THE PLOT
The Enterprise is awaiting the return of Counsellor Troi when it receives an emergency message from her shuttlecraft. The shuttle is being pulled down to the lifeless world of Vagra 2 (which will henceforth be known as Viagra, because I have to keep myself amused somehow). After Picard tries to create some fake urgency by forcing the Chief Engineer to go to warp when he's not ready, Riker, Data, Dr. Crusher, and Tasha beam down to help Troi and... ah, Ben. Don't worry about Ben - judging from the reactions of the regulars, none of them gives a crap about him anyway.
While trying to reach the shuttle, the Away Team are intercepted by an oil slick. The slick reveals itself to be an entity, calling itself Armus. It refuses to allow them to the shuttle. When Tasha tries to force her way, it kills her as an afterthought. This is appropriate, since her characterization has often come across as an afterthought anyway. Faced with a being of incredible power, which is resistant to their weapons and is not open to any reasonable negotiation, the Enterprise crew now must find a way to get past Armus to retrieve their shuttle crew. Hopefully, without any further deaths!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: He refuses to allow his officers to linger on Tasha's death, reminding them that they are in the middle of an emergency and must focus on the task at hand. Once he realizes Armus' weakness, he beams down to the surface to deal with the entity one-on-one, and does so without even once compromising his strength. Not bad, for the guy who offered an unconditional surrender twice in the series' pilot.
Riker: Has often behaved as if he thinks he's Han Solo. Thus, it's somewhat appropriate that at the 25-minute mark, he gets encased in carbonite. All right, oil, but the visual is obviously a direct nod to The Empire Strikes Back. Aside from getting yanked into the oil, it's business as usual for Riker as he leads two Away Teams to the surface to deal with Armus and to try to retrieve the wounded shuttle crew. I suppose one thing which does stand out is Riker's restraint. When Armus is toying with Geordi, and later when Armus pulls Riker in, he orders Data and the rest not to intervene, to do nothing to provoke the being.
Data: His friendship with Geordi shows itself when he obeys Riker's command not to give Geordi back the visor Armus has knocked away, but still assists Geordi by trying to talk him to where his visor lies. Probably deals more effectively with Armus than any other member of the Away Team. When Armus uses his powers to move the visor, Data stops trying to help Geordi. When Armus taunts him about that, Data flatly observes that Armus would just move it again, and that Data "will not help you hurt him." It's a rare standout moment in a disappointingly weak episode, given a lift by Brent Spiner's ability to convey a certain strength of character and feelings of friendship toward Geordi without actually infusing emotion in his line deliveries.
Troi: Troi gets some good scenes in the crashed shuttle, as she deals with Armus. Her probing gets Armus to reveal his background, and her experience as a counselor allows her to figure out a lot of the things Armus refuses to share. That information, in turn, is vital to Picard at the end.
ZAP THE REDSHIRT!
Redshirt count: Tasha. This is not only Tasha's final episode as a regular, it is also the first "permanent" regular character death in televised Star Trek. As such, you would think Skin of Evil would either be centered around Tasha, or at least offer her a major role. You would be wrong. Tasha is a glorified redshirt, zapped early in the episode without making any contribution to the story at all. Her death scene is then gloriously overacted - not by Denise Crosby (who plays dead just fine), but by Gates McFadden, who milks Dr. Crusher's attempts to revive Tasha as if she thinks she's in a daytime soap. Patrick Stewart gets in on the act by gasping, "Gone?" in reaction to Crusher finally calling it... even though his facial expressions prior to the call make it clear that he's realized that already.
In any case, the tragedy of Tasha is not that she was killed off. That could have made for great drama. The tragedy is that her death has so little impact. After offering up an intriguing character background, most of the season has seen fit to reduce her to being a glorified extra. As a result, we are asked to mourn for a character we never got a chance to know. No matter how long the ending scene tries to milk out her funeral, there just aren't any tears to wring.
THE PICARD SLEDGE-HAMMER
The climax of the episode sees Picard talking Armus into submission. No, I'm not making that up. Picard delivers the Sledge-Hammer of the week, telling Armus that the entity is not true evil, because "true evil is when we give in to (evil)." After nattering on a bit about humanity's "indomitable spirit," Armus finally shrieks and lets Picard, Troi, and random shuttle pilot beam up, silence apparently being preferable to hearing more of Picard's platitudes.
THOUGHTS
Yes, it's the episode where Tasha gets (semi-) permanently inked out of the series, and Worf gets promoted to actually having a role in the show. For those reasons, Skin of Evil is an important episode in Next Generation's development.
Unfortunately, that doesn't make it a good episode. In its way, Skin of Evil is every bit as bad as Symbiosis was.
This is an episode with a reasonably intriguing core idea. Its villain is the consolidated evil of an entire species, isolated from them and discarded so that they could move on to become beings of great beauty. This leaves the Enterprise crew to deal with a creature who is simply evil, with no redeeming features at all.
I also think it was somewhat clever, to have Picard and Riker approach Armus in very different ways. Riker approaches the creature from a position of weakness, trying to placate the creature to get what he needs (into the shuttle). Picard shows no weakness, demanding access to the shuttle before he will consider giving the creature what it needs. It's well-done, and shows why Picard is the captain and Riker still has a lot to learn. It certainly stands in stark contrast to the early episodes, in which Riker was practically the lead.
A couple of clever elements don't make up for a lot of tedium, though. The script has an interesting core premise, and deals well with Picard and Riker. But it has no idea what to do with the in-between. We're left with a lot of wheel-spinning. How many times can Armus taunt Riker and company before it becomes boring? How many times can he and Deanna have the exact same conversation before it loses all interest? The answer: not many.
A lifeless production does not help. Dark and moody lighting might have created some atmosphere, and helped disguise the "man in a black tarp" effect of Armus' humanoid form. Instead, we get the series' usual flat lighting, giving us too good a look at the humanoid Armus and at the styrofoam rocks dressing the back of the soundstage. It's difficult to create tension when no one even casts a shadow.
Rating: 3/10.
Previous Episode: Symbiosis
Next Episode: We'll Always Have Paris
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