Star Trek: The Next Generation Rewatch (oh god no)

[Mobbd]

S04E08 - Future Imperfect
- It's Riker's birthday!

Love it, love it, love it!

[Wonderful Butternut]

Troi is Commander in the simulation. 3 bronze bars on the comm. badge.

So Frakes forgot his line here and they just left in cos it worked, right? https://youtu.be/Lyuo5U2pAXk?t=41

Although since his eyes just start straying towards Troi's boobs before she taps his arm, maybe he was wishing for something else and was trying to think could he bullshit the empath.

Other than that, my favourite bit is where he chews out Fake Geordi. "You're incapable of that level of incompetence Mr. La Forge."

[daf]

081 | "Future Imperfect"



Captain Amnesia Hornblower

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Highlights :
• Birthday 'bone BLAAAAARRRRRP!!
• Admiral Beard-o Picard
• Dr Crusher's massive hair-bolts
• Riker's Suspicious Squint-eye
• Holo-deck Switcheroo
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Other Bits :
• Palm Torches #5
• "Jean-Luc" Riker [worra brown-nose!!]
• Risk-takin', wrist-breakin', cool-talkin', high-walkin', fast-livin', ever-givin' . . . Parrisee Squares!
• Minute Minuet Mistake
• Little lonely space-sprog
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Score :

[Blumf]

S04E08 - Future Imperfect
...
- The child, who's true form is a weird blue thing,

Always seemed wrong to me, and I can't figure out why. Just not the right look for a Trek alien.



I think it's because he's too much like the classic 'Grey' aliens you get from UFO lore, just seems to clash with Trek.

[mothman]

Troi is Commander in the simulation. 3 bronze bars on the comm. badge.

Yes, indeedy.



In hindsight, Riker should have smelled a rat as soon as he noticed Starfleet hasn't changed the uniform design in 17 years.

[Wonderful Butternut]

I looked at this shot and didn't really register the grey bar. Thought it was the bottom edge of a bronze bar or shadow or something.



Looking more closely, Data, Geordi and Worf all seem to have this one (although possibly Worf's third bar is silver).

[mothman]

The silver bar replaces the black pip used under the old system, and denotes that Worf is a Lt. Commander.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Starfleet_ranks#Alternate_reality

[Lemming]

S04E09 - Final Mission

On his last mission before leaving for Starfleet Academy, Wesley becomes marooned on a desert planet with Picard.

- Wesley has been accepted into Starfleet Academy (again), and its time for him to leave. As a special treat, he's allowed to come with Picard on a deeply boring mission to talk to miners.

- Five seconds into the mission, some janky mining shuttle they're on crashes into a desert world, leaving Wesley, Picard and Miner Guy trapped.

- Everyone wraps desert turban things on their heads. Picard is elated by the shuttle crash, because it lets him start up with a bunch of crap bushcraft tricks.

- The party discover a styrofoam cave. Picard, who's set himself up as leader (justified by his incredibly poor quality bushcraft signal making) confiscates Miner Guy's alcohol.

- It's Ensign Gates again! This time, she's in a medical team being briefed by Bev about the dangers of radiation. She's a pilot, why is she suddenly in a highly specialist medical team? Because she's just that good, that's why.


- The party discover a fountain in the cave with a weird forcefield around it. Trying to break through the field summons Angry Water Spirits who fly around fucking things up. Picard is crushed by styrofoam rocks. Picard has like 5 HP left so he tells Wesley that, in the event of his death, it'll be down to Wes to escape Desert World.

- Riker's been in command twenty minutes and somehow a situation has arisen in which every single member of the crew is being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Irradiated nursery.

- Miner Guy pressures Wesley into firing at the forcefield again, which just makes more Angry Water Spirits appear and kill him.

- Picard's slipping into a coma (much like the audience - LOL!!!!!!) so Wesley grips his hand and says a bunch of things. He admits that his entire motivation in life is wanting Picard to be proud of him.

- Wesley has tricorder'd his way into being able to access the fountain. The water saves him and Picard until help arrives, after which Picard is carted out on a stretcher thing.

During this rewatch, I've found myself liking Wesley more than I ever have before. In "Datalore", he refused to kowtow to the usual Federation "the captain is always right" bullshit and instead insisted that an obvious threat to the ship be investigated. In "The Naked Now", he criticised the command structure of the ship while intoxicated. In "The Ensigns of Command", he realised that he doesn't want to be in a position of authority and that he doesn't actually know why he's meant to trust Picard's decision-making (especially given that it's been obviously wrong before). In "Samaritan Snare", while alone on a shuttle with Picard, he decided to drop all formalities and just talk to Picard directly as an equal.

