This is one of the few episodes where the regular cast take a back seat to two guest stars (Majel Barrett and David Ogden Stiers) who carry this intriguing story very well on their own. And it works.

I love this episode. It works on so many levels. I can watch it over and over, just for the sincerity of the story, characters and themes.

In Remember Me Picard told Dr. Crusher that requests for visitors on board ship should go through him. If this is true then why would Picard ever agree to let Lwaxana Troi on board ever again?

Lwaxana tells Deanna, "You might try dressing for a man sometime." Considering all of Counselor Troi's tight outfits, I thought she did dress for men.

The Enterprise sensors are able to detect photon torpedoes entering the stellar core. So how come, in the later episode Suspicions, the sensors won't he able to detect the shuttle in the star's corona?

How were the torpedoes able to survive the trip to the star's core? Shouldn't they have burned up long before then?

Before the star explodes, Picard orders the ship to speed away at warp 2, but wouldn't it have been just as safe to toodle along at the speed of light?

KAM, Picard really doesn't have a choice with Lwaxana. If he doesn't let her on board, there's a diplomatic incident with Betazed.

When the torpedoes are sent to the sun, Geordi and Data are announcing the temperature in "degrees Kelvin." According to my chemistry text, degrees are not used with Kelvin temperatures. The temp is just noted as, say, 1,000,000 Kelvin. I can see Geordi not knowing or forgetting this, but not Data.

I think the terms are interchangeable. I think I have most often heard "degrees" used with Kelvon than without.

Regardless, one could easily argue that the terminology changed in the four hundred years between TNG and when your chemistry text was published.

Technically, absolute temp is measured in Kelvins or Rankins, not "Degrees Kelvin" or "Degrees Rankin". Given that, the latter form is a common usage.

GREAT LINE: "My mother is on board." Troi at the start of the episode...it says a mouthful!

With all the talk about euthenasia in this episode, it makes you wonder who wrote the episode...Dr. Jack Kevorkian?

Not only is Troi's first line a great one, but the first scene, with Picard warily exiting the turbo lift, is classic.

I really like how this episode started as another lighthearted Lwaxana story, then took an unexpected turn to very serious and solemn issues.

When it first aired, the promos made a big deal about the euthenasia angle -- so you knew up front that was going to be the subject -- but seeing it now, I notice how sudden and surprising the change in tone was meant to be. Euthenasia wasn't mentioned until about 30 minutes in.

With the quality writing and excellent guest-star performances, it really came off well.

Love "Mr. Woof"! Between Q and Lwaxana, I'm suprised Worf doesn't have serious self-esteem issues.

Anyone else notice who played Timicin's car-spoiler-headed daughter? It's Michelle Forbes, who shows up again later as perpetually pissed-off Ensign Ro Laren. Wonder if she enjoyed being typecast as the angry-woman-with-a-point-to-prove? She seems to be TNG's very own Fiona Apple or something.

Also, (I may be thinking of a different ep)the narration towards the end about the rituals of a culture (and the negative effects they can have on it's members)could quite easily be interpreted as a commentary on religion, as we know it, and the silliness of following blindly the unproven beliefs of a single group of people. I LOVE when they do this! Yay for subtle (or not so...) undertones...

When timicin explains to lwaxana that he has to die, he tells that two hundred years ago, they didn't take care of their old people, letting them languish in hospitals, and now they have a new custom. But later, when his daughter comes and visits him, she talks about beliefs, and how her whole system of belief is rooted in this.

So, is it just a custom, or a belief? If its simply a custom, it shouldn't be hard to change it, but everybody reacts more like its a religious belief.

And why does this remind me so much of the voy. ep. about afterlife, where kim ends up in one of the burial capsules? That culture sent their sick and elderly ones into death, too, but they had a whole belief system, at least, not cold and cruel necessity like timicin's culture.

It looks like whomever designed the Trill for DS9 combined the social and biological structure of the Trill from the next episode, "The Host", and the makeup from Timicin's people here.

I think it's more like the Kriosians from "The Perfect Mate" though it does have some similarities to that of Timicin's people.

Michelle Forbes would, of course, go on to play Ensign Ro and recently played Lynne Kreske on "24" during the second season.

David Ogden Stiers, of course, was Major Charles Emerson Winchester III on "MASH" and is a familiar face in a lot of TV episodes and films (usually in variations of the Winchester role). His voice can be heard in a lot of Disney films, including as Cogsworth in "Beauty and the Beast" and Lord Ratcliffe in "Pocahontas."

