Top 50 Quotes From Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 5, Episode 26

Doorman: Sir, unless you leave this house immediately, I will send for the police.
Lt. Commander Data: That is an excellent idea. I will wait for them in there.

Commander William T. Riker: It's just that our mental pathways have become accustomed to your sensory input patterns.
Lt. Commander Data: Hm. I understand. I am also fond of you, Commander. And you as well, Counselor.

- Deanna?
- There's life here.
- An old woman.
- Dozens more, hundreds.
- Terrified.
- My god, will, they're human.

- I'm curious, doctor.
- There are far greater experts on earth to investigate your mystery.
- Why bring the enterprise all the way home?
- As we continued our excavation, we found one other thing
- I haven't shown you yet.
- We've tried to leave everything as we found it.

Jack: Isn't that what makes America great?
Lt. Commander Data: To what are you referring?
Jack: Well, a man rides into town in his pajamas, wins a grub stake at a poker table, turns it into a horseless carriage and makes a million bucks. That's America!
Lt. Commander Data: I believe I have given you an erroneous impression.

Captain: I haven't seen such a complex operation since the Academy lab final in exochemistry.

Lt. Commander Data: It seems clear that my life is to end in the late 19th century.
Commander William T. Riker: Not if we can help it.
Lt. Commander Data: There is no way anyone can prevent it, sir. At some future date, I will be transported back to 19th-century Earth, where I will die. It has occurred. It will occur.

- If we can see them, why can't they see us?
- The phase displacement might not bring us far enough into their perceptual range.
- These strands appear to be biomagnetic.
- Variable flux, possibly organic in origin.
- There's no life here.

- Help out a forty-niner.
- Fell down a shaft.
- Forty-niner.
- Help me.
- Help me out.

- A snake?
- Mm.
- You're an odd fella, aren't you?
- But just don't be too particular where you get your funds from.
- You are in need of medical attention.
- I will get a doctor.
- No, no, no, it's too late for that.
- Oh. Could you help out a forty-niner?

Beggar: Could you help out a forty-niner?

Counselor: I heard about Data.
Commander William T. Riker: Yeah.
Counselor: It's having an unusually traumatic effect on everyone.
Commander William T. Riker: Yeah.
Counselor: If you don't want to talk about it, it's okay.
Commander William T. Riker: I'm fine. Just...
Counselor: Angry.
Commander William T. Riker: I'm not angry... Yeah, I'm angry.

Counselor: There's life here... A child, an old woman... Dozens more, hundreds. Terrified.
Commander William T. Riker: Terrified?
Counselor: My God, Will, they're Human.

- Not unlike a thousand other single-cell life forms you'd find on any planet surface, except this particular one is lb-10445.
- And lb-10445 is only known to exist on one place: Devidia ii. The marrab sector.
- Number one, lay in a course.
- On my way.

Lt. Commander Data: I am trying to find two individuals with a snake.
Beggar: [mistaking him for another beggar] A snake? You are an odd feller, aren't you? But just don't be too particular where you get your funds from.

- Proceed, Mr. La forge.
- I've modified this tricorder to interface with the subspace generator.
- It should allow me to control the phase discrimination, assuming this is gonna work at all.
- I'll need everyone inside the field.
- Adjusting synchronic distortion.

Lt. Commander Data: It is possible, sir, that the events leading to my death will not occur for years, even centuries.
Captain: I hope that's true, Mr. Data. Nevertheless, this investigation began with your death. I'm simply trying to see that it doesn't end that way.
Lt. Commander Data: I appreciate your concern, Captain. But, to employ an aphorism, one cannot cheat fate.
Captain: "Cheat fate"?
[ponders over this]
Captain: Perhaps we can't, Mr. Data. But at least we can give it a try.

- And it's not gonna be cheap.
- Will this be enough?
- More than enough.
- You may retain the surplus for yourself.
- Keep the change?
- Exactly.
- Done.

- Data: I am reading a temporal distortion of massive...
- The ophidian is capa...
- My space continuum...
- Caught in the after effect.
- I am attempting...
- Riker: Over here.
- Picard: Commander riker, report.
- We've lost him.

