History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E13SubRosa

* LineageComesFromTheFather Beverly talks a lot about the "Howard women," such as how they usually have green eyes, but Crusher's female descendants would have come from different family names, and her married relatives would presumably all have different names, like her.

The planet they're on is Caldos, one of the first terraforming projects of the Federation, designed to look exactly like the Scottish Highlands. Governor Maturin asks Picard for help fixing the faulty weather control systems, and Picard agrees to stay for a few days. Meanwhile, Beverly and Troi wind up in Nana's old house, and Beverly reminisces about growing up with her. Troi fawns over an old lamp, which is a Howard family heirloom that symbolize "the enduring Howard spirit."

[[caption-width-right:350:[[BizarroEpisode This one's kinda crazy.]]]]

Back on the ship, Geordi and Data are all better, while Beverly confides in Troi that the whole thing made her a little sad, as whatever Ronin might have done, [[HappinessInSlavery he made Nana very happy."

Back on the ship, Geordi and Data are all better, while Beverly confides in Troi that the whole thing made her a little sad, as whatever Ronin might have done, he made Nana "very happy."

We open with Beverly Crusher giving the eulogy at the funeral of her grandmother, Nana Felisa Howard. As dirt and roses are piled on Grandma's casket, funeral goers begin to depart, but not before Beverly happens to glance toward a strange man. Their eyes meet for a moment before he walks off.

The planet they're on is Caldos, one of the first terraforming projects of the Federation, designed to look exactly like the Scottish Highlands. Governor Maturin asks Picard for help fixing the faulty weather control systems, and Picard agrees to stay for a few days. Meanwhile, Beverly and Troi wind up in Nana's old house, and Beverly reminisces about growing up with her. Troi fawns over a lamp Nana kept, which is a Howard family heirloom that symbolize "the enduring Howard spirit."

A man named Ned Quint slips into the house and blows out the candle in Nana's lamp. When Beverly confronts him, he claims that he was Nana's caregiver that the candle has been a curse on the Howard family for generations. Beverly demands he leave, but Quint leaves her with some CrypticConversation about how he's not responsible for the consequences and leaves.

Back on the ''Enterprise,'' Data and Geordi are trying to fix the weather control systems with Governor Maturin and running into a few problems, including an unprecedented storm approaching. Beverly arrives back on board and tells Picard about what she found in Nana's journal: She had a lover in his thirties when she was 100 years old. Beverly suspects that it was the man she saw at the funeral earlier. That night, as the doctor falls asleep while reading her grandmother's journals, the candle lights up in Nana's lamp, and Beverly's bedsheets and ''clothes'' start to be pulled away. "Beverlyyyyy..." says a voice, as she wakes up startled.

Beverly relays this to Troi the next day, and seems to have enjoyed the sensations, as this... "presence," as she calls it, knew how she liked to be touched, and she chalks it up as a dream she had after reading "a particularly erotic chapter in her grandmother's journal." Beverly heads back down to the planet with flowers for Nana's grave, and meets Ned Quint there. They make peace in light of Beverly's discovery of Nana's close relationship with him. But Quint reiterates his warnings to abandon the house and candle, claiming a ghost is bringing storms to the planet.

Ned Quint walks off as green lightning flashes, driving Beverly back into the house. The ''Enterprise'' picks up the oncoming storm, puzzling Geordi and Data who'd been working on the weather systems. Beverly wanders into the house again and finds it covered in flowers. She hears the "presence" again and [[MirrorScare sees a flash the mysterious man in the mirror]].

The voice returns calling Beverly's name, and she identifies him as Ronin, the man at the funeral and Nana's young lover. He claims to have been born in 1647 in Glasgow, Scotland, and has spent the last ''800 years'' seducing the women of the Howard family. He starts to give her "strange sensations," telling her that they are becoming one, but Crusher tells him to leave. But when Crusher meets Troi later, she admits that she's entranced by Ronin's charms.

