5:7-8 Unification Parts I-II – Not content to dive deep into Klingon politics, we’re now going to go into Romulan politics! Whee!
The appearance of Leonard Nimoy as Spock in these two episodes constitutes the biggest guest-starring EVER in TNG to that point (and no, DeForest Kelley’s cameo in Encounter at Farpoint isn’t even close). Just the scene of him interacting with Data, as they compare their divergent relationships to “humanity,” is worth the price of admission. And the final appearance of Sarek, calling back to Mark Lenard’s earlier guest shot (prior to that time, the biggest use of an original-series character in TNG), helps cement it in the milieu, instead of having it just be a stunt.
Which is good, because the idea behind it all — that Vulcans and Romulans should “reunify” their cultures, even though they separated so far in the past that Spock didn’t even know he was related to Romulans when they first showed up in the original series — is pretty dumb. One can open good diplomatic ties and respect one another’s now-distinct cultures without saying that they need to become one again.
(Heh. I bet whoever decided waaay back in the second season that Romulans needed an extra forehead appliance to look more “alien” is REALLY kicking himself, huh?)
5:9 A Matter of Time – Matt Frewer as an unscrupulous time-traveling “historian” is pure gold, even if it’s just aiming a camera at Frewer and telling him to be himself. Of course, it gives Picard another chance to play “Prime directive for me but not for thee” when he tries to pressure the historian into giving him some clue of how to divert a disaster…
Biggest oops: Establishing that shipboard controls can deactivate individual phasers on board. Let’s just all forget that, shall we?