March 28th, 1994, "Journey's End"
No fiver
The Episode
CRUSHER: Here you are, your very own quarters. They're as far away from mine as possible, so you don't even have to see me if you don't want to.
WESLEY: Mom, you know that's not why I asked for my own quarters this time.
CRUSHER: You don't have to explain. There comes a time in a young man's life when he doesn't want to stay with his poor senile mother. I understand.
WESLEY: I'll come visit you in the old Doctor's Home every Sunday.
This seems more like sitcom dialogue than Star Trek.
RIKER: Earl Grey tea, watercress sandwiches and Bularian canapés. Are you up for a promotion?
PICARD: I am trying to establish a new relationship with the Admiral. There has been a certain amount of tension between us in the past.
It's far too late for this, especially when the show is about to end.
NECHEYEV: You'll notice a demilitarised zone has also been created along the border. Neither side will be permitted to place military outposts, conduct fleet exercises, or station warships anywhere in the demilitarised area.
And yet in DS9 the DMZ was never demilitarized...ever.
PICARD: This border places several Federation colonies in Cardassian territory and some Cardassian colonies in ours.
NECHEYEV: This agreement is far from perfect. Neither side got everything they wanted, but every side got something. And as someone once said, diplomacy is the art of the possible. Those colonies finding themselves on the wrong side of the border will have to be moved.
I've railed against the DMZ enough in the past. For the purposes of this episode it's enough to say that the border isn't remotely a straight line, so why can't it swoop around the colonies to prevent the Cardassians from bullying the Federation citizens? For that matter, why have we never EVER seen the Federation as landlords to a Cardassian colony?
PICARD: Dorvan Five? Isn't that where the group of North American Indians settled?
"Native American" was invented in the 1960s, it should be used in the 24th century.
PICARD: There are some very disturbing historical parallels here. Once more, they're being asked to leave their homes because of a political decision that has been taken by a distant government.
NECHEYEV: An Indian representative was included in the deliberations of the Federation Council. His objections were noted, discussed, but ultimately rejected. Captain, the Indians on Dorvan are a nomadic group that have settled there only twenty years ago, and at that time they were warned that the planet was hotly disputed by the Cardassians. The bottom line is they never should have gone there in the first place.
And this is where the entire premise of the episode falls apart. The Dorvan natives were warned twenty years ago that the area was in dispute and the planet might be given to the Cardassians. Picard's mission should consist of presenting them with the following options: evacuate now or you're on your own with the Cardassians with no protection. Period.
PICARD: What if these Indians refuse to be evacuated?
NECHEYEV: Then your orders will be to remove them by whatever means are necessary.
And now we're going past American imperialism into fascism. The government knows what's best for the people so the people aren't entitled to freedom. The difference between existing and living and so forth. I thought the creators wanted to soften Necheyev's character? Wouldn't this be a good place to bring back Maxwell?
WESLEY: Read the latest paper from Doctor Vassbinder. He has brilliant new theories on warp propulsion inter-relays.
I never knew that Doctor Vassbinder made a second appearance in canon. He actually made three; Chakotay mentioned him in "Year of Hell."
"He just kept talking in one long unbroken sentence, moving from topic to topic, it was really quite hypnotic."