* InterruptedIntimacy: Picard walking into the house and being stunned to find Beverly getting some hot space ghost lovin'. Oh, like ''your'' life has been all straight and narrow, Jean-Luc.

* InformedAttractiveness: Ronin gave Beverly a "remarkable look" at the funeral. It's not so much "smolder" as "sad puppy face."

* TheMaidenNameDebate: Paired with SingleLineOfDescent and a reversal of LineageComesFromTheFather. Apparently Beverly is the first Howard woman to ''not'' keep her maiden name and pass it to her children since at least the seventeenth century.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Ronin is a spectral entity made of "anaphasic energy". He's kinda like an alien incubus, feeding off his victims.

* RomanceNovel: [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]], being an example of a BottleEpisode GenreShift.

* VoodooShark: Ronin's getting on-board the ''Enterprise'' by travelling through the power transfer beam was such a silly solution to a non-problem -- rather than taking the obvious solution and having him jump into Beverly's body right before she's beamed up -- that episode writer Brannon Braga later admitted that for years afterwards he was ridiculed by the show's other writers.

* AsYouKnow: We get a pretty straight example of this to learn why there's a Space Scotland.

* AchillesHeel: The candle, to Ronin.

* {{Scotireland}}: It's supposed to be a planet of [[SpaceJews Space Scotsmen]], but the accents of the people are hardly Scottish. Amusingly, the actor who plays Ned Quint was actually Irish. May be an in-universe version of TheThemeParkVersion; many of the citizens aren't even human, they just built their colony on the theme.
* ShoutOut: As if the episode isn't weird enough already, a brief shot in the climax shows one of the gravestones labeled "[[Franchise/BackToTheFuture [=McFly=]]]."[[note]]Someone must have thought Scotland and Ireland were the same country.[[/note]] Who's buried next to [[Franchise/StarWars "Vader"]]. Talk about a posthumous CrackPairing. [[invoked]]

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Ned Quint isn't so much Scottish as 'Scot-ish.'

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Strangely, Governor Maturin is decidedly un-Scottish.

The following [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer is a 100% real episode]] of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation.'' Perhaps it doesn't have the sheer infamy of [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS02E05ANightInSickbay "A Night In Sickbay"]] or [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E15Threshold "Threshold"]] or the cheesy silliness of [[Recap/StarTrekS3E1SpocksBrain "Spock's Brain"]] or [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E23ProfitAndLace "Profit and Lace"]], but at the very least it goes down in the annals of Trekdom as one of the '''''weirdest''''' episodes the franchise has to offer. Stay with us here.....

We open at the funeral of Felisa Howard, the grandmother - Nana, if you will - of Beverly Crusher, the latter of whom is delivering a heartfelt eulogy surrounded by crew members (including a very uncomfortable looking Picard) and other humans and aliens dressed ''very'' Scottish. As dirt and roses are piled on Grandma's casket, funeral goers begin to depart, but not before Beverly happens to glance toward a strange man. Their eyes meet for a moment before he walks off.

The planet they're on, of course, is Caldos, and AsYouKnow, it's one of the first terraforming projects of the Federation, designed to look exactly like the Scottish Highlands. Governor Maturin asks Picard if members of his crew would be willing to look at the weather control infusion systems in exchange for a tour and some home-cooked food, which Picard accepts. Meanwhile, Beverly and Troi wind up in Nana's old house, and Beverly reminisces about growing up with her. Troi fawns over a lamp Nana kept, which is a Howard family heirloom that symbolize "the enduring Howard spirit." Troi heads back to the ''Enterprise'' as Beverly looks into Nana's journal and heads upstairs.

