, but Sito suggests not to lie, but simply to not volunteer any more information.

After meeting with Albert's father and realizing that even he blames his son for the accident, Wesley tells the inquiry board what Locarno coached him to say. However, a satellite had recorded their ships in a very different formation than the one he describes, for which Wesley has no explanation...

Even in spite of contradicting evidence from the satellite, everyone, especially Beverly, believes Wesley's story and plans to try to delay the inquiry, distressing Wesley. All the while, Picard continues to investigate the accident on his own. He learns from Boothby, the kindly old groundskeeper, that after winning the Rigel Cup, Wesley and the other members of Nova Squadron became highly popular among fellow cadets, and that the entire squadron were loyal to Locarno. La Forge can't find any evidence as to what exactly caused the accident, but does find one peculiar detail regarding Wesley's shuttle: its plasma interlock was open, when it was supposed to be closed to prevent the shuttle's plasma from igniting. This leads Picard to a harrowing realization...

Picard orders Wesley to his ready room, where he reveals to the young cadet that he knows exactly what happened: Nova Squadron was attempting a Kolvoord Starburst maneuver, in which five shuttles cross each other in formation while emptying their plasma exhaust and igniting it, creating a spectacular starburst pattern. The Kolvoord Starburst maneuver was banned by Starfleet Academy over a hundred years ago after the last attempt by cadets resulted in the deaths of all involved. Picard believes Locarno wanted to leave the Academy in a blaze of glory, and manipulated Wesley and the others into performing the maneuver. Wesley tries to feign ignorance and claim that he told the truth at the inquiry, but Picard knows that Wesley only told a half-truth, which he considers the same as a lie. He recounts how, when he let Wesley onto his bridge and saw how the prodigious young man knew every control in his captain's chair, he saw great potential in him, promoting him to acting ensign and later helping him enter Starfleet Academy. Now worrying that he made these decisions in error, he gives Wesley an ultimatum: if Wesley will not tell the truth to the inquiry board, Picard will.

When Wesley returns to Earth, he recounts his discussion with Picard to Locarno. Locarno tells Wesley he only needs to dispute Picard's claims at the inquiry, but Wesley no longer feels comfortable lying and plans to tell the whole truth. Locarno accuses Wesley of betraying the team, and suggests that Wesley should instead resign his commission to save the team. After all, Locarno would do the same for them...

When the inquiry resumes, the members of Nova Squadron have their flight privileges revoked and a reprimand placed on their permanent records. Just as the proceedings are adjourned, however, Wesley speaks up and confesses that Albert died after being pressured into attempting the Kolvoord Starburst maneuver. In the face of the truth coming to light, Locarno remains silent.

Tropes featured in this episode include:

