7-25, 7-26. All Good Things...

Picard is jumping back and forth through time...

THE PLOT

Jean-Luc Picard has become unstuck in time.

He is jumping between three time periods: The present; the past, at the very point when he first took command of theEnterprise; and more than 25 years in the future, when he is an old man who has been diagnosed with Irumodic Syndrome, a degenerative neurological disorder. The time jumps happen at seemingly random intervals; and after a moment of disorientation, Picard feels completely of that time period, with all the memories and characteristics that suit him in that time and place.

In both past and present, a large spatial anomaly has appeared, with the Enterprise sent to investigate. Convinced that the same anomaly must exist in the future, Picard convinces his old shipmates to join him in traveling to the Devron System - a region of space that, in this future, is controlled by a now-hostile Klingon Empire.

That's when Q appears, returning Picard to the Trial of Humanity that was their first meeting, and informing the captain that humanity has been found guilty. [I]"You are to be denied existence. Humanity's fate has been sealed. You will be destroyed." He adds that it is not the Q who will cause humanity's destruction.

The human race will end because of one man: Jean-Luc Picard!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: This story's Picard isn't "present" Picard transported to other time periods; as is spelled out early on, we are jumping between three Picards: the Picard of the present; the younger, less experienced pre-series Picard; and an elderly and infirm Picard. Stewart's performance differentiates these three incarnations. Past Picard was already a seasoned officer, so differences between him and "our" Picard are small and subtle, but there isn't quite the same sense of confidence to him. Future Picard is noticeably different, and it's here that Patrick Stewart gets his most memorable moments. He has the knowledge from the other two time periods, but his mind struggles through the fog of age and illness to make the connections. He sometimes stammers while trying to force out some kind of clear explanation, and he can't quite keep his temper when he sees the others doubting him. It is a great performance, equal to Family and The Inner Light as Stewart's very best.

Riker: The Riker of the future has risen to the rank of Commodore. He first seen dismissing the elderly Picard's pleas to investigate the Devron System. By initial appearances, he's become the "pompous bureaucrat" figure. When he re-enters the story in the second half, however, we get a fuller picture. He has made the Enterprise his flagship, saving the old ship from being decommissioned because of his great fondness for it. He may have appeared to have dismissed Picard, but he did investigate - He just didn't want to make public knowledge of a crossing into Klingon territory. He carries bitterness over a feud with Worf, an argument based around the bizarre triangle their present-day counterparts have formed with Troi, but it's clear that he is very ready to make peace with his old friend. Jonathan Frakes is very good in these "future" scenes, reminding us for the first time since The Pegasus how good he can be when given strong material.

Geordi: The "future plot" is kicked off when Geordi visits the elderly Picard. Their banter reveals that Geordi ended up marrying Leah Brahms, and we can see that his visor has been replaced by implants in his eyes, presumably allowing him more normal vision. Even after connecting with Data and Dr. Crusher, Geordi continues to feature prominently throughout the "future" scenes, which goes a long way toward making up for the sparse material he's been afforded the past two seasons (this season especially).

Dr./Capt. Crusher: The future timeline that we see is one in which Picard and Crusher married... and then divorced. Beverly continues to have fondness for her ex-husband, though, keeping the Picard name and agreeing to transport him to the restricted sector. When Geordi admits to her that he's not certain this isn't just a delusion, a result of Picard's neurological disease, she replies that it doesn't really matter. "He's Jean-Luc Picard. And if he wants to go on one more mission, that's what we're going to do."

Tasha: The "past" Enterprise timeline is immediately pre-series, which means Tasha is the Security Chief. With no Riker or Geordi, and with Data still in his early, overly literal stage, this leaves her effectively acting as Picard's First Officer. Denise Crosby gives a much better performance here than was her average, showing her concern over Picard's increasingly strange orders without overplaying it. The moment in which she finally questions Picard, insisting that while they have followed his every order no matter how strange, they need something more from him before putting the ship at risk, is one of the best moments given to a character who got far too few such moments back when she was a regular.

