I seem to recall an episode where an alien was actual two symbiotic
beings head/body, when together they looked like a 'whole' humanoid.
Can anyone provide any more info?

TIA.

I'm doing my first rewatch of The Next Generation since it was originally on; I've only seen sporadic episodes since. Here are some thoughts and questions I've had on some early episodes. I'm interested in the views of others, especially if there is context or viewpoints I'm missing. 

Comments below include spoilers, in case you haven't seen these in the last thirty years and wanted to go in blind.

Links at bottom to my comments on prior TNG episodes, if anyone is interested. 

15. Pen Pals

Wow, this has some major Prime Directive violations, starting with Data casually responding to Sarjenka's plaintive transmission. To this point in TNG, the Prime Directive has been, basically, "don't interfere too much with less-developed societies." This episode advances it to be more absolute, but doesn't yet cite warp drive as being the dividing line. 

Anyway, what was Data thinking? He knows the Prime Directive, the chain of command, et cetera. He didn't think to mention his radio interlocutor? It was a clear violation, however the Prime Directive is understood at this point, and there's no repercussions for Data, who at the end is still breaking it by leaving the singing stone with her!

I wish they had explored the morality of helping or abandoning Sarjenka's society. The problem they're facing isn't one of their own making (e.g. a war, violence, etc) that could become a greater problem to galactic civilization if they're artificially helped past it. The Enterprise could--and does--end the problem and saves everyone without Sarjenka's people ever knowing they were there. What's the point in not interfering with their society's development if by not intervening they ensure that society will end with no benefit to the larger galactic community? These are some of the issues and angles that could have been argued in a way that I think would have been interesting. 

Say the planet is a century or two away from Warp. Troi could point out that if they don't help, this entire civilization would die, and all of their Mozarts, Michaelangelos, and Platos along with them, leaving nothing behind to contribute to the galaxy. "They'll just become another archaeological site to explore," and Data could point out that the seismic and volcanic activity would quickly destroy any remnants of the culture, leaving not even ruins to find. Make it really stark. 

I liked the B Plot, with Wesley's development as he gets a team to do the geologic survey. I liked how the team members pushed back on his suggestions, but once he did give an order they followed it without complaint. I liked the professionalism, it would have been cheap and easy to get tension out of them being bitchy and refusing to listen to him. We see Wesley having some growing pains, he's not just a boy genius who solves everything that no one else can. I also liked Riker's mentorship relationship with him.

16. Q Who

I think this is the best episode of TNG so far, and the first one that I think is truly great. This is a really well written story.

The addition of Q adds more to this episode than it did to "Encounter at Farpoint," both of which are primarily about some other situation that the Enterprise has to solve. Here, Q's role helps emphasize that Picard et al really are out of their league with the Borg, to the point that they must rely on him to save them, contrary to their early confidence that they could handle anything that came up. 

Guinan is also well integrated into this episode. The hints at her past history with Q make her more intriguing as a character, and she really helps to raise the tension here. After Q zaps them 7,000 light years away, Picard and Riker ask he what she can tell them. "Only that if I were you," she replies, "I'd start back right now." Then after they encounter the Borg, she is able to tell them how devastating, powerful, and impossible to reason with that they are. This is a good way to present information to the audience and that info makes the episode actually somewhat scary, I think.

Even the new Ensign, Sonya Gomez, plays a meaningful role. We meet her talking politely to the replicator, thanking it for her hot chocolate. This mostly leads into her clumsily spilling it on Picard, but it also gives Geordi and her a moment to talk about "intelligent circuitry" and not dehumanizing artificial intelligence--food for thought once we meet the Borg. Also, she's unsure if she's ready to serve on the Enterprise, echoing Q's warning that none of them are ready for what's out there. She only shows up in this episode and the next one; but I wish they had more characters who had names, lines, and showed up a few times each season, not to give them their own complex backstories and plotlines, but just to flesh out the universe and show that it's more than just our eight or so main characters. 

I thought the directing of the episode was great. I like the techniques used when the mysterious Borg first beams to engineering: he's in the extreme foreground, out of focus and only partially on screen--though we see he has some contraption instead of a hand. We also see Geordi's reaction in the background, telling us that there's something weird about the new visitor. I thought that was well done. Also at the climax on the bridge where Q turns around and he was an unnoticed character in the background before that moment. 

