History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E18TheChase

* MexicanStandoff: Involving the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians. Picard and Crusher put an end to it when they collect the final DNA sample and finish the program.

* NotSoDifferent: The Romulan commander acknowledges this between his people and humans.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This is the only appearance of a female Gul in the Cardassian military. It's later established that there's a gender divide among Cardassian society, where men dominate the military and women the sciences. (That hardly means that there should be ''no'' female Guls, of course.)

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This is the only appearance of a female Gul in the Cardassian military. It's later established that there's a gender divide among Cardassian society, where men dominate the military and women the sciences.

A recording plays from one of the billions-old race that created the puzzle. She gives a heartfelt (and somewhat ironic) speech congratulating them for coming together in a spirit of friendship to find their secret message, explaining how the various humanoids across the quadrant were seeded by them eons ago. The audience, apart from Starfleet, is clearly not pleased by their reward and go right back to insulting each other as they leave.

* TheWorfEffect: It's a different Klingon this time, but Nu'Daq shows us just how physically superior Data is. Data immediately trounces him in arm-wrestling with no apparent effort whatsoever, then he tries a head-butt only to be somehow thrown back a few feet while Data doesn't even flinch.

* BribeBackfire: Nu'Daq tries to subtly bribe Data, who sees right through it.

* RocksFallEveryoneDies: Ocett comes close to invoking this before Picard and Crusher complete the genetic program.

* CosmeticAward: The ancient aliens' program, far from any sort of advanced technology, is a simple message of congratulations to the humanoids for solving the mystery of their origin. Probably for the best, given how many phasers were being brandished at the time.

* AbsentAliens: Billions of years ago, the precursors realized they were alone in the galaxy, so they created every other race.

* {{Retcon}}: The episode is basically a giant excuse for the ''Trek'' franchise's multitudes of RubberForeheadAliens, with very few species outside that shape.

* SurvivorsGuilt: Picard briefly feels it for not going with Galen.

The ''Enterprise'' is on a routine science mission, studying protostars in the Volterra Nebula, when Picard receives a puzzling invitation to the observation lounge from Riker. Entering to see a statuette highlighted on the table, Riker brings the lights up to reveal a guest, Professor Galen, Picard's old mentor from his days as a xenoarchaeology student.

The captain is overjoyed at this surprise visit. After they exchange heartfelt greetings, he eagerly resumes the role of pupil as Galen quizzes him on the Kurlan ''naiskos'', a gift from his recent explorations, sitting on the table. Picard gushes over the extraordinarily rare find, in excellent condition despite how distant -- both in space and time -- its origin is from the Federation.

The conversation turns serious as Galen teases Picard about some new research he has been doing over the past decade, an impending discovery that he claims will shake the galactic community to its core. But he won't say any more unless Picard agrees to help him finish the work in what will be a long and potentially dangerous journey into the frontier. It would mean giving up his command, perhaps his entire career in Starfleet. Picard can't bring himself to do that, no matter how tempting the adventure. The professor is personally affronted at being refused -- again -- by his favorite student, throwing back several cutting invectives before storming back to his shuttle.

Some days later, the ''Enterprise'' receives a distress call from Galen's shuttle, which has been boarded by a hostile Yridian ship. Picard orders it disabled, but somehow even a single low-power phaser beam causes it to explode spectacularly. Galen, mortally wounded by a disruptor, is beamed to sickbay. He only manages to say one thing as he dies.

->'''Galen:''' Jean-Luc... [[PartingWordsRegret I was too harsh]].

With both Galen and his attackers dead, the crew have only the shuttle's computers to shed light on what happened. What little data they can retrieve, a series of numbers, is presumably part of Galen's mysterious research and what the Yridians were after, but means nothing to them without further context.

A new clue emerges at Galen's intended destination, Indri VIII, which has been scoured of what little plant life it had by an unknown party. With the presumption that it is related to the research, the computer identifies the data as an assortment of ancient DNA fragments from across the quadrant. Such disparate fragments should have no relation to each other, but Crusher notes that they have similar protein configurations. They connect to form an algorithm that could only have been deliberately engineered.

->'''Crusher:''' This fragment has been a part of every DNA strand on Earth since life began there, and the other fragments are just as old. Someone must have written this program over four billion years ago.

They must find the missing fragments to discover the purpose of the program. It seems they are out of leads, until Picard remembers Galen's gift from the Kurlan system. The only life-bearing planet there, Loren III, is not among the DNA fragments, possibly stolen by the Yridians.

