7-23. Emergence.

Data suspects the Enterprise is developing its own intelligence!

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is on a routine mission, surveying potential sites for new colonies, when the ship suddenly goes to warp, seemingly of its own accord. Geordi has no idea why this happened, but reveals that it's lucky it did: The area of space the ship was in was subject to a "theta flux distortion." Had the Enterprise remained there for another 1.7 seconds, the ship would have been destroyed.

As Geordi and Data continue investigating, they discover new circuit nodes, protected by force fields and connecting ship systems that had previously been separate. The nodes are connected through the holodeck, which is running on its own, combining multiple holodeck programs into a single simulation. The result is a combination of Wild West gunfighters, armored knights, and Chicago gangsters, all riding on the Orient Express to "Keystone City," the place "where everything begins." When Data attempts to tamper with a node on the train, the characters turn hostile and the Enterprise crew are forced to leave.

As the nodes continue to appear, Data develops a theory: The nodes are forming a neural net. The ship is developing its own intelligence!

CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: When Dr. Crusher reveals that the Orient Express came from her holodeck program, Picard begins talking about the history of the line. He is actually surprised when Crusher explains that the history is not her interest, but the atmosphere and the varied people who traveled in the train. When it becomes clear that the ship has come to life and has a purpose, Picard is less interested in stopping it than in understanding it. He insists that if there is an intelligence at work, the crew needs to respect it as they would any other life form. He adds that he is inclined to trust any intelligence formed from the Enterprise: "It came from us. From our mission records, personal logs, holodeck programs, our fantasies. Now, if our experiences with the Enterprise have been honorable, can't we trust that the sum of those experiences will be the same?"

Data: As an artificial intelligence himself, he recognizes the nodes' resemblance to a positronic brain, and thus he is the one to recognize what is happening. He takes the most active role in investigating the holodeck situation, and his android strength allows him to deal with the intelligence's attempts to stop him. Unfortunately, despite Data's prominent role, no attempt is made to create some meaning, either in theme or plot, out of an artificial intelligence investigating an awakening artificial intelligence.

Troi: The script makes a big deal out of Troi going into the holodeck to try to understand what the various characters' roles in the situation mean. The episode then proceeds to do absolutely nothing with the concept. For all the story difference that Troi's presence makes, Riker might as well have led all of the holodeck expeditions.

Worf: The one halfway interesting thing Troi's presence does is to show the building relationship between her and Worf. On two occasions, after some incident occurs on the holodeck, Worf asks if Troi is all right. In both instances, the question is very specifically addressed to Troi, not to others, and in both instances the emotion in Worf's voice is audible.

THOUGHTS

Joe Menosky's last TNG script is, unfortunately, closer in quality (and content) to Masks than to Darmok. The plot ends up acting as a sort of hybrid between a "bizarre things happening on the ship" episode and a holodeck episode. As with Masks, it's clear that this episode really wants to be intriguing and thought-provoking. But, as with the earlier episode, it just doesn't quite come off.

I actually liked Masks better. That episode was so completely off-the-wall, I was hooked in spite of myself, wanting if nothing else to see what weird thing would happen next. Here, the proceedings are just kind of... dull. There is very little atmosphere, even to the "Orient Express" scenes. Worst of all, as my unenthusiastic take on the episode's use of the characters shows, this story does nothing at all with the regulars.

The characters are so passive as to be completely ineffectual. The episode's structure, such as it is, consists of: a team of crew members goes into the holodeck, observes strange behavior from the characters, then are menaced and forced to leave; stir and reheat as necessary. Sure, there are token gestures made by the crew to try to deactivate the nodes, but this just feels like a holding pattern.

Even when the crew is allowed to truly act at the end, it's in a manufactured third act crisis that is resolved by Geordi making a blind choice that fails to generate either interest or tension. Geordi can choose to hunt for Technobabble Particles in either a nebula or a pulsar. We are not told what the advantage of one choice over the other might be, or what the risks are. Picard just asks Geordi, "Nebula or pulsar?" Geordi picks, he's right, and the day is saved. Had we been presented with some risk in Geordi's decision, or had the final attempt seemed at risk of failing, then there might have been a bit of... well, drama in the drama. As it stands, it's just stuff happening with minimal context.

