Star Trek: The Next Generation — 6x22 — Suspicions

Aired 1993-05-10

SpaceOpera.com rating:7

Average reader rating:5.81

Synopsis

Dr. Crusher risks her career to solve the murder of a scientist.

Remarkable scenes

Reyga: "After all, a Ferengi scientist is almost a contradiction in terms!"
Guinan convincing Beverly to reopen the investigation.
Nurse Ogawa disobeying orders and bypassing the computer for Beverly.
Beverly betting her life on the sabotage theory.
Beverly killing Jo'Bril.
Guinan admitting she never had Tennis Elbow.

Review

A Beverly Crusher episode, rare thing, and a good episode at that. The first good detail is the ensemble of scientists Beverly assembled. A Klingon, Ferengi, Vulcan, human, and some new alien named Jo'Bril. A truly cool example of how far the 24th century has come in terms of inter stellar relations. The next detail I liked was the the fact that the metaphasic shield indeed worked. And it's not just some radical new technology we never see again, it's referenced in future episodes. All of these small details add up to a very pleasing out of the ordinary episode. The only wish I have is that Reyga didn't have to die. We need more nontraditional Ferengi and he was certainly a great character. That said, this is certainly an above average TNG episode.

6 reader comments

An overall very enjoyable episode, but a few things just niggle away slightly:
OK, so Jo'Bril (the "dead" Takaran shuttle pilot) somehow finds a way to release himself from inside the morgue chamber, finds his clothes, leaves sickbay without being seen, makes his way to the science lab without being seen (‘dead Takaran walking!’), kills Dr Reyga the Ferengi, makes his way back to the morgue via sickbay and seals himself back in for another nap. Perhaps he did it during the midnight shift when zombies are free to move around unchallenged.
Later he again does this trick but also manages to beat Dr Crusher to a shuttlebay without being seen, gets to the shuttlecraft without being seen and gains access to the shuttle to hide inside the storage compartment.
Yes, it was great seeing Dr Crusher literally blow a hole in Jo'Bril, but then she totally disintegrates him thereby destroying the key evidence needed to prove her side of the story. We have the missing body of an alien already pronounced dead, an unauthorised autopsy on a Ferengi, a negative result from the Ferengi autopsy and a medical officer who has made unapproved use of a shuttlecraft. Perhaps Dr Crusher might have some problems proving what really happened? Still, I guess would I believe her.
Perhaps all this is being a bit too picky; I still really liked the episode but just wanted to mention these little observations.
by 7 of 14 | 09/17/2008 at 10:47 am

This is another strong episode. Finally Beverly gets an episode that doesn't focus on her sorrow. The science is interesting, as are the guest aliens, and the whole package works well.
Some notes: Poor Nurse Ogawa. She's spent the past five years healing people's boo boos in the background and having things explained to her so the audience can follow the sickbaby technobabble. Finally she gets something to do here, even if it's clearly as a sidekick to Beverly
It seems very common for Vulcans and humans to marry and mate. It was a big deal in Spock's day, but here it's just presented as nothing unusual. What must love and sex be like in a relatonship like this? What about the Pon Farr?
Troi is largely absent from this one, no doubt because her empathic abilities would have complicated the plot--she'd know that the other scientists were't lying.
by JRPoole | 09/23/2008 at 11:20 pm

I have to disagree on this one. When the best thing about a TNG episode is the Ferengi, something is off. The basic premise of the episode is OK, but the implementation is terrible.
There's the already mentioned idea of a dead alien releasing himself from the morgue (is accidental diagnosis of death so common in the the future that they have emergency release buttons on the inside of freezer drawers?) and wandering around the ship without anyone noticing.
How do the events at the end of the episode vindicate Crusher? She vaporised his body, so she ends up with absolutely no proof he was the murderer. In fact, the hijacking of a shuttle and blaming the murder on an dead alien whose body mysteriously vanishes puts her in an even more dubious position, and I doubt the Ferengi are going to accept the entire story based solely on her word.
Again, we see that Worf is utterly incompetent as head of security. After Crusher resigns her position, the computer in sickbay locks her out of accessing an autopsy report that she herself wrote. That's what would be expected if an unauthorised person tried to access it, no problem there.
Yet she can still walk straight into the shuttlebay and fly off in a shuttle without any problems. Not only that, but she is able to override the ship's command and control functions to prevent Worf from forcing the shuttle to return to the Enterprise. If the security on a few files in sickbay is better locked-down than the shuttlebay launch controls and the ship's command and control functions, then Worf really really should be demoted by now.
Who ends up with the technology? I'd assume that the Ferengi would lay claim to it and start selling to the highest bidder. Instead it seems that, in a very uncharacteristic moment of generosity, they allow everyone else to use the technology for free, as Geordi seems to have access to it in later episodes. This makes the entire episode a bit pointless. Why go to all the trouble of murdering someone just to steal something that's going to be given away freely anyhow?
In all, an interesting premise and a surprisingly good Ferengi character, but one of those episodes where the logic is so poor the whole thing quickly stops making any kind of sense.
by Mark McC | 02/11/2009 at 9:58 am

I just watched this episode, maybe for the first time, I didn't remember it at all. It's rare that an episode stands out with such bad writing and directing, I wonder what happened here.
Even the characters don't make sense, why would Crusher facilitate a scientific meeting that had nothing to do with medical research? Why would Picard barely react to Crusher's insubordination, and why would Riker pop up out of nowhere to tell her to "lay low"? Did a child win a contest where the prize was to write an episode of TNG?
The only person who was apparently in-character was Guinan, and even she was totally ham-fisted. "But I don't play tennis!" Then the two point to each other, start to laugh, and we go out on a freeze-frame.
I'd really like to know the story behind this episode, it even seems like the actors are doing a dry run-through, it's missing so many elements of a normal TNG episode.
by Albert | 07/07/2009 at 5:45 pm

I really enjoyed this episode until it was over and I started to think about it. I wholeheartedly agree with 7 of 14's comments above. I couldn't have said it better myself. This episode reminds me of X-files where major aspects of the story are never explained. This was produced in 1993, so maybe the writers were trying to jump on the X-files bandwagon, which is a shame. I always thought Chris Carter was a lazy jerk-off that had no respect for his audience.
by thaibites | 09/24/2012 at 11:35 pm

Ugh. Hated this episode. It was like Murder She Wrote in space.
by Quando | 08/22/2014 at 1:27 am