Which is the wrong system. Ocett apparently made a botched attempt to subvert the ''Enterprise'''s defenses, so Picard and Nu'Daq were prepared for her betrayal and decided to [[OutGambitted turn the tables]] by giving her a false lead. Nu'Daq's engineer wasn't quite on the ball and let some damage through, putting his ship out of the running as well.

A recording plays from one of the billions-old race that created the puzzle. She gives a heartfelt (and somewhat ironic) speech congratulating them for coming together in a spirit of friendship to find their secret message, explaining how the various humanoids across the quadrant were seeded by them eons ago. The audience, apart from Starfleet, is clearly not pleased by their reward, and go right back to insulting each other as they leave.

* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Played with. Gul Ocett is the only female in the Cardassian military shown in the entire franchise, and is more reasonable and less arrogant than the typical Gul, but it doesn't stop her from holding Cardassian interests above others and cheating.
** EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The Cardassian military is later established as a male preserve, with women dominating the sciences. Though this is [[KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect never established as being forbidden by law or regulation]], so there may be exceptions [[note]]A male Cardassian scientist would later be shown on ''Voyager''.[[/note]].

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: It's the captain from the xenophobic and isolationist Romulans who's most impacted by the message. Since Romulans did not evolve on their homeworld (they are an offshoot of the Vulcan species), [[JustifiedTrope they just might have a slightly different perspective]].

* PlotHole: So, why exactly ''did'' the Yridian ship explode so easily? According to Memory Alpha, there was a line scripted for Data but cut which explained that it was overloading its power generators, and this combined with the phaser blast caused it to explode. Though even in the script it [[VoodooShark wasn't explained]] ''why'' they were overloading them.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Professor Galen gives Picard one for staying on the ''Enterprise'' instead of joining him.
** Turns into PartingWordsRegret when Galen is killed by the Yridians.

* NoSell: Data completely tanks the headbutt that the Klingon captain gave him in anger after thoroughly trouncing him at Klingon arm-wrestling. And then explains the technical details as to why he was completely unfazed by the assault.

* UnwittingPawn: The other crews to the Romulans, who simply sat back under cloak and let them do all the hard work.

* OneSidedArmWrestling: Nu'Daq challenges Data to ''B'aht Qul'' (Klingon arm wrestling). Data wins in [[The47Society .47 seconds]].

The ''Enterprise'' is on a routine science mission, studying protostars in the Volterra Nebula, when Picard receives a puzzling invitation to the observation lounge from Riker. Entering to see a statuette highlighted on the table, Riker brings the lights up to reveal a guest, Professon Galen, Picard's old mentor from his days as a xenoarchaeology student.

* EitherWorldDominationOrSomethingAboutBananas: A non-linguistic variant--Nu'Daq and Gul Ocett argue over whether the genetic program is a weapon, a power source, or [[RuleOfThree a recipe for biscuits]].

* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Played with. Gul Occett is the only female in the Cardassian military shown in the entire franchise, and is more reasonable and less arrogant than the typical Gul, but it doesn't stop her from holding Cardassian interests above others and cheat.
** EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The Cardassian military is later established as a male preserve, with women dominating the science area. Though this is [[KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect never established as being forbidden by law or regulation]], so there may be exceptions [[note]]A male Cardassian scientist would later be shown on ''Voyager''.[[/note]].

* {{Panspermia}}: The precursors seeded life in Earth and most other inhabited planets.

* PlotHole: So, why exactly ''did'' the Yridian ship explode so easily? According to Memory Alpha, there was line scripted for Data that was cut which explained that it was overloading its power generators and this combined with the phaser blast caused it to explode. Though even in the script it [[VoodooShark wasn't explained]] ''why'' they were overloading them.
* RayOfHopeEnding: Downplayed, as the conclusion isn't entirely a [[DownerEnding downer]] to begin with, but Picard's disappointment is tempered by a brief, but receptive message from the Romulan captain at the very end.

* RocksFallEveryoneDies: Occet comes close to invoking this before Picard and Crusher complete the genetic program.

* YesNoAnswerInterpretation: When Picard tells Nu'Daq and Occet that he knows they're both trying to complete Galen's genetic research, neither one of them says anything, which Picard takes as a confirmation.

** EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The Cardassian military is later established as a male preserve, with women dominating the science area. Though this is [[KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect never established as being forbidden by law or regulation]], so there may be exceptions.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: It's the captain from the xenophobic and isolationist Romulans who's most impacted by the message.