[Data has not been included in the away team]
Lt. Commander Data: Sir, it is standard procedure that the Second Officer accompany the away team.
Captain: Yes, yes, Mr. Data, I'm aware of that.
Lt. Commander Data: Then I must assume your decision is related to the discovery on Earth.
Captain: I think it is reasonable to take precautions.
Lt. Commander Data: Captain, there is no rational justification for this course.
Captain: Then I'll be irrational!

- Picard: Captain's log, stardate 45965.3.
- An away team has beamed to the surface with a device which may enable them to phase shift into the alien world.
- Okay, counselor, right over there.
- The triolic waves end right here.
- Mr. Worf.

Captain: Can you predict how long this has been in the cavern?
Lt. Commander Data: Decomposition strongly indicates that life was terminated approximately five hundred years ago. That would be consistent with the other artifacts we recovered.
Commander William T. Riker: Your head is not an "artifact"!

- A poker face carved in marble.
- Men: Heh-heh-heh.
- Excuse me, gentlemen.
- What in the hell do you want?
- I would like to join the game.
- Pale face.
- I don't like easterners, personally.
- I am a frenchman.
- Ah.

Joe: [seeing Data for the first time] Paleface!
Seaman: Well, I don't like Easterners, personally.
Lt. Commander Data: I am a Frenchman.

Jack: Looks like the missus booted you out in the middle of the night.
Lt. Commander Data: [looks down on his uniform] Ah. I understand the source of your misperception. However, this is not sleepwear, and I do not have a missus.
Jack: [still looking skeptical] Well...
Lt. Commander Data: I am a Frenchman.
Jack: Oh. Well, everybody's from somewhere. Now, that doesn't matter at this hotel. It's six bits a day, or four dollars a week.
Lt. Commander Data: I have no money.
Jack: Well, now, that matters!

Roughneck: [seeing Data for the first time] Frenchman!

- Excuse me.
- Uh, pardon me.
- I am searching for two individuals with an ophidian.
- A snake.
- Frenchman. Ha-ha-ha!
- Ha-ha-ha!

- 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.

Lt. Commander Data: I have no need for companionship. However, I do require some supplies.
Jack: Anything you need, I can get it for you wholesale. I can get if for you less than wholesale if, uh, you don't ask me where it came from.

- and it's not a very nice thing to do.
- It's just that our mental pathways have become accustomed to your sensory input patterns.
- Hmm. I understand.
- I am also fond of you, commander.
- And you as well, counselor.

- I'm simply trying to see that it doesn't end that way.
- I appreciate your concern, captain, but to employ an aphorism, one cannot cheat fate.
- Cheat fate?
- Perhaps we can't, Mr. Data, but at least we can give it a try.

- In a manner of speaking.
- It is a crystalline composite of silicon, beryllium, carbon 70, and...
- Gold.
- Gold.
- I'll give you three dollars for it.
- Iaccept

[Data has met with 19th-century Guinan]
Guinan: Did my father send you here? Because if he did, you must go back and tell him I'm not done listening to...

- What makes you think that extraterrestrials were related to these discoveries?
- The crew was having a problem with the regulators.
- Something inside the cavern was interfering with the phase conditioners.
- It turned out to be the cavern itself.

Guinan: Do you remember the first time we met?
Captain: Of course.
Guinan: Don't be so sure. I just mean, if you don't go on this mission - we'll *never* meet.

- The inputs eventually are anticipated and even missed when absent."
- So, what's the point?
- He's used to us.
- And we're used to him.
- It's like finding out someone you love has a terminal illness and...
- Counselor. Commander.

Samuel: According to our best geologic estimate, the Earth is approximately 100 million years of age. Perhaps it is less, perhaps more.
Guinan: Perhaps a great deal more.
Samuel: Indeed. But regardless, it is ancient, in the extreme. Now, geology also tells us that man himself has existed but for a microscopic fraction of those years. Hm... hmhmhm... Curious, isn't it? That the world got by for such a great, long while, with no humans around to fill up space. I suppose Mr. Wallace and his supporters would say that the Earth needed all that time to prepare itself for our illustrious arrival. Why... the oyster alone probably required 15 million years to get it to come out just right.
Guinan: But if the Earth is not alone and there are millions of inhabited planets in the heavens...
Samuel: Quite my point. Man becomes a trivial creation, does he not? Lost in the vastness of the cosmic prairie, adrift on the deep ocean of time. A single one amongst... huh... countless others.
Guinan: Some may argue that a diamond is still a diamond, even if it is one amongst millions. It still shines as brightly.
Samuel: Someone might say that, dear lady, if someone thought that the human race was akin to a precious jewel. But this, er... increasingly hypothetical someone... would not be me.

