TNG Rewatch: 6x22 - "Suspicions"

[Trekker4747]

Well, after a Bye we're back at it. Let's see where did we leave off?

Oh, God help me.

The episode starts with Dr. Crusher moping around her quarters packing her bags when Guinan rings the door-chime and is soon welcomed in, complaining of tennis elbow.

Crusher says due to recent events she's no-longer an acting medical professional on the ship, but Guinan convinces her to treat anyway while discussing what caused her to lose her position.

Crusher recounts the story of how she was leading a research project into a "metaphasic shielding" that will allow vessels to enter the corona of a star without harm coming to it or its passengers. The designer of the technology, a Ferengi, is welcomed on the ship and outfits a shuttle with the shielding, also along as part of the research/peer review are three other scientists (a human, a Vulcan, a Klingon and a member of a formerly unseen alien species.) Everyone doubts the technology is possible but Raga claims his technology can work and Crusher supports him in these endeavors.

For an unbiased hands-on test everyone elects to have the unknown alien pilot the demonstration around a nearby, particularly risky, star. The test seems to go okay but soon problems crop-up and radiation enters the shuttle and begins to impact the occupant, he and the shuttle are recovered and he soon dies in sickbay as Crusher tries to rescue him.

Raga is dubious his shielding failed as all indications seem to be that it should have worked, Crusher agrees and suspects something else must have happened but there's no evidence to support it. She eventually is forced to call of future tests and offers to return to the project when Raga is ready with a more prepared prototype. Raga storms out of the lab.

He's found a short-time later dead of an apparent suicide, but Crusher isn't satisfied that that is what happened, but she has no evidence of any wrong-doing. She wants to do an autopsy on Raga's body but Ferengi burial rights preclude it. She questions the other surviving scientists but they all claim innocence and no reliable suspicions come up with them.

Crusher, back to the wall, decides to perform the autopsy on Raga anyway, but it also turns up to be of no help. She tells Picard what she did and is relieved of duty pending an inquiry that could see the end of her career and tensions with the Ferengi.

Taking us back into the present with Guinan, she convinces Crusher to pursue he suspicions considering she pretty much has nothing to lose -though Riker later says anything more she does could harm her in the inquiry.

She speaks with Data and gets another lead on how the shield could have failed -only while it was active and from either inside the shuttle or a saboteur on the ship. With the help of Nurse Ogawa she looks back over the body of the alien does see evidence the "sabotage" could have happened. Acting on this suspicion she hijacks the shuttle and flies it back into the star and the shielding holds up.

Communication between her and the ship is suddenly cut-off when the alien emerges from a shuttle storage locker and confronts Crusher. He admits to faking his own death -due to his alien physiology- in attempt to discredit Raga (and then later killed him) so he could recreate the technology at home and use it.... as a weapon. (?!) But now Crusher has given him the opportunity to take home the prototype after he fakes their death. Crusher manages to attack him and overpower him, eventually killing him with a phaser.

She returns to the ship with proof and evidence of the saboteur and the murder and is returned to duty.

----

Sigh.

I guess this isn't a terrible episode, certainly, not as far as a Crusher Episode goes (Ohhhh just you wait...) But it's not a great episode either. There's some story problems here and some things don't completely add up.

The biggest one is again that I'm confused on how "autopsies" work in the 24c. Here in the 21st century they're necessary because, well, we need to tear into bodies to get evidence to see how the body was damaged or altered in an incident.

Why is this something that needs to be done in the 24th century?!

They have a machine that tears apart the entire human body at the quantum level molecule by molecule and transmits it as energy to another destination. Isn't there a record, however condensed or simplified, of this? Shouldn't they more or less know the state of every molecule of his body?! Can't they do this to his dead body in order to get the most detailed autopsy ever with a transporter?!

And present-day medical tools are highly invasive, they leave scars, marks and rip things up. Wouldn't 24th century autopsy leave pretty much no evidence of it occurring? She's not doing a Y-incision, ripping out organs and tearing into them in order to find out what happened. How is an autopsy in the 24c anything at all like a 21st century one?!