Which, unfortunately, describes the entire episode all too well. A few nice Picard bits aside, TNG's final holodeck episode has extremely little to recommend it.

Overall Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: Bloodlines
Next Episode: Preemptive Strike


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7-18. Eye of the Beholder.

Troi investigates a suicide.

THE PLOT

Lieutenant Daniel Kwan (Tim Lounibos) jumps into a plasma stream in Engineering's Nacelle Control, not only killing but obliterating himself. The crew is stunned. There was no indication Kwan was unhappy. He seemed pleased at his posting on the Enterprise, a ship he helped to build, and was very happy in his relationship with medical technician Calloway (Johanna McCloy).

Troi and Worf are assigned to investigate the suicide. When they visit Kwan's work area, Troi is overwhelmed by a sudden empathic impression. A second visit takes the impression further, as she gets a vision of a man and a woman laughing at an unknown person who walked in on them. She recognizes one man from the vision: Lieutenant Walter Pierce (Mark Rolston).

Pierce claims to know nothing about Kwan's suicide, but Troi can sense that he is hiding something. She resolves to return to Nacelle Control one more time, this time with a psychic inhibitor that will allow her more control over the visions. But as she begins to fall into a romance with Worf, she finds herself in a pattern all too similar to the one within the vision - a pattern which may make her an active participant!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: He's sent death notices to the families of many crew members over the years, but never before in a case of suicide. He assigns Worf and Troi to investigate because he wants to be able to tell Kwan's parents something beyond just the fact that he killed himself; he wants to be able to tell them why.

Troi: Did we really need another Troi-heavy episode? At least when Picard and Data were overused, there was consolation in that they were complex characters played by excellent actors.  With Troi, neither of those applies, and Season Seven has shoved her front and center far too often.  In any case, the latest adventure of our intrepid new commander (promoted over the heads of far more competent officers), we learn... absolutely nothing about her, though her empathic abilities allow her to sense the bad plot waiting for her (and us) in the engine room. She apparently senses Worf's attraction to her and is eager for him to just get on with it already.  That and a jealous streak that isn't even really hers are the sum total of "character material" to be found.

Worf: Gets an amusing scene in Ten Forward. He seeks Riker out and attempts to subtly determine whether it would bother his friend and commander if he started dating his former lover. Subtlety not being Worf's strong point, Riker senses the tension and weirdness immediately, and Worf finally just flees the room. Michael Dorn conveys Worf's utter discomfort with the situation perfectly, and the result is the best scene in an otherwise lackluster episode.


THOUGHTS

There have certainly been worse TNG entries than this one. It has not been long since I subjected myself to Force of Nature and Sub Rosa, both of which easily outstrip this one for sheer stupidity. But in one respect, Eye of the Beholder is worse than those were: Those episodes were so bad, they carried a sort of fascination. This one is just boring.

I suppose there may be some interest in seeing the Worf/Troi relationship glimpsed in Parallels get some followup. Unfortunately, I just don't find that the two characters and/or actors work as a couple. Both have been paired far more convincingly: Troi with Riker, Worf first with K'Ehleyr in this series and then with Dax on DS9.  Michael Dorn and Marina Sirtis do their best with what they're given, and Rene Echevarria's atypically tepid script is doubtless part of the problem - but they just don't "fit" on screen, and I find myself unenthusiastic about seeing this running subplot carried further.

The mystery plot is weak, too. The idea of the crew trying to grapple with an inexplicable suicide has potential... but it's too clear too early that Kwan did not simply kill himself, leaving any treatment of the subject of suicide strictly superficial. What we're left with is the fairly thin idea that both Kwan and Troi have been overwhelmed by a psychic "ghost" imprint when Troi, at least, has often seemed hard-pressed to psychically sense the blindingly obvious. It's a thin basis for an episode, one that I might forgive if what sprang from it cracked along with any tension or even particular invention - but in the absence of those qualities, I'm less inclined to overlook it.

Salvaging things somewhat is the performance of the reliably creepy Mark Rolston, who manages to make prime suspect Lt. Pierce halfway memorable through sheer force of presence. When he enters the episode in the second half, he lends some noticeably energy to his (too few) scenes. But the rest of this just limps blandly along, until it finally reaches its weak conclusion.