You get the picture. Intentionally or otherwise, a picture was being built of someone who was slowly realising that he didn't actually believe in the way Starfleet operated, and had no trust in any absolute authority.

Sadly, this episode doesn't really tie up Wesley's arc - whatever it was meant to be - in any satisfying way. The whole water fountain thing is a waste of time, and the side plot where Riker gets the nursery irradiated is totally pointless. The only draw is the Picard-Wesley interaction, but it's fairly brief.

So, Wesley admits that his whole motivation is wanting Picard to be proud of him. I'm really not sure about this. It could be just me reading the character in a way the writers didn't intend, but again, Wesley seemed to be someone who questioned authority, and questioned Picard's ability. He admitted in "The Bonding" that, as a kid, he hated Picard, blaming him for his father's death. His relationship with Picard is complex, but I don't buy that Wesley's core desire is to impress Picard, given how many times he's willfully done the opposite (and also given his eventual fate of rejecting Starfleet).

The supposed big emotional payoff is that Picard admits he was always proud of Wesley, but again, that doesn't feel to me like something that Wesley's ever been working towards needing to hear.

But anyway, that's the only thing to get stuck into with the episode. The rest of the plot is boring and a transparent excuse to force Picard and Wesley into the fanfiction-cliche scenario in which one of them is gravely injured so that they can admit their True Feelings for one another. 2/10

[Cloud]

Maybe he eventually came to see Picard as a father figure (given all the times it's hinted about him and Bev being a Thing in any case) but yeah it's not really built up to.

Honestly I wish they'd kept this exit

Spoiler alert

rather than turning him into a bit of a cunt with the Starfleet Academy storyline with Tom Paris and co and eventually have him run off with pedo guy

[close]

- The child, who's true form is a weird blue thing, says that all his people were killed and his mother left him in this cave for safety, but was then killed herself, leaving him alone. The simulations were created because the alien was Super Lonely

Just thought, isn't that pretty much the story of that guy in Discovery who caused the Burn?

Also not the last time Riker ends up in an Inception scenario...

[Mr Trumpet]

Just thought, isn't that pretty much the story of that guy in Discovery who caused the Burn?

Yeah it is similar. They do a bit more with the idea in Discovery though - what would someone be like if they grew up alone in a holodeck etc.

I think it's a real shame that Wesley Crusher left the series - does anyone know why this happened? I know Wil Wheaton had a hard time with shitty "fans", and that he and Rick Berman didn't get along, but it doesn't seem like he left to do another big job or that he fell out of love with Star Trek.

[daf]

I think it's a real shame that Wesley Crusher left the series - does anyone know why this happened?

In the DVD extras (filmed in the 90's) he says he wanted to do films

"Here's the absolute truth why I left Star Trek. I left Star Trek because it was seriously interfering with my career in feature films. I was in a situation where I was constantly having to pass on really good movie roles because I was on the series. I had a film career before Star Trek. People knew me before Star Trek. As a matter of fact, at Comic Con, a lot of people came up to me and said, "I started watching Star Trek because you were on it and I was fan of yours from Stand By Me and I stopped watching it after you left." I had a lot of people say that to me.

After something like this had happened a lot of times, this was finally the last straw: I had been cast by Milos Foreman to be in Valmont. I had gone through lots and lots of callbacks, I had met Milos personally a number of times and he was really supporting me and telling me, "I want you in my movie." I was going to go to Paris and I was going to be in this movie and stuff and what happened was we were going to shoot it during the hiatus and the shooting schedule for Valmont would have carried me over about a week into the regular season schedule into Star Trek. I would have had to sit out the first episode of the year, right. That's not a big deal, it's not like I'm the fuckin' Captain, you know. At that point, I was the guy who pushed buttons and said, "Yes, sir!" So, I said to the people on Star Trek, "I need to be written out of this particular episode, because I'm going to do this movie and my film career's going to take off." This is after Gene Roddenberry had died. Had Gene been alive, it would have been no problem at all, because Gene was that kind of guy. Gene would have said, "Great! Go ahead, you do what you need to do," because he was that kind of person. After Gene died, a very different type of person took over and they said, "We can't write you out because the first episode of the season is all about you. It focuses entirely on your character and it's your story..." So, he said to me, "The story is entirely about you, we can't write you out." I said, "Well, this really sucks, but I'm under contract to you guys and if that's your call and if that's what you say I have to do, I have to do." I had to pass on the movie.