Q: First appears much as he had in Encounter at Farpoint, sitting in scarlet robes on a throne that hovers in the air, mocking Picard while pronouncing judgment against humanity. Unlike in the series' premiere, this is an act he's putting on, keeping up appearances for the Q Continuum. Q is strictly an ally in this episode. He only appears a handful of times; but every time he shows up, he gives Picard some vital clue to push him toward the solution. It's his intervention that allows Picard awareness of the time jumps, giving him a fighting chance to put all the pieces of this temporally fragmented puzzle together. Q reappears at the end, giving Picard congratulations as well as a mix of warning and promise: That the challenge to prove that humanity deserves its place is a "trial (that) never ends." Which is as much a statement of the franchise's own philosophy as a question of this one episode's plot.


THOUGHTS

Coming up with a suitable finale to Star Trek: The Next Generation had to have been a daunting task. By the end of its run, TNG had already become an iconic series - at the time, even overshadowing the original Star Trek (an imbalance that would slowly correct itself in the following decades). It was a rare genre show whose appeal had extended into the mainstream. Even if its final season had fallen short of the quality that viewers had come to expect, its final bow was not just a television show; it was an Event.

Writers Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga turned to literature for inspiration: To Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut's best-known science fiction novel. In that novel, Billy Pilgrim is a World War II soldier who becomes "unstuck in time" after being taken prisoner by the Germans and transported to a labor camp in Dresden. Throughout the novel, Billy jumps forward and backward between various points in his life, including his own death. There is even a central cataclysmic event: The infamous bombing of Dresden.

The form may be borrowed from Vonnegut, but the spirit is uniquely TNG. Whereas Billy Pilgrim is a very passive protagonist, doing little to affect his situation, Picard insists on acting on his bizarre predicament - with the actions he takes actually creating the very problem he's trying to solve! A common interpretation of Billy's time-jumps is that he's suffering from PTSD and not time-jumping at all.  Picard's time jumps are definitely real, with Dr. Crusher medically verifying his story early in the episode, and we learn exactly what (or who) is causing them.  It's all part of a puzzle to be solved, with everything made clear once the pieces are put together. 

The time jumps allow the finale to look backward at the series' origins while simultaneously giving viewers a look at one possible future for the characters. The series opened with Picard having only recently taken command of the Enterprise before being captured and put on trial by Q. This episode's "past" plot flashes back to immediately before that, with Tasha giving the new captain his first look at the vessel he will come to call home. The present plot shows a crew that trusts Picard without question. The future plot shows a crew that desperately wants to trust him, and at the very least indulges him because of the man he used to be. Meanwhile, the crew of the past isn't quite sure what to make of him, his bizarre orders leaving them quietly wondering if they are now in the care of a madman.

The ending sees Picard finally joining the crew's regular poker game. His presence makes things awkward for a moment. But everyone quickly relaxes as he takes his seat and begins dealing, observing that he should have joined them in this a long time ago even as Troi replies, "You were always welcome." The camera rotates as it pulls back from the poker game, showing the captain and his crew gathered at a round table, like a futuristic court of Camelot. The rotation of the camera move transitions perfectly into the pull-back from the Enterprise itself, making the final fade to black almost cinematic.

A perfectly-judged ending to an ideal series finale.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: Preemptive Strike

Season Seven Overview

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7-19. Genesis.

Picard discovers Troi, transformed into an amphibian!

THE PLOT

When a test of Worf's new weapons guidance system results in one of the torpedoes swerving off course, Picard and Data take a shuttlecraft to intercept and disable it. While they are away, crew begins exhibiting strange behavior. Troi complains about the environment controls, finding the ship too dry and too cold. Worf becomes hyper-aggressive. Barclay becomes just plain hyper, working around the clock at full-tilt speed with no sign of fatigue. Riker finds it increasingly hard to concentrate, or even to remember the ship's current assignment. Too late, Dr. Crusher and Nurse Ogawa realize that a disease is spreading through the ship... one that is slowly affecting every member of the crew!

Picard and Data return to find the Enterprise adrift in space with no power. They discover that the entire crew have transformed in various ways; Troi is an amphibian; Riker is a proto-human; Barclay is halfway to becoming a spider; Worf is some strange Klingon creature with an armored hide and an aggressive mating instinct.

They are able to determine that amniotic fluid is the key to curing the virus, and go in search of the conveniently pregnant Nurse Ogawa. But they have only a limited time to find a cure. The disease is airborne - and Picard is already showing signs of infection!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: When Picard begins to "de-evolve," he develops a heightened sense of fear. Patrick Stewart gives Picard a slightly higher pitch to his voice and makes him a little less still and a little more fidgety. Because the process never gets past its initial stages in Picard, we see the man we know struggling to maintain control. When the transformed Worf is battering his way into sickbay, Picard can see that Data - who is working on a cure - is indispensable and that he is expendable in this situation. So he creates a distraction to lead Worf away, despite his terror.

