Sherman Howard and Patrick Stewart should have a podcast library, dang I could listen to them both talk for hours. They have very engaging voices! Also, great acting, I am so proud that Endar let his adopted son choose his own destiny; truly shows how much of a warrior he is.
Riker is also quite close to the Enterprise crew. He'd lose a lot of strong social connections by leaving, even if he took one or two others with him. Captaining another ship may be good for his career, but it would not be without sacrifice.
Tom Paris on Voyager should have been Nick Locarno's redemption story. Janeway going to bat for him. Bringing him on Voyager for a different reason. Then through Tragedy to put Locarno at the helm and his journey on voyager is him coming to terms with what he did and Janeway pushing him through it by giving him a huge responsibility. Missed opportunity
For one with such a prominent brain, he certainly isn't very sharp. The instant Will and Deanna beam away, they'd instruct the already-very-upset Enterprise to detain them for their little kidnapping, thereby removing Lwaxana's only motivation for staying. Do not pass Go, do not collect 200 latinum, go directly to the brig.
"maybe we should leave well enough alone"...that would make the average TNG episode too short. I mean that was Guinan's advice when Q teleported them to J25.
The entire "stolen Vulcan ship" plot was so utterly and obviously pointless it was painful. A whodunnit when the obvious answer is "Romulans, duh", and why would they need salvaged Vulcan ships to hide an invasion force masquerading as a peace envoy when any non-military vessel would do just fine...
Patrick Stewart describes this scene in his autobiography. He played the part of Williams to the hilt. Said he, "It was all a little cute and self-referential, but I appreciated the opportunity to have fun with Brent and play around a bit in Michael Wetmore's makeup., It was a relief to regard work as a place for fun."
Picard: What has this man done to warrant being hunted down and killed. Sunad: He is carrying a gift that could cause the downfall of our civilization. Troi/Crusher: I'll say!
I don't know why they didn't send out some generic crew members on this dangerous mission. They could've fell down the hole instead of the ship's chief engineer.
That is some wicked social anxiety. Kind of surprised that still isn't readily treatable despite three centuries' worth of advances in neuroscience. Poor Reg still has to work through it the hard way.
And in an alternate universe, this exact scenario played out, except in that case, Crusher WAS just going insane. Also, the only thing she hated more than beans was lots of beans.