Overall Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: Masks
Next Episode: Genesis


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7-17. Masks.

Data is taken over by an alien consciousness.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise encounters a rogue comet, which has been traveling through space for more than 87 million years. Picard orders a full sensor analysis, but something in the comet causes an echo. Shortly after, strange things begin happening on the ship. The replicators produce primitive, ritualistic objects, adorned with alien symbols. Those same symbols appear on computer displays. Something in the comet has affected the ship.

Picard orders a widespread phaser beam to evaporate the comet's outer layers, revealing a structure at the center. Data states it is an archive of an ancient civilization... and shortly after, transforms, a symbol appearing on his head as his mind is taken over by personalities from that civilization.

Data's transformation is only the beginning. The Enterprise is being changed, deck by deck, into alien buildings and temples. Ihat, one of the personalities in control of Data, provides a warning: "Masaka is waking! ...Do you understand pain? Death? That is all you need to know of Masaka. It is what she is. Go - Leave this place before she finds you!"


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: As if to make up for barely being in the last episode, Picard dominates this one. His anthropology background makes it believable that his attention would so captivated by the alien archive. When Picard decides to safeguard his ship by destroying the archive (an attempt that fails, of course), his intellectual disappointment at having to do so is consistent. Patrick Stewart's screen presence and Picard's steady leadership provide an anchor for the audience against the parade of bizarre events happening on screen.

Data: If Thine Own Self allowed Brent Spiner to remind us how good he is when he's simply playing Data, Masks allows him to indulge all of his hammy tendencies. Data's possessed by multiple personalities, meaning that Spiner gets to put on funny voices and overly emotive factial expressions. Of the personalities he assumes, he is most impressive as Masaka's elderly father, his voice and posture conveying the character's age long before dialogue spells it out. However, Spiner is downright annoying as Ihat, a boisterous and sardonic character who Spiner basically plays as Lore channeling Jim Carrey. I found his Ihat to be generally obnoxious - and we spend a lot more time with Ihat than with any of the other personalities.

Troi: Speaking of obnoxious, Troi's condescending attitude toward Data in the opening scenes is incredibly grating. In the midst of a very unconvincing art class, she shows a snide irritation at his overly-literal representations. It's the equivalent of watching a bad teacher pick on a boy for interpreting a (vague) assignment in "the wrong way." I'd add that Data's choice of an object to represent music, in response to a direct instruction from Troi, is actually quite a good choice, making her weary reaction all the more irritating. She spends the rest of the episode tagging along after Picard so that he can have someone to listen to his exposition, though I did find it amusing that one of Data's personalities mistook her for Death Incarnate.


THOUGHTS

Masks is almost certainly the most bizarre episode of TNG's run. That's actually its greatest strength - It's so utterly strange that you can't take your eyes off it, because you're wondering what weird thing is going to happen next.

The episode does deserve some credit for its ambition. It deals with myth and ritual, using the archive's transformation of the Enterprise to show the crew experiencing something symbolic in a way that's all too literal. My interpretation of the episode is that Masaka, her father, Korgano, and Ihat are all actually characters from this civilization's mythology, summoned up as a representation of their culture. As Picard notes early on, it makes no sense that a culture this technologically advanced would actually be as backward as what we glimpse - but it does make sense that these characters would be represented in rituals, or religion, or pageantry.

Unfortunately, ambition does not equal achievement. One failing of the episode is that the above is just my guess: It's really not clear in the episode what is going on, not even at the end. We are told that Data had an entire civilization in his head, for instance, which seems to imply real people... but the Masaka/Korgano relationship only makes any sense at all if it's myth. One or the other should be clear at the end, even if it's not clear before that.

Beyond that, the story is so focused on concept that it forgets character - very unusual, in a Joe Menosky script. Data is fully transformed by about the 15 minute mark, with no certainty given that he will be recoverable. Picard should care, and Geordi should be actively worried. Instead, Picard seems intrigued by this as a puzzle, and Geordi betrays no reaction at all. From this point on, no character other than Picard gets to really do anything, and even Picard is mostly just acting as a walking plot device, dropping exposition with every step and literally conjuring up a solution at the very end.

