Plot Synopsis: Dr. Crusher violates Starfleet regulations and medical ethics when she investigates the death of a Ferengi scientist.
Plot A and B Analysis: The very brief teaser begins with Beverly entering her quarters. Her doorbell rings and it’s Guinan saying she may have tennis elbow, to which Beverly replies she is no longer a doctor on the Enterprise. Plot A is about Dr. Crusher and her investigation of a death, there is no plot B. Turns out a Ferengi scientist–yep, you read that right–has developed a metaphasic shield, which should allow a ship to enter a star’s corona safely. Since other scientists thought he was a joke Beverly invites experts in the field onto the ship to view a demonstration of the prototype. Of course things go haywire. Afterward Dr. Reyga is found dead in the lab. His death is judged a suicide, but she thinks…it’s murder! Beverly is forbidden from doing an autopsy so she investigates the suspects: the other scientists. Not finding anything, she performs an autopsy anyway which results in her being relieved of duty. She continues investigating, steals the experimental shuttle and proves Dr. Reyga right, all while finding the saboteur/murderer and killing him. The plot is much less interesting than my description though, and it doesn’t really make sense that Beverly would be the central character.
Favorite Scenes: The closest to a favorite scene would be the climax, when Beverly is in the shuttle proving Reyga’s shield works, the real murderer reveals himself and there is a life and death struggle. Having said that, I’m not sure I have any favorite scenes.
Use of Cast/Characters: This is certainly a Beverly Crusher episode. We see her investigation skills again, similar to Remember Me and more briefly in Clues, but I can’t say there is a lot of character development here. Picard, Riker, Data, Geordi, Worf and Deanna don’t really do much of anything in this episode. The guest stars all do a decent job, which is nice to see in an episode that only relies on one member of the principal cast. I particularly liked Peter Slutsker as Reyga, for finally playing a different kind of Ferengi. It’s also good to see Whoopi, especially considering we will never see her again on the series.
Blu Ray Version: Beautiful clarity, and the star itself has been a little enhanced. Again, I am waiting for one of my primary resources to cover this episode before I can give more detail.
Nitpicks: Why does Doctor Crusher care about metaphasic shields, or any other kind of shield for that matter? This seems like an episode that should have Geordi as the central figure. At 15:30 Beverly is saying the Takaran’s physiology is totally different and they don’t have any discrete organs, but on the diagram we can clearly see what looks like large and small intestines.
Overall Impression: This is another TNG mystery episode. If you have been reading my reviews you know I don’t think much of TNG’s mystery-themed entries. This one is no exception. It’s not as awful as A Matter of Perspective, but it’s not as good as Remember Me either. This is also an episode where a new technology is introduced, and unlike most of the other ones the technology actually works. That’s all fine as the metaphasic shield will be revisited in the first episode of season seven, but really there is not a lot here. Overall this is an unremarkable episode, and is pretty bland. Suspicions went through a lot of rewrites, which is never a good thing, and toward the end of the season the writers were grasping at straws for ideas. I rate it 2 out of 5 stars.
Behind the Scenes/Trivia: This is the very last appearance of Guinan on the show. We won’t see her again until the Generations movie, believe it or not. Naren Shankar, one of the writers, talked about Suspicions: “I took that particular bullet. In those days the newest writer, which was me, got the crappiest script to rewrite, that was the test. It was supposed to be a murder mystery, and it was a real mess.” He concludes, “I never hated a story more than that one.” That’s a little harsh for me, I never hated this one. The reason he probably hated it was that it went through so many rewrites. Originally it was going to be about Worf in a film-noir style with flashbacks, but they thought he was overused. Then they found out this would be Whoopi’s last opportunity to be in season six, so they wrote her in. A producer wanted to do a Beverly Crusher episode, not make it noir but put the flashbacks back in, and on and on.
Missable/Unmissable? Very missable. The next one is not much better.