Dr. Crusher is either the most culturally insensitive person on the ship or she has some sort of autopsy fetish. This is the second episode where she has been super upset at not being able to perform an autopsy. I can't find the other episode quickly, but if I do I will add it to the write up. Other than that this is a pretty solid murder mystery, but it doesn't really make sense that Crusher would be the one to organize a gathering of warp field specialists. I am guessing they had the idea for her getting in trouble for performing the autopsy before they figured out why.
The episode opens with Dr. Crusher storming about her quarters. The door chime rings and at first she ignores it but then opens to find Guinan in the hallway. She invites her in and Guinan explains she needs a doctor to which Beverly replies then she needs to keep looking since she isn't one any more. She explains she is leaving the ship for a disciplinary hearing and will almost certainly lose her ability to practice medicine. Eventually she agrees to tell Guinan what happened: she had organized a conference for scientists to look into a new shielding developed by a Ferengi. Nobody was taking him seriously and not many scientists showed up. They were pretty skeptical but the Takaran Jo'Bril volunteers to fly the shuttle into the corona of a nearby star.
They all watch the flight test from the bridge and it all appears to be going fine until Jo'Bril starts shaking and they lose communications. The shields are holding but for some reason dangerous levels of radiation are leaking through. They manage to recover the shuttle and Jo'Bril but he dies on the operating table. Soon after the Ferengi scientist turns up dead of an apparently suicide. Everybody believes it but Beverly and she requests to do an autopsy but is told it is against Ferengi customs. Instead she starts going to all the other scientists and flat out accusing them of murdering the Ferengi which shockingly doesn't turn up anything other than that Vulcans are calm and Klingons are kinda aggressive. Eventually she decides to violate orders and does the autopsy anyway but finds nothing.
At this point we cut back to real time and Guinan convinces her she has nothing to lose at this point and should keep looking. With the assistance of Nurse Ogawa she manages to discover signs that the shield was sabotaged in Jo'Bril's corpse and decides the only thing to do is test it herself. She steals a shuttle and flies it int a star. It works perfectly until a compartment in the back of the shuttle pops open and Jo'Bril comes out with a phaser (not clear how he got the weapon, presumably they aren't just left lying around. Also not clear how he got on the shuttle.) They start fighting and Crusher is forced to kill him. She comes back out feeling vindicated by presumably still has to go to the hearing because she still shouldn't have done the autopsy on the Ferengi and she is also no presumably being investigated for the death of Jo'Bril. But none of that actually happens because she is a main character.
Review: Some of my objections above didn't occur to me until after I was done watching, but this one really goes have some gaping holes. Not unpleasant to watch, but not fantastic either.
5 out of 10
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