Combine the weak character material with the general weirdness, and it's inevitable that the episode ends up feeling cold and remote. Even so, I will rate Masks a little higher than its overall reputation. It's definitely a failure, but it's an interesting one. Comparing it against some of season Seven's other misfires (Liaisons, Dark Page, Force of Nature, Sub Rosa), this episode at least seems to have interesting ideas at its core.

It's just a shame those ideas come across so badly muddled on screen.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: Thine Own Self
Next Episode: Eye of the Beholder


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7-16. Thine Own Self.

Data investigates a village's mysterious illness.

THE PLOT

Data is sent to the planet Barkon IV to retrieve a crashed probe carrying radioactive materials. His mission is to recover the radioactive metal while avoiding any contact with the pre-industrial population. An accident leaves him without memory. He doesn't know who he is or why he is carrying a case full of metal, nor does he remember that the metal is in any way harmful.

It is in this state that he arrives at a Barkonian village, where the kindly Garvin (Michael Rothhaar) takes him in. Garvin advises him that he will need money, so Data agrees to allow him to sell the strange metal. Soon, Garvin grows ill. As the illness spreads, the villagers settle on someone to blame: Data!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Barely present, to allow Patrick Stewart to do a one-man stage version of A Christmas Carol in London. Pops up briefly in the tag scene to justify his name on the credits (which, given that other regulars have sat out episodes, really wasn't necessary in any case).

Riker: The episode is burdened with another of the franchise's lamentable "B" plots, this one focusing on Counselor Troi taking a test to become a Bridge Officer. It's a very bad subplot, but it does at least provide Riker with some good scenes. Other episodes have shown him behaving sternly with junior officers. Now he gets to show this side to Troi, because as First Officer it is up to him to assess her suitability. He tells her frankly that he is "a pretty tough judge," later adding: "My first duty is to the ship. I cannot let any Bridge Officer serve who's not qualified."

Data: Brent Spiner is excellent, as usual. This episode strips Data of his memory. He does not even know he is an android, and accepts teacher/scientist Talur (Ronnie Claire Edwards)'s identification of him as "an iceman" at face value. His nature as an analytical being asserts itself quickly. An early scene shows him arguing with Talur over her beliefs about all matter including fire and water, which lays groundwork for his later investigations into the mysterious illness. As ever, Spiner manages to convey a character we care about and relationships between that character and others, without betraying the concept of Data as an emotionless being. His performance is the episode's single greatest asset, keeping the "A" plot highly watchable even as the "B" plot founders.

Troi: Speaking of that "B" plot, if it was intended to strengthen Troi as a character, it backfires badly. When she discusses taking the bridge officer's test, Riker warns her that as First Officer, he will have to judge her as harshly as any other candidate. She agrees... only to promptly become petulant when he insists on actually honoring his word and treating her the same as any other candidate. This amounts to her throwing snits at him for daring to do his job - Not exactly the best way to make her seem strong or even likable.


THOUGHTS

The concept of Thine Own Self is fairly hackneyed: a crew member has amnesia in a primitive village, and despite befriending some villagers, becomes feared as an outsider. TOS did variations on this theme more than once, never mind TNG... Fortunately, Ronald D. Moore's script gets some big things right. One is that Data may solve the radiation sickness in the village - but he also causes the problem by bringing the radioactive metal there in the first place. I liked the way the episode spent some time showing the various villagers handling the metal, letting us absorb what they were doing and what it meant while they (and Data) are completely oblivious. This allows a threat to be introduced early, while allowing the characters to be completely relaxed so that Data can get to know the village and its people.

Trek budgeting means that we only really meet a few villagers, but there's only one straw man in the form of Skoran (Michael G. Hagerty), a grasping brute who appears to have no redeeming qualities. Talur is haughty and self-important, but she doesn't outright reject Data's findings when they conflict with her beliefs. She wants more detail, but seems to find his reasoning persuasive. Garvin (Michael Rothhaar) and Gia (Kimberly Cullum) are the stock decent, likable villagers, but both are well enough acted to feel like full characters, and Gia's friendship with Data is convincing and enjoyable.

