Guinan pays a visit to Doctor Crusher to get treatment for tennis elbow, only for Crusher to explain that she is no longer a doctor on the Enterprise. Cue opening credits.
Doctor Crusher explains that she hosted a scientific conference on board the Enterprise so the Ferengi scientist Reyga can test a shield that will allow a shuttlecraft to survive in a star's corona. Also attending the conference are the Klingon scientist Kurak, the Vulcan scientist T'Pan, T'Pan's human scientist husband Christopher, and the Takaran scientist Jo'Bril. Jo'Bril volunteers to test the shield.
The test flight appears to be going well, but suddenly the shielding fails. The shuttle survives the experiment, but Jo'Bril does not.
Doctor Crusher performs an autopsy on Jo'Bril, but her inexperience with Takaran Bizarre Alien Biology means she can't get any conclusive results. However, she decides to cancel the conference and forbids any further experiments with Reyga's shield.
A few hours later, Reyga is found dead in an apparent suicide. Crusher suspects that Reyga was murdered, but she can't learn more without performing an autopsy. Unfortunately, Reyga's family refuses to allow Crusher to "defile" Reyga's corpse.
Crusher asks the surviving scientists about Reyga's death. T'Pan and Christopher have alibis, but they overheard an argument between Reyga and Kurak shortly before Reyga was found dead. Crusher confronts Kurak, who attacks her. Crusher is undeterred and intimidates Kurak into telling her about the argument. Kurak reveals that Reyga accused her of sabotaging the experiment. Kurak denies Reyga's allegation, but refuses to answer whether she killed Reyga.
Crusher, seeing no other avenues to continue her investigation, defies Picard's orders and performs an autopsy on Reyga's corpse, only to find nothing useful. Crusher admits what she did to Picard, who relieves her of duty pending a hearing at Starfleet Medical.
Back in the present, Guinan convinces Crusher not to give up her investigation. Crusher asks Data about how a saboteur could have sabotaged Reyga's shield. After a bit of technobable, Crusher concludes that if the shield was sabotaged, Jo'Bril's corpse should have tetryon particles. With Nurse Ogawa's help, Crusher examines the autopsy report for Jo'Bril and finds that the particles are indeed present.
Doctor Crusher steals the shuttle used in the experiment so she can repeat the experiment and prove that the shield works. After flying in the corona, she finds her communications jammed. Jo'Bril reveals himself: it turns out that Takarans have the ability to pretend to be dead while remaining conscious. Jo'Bril reveals that he murdered and discredited Reyga so he could create the shield himself. However, Doctor Crusher has presented him with an even better opportunity: he will fake the shuttle's destruction and take the shield to his people, where he will turn it into a weapon. Crusher overpowers and disarms Jo'Bril and kills him in self-defense.
Later, Doctor Crusher visits Guinan in Ten Forward to inform her that she has been reinstated as Chief Medical Officer and to give her a tennis racket that will help prevent her from getting tennis elbow again. Guinan sheepishly admits that she doesn't actually play tennis.
This episode was Whoopi Goldberg's last appearance as Guinan in the Next Generation television series, although she would later appear in Star Trek: Generations and make a cameo in Star Trek: Nemesis before returning to the role again for Star Trek: Picard.
Tropes:
- Action Girl: Doctor Crusher manages to stare down Kurak after she attacked her as well as disarm and kill the nearly invincible Jo'Bril.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The biological functions of Takarans are much more evenly distributed among their organs than in most other beings, so that they are far less susceptible to injury. They can also feign death. This comes in handy for Jo'Bril, who fakes his death and even survives an autopsy afterwards.
- Caught Monologuing: At the climax of the episode, Jo'Bril is so busy explaining his Evil Plan to Crusher that she is able to kick the phaser from his hand, giving her the chance she needs to overpower him.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Picard mentions that Ferengi bury their dead. Deep Space Nine would later establish that Ferengi sell all of their body parts to the highest bidder when they die. It could simply be that Reyga's family doesn't share the same customs as most Ferengi (Reyga himself already breaks a few stereotypes), though the wording in some places seems to imply that ritual burial is commonplace.
- Faking the Dead: Jo'Bril, whose species has the natural ability to simulate death so perfectly that Doctor Crusher performs an autopsy on him while he's still alive. He also had half his midsection removed by a phaser and it barely slowed him down.
- How We Got Here: Most of the episode consists of Doctor Crusher telling Guinan why she is no longer Chief Medical Officer.
- Implacable Man: Jo'Bril can survive an autopsy as well as getting a hole blown in his torso. Doctor Crusher is forced to disintegrate him to stop him.
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Reyga is looked down upon by his fellow Ferengi for being a scientist and not picking a more profitable career. According to Kurak's actress, Kurak is also a victim of this, as Klingons don't have much respect for intellectuals - in-universe, Beverly suspects this as well, thinking "I don't think Klingons regard scientists very highly; [Kurak] always seemed a little defensive."
- The Main Characters Do Everything:
- You would think that Beverly would involve Worf in her investigation, since it's one of his primary duties. Worf is a main character, but in a focus episode, everyone gets pushed out.
- For that matter, why is a medical doctor so interested in the development of shield technology to enter a star? Wouldn't this fall under the more broad sciences division, where Data is the Chief Science Officer?
- Mistaken Death Confirmation: When Enterprise retrieves the shuttlecraft, Jo'Bril is supine and inert, and Doctor Crusher declares him dead, moving his body to the morgue. As it turns out, Jo'Bril was only mimicking death, aiming to take credit for the Ferengi scientist's invention.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Reyga knows how unusual it is to see a Ferengi scientist, which he jokes "is almost a contradiction in terms."
- Never Suicide: Jo'Bril kills Reyga and attempts to make it appear as though the Ferengi committed suicide over his experiment's failure.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Why Crusher bucks orders and performs the autopsy on Reyga.
- Talking to the Dead: When Crusher proves that Reyga's metaphasic shielding works.Crusher: Congratulations, Dr. Reyga. You did it.
- That's an Order!: Played with when Ogawa decides to help Crusher.Crusher: I don't want you to get involved in this.
Ogawa: Is that an order, Doctor?
Crusher: Yes.
Ogawa: Too bad you're not my boss any more (grins). - There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Inverted; the phaser's regular "kill" setting isn't enough to stop Jo'Bril, so Dr. Crusher has to use the maximum disintegration setting to stop him.
- Wrongful Accusation Insurance: While trying to prove that Reyga was murdered, Crusher causes an international incident by performing an autopsy on Reyga's corpse without his family's consent, and also steals a shuttlecraft. At the end of the episode, she is cleared of all charges and resumes her duties.
