Michael McKean reflects on his first Emmy nomination for "Better Call Saul" as well as his iconic roles over the years.
Title: Birthright, Part I (20 Feb 1993)
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| Episode complete credited cast: | |||
| Patrick Stewart | ... | Capt. Jean-Luc Picard | |
| Jonathan Frakes | ... | Cmdr. William Riker | |
| LeVar Burton | ... | Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge | |
| Michael Dorn | ... | Lieutenant Worf | |
| Gates McFadden | ... | Dr. Beverly Crusher | |
| Marina Sirtis | ... | Counselor Deanna Troi | |
| Brent Spiner | ... | Lt. Commander Data / Dr. Noonien Soong | |
| Alexander Siddig | ... | Doctor Bashir (as Siddig El Fadil) | |
| James Cromwell | ... | Jaglom Shrek | |
| Cristine Rose | ... | Gi'ral | |
| Jennifer Gatti | ... | Ba'el | |
| Richard Herd | ... | L'Kor | |
While the Enterprise helps repair Cardassian damages to space station Deep Space Nine, an alien approaches Worf, claiming his father was not killed in the battle of Khitomer decades ago but is still alive and held in a Romulan prison camp. Initially, Worf rebuffs this, for the dishonor it would bring his family, but changes his mind and resolves himself after talking to Troi and Data. Worf forces the alien to take him to the predator-infested forest surrounding the Romulan camp but, on arrival, discovers it's not what he expects. Meanwhile, Geordi helps brilliant station scientist Dr. Julian Bashir conduct an experiment with unknown alien technology that unintentionally knocks out Data with a serious plasma shock. As a result, Data experiences a vision of his creator, Dr. Noonien Soong, which he is unable to understand. Written by KGF Vissers/edited by statmanjeff
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This happened at DS9!
When I first saw Picard and Crusher walk into the Promenade, I was expecting more interaction with the DS9 cast.
It didn't happen.
Oh, we did get Alexander Siddig El Fadil onto the Enterprise, but there would have been:
Picard arguing with "The Sisko" about Aqueducts
Worf and Odo catching Quark in some crooked "enterprise"
Riker getting Fleeced by Quark and Rom the first time he ever plays Dabo...
And Howlin Mad Broccoli screwing up the Holosuites, he gets trapped in one with Geordi.
That's what could have happened.
I really don't know why there were not more Crossover eps like this, of course the first DS9 ep was a crossover, involving Picard, O'Brien, and The Sisko.
But there was a real opportunity here, to totally merge the casts of both shows. I have always wondered why it never happened. It could have even happened in the TNG Movies, while DS9 was still on the air.
But all we got was this meager episode.
As an episode, important things happen for Data and Worf and Data did get to spend time with Bashir. Even though Bashir forgot to put his shoes back on for his last walk down the Corridor.
Within the parallel Data/Worf stories there is an internal continuity. The Data story is rather interesting, but the Worf story, that's another missed opportunity.
And of course this is one of James Cromwell's 3 TNG Appearances, this time, well, see if you can guess who he is? It took me a few viewings for me to figure out who he was in this.
Look also for Tom Paris' "father" Richard Herd. And Harry Kim's fiance from "Non Sequitur".
It's not that this pair of episodes were not good, But a huge missed opportunity: TNG and DS9 were the most watched shows from this time period, they could have done so much with this.