• While chewing Wesley out, Picard mentions his first meeting with Wesley on the Enterprise , how he was annoyed at how a child was sitting in his command chair, but how he was wowed at how Wesley knew how the chair worked after seeing it for the first time. He also mentions when he made Wesley an acting ensign , a decision he was proud of... until now .
• In " Final Mission ", Picard reminisces to Wesley about his days at the Academy, including a man named Boothby who was a mentor of sorts. A year later, in " The Game ", Wesley mentions having met Boothby and hearing him tell a story about Picard. Here, Boothby is fleshed out into an actual character.
• The Chains of Commanding : Upon meeting Picard, Locarno admits he's saddened at losing someone under his command. The Captain replies that it doesn't get easier.
• Colonized Solar System : Nova Squadron's emergency transporters took them to evac stations on Saturn's moon, Mimas.
• Ever wonder how, in an era of sliding doors, it was possible for Finnegan to pull a Bucket Booby-Trap on Kirk? Well, it turns out that the Academy still uses good old-fashioned hinged doors.
• Picard recalls how Wesley invaded the bridge and sat down in Picard's chair on their first meeting.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique : The Kolvoord Starburst. It involves five ships flying in close formation and then venting the drive plasma so their engines will ignite it, creating a star-like explosion in their wake. While the effect may be impressive, it's forbidden because the maneuver is just as likely to get the participants killed as it is to produce the intended effect. The last time it was attempted a century earlier, all five cadets were killed .
• Death Glare : When Wesley goes into Picard's ready room, Picard practically says " What the Hell, Hero? " with his eyes alone. We even get a close-up of Picard's piercing, unflinching glare as he puts his monitor to one side, getting ready to lower the boom. Hope and pray that you are never as screwed as Wesley is here.
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit : When Sito is being grilled by the Admiral running the investigation over the obvious holes in her testimony, Locarno immediately steps in to metaphorically throw the deceased Albert under the bus, saying he had been having "problems" lately and blame him solely for the crash, by saying that Albert's flying was erratic and he was prone to pulling away suddenly while in close formation. A later scene confirms that this is exactly what Locarno is doing when his teammates point out he purposely blamed Albert.
• Didn't Think This Through : Locarno attempting to perform the Kolvoord Starburst was bad enough, but he thought he could hide the truth from the crew of the starship Enterprise — aka the Federation's flagship— and they expose him shortly after joining the investigation. He might have gotten away with it if not for a passing satellite catching them in a lie, but insisting on maintaining it when the story was called into question was pure ego.
• Disappointed in You : Picard puts it in no uncertain terms that he's quite displeased with Wesley covering up the truth about what really happened with the flight accident, and that now he's questioning whether or not he was right to let Wesley become an officer in the first place. Wesley tries to reason with Picard about what happened, but the Captain isn't hearing it.
• Early-Installment Weirdness : Sito's make-up looks a little different to most other Bajorans seen in the franchise (and even her own later appearance in Season 7), giving her bushy eyebrows and more pronounced nose ridges.
• "Eureka!" Moment : La Forge noting Wesley's plasma interlocks were open, which he explains could ignite the warp plasma. This leads to Picard's realization. Picard: Ignite the plasma... that's what they were trying to do.
• Get Out! : Wesley looks like he wants to reason with Picard after he gets chewed out. Picard cuts him off with a loud, booming, "Dismissed!!"
• Glory Seeker : Locarno wanted to prove Nova Squadron was the best, by mastering the Kolvord Starburst and putting on the greatest flight demonstration the Academy had ever seen.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop : Picard manages to pull both of these off when he brings Wesley to his ready room. He first speaks to him in a calm and gentle tone, like a concerned parent who's worried that their child has done something terribly wrong. Once Wesley hesitates to answer, Picard snaps at him and pulls rank, showing that he's done playing games.
• Honesty Aesop : The main theme to the episode.
• I Gave My Word : It happens offscreen, but in the end, it turns out Locarno took the blame and got expelled. The rest of the team got a lighter (though still pretty bad) punishment, but as Wesley notes, Locarno did exactly what he said he'd do—he looked out for his team.
• If You Won't, I Will : Picard uses this ultimatum on Wesley when he finds out that Wesley and the rest of Nova Squadron have been lying about a training accident that got one of them killed.
• Sito Jaxa is held back for a year on account of her role in the cover up, and becomes a pariah on campus as a result. When she's finally able to graduate, she's assigned to the Enterprise as an Ensign, but dies during a spy mission to Cardassia.
• It eventually turns out that Sito had a major admirer: Beckett Mariner , who was so devastated by her friend's death and traumatized by having to fight in the Dominion War, she deliberately stunted her career with multiple acts of self-sabotage in order to keep herself from having to be in a position to send others to their deaths. Consequently, most of her crewmates see her as an undisciplined maverick whose career in Starfleet is hanging by a thread, even though she loves being a part of something bigger than herself despite Starfleet's bureaucracy and hypocrisy being an annoyance to her. It takes three seasons of Character Development for her to get her head on straight, and another season for her to accept a promotion.
• Wesley's role in the affair burns out his desire to be in Starfleet, and he returns to the Enterprise in great distress and annoyance about what he really wants to do. He winds up becoming a Traveler , which is later revealed to be the very beings that protect the fabric of history itself, allowing him to mature into the man he wants to be.
• Nova Squad is implied to have been the biggest name on campus until Locarno torched their reputation. In their place comes Red Squad, who wind up falling into their own legacy of shame and disgrace in the run-up to and during the Dominion War. First, Admiral Leyton uses them as part of a coup attempt to take a more aggressive approach against the Dominion. Then, the squad's members end up stranded away from the Federation and try fighting the Dominion by themselves, but their leader proves no better than Locarno and drags his squad into a suicide mission that gets all but one of them killed.
• As for Locarno himself, his ego takes a massive blow and he convinces himself that the squad would've pulled it off if they'd been allowed to practice, causing him to stop accepting responsibility for his role in the affair . Disgraced, he forms his own Nova Fleet by bribing the crews of other ships to overthrow their captains and join him in creating an alternative to Starfleet that isn't bound by the same rules, though his entire plan is foiled by Mariner when he kidnaps her, thinking she shares his point of view. Instead, she denounces him on a quadrant-wide broadcast, flees with his black market Genesis Device in hand, and exposes that his plan was nothing more than a means to prop up his own ego, which winds up leading to his death in a Genesis Wave.
• Laser-Guided Karma : After Wesley exposes what really happened with the flight accident, Locarno is expelled from Starfleet Academy. The rest of Nova Squad is punished for partaking in the coverup by having their academic credits for the year revoked, and must repeat them. It's later revealed they were treated like pariahs at the school for what they did, and nobody wanted anything to do with them.
• Legacy Seeker : Cadet Nicholas Locarno is the captain of famed flight team Nova Squadron. He's about to graduate and become an ordinary ensign, so he decides to do something that will ensure his immortality on campus. He convinces the rest of the Squadron into performing a dangerous but spectacular flying maneuver that was banned for killing five cadets; unfortunately, he fails, and one of his teammates is killed... so now his legacy is being the guy who led his teammate to his death.
• Meaningful Echo : When Picard returns to Starfleet Academy and runs into Boothby, he thanks the old groundskeeper for helping him straighten out his life. Boothby tells Picard that all he did was give him advice; Picard was the one who put in the work to become a better man. When Picard leaves the Academy, Wesley thanks him for convincing him to tell the truth. Picard repeats Boothby's words to the young man before departing.
• Metaphorically True : Turns out Wesley testified with this. When Picard finds out what really happened, he lets Wesley know that he sees right through his little charade. Picard: Cadet, I asked you a question. Am I correct? Wesley: I choose not to answer, sir. Picard: [enraged] ...you choose not to answer? But you've already given an answer to the inquiry. That answer was a lie! Wesley: I said the accident occurred after the loop! It did! Picard: What you neglected to mention is that following the loop, your team attempted a maneuver that was the direct cause of the crash. You told the truth, up to a point. But a lie of omission is still a lie !
• Whatever Boothby did to save Picard's bacon years earlier.
• Also, about that time you were sent to the superintendent's office, Picard...
• And the celebration after the Paresees Squares victory against Minsk.
• And there is also the first (and possibly only ) time somebody tried to perform the Kolvoord Starburst.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging : Dr. Crusher assuring Wesley that she knows he's telling the truth, even though he and the rest of Nova Squadron have been lying. Also a doozy from Albert's father, who details how much Albert looked up to the other cadets, and how sorry his father is for Albert 'letting them down' and almost getting the squad killed.
• The look on Wesley's face (along with the rest of Nova Squadron) when an image of their flight formation contradicts the cadets' stories.
• Wesley also gets quite alert when his mother tells him that Geordi and Data are investigating his flight recorder.
• That said, it's Picard's legendary " What the Hell, Hero? " speech where Wesley really knows the jig is up.
• Outrun the Fireball : The Kolvoord Starburst involves five ships flying in close formation to intentionally ignite their plasma exhaust and then outrunning the resulting explosion. It looks like a star pattern if done right, hence the name, but if done wrong the fireball catches the pilots and everyone dies. It was banned because the last five cadets to attempt it got themselves killed, and Locarno's group doesn't fare much better on their attempt.
• Parental Substitute : Riker says that the superintendent during his academy days was a Vulcan, who memorized the personnel files of every cadet. "It was like having your parents around all the time."
• Posthumous Character : Joshua Albert, who dies before the Enterprise gets to Earth. He wouldn't actually be seen in the flesh until a flashback sequence on Star Trek: Lower Decks .
• Revealing Cover Up : There are too many small inconsistencies with the cadets' testimonies for it to have played out the way they described, especially since there's photographic evidence from a nearby satellite showing that they misled the board. Then Geordi and Data examine a flight recorder that helps Picard figure out what they were really doing.
• Shout-Out : The Starfleet Academy motto, Ex Astris Scientia ("From the stars, knowledge") is derived from Apollo 13 's mission motto Ex Luna Scientia ("From the moon, knowledge"), which, in turn, was derived from the United States Naval Academy's motto Ex Scientia Tridens ("From knowledge, sea power").
• Space Fighter : The ships that Nova Squadron did their maneuvers in were single-person fighters.
• Spanner in the Works : Locarno's entire plan to get Nova Squadron off the hook is foiled because a passing satellite happened to grab an image of the cadets in a different formation than the one they claimed, at which point Picard and his people step in to figure out the truth themselves once the story is called into question.
• Taking the Heat : Locarno accepts full responsibility to prevent the rest of Nova Squadron from being expelled along with him.
• Teleportation Rescue : Nova Squadron, with the exception of Joshua, survived the explosion thanks to emergency transporters that beamed them to the nearest station.
• Think Nothing of It : When Picard offers a belated, stammering apology/thank-you to Boothby for whatever happened years ago , Boothby shrugs it off, saying that it's enough that Picard has done so well in life.
• Title Drop : "The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth !"
• A rather epic one from Picard. Picard: Do you remember the day you first came aboard this ship ? Your mother brought you on the Bridge. Wesley: [defeated] Yes, sir. Picard: You even sat in my chair. I was annoyed - presumptuous child playing on my ship?! But I never forgot how you already knew every control, every display. You behaved as though you belonged on the Bridge. And then later when I decided to make you an acting ensign , I was convinced you could be an outstanding officer. And I've never questioned that conviction... until now. The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth ! Whether it's scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth! It is the guiding principle upon which Starfleet is based! If you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened you don't deserve to wear that uniform . I'm going to make this simple for you, Mister Crusher. Either you come forward and tell Admiral Brand what really took place, or I will. Wesley: Captain— Picard: Dismissed!
• Locarno then gives Wesley one to try to keep him from ratting everyone out. Doesn't work so well.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E18 "Cause and Effect"
• Recap/Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E20 "Cost of Living"

Important Links

• Action Adventure
• Commercials
• Crime & Punishment
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• Animation (Western)
• Music And Sound Effects
• Print Media
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters As Device
• Narrative Devices
• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Derivative Works
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Fate And Prophecy
• Edit Reasons
• Isolated Pages
• Images List
• Recent Videos
• Crowner Activity
• Un-typed Pages
• Recent Page Type Changes
• Trope Entry
• Character Sheet
• Playing With
• Creating New Redirects
• Cross Wicking
• Tips for Editing
• Text Formatting Rules
• Handling Spoilers
• Administrivia
• Trope Repair Shop
• Image Pickin'

Advertisement:

Search Comics, Titles, Creators & More

• Contributions Submit Corrections Submit New Persona Contribution History

Boothby was the head groundskeeper at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco on Earth during the 24th century. Born around the 2260s, Boothby worked at Starfleet Academy from about 2321 and saw many promising young cadets come and go, often offering up helpful advice and kind words. Among the cadets he had seen pass through the Academy were such prominent Starfleet captains as Jean-Luc Picard and Kathryn Janeway.

Featured in these Comics

Already have an account with the League of Comic Geeks? Let's get you back to tracking and discussing your comics!

The First Duty Stardate: 45703.9 Original Airdate: 30 Mar, 1992

<Back to the episode listing

Star Trek ® and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc . Copyright © 1966, Present. The Star Trek web pages on this site are for educational and entertainment purposes only. All other copyrights property of their respective holders.

How Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Connects to TNG's Biggest Open Mystery

Star Trek: Discovery is set 800 years in the future from The Next Generation, but Season 5 has a major connection to one of TNG's oldest mysteries.

Quick Links

How star trek: discovery sets up its final season, how star trek: discovery ties into tng's 'the chase' episode, why the next generation never followed up on the progenitor story, how star trek: discovery can build on tng's 'roddenberry-esque' concept.

The following contains spoilers from Star Trek: Discovery , Season 5, Episodes 1 and 2, "Red Directive" and "Under the Twin Moons," now streaming on Paramount+.

In a universe with nearly 60 years of narrative history, ongoing series face a unique difficulty that's both a blessing and a curse. They have to tell a new, inventive story that fits into the established canon and builds upon it. Done well, it can take a decades-old story and expand on it in a way that makes the result feel inevitable. The way Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 connects to a dangling Star Trek: The Next Generation story thread has that potential. Discovery connected to Star Trek: TNG before , showing footage from the series of Leonard Nimoy's Spock as the "personal files" of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The character played by Patrick Stewart is mentioned again in the Season 5 premiere, this time by David Cronenberg's Doctor Kovich.

Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) unravels the titular "Red Directive" mystery with the help of Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman). Meant to be kept a closely-held secret, the USS Discovery crew learns a Star Trek canon fact fans have known for 30 years. Ironically, it's a sci-fi detail meant to address a nitpicky Trekker quibble that doubled as an almost-saccharine moral message in a Season 6 The Next Generation episode. Star Trek: Discovery takes this idea and expands upon it in a way that poses its own relevant social question and presents an interesting narrative problem. Discovery Season 5 is a race and a treasure-hunt that promises lighthearted Star Trek fun. However, its connection to "The Chase" on The Next Generation is more than just a fun Easter egg for fans.

Section 31: First Image of Michelle Yeoh in New Star Trek Movie Released

The final season debut for Star Trek: Discovery came later than expected. In fact, the opening bit of space adventure has been out since it debuted at Comic Con in 2023. However, fans now have context about why Captain Burnham was riding atop a ship traveling at warp speed. While at a reception at Starfleet's space-based headquarters, the USS Discovery is ordered to a ship graveyard after the receipt of an 800-year-old signal. Naturally, two space-pirates -- Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) -- get there first.

Kovich is very cagey about the details of this mission, and Burnham pulls her risky stunt without even knowing what she's chasing down. Oded Fehr's Admiral Vance doesn't even know the mission details. After Moll and L'ak almost destroy a village full of people trying to escape, they learn the truth. A Romulan scientist named Vellek found some ancient alien technology that is more powerful than anything Starfleet, the Dominion or even the millennia-old Borg have ever seen.

Thanks to a Soong-type android who speed-read the Romulan's journal, the crew is working with the same information as Moll and L'ak. Like any good archaeologist who keeps a journal, Vellek left a list of clues and riddles pointing towards his discovery. Burnham and Saru (Doug Jones) track one down. There will be plenty more to find over Discovery 's final mission , and there's no telling if the "X" on their galactic treasure map is anything more than information. The most interesting conflict in Season 5 is how people react to the existence of the alien race known only as the "Progenitors."

Star Trek: Discovery's Kenneth Mitchell Was Heroic On and Off Screen

In Season 6, Episode 20 of Star Trek: The Next Generation "The Chase," there is another race across the stars for a big alien secret. Captain Picard's friend and archaeology teacher Galen (Norman Lloyd) visits and asks him to leave the USS Enterprise-D . He's discovered information about the Progenitors, but he doesn't get to reveal it before he is killed. Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians all try to track down this secret, leading to a standoff on a planet called Vilmor III.

Picard and his crew solve Galen's mystery first, which leads to the appearance of a humanoid alien via advanced hologram. This representative of the Progenitor, played by Salome Jens (who also played the Dominion leader on Deep Space Nine ), makes a revelation that shocks everyone there. When her people first explored the galaxy billions of years ago, no advanced life had evolved. Her people used their technology to encourage the evolution of intelligent, advanced life like themselves, meaning two arms, two legs and so on.

A group of four Romulan scientists witnessed this, and the commander even implies to Picard this news could bring peace between the Empire and the Federation. Vellek was one of the Romulans on Vilmor III, and he continued to study this revelation. When his ship was incapacitated, he sent a message so that someone could retrieve his work and carry on the mission. This was what Kovich wanted the USS Discovery to do, but Moll and L'ak got there first.

'We Broke Barriers': Star Trek: Discovery Star Celebrates Show's Diversity

Unlike Star Trek: Discovery and other third-wave series, The Next Generation mostly avoided serialized storytelling . By the sixth season, the series hit its stride tackling big ideas in character-focused stories. This episode was controversial among the producers, according to Captains' Logs The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman. Executive producer Rick Berman said the story had been "around forever," and writers Joe Menosky and Ronald D. Moore tackled this script.

They, along with fellow writer Naren Shankar and director Jonathan Frakes said it was the "most Roddenberry-esque" idea The Next Generation tackled, even when the Great Bird of the Galaxy himself was alive. Instead of all these different beings being "created" by a divine god of some sort, they were genetically related to an advanced alien species that had long since died out. The four big Star Trek enemies were all related. This was not a keystone of world-building, but rather a "message" show.

The premise also served to address a common quibble from overly-critical Star Trek fans. If there is supposed to be "infinite diversity in infinite combinations," why do all the aliens on Star Trek look like humans? The answer, of course, is because human actors need to play them. However, this provides some sci-fi reasoning: there are so many humanoid species in the galaxy because billions of years ago, some humanoid race put their opposable thumb on the evolutionary scale of thousands of planets .

Star Trek: Discovery Cast Reveals the Mementos They Kept From the Set

Discovery Season 5 wasn't the final one initially , though producers were able to add an extended coda to the series finale to wrap up the show. Still, as concepts to drive a Star Trek series' swan song, it's perfect. Part of the reason The Next Generation's writers never returned to the concept is that if everyone learns the "lesson," there is not much in the way of conflict for future stories. It was something for the audience to learn, not the wider universe. However, Discovery 's present-day galaxy is already fairly integrated.

Vulcans and Romulans reunified and joined the Federation. President Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) is Cardassian and Bajoran. The Klingons haven't been heard from in the 32nd Century, but they're not picking fights, either. Whatever technology is at the other end of the treasure hunt may or may not be dangerous. What's more interesting in the Star Trek universe is the information itself. With the galactic society already so integrated, the news they share a common genetic ancestor billions of years in the past will probably only bring them closer together.

When Picard and the Romulan Commander spoke at the end of "The Chase," the latter said the information they discovered might "one day" bring them together. Discovery showed the galaxy united without that knowledge. In Season 5, this series can pay off that notion in the perfect way. They can introduce this information to the galaxy at large, without future seasons' conflict undermining it. It's the kind of ending Gene Roddenberry would be proud of because the truth that all life is in this together is what he created Star Trek to tell the world.

Star Trek: Discovery debuts new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Discovery

The fifth and final season of the American television series Star Trek: Discovery follows the crew of the starship Discovery in the 32nd century, more than 900 years after Star Trek: The Original Series , on a galactic adventure to find a mysterious power that has been hidden for centuries and which other dangerous groups are also searching for.

Filed under:

Star Trek: Discovery is cracking open a box Next Gen closed on purpose

The USS Discovery is on a mad chase across the galaxy for one of Star Trek’s biggest secrets

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: Star Trek: Discovery is cracking open a box Next Gen closed on purpose

Calling back to a single 30-year-old episode of television is a time-honored Star Trek tradition , one that’s led the franchise to some of its most fascinating detours. And in its two-episode season premiere, Star Trek: Discovery seems to be kicking off an entire season calling back to one particular episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

And not just any episode! The 1993 installment of Next Gen in question delivered a revelation so seemingly earth-shaking that it should have rewritten galactic politics on a massive scale. But then, as was the way in the 1990s era of episodic TV, nobody ever mentioned it again.

At least until now.

[ Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5.]

Writer Michelle Paradise and director Olatunde Osunsanmi lay out the connection at the end of the first of two episodes released this week, “Red Directive.” Discovery’s mission is to follow a series of ancient clues leading to a cache of ancient technology, and to get there before a couple of professional thieves, Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis), do.

The technology, as Doctor Kovich (David Cronenberg) explains, belongs to the so-called Progenitors, a barely understood ancient spacefaring species that “created life as we know it […] every humanoid species in the galaxy.” Presumably such tech holds the key to understanding how the Progenitors did that, and how that power could be used again.

The Progenitors are from the Star Trek episode “The Chase”

Kovich also calls up a helpful video presentation of the moment the Progenitors were discovered by an assembled group of Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Cardassian captains, including Jean-Luc Picard. But you don’t have to be a Star Trek lore nerd to know you’re actually just looking at clips from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Specifically, from the 20th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s sixth season, “The Chase,” in which Picard and crew discover pieces of a computer program hidden inside the DNA of species from dozens of different planets. Questions abound: What does the program do? And what kind of entity could have been so ancient and powerful that it had determined the genetic legacy of most of the known galaxy before sentient life had even evolved here — and then left no trace of its existence except the genetic codes themselves?

In a nutshell, the mysterious death of Captain Picard’s old archeology professor (did you know that if he hadn’t gone into Starfleet, Jean-Luc was studying to be a space archeologist? Well, now you do) sets the captain and the Enterprise on a search for the missing DNA fragments necessary to complete his unfinished work.