And why does what Crusher does at the end of the episode undo what she did? She may have proven Raga was murdered but not as a result of the autopsy, she still violated Ferengi burial rights and got nothing from it. What, did Starfleet/The Federation go to bat for her more now because in the long-run she was right? But before they were like, "Fuck her, she knew what she was getting into."

And is the metaphasic shielding something that is needed? I'm not entirely familiar with the ecology of stars but haven't we seen starships and other alien ships inside a star's corona, and lower, several times?

Why do these tests have to be manned? Okay, maybe communications between the ship and shuttle is spotty so remote operation isn't possible, but certainly it could be programed with a flight-plan and have a bunch of equipment on it to do the tests. Program the shuttle to fly itself "inside the corona" fly around, take some tests, and come back, no one is at risk. Everyone also seems quick to dismiss the notion of this type of shielding being possible.

I know it's easy to play the "you already live in a fantastic world, and *this* you dismiss?!" card. But, come-on. They operate in a world with faster-than-light travel -something humans thought for centuries was impossible-, matter-energy teleportation -something seen today be "possible" but ridiculously impractical-, and creating anything they want through molecular manipulation -again, "possible" but hardly practical. Things change and technology improve all of the time.

But, oh, dumping more power and technology into a better shielding system to survive inside the corona of a star *that* we can't ever do!

I dunno, it's an okay episode, but not one I visit too often. I will say though, Raga is a nice departure from the usual Ferengi-type.

 

[Timo]

The autopsy thing makes no real sense, but at least it is consistent with a random tidbit from DS9 "The Passenger", where Dr. Bashir establishes that tricorders work fine with living people but often fail on crucial issues with dead ones...

As for transporters, I doubt they really record the details of the objects they transport. They appear to be rather blind devices - certainly capable of studying and manipulating their targets (say, the disable-the-weapons trick) but generally uninterested in doing so, perhaps for the workload involved. Many an episode mentions a transporter trace, but usually in the context of these being erased ASAP for practical reasons, or taking up too much data storage room to be perpetuated as raw data. The default mode of "storing" appears to be as phased matter, that is, matter simply made transparent and beamable, but still self-coherent and retaining all its original data, and it's hellishly difficult to perpetuate phased matter.

The shields introduced here do seem to be revolutionary. No previous episode features a starship going into a star's hot corona, and a couple state that such a thing would be dangerous. The E-D does hide in a star's chromosphere in "I, Borg", without the benefit of metaphasics, but that is a much cooler environment. Amusingly, it is also an environment that lies inside the corona, so the E-D would need to go through that first...

...But we could interpret "I, Borg" as saying that the E-D was hiding behind the star rather than inside it, trusting that the interference from the chromosphere specifically (and not, say, from the corona) would fool the Borg sensors. In any case, all this segues nicely into the odd fact that shields in Star Trek are almost impossible to maintain for any appreciable length of time, as our heroes always fly with shields down as default, sometimes even in hot combat.

The piloting of the test flight I see as a fairly natural thing to do. A life needlessly at risk? It's not as if this mad inventor has a life! His entire future hinges on him making a publicity stunt that validates his very existence and moves him from pariah status to that of a respectable profitmaker. And Crusher is on record for saying that fearing death is unfashionable. She's just as mad about it all as her protege used to be.

In the end, "Suspicions" is another example of how hellishly difficult it is to make a whodunnit in a scifi setting. Ol' Asimov amply demonstrated what he preached: that the only way to play fair with the reader is to give enough background information, but no more than is necessary, to solve the crime in an environment unfamiliar to the reader. Asimov used entire novels to do that, and generally succeeded. He also used short stories, and generally failed (the Wendell Urth stories give too much information and end up contradicting themselves - say, a story that hinges on the difference of gravity on the Moon and on Earth starts out with establishing that artificial gravity is commonplace in that universe).

In Star Trek, there simply is too much information, most of it (indeed 99% of it at least) external to the episode at hand. It doesn't take a diehard fan to figure out that something is not right about this whole autopsy thing, say. A single episode would have to be all setup and no payoff if it wanted to properly and fairly prepare the audience into figuring out whodunnit. "Court Martial" had it much easier, back when there was much less Star Trek!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Terok Nor]

This episode and "Remember Me" from Season 4 are probably the best solo Crusher episodes.

