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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7-9. Force of Nature.

Two alien scientists deliver a dire warning.

THE PLOT

The Fleming, a Federation medical transport, has disappeared in the Hekaras Corridor. The corridor is the only safe path to travel through this region of space, which is characterized by intense tetryon fields. The Fleming isn't the only ship to experience issues. During the search, the Enterprise encounters a Ferengi vessel whose warp drive is offline and whose systems are crippled.

After Picard assists with repairs, DaiMon Prak (Lee Arenberg), the Ferengi captain, admits that they observed the Fleming traveling through the corridor and provides Picard with the ship's heading. But the Enterprise arrives too late. All that remains of the Fleming is debris.

Just then, the Enterprise is struck by a verteron pulse, taking the ship's warp drive and shields offline... at which point Hekaran scientists Rabal (Michael Corbett) and Serova (Margaret Reed) beam onto the ship with a potentially devastating revelation!

CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Though he is not pleased at the tactics of the Hekaran scientists, their claims are serious enough that he immediately agrees to let Data review their findings. He states that he considers it part of his job to keep an open mind, even when he's annoyed. When the rift opens near the end of the episode, complicating the ship's rescue mission, there are two obvious options - both of them bad. He tells his officers that he wants them to find him a third option, and trusts Geordi and Data to do just that.

Data: Has allowed his cat, Spot, such a degree of free reign that Geordi finds the cat unmanageable and "out of control." We see that whatever difficulties Data may face in training Spot, the cat has certainly trained Data, who feeds and plays with the animal on cue. In the "A" plot, it is Data who figures out how to complete the rescue mission without using warp engines in the rift, calculating what to do to the exact second.

Geordi: His engineering acumen gives him enough knowledge to improvise when Data's rescue plan gets thrown an unexpected curveball. His basic decency is such that, despite Serova displaying no sympathetic traits whatever, he still feels guilt when she is driven to rash action.

THOUGHTS

Force of Nature is TNG's environmentalist episode. It's the one in which warp drive turns out to be damaging the fabric of the universe. I'd love to say that this idea has potential. The truth is, it was a lousy idea from the start. With warp drive so integral a part of the Star Trek franchise, it was inevitable that the limits put on warp travel in this episode would never be enforceable across multiple series. The only possible result was what happened: The limit was paid lip service to a very few times before being utterly ignored thereafter.

Which... Fair enough. It's an episode that exists entirely in isolation, because it cannot affect the wider franchise. Fine. After all, Ethics paralyzed Worf, ended with us being told that he had a long, slow road ahead of him, and then saw him 100% recovered by the next episode with the incident never even mentioned again.  None of which prevented it from being a worthy episode in its own right. 

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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7-3. Interface.

Geordi receives a message from
his missing mother (Madge Sinclair)

THE PLOT

The USS Raman, a Federation science vessel, is trapped in the atmosphere of Marijine VII, a gas giant planet. Interference makes it impossible for the Enterprise's sensors tell whether the crew is alive or dead, and it is too dangerous to beam crew members directly aboard. The only option is an experimental virtual reality interface, in which the sensors Geordi uses for his visor allow the engineer to control the probe as if it were his own body.

Just before the mission, Geordi receives disturbing news. His mother (Madge Sinclair)'s ship, the Hera, is missing, presumed lost. Geordi insists on going through with his mission, however, insisting that if the crew of the Ramanare alive, they can't wait the time it would take to retool the interface for someone else's use. He dons the interface suit and plugs in.

He discovers that the crew are all dead. But then something more happens. While attempting to retrieve the data the ship had been collecting, his mother appears before him, telling him that the Raman needs to go down to the planet or else she and the rest of her crew will die!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: He's sympathetic to Geordi's desire to believe his mother is alive, but he isn't willing to risk Geordi's safety on a paper-thin hypothesis that Data deems "almost impossible." 

Geordi: Goes into denial about his mother's disappearance. "The Hera is missing, that's all," he insists. "Until I hear something different, my mother might just as well have taken the crew on an unscheduled holiday!" When his father (Ben Vereen) tries to make him accept that she is gone, Geordi snaps at him. He is more open with Data, however, acknowledging the likelihood of her death but confessing that he doesn't know how he'll be able to deal with it if she really is gone.

Dr. Crusher: Shows immediate concern when Geordi insists on increasing the safety tolerances for better control of the probe, but she does go along with the increases. After an accident with the interface puts Geordi in jeopardy, she has concerns about him returning to it. But she does agree that if the tolerances are kept within a safer margin, that the "risk is acceptable," showing a comprehension of the balance between crew safety and the success of the mission - something that hasn't always been evident in her character.


