Episode Report Card Keckler: D+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Manura Penthe
By Keckler | Season 2 | Episode 19 | Aired on 04.08.2003
Quantum sits in his cell and tries to eat his Targ Tartar. He chokes, gags, and spits it out. Man, even Riker had bigger balls than that. Whitey comes in, berates Quantum for being a blathermouth, and tells him he might be able to get a more lenient sentence if Quantum points them toward the rebels. Quantum refuses, and takes issue with the term "rebels." They argue. "I'm offering you a way to save your life!" Whitey reminds him. Quantum snorts mirthlessly in the face of martyrdom and asks what would happen to these Rebels With A Debatable Cause if he led the Klingons to them. Not anything pretty, I can tell you, which is why St. Quantum won't hand them over: "Tell the magistrate I'm going to pass on his offer." Whitey calls him a fool. Quantum defends his reasons and accuses his attorney of ignoring what is right. Incredibly, Quantum seems to have hit a nerve, as Whitey bristles at being lumped in with the rest of the bad apples. "I became an advocate many years ago -- they were different times," Whitey snaps. "Better or worse?" Quantum asks. I love that comic strip. "The courts were more willing to listen," Whitey explains. Quantum seizes on this and says, "Then maybe you should remind them of those better times. Nothing like a good history lesson." To what? Put you to sleep? Whitey huffs that he's an old man -- too old to challenge the rules. I'm an old recapper -- too old to list how many book, movie, television, and Sunday comics plots hinge on a septegenariac sighing that he's too old to make things right just before he makes things right. Quantum sort of calls the Klingon a coward, and then gives him a kind of pep talk about changing things and standing up to bullies. Whitey glares at him and leaves him in his cell. To rot.
Tribunal. Whitey announces that his client would like to speak in his own defense. Prosecutor Klingon takes issue with that, and they growl a bit until Whitey cites precedents. The judge allows him to proceed, and the Enemaniacs shout their dismay. They're all worried that they won't get home in time for Joe Klingon. Quantum starts to tell his side of the story, and it comes out that he did everything right according to the highest moral codes. Naturally. The Enterprise answered a distress call and found the Rebels With A Debatable Cause starving and their life support failing.
Flashback: Sick Bay. Quantum questions a Cardassian-ish individual about their situation. Basically, the Klingons annexed these people in the name of their Empire, stripped them of their resources so they would be dependent on the Empire, and then left them to die. Finally, these Rebels With A Debatable Cause took flight in order to find some help, and Quantum was that help.