The "B" plot is much weaker, however.  Counselor Troi's pursuit of promotion doesn't play out in a convincing way. Riker is Troi's ex-lover and current friend; I do not for one instant believe that he would be allowed to administer the test. Nor do I believe that the process of becoming a bridge officer is so simple that it can be achieved, start to finish, within a few days. If dialogue had established that she had actually been working toward this goal ever since her command experience in Disaster and that the test was the last thing left for her to finish, then it might have been less ridiculous. Instead, she's merely been thinking about it since Disaster, and now is when she decides to act. The tag, which reinforces that after taking one test she now officially outranks Data (a command officer of many years' experience), just adds insult to injury.

Ah, well. Bad "B" plots are a regular feature of latter-day Star Trek, and this is far from the most insufferable "B" plot in the series. The "A" plot is engaging, even if it covers very familiar ground, and the show entertains. A solid piece of workmanlike television, this isn't one to get excited about by any means, but it also isn't one to avoid.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: Lower Decks
Next Episode: Masks


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7-14. Sub Rosa.

Dr. Crusher is seduced by the mysterious Ronin (Duncan Regehr)

THE PLOT

Dr. Crusher visits Caldos II, a colony world modeled after the Scottish highlands. She is there to deliver the eulogy at her grandmother's funeral, but is about to get swept up in the plot of a bad romance novel. Before you can say,Ghost of the Highlander, she sees the striking young Ronin (Duncan Regehr) pass by her grandmother's coffin to throw a camellia, her grandmother's favorite flower, onto it.

While reading her grandmother's diaries, Beverly learns that Ronin was the dead woman's lover. She goes to the house to start closing things up, only to find the house full of flowers. She hears noises, but sees no one there. Until she looks into a mirror and sees Ronin, who announces that he is a spirit who has been the lover of the women of her family for generations. Now he has come for her - and rather than be appalled by this, as you might expect, Beverly seems perfectly happy at the idea.

And then things start to go a bit wrong with the planet's weather...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: There are two kinds of episodes that make you really mindful of Patrick Stewart's contribution toTNG. First are the heavy-hitting episodes, such as Best of Both Worlds, Family, The Drumhead, and Chain of Command - episodes that showcase his full range by giving him material that demands an actor of ability and stature. Then there are episodes like this one.  In a show in which almost nothing works, Patrick Stewart still manages to salvage a moment or two of dignity. Picard refuses to simply allow Beverly to throw away her career and insists on confronting Ronin face-to-face. He gets his wish, resulting in the only good scene in the episode... a scene sadly cut short when Ronin, realizing he's outclassed, resorts to simply zapping the better man.

Dr. Crusher: Poor Gates McFadden. Her big spotlight episode of Season Seven, and it's one whose prime demand on her is to make an orgasm face every 5 - 10 minutes. Dr. Crusher's characterization is wildly inconsistent from one scene to the next. At first, it plays out as if her free will is drained by Ronin at about the 15-minute mark, leaving her effectively possessed. But at the end, she says she was seduced - which indicates that she acted according to her own will for the run of the episode, which makes most of her actions unfathomable. McFadden struggles gamely, but with no consistent throughline she's just playing it scene-by-scene. The results are unfortunate.

Troi: Is made to look like an idiot. She can sense something is wrong with Beverly's sudden romantic obsession (with her grandmother's lover, no less), but for the first time in the series' history, she refuses to intrude on someone else's privacy. If you see your friend acting bizarrely and might suspect she's under an outside influence, wouldn't you intrude just a little? Or at least ask the colony's governor about the man Beverly is obsessing over, to make sure he is who he says he is? Not if you're Troi, I guess. Marina Sirtis does what she can, but with writing this poor, there's really nothing for her to do except recite the lines. 

Guest Star of the Week: As Ronin, actor Duncan Regehr makes his Star Trek debut. With a debut like this, one wonders exactly why DS9's producers would offer him a recurring role later. In fairness, Regehr isn't actively bad as Ronin. But he isn't particularly good, even given the limits of his material. He certainly doesn't come across as irresistibly seductive, and his screen presence is actually weaker here than as Shakaar on DS9. In the verbal sparring match against Picard at the end, against heavyweight Patrick Stewart, Regehr barely even registers on screen! 