THOUGHTS

While it's only about an average episode, Interface is a solid piece of television. Writer Joe Menosky does his usual fine job with characterization, and the concept of the VR interface is a nice hook on which to hang Geordi's emotional dilemma. Geordi's need to deal with the loss of his mother is the real story, of course - but by folding that story within the structured narrative of the retrieval of the Raman's crew, Menosky keeps the story moving forward when it might otherwise bog down.

The last episode to spotlight Geordi was Aquiel, a turgid bore that had no interest in his character beyond using him as a plot piece. This episode actually focuses on Geordi's personality. His emotional turmoil surrounding his mother's disappearance is convincingly portrayed, from his guilt at not seeing her the last time he had the chance to his inability to accept her death without wreckage or a body. He grasps at thin theoretical straws to come up with a way that she might be alive - all of which makes his shipmates even more prone to believing, when he receives an apparent message from his mother, that he is actually hallucinating due to the VR interface.

Levar Burton's very good performance and the convincing portrayal of Geordi's emotions keep the episode grounded, but these positives can't disguise a few moments in which Geordi's behavior would simply not be acceptable within a military chain of command. I'm particularly thinking of the ready room scene, in which Geordi responds to a "No" from Picard by literally hitting a chair. There are a few such moments when Geordi's tone or behavior just seem too unprofessional for Picard and/or Riker to overlook, even taking grief into consideration. At the very least, they would look at that behavior and temporarily relieve him due to his emotional state.

That's one reason why this episode gets a "6" instead of a "7," though in truth it's not enough by itself. The other reason why I consider this more of an "average" episode than a truly "good" one is harder to define. It's more a question of personal response. The episode has merit, and I enjoyed watching it. But it just doesn't quite get the level of response from me that I'd have liked. I wasn't bored at any point while watching it. However, I was always watching it, rather than becoming truly involved in it.

If nothing else, this was at the very least substantially better than Liaisons.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: Liaisons
Next Episode: Gambit


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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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6-13. Aquiel.

Geordi falls for the prime suspect in a murder!

THE PLOT:

The Enterprise arrives at a communication station near the Klingon border. They are there to deliver supplies, but discover that the station is deserted. Neither station officer is anywhere to be seen, and some organic residue on the floor indicates some kind of violent confrontation.

Geordi accesses the logs of Aquiel Uhnari (Renee Jones), the station's communications officer. Her entries indicate conflict between the station's senior officer, Lt. Rocha, and herself. She also mentions trouble with Commander Morag (Reg E. Cathey), an aggressive Klingon officer who harrasses the station regularly. 

When Picard contacts the Klingons, they insist that they had nothing to do with whatever befell the station. They do have one thing to contribute to the investigation, though - a surprise for the Enterprise crew: Aquiel Uhnari, alive and well... and now the prime suspect in the death of Lt. Rocha!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Gets one decent scene early in the episode, as he faces down the Klingon governor, Torak (Wayne Grace). Torak tries to establish dominance through belligerence. Picard responds by being pleasant and polite - and by pleasantly and politely invoking his relationship with Gowron to intimidate the Klingon into cooperating. All very obvious stuff (as with everything in this script), but it is at least entertaining, which raises this one moment above everything else in the episode.

Riker: A look at the respective records of Aquiel and the missing Lt. Rocha is enough to make Riker suspect the young woman of murder. Rocha has a spotless record, Aquiel a very bad one. As we've seen in his previous dealings with Ensign Ro, Riker has a tendency to equate "bad officer" with "bad person," and does not believe a thing the young woman says from that point on, instead shifting into prosecutorial mode.

Geordi: Another Geordi-centric episode that reduces this likable and competent character to little more than a hormone-driven boy with a crush. In an attempted nod to Otto Preminger's excellent Laura, Geordi begins falling for Aquiel even when she's presumed dead, smitten by the young woman he sees in her logs and correspondence. This fails to convince, as does Geordi's borderline insubordinate behavior when Riker points out (gruffly, but not unreasonably) that Aquiel might be a suspect and that it might not be good for the engineer to get too close to her. 

Hot Space Babe of the Week: Though this is a weak script to start with, the episode is doomed by the casting of Renee Jones as Aquiel. Jones gives a flat performance, devoid of any hint of the humor Geordi tells us she displays in her logs. Her entire personality is told to us. Geordi informs us that she is quirky and complicated, but these traits are completely absent from the woman we actually see on screen. Levar Burton struggles gamely, but neither Jones nor the script ever convince me that this woman is worth Geordi's time - or ours, for that matter.


THOUGHTS

Writers Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga have been individually responsible for many enjoyable to outright excellent hours of Star Trek. It's fair to say that, in TNG terms at least, seeing either name on the credits of an episode is good news. Which makes it all the more disappointing that Aquiel is such an utterly worthless piece of television.

