We open with Troi and Riker sitting in Ten Forward with PADDs, sigh.... Doing crew evaluation reports. Didn't they just do these? Were the writers on this show so hard-up to give the characters idle work to do that they all they could think of on a starship 100s of years in the future was to give people beuracratic bullshit to do? Certainly there's more interesting things they can be doing.
"Didn't we just do crew evaluation reports?" Riker asks, doing my job for me.
"Three months ago." Troi responds.
So three months passed between this episode and Sub Rosa?
Riker, through a yawn, says it feels like it was three weeks ago. Well, that was the last time I did a recap, so maybe he's onto something. Oh my God, is Blu-Ray Riker self-aware?! He suggests they just give everyone a promotion and call it a night, confirming with "Commander" Troi. (Uh-uh-uh! She has to pass a special test first!) Troi agrees with "Captain" Riker.
We now focus on the other side of the room to a group junior officers sitting at another table in the lounge playing Space Othello (or something), one of them (whom we'll call Lil Riker) wonders aloud why the senior officers doing performance reviews in the middle of a public lounge are in such good moods. With him at the table is Nurse Ogawa and Ensign Sito (last seen in "The First Duty" as a disgraced Starfleet cadet held back a year due to a fatal accident she was involved in) and a Vulcan junior officer.
Lil Riker wonders how he can relax when his career is being decided on the other side of the room, and he has a point. Sito tells him to relax and to continue the game. Lill Riker crosses his fingers and hold them to his temples as he closes his eyes and does the "wishing really hard" face as he tries to summon a promotion from across the room.
Vulcan does an Vulcan eye-roll (where you roll your eyes at someone without actually rolling your eyes) and asks if Lil Riker really thinks what he is doing will work. Lil Riker sort of glares at him a bit before retreating back to his childhood self wishing for an ice-cream cone or something.
Ogawa says its sort of a "tradition" for people to do such a thing, Sito points out that (Bajoran monks) do the same thing for the benefit of her people. Vulcan sort of looks to her and says, "considering the history of your planet, that doesn't exactly validate what he is doing." Yikes! That got ugly fast. Way to go there, T'Dick! Way to remind a fellow crewmember of the holocaust and near-genoice of her entire race. Man, I know Vulcans are supposed to be unemotional but they DO know about tact, don't they?!
Lil Riker finishes his little relapse into childhood, finishing that he wants a promotion so he can have a new roommate. T'Dick seems "shocked" by this, saying that Lil Riker can ask for a new room assignment if he's unhappy with the current one and doesn't get his promotion. The Enterprise is pretty big, they really need to double people up in the rooms? Ogawa laughs a bit as we cut back to Riker and Troi.
They're still going over the promotions, considering who should be the new night OPS officer, Riker's debating between Lavell (Lil Riker) and Sito; they're brought new drinks by a Ten Forward waiter (Benny) and decline deserts.
Benny goes over to the kids' table and fills them in on the "gossip" at the adult table. Another good reason why these crew evaluations probably shouldn't be done in public.
End our cold-open, which sets up the premise of this episode. Instead of focusing on the main cast and our heroes we're going to focus on this group of junior officers (and, uh, a Ten Forward waiter) and see life on the ship from a different perspective. Should prove interesting.
We come back to a battle simulation on the bridge, Sito is at the tactical console being overseen by Worf while Lil Riker sits at the CONN (Data at his usual position at OPS) and Riker is in the command chair giving orders, he orders a change of course and for Sito to fire on their "target" it happens and the "target" is destroyed. When the simulation is over he remarks that they were slower than the previous drill and wants to know what happened. Sito says she had to re-lock the target after they changed course, Riker recommends she lets the targeting bracket "float" so she doesn't have to unlock and then relock... which seems kind of obvious and reasonable. And why isn't the computer automatically doing this stuff?! And why is this a trick that has to be told about and isn't taught at the Academy?!
Riker wants a report from the Engineering team and Geordi delegates it to T'Dick -apparently on the engineering career path- and then orders Lil Riker to resume their previous course. Lil Riker responds with an, "Aye, aye." Riker glares at him a bit before saying, "One aye is enough." Sheesh, Riker. Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?
Picard comes out onto the bridge and orders a course change and says he explain in the Observation lounge. (Humorously, Lil Riker responds with a single "Aye" to Picard) Sito takes over at OPS as the command crew go off to the lounge. We don't follow and watch Sito and Lil Riker discuss what's going on, the place they've been ordered to being close to the Federation/Cardassian border.
They have a causal conversation about the drill they just had, Lil Riker feels that Riker has it in for him, Sito isn't so sure. Then why is he not sitting at OPS, he wonders.
Uhhh... Because someone has to drive?
In Engineering T'Dick calls Geordi over to look over his simulations of a new warp field design, Geordi looks it over and points out some problems, but T'Dick says they're intentional and that they result in better efficiency, these particular designs are experimental ones he's privy to. Geordi is unwilling to put them into practical use and as he tries to leave the room seems quite annoyed with T'Dick's eagerness to work and talk with Geordi more about improving systems on the ship. Geordi gives him a brush off.
