The Enterprise heads into the Romulan Neutral Zone to answer a call for help from its sister ship, the Yamato. The Yamato traveled into Romulan space in search of the mythical planet of the Ikonians, and has been beset by malfunctions ever since. Enterprise arrives just in time to receive the exposition before the Yamato explodes, killing all aboard.
After reviewing the destroyed ship's logs, Picard decides to assume its mission. He proceeds further into the Neutral Zone to the Ikonian planet, just on the border of Romulan space. But before they even reach the planet, Enterprise begins suffering the same type of system failures that led to the destruction of her sister ship. Unless Picard can find a solution on the Ikonian homeworld, the Enterprise will be destroyed!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: He has had a lifelong interest in the Ikonians. When the Enterprise reaches the Ikonian homeworld, he insists on leading the Away Team, because there is no way he is going to miss seeing it.
Riker: Acts as the captain in Picard's absence, and does a pretty good job of it. He deals fairly but firmly with the Romulan captain, telling them to destroy the Ikonian probe headed for their ship when he could have allowed it to further infect the Romulan ship, then providing the Romulans with the answer to purge their ship of the computer virus once the Enterprise has that information and has recovered Picard.
Geordi: His scrutinizes the malfunctions that plagued the Yamato and are starting to afflict Enterprise. This pays dividends when he is able to determine - just barely in time - the extent of the danger posed by the Ikonian probe. Geordi saves the day again near the end, drawing a connection between Data's ability to purge the Ikonian program and Enterprise. That the answer is basically to turn it off and turn it back on makes me think that they could have saved themselves a lot of trouble by just calling IT.
SHUT UP, WESLEY!
Wesley comes into the captain's ready room and asks if he can talk. Patrick Stewart's performance earns bonus points in that every bit of his body language says, "No, go away," even as Picard urges Wesley to sit. Wesley then prompts Picard to give him an infodump about Ikonia before whining about how easy it seems to be for Picard, Riker, and the rest to keep calm in the face of more than 1,000 deaths. Picard is saved from further aggravation by a tea failure, allowing us to move on with the actual plot.
THOUGHTS
The series' first-ever "tea, Earl Grey, hot." And thanks to the Ikonians, Picard gets... what looks a little like a miniature shrubbery. So I guess the Ikonians are related to the Knights Who Say Ni.
Contagion is in many respects the hardest kind of episode to review. It is a good episode, so there's not much to mock in it. But it is not a very good one, leaving me little to enthuse about. It's noteworthy in bringing the Romulans back for the first time since The Neutral Zone. The episode makes reasonable use of them, emphasizing the suspicion between the Romulans and the Federation while still avoiding an outright conflict. Mostly, the Romulans are a MacGuffin, with the fear of them having prompted the Yamato's captain to undertake the journey to Ikonia to start with.
One area in which the episode does excel is in its use of the show's ensemble. Most episodes give good roles to just a few characters, with most of the ensemble being lucky to get more than two lines per episode. Contagion gives solid roles to most of the regulars. Picard, Riker, Worf, Data, and particularly Geordi all get good roles, while Pulaski, Troi, and Wesley at least get one proper scene a piece. None of the regulars are left to be glorified extras.
Well-made and reasonably structured, Contagion isn't the type of episode that will make many Top Ten lists. But it is good, solid Star Trek, and deserving of a good, solid score.
Rating: 7/10.
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