This was apparently intended as a departure into film noir.  This could work with a sharp script, a good guest cast, and atmospheric direction. Aquiel possesses none of these qualities. The script is competently structured but bland, Moore and Braga obviously finding no inspiration in the story. Even the Klingon scenes, usually Moore's strong suit, come across as requisite posturing with little of interest.  Nor does Cliff Bole's static direction provide anything visually interesting to make up for the other shortcomings.  Everything is just... flat.

It isn't even bad enough to be funny. The series' early days saw some horrible episodes, but I could at least enjoy tearing into the likes of The Last Outpost, Angel One, and Justice. They were horrible television, but I wasn't truly bored by them - I was too shocked at the blazing ineptitude on display to find them boring.

Aquiel is one of the dullest hours of Star Trek I've seen. If some of the Season One stinkers were TNG's answer to Spock's Brain, so bad that you just had to sit back and laugh... Well, this is TNG's The Lights of Zetar - an episode so tedious and lifeless that no one can even bother to remember it.


Overall Rating: 1/10.

Previous Episode: Ship in a Bottle
Next Episode: Face of the Enemy


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6-9. The Quality of Life.

Data is intrigued by the mechanical exocomp.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise has been sent to evaluate a particle fountain, a new technology intended to be used for deep mining. It is the brainchild of Dr. Farallon (Ellen Bry), who has pushed it into existence over the past six years. The project is behind schedule, having encountered one problem after another. To overcome these setbacks, Farallon has invented the exocomps, taking the design of a basic servo unit and adding on a replicator and the ability to learn. "It becomes a better tool the more you use it," Farallon explains.

When one of the exocomps behaves strangely just prior to the explosion of a plasma conduit, the machine is taken offline so that Farallon, Geordi, and Data can determine what happened. Data discovers a preponderance of new data pathways. He comes to believe that the machine deliberately exited the conduit as an act of self-preservation. The exocomp, Data argues, is no longer merely a mechanism. It is now demonstrating the properties of sentient life!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Shows a strong trust in Data's judgment. Even when it appears that the exocomps have failed the crew's (contrived) test of sentience, he says to Data that he considers the time taken to address this possibility as "time well spent." Nor does he question Data's decision near the episode's ending, despite it being a choice that could easily justify a court martial. The protection of life in any form is a priority, one for which Picard cannot fault his second officer.

Data: The importance he places on proving the exocomp's status as a life form goes beyond simple scientific investigation. As he explains to Dr. Crusher, he has been unique in the universe as a sentient machine. The discovery of another living machine makes him less alone. This is likely why he continues testing and re-testing the exocomp even after its sentience has been seemingly disproved.

Geordi: Once again demonstrates his ability to improvise quickly in a crisis. When an accident on the facility causes a radiation build-up, he uses the station controls to create a low-level force field. As he tells Picard, it won't save them forever - but it does give Riker and the Enterprise crew 22 minutes to find a way to get them out.

Dr. Crusher: Data's ally in his attempts to prove the exocomps' sentience. She is patient when Data asks her to define life, and she seeks him out after the failed test to continue their discussion. When the exocomp demonstrates that it recognized the test as false, she verbalizes it for Data's benefit (and that of the audience):"The exocomp didn't fail the test. It saw right through it!"

Hot Alien Space Scientist of the Week: Farallon (Ellen Bry) is the scientist who has created the exocomps. A nice touch in an otherwise ordinary episode is that the exocomps are not the focus of her work. Her focus is on the particle fountain. To her, the exocomps are simply a tool to help her complete the work. As such, the attention Data directs to them is an irritant to her, something she dubs a waste of time. Though effectively the villain of the piece, she doesn't come across as belligerent. She is simply focused on her work, largely to the exclusion of all else.


THOUGHTS

The Quality of Life is a very ordinary, middle-of-the-road TNG episode. We've seen the same basic questions at the core of this episode already addressed, most notably in Season Two's The Measure of a Man - though also, to varying degrees, in Evolution, The Offspring, and even Home Soil. This episode adds nothing new, save for its life-form being one that doesn't actually speak.

That said, it's a well-made and well-acted episode. Jonathan Frakes directs, which is always good news. Though this installment is particularly dialogue-driven, Frakes still brings a sense of the visual to the proceedings. His use of depth in his shot selection opens up what might have felt like a filmed stage play.

The episode's biggest limitation is its script. This is most evident at the climax, when a third act crisis comes out of nowhere, its cause unexplained even at the episode's end. The entire situation is just a contrivance to allow the exocomps to demonstrate their sentience in a dramatic way. Since the crisis doesn't feel like an organic part of the episode, none of these scenes carry any weight. All the usual dramatic boxes are ticked off, and we move on to the tag.