Regarding the Borg, there's only really two stories in all of TNG where they go toe-to-toe with them: here and in "The Best of Both Worlds." For how much the Borg dominate our thinking of TNG, that's it. You also get "I, Borg" (with Hugh) and "Descent" (but in that one they're not really part of the collective, or something like that). But the Borg were so awesome that those very few stories really capture our imagination and memories of the show. Anyway, I've heard that the Borg were so powerful that the writers had trouble thinking of ways to use them, as they'd be so hard to defeat. 

Interesting that assimilation doesn't appear to have been conceived of at all by the writers at this point. Seems like they're just humanoids born as babies and who grow up with increasing levels of cybernetic implants. They also seem more interested in the ship and it's technology than the crew, and Q says as much. Apparently, the Borg were originally going to be insectoid like, but the makeup would have been more expensive. Looking at these pre-First Contact Borg, the costumes and makeup do seem fairly simple. shaved head, pale makeup, black jumpsuit, some hardware, tubes, & wires on that, maybe some grabo arm for a hand, etc. But it's very effective. I almost prefer the pale look to the more biological looking makeup they have post First Contact. 

The coda to the episode--with Guinan saying "well, now that they know you exist..." and Picard finishes with "They're coming"--is a good lead in for their next appearance, which this episode promises.

17. Samaritan Snare

The Pakleds are fun. "They look for things," you know. "Things to make them go." They're so clueless and slow and are played so well by those actors that they're comical in a good way. They're villians, but are so bumbling that you laugh at them. 

Their storyline, the A Plot of the episode, was decent. The ruse to trick them and get Geordi back was solid, but not spectacular. It was odd that Riker didn't beam Geordi back or take any other precautions after Troi warned him about the Pakleds. There also was no answer to Worf's question about if they needed to send over their chief engineer. So, Riker didn't really do so hot on this one, but redeems himself by coming up with the plan to get him back. Data and Worf saying their "goodbyes" to Geordi was funny and worked well. 

The B Plot, with Picard's surgery & Wesley's academy entrance exam, had things I like and things I didn't like. It seems weird that Picard was weird about needing surgery and, in Pulaski's words, having an ego about it. His snippiness with Riker et al, before talking freely about it with Wesley, didn't seem in line with his character. Just have to chalk it up to him fearing for his mortality or otherwise being stressed out about it. 

But the revelation that the staid and responsible Captain Picard was a hot-headed officer in his youth is interesting and I like the growth in him that it hints at. His trying to impart some of the wisdom it gave him to Wesley is nice. I also know that his injury at the hands of the Nausicans comes up again later in "Tapestry," and what I remember from that episode lines up exactly with how he describes the event in this episode, which is cool. 

I like that Picard's surgery actually looks like it happens in a place designed for surgery. Usually, it's just the chief medical officer (who isn't wearing anything other than their usual duty uniform) waving some light up gizmo over someone's abdomen for ten seconds while they're ten feet from the door to the hallway that people are walking in all the time. The surgical getups here were neat, but I don't think we ever see anything like them again. 

Also, while it took Picard & Wesley six hours to get there in a shuttlecraft, it's good to know that the Enterprise was just five minutes away the whole time! Even if they weren't going to divert to shorten Wesley's trip, you'd think that keeping a starship captain out of a vulnerable shuttlecraft like that would be worth the few minutes the trip would have taken. 

Finally, Wesley asks Picard if something happened "before the Klingons joined the Federation." I didn't get the idea that the Klingons were a part of the Federation in any TNG episodes leading up to this, they still seem and act like a separate body. They also basically dropped that idea, pretty much immediately, if I recall. Maybe this is best retconned as Wesley misspeaking, where he meant to say "before the Klingons became Federation allies." to avoid continuity issues.

18. Up the Long Ladder

This wasn't as completely stupid as I thought it'd be. The core story--about an old settlement ship that set up two colonies, one technologically advanced and the other very primitive, that developed separately and had issues that could only be resolved by coming back together--is a good one. Most of my problems with the episode come from the stereotypical 19th century Irish people. Apparently Colm Meaney wasn't a fan of that either, but he's only in the one scene and didn't have any influence with the producers yet. 