At this point, a man named Ned Quint slips into the house and blows out the candle in Nana's lamp. Beverly demands to know what he's doing here, to which he claims (in a [[OohMeAccentsSlipping dodgy Scottish accent]] that will make you long for the salad days of Montgomery Scott) that he was Nana's caregiver, and claims that "cawwndle" has been a curse on the Howard family for generations. Beverly doesn't listen and demands he leave, but Quint leaves her with some CrypticConversation about how he's not responsible for the consequences (whatever the hell they are), and leaves.

Back on the ''Enterprise,'' Data and Geordi are working at fixing the weather control systems with Governor Maturin and running into a few problems, including an unprecedented storm approaching, which hopefully won't interrupt the upcoming caber toss. It's Space Scotland! Beverly arrives back on board and tells Picard about what she found in Nana's journal - she had a lover when she was 100 years old. Picard observes that "the Howard women have exceptionally vigorous libidos" (easy, there, Jean-Luc!) before Beverly reveals that her lover was in his ''thirties,'' and believes that it was the man she saw at the funeral earlier. That night, as the doctor falls asleep while reading her grandmother's journals some more, the candle lights up in Nana's lamp, and Beverly's bedsheets and ''clothes'' start to be pulled away. "Beverlyyyyy..." says a voice, as she wakes up startled.

Beverly relays this to Troi the next day, and seems to have enjoyed the sensations, as this... "presence," as she calls it, knew how she liked to be touched, and she chalks it up as a dream she had after reading "a particularly erotic chapter in her grandmother's journal." Beverly heads back down to the planet with flowers for Nana's grave, and meets Ned Quint there, where they make peace in light of Beverly's discovery of Nana's close relationship with him. Quint refuses an invitation to stay at the old house, and tries to warn Beverly that the house is haunted, claiming a ghost is bringing storms to the planet, angry at being cast out. Again, friendly reminder that you are, in fact, watching a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' episode.

-->'''Quint:''' You belieeeve what ya want, lass; just dunnah light that cahhhndle!

Ned Quint walks off as weird green lightning flashes, driving Beverly back into the house. The ''Enterprise'' picks up the oncoming storm, puzzling Geordi and Data who'd been working on the weather systems. Beverly wanders into the house again, and finds it covered in flowers. She hears the "presence" again, and we get the old MirrorScare.

"Beverly... I've come back for you..." says the voice, the same voice she heard the night before while in bed, and he confirms that he's Ronin, the man at the funeral, and Nana's young lover. "I am a spirit," he claims, who was born in 1647 in Glasgow, Scotland, and has spent the last ''800 years'' seducing the women of the Howard family. After some good ol' fashioned haunting and whatnot, we go back to Beverly on the ''Enterprise.'' By this point, Beverly is entranced by Ronin and his ghost charms. She tells Troi about her attraction to her grandmother's lover, and Troi admits she finds this "unusual" which has got to be the biggest {{Understatement}} of the whole series.

So anyway, the bridge is full of fog. Yes, fog. Worf, who otherwise does shit-all in this episode, says it's due to a malfunction in the ship's environmental control. Also, Ten-Forward's temperature has dropped below freezing, and deck 13 has lost gravity. This is due to feedback coming from a power transfer beam, which Data can't turn off and is forced to deactivate at the substation where it's originating. When Data and Geordi arrive to check it out, Ned Quint is there, trying to stop them from doing whatever they're about to do, before [[WebVideo/HonestTrailers that one lightning effect]] suddenly kills him.

Beverly Crusher shows up at the station to inspect the body, and determines that it wasn't a plasma discharge that killed Quint, but some other anomaly. Beverly leaves her medical staff to inspect the body, as she has to go back to her grandmother's house and get information out of the sexy (creepy) ghost. This time, Ronin appeals in corporeal form, which he says he can't do for long, while Beverly melts at his touch. He confirms that he can travel along the ''Enterprise's'' power transfer beam, and instructs her to get back to the ship and light the candle... but not before a BigDamnKiss, after which he vanishes!

