The Best Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 3, Episode 7 Quotes

Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: Welcome to Galorndon Core, where no good deed goes unpunished.

- Then you believe I should.
- What I believe doesn't matter.
- My starfleet training tells me one thing.
- But everything I am tells me another.
- Crusher: Lieutenant won', report to sickbay.
- Acknowledged.

- I don't know. I...
- It must be this place.
- It's all that electromagnetic soup.
- It's wreaking havoc on our nervous systems.
- Your metabolism's messed up.
- So is my interface with the visor.
- Gotta get out of here while we can.
- Sit down.
- Bochra...
- Sit down!

- Keep the fever down, try to let the body heal itself keep me advised. Picard out.
- Captain, the neutrino beacon's operational.
- We've placed it aboard a class-3 probe.
- Well done, ensign.
- Mr. Worf, launch the probe.
- Worf: Aye, aye, sir.

- See, we heard your message too and well, the fleet's in, commodore.
- Sky's full of federation ships.
- You're lying.
- I never lie when I've got sand in my shoes, commodore.
- Get up.
- Seriously, the only way out of here is for you to put that thing down and as soon as there's a window in the storm...

Captain: Lieutenant - sometimes, the moral obligations of command are less than clear. I have to weigh the good of the many against the needs of the individual, and try to balance them as realistically as possible. God knows, I don't always succeed.
Lieutenant: I have not had cause to complain, Captain.
Captain: Oh. Lieutenant, you wouldn't complain even if you had cause.

[Worf has refused to serve as donor for a seriously injured Romulan]
Doctor: Lieutenant, I understand your feelings about the Romulans, but this is not the time or the place...
Lieutenant: If you had seen them kill your parents, you would understand, Doctor. It is always the time and place for those feelings!
Doctor: *This* Romulan didn't murder your parents. And you are the only one who can save his life.
Lieutenant: Then he will die.

- It obviously wasn't pilot's error.
- I think it demands a response from us.
- But we must measure our response carefully or history may remember galorndon core along with Pearl harbor, station Salem-one as the stage for a bloody preamble to war.

- Do you understand me?
- I will not answer questions.
- We need to know if there are other survivors on the surface.
- I am alone.
- I will not answer any questions.
- Do you have a mothership who should be advised of your condition?

Centurion: I no more wish to die than you do.
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: Bochra - there are times when it's necessary to die for one's ideals. Do you believe this is one of those times?
[after a long pause, Bochra lowers the phaser]
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: Come on. Let's go find that beacon.

Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: [Bochra has jerry-rigged a tricorder with Geordi's VISOR to detect the neutrino beacon and they can be rescued] Let er' rip.

Captain: Commander Tomalak - it would appear, our away team has located a second man from your "one-man ship".

- I've lost almost all feeling in my legs.
- My synapses must be turning to jelly.
- The visor's fine.
- I just can't see a thing.
- How do we locate the beacon?

- I guess I'd make a pretty lousy romulan, huh?
- I no more wish to die than you do.
- Bochra, there are times when it's necessary to die for one's ideals.
- Do you believe this is one of those times?

- Worf!
- Commander riker!
- Hold your position, Mr. Worf.
- Worf!

[last lines]
Commander William T. Riker: Close call.
Captain: Too close, Number One. Brinkmanship is a dangerous game.

- Lieutenant, his life is coming to an end.
- I thought it important for you to see him again.
- It's not too late to change your mind.

- Worf: Commander!
- Commander riker!

- Well, you couldn't see more than two meters in front of yourself down there.
- It certainly is the last place one would expect a romulan encroachment.
- On the other hand, galorndon core would provide ideal cover for the opening move of a new offensive.
- I doubt if they were there for the climate.

- Riker: Good thing we didn't bring data.
- We'd be unscrambling his circuits for a week.
- Commander!
- Picking up something on the positron scan.
- La forge: Over here.
- Some electrically conductive objects.

- but there is one serious complication.
- His brainwaves indicate early neural-pathway degeneration.
- Head injury?
- There's no obvious cranial trauma.
- I'm guessing his exposure to the magnetic fields on the surface were slowly breaking down his synaptic connections.
- Will that affect geordi the same way?

- The only answer he wants to give is that he was alone.
- Which suggests that he wasn't.

Captain: If the point has not yet been made clearly Commander, let me make it again: Romulan warbirds do not enter Federation space unless they are prepared to do battle.
Commander: But on a mission of mercy?
Captain: A mission - to recover one of your officers, who has been caught on a Federation planet, for reasons as yet unknown.
Commander: I have already explained...
Captain: And I have rejected your explanation!

Centurion: You're lying!
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: I never lie when I've got sand in my shoes, Commodore.

- Come on, let's go find that beacon.
- What is it?
- Everything's gone blank.

Lieutenant: [on how to deal with the injured Romulan] My Starfleet training tells me one thing. But everything I am tells me another.