The action of the episode becomes a grand chase, as Klingon and Cardassian captains come to believe the program must be a great weapon or dangerous secret. Eventually Picard and his rivals all discover the lonely planet with the final DNA strain — and when they get there, some Romulans who’ve been secretly following all of them show up, too, just to make things even more tense.

In the end, the program isn’t a weapon or a secret, but a message from an ancient race of humanoids that apparently created sentient life in our galaxy as we know it.

Actor Salome Jens appears as a Progenitor hologram, and delivers a speech that’s stirring by any standard of Star Trek monologues, telling the story of a race of sentients that took to the stars and found them empty. They had evolved too early to meet other forms of sentient life, and knew that their time was too limited to ever expect to.

“We knew that one day we would be gone; that nothing of us would survive, so we left you,” Jens’ Progenitor explains. The Progenitors seeded humanoid life across the galaxy in their own image; life that tended to evolve into bipedal, tailless, largely hairless creatures with two eyes and two arms and five fingers on each hand. And they left clues in the genetic signature of their work, broken up among the stars.

Wait, was this really all about lampshading the limits of Star Trek’s alien design?

Kinda, yes! The writers of “The Chase,” Ron Moore and Joe Menosky, were inspired by elements of Carl Sagan’s Contact , but also by Menosky’s pet fascination creating an in-universe explanation for why all the common alien species in Star Trek are basically shaped like humans (albeit with latex on their faces).

In other hands, it would be hokey and trite, but even under heavy makeup, Jens sells the hell out of her single scene on voice and stance alone — it’s no wonder she was asked back to the Trek fold to play a major antagonist role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

“It was our hope that you would have to come together in fellowship and companionship to hear this message, and if you can see and hear me, our hope has been fulfilled,” the Progenitor hologram concludes, with gentle compassion. “You are a monument, not to our greatness, but to our existence. That was our wish: That you, too, would know life. [...] There is something of us in each of you, and so something of you in each other.”

But though “The Chase” carried a sweeping revelation, nothing ever really panned out from it. You’d think that a message of togetherness that fundamentally rewrote the origin of life in the universe would have to have tweaked Star Trek’s galactic politics a bit, right? Seems like this would give the Star Trek setting a radically different understanding of the origins of life than we have in the real world — this is literally intelligent design! At the very least there’d be some other characters talking about how humans and Vulcans, Klingons and Romulans and Ferengi and Cardassians and Trill and Bajorans, all share the same genetic ancestor.

But nope: The Pandora’s box of Progenitor lore remained closed. Gene Roddenberry’s successor and Trek producer Rick Berman seems to have been disenchanted with the episode’s reveal — and you can’t really blame him for not wanting to rock the whole cosmology of Star Trek in an episode that’s mostly about explaining how if you turn the DNA snippets like this they make a cool spiral. Now look at this computer screen with the spiral :

Except now, Star Trek: Discovery is opening the box and rocking the boat. This new mad, puzzle-box chase around the galaxy promises to expand on the Progenitors, an idea so big that not even The Next Generation was willing to touch it. It’s a tall order, but Discovery has never been more free to shake up Star Trek continuity than it is right now — we’ll have to wait for more episodes of the show’s final season to find out how free it intends to be.

Star Trek: Discovery is finally free to do whatever it wants

The 10 horniest episodes of star trek, ranked by cultural impact, the picard legacy collection puts one of the greatest remasters of all time in sprawling context, loading comments....

Final Mission (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 1.7 Log entries
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Production history
• 3.2 Story and production
• 3.4 Continuity
• 3.5 Reception
• 3.6 Video and DVD releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 4.3 Guest stars
• 4.4 Uncredited co-stars
• 4.5 Stunt doubles
• 4.6 Stand-ins
• 4.7.1 Other References
• 4.7.2 Deleted references
• 4.8 External links

Summary [ ]

" Mr. Crusher, I summoned you almost ten minutes ago. "

Ensign Wesley Crusher comes running onto the bridge and apologizes to Captain Picard for being ten minutes late. Picard chastises the young man, then, smiling, informs the young ensign that a position has opened in this year's class at Starfleet Academy and that Wesley has been granted the posting. Admiral Nsomeka has contacted Picard and expects Wesley to be leaving for the Academy in two weeks, though he will have to work hard to catch up with his classmates. Picard has assured the admiral that Wesley is fully capable of doing so and jokingly hopes that he will not make a liar out of him. Wesley promises that he will not.

The mining shuttle Nenebek

In the interim, Picard is to arbitrate a mining dispute on Pentarus V between hostile salenite miners , and he opts to bring Wesley along to observe the effects of outpost judiciary decisions on Federation law . The USS Enterprise -D rendezvouses with Captain Dirgo 's shuttle , the Nenebek , and Picard and Wesley depart with Dirgo. On first meeting Dirgo, Wesley quietly makes a rude comment to Geordi La Forge on Dirgo calling himself a captain – though he holds no formal rank and commands only a mere mining shuttle . Dirgo makes it clear he heard it and says the ship has over ten-thousand hours of flight recorded and means a lot to him and his people. Shortly before their departure, the Enterprise receives a distress signal from Chairman Songi of Gamelan V – an unidentified space barge has entered into orbit above Gamelan V and has caused the radiation levels in the planet's atmosphere to increase by 3,000%. Songi is unsure if the planet is under attack by some hostile force aboard the barge, but the ship has not been answering their hails. The Enterprise speeds off at warp 6 under Riker's command to assist.

Meanwhile, Dirgo tells Wesley that he hopes Picard is tougher than he looks, otherwise the miners will tear him apart. Just then, Dirgo's shuttle suffers a mishap, and is likely going to crash land.

Act One [ ]

The three collaborate in the crisis situation to crash-land on Lambda Paz , a desert moon of Pentarus III . They survive, but the crash landing virtually destroys the shuttle and Picard recommends they abandon it, as it will act like an oven and won't provide shelter from the heat. Worse yet, there are very few emergency supplies and no food or water rations. Dirgo tells Picard that since the mining shuttle had very little space, he depended on the replicator for supplies, which is now damaged beyond repair, leaving them only with a medicine pouch.

The Enterprise reaches Gamelan V and identifies the orbiting vessel as an unmanned garbage scow . The radiation levels are from toxic waste, and it appears that its engines have not been activated for three centuries . This means the vessel was drifting and simply got caught in the planet's gravity, achieving orbit by itself. Riker promises Songi that they will remove the vessel. He plans to send it into the Gamelan sun ; however, Data reports there is an asteroid belt between it and the planet, so the Enterprise will have to tow the garbage scow rather than simply launching it in the sun's direction. La Forge recommends using portable thrusters attached to construction modules to guide the vessel in order to work at a safe distance. Worf reports a message from the miners on Pentaurus V that Picard's shuttle has not arrived. Riker assures them the Enterprise will conduct a search for the missing officers as soon as the present situation is handled, and orders La Forge to launch his construction modules.

Crusher, Picard, and Dirgo head for the mountains

Picard decides they must head towards the mountains to find shelter, to which Dirgo first objects but then is forced by Picard to admit that he has no better alternative to offer. After Picard leaves a directional marker on the ground so that a rescue party can follow their path, he, Wesley, and Dirgo start their long walk to the mountains. During the trio's trek, Dirgo becomes weakened from the heat and stumbles. Wesley extends his hand and helps him back up to his feet. " And you were worried about how tough the captain is? ", Wesley snaps at him. As Wesley walks away, Dirgo secretly drinks clear liquid from a bottle and hides it in his jacket . During their hike, Wesley notes some strange energy readings with his tricorder in the direction of their travel. It could be dangerous, but the desert is taking its toll on them. They have no choice but to continue towards it.

Act Two [ ]

When the three finally arrive in a cavern in the mountain, Dirgo is hopeful. He believes that because all caves are formed by water, there may be a water source inside. Picard grimly disagrees, pointing out that the walls are dry and were more likely formed by volcanic activity. Just then, the bottle falls out Dirgo's jacket, and is revealed to be an alcoholic beverage called dresci . Dirgo makes an excuse that, " I was going to hand it round ". Picard confiscates it, as imbibing it would only dehydrate them further. It would serve better as a disinfectant or coolant , and Picard orders it to be kept under guard in the medicine box, much to Dirgo's chagrin.