THOUGHTS

Brannon Braga's scripts don't always work, even in his TNG days. Despite this, I generally regard his name on the credits as good news.  Even his misfires are usually cockeyed enough to be entertaining. If nothing else, a Braga script is rarely dull.

Sub Rosa is dull. Extremely dull. It also doesn't feel like a Brannon Braga script. It's more like a particularly bad Jeri Taylor effort - hardly surprising, given that the story is credited to her. Why Braga ended up writing the teleplay is anybody's guess, but the result is that the worst tendencies of both writers are combined to produce an hour of utter sludge.

Braga's work, both the good and the bad, can be characterized as concept over character. That works terrifically well when the episode is Cause and Effect or Parallels. His writing style is ill-suited to a would-be romantic ghost story, however. Any chance of this episode being successful hinges on it working as a strong character episode for Beverly, to watch this capable character be seduced by a being who shouldn't even exist.

In Braga's hands, what we get is an episode in which Beverly is replaced by a hormone-driven pod person at the 15 minute mark. After one scene of (very weakly) fighting Ronin, she becomes all but a slave to him for the bulk of the episode. He's killing people? Well, he can touch her in just the right way, so she'll go along with his every command anyway. Not that there's much contrast with the early scenes. After all, the first stretch still shows her talking entirely too freely in a public place about a sex dream. A sex dream involving her grandmother's lover. Right after her grandmother's death. However creepy that may read, the scene just plays out as ludicrous and boring. My favorite detail? Being regailed with all this, Troi seems neither appalled nor embarrassed. Instead, she claims to be envious and seems to find it funny. 

No bad Trek episode can be complete without a heap of Technobabble thrown into the mix, and ghost stories don't leave much room for such jargon. But fear not! The subplot comes to the rescue. There are malfunctions in the planet's weather control system. This calls for massive amounts of Technobabble by Data and Geordi. Needless to say, the malfunctions are the work of Ronin, who is generating storms threatening the planet for... no apparent reason. If his goal is to delay the Enterprise's departure, that mission is accomplished by causing minor malfunctions. Making the weather problems genuinely life-threatening simply draws attention to his interference. None of this causes any sense of tension either. The subplot creates all the interest of watching characters discuss the weather. Which, come to think of it, is exactly what they're doing.

Ultimately, the episode is too bad and the temptation too great for me not to make an obvious and groan-worthy play on the title. So I'll conclude by saying that Sub Rosa is strictly substandard.


Overall Rating: 1/10.  If I gave zeroes, then this episode would get one.

Previous Episode: Homeward
Next Episode: Lower Decks


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7-11. Parallels.

First Officer Worf and Troi: Man and Wife.

THE PLOT

It is Worf's birthday when he returns from a bat'leth tournament, in which he won Champion standing. He returns to a greeting from Commander Riker, who quickly briefs him on their next mission. The Argus Array, a subspace telescope, has stopped transmitting for the third time that year. At this point, Riker tells him, Starfleet no longer believes this is a simple mechanical breakdown.

But first Worf must endure an unwelcome surprise birthday party. Capt. Picard is unable to attend, and it's clear from Worf's expression that he wished he was unable to as well. The chocolate cake is cut... Only to become a yellow cake, as Capt. Picard asks from his seat how old Worf now is. Worf is confused, but assumes he simply mistook the cake's flavor and that Picard must have come in unnoticed.

He resumes normal duties, analyzing the image files from the array and determining that it's been reprogrammed, probably by the Cardassians, to spy on the Federation. Then Worf has a dizzy spell, and when he comes to he learns that he only placed ninth in the bat'leth tournament, and that there is no image file from the array that indicates Cardassian involvement.

As these changes continue, it becomes obvious that Worf is jumping from one parallel reality to another - and with each jump, the parallels get more and more different from the life he knows!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Enjoys needling Worf at his surprise party. He also shows the other extreme, responding with clear disappointment when Worf fails to raise the shields in time to protect the ship from a Cardassian attack (the shield settings in this reality being configured too differently for Worf to figure out in time). He clearly sees that something is wrong with Worf, however; instead of upbraiding him, he simply accepts Worf's request to be relieved of duty.