Data: As Picard's faculties start to be affected, Data takes the lead in their investigation. He observes that Spot's newborn kittens were not infected, which provides the vital clue to the cure. He argues against Picard's dangerous plan to lead Worf away from sickbay, but does provide Picard with what he needs to execute that plan. And, as the one crew member immune to the virus, he is in a unique position to save the day. Again.

Worf: Continues to inch toward a relationship with Troi. It seems a bit odd that they would have a dinner date when all their relationship progress occurred in either parallel dimensions or hallucinations. Then again, both Worf and Troi have glimpsed the potential relationship in non-realities, so perhaps by now they have compared notes and decided to give it a try in the real world. Though he ultimately is not "Patient Zero," Worf is the first crew member to be visibly affected. Michael Dorn does a good job of showing Worf's decline. At first, he just seems excessively stressed, then he becomes ridiculously short-tempered and aggressive. When he attacks Troi, he stops, appalled at what he's done... but that is the last time he is able to stop himself. The next time he moves, his mind is basically gone.

Barclay: The opening scene presents Barclay as a hypochondriac, with Dr. Crusher all but treating him like a child while treating him. The fact that she manages to identify a mild illness by the end of that scene in no way stops her from treating him like an idiot. Even after the events of the episode trace the virus back to Crusher being careless with a treatment, the tag scene sees her and Troi basically exchanging eye-rolls over how neurotic Reg is. Why exactly doesn't he want to transfer off this ship? The episode makes less use of Barclay than most previous appearances by him, but Dwight Schultz remains engaging. His scenes both as hyper Barclay and as spider-Barclay are a great deal of fun, largely because of the actor's enthusiasm.


THOUGHTS

"Captain, I believe the crew is de-evolving!"
-Data makes an earnest pronouncement, and actor Brent Spiner somehow manages to keep a straight face.

Genesis is surely one of the silliest episodes of TNG's run. Brannon Braga's script is a dumb premise that exists solely to allow the cast to act in weird ways, all of which is given only the flimsiest justification. It's "science" is straight out of a 1950's "B" movie: De-evolution of humans into amphibians and spiders(!)? The episode might as well have a crew member turn into a crocodile and snap at Picard's heels!

It also spends far too long on setup, with fully half the episode passing before the crew has firm awareness that there even is a ship-wide problem. It should have been restructured in one of two ways: With Picard and Data on the ship throughout, working to stop the infection as it spreads; or with Picard and Data returning to the ship much earlier, with the bulk of the episode focusing on their efforts to resolve the situation. As presented, there is no real mystery, because we spend half the episode watching the disease spread. Picard and Data are able to solve the problem a bit too quickly and easily, because no time is left in the episode for their efforts to encounter serious complications.

Gates McFadden, in her directorial debut, may have gotten lumbered with a ludicrous script, but she makes a good stab at bringing it to life. The dark corridors of the drifting Enterprise of the second half are eerie, the noises of the transformed crew members adding to the atmosphere. Spider-Barclay's abrupt entrance, banging against the glass through which Picard is peering, is a "jump scare" that works, and the makeup job on Dwight Schultz is highly effective (if slightly comical). The chase at the climax, in which the transformed Worf pursues Picard into first the turbolift, then a Jeffries tube, takes care to keep Worf in the shadows to avoid the budget limitations of his costume from ruining the effect. This has the bonus of keeping the focus on Patrick Stewart, acting the heck out of the increasing terror the infected Picard can barely keep in check. I'd love to see another episode directed by McFadden - preferably one with an actual good script.

In a way, this episode feels like the flip-side to Masks. That episode featured Data behaving strangely while the ship transformed around the crew. This episode features everyone except Data behaving strangely, while the crew transforms around the ship. Unlike Masks, there's no sense of anything interesting is struggling to get out. Much of it plays like Braga's first draft for Voyager's infamous Threshold, like he needed a warm-up to figure out what works so that he could be sure to remove those elements from his next try.

In short, it's all dizzyingly dumb... but it's also very watchable.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: Eye of the Beholder
Next Episode: Journey's End


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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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7-6. Phantasms.

