6x22 Suspicions

[4.7/10] It’s almost an achievement, to be the most boring episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation since the early seasons. “Suspicions” isn’t bad exactly. There’s a half-decent story. No particular element is outright objectionable. It’s just dull, without the sense of excitement or emotion that suffuses the best TNG episodes.

It’s a shame, because this is a Dr. Crusher episode, which we don’t get too many of. I’ve always been a fan of the character. She’s one of the few people on the ship not afraid to scold Captain Picard, and there’s a steadfastness to her, a devotion to her principles while still seeming friendly and compassionate, which makes her interesting as part of the Enterprise’s milieu. It’s rare that she gets the spotlight, and my surmise is the show’s writers didn’t always know what to do with her on her own.

“Suspicions” tries to deposit her in a parlor room mystery. The episode is basically a whodunnit, with a Ferengi scientist seeing his experiment go wrong, Dr. Crusher suspecting sabotage and foul play once he turns up dead, and her devoting the rest of the episode to sniffing out who and what happened. A spate of “scientific diplomacy” has brought any number of rival scientists (and potential suspects) on board, including a Takaran, a Klingon, and a Vulcan and her human husband. It’s not the most novel concept TNG has had, but there’s potential there.

The big problem is that there’s basically no actual characters in this thing other than Crusher. Everyone, from the Ferengi scientist who came up with this idea, to the alien who turns out to be the killer, has a one-note personality. We get only the barest input as to what any of them wants or what their personalities like. They’re just cardboard standees moved around the sets, rather than intriguing victims, aggressors, and red herrings who we care about and suspect as the mystery unfolds.

More to the point, it’s not really clear what Dr. Crusher wants or why she’s so invested in this whole thing either. If you squint, you can read it as Beverly taking a chance by assembling these scientists in pursuit of new technology, and so wanting to avoid her first big swing in this space looking like a disaster. But “Suspicions” never really digs into why this is so meaningful to her, nor builds a strong connection between her and the Ferengi scientist to where she’d be so hellbent on seeing his killer brought to justice and his good work vindicated.

More than anything, though, “Suspicions” is just dry. I’ve groused about Producer Rick Berman’s need to inject action and peril into every story even when the tale told doesn’t really require or even fit with that. But there’s something to be said against the opposite approach here too. This episode is almost nothing but people in rooms having boring conversations about technical specifications. Even the murder investigation discussions and interrogations are strangely subdued. Business picks up a little bit in the final act when Beverly goes rogue to prove her theories, but so much of this outing is utterly lifeless.

So what’s good about this one? Well, it’s the first (maybe only?) time that Nurse Ogawa gets to be an actual character! For a recurring player, she’s been surprisingly light on shading over the years. Her willingness to go out on a limb, siding with Beverly and giving her access to the autopsy files the doctor’s otherwise been restricted from, is not only the first time Ogawa’s gotten to make a choice that matters, but it speaks to the relationship of trust she and Beverly have developed over the years. It may be the only scene in this one I genuinely love.

To the same end, this is the rare episode of The Next Generation that passes the Bechdel test. There are plenty of named female characters in this one whose conversations and concerns are put in focus. In fairness, you could write off some of their conversations as being “about” the dead Ferengi scientist. But at the very least, “Suspicions” honors the spirit of Alison Bechdel’s gag-turned-standard, centering the women in the cast in roles big and small.

And yet, I’m also here to gripe about the frame story for this one. “Suspects” is built around Dr. Crusher telling this story to Guinan, with most of the scenes happening in flashback. And it’s pointless! Or at best, it’s an excuse for the show to deposit a lot of pained exposition via voiceover as Beverly recounts the tale. The point, to the extent there is one, comes when Guinan gives her a generic “If you think you’re right, do something about it!” moral. (And I’ll admit to having a sensible chuckle over Guinan’s “tennis elbow” being a ruse to share some wisdom with someone who needs it.) But the episode squanders any potential from the pairing, with zero commentary from Guinan along the way, and a flashback voiceover structure that adds nothing to the proceedings.

Even the reveal is predictable and disappointing. How many times has the answer to a whodunnit on TNG turned out to be “some weird alien with powers we didn’t fully understand.” Maybe it’s just too soon after “Aquiel”, but the reveal that the Takaran scientist who supposedly died in the initial experiment was using his unique biology to fake death so he could discredit his rival is pretty “meh” in the final tally. Again, we barely know the guy before he “dies” and disappears from the episode for most of its runtime, and when he reappears having stowed away on the shuttle during Dr. Crusher’s big ploy, he just offers a boilerplate villain monologue.

The mechanics of it aren’t particularly interesting on a show where weird stuff happens all the time. The character stakes don’t matter because the baddie is basically a stranger. And the threat seems minimal since all Crusher does is pull the usual “swerve the vessel and wrestle the attacker” move we’ve seen in Trek a dozen times.

Even a lot of bad Star Trek episodes come down to “a good idea done poorly.” “Suspects”, on the other hand, is a mediocre idea on mediocre-ly. There’s a few things to recommend it on the margins, but for the most part it’s just unobjectionable, albeit uninvolving, filler toward the end of the season. It’s one of those episodes you could skip and miss nothing, either in terms of the show’s highest highs or lowest lows. It’s just sort of there, without enough in the way of emotional investment or narrative thrills to keep you engaged. It’s nice to get a Dr. Crusher spotlight episode, but the character deserves better.