[Data is wandering around San Francisco, California, Earth in 1893. He sees an elderly beggar]
Beggar: Could you help out a forty niner? I fell down the shaft. I got blown over in th' tunnel.
Lt. Commander Data: That is unfortunate.
Beggar: It is most unfortunate. I require large amounts of whiskey, as a lineament.
Lt. Commander Data: I am sorry, but I do not have any whiskey to give you.
Beggar: I'll take a dime.
Lt. Commander Data: I am sorry but I do not have any legal tender.
Beggar: [understanding] Oh, we're on the same boat huh?
[as they walk down the sidewalk]
Beggar: This is my street. You better go find on of your own
Lt. Commander Data: I would be happy to do so, but I am presently in search of information.
Beggar: [thinking Data is looking for people who will give him money] Stockbrokers are cheap as hell. Don't even bother to ask. Your best handout is a young fella, with his lady. You give him a chance to show her he's generous. Steer clear of sailors! Most likely, you'll get a fist 'cross the jaw for your trouble.
Lt. Commander Data: Thank you for your advice, but I am trying to find two individuals with a snake.
Beggar: [gives Data a look] A snake? You are an odd fella, aren't you? Just don't be too particular where you get your funds from.

Guinan: [seeing the past and future coming together] Full circle. Hmm...

- Perhaps in the course of this investigation, we will.
- I hope so.
- If we find commander data, it may be our fate to die with him in the past.
- If our remains are in that cavern, they would have turned to dust long ago.

- That should allow me to maintain verbal contact.
- Will we be able to talk to you?
- Data: No, sir.
- That will not be possible.
- The subspace field has been established.
- You're set to go, data.
- Adjusting the synchronic distortion.

Lieutenant: If we find Commander Data, it may be our fate to die with him in the past. If our remains *are* in that cavern, they would have turned to dust long ago.

- we'd need an incredibly sensitive phase discriminator, data.
- I don't think we have one that would even come close.
- Data: Yes, we do.
- It is built into my positronic decompiler.
- It will be necessary for me to join the away team, sir.
- Proceed, Mr. Data.

Lt. Commander Data: It provides a sense of completion to my future. In a way, I am not that different from anyone else. I can now look forward to death.
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: Never thought of it that way.
Lt. Commander Data: One might also conclude that it brings me one step closer to being human. I am mortal.

Samuel: [to Data and Guinan] Eavesdropping is by no means a proper activity for a gentleman. Nevertheless, the deed is done!

- I believe your plan is a bit premature.
- Well, keep it in mind though.
- I'd better get back.
- Oh, I forgot.
- I got you something at the bakery on third.
- Oh. Thank you, Jack.
- Oh, no. It's on me, partner.

Guinan: Do I know you, Mister...?
Lt. Commander Data: Data. Yes. We were on a ship together.
Guinan: I do so much traveling. What ship would that be?
Lt. Commander Data: The Enterprise.
Guinan: Is that a clipper ship?
Lt. Commander Data: It is a starship.
Samuel: Starship?

- What I have sensed is more like an imprint.
- An echo of the last moment of life.
- Human life.
- They all died in terror.

Beggar: [to Data, believing him to be a fellow beggar, gives him some tips on how to hit people up for money] Stockbrokers are as cheap as hell - don't even ask 'em. Best handout is a young man with his lady. You give him a chance to impress her by bein' generous. But stay clear of the sailors - likely as not, you'll get a fist across the jaw for your trouble.

Counselor: Have you ever heard Data define friendship?
Commander William T. Riker: No.
Counselor: How did he put it? "As I experience certain sensory input patterns, my mental pathways become accustomed to them. The inputs eventually are anticipated and even missed when absent."