Capt. Riker: We spend more than a third of the episode in a parallel reality in which Picard died during the Borg invasion, meaning that Riker is now ship's captain. That he's a good captain is no surprise, not after seeing him assume the role so often from Best of Both Worlds on. He is more directly approachable than Picard, with less separation evident between himself and the rest of the crew, but he clearly learned his lessons from Picard. He listens to his officers' input, then makes his decisions based on all the available information. He also responds to the sight of an alternate Picard on his viewscreen with evident pleasure, taking a moment to tell him how good it is to see him again.

Worf: When little things start to change, he reacts as most of us would: He assumes he made a mistake or failed to observe something and moves on with his job and his life. This method of coping works until the shifts create major discrepancies, but when his trophy changes from ninth place to first, or when Data checks on the status of a task he has no memory of having been assigned, this becomes an impossible situation. He asks to be relieved from duty after an incident shows that he is no longer familiar enough with the ship to do his job. Then he tries to work through the problem, wisely accepting help when it is offered. Michael Dorn is terrific throughout, keeping Worf grounded and believable in a way that makes it very easy to follow him down this particular rabbit hole.

Troi: Her rapport with Worf's son, Alexander, is such that Worf asks her to act as a family member, to promise to take in Alexander in the event that anything happens to him. She agrees readily, though she does have some fun at Worf's expense by pointing out that this makes her mother part of Worf's "family" as well. As the shifts continue, Worf finds himself in a reality in which he and Troi are married. They are surprisingly compatible, and Troi actually listens to Worf's story and prompts him to enlist help from others to find out what is prompting the shifts.

Wesley: Returns, but only in the parallel reality that saw Picard die. In this variant, Wesley apparently continued on as a full Enterpise officer under Riker. This is a nice touch, allowing for the possibility that without Picard giving him a final push, Wesley would likely not have left the ship for the Academy. It's also interesting to see this alternate Wesley behave with a maturity and professionalism that the prime universe Wesley has often lacked - perhaps indicating that Picard's death brought an end to the remnants of his childhood.


THOUGHTS

Brannon Braga returns to the writer's desk for another reality-bending episode. A good one, too - Parallels is Braga's best script since Cause and Effect. Directed with visual polish by Robert Wiemer, this is easily the best episode Season Seven has seen thus far. In a year that's been characterized by dull, mediocre bits of glob, this is a gem that shines all the brighter.

Parallels is a showcase for Braga's writing strengths. It's very fast-paced, never allowing the audience a chance to grow restless. Every scene provides some new wrinkle. It's also clever, with a sci-fi high concept that's easy to grasp quickly but interesting enough to be fun. The structure is well thought-out, with the shifts moving from minor points of divergence to increasingly major ones. We never shift into a universe that's completely unrecognizable, however (though we do get a glimpse of one through the viewscreen). Even the final, most changed variant Worf inhabits is largely different for Picard's death, with all the characters and the universe itself remaining largely recognizable.

It's not just a "concept" episode, either. Worf and Troi get some excellent character material. Lest their relationship in other shifts come out of nowhere, we start with a scene in a very close parallel showing the strength of their friendship. This is echoed when Worf returns to his universe, with Troi being the only one waiting for him (showing that even the initial return to the Enterprise - which we and Worf assumed to be the "prime" one - was itself a parallel). The early Worf/Troi scene also shows his commitment to Alexander, setting groundwork for a later shift in which he learns that Alexander now never existed. Michael Dorn plays Worf's reaction to this realization wonderfully.  Marina Sirtis is equally good in her reactions, showing pain and worry at the thought that "her" Worf may very well not return even if "our" Worf is successful.

This being a top-drawer Brannon Braga episode, we have to get at least one moment in which the whole thing goes completely nuts. That happens near the end, when all the parallels begin coming together. In a small sector of space, one parallel Enterpise after another pops into being. We see the Enterpises appearing on the viewscreen behind Data as he turns to Worf and Riker to explain what's happening. Then we cut back from commercial to see still more ships popping into being in the establishing shot. It's a moment of pure, sublime insanity, and exactly what an episode like this needs to hit its full potential.


Overall Rating: 9/10. Terrific.