A couple of days before the season was ready to premiere, they wrote me out of the episode entirely. What they were doing was they were sending me a message. The message was, "We own you. Don't you ever try to do anything without us." That was the last straw for me. I called my agents and said, "They don't own me. It's time for me to leave this show, it's time for me to be gone." That's what really pushed me over the edge. It's not worth it anymore. That's why I left."

Not sure who the 'very different type of person' he's referring to is - either Rick Berman or Michael Piller most likely. Also I'm pretty sure that Roddenberry was alive during season 4 (he's still credited on screen as a producer), though he was probably not really running the show at that point due to illness.

In any case, Wesley does turn up in a couple of episodes after this, so it seems he hadn't completely burnt his boats.

[daf]

082 | "Final Mission"



The Desert Hats

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Highlights :
• Booze Bottle Baddie
• Force-Field Fountain Foxer
• Picard's Pate-Pelting Pumice
• The Groundskeeper Boothby Sketch
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Other Bits :
• Minor Miner Mediation Mission
• Boring Bin-Barge
• Cave Moansters
• Dirgo Dead-o!!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Score :

[The Culture Bunker]

In any case, Wesley does turn up in a couple of episodes after this, so it seems he hadn't completely burnt his boats.

I think he was in a cut scene from one of the TNG films, whichever one had Troi and Riker's wedding in it.

[Mr Trumpet]

In the DVD extras (filmed in the 90's) he says he wanted to do films

Not sure who the 'very different type of person' he's referring to is - either Rick Berman or Michael Piller most likely. Also I'm pretty sure that Roddenberry was alive during season 4 (he's still credited on screen as a producer), though he was probably not really running the show at that point due to illness.

In any case, Wesley does turn up in a couple of episodes after this, so it seems he hadn't completely burnt his boats.

Thanks, i've heard that story before (more explicitly naming Berman) but I didn't know it was the final straw. It's interesting because the impression I get now is that he's essentially tired of acting and moved on to other things, but he clearly still loves Star Trek.

[Malcy]

I think he was in a cut scene from one of the TNG films, whichever one had Troi and Riker's wedding in it.

Yeah there's a deleted scene for Nemesis with him in it. I'm sure he's visible in a couple of shots in the released version as well but very much blink and you'll miss him.

[mothman]

I'm sure he's on record somewhere talking about his being written into, but then deliberately cut out of Nemesis. Berman was definitely involved - may even have been the one to call and tell him - and it's all a bit weird. The whole stretch of Berman's involvement in Trek is a bit weird. There are some niggling indications I get that he wasn't that popular. But then you'd think that if he was a complete bastard to work for, it would have come out by now.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

There are some niggling indications I get that he wasn't that popular. But then you'd think that if he was a complete bastard to work for, it would have come out by now.

...It HAS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeSz2gW8IsE

[Lemming]

S04E10 - The Loss

Troi loses her powers of empathy as the ship is disabled by a swarm of two-dimensional lifeforms.

- Troi's busting out the pop psychology by trying to coax a patient into crying more. It takes about five seconds.

- The ship enters a Region of Piss and Troi gets yet another agonising psychic headache. Picard helpfully brings the ship to a full stop right in the middle of it, and Troi is KO'd.

- The Enterprise, the state-of-the-art flagship of the Federation, is completely broken again. Warp won't initiate and the ship is now being dragged forward by the weird shit outside. Picard calls a briefing, and asks Troi if the anomaly outside could be alive. She realises that she can't sense anything, from the anomaly or anything else. Her empath skills are GONE.

- Bev gives Troi the Look of Condescending Pity as she reveals that Troi's change in condition may be of a permanent nature. Troi goes back to her room to sulk and complains to Riker that it's annoying to have people pity you for having a disability.

- In another briefing, everyone is treated to a CGI animation of the ship being pulled to its death. Data has discovered that the anomaly is a collection of two-dimensional lifeforms, who are arseholes who won't let go of the ship. Troi storms out and goes back to shitbay to yell at Bev over her inferior medical crisis response time.

