‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Retro Recap – ‘Suspicions’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

The other day when we settled in to discuss Star Trek: The Next Generation and the franchise’s desire to fuse genres from time to time, we made mention of the fact that this endeavor tends to fall more often than not. Just because Star Trek is franchise that is special and unique and truly has enough ideas to carry its own stories without needing to inject notions of say, murder or terror into the mix. But curiosity always gets the better of an STU writer’s room and it just so happens that shortly after assembling a quality fusion episode, the folks behind the scenes at TNG, decided they wanted to try for another one. But sadly, the end result of this second attempt, one that fused together science fiction and the murder mystery… wasn’t quite as good as its predecessor, which is unfortunate.
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For ‘Suspicions’ had the potential to be quite the incredible episode. After all, it sets up a grand and quality mystery. One where a Ferengi scientist, named Dr. Reyga, that has been disavowed by his own people for not having the lobes to dedicate himself to a life of profit, makes what he believes to be… a powerful discovery. In that, he is certain he has found a way to create a metaphasic shield that can extend a ship’s time within the corona of a star. A shield that would allow for revolutionary learning to take place regarding stars and the only problem with this… is that no one wants to back a Ferengi scientist. In part because they don’t think he has a clue what he is talking about and because of the stigma surrounding his people. Which is why Beverly steps in and hosts a conference aboard the Enterprise, so that he can be taken seriously by the top minds in his field and have his discovery shared with the scientific communities of the galaxy, when he proves his theories to be right.

But of course… things go south. For the experiment fails miserably and kills a Dr. Jo’Bril in the process and when faced with the prospect that his work cost a man his life, Reyga takes his life. Or so it seems. Because the whole thing seems quite suspect to Beverly, since Reyga wasn’t in that state of mind. So, she takes it upon herself to really uncover what happened here since the math should have worked out for the shield and because someone may have gone after Reyga, since failure made him an easy target and well… while she is stonewalled and overzealous to the point where she nearly loses her commission as Commander and Chief Medical Officer aboard the Enterprise…. eventually she is able to prove that Jo’Bril faked his own death and killed Reyga to get his hands on a piece of technology that actually worked.

Which at first glance, doesn’t appear to be all that much of a fusion genre failure since Beverly does play a great gumshoe and does bring the bad guy to justice in this tale. But there are some big failures when it comes to this story. For instance, Jo’Bril’s ability to magically slow his metabolism isn’t a terrible idea, it is just that it is hinted at and thrown away, when it could have been used to build tension and danger and intrigue. Instead, he just shows up and explains away how he survived this mess without giving it a second thought. Allowing for the reveal to land with a thud, and the build up to that moment, is also lackluster. Since the ‘suspects’ designed to throw us off the trail we hadn’t a clue, existed, aren’t viable. For a Vulcan wouldn’t resort to murder out of ‘ego’ and a Klingon is too easy.

Which basically means, that the case in and of itself is boring and it makes sense as to why. Because murder mysteries don’t work well in a time of peace and where forensic evidence is easy to come by, plain and simple. And that really does disengage the viewer. But this episode isn’t a total loss. For this one actually gives Beverly Crusher something to do outside of the norms and we get some serious insight into her moral core and how driven she is by the truth of science and that was wonderful to enjoy since Gates McFadden brings a real honesty to the material with her performance. Plus, we absolutely need to take a moment and point out, that this is the final appearance of Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan in TNG, and that’s a huge milestone that kind of reminds us… the end is drawing near. But all that aside, it is best to just declare this episode as… okay. For it doesn’t accomplish anything earth shattering, it just fills the void and reminds us how fusion is a real gamble here and thankfully, the next mission for this intrepid crew, wipes away the malaise of this one… courtesy of some fascinating questions. Until next time.

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