On the Enterprise , Dr. Crusher is instructing her staff on three small island groups where the biggest radiation effects will be on the planet. Fortunately, they are sparsely populated and Dr. Crusher plans to replicate hyronalin for those population centers. Deanna Troi is behind her, and waits for her to finish. She attempts to assuage her fears of losing Wesley and Picard by noting that, while the nearest Federation ship is not that close, there's the possibility of the miners performing a search while they deal with the current situation. Crusher is thankful for Troi's concern but says that right now, she doesn't have the luxury of worrying about Wesley. She is a Starfleet officer and duty demands that she put her feelings aside to deal with the crisis at hand. On the bridge, Worf confirms that the miners can start the search. In the meantime, Riker and La Forge configure the thrusters. It works for a bit, but one of the thrusters fails and Riker is forced to use the tractor beam .

In the cavern, the three find a section with an increased level of the energy readings Wesley found earlier. Upon investigating, the trio find a strange fountain of water. A thirsty Dirgo finds out the hard way that it is protected by a tightly-confined annular force field . Dirgo hastily fires at the field with his phaser , unexpectedly triggering a sentry energy weapon which knocks the weapon from his hand and encases it in a selenium -fiber shell. In the commotion, a landslide begins above Wesley, but Picard runs toward him and pushes Wesley out of the way. Unfortunately, Picard himself is caught in the path of the falling rocks .

Act Three [ ]

Wesley and Dirgo move the badly injured Picard to a safer part of the cave to examine him. Wesley determines that Picard is suffering a broken leg, fractured arm, and is bleeding. Dirgo initially helps staunch the bleeding but is skeptical that Picard will survive and leaves. Weakened, Picard tells Wesley that he has to take charge and deter Dirgo from any further rash attempts to breach the force field. But clearly, their need for water is greater than ever.

" We're already at the maximum limits of our towing speed, Commander. "

Back at Gamelan V, the Enterprise continues to tow the waste vessel by tractor beam while dosing themselves with hyronalin through the ship's ventilation system . Unfortunately, they only have thirty-eight minutes before the radiation becomes lethal. Crusher initiates radiation exposure protocol for all non-essential crew. Seeing that they won't clear the asteroid field for 51 minutes, Riker risks ordering the towing speed to be pushed to the limit. It quickly destabilizes the beam, so La Forge suggests bringing other fusion reactors online, even though the coolant pressure is reaching its maximum. Lethal exposure will now be reached in thirty-five minutes.

Death by impatience

Meanwhile, Wesley is getting closer to figuring out how the sentry works, but Dirgo runs out of patience and tries to convince Wesley to make another attempt to breach the force field with phasers. When the young ensign refuses, Dirgo orders Wesley to switch his phaser on automatic, set it to maximum, and fire at the force field, while he fires on the lowest setting from the other side of the room. The miner, in his desperation, believes that two phasers firing together can lure the sentry away from the fountain. Wesley tries to stand firm and talk him out of it, pointing out that there's no evidence that variable phaser settings will do any good, but Dirgo does not yield to Wesley's arguments. Dirgo begins to fire, with Wesley following suit in frustration moments later. The sentry re-appears and begins to encase Wesley's phaser. But just as Dirgo's plan seems to be working, he stops firing for a split second before firing again from a different angle. The sentry ceases its attack on Wesley's phaser and quickly envelops Dirgo, encasing him in a selenium shell, and killing him.

Act Four [ ]

In the Gamelan system , the Enterprise finally manages to get the leaking barge through the asteroid belt and release it directly into Gamelan's sun. The crew breathe a collective sigh of relief, as they were less than ten seconds away from lethal radiation exposure. Riker wastes no time in ordering the ship back to the Pentarus system to participate in the search for the missing shuttle.

Wesley tends to Picard. The sun has gone down, and so the temperature on the moon's surface has dramatically reduced. Wesley heats up some rocks with a phaser to keep Picard warm. Picard becomes temporarily unresponsive, so Wesley recounts his perspective of their trip to Starbase 515 to keep his attention focused. He remembers dreading the trip at first because of Picard's discomfort with children, but that he was profoundly impressed by Picard's willingness to open up to him. He says he feels extremely lucky to serve under Picard, and Picard in turn regrets his selfishness in bringing him along, as he was worried that he wouldn't see him again before he left for the Academy.

Wesley begins to open up to Picard by telling him something that he doesn't know nor does anyone else. Wesley tells Picard that all he has worked for, including school, his science projects, and getting accepted into the Academy, was all so that Picard could be proud of him. Wesley tells his captain that he has seen Picard think himself out of situations worse than this and now it is his turn to think them out of this one. Wesley takes Picard's hand and assures him he is not going to die, and he promises to get to the water to keep him alive until help arrives.

Act Five [ ]

The Enterprise is now joining the search for the trio. They discover the shuttle debris, and Dr. Crusher briefly fears that they are dead, but Data points out that there is far too little debris to account for the whole shuttle. La Forge remembers that Dirgo had rigged his thruster modules in an unorthodox way, and correctly deduces that one of the modules must have failed, causing the explosion. The crew also correctly deduces that they also probably had enough maneuvering capability to make it to one of the planets or moons in the system. Focusing on M-class worlds , they eliminate Pentarus II and V , as the miners have already thoroughly searched them. Fortunately, there are four such moons, and the closest moon that could support life is Lambda Paz .

Wesley struggles to modify his tricorder to deal with the sentry, while keeping Picard conscious and comfortable. During some tense and emotional exchanges, Picard tells Wesley that he envies him, saying " you're just at the beginning of the adventure. " He urges Wesley that when he gets to the Academy to seek out a man named Boothby as he helped Picard when he was there and considers him "one of the wisest men he ever knew." Wesley asks what he teaches, to which Picard answers, " He's the groundskeeper . " Wesley confesses that everything he has done to succeed on the Enterprise has been to make Picard proud of him. Picard tells him that he's always been proud of him.

Eventually, Wesley jury rigs his combadge and tricorder to interfere and possibly disable the energy sentry. In trying to explain this to Picard, it seems he has some temporary memory loss due to dehydration, but he remembers his solution to the problem. Heading towards the fountain, Wesley activates the sentry, and it distorts and warps its shape as Wesley manipulates it with his tricorder. Suddenly, the sentry rushes forward, ready to encase Wesley, but it passes right through him and disables the force field around the fountain. Wesley tentatively checks for the force field before he is convinced it is indeed disabled, and he brings water to Picard in one of the shuttle's survival kit cases.

" Wesley, thank God. "

Wesley is woken some time later by his mother, who is joined by Data and Worf . She informs her son that Picard is all right and his vital signs have been stabilized. As Picard is carried out on a stretcher by Martinez and another medic, he asks that they stop for a moment. Picard looks at Wesley and jokingly asks what he is doing in such a filthy uniform. Wesley kneels down next to Picard and tells the captain that he does not look so ship-shape himself. Picard reaches over and grabs Wesley's hand. He confesses, " You will be missed. " They leave the cave to return to the Enterprise .

Log entries [ ]

• Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), 2367
• First officer's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Captain? Of a mining shuttle? " " Yes, Ensign. Captain. "

" She seems a very… a very sturdy craft. "

" Dear God. "

" Are you telling me there's no water? "

" And you were worried about how tough the captain is? "

" Sir, in the past three years, I've lived more than most people do in a lifetime. "

" If there's one thing that I've learned from you it's that you don't quit, and I'm not going to quit now. I've seen you think yourself out of worse problems than this, and I'm going to think us out of this. You're not going to die. I'm not going to let you die. I'll get to the water and I'll keep you alive until they find us. I promise. "

" Oh, I envy you, Wesley Crusher. You're just at the beginning of the adventure. "

" Wesley. You remember… I was always proud of you. "

" Mr. Crusher? " " Yes, sir? " " What are you doing in such a filthy uniform? " " You don't look so shipshape yourself, sir. " " Wesley… you will be missed. "

Background information [ ]

Production history [ ].