Danilo Odell was ridiculously stereotyped. I didn't really buy him as being the leader of even this small band of people. His daughter, Brenna Odell, was more interesting and had more obvious leadership skills. But usually, if you have a culture where families try to marry off their daughters to high-status men (as we see Danilo trying to do several times), they usually gaurd their daughter's virginity quite closely. But that doesn't seem to be the case at all here, unless Brenna was trying to entrap Riker. 

I just find it hard to believe that their clothes, accents, technology, and ways of doing things would remain unchanged for 200 years. They're trying to set up a still with a fire in the cargo bay, but then at the end they're totally cool with joining a colony of advanced clones? They do point out that it'll take a lot of work to integrate the two peoples, but... yeah, seems an understatement and not sure Picard should be so pleased to just stick them together and then warp off. 

The other thing that didn't ring true to me was the Mariposan cloning. Why were the clones formed as adults? Why not have them start off as babies and grow up that way? Do they have to program the adult clones somehow? Or do they just have adults bumping around with the minds of infants, then toddlers, then young but adult-sized children? Seems they did it that way just to have half-formed versions of Riker and Pulaski for Riker to vaporize. And that seems out of character. The clone didn't ask to be cloned, though presumably he wouldn't have killed his clone if it was fully formed and walking around. 

I like the concept for this episode, but the execution would have been better with out the primitive colony being goofy Irish people. 

Thoughts on other episodes:

Thoughts on TNG Season One
Thoughts on TNG Season Two
* Episodes 1-5
* Episodes 6-10
* Episodes 11-14

Edit: It's over and I'm a blubbering mess.

I don't know the reason, but could it be that it was changed because the Starfleet also spread the rumor that red shirts always die on missions?

i prefer the silly V-neck yoga jumpsuit to the standard uniform she starts wearing in season 6 any day. it’s cute! it’s fashion!

Great actor. 😢

Please help.

Miles tells a maintenance worker to estimate repair time to be longer than it needs to be.

When asked why, Miles says something along the lines of: if repairs are made ahead of time, it makes them look good. If repairs take longer, then they have extra time. At the end of the episode, the worker tries to tell Miles that repairs will take longer than expected but Miles doesn't let him get away with extending repair time.

Edit: Just to clarify, I love it! But have read so many people lambasting it that I really feel it’s one of the episodes that people either love or really dislike

Nog is definitely what we hoped for Westley to be and accomplish.

This is going to sound strange but work with me here, please. I've always loved the character Data and his journey to become more human—especially his struggles with understanding humor and idioms.
What I'm looking for are what I'm calling "Data-isms". Things he'd say in response to perplexing human behavior, jokes that he's told...poorly, things he'd ask in his childlike innocent ways, and other such things.
Why? I'm joining a D&D game. I'm playing a Warforged character that was built only for a siege...considered extendible - so he was never taught/programmed about social etiquette, humor, etc...it wasn't expected for him to ever NEED know these things. The first thing I thought of when building him was Data. Please help! The funnier (but not inappropriate) the better.

I watched Generations on release and have since been quite put out by the Galaxy class being taken out by an old Bird of Prey. Would have liked to have the D continue, never been a fan of the Sovereign class.

From A Matter of Time, when Rasmussen is hovering around La Forge and pestering him about his VISOR:

"You know, Homer was blind. Milton... Bach... Monet... Wonder."

I can't think of a single other time that TNG directly refers to pop culture from the latter half of the 20th century. Is Stevie Wonder the only one?

Edit: Great answers so far! At the risk of sounding as if I'm moving the goal posts, though, I had a narrower (and perhaps arbitrary) definition of "pop culture" in mind. I should have specified that I was thinking more along the lines of pop music from the second half of the 20th century—a topic the show's writers were conspicuously disciplined in avoiding. Imagine how surreal it'd have been for Riker or Picard to casually refer to Michael Jackson or David Bowie, for example. This is what made the "Wonder" reference stand out so much for me. It feels utterly singular in the series.

There she is…

(Is it ever not a ‘Bev kind of day’?

Just set up the Christmas tree! I know it’s a little early for some, but I won’t have very much time at home this year, so I’m getting as much glowy lights in as I can.

Pretty sure the crew approves.

How many of you guys have Trek-themed ornaments?