Data is having disturbing dreams...

THE PLOT

Data is having nightmares. His dream program has suddenly started delivering disturbing images, ones he has difficulty shaking even when awake. Initially, Geordi and the rest of the crew think that this may simply be a part of the program - To more fully experience the human condition, the dream program is designed to occasionally give nightmares.

Then Data begins having "waking dreams," seeing images from his nightmares during his daily routine. When one of these results in him attacking Counselor Troi for seemingly no reason, it becomes clear that something is seriously wrong. 

That's when an even more disturbing discovery leads to the realization that what's wrong isn't actually with Data...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Over the course of his command, he has spent much energy finding ways to avoid the annual Starfleet Admirals' Banquet. This year, he feels obliged to actually be there, as much as he'd prefer to avoid it - and his sense of obligation is only increased when one admiral (Clyde Kusatsu) suspects that the Enterprise'slatest batch of difficulties is really just Picard's latest dodge. This "C" plot provides the bulk of Picard's material until the final Act, but when the situation with Data finally becomes serious, he takes the lead, using the holodeck to travel directly into Data's nightmare to investigate.

Data: That Brent Spiner is excellent barely needs to be said at this point. He was the first of the series regulars to fully find his footing, and he more or less perfected Data well before the end of Season Three (maybe even Season Two). He has taken a character completely incapable of emotion and invested him with a humanity that makes him impossible for the audience not to empathize - all without betraying the emotionlessness that is the core of Data's being. Neither Spiner nor Data really achieves anything in this episode that they haven't already done long ago... It just bears remembering, now and again, just how good he is. 

Troi: Gets thrust into the "victim" role this episode. She is the cake in Data's dream and, eventually, the object of his attack in reality. Before that, she attempts to "counsel" Data in a couple of scenes that should be interminable but that manage to play fairly well thanks to the performances of Brent Spiner and Marina Sirtis. It's fair to say that Troi is far from my favorite character on the show (she remains one of my least favorites). But it also bears observing just how far Sirtis has come from her dismal Season One performances. The character remains a weak link, but the actress has proved herself an engaging presence, often in an uphill struggle against weak material.

Geordi: Is yet again tasked with carrying the Technobabble. He does show himself a loyal friend to Data, listening to him as he discusses his dreams and going to Troi to express concern. He also gets lumbered with a tacked-on subplot involving a pretty young ensign (Gina Ravarra)'s crush, a subplot that the episode seems to forget about altogether around the 30 minute mark. Not that I'm complaining about it being a dropped plot, except to wonder why it couldn't have been dropped several scenes earlier.


THOUGHTS

Another reality-bending episode from writer Brannon Braga, Phantasms is neither the best nor the worst of the subgenre. This episode puts Patrick Stewart back in the director's chair, where he makes the most of the script's surreal dream sequences, playing with different angles and camera moves to accentuate the bizarre images. Those images are simple enough for TNG to do well, but also both funny and unsettling: Data, torn apart by odd workmen; Dr. Crusher, sucking fluid from Riker's brain through a straw; the sweets-loving Counselor Troi, turned into a cake, fully conscious as her body is cut into slices with a knife... All good, ghoulish fun.

Less fun are the too-lengthy intervals between dream sequences. The first Act of the episode juggles weirdness and exposition well, but the middle portion slows down with long stretches of exposition. The scenes in which Data seeks guidance first from a holodeck Sigmund Freud (Bernard Kates), then from Troi, may be necessary to the story - but they go on too long, and are not aided by the irritating "Ensign with a crush on Geordi" plot. Dropping that subplot, tightening the Freud/Troi bits, and allowing one more dream sequence into that stretch would have done wonders for the pace.

It picks up again in the final third, as the crew realizes that both Data's behavior and the engine problems are the result of a multi-phasic infestation. This is resolved as it should be: By going back into Data's subconscious and letting his dreams play out, this time with Picard and Geordi as audience. Everything after that point is just mopping up the plot stuff that was the excuse for the fun imagery, and it is dealt with swiftly enough that it doesn't get in the way.

Writer Brannon Braga has done better with this sort of thing. Last season's Frame of Mind was more effective in blurring reality and fantasy, and was better paced and plotted. Still, Phantasms is good fun for what it is. If only the middle of the episode didn't drag so badly, I'd probably rate this a point higher. As it stands, it still gets a high average mark.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: Gambit
Next Episode: Dark Page


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6-25. Timescape.