• Final draft script: 17 September 1990 [1]
• Premiere airdate: 19 November 1990
• First UK airdate: 1 June 1994

Story and production [ ]

Director Corey Allen instructing Wil Wheaton

Stand-ins Dennis Tracy and Randy Pflug on location

Wheaton and Stewart filming "Final Mission"

• This episode was created expressly with the purpose of providing an appropriate way for Wil Wheaton to leave the show. Wheaton had asked to leave The Next Generation so he could pursue offers to appear in feature films. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 149))
• Michael Piller commented, " There had been a lot of very bad feeling around here about the way Tasha Yar was sent off. So we were determined to give Wesley a send-off that had real value and something that stayed with us. We finally decided that he would go to the Academy, which I think was Gene 's idea [and] the most reasonable and easiest idea, which also keeps him alive for future episodes. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 212)
• In the original story, Wesley and Picard crashed on an ice planet. On the suggestion of Rick Berman , this was changed as it was believed that a desert planet could be created more realistically. ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 212)
• This episode was previously titled "Turnabout". [2]
• Jeri Taylor recalled, " That's the episode I probably put more work on than any all year long, because it was a combination of a very delicate kind of interpersonal story, and the dreaded technical story which is the garbage scow in space. So I had this supertechnical thing going on at the same time as this delicate kind of interpersonal story. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 212)
• The shuttle Nenebek was named after Larry Nemecek . Jeri Taylor related to Nemecek years later that she had one of his TNG Concordances on her shelf, and simply altered two of the letters in his last name. [3] (X)
• Two days of location shooting were done on the El Mirage Dry Lake Bed in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles to portray the surface of Lambda Paz . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 149))
• The fountain was created on Stage 16 . Rick Berman recalled, " We had huge optical problems with the fountain. It was a nightmare. It was something we built and it didn't work. Then we were going to do it optically and that didn't work. So we had a lot of technical problems. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 212)
• The incident where Picard finds and commandeers the dresci and orders it to be kept in the medicine box is similar to, and may have been inspired by, a real incident that happened in Shackleton's Antarctic expedition as reported in a television reconstruction.

The cast at Wil Wheaton's going-away party

• This episode marks Wesley Crusher's final regular appearance on TNG . He later appeared in the episodes " The Game ", " The First Duty ", " Parallels " (in another quantum reality ), and " Journey's End " as well as Star Trek Nemesis , PIC : " Farewell " and LD : " Old Friends, New Planets ".
• Nick Tate later played Liam Bilby in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " Honor Among Thieves ".

Continuity [ ]

• Wesley references his prior shuttle trip with Picard in " Samaritan Snare ".
• Before beginning their trek to the mountains, Dirgo distributes some phasers he scavenged from his damaged shuttle. The props used are Starfleet phaser pistols circa 2285 , from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , which would make sense since Dirgo operated his shuttle with old and outdated equipment. This is supported by Wesley's observation that some of Dirgo's equipment looked "…about a hundred years old."
• The groundskeeper for Starfleet Academy, Boothby , is mentioned for the first time. In the fifth season Next Generation episode " The Game ", Wesley would mention that he took Picard's advice and seek out Boothby. Boothby would appear later in the season in the episode " The First Duty " and would return in the fifth season Star Trek: Voyager episodes " In the Flesh " and " The Fight ".
• According to the graphic on Data's ops station, the shuttle Nenebek leaves through the main shuttlebay . The main shuttlebay was only seen once more in " Cause And Effect ".

Reception [ ]

• Michael Piller remarked, " I think Jeri did a wonderful job on the script and Corey Allen , who is one of my favorite directors, gave you the best pieces of film you can get. If it gets an A- instead of an A, it's only because the story itself, of two guys trapped on a planet and how do we get off, in general is not very original, and the story of the garbage scow was no great shakes either. But I think we handled it pretty well. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 212)
• Rick Berman added, " That's one of my favorite episodes. I think it was very poignant and the acting on the part of our guest cast, Nick Tate, Patrick's work and Wil's, was just excellent. I thought it was just a terrific piece of drama. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 212)
• A mission report for this episode by Patrick Daniel O'Neill was published in The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine  issue 15 , pp. 54-56.

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 42, 9 March 1992
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment ): Volume 4.3, 4 June 2001
• As part of the TNG Season 4 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
• Jonathan Frakes as Cmdr. William Riker

Also starring [ ]

• LeVar Burton as Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge
• Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf
• Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher
• Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
• Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data
• Wil Wheaton as Ensign Wesley Crusher

Guest stars [ ]

• Nick Tate as Dirgo
• Kim Hamilton as Songi
• Mary Kohnert as Allenby

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Rachen Assapiomonwait as Nelson
• Majel Barrett as USS Enterprise -D computer voice
• Karin Baxter as operations division ensign
• Michael Braveheart as Martinez
• Tracee Lee Cocco as Jae
• Denise Deuschle as science division officer
• A. Flores as science division officer
• Marin as command division officer
• Michael Moorehead as science division ensign
• Randy Pflug as Jones
• Joycelyn Robinson as Gates
• Female science division officer
• Female science officer (voice)

Stunt doubles [ ]

• Joe Murphy as stunt double for Nick Tate
• John Nowak as stunt double for Patrick Stewart
• Noon Orsatti as stunt double for Wil Wheaton

Stand-ins [ ]

• Nora Leonhardt – stand-in for Marina Sirtis
• Tim McCormack – stand-in for Brent Spiner
• Lorine Mendell – stand-in for Gates McFadden
• Randy Pflug – stand-in for Nick Tate
• Joycelyn Robinson – stand-in for Kim Hamilton
• Richard Sarstedt – stand-in for Jonathan Frakes
• Dennis Tracy – stand-in for Patrick Stewart
• Guy Vardaman – stand-in for Wil Wheaton
• James Washington – stand-in for Michael Dorn

References [ ]

21st century ; 2364 ; ability ; acceleration ; adventure ; alcohol ; alternative ; annular force field ; approach control zone ; arm ; arrow ; asteroid ; asteroid belt ; atmosphere ; " Auprès de ma Blonde "; auxiliary fusion generator ; " beyond repair "; blurred vision ; Boothby ; braking maneuver ; breathing ; bypass ; captain ; casualty ; cave ; Celsius ; chairman ; choice ; class ; class M ; collinated energy ; collision ; comfort ; communication channel ; communicator ; construction module ; contamination ; coolant ; coordinates ; corridor ; course ; debris ; deflector ; degree : dehydration ; deuterium flow ; disinfectant ; distance ; distress signal ; dresci ; duranium ; effect ; Einstein ; electromagnetic (EM); electromagnetic wave pattern ; EM pattern ; emergency ; emergency situation ; energy ; energy pattern ; engine ; environment ; ermanium ; evidence ; experience ; experiment ; eye ; Federation ; Federation law ; feeling ; fission reactor ; flight dynamics ; food ration ; fountain ; fracture ; French language ; freighter ; frequency ; friend ; fusion generator ; Gamelan V ; Gamelan V natives ; Gamelan sun ; Gamelan system ; Gamelan system sector ; garbage scow ; gaseous-core fission reactor ; god ; gravitational pull ; groundskeeper ; guidance coupling ; hail ; hailing frequency ; head ; heat ; helm ; hertz ; hour ; hull ; hull temperature ; hundred ; hyronalin ; idea ; impulse engine ; internal bleeding ; island group ; " keep your eye on ": kilometer ; Lambda Paz ; lava flow ; ledge ; leg ; liar ; lifeform ; location transponder ; Mach ; magnetic field ; Meltasion Asteroid Belt ; main shuttlebay ; maneuvering thruster ; medical personnel ; Medical Unit One ; mean temperature ; medical personnel ; megahertz ; meter ; meter per second ; metric ton per meter ; million ; millirads per minute ; miner ; mining shuttle ; minute ; mission ; moisture ; moon ; mountain ; NAR ; navigation ; navigational system ; Nenebek ; nose ; Nsomeka ; operational inspection ; Ops ; optical scan ; orbit ; outpost ; output ; oven ; overtime ; Pentarus II ; Pentarus III ; Pentarus III moon ; Pentarus V ; Pentarus V mining settlement ; Pentarus station ; Pentarus system ; Pentarus system moons ; Pentarus system primary ; percent ; phaser ; pilot ; plasma ; port ; power ; power level ; prefire sequence ; problem ; propulsion ; propulsion system ; radiation ; radiation exposure ; radiation exposure protocol ; radiation level ; radiation sickness ; range ; rate ; ration ; reaction chamber resonance ; reason ; Regalian law ; relative velocity ; replicator ; resource ; rock ; salenite ; scanning range ; science project ; school ; search ; search party ; second ; selenium ; sensor array ; sentry (energy force); sentry (occupation); shearing force ; shelter ; shuttlecraft ; sonodamite ; spacecraft ; speed ; Starbase 515 ; Starfleet Academy ; starship ; stretcher ; structural integrity ; sublight ; subspace channel ; subspace message ; surface ; temperature ; thermal limit ; thirst ; thousand ; thrust vector ; thruster ; thruster quad ( thruster module ); tokamak ; towing speed ; tractor beam ; trajectory ; transponder element ; tricorder ; truth ; unnamed search vessel ; unnamed starbase ; ventilation system ; vision ; visual range ; vital signs ; volcanic activity ; wall ; waste product ; waste ship ; water ( drinking water / water ration ); week ; wound ; wreckage ;

Other References [ ]

• Shuttlebay Operations: Ansel Adams ; approach vector ; Armstrong ; Chris Pike ; Clarke ; Cochrane ; Cousteau ; Curie ; Decartes ; Einstein ; El Baz ; Feynman ; Hangar 1 ; Hangar 2 ; Hangar 3 ; Hangar 4 ; Hangar 5 ; Heinlein ; Indiana Jones ; JF Kennedy ; Lindberg ; main shuttlebay ; McAuliffe ; Onizuka ; PT Farnsworth ; primary acquisition zone ; refit ; Sakharov ; Sam Freedle ; Shuttlebay 3 ; Starbase 515 ; Tereshkova ; tractor control zone ; Type 7 shuttlecraft ; Type 15 shuttlepod ; Von Braun

Deleted references [ ]

Crusher, Jack R.