I liked the mystery first time I watched it and I enjoyed seeing Jo-Brill with a hole in his stomach. Any time someone is vapourised I'm good. Also liked Dr. Raga, a different kind of Ferengi than what we're used to.

As usual Guinan usurped Counselor Deanna Troi. I'd be surprised if Marina Sirtis wasn't annoyed at this. At least this is the last time as Guinan doesn't appear in the series again.

 

[Jedman67]

I remember this episode making no sense the first time i watched it, and it still makes no sense now.
--Weaponizing shield technology means you have an advantage your enemies don't.
--Transporters are much the same as airplanes today. Point A to Point B - the fact that the subject is de/re/materialized is considered moot in the 24th c. It just "is".
--S.C.E. established that autopsies are done using imaging sensors and holographic renderings.
--An autopsy can be defined colloquially as any form of examination of the dead body; regardless of how invasive or non-invasive the techniques used. Some modern religions prohibits autopsies except in extreme circumstances.
--Redemption has the E-D flying into a sun.
--Descent has the E-D flying into a sun.
--The proper method of testing would use an unmanned shuttle with a boatload of specialized equipment and sensors for the first few trials. Test for 'human sensitivity' - temperature, air pressure, gasses, radiation; etc. If those come back successful, do it again with a live person. The episode could have added a few lines of dialog to indicate whether or not that had occurred.
--"I solved the mystery and the science, whooo!" does not absolve one of breaking the law. At the very least she should have been suspended from duty or had a reprimand or something.
--The first live trials should have used individuals from well known species - i.e. ferengi or human or vulcan - not someone whose physiology is a complete mystery to everyone else.
--Whodunnit's should be interesting, not paint-by-the-colors (and badly).
--I don't recall Crusher being very shaken (when she got back) that she had to kill someone, even in self-defense. Any time a member of the crew kills another person, we never see the psychological effects on the shooter.

 

[tomalak301]

I've always liked this episode and it set up a key plot point in Descent II. It's my second favorite Beverly episode behind Remember Me.

 

[Jedman67]

Beverly was very strong in the episode, but that wasn't enough to overcome all the shortcomings, IMO. It was completely out of character for her.

 

[BillJ]

Dreadful episode. I'd rather have sonic diarrhea for an hour.

 

[Trekker4747]

Dreadful episode. I'd rather have sonic diarrhea for an hour.

Pooping out water faster than the speed of sound?

That actually sounds kind of fun.

 

[Marsden]

I think this episode suffers from an idea, maybe even a good one, that just isn't workable in the setting the show is in and instead of getting rid of the idea they just kind of ignore why it doesn't fit in the setting.

Let's make a mystery surrounding the doctor. Cool.

Hey, let's make a smart Ferengi! Alright.

Beverly needs to be the one to find the evidence about something, let's have her do an autopsy! Quincy always did that! Ok, but don't they have medical scanners for that?

And this Ferengi, he invented shields that can go into a star! Ummm, can't ships do that already? Stop ruining my great episode! Why do you hate Beverly!

 

[jimbotron]

I laugh at the idea that there is a "Ferengi death ritual". Given how much the show has made the Ferengi out to be beneath contempt, they suddenly have some form of spirituality, just so the writers could create a reason for Beverly to get in trouble for performing the autopsy.

DS9 makes this right again, by letting us know that they just sell off the body parts for money. Yup, that's definitely more like it.

 

[Jedman67]

I laugh at the idea that there is a "Ferengi death ritual". Given how much the show has made the Ferengi out to be beneath contempt, they suddenly have some form of spirituality, just so the writers could create a reason for Beverly to get in trouble for performing the autopsy.

DS9 makes this right again, by letting us know that they just sell off the body parts for money. Yup, that's definitely more like it.

At that point, Ferengi were relatively unknown. Besides, an autopsy lowers the resell value of the body

 

[Ghrakh]

Intersting episode. It changes from "flashback" to "present" about halfway through.