Previous Episode: Inheritance
Next Episode: The Pegasus 


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7-7. Dark Page.

Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett) falls into a catatonic state.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is escorting the Cairn, a race of telepaths who are learning to speak under the tutelage of Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett).  Maques (Norman Large), the lead Cairn, expresses concern to Deanna: When he communicates telepathically with Lwaxana, she hides parts of herself.

Deanna dismisses this as simple "privacy," a concept foreign to the Cairn. But after Maques' daughter Hedril (Kirsten Dunst) falls into some water on the holodeck, Lwaxana collapses into a catatonic state. Now Deanna must use a telepathic bridge, made possible by Maques' plot-specific powers, to travel into her mother's mind!

...Which is as dreary and unimaginative a place as you would expect.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Supportive of Deanna's wish to try to help her mother, even if it poses a risk. As an authority figure, he is used by Lwaxana as the first barrier to try to turn Deanna away from her quest.

Troi: Marina Sirtis struggles gamely with some poor dialogue, keeping a straight face through lines such as:"Captain, I have to go back into my mother's mind. It's the only way we're going to get any answers." I once again find myself observing that Sirtis, in the series' earliest days a clear weak link in the cast, has become a very sympathetic presence. The story may be silly, much of the dialogue may be unintentionally funny, but Sirtis anchors it enough to keep it watchable. A big change from the days when I would have been happy to have seen the humanoid oil slick smother her to death.

Lwaxana Troi: Has carried a dark secret all these years, one which we never knew about before because... Well, because it never existed before! This somehow prompts her to attempt Matchmaking Session #372 between Deanna and Maques, then lash out at Riker when that fails. It's actually a relief when she becomes catatonic. Credit where it's due: Majel Barrett tries her best to make something of the episode's dramatic scenes, and she plays well opposite the very young Kirsten Dunst. But there's nothing here for her to work with, and her character is only marginally more tolerable here than at her all-time lowpoint in Season Two's Manhunt.


THOUGHTS

I am very hopeful that Dark Page represents the final Lwaxana episode. She's averaged one appearance per season, after all, and this is TNG's final season. Assuming this is her final bow on this show, that means that this review will allow me to bid the character an unfond but eagerly awaited farewell.

Dark Page is a bad episode - but more than that, it's a poorly-scheduled one. Coming on the heels of Phantasms, which centered around dream imagery, we get... another episode that centers around dream imagery. Did someone slip up here? Or by Season Seven, had it reached the point where nobody really cared anymore?

The scenes inside Lwaxana's mind make me appreciate how well Phantasms executed its dream sequences. There, while everything was a metaphor that eventually made sense when the plot came together, a sense of "strangeness" saturated the proceedings much like the quality of an actual dream. Images stood for things that were obvious once we were given the solution, but which seemed random and bizarre until then.

Here, everything is literal. Lwaxana's catatonic state is precipitated by a little girl falling into water. Sure enough, the solution involves a little girl and water. Deanna sees a dog and her father within Lwaxana's mind. Sure enough, this was all caused by a traumatic event in which both a dog and her father were present. It's not a metaphor if all it stands for is itself!

Director Les Landau does a workmanlike job with the material, which is quite good enough for the "real world" scenes. But despite using some distortion for some of the dream images, he just doesn't bring the level of atmosphere that was seen in Patrick Stewart's helming of Phantasms. With the two episodes coming one right after the other, it's really instructive to see how one show does everything within its dream sequences exactly right while the other does almost everything wrong.

Lest I lay this episode's failure entirely at Landau's feet, I should end by observing how poor the script is. It's slow and talky. It takes almost 20 minutes for the plot to really even start... and that's when it gets worse! We go inside Lwaxana's mind, and yet come out with no real additional insights into her as a character. Meanwhile, Lwaxan's traumatic secret should be a world-shaking revelation for Deanna, as well... But she shrugs off a major piece of information about her own family as if it was meaningless to her.

And why shouldn't it be? After all, this traumatic event will never be mentioned again; and when we next see Lwaxana on Deep Space 9, she'll be panting after Odo like a dog in heat just like she used to do with Picard on this show.


Overall Rating: 2/10.

Previous Episode: Phantasms
Next Episode: Attached


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