Beverly gets back on the ship and ''frantically'' lights Nana's candle. Sure enough, Ronin shows up, and says she's going to become a part of him, like all the Howard women before her. Beverly is overcome with excitement at this prospect (not immeasurably creeped out), and we cut to her in the transporter room about to beam back down to the planet while dressed like an old woman. Picard comes in, horrified at her request to ''resign from Starfleet,'' but Beverly is adamant that she's going to live on Caldos and live like her grandmother did, and she beams down. Picard goes to talk to Troi, who is also concerned about how fast this is happening, and they agree that this Ronin dude holds some power over her. Picard decides he's gonna have a word with Ronin, while Data and Geordi also head down to Caldos to find an energy signature similar to what was found on Quint's body... and it's coming from Nana's grave!

Beverly and Ronin reconvene in Nana's old house, as Ronin attempts to "merge" with her in a big green ghost cloud. Suddenly, Picard walks in on Beverly being ravished by a space ghost. Picard wants answers from a reluctant Beverly, and when he won't stop asking, Ronin appears, proclaiming his love for Beverly, and asking Picard to leave. Data pipes up over the com signal, saying that they're going to exhume Nana's body. Ronin protests (while Beverly's oddly quiet about her Nana's corpse being dug up), but Picard is done with Ronin's bullshit and probes him with questions. Ronin gets mad and gives him the same shock Quint got earlier. This time, Beverly is there to treat him, against Ronin's wishes. After some hypospray, Picard, trusting Beverly's judgement again awfully quickly, tells her to chase after Ronin, who is off to the cemetery.

Data and Geordi beam the casket out of the ground and open the lid to find Beverly's grandmother, who opens her eyes, sits up, and electrocutes Data and Geordi. Beverly gets there to find her dead grandmother looking at her and talking to her, and as a reminder, yes, this is absolutely a real episode of ''Next Generation.''

-->'''Beverly:''' You're not Nana! Nana's dead! [[SuddenlyShouting LEAVE HER]] [[ChewingTheScenery ALONE!!!]]

Ronin de-possesses Nana's corpse, and reappears. Beverly accuses him of giving her the same of anaphasic energy that killed Quint, and Ronin defends his actions. Beverly realizes (infodumps) that he's an anaphasic life form that needs to merge with hosts to maintain cohesion. The ''cahhhndle,'' of course, is his receptacle. Ronin resorts to threatening Geordi's life, and Beverly finally grabs a phaser and destroys the lamp. Ronin begs to merge with Beverly again, but she blasts him out of existence for good.

Back on the ship, Geordi and Data are all better, while Beverly confides in Troi that the whole thing made her a little sad, as whatever Ronin might have done, he made Nana "very happy." Ooooookay, roll credits.

* UnreliableExpositor: Ronin's story of having been born in seventeenth-century Scotland and "not believing in ghost either" until he became one is suspect even before revealed as an obvious lie by his being an anaphasic being. This does, however, leave some startling implications since, if he was truthful about having seduced the first Howard woman in that time period, this would indicate such beings were around on Earth well before humans developed space travel or an understanding of such lifeforms. [[DoingInTheWizard Which perhaps was intended as an explanation for the stories of ghosts and other supernatural events throughout our history]].

* CassandraTruth: Ned. He tries warning Beverly about Ronin and the candle, but she doesn't believe his warnings. He had apparently tried warning her grandmother as well, but she refused to listen as well.

Beverly relays this to Troi the next day, and seems to have enjoyed the sensations, as this... "presence," as she calls it, knew how she liked to be touched, and she chalks it up as a dream she had after reading "a particularly erotic chapter in her grandmother's journal." Beverly heads back down to the planet with flowers for Nana's grave, and meets Ned Quint there, where they make peace in light of Beverly's discovery of Nana's close relationship with her. Quint refuses an invitation to stay at the old house, and tries to warn Beverly that the house is haunted, claiming a ghost is bringing storms to the planet, angry at being cast out. Again, friendly reminder that you are, in fact, watching a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' episode.