 

[Seven of Five]

I'm pretty sure this is the one of the first TNG episodes I saw, and thus holds a slightly special space in my heart. (Mostly it was because I was fascinated that Whoopi Goldberg was in a Star Trek show.)

Having said that, it doesn't hold up well at all. It's good that they try and have Bev do something different, but it's just all so vanilla.

 

[Timo]

DS9 makes this right again, by letting us know that they just sell off the body parts for money. Yup, that's definitely more like it.

Exactly. Beverly and Jean-Luc were just being had!

As for certain other nitpicks:

--Redemption has the E-D flying into a sun.
--Descent has the E-D flying into a sun.

"Redemption" does not have the E-D flying into a sun, any more than "A Fistful of Datas" has (hopefully!). And "Descent" relies on the very method introduced here...

--"I solved the mystery and the science, whooo!" does not absolve one of breaking the law.

What law? Beverly just didn't follow Jean-Luc's orders. And Jean-Luc never minds - not even when the orders are in the lines of "Please, Mr. Worf, don't murder people with a big sword, if you may?".

There's no known law against giving the finger to Ferengi cultural mores. Or burning their planet if they complain.

The first live trials should have used individuals from well known species

The live trials were all about politics. The poor Ferengi had to prove his point and his worth, with a harebrained stunt if necessary. And suddenly the only way to do that was to allow a competitor to do the stunt instead.

I don't recall Crusher being very shaken (when she got back) that she had to kill someone, even in self-defense. Any time a member of the crew kills another person, we never see the psychological effects on the shooter.

We hear that O'Brien was traumatized by accidentally killing an enemy soldier in combat ("The Wounded"). Most of the time (say, when fighting a hot, declared war against a brutal enemy), our heroes have their guns on stun - the fact that they just killed somebody might not register until several minutes or hours later, when to their great amazement the victim does not recover.

None of that makes "Suspicions" a better episode, though.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Old Mixer]

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5iRZidRn9A[/yt]
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnkVhRemXsw[/yt]

Original Elvis album track or hit single cover? You decide!

 

[KlingonButtWine]

Greetings all. I've been a lurker for a while now, but I had to join to express my annoyance at this episode, especially the ending. Crusher got let off the hook even though she disobeyed Picard, ignored Ferengi customs and performed an autopsy, something so serious that she was suspended from duty and had to go for a disciplinary. Then, while suspended, she was able to leave the ship in a shuttle (with no clearance), barking orders at the bridge to put security on the scientists, which turned out to be wrong as well. And nothing happened to her! If I was an Admiral reading the report of this saga I'd be mightily cheesed off.

And poor old Marina Sirtis, she only got a couple of lines at best and the chance to pull a face.

 

[Trekker4747]

That's sort of another thing. First off.... Beverly is a shuttle pilot?! Secondly how does a relieved-from-duty officer enter the shuttle, do any pre-flight procedures, get the crew in the bay to open the door and allows you take off without anyone calling the bridge or even calling BS?

 

[Timo]

Who would know she has been relieved? I mean, really?

It's not as if she needs to input her now-deactivated passwords anywhere to get the shuttle - not if she just waltzes in and tells Fred and looking-good-today Ming and hey-how-are-the-kids Chief O'Malley down there to have the Justman prepped for the flight she needs to take to the medical facilities of Bloobux III as part of the ongoing investigation into the two deaths. So it would all hinge on these nobodies from belowdecks being aware of what has happened among the bridge team, on this ship of a thousand crew. We did not hear the PA. Odds are that there never was one.

And everybody is a shuttle pilot. There's no skill required as such - even a schoolkid can do that unless he's too excited ("Coming of Age").

The thing is, though, this episode introduces the concept of a "shuttle flight plan". So presumably each sortie would be formally recorded somehow, and even if and when Beverly could sweet-talk the shuttlebay crew into allowing her to leave, her bullshit reason for the flight would be logged. So Riker would not go "I'm not aware of any flight plan" - he'd look at his console, and tell Picard "No worries, Captain, it's just the medical flight to Blooobux III with... What the hell?".

Timo Saloniemi