Picard picks a bad time to develop a sense of humor.

THE PLOT

Picard, Data, Geordi, and Troi are on a runabout, returning from a conference about which the less said, the better. Even before they reach the coordinates of their rendezvous with Enterprise, strange things begin occurring. Troi witnesses the others freeze in mid-sentence for several seconds before resuming as if nothing had happened. Then she loses three minutes, as the others watch her freeze. Investigating, they discover that this area of space is surrounded by time anomalies.

But this is just a taste of what awaits when they reach the Enterprise. They discover the ship frozen in space, apparently under attack from an also-frozen Romulan warbird. Some quick improvisation on Geordi's part allows them to beam to the ship.  Once on board, they discover Romulans on the bridge and in sickbay, apparently attacking crew members in both places. In Engineering, they find a warp core breach in progress, apparently caused by a beam being reflected by the Romulan ship.

Obviously, something must be done to unfreeze time for both ships. But with the Enterprise mere seconds away from destruction, any action taken will have to be precise - meaning that Picard and the others will need to investigate the frozen situation on both ships carefully to determine exactly what was occurring. They will only have seconds to act when the time comes, leaving them no margin for midjudgment, assumption, or error! 


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: An early indication of the runabout crew's vulnerability to the time distortion comes when Picard reaches out to touch a suddenly-aged bowl of fruit - only to gasp in pain and horror as his hand suddenly ages upon making contact. Picard's susceptibility continues as he briefly loses it next to the frozen Warp Core breach, drawing a smiley face in the cloud created by the detonation. When not suffering from the distortion effects, he is fully focused on the task at hand, particularly on keeping the others from interfering in any way until they have a firm grasp on the situation. 

Troi: Apparently took advantage of her time aboard a Romulan ship to gain a working knowledge of Romulan engineering systems. It may seem a reach for this character to suddenly be the Engineering expert, but it does make sense that she would think to scrutinize some of the Romulan systems during her time with them. It's not like it was an opportunity likely to come along often for Starfleet. 

Data: Along with Geordi, gets to carry the Technobabble of the episode, explaining how the time fields work for the benefit of the viewers. Brent Spiner's performance helps to keep Data more than just a source of exposition for the episode, little moments such as his reaction when time moves backward and a crew members is about to back into him keeping him a character instead of just a plot device.

Geordi: The only one to actually enjoy the conference, having been fascinated by a demonstration involving a plasma field. This is appropriate, since Geordi is Technobabble Guy this week. He is the one who makes it possible for them to explore the Enterprise and the warbird, and his scrutiny of the situation makes it clear that while they are shielded from the effects of the distortion, they are not immune to it. 


THOUGHTS

With Brannon Braga scripting an episode centering around time moving backward and forward, complete with the Enterprise exploding and un-exploding at one point, it's impossible to watch Timescape without recalling Season Five's Cause and Effect. The earlier episode was better (was arguably Braga's best of the franchise), but that doesn't keep this from being a worthy episode in its own right.

As is true of most episodes, Timescape is much more intriguing while the characters are investigating than it is once the situation becomes clear. The reason for the time anomalies, involving aliens from an alternate time continuum trying to protect their offspring, is not terribly interesting and feels perfuctory, as if Braga stapled something onto the episode to justify "the cool stuff." As a result, the last ten minutes or so of the show represent by far its weakest portion.

However, the actual scenario, with the Enterprise frozen in time while Picard and his companions investigate, is very effective. There are several very memorable moments here: Picard's close encounter with a bowl of rotting fruit, which an eyeblink goes from rotting to disintegrated; Picard drawing a smiley face in the gas cloud of a warp explosion; Troi looking on in horror at the frozen tableau of a Romulan firing his disruptor into a helpless Dr. Crusher. 

The episode may be a collection of moments, with the story largely connecting one moment to the next - but these moments come at a steady pace, and each of them creates a reaction. I knew while watching that the episode was utter nonsense - but that didn't stop me from being sucked in. It's a roller coaster style episode: It doesn't matter that the destination isn't too interesting, as long as the ride throws you through a few fun loops along the way.

A fun 45 minute ride, and one that I will certainly take again in the future.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Second Chances
Next Episode: Descent


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6-21. Frame of Mind.

Riker fears he is losing his mind.

