30th Anniversary TNG Episode Discussion Marathon

[Nate the Great]

SPOCK: Fascinating. You have an efficient intellect, superior physical skills and no emotional impediments. There are Vulcans who aspire all their lives to achieve what you've been given by design.

I can't help but be skeptical of this. True, Vulcans try to suppress emotion, but that doesn't mean that they don't have drives and desires that Data lacks. Or at least Data hasn't mastered yet.

DATA: Ambassador Spock, may I ask a personal question?
SPOCK: Please.
DATA: As you examine your life, do you find you have missed your humanity?
SPOCK: I have no regrets.
DATA: No regrets. That is a human expression.
SPOCK: Yes. Fascinating.

Missed his humanity? One of the fundamental principles behind Spock's character arc is his need to integrate his humanity with his Vulcaness to create something better than either. That's the whole point of the IDIC!

WORF: Do you know any Klingon opera?
AMARIE: I don't get a lot of requests for it.
WORF: Surely, you must know at least one theme from Aktuh and Maylota.
AMARIE: I may be a little rusty.

Aktuh and Maylota made an appearance in one of the IKS Gorkon novels. I'm surprised that it hasn't made more appearances, it seems like something that would've gotten a namedrop in DS9.

OMAG: What is that dreadful noise? It sounds like a Bardakian pronghorn moose.

One of the RPG sourcebooks has more on the Bardakian pronghorn moose. It has webbed feet and a paddle tail. Barkadians use their skin for clothing and other body parts for medicines and talismans.

WORF [OC]: Has just entered the establishment.
RIKER: Is that Melor Famagal I hear?
WORF [OC]: It is.

I would expect Riker to know about the Rules of Acquisition and more common aspects of the Ferengi culture, but not the music. Then again, the expanded universe makes it clear that Ferengi do appreciate music.

You may argue that as a musician he would be interested in alien songs, but we've never seen him play anything but Earth music. Perhaps the trombone isn't conducive to alien music.

OMAG: At Galorndon Core. Near the Neutral Zone.

One of the Enterprise novels says that during the Earth-Romulan War a Romulan ship smacked into the planet at high speed, rendering it practically uninhabitable. The planet makes several appearances in Star Trek Online. (STO says that the planet became uninhabitable when a dead Doomsday Machine smashed into it).

SPOCK: The time the Proconsul set for the subspace announcement of our peace initiative is fourteen hundred hours tomorrow. One four zero zero.

Why would the Romulan clock be the same as the Federation's?

SELA: And this is the android I have come to respect in battle.

Data had no idea he was fighting you back in "Redemption." There really should've been another Sela episode between that episode and this one.

SELA: Do not be distressed. Your dream of reunification is not dead. It will simply take a different form. The Romulan conquest of Vulcan.

I fail to see how the Romulans expect to succeed at conquering Vulcan. Perhaps they could've succeeded at one kamikaze run with this stunt, but nothing more.

RIKER: Maintain position at Galorndon Core. Diplomatic initiative appears to be succeeding. Will advise.
WORF: The message did employ the proper coded sequence.
RIKER: Yeah. I'm sure it did.

How do the Romulans know the proper coded sequence again?

SELA: Excuse me, I'm just finishing up a speech. For you, Mister Spock. I rather enjoy writing. I don't get to do it often in this job.
DATA: Perhaps you would be happier in another job.

A classic Data moment.

LAFORGE: That would put them on a course to Vulcan. They don't seem to be in any hurry. They're only moving at warp one, Commander.

They intend to cross half of the Federation at Warp One? That'll take days!

CRUSHER: We've just received a priority one distress call from the colony on Dulisian Four. A massive failure of the environmental support systems. They're going to require evacuation.
RIKER: Mister Worf, any other ships in the vicinity of Dulisian Four?
WORF: One, sir. A Rutian archaeological vessel.
CRUSHER: I'm sure it's not equipped to handle something of this scale, Will.

Rutians were last seen in "The High Ground." Don't ask me what one of their ships is doing so far out. Incidentally, in the Star Wars universe "rutian" is a blue skin tone exhibited by some Twi'leks.

Memory Alpha

* Final appearance of Sela. I'll cover her further adventures in the Memory Beta section.
* Some thought that three ships were inadequate to invade Vulcan. I would argue that there wouldn't be very many tactical targets on Vulcan as opposed to Earth. One shot for a government building, another for the main armory, another for the spaceport, etc. Plus the Romulans were counting on the element of surprise.

Memory Beta

* Sela made further appearances in the novels, becoming lovers with Tom Riker at one point, and taking part in the post-Shinzon Romulan government. Later she became chairman of the Tal Shiar and indirectly caused the destruction of Deep Space Nine.
* Her Star Trek Online history is quite different. She became Empress in 2408, but not for long as she disappeared through an Iconian Gateway. She ended up in the Delta Quadrant, but made it back home.

Nitpicker's Guide

* In "The Defector" it was made clear that the Romulan science community would love to take Data apart. Why didn't Sela separate Data from the others?
* Why did Data do such a bad job reproducing Riker? Doesn't he have a photographic memory?
* Phil wonders if Spock is meant to be impersonating a Romulan since he doesn't have the Romulan forehead. I'd argue that the forehead is more or less pronounced in different Romulans, just like Klingon forehead ridges.
* Why didn't the Romulans create a counterpart of Starfleet's tachyon detection grid to find cloaked Klingon ships? I'm still confused as to how the tachyon detection grid can still exist this long after the Klingon Civil War. Is Starfleet really telling a dozen ships to stay near the Neutral Zone just to search for cloaked Romulan ships full time?