- Troi calms down after raging in her quarters for a bit, and goes to tell Picard that she's resigning. "Deanna", he says, "I've been fortunate to have access to your Betazoid abilities. Most captains have to be content with a human counselor." Really? Do not many Betazoids sign up to Starfleet or something (it certainly appears so, since half-Betazoid Troi is the only one I think we've ever seen)? Putting that aside, though, surely Vulcans would make ideal counselors, what with their psychic abilities and their objectivity and their mind-meld abilities.

- Picard eagerly spews out his favourite crap slogans. "Other senses become stronger to compensate!" He even whips out an empowerment anecdote about a wheelchair-bound professor he head. Troi tells him to fuck off. This is the strongest I've ever related to Picard, I have pretty much the exact same useless generic "have you tried cheering up" style responses whenever people come to me with problems.

- Riker fulfills his role as Ship's Himbo by showing up and dumbly saying "DEANNA." and offering a hug. We learn that he routinely hugs Geordi and Worf to improve morale. Geordi probably needs it due to his extreme social maladjustment, but poor Worf, stuck in the sweaty grip of the moron. Troi explains that it's frightening not being able to sense anyone, and starts crying. Riker picks this time to give her shit and accuse her of anti-human racism. Great stuff Riker. I love the shot where Riker leaves, and Troi bursts into tears again. Typical conclusion to any Riker interaction.

- Picard places an absolutely ludicrous amount of (misplaced) faith in the universal translator by hoping that it can speak to the 2D Bastards. Oh, also, the 2D Bastards are going towards a space minge that will tear the ship apart when it hits it.

- Detecting sadness in the bar, Guinan suddenly appears behind Troi like a ninja, and homes in:


- Guinan hits Troi with the Guinan Stare. She winds up Troi by saying that she's going to apply to be the ship's counselor. This is of course a RUSE to get Troi to revert her resignation, but it just actually acts as a grim reminder that Guinan would be a more interesting and effective counselor at this point in the show's run.

- Worf wants to blast the 2D fuckers. Yes!!! YES!!! Picard's sad because he probably had big plans to invite them into the Federation or something. The wimpy little 3D photon torpedoes have no effect against the unstoppable glory of the 2D lifeforms, who laugh it off and keep moving unhindered towards the minge of despair.

- Less than five hours until the ship is destroyed by the space minge, and the nursery and its occupants are twisted and crumpled like wet tissue paper. Picard tells Troi to use her psychological know-how to figure out what the fuck the 2D Bastards' problem is. She decides they're flying towards the space minge on instinct. The plan is to annoy them by creating an illusory space minge to get them to fly towards that instead. This works and the ship is free, which causes Troi's empathy to return.

- Hahahaha look how he sits, like a schoolgirl getting the latest gossip:

Not a criticism, that's a high-quality sitting stance. Anyway, Troi thanks Riker for calling her a racist earlier. THE END

(Insert all the mandatory jokes about how the 2D lifeforms have more depth than the regular TNG characters here)

This is alright. The 2D people are pretty lame but the plot isn't about them, it's about Troi and how people react to her. The scene where Picard dumbly tries to help with truisms and """inspirational""" stories and Troi rips into him is great, and the scene where Troi unfairly blames Beverly for being a crap doctor works too. Good scenes because you can understand Bev/Picard's possibly-misjudged attempts to help, and also understand Troi's snippy reactions. If the plot had been focused entirely on people trying to help Troi in various ways - some helpful, some completely counterproductive - the episode would have been really strong. The Riker stuff where he accuses her of space-racism and elitism is a bit more confusing, I guess it's meant to be Tough Love or something but he just came off as a knob. Wasn't on the writers' wavelength on that one.

The Guinan scene works, but it mostly works because of the meta-fictional angle where Guinan already does suck up a lot of counseling scenes that "should" be going to Troi, so her deception about applying to replace Troi feels frighteningly plausible. Flitting between 6 and 7, but let's go with 7/10

[Blumf]

S04E10 - The Loss
...
- Hahahaha look how he sits, like a schoolgirl getting the latest gossip:

Not a criticism, that's a high-quality sitting stance. Anyway, Troi thanks Riker for calling her a racist earlier. THE END

Looks very bored to me, one step away from having comedy glasses with open eyes painted on.

[Wonderful Butternut]

The only problem I have with this ep. is they seem to go straight to "You need to deal with your disability now, Deanna." Been a while since I watched this one, so I might be wrong, but I don't remember it to occurring to anyone that the 2D lifeforms that they encountered at exactly the same time Troi's head broke might be linked to the loss of her empathic abilities somehow.