External links [ ]

• " Final Mission " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Final Mission " at Wikipedia
• "Final Mission" at StarTrek.com
• " "Final Mission" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• "Final Mission" script  at Star Trek Minutiae
• 3 Ancient humanoid

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series)

The first duty (1992), full cast & crew.

Directed by 

Writing credits  , cast (in credits order) complete, awaiting verification  , produced by , music by , cinematography by , editing by , casting by , production design by , set decoration by , costume design by , makeup department , production management , second unit director or assistant director , art department , sound department , special effects by , visual effects by , stunts , camera and electrical department , casting department , costume and wardrobe department , editorial department , music department , script and continuity department , additional crew .

Release Dates | Official Sites | Company Credits | Filming & Production | Technical Specs

Contribute to This Page

• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos
• User Reviews
• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery season 5's new planet has two deep cut tng connections.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 2 has some more subtle connections to Star Trek: The Next Generation that you may have missed.

WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery, season 5, episode 2, "Under the Twin Moons"

• Discovery hunts for Progenitor tech on Lyrek, linking TNG's Promellians & Minosians in a treasure hunt.
• Burnham & Saru evade ancient automated weapons on Lyrek akin to Picard's encounter on Minos.
• Discovery's season 5 references TNG big & small, with connections to past episodes & extinct civilizations.

Lyrek, the new planet in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 2, "Under the Twin Moons," has connections to two different episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the USS Discovery are hunting for clues to the Progenitors' technology that can create life itself. Racing to catch up to couriers Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) , Discovery's hunt in "Under the Twin Moons" leads to a planet in the Vileen system where 24th century Romulan scientist Dr. Vellek (Michael Copeman) hid the next clue.

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 2 , “Under The Twin Moons," Captain Burnham and her crew travel to the planet Lyrek, following a clue referencing twin moons. Located at the edge of the Beta Quadrant in the Vileen System, Lyrek is an uninhabited planet home to a large necropolis built by the Promellians, a species first mentioned in TNG. When Michael and Saru (Doug Jones) beam down to the planet, they find signs that Moll and L'ak have already been there. As they investigate the ruins, they are fired upon by an automated security system much like the one encountered by the USS Enterprise-D in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 episode "The Arsenal of Freedom."

Star Trek: Discovery’s TNG Connection Explained - "The Chase" & Who Are The Progenitors?

Discovery name drops the promellians from star trek: tng's "booby trap", the promellians were first mentioned in tng season 3, episode 6, "booby trap.".

In Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Booby Trap," Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the USS Enterprise-D come across a Promellian battlecruiser surrounded by debris from a battle that took place centuries ago. Although little is known about the Promellians, they were extremely advanced for their time. The Promellians had been in a war with the Menthars for years, and the two species eventually destroyed one another in the 14th century at the Battle of Orelious IX. As Picard and his crew investigate the battlecruiser, they find dead Promellian crewmembers and realize that the ship was caught in a Menthar trap.

Despite their extinction, the Promellians' presence continues to be felt even in the 32nd century. When the USS Discovery investigates Lyrek, they discover that the planet was used as a burial site for the Promellians. On the surface, Captain Burnham and Saru navigate the crumbled statues and ruins, and soon find themselves at the mercy of an ancient automated weapons system. Aboard Discovery, Ensign Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio) and Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) search for a way to disable the weapons system, when Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) pops in to remind them to think like ancient Promellians.

Picard's Enterprise Fought Automated Weapons Like Burnham & Saru

Picard and his crew encounter a similar weapons system in tng season 1, episode 21, "the arsenal of freedom.".

The automated weapons system on Lyrek is similar to the one encountered by Captain Picard and the USS Enterprise-D crew in Star Trek: The Next Generation 's "The Arsenal of Freedom." As they investigated a planet called Minos, the away team was attacked by drone devices that tracked and fired at them. Like the Promellians, the Minosians were an advanced humanoid race who were extinct by the 24th century of TNG . Eventually, the away team realized that they had inadvertently triggered a demonstration of the weapons system meant to entice buyers. Picard got the system to shut down by convincing the automated salesman that he would purchase the system.

As its first line of defense, the weapons system on Minos traps Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) in some kind of personal containment field. In Discovery season 5, episode 1, "Red Directive," Moll and La'k use a similar weapon to trap Lt. Commanders Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) and Gen Rhys (Patrick Kwok-Choon).

After Captain Burnham and Saru trigger the weapons system on Lyrek, they struggle to hide from the drones long enough for Tilly and Adira to find a way to shut down the system. After Tilly realizes the electromagnetic field on the planet powers the weapons, Saru draws the drones away so that Michael can trigger an electromagnetic pulse using their phasers. This temporarily disrupts the system, allowing Michael and Saru to find the next clue to the treasure they are hunting. Based on its first two episodes, Star Trek: Discovery season 5 has references to Star Trek: The Next Generation big and small.

Star Trek: The Next Generation & Star Trek: Discovery are streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Discovery

Star trek: the next generation.

Christopher Collins' 4 Star Trek Roles Explained

• Christopher Collins portrayed multiple characters in Star Trek, including Captain Kargan and Captain Grebnedlog in TNG.
• Collins' portrayal of Markalian Durg in DS9 showed his diverse acting range in the Star Trek universe.
• Despite his brief appearances, Collins made a lasting impact on the franchise with his various roles.

Actor and stand-up comedian Christopher Collins played four different Star Trek characters in episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . In TNG's "Matter of Honor," Collins appeared as the Klingon Captain Kargan, who butted heads with his temporary First Officer, Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes). Collins played another Captain in TNG's "Samaritan Snare," this time a Pakled named Grebnedlog. In DS9 , Collins appeared as Markalians in both of his appearances, one of whom was a mercenary named Durg, while the other was an unnamed guard.

Christopher Collins was an actor and comedian most known for his voice-over roles in animated projects. He provided the voice for Cobra Commander in several different versions of the animated G.I. Joe series. He also voiced Starscream and numerous other characters in the first Transformers animated series. In addition to his Star Trek appearances, Collins appeared in episodes of Doogie Howser, M.D., Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, and Married... with Children . He had a few minor film roles, including appearances in Road House, True Identity, and A Stranger Among Us . Collins also had a successful career in stand-up comedy and won the San Francisco International Stand-Up Comedy Competition in 1990. Tragically, Collins passed away in 1994 at the age of 44.

Christopher Collins originated the voice of Mr. Burns on The Simpsons , but had to turn over the role to Harry Shearer after only a few episodes. Shearer modeled his performance on that of Collins.

Every Upcoming Star Trek Movie & TV Show

Captain kargan, star trek: the next generation season 2, episode 8 - "a matter of honor".

In Star Trek: The Next Generation 's "Matter of Honor," Commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) participates in an officer exchange program and takes on the role of First Officer on the Klingon vessel, the Pagh. Christopher Collins portrays the Klingon commander of the Pagh, Captain Kargan, who is suspicious of Riker from the jump. When a strange bacteria is discovered on the Pagh's outer hull, Kargan suspects Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the USS Enterprise-D are responsible.

"A Matter of Honor" updated the Klingons for TNG and established their culture moving forward.

When Kargan refuses to listen to his temporary First Officer, Riker has Kargan beamed over to the Enterprise and takes over command of the Pagh. After the Enterprise helps repair the Pagh, Kargan returns to his ship and dismisses Riker for being insubordinate. Still, it's clear Kargan has developed a certain amount of respect for Riker, despite all of his Klingon bluster. With its depictions of life aboard a Klingon ship, "A Matter of Honor" updated the Klingons for TNG and established their culture moving forward.