Captain: Commander, both our ships are ready to fight. We have two extremely powerful and destructive arsenals at our command. Our next actions will have serious repercussions. We have good reason to mistrust one another; but we have even better reason to set those differences aside. Now, of course, the question is... who will take the initiative? Who will make the first gesture of trust? - The answer is, I will. I must lower our shields to beam those men up from the planet's surface. Once the shields are down, you will, of course, have the opportunity to fire on us. If you do, you will destroy not only the Enterprise and its crew, but the ceasefire that the Romulans and the Federation now enjoy.
Captain: [to Worf] Lieutenant... lower the shields.

- Territories.
- You would measure territories against a man's life?
- Commander, I'm singularly impressed by your concern for a life.
- Do not risk any more lives by leaving the neutral zone.
- Picard out.

- We should have a window in less than an hour.
- There's still no indication that he's found the beacon, sir.
- Assemble an away team.
- Yes, sir.
- Captain, the romulan warship has crossed the neutral zone border.
- It is in federation space and heading towards us.
- Belay that order, number one.

- Sir.
- That will be all.
- Picard to Dr. Crusher.
- Crusher: Go ahead.
- Do not continue to enlist the cooperation of lieutenant worf.
- I won't have to, captain.
- The romulan has died.

Commander: Territories! You would measure territories against a man's life?
Captain: Commander, I am singularly impressed by your concern for *a* life. Do not risk any more lives by leaving the Neutral Zone!

Captain: Commander, how is it that we were not informed of the presence of the second Romulan on Galondon Core?
Commander: A simple misunderstanding, Captain Picard. I was obviously misinformed as to the size of the craft. I assure you, I intended no deception.
Captain: Of course not.
Commander: You doubt my good faith?
Captain: Let's just say my faith would be reinforced by a gesture from you - such as powering down your disruptors.
[Tomalak turns and nods to someone offscreen]
Lieutenant: Disruptors powering down.
Captain: Thank you. Commander, we will return your officer, and escort your ship to the Neutral Zone.
Commander: That is acceptable.

[O'Brien is trying to get a lock on La Forge, who has gone missing on a stormy planet]
Chief: The electrical storm's creating thousands of ghosts.
Commander William T. Riker: Well, beam some of those ghosts back; one of them may be Geordi!

- I will obey, of course.
- I don't want to order you.
- But I ask you,
- I beg you to volunteer.
- Icannot

- What the hell were they doing in a federation sector?
- Picking up traces of ultritium residue.
- An explosive device must have been used to destroy the craft after it crashed.
- Riker: All right, let's spread out.
- Twenty-five meter radius.
- Our window back closes in 12 minutes.

- Lieutenant, I understand your feelings about the romulans.
- But this is not the time or the place.
- If you had seen them kill your parents, you would understand, doctor.
- It is always the time and place for those feelings.
- This romulan didn't murder your parents.
- And you are the only one who can save his life.

- Four minutes to beam up.
- Where is he?

- Worf: Probe has reached the surface, sir.
- The neutrino stream is coming in strongly.
- Sensors are tracking the probe despite the interference.
- La forge: A stationary neutrino source.
- Wesley crusher.
- Thank you, Wesley.

[the crew are debating the recent intrusion of a Romulan ship in Federation space]
Commander William T. Riker: It obviously wasn't pilot's error. I think it demands a response from us.
Captain: But we must measure our response carefully, or history may remember Galorndon Core along with... Pearl Harbor, and Station Salem One, as the stage for a bloody preamble to war.

[La Forge has told Bochra that he was born blind]
Centurion: And your parents let you live?
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: What kind of question is that? Of course they let me live!
Centurion: No wonder your race is weak. You waste time and resources on defective children.

- How did this happen?
- I was born that way.
- And your parents let you live?
- What kind of question is that?
- Of course they let me live.
- No wonder your race is weak.
- You waste time and resources on defective children.

- Come close to me, klingon.
- Let me die with my hands at your throat.
- There is a substance within my cells which you need to survive.
- Then you've come to hear me beg for my life?
- I would rather die than pollute my body with klingon filth.

- Picard: Space, the final frontier.
- These are the voyages of the starship enterprise.
- Its continuing mission: To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

- Tomalak: Tomalak to pi.
- We have received your distress signal.
- Respond.
- If you can hear me, we are entering the neutral zone now.
- We will reach you in six hours.

Commander: You have one chance to escape destruction, Picard. Return my officer at once!
Captain: Commander, you have entered Federation space despite my warning!
Commander: You forced this situation! I will not leave without him.
Captain: He's dead.
Commander: Then he... is but the first to fall, Picard.

Lieutenant: I am asked to give up the very lifeblood of my mother and my father to those who murdered them!
Commander William T. Riker: So you blame all Romulans for that?
Lieutenant: Yes!
Commander William T. Riker: Forever? What if someday, the Federation made peace with the Romulans?
Lieutenant: Impossible.
Commander William T. Riker: That's what your people said a few years ago, about Humans. Think how many died on both sides in that war. Would you and I be here now like this, if we hadn't been able to let go of the anger and the blame? Where does it end, Worf? If that Romulan dies... does his family carry the bitterness on another generation?

- You gotta be kidding.
- Welcome to galorndon core, where no good deed goes unpunished.

- Worf!
- Worf!
- Commander riker!
- Riker: Geordi!
- Geordi!