The government of Tilonus IV has fallen, and a state of anarchy has engulfed the planet. Riker will be sent down to Tilonus alone to locate and retrieve the Federation research team hiding on the planet - a team that Picard warns will be a prime target to the many factions vying for control.

The trip to Tilonus will take several days, so Riker's mission will not get him out of the play he is rehearsing for Beverly. The piece is titled Frame of Mind, a two-hander in which Riker plays a man in an insane asylum, a man who insists he is innocent of a murder charge - something which makes his sinister psychiatrist - portrayed by Data - judge him to be all the more unstable. 

The performance goes well, and Riker receives an enthusiastic ovation from the crew. But when he takes his bow, the Enterprise disappears. He finds himself inside the ward of the play, with his sinister "doctor" no longer Data but rather the alien Syrus (David Selburg) questioning him. Syrus greets him with the same line that closed the play:

"We have a lot of work to do..."


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: As the episode goes along, Syrus temporarily convinces Riker that the Enterprise and its crew are a complex delusion. He subjects Riker to a therapy in which a machine scans his mind and projects different parts of his personality. Troi is emotion, Worf is aggression. Picard, of course, is reason, dispassionately recalling the events that brought Riker to the hospital as Troi and Worf recall what he was feeling during that struggle. 

Riker: This episode is a showcase for Jonathan Frakes, who by nature of the story is in virtually every scene. Frakes throws himself into this on-edge, emotional Riker, and does so in a way that doesn't compromise Riker's usual characterization. For most of the episode, he never stops thinking, trying to interact with both the ship and hospital realities. He is confused, increasingly so as he switches back and forth between both environments, but he tries to connect with whatever reality he inhabits and is able to draw connections between them. Those connections, along with a couple of convenient continuity errors, finally allow him to see the truth behind the strangeness.

Dr. Crusher: Pushes Riker to give a strong performance in the play, and one senses that her love of her little acting sideline has perhaps overwhelmed her a bit. We even see Picard urging Riker to go ahead with the performance even as he prepares for the mission. If Riker backs out, Picard observes, then Dr. Crusher will come after him to play it! Because of the connection between the play and Riker's hospital experiences, he tells her about it before anyone else, making her his sounding board for this episode.


THOUGHTS

Finally, an episode centered around someone other than Picard that's actually good! Don't get me wrong, Patrick Stewart's Picard is the show's most consistently strong asset... but the extended run of Picard-centric episodes, with the only break the mediocre Birthright, had become wearying. Having a genuinely intriguing episode that's centered around another member of the cast is definitely a good thing.

Given that this was written by Brannon Braga, I cannot help but notice how similar it is to Braga's Schisms from earlier this season. Many of the same trappings are present: a Riker who is sleep-deprived and emotionally on-edge, a first Act in which everything seems normal until a sudden reveal. But it's more smoothly executed this time around. While the first Act of Schisms was largely tedious, this episode captures the attention immediately. Even in the first Act, there's a definite sense of something being "off," from Riker's sightings of unfamiliar crew members in the corridors to Worf's over-aggressive briefing for the mission. The Tilonus mission itself creates a sense of structure that was lacking in Schisms' first act, while at the same time layering in some exposition and context for Riker's later struggles.

James L. Conway brings a strong visual style to his direction. For an episode partially centered around a stage performance, it's appropriate that he uses a lot of theatrical technique. The show opens on Riker performing against black. His scene from the play is allowed to carry the first few minutes before any context is given, and all we really see is Riker's face, with Data's voice off-camera. The actor and his emotional delivery keep it engaging, and we wait to find out exactly what is going on... Really, a perfect way to start an episode in which even the main character isn't sure what's really happening to him until very late in the story!

Conway also has fun with the scenes in which the Enterprise sets and the hospital sets are merged. At one point, Riker looks out onto a corridor and sees the hospital corridor instead of the ship. He closes his eyes, willing it not to be real, then opens them again to see the ship's corridor. He relaxes briefly, until he encounters a character from the hospital - then runs to his quarters, where he hears the door lock like a cell door. He looks up to see that he is standing back in the hospital, and there's a wonderful zoom in on Riker's face through the door, screaming to be let out.

Frame of Mind is genuinely creepy and atmospheric. It is well-performed by Jonathan Frakes, and it's stylishly directed. Definitely a good one.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: The Chase
Next Episode: Suspicions


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