I know that's because the episode is meant as a metaphor for someone gaining a disability, or suffering from the loss of a limb, or a loved one or anything, but it's a bit contrived that no one thinks of the bloody obvious here. Also Troi sort of goes through the 'classic' 5 stages - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance - in a couple of days (less?) in universe which seems a bit rapid.

[daf]

083 | "The Loss"



Flounce-illor Troi

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Highlights :
• Troi's Surprise Musical Grief-Box
• Riker's Quizzical Squint-eye
• Picard's Crystal Finger-Fondling Whatnot
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Other Bits :
• 2D Particle Pancake Quicksand
• Guinan's Reverse-Psychology Masterclass
• Purple Cosmic String Magnet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Score :

[mothman]

Do not many Betazoids sign up to Starfleet or something (it certainly appears so, since half-Betazoid Troi is the only one I think we've ever seen)?

There are a few. Lon Suder is, but he was Starfleet by accident, as it were (he was Maquis TBW). Lt. Stadi, original Voyager helmsperson. Anita & Walter Pierce in TNG's "Eye of the Beholder" were part-Betazoid. And a female Science division ensign, Jurot, in VOY "Counterpoint."

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Couple of explanations for "most captains don't have a Betazoid counselor"

1) Not all Betazoids go into psychiatry/psychology ya racists

2) Betazoid culture probably has certain taboos/customs around reading people's minds given that they're capable of telepathy/empathy, so Engineer Trapezoid of Betazed isn't going to be running to the captain to go "hey that Romulan captain is absolutely shitting himself, like he's literally hoping everyone blames the smell on his Romulan dog"

3) the fan theory about there being ships that are "mostly" one species or another to accommodate for different atmospheres/temperatures means there might be a few ships that are just Betazoids because they all agree to not read each other's thoughts

[Mr Trumpet]

There are a few. Lon Suder is, but he was Starfleet by accident, as it were (he was Maquis TBW). Lt. Stadi, original Voyager helmsperson. Anita & Walter Pierce in TNG's "Eye of the Beholder" were part-Betazoid. And a female Science division ensign, Jurot, in VOY "Counterpoint."

I assumed that Ahni Jetal (the dead ensign the EMH didn't save in Latent Image) was Betazoid too because of her weird name and dark eyes.

[Lemming]

S04E11 - Data's Day

In a letter to his BFF Bruce Maddox, Data describes the events of a day aboard the Enterprise.

- O'Brien's wedding day! Data goes to see Keiko (FIRST EVER APPEARANCE), who, in a moment of lucidity, has decided not to marry O'Brien after all.

- The wedding will take place in Ten Forward, with those Japanese screen door things up everywhere. O'Brien flies into a rage upon hearing that the wedding is cancelled.

- Vulcan ambassador T'Pel beams aboard, and is inexplicably received by Data alone, with Prickard and Riker nowhere to be seen. They're actually stood staring at the door in the ready room, waiting for T'Pel to drag herself up to meet them.

- Check out this person in the background! Why can't we follow her for the rest of the episode instead?


- Everyone decides that Keiko's a ridiculous nutcase who doesn't mean what she says, and so the wedding will go ahead regardless. Data goes to the REPLICATOR ROOM to choose a wedding present.

- A crewmember gets a PREGNANCY EVALUATION while Data does the "here are my genitals, please kick them" stance from Blackadder.


- Bev used to get roasted at the academy for dancing. People called her "The Dancing Doctor". Utterly brutal! This is the level of interpersonal conflict they have in the 24th century.

- T'Pel has ordered the ship to fly right up to the perpetually-nearby Neutral Zone. Data experiences NERVOUSNESS. He decides to go and play with Spot the cat as the Enterprise hurtles towards an encounter with the Romulans. O'Brien comes to see him in an absolute state. He asks Data to go convince Keiko to proceed with the wedding. He reckons she's not thinking things through properly, and she's also refusing to speak with him, so Data is sent on this crucial assignment.

- Keiko snaps at Data and runs off into the depths of the botanical garden to hide. Data goes to Troi for help. Troi gives Data the only good advice he's received so far - stay out of the O'Brien Vs Keiko Marital Nightmare Battle. Troi's also seemingly the only person who takes Keiko seriously. Congrats, Troi, for coming off really well here!

- T'Pel calls for a SOLO MEETING with Data and starts asking him for the lowdown on tech specs of the Enterprise. Data has SAFEGUARDS which prevent him from cooperating.

- Bev teaches dancing to a stunt double who doesn't even resemble Brent Spiner.