Captain Grebnedlog

Star trek: the next generation season 2, episode 17 - "samaritan snare".

Christopher Collins' next Star Trek appearance came later in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 when he played Captain Grebnedlog, the commander of the Pakled ship Mondor. As Captain Picard heads to a nearby starbase for a medical procedure, Commander Riker is left in command of the USS Enterprise-D. The Enterprise soon receives a distress call from the Mondor, and Captain Grebnedlog tells Riker and his crew that the unintelligent Pakleds need help to make their ship go.

Commander Riker sends Lt. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) over to help with repairs, but the Pakleds soon take Geordi as a hostage. While Grebnedlog and his crew may not be very intelligent, they have managed to gain technology by stealing it from other species. Riker makes some questionable decisions in "Samaritan Snare," but he does trick the Pakleds into releasing La Forge in the end.

The Pakleds did not appear on screen again until the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks , where their ridiculous but sometimes dangerous antics are a much better fit.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 1, Episode 9 - "The Passenger"

In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s “The Passenger,” Christopher Collins played Durg, a Markalian mercenary who met with the profit-hungry Ferengi Quark (Armin Shimerman). When a criminal Kobliad named Rao Vantika (James Harper) transfers his consciousness to Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), he employs Durg to help him steal a shipment of deuridium. Durg and his fellow mercenaries attack the freighter transporting the deuridium, the Norkova, killing the bridge crew and taking control of the ship.

The crew of space station Deep Space Nine then trap the Norkova with a tractor beam, but Vantika continues to try to escape. Still inhabiting the body of Dr. Bashir , Vantika orders Durg to jump to warp speed (which would destroy the freighter), but he refuses. Vantika then kills Durg, before Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and Lt. Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) figure out a way to communicate with Bashir and resolve the situation.

Unnamed Markalian Guard

Star trek: deep space nine season 2, episode 19 - "blood oath".

Christopher Collins played another member of the Markalian species in DS9’s “Blood Oath. This Markalian served as an assistant and guard for the infamous criminal known as The Albino (Bill Bolender). Many years before, three Klingon warships were dispatched to capture the Albino, and while they managed to destroy his base, the Albino himself escaped. These three Klingon ships were led by Kor (John Colicos) , Koloth (William Campbell), and Kang (Michael Ansara). The Albino later retaliated by killing each of the Klingon’s firstborn sons, which prompted them to swear a blood oath to kill the Albino.

Kor, Koloth, and Kang all appeared as Klingons on Star Trek: The Original Series , and all three actors reprise their respective roles.

The three Klingons arrive on Deep Space Nine eighty-one years later, after Kang reveals he has discovered the Albino’s location. With the help of Jadzia Dax (whose former symbiote Curzon was godfather to Kang’s son), the three Klingons attack the Albino. After alerting the Albino to the presence of the Klingons, the guard is ultimately killed by Kang while the Albino cowers behind him. Although Kang manages to kill the Albino, he and Koloth both die from their wounds. With the three boisterous Klingons stealing the show, Collins’ Markalian guard does not make as much of an impression, but he nevertheless left his mark on the Star Trek franchise.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Cast Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden

Release Date September 28, 1987

Writers Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore

Showrunner Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Rick Berman

Where To Watch Paramount+

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Cast Terry Farrell, Cirroc Lofton, Rene Auberjonois, Nicole de Boer, Michael Dorn, Andrew Robinson, Nana Visitor, Avery Brooks, Colm Meaney, Armin Shimerman, Alexander Siddig

Release Date January 3, 1993

Writers Ira Steven Behr, Michael Piller, Ronald D. Moore

Showrunner Ira Steven Behr, Michael Piller

Star Trek Just Doubled Down on Its Wildest Body-Switching Concept

Welcome back to Trill.

Body switching is a classic sci-fi trope. From Freaky Friday to Farscape , and of course, most of Quantum Leap, the idea of the consciousness from one person inhabiting the body of a different person will never stop being the fuel for speculative stories that are both hilarious and profound. But, when Star Trek invented the “joined” species of the Trill in 1991, it took the body-switching/body-surfing trope to a new level. While a specific Trill symbiont might live for several hundreds of years, this slug-like creature generally inhabited a humanoid host. This “joining” often created a new hybrid personality each time, sort of like Time Lord regeneration from Doctor Who mashed up with internal alien parasites from Alien; a chest-burster that never burst, but just stayed in you forever.

And if all of that wasn’t wild enough, on June 12, in the episode “Facets,” 1995, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine added a new wrinkle to Trill canon. Not only were the memories of all the previous hosts alive and well in the current symbiont, but, through a process called “zhian’tara,” a specific host’s personality could leave the symbiont and enter into the body of... anyone! Basically, this was Trill joining via spacey magic, and now, 29 years after “Facets,” Star Trek: Discovery is doubling down (tripling down?) on this very specific form of consciousness transfer in the Season 5 episode “Jinaal.” Spoilers ahead.

The Trill host trick

Dax and Odo discuss sharing memories in “Facets.”

Although the Trill were established in The Next Generation episode “The Host,” the vast majority of Trill canon comes from Deep Space Nine , thanks to the presence of Jadzia Dax, who later, in Season 7, switched hosts and became Ezri Dax. But, in the memorable Season 3 episode “Facets,” Jadzia’s previous host, Curzon, left her body through the zhian’tara process and settled in the body of the station’s resident shapeshifter, Odo. From that point, Odo’s entire personality was merged with Curzon’s, which put everyone on the station in a deeply uncomfortable position.

As a stand-alone episode of DS9 , “Facets” remains a fantastic story about memory, regret, and what one generation owes the next. But, the legacy of “Facets” is easily the concept of zhian’tara, which was used to save Gray Tal’s consciousness in Discovery Season 4, and now, in Season 5, is being employed again to unravel an 800-year-old mystery.

Discovery’s return to Trill

Cubler (Wilson Cruz) takes on an ancient Trill tradition in Discovery Season 5.

The planet Trill was first seen in DS9 in the episode “Equilibrium,” but Discovery has actually visited the planet more times, starting in the Season 3 episode “Forget Me Not,” and now again, in “Jinaal.” This time the need to transfer the memories of one previous Trill host into someone else is all connected to the secrets Jinaal Bix has about researcher of the Progenitors in the 24th century.

After transferring Jinaal’s consciousness into Culber, the entire personality of our stalwart Starfleet doctor changes, and, just like “Facets,” he suddenly becomes cockier, and more evasive. If you watch “Facets” right after watching “Jinaal,” the parallels are clear. While Curzon’s secret was connected to something personal, Jinaal’s secret has broader implications. Turns out, Federation scientists were working on cracking the Progenitor tech during the era of the Dominion War, and so they decided to bury any knowledge of the technology to prevent any planet or government from weaponizing their research.

Interestingly, this detail dovetails with Picard Season 3 a bit, in which we learned that Section 31 was pushing different Federation scientists to weaponize the organic nature of Changelings. Basically, the Dominion War created a lot of corrupt scientific research within the Federation, making the top-secret Daystrom labs that Riker, Raffi, and Worf raided perhaps just a small sample of the horrible top-secret weapons the Federation has developed.

What Discovery does is make it clear that Jinaal did the right thing at the time by hiding the research — even if that doesn’t help our heroes at the moment.

A classic Original Series nod

Sargon enters Kirk’s body in “Return to Tomorrow.”

Of course, within the canon of Trek, the Trill weren’t the first time the franchise explored the concept of sharing consciousness. Spock transferred his katra to Bones in The Wrath of Khan , and Kirk switched bodies with Janice Lester in the controversial final TOS episode “Turnabout Intruder.”

But, one wonderful 1968 episode from TOS Season 2 — “Return to Tomorrow” — featured ancient beings borrowing the bodies of Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Ann Mulhall in order to build more permanent, android bodies. When the ancient being of Sargon enters Kirk’s body, one of the first things he says is: “Your captain has an excellent body.”

Now, 56 years later, when Jinaal finds himself in Culber’s body, he says something similar: “Wow, this guy really works out!”

Across decades of internal canon, Star Trek can make the same body-switching joke, and make it work, in any century.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 drops new episodes on Fridays on Paramount+.

Ryan Britt's new book on the history of Star Trek's biggest changes. From the '60s show to the movies to 'TNG,' to 'Discovery,' 'Picard,' Strange New Worlds,' and beyond!

• Science Fiction