When Lwaxana & Deanna are talking in Lwaxana's quarters, you can see a boom mike in the reflection of the mirror. You can also see the shadow of the boom mike as Lwaxana moves to another part of the room.

Doesn't it generally take millions or even billions of years for a star to go through its lifecycle?

Generally so yes. This is star trek of course where things work a bit differently.

When Lwaxana & Deanna are talking in Lwaxana's quarters, you can see a boom mike in the reflection of the mirror. You can also see the shadow of the boom mike as Lwaxana moves to another part of the room.

It gets better; on the second pass you can see one of the lights reflected in the far side.

Is this the episode where Deanna blabs that "the Sacred Chalice of Riix" is a cheap flowerpot with mold on the bottom (or a line of the sort)?

I don't think so- I believe that was Manhunt. Haven't seen it in awhile though so I'm not sure.

Where was Mr Homm at the end of the episode when Luaxanna was beaming down to the planet with her lover boy? Did he decide to stay with the Enterprise?

Is this the episode where Deanna blabs that "the Sacred Chalice of Riix" is a cheap flowerpot with mold on the bottom (or a line of the sort)?

Or was is the episode where she's kidnapped by the Ferangi?

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Tired of hitting on unavailable men, Lwaxana Troi began hitting on the Enterprise...
Lwaxana Troi keeps hitting equipment, first the turbolift, then the replicator. Is she in love and trying to show that she's "in charge" when it comes with technology with the ship. Since Timicin is the tech savy type, trying to impress him or something...


NANJAO 1
This could be considered a changed premise and therefore would be be a nit...

In many other episodes involving Lwaxana Troi, and her attempt to get a "man," her feelings have always appeared more surface based, that is, that it was more about finding a man, any man would do. In the past, she's treated finding someone different than actually loving that person. Her actions suggested she treated love as something trivial.

However, in this episode, you can really see that she cares deeply for Timicin. When she is talking with Deanna in the transporter room, she's admitting how "in control" of things she is, that she can't stop what she doesn't like. The only other time I remember her doing this is in DS9 when she's trapped in the turbolift with Odo and humbles herself by removing her wig.

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Speaking of wigs, would that wig she removed in that DS9 episode have had a creature in it?

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NANJAO 2
Despite having very little face make up that would alter the shape of her face, I almost didn't recognize Timicin's daughter as Michelle Forbes until she spoke. In my opinion, one of the defining characterisitics of Ro was her hair, because with radically different hair, she looks so different.

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Lwaxana Troi says that the prime directive applies to him (Picard) but they don't apply to her. So do other other rules that starfleet has not apply to Federation dignitaries?

Timicin Says that he has spent 40 years of his life developing the programming needed to make the enterprise's photon torpedoes do what he wanted to the Sun. I thought at first that he said 4 years which would make more sense but he follows the statement up by saying it was his whole life. now if you only live to 60 and you started when you became an adult then yes 40 years of research would be your whole life...unfortunately 40 years is a ridiculous amount of time for this project for many reasons:

1) His culture only recently contacted the Federation. so he spent decades working on a program based on a technology used by a culture they had not contacted yet.

2) His planet only discovered the problem with their sun 3 years ago. so he was working on this program 37 years before they even knew there was a problem??

3) 40 years is a couple of lifetimes when it comes to weapons development, I can see why it would take him this long because every time he had the code figured out star fleet upgraded their photon torpedoes and Timicin had to start from scratch.

On top of it all They show the first experiment resulting in the Test star going super nova. everyone chalks this up to a failure and leaves. I think The folks in weapons development would be very excited to hear about this 40 year program of Timicin's, After all if they have a weapon that can blow up a star, that is a big thing isnt it?

Yes, yes it is. Live Science.com has an article on 10 ways to destroy Earth & #7 mentions that the energy required to destroy the earth would be "roughly 224,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joules. The Sun takes nearly a WEEK to output that much energy."

Now considering how much more massive a star is then a planet... way, way, WAY more energy would certainly be needed.

For all we know after Timicin Dies Dr. Sorrin comes along and finds Timicin's research in the trash, dusts it off and decides it would make a pretty awesome weapon, slaps his name on it and contacts Lursa and Be'tor.

Guess we're getting near the time when the Kaelon sun goes nova.

Well, I have no sympathy for these morons. They made the one guy who could have saved them kill himself in a pointless ritual. Haven't seen people this stupid since the Kryptonian Science Council, who ignored the advice of Jor-El, their greatest scientist.

Too bad it wasn't my man, Kirk. He'd have gone right through that planet and really kicked some butt. He's have gotten them saved, in spite of themselves.