-

- Riker is leaning his arse against the tactical station, presumably missing the "launch everything" button by a mere inch, while telling an interminable anecdote to a bored-looking crewmember.

- Lengthy scene where T'Pel beams over to a Romulan ship to negotiate, but DIES on the transporter pad. O'Brien's fault. The Romulans blame the Federation and have a go at them. A long investigation reveals the truth - the death was faked, and T'Pel is a Romulan spy who has just successfully escaped Federation space with the unwitting help of the Enterprise.

- Drama resolved, Data goes to see Keiko, who enthusiastically tells him to get ready because the wedding's back on. Alright, then. Presumably O'Brien was in such a good mood after believing he'd accidentally melted T'Pel to death that he and Keiko were able to work it out.

Keiko is introduced, a character I really like in later episodes of TNG and even DS9. But she's off her rocker or something here, she acts like a 12 year old, very weird intro to the character. Everyone treats her like she's an idiot, too - nobody (bar Troi) takes her seriously and everyone agrees the wedding will go ahead regardless of her stated wishes, and they're apparently right, because she just needs haranguing into it.

Otherwise, both the Romulan deceit plot and the wedding plot are pretty dull, and I don't think having Data narrate over it makes it any more interesting. Data's narration is mostly just the usual stuff you already know about him from him constantly talking about it anyway - he has to jerk his head back and forth for three hours to look up the definitions of common phrases, he doesn't understand irony, etc. The episode is a bit of fun anyway mostly thanks to Brent Spiner pulling off the comedy scenes. 5/10

[Blumf]

If you've gotten to the point that all the arrangements have been made and the actual ceremony is hours away only then to kick up a fuss, you are being a self-centred child and a cliché.

Keiko could be a nice character, an insight onto human life outside Star Fleet, but she keeps on being written as a complete nightmare.

[daf]

084 | "Data's Day"



A Data in The Life

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Highlights :
• Blue Bolian Bonce-Buzz Barber
• The Dancing Doctor Sketch
• Worf's Wavering Wedding Waffle
• Sherlock Droid Investigates
• Devoius Devoras Double-Agent Deception
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Other Bits :
• Maddox Missive
• Keiko! Let's Go!
• O'Brien going off half-cocked
• Untamed Ornithoid Chase
• Data's Cat Spot #1 : Feline Supplement #74
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Score :

[greenman]

Couple of explanations for "most captains don't have a Betazoid counselor"

1) Not all Betazoids go into psychiatry/psychology ya racists

2) Betazoid culture probably has certain taboos/customs around reading people's minds given that they're capable of telepathy/empathy, so Engineer Trapezoid of Betazed isn't going to be running to the captain to go "hey that Romulan captain is absolutely shitting himself, like he's literally hoping everyone blames the smell on his Romulan dog"

3) the fan theory about there being ships that are "mostly" one species or another to accommodate for different atmospheres/temperatures means there might be a few ships that are just Betazoids because they all agree to not read each other's thoughts

I spose Lwaxana's atttiude to mind reading gainsays the second of those a bit but you could argue she's represented as a bit of an abnormality. So Troi's more limited abilities is actually what makes her working in that kind of role acceptable, just picking up on feelings rather than reading thoughts.

[Das Reboot]

I think this is the episode that first introduces the daft notion of a nightshift on a starship. Has the Fed got a gentleman's agreement with the Romulans, Ferengi, Klingons, Borgs etc not to start any of their usual shit while all but one of the senior officers of the flagship are in the land of nod? Are Starfleet's other ships aligned to the same time zone?

[mothman]

That's a good question. I can't see how they'd make it work (though the whole Stardate thing may play a part in it). What strikes me though is how it's always daylight on the part of any planet they need to visit. I suppose they could choose a warp speed factor that would see them arrive there when it's daytime in the capital city...

As for nighttime, well, how else could they do it? How do they do it on real-world maritime naval vessels? On a starship in deep space, it likely helps to maintain a diurnal cycle for crew health and morale reasons. And I guess if stuff starts happening, they would all need to get dressed and up to the Bridge in a hurry!

"Cause And Effect" is an episode that always feels to me like it takes place during ship nighttime. That could be because so many of the secondary scenes - the poker game, Bev's bedtime routine - are at "night," but the main action on the bridge does too, maybe because of the red alert mood lighting...

Obligatory link: Star Trek: Night Crew!

https://youtu.be/G4ApQrbhQp8