‘SUSPICIONS’ (TNG)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This is a really good ‘Star Trek: TNG’ episode for Beverly Crusher’s character. It’s so amazing to think that I’ve met Gates McFadden playing Beverly in real-life at ‘Destination Star Trek Birmingham 2018’.
‘Suspicions’ opens with Beverly returning to her quarters aboard the Enterprise, seemingly distressed. Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan then enters her quarters to ask for her help with curing her ‘tennis elbow’.
Beverly soon breaks the news to Guinan that she is no longer a doctor aboard the Enterprise and will be facing a court martial. Wow! That’s a way to open an episode! How come this happened to Beverly?
Well, we see as Beverly tells Guinan the whole story. In the episode, Peter Slutsker as a Ferengi scientist called Dr. Reyga has created a metaphasic shielding technique to be use on certain starships.
Wait a minute! A Ferengi scientist?! Hmm. This is the first time I’ve come across a Ferengi scientist in ‘TNG’. And he doesn’t seek profit in the work he does. He simply wants recognition in being a scientist.
This…is rather a contradiction in terms and puts a whole new angle on the Ferengi. In the past, we’ve seen Ferengi as a rather profiteering and backstabbing alien race that causes trouble for the Enterprise.
Of course that more or less changes with the Ferengi when it comes to depicting them in ‘DS9’. This ‘TNG’ episode demonstrates how the Ferengi can be more than just a profiteering ‘Star Trek’ species.
From seeing the episode, you can have a lot to admire in Dr. Reyga. He gets ridiculed for his scientific work, but Beverly sees something in his metaphasic shielding technique and the two get on very well.
Reyga’s species profiling and unorthodox methods have caused his scientific work to be ignored by other scientists. Beverly plays the ‘scientific diplomat’ when inviting other scientists to the Enterprise.
The other scientists are James Horan as Jo’Bril who is a Takaran scientist. There’s also a married couple John S. Ragin as Christopher, a human scientist and also Joan Stuart Morris as T’Pan, a Vulcan scientist.
A Klingon scientist is also present – Tricia O’Neil as Kurak. All these scientists are sceptical with Dr. Reyga’s work. But Reyga insists that is metaphasic shielding technique is plausible and Beverly concurs.
A demonstration takes place on the Ferengi scientist’s prototype. It’s then decided that someone else instead of Reyga should pilot a shuttlecraft with the shielding. Jo’Bril, the Takaran scientist, volunteers.
The test flight takes place and everything seems to go according to plan with Jo’Bril piloting the shuttle. But Jo’Bril soon becomes short of breath and barely pilots the shuttlecraft out of a star in outer space.
Jo’Bril dies once he’s back in sick-bay aboard the Enterprise. It’s considered Reyga’s metaphasic shielding technique is a failure, but cannot accept it and was certain everything went according to plan.
But despite investigations, nobody can find anything wrong with the shuttlecraft. Beverly also can’t figure out what caused Jo’Bril’s death. In the end, Beverly decides for Reyga’s test flights to be ceased.
Reyga is upset about this of course and is determined to prove himself. Very soon, he’s found dead due to a plasma discharge. It is judged as suicide but Beverly is unconvinced Reyga would take his life.
Beverly suggests doing an autopsy on Reyga’s corpse. Picard informs her not to do this as his family have requested to perform the Ferengi death ritual. Beverly has to find another way to solve the case.
Beverly does her murder mystery investigation by asking the other scientists who could suspects in Reyga’s murder. There seems to be this heated scene between Beverly and the Klingon scientist Kurak.
But it doesn’t get Beverly anywhere and she decides to do the autopsy on Reyga anyway. She finds nothing however and informs Picard of disobeying his direct orders before she is soon relieved of duty.
After telling Guinan this story, Beverly gets encouraged to continue her investigations. I won’t reveal any spoilers on how Beverly manages to solve this case, but I tell you it was a twist I did not see coming.
Patti Yasutake guest stars as Nurse Alyssa Ogawa who helps Beverly in her investigations. Overall, ‘Suspicions’ has been a great episode to watch and is certainly a far better episode than I remembered.
‘Suspicions’ (TNG) rating – 9/10
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