Man, everyone is sort of crabby today.
In sickbay things seem to be going much better, Ogawa goes into Crusher's office to update her on a patient but on entry Crusher automatically assumes Ogawa wants to know about the crew evaluations. She says that she gave Ogawa a glowing report and recommended her for a promotion. Ogawa is happy to hear this and decides to sit with Crusher and girl-talk about relationships. Ohhhh boy.
Luckily granny-porn and spectral masturbation don't come up and Ogawa seems concerned about how distant and pre-ocupied her boyfriend has become recently, Crusher assures her everything is likely fine and he's just busy and the honeymoon isn't over. So to speak.
The ship drops to impulse.
Sito is talking with Worf in Ten-Forward talking about her day at OPS, she had to de-gauss the main deflector dish (because, apparently, it works on 1970s VHS technology) find a loss cat and #24thCenturyPeopleProblems, she's not sure why she's being considered for OPS since she's a security officer. Worf says he recommended her.
Benny is talking with Lil Riker and T'Dick over at another Othello table where Lil Riker wonders what Sito and Worf are talking about when Riker swaggers into the room. Benny gives him a friendly, familiar, greeting much to the surprise of Lil Riker. Lil Riker doesn't believe Riker's ever casual and laid back but the others convince him that he needs to meet with Riker on a personal level and give him some pointers on breaking ice with Riker by talking about some of Riker's interests.
As Sito comes to the table, Lil Riker excuses himself and goes to speak with Riker on a personal level. The scene that follows could almost count as a meet-cute in a romantic comedy. Lil Riker greets Riker who barely turns from his PADD in response before wondering what Lil Riker wants. Lil Riker uses the ruse that he's getting a drink, even though he's holding a full glass of cherry Kool-Aid which doesn't go unnoticed by Riker. Lil Riker gets the same drink as Riker and tries to make small-talk about his Candian grandfather, believing Riker to be Candian from mis-inofrmation from Benny. Riker corrects him, he's Alaskan, and Lil Riker awkwardly points out both places get a lot of snow, Riker sort of agrees and chuckles as Lil Riker slinks away.
Actually sort of a funny little scene and Riker did come across as somewhat personable here, Lil Riker was just trying too hard; but it did feel like a genuine, awkward encounter with your boss and trying to have a causal, non work-related conversation.
As Lil Riker leaves the room, and his original drink, behind the Ten Forward bartender brings over the new drink. Riker just sort of laughs and shakes his head.
The ship holds at the Cardassian/Federation border searching for something, finally they find a small escape pod inside the Cardassian border, Geordi -and T'Dick- are able to increase the transporter range enough to transport off the pod's occupant.
In sickbay, Crusher clears the room -including Ogawa- before the pod's occupant is transported onto the main biobed; as Ogawa leave sickbay she sees Sito there guarding the door, they make some talk how neither knows what's going on, before they notice Picard coming and end their conversation. Before entering sickbay Picard gives Sito a sort of glare before entering the room.
On the bridge, the shift changes and Riker declines Lil Riker's request to stay on for one more shift for extra training. Riker says something about them trying to cut OT, bonus checks were a little thin last quarter.
Picard leaves sickbay and orders Sito to come with him, awkward silence in the tubolift before Picard asks Sito (again, who was involved with the spacecraft accident in "The First Duty") if she's a certified pilot, Sito confirms she is.
They enter the Ready Room where Picard begins berating Sito about the events in "The First Duty", she tries to defend herself by pointing out how long ago (a couple years) the event was and how since then she's been a model officer. Picard is unmoved. She further points out the tough time she had in her last years of the Academy without any friends and the event looming over her, but she toughed through it in order to graduate. Picard is further unmoved and wonders aloud how she made it onto the Enterprise before dismissing her.
In a shuttlebay, T'Dick is firing a phaser rifle at a shuttlecraft under Geordi's discussion. T'Dick questions this and Geordi responds that they are conducting procedural tests on the shuttle's hull. T'Dick is, mostly, unconvinced especially after he recommends using a lower setting on the rifle that'd get them the same data without damaging the shuttle. Geordi says the test remains the same and orders the next target point; T'Dick questions his firing position and Geordi has him changes it. Off handedly, but obviously, T'Dick says that doing so would be "consistent" with making it look like the shuttle had fled an attacker while making evasive maneuvers. Geordi assures him this is a coincidence.
In sickbay, Ogawa enters to help Crusher with their mystery patient, a Cardassian, under orders of ultimate secrecy.
In mirrored scenes we deal with poker games between the Jr. officers and Sr. officers.
In the junior game everyone talks about what they think is going on but, Ogawa is quiet about what she knows, Sito distant from her dressing down with Picard, and T'Dick questioning the work with the shuttle. Lil Riker feels left out and clueless.