Another problem is the exocomps themselves. There don't seem to be any consistent rules about their inteligence and sentience. The first part of the episode suggests that the exomcomps develop sentience as they perform new tasks. Some exposition delivered by Farallon suggests that when an exocomp reaches this point, it ends up being wiped in order to remain useful as a tool. This would suggest that only the exocomp Data has been testing should be at this stage. The two still in-service as tools should still be mechanisms, albeit ones working toward that same level. Nevertheless, the climax shows all three exocomps to be fully sentient and equally intelligent.

These issues make it difficult to fully engage with the story. There are good scenes, and I didn't dislike the episode. But even its best moments are hobbled by TNG having traveled this road before, and to far better effect.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: A Fistful of Datas
Next Episode: Chain of Command


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6-5. Schisms.

Crew members recreate a shared nightmare on the holodeck.

THE PLOT:

Riker is having sleep trouble. Not insomnia - He's getting to sleep just fine, and he's sleeping the whole night through. But he has difficulty waking, and he goes through the day in a haze of tension and exhaustion.

His problems began with the Enterprise's entry into an uncharted globular cluster. Issues aren't confined to Riker for long. Soon, Geordi's visor begins cutting out at random intervals, while Worf responds with paranoia to a barber's scissors. Something is affecting all of them. And if they can't find the source soon, then it may threaten the entire ship!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: He only fully becomes involved in the final stretch of this story, but we do get a good look at his ability to listen to his people and make decisions based on their input. He is able to guide Geordi to find a way to trace the source of the issues.  He also accepts Riker's offer to be used as, essentially, bait to spring a trap. He is a pragmatist, and he makes it clear that if Riker is trapped, then the plan must go ahead - even if that results in the first officer's death. The ship is more important than any one crew member, something Picard knows and Riker accepts.

Riker: A strong episode for Riker, which is something that's become much rarer than it used to be. He is the first crew member to be affected, and his nonstop exhaustion makes him the most visibly affected. His leadership skills show when he meets with other affected crew members. He is the one who leads them to the holodeck and initiates the reconstruction of their shared memory, which provides the first steps toward achieving a resolution. He also plays the hero role at the end, risking himself to save the ship.

Geordi: His sensor modifications put the ship in danger (apparently, though I'm not sure the timing works out - more on that later). But even if his eagerness to tinker plays a role in creating the situation, his ability to tinker successfully is what makes it possible for the ship to extricate itself. 


THOUGHTS

Schisms starts out slowly. The teaser is downright boring, with Riker's all-day bedhead seeming to be the only thing out of the ordinary and with us being lulled to the credits with the genuinely hideous spectacle of Data performing a poetry recital.

After credits, though, it doesn't take long for the episode to start hooking the viewer's interest. Riker guards against oversleep by asking Geordi to stop by his quarters. We see him settle in for the night, only to be wakened a few seconds later by Geordi. The engineer is keeping his appointment. Even though Riker just settled down to sleep and even though we've been watching him, what seems like a few uninterrupted seconds was actually hours.

This is a Brannon Braga script, so the mind immediately jumps to there being some kind of time anomaly. When Data suddenly loses 90 minutes, that starts to seem like the most likely explanation. Then Riker reacts badly to a console, Worf responds with fear to a pair of scissors, and it becomes clear that something more is happening.

One of the reasons Schisms works so well is that the characters behave intelligently. Riker has sleep trouble for multiple days in a row? He goes to Dr. Crusher to find out if something's wrong with him. Geordi's visor gives him trouble? He does the same. Riker and Worf react emotionally to common objects? They go to Counsellor Troi - Where they learn that others are having the same problems, enabling them to put the pieces together.

There's an outstanding scene about halfway through the episode. Once those affected get together and start reconstructing what happened to them, Riker takes them to the holodeck to literally reconstruct a shared vision. Bit by bit, they create something. It starts as a simple wooden table. Then the table is curved. Then it is metal. Then there is a restraint. Then there is a swinging arm. An attachment. A blade. Like the episode itself, what begins seeming benign and even a bit dull (a sleepy man, a wooden table) becomes something frightening.

"I've been in this room before," Geordi says, looking physically ill at the realization. Riker is grim, purposeful even, as he responds: "We all have."

From that point, it's a rapid build to the resolution. The last Act of the show moves quickly to an effective enough close. The solution relies heavily on Technobabble, but the basic principle of tracking something to its source is easy to grasp and seems sensible, which makes the meaning of the jargon comprehensible and maintains the suspense right up to the end.

That said, there is one structural issue. We are told that the problems occur because Geordi's sensor modifications attracted unwanted attention. But he doesn't use the modified sensors until after the show opens - and Riker is already affected by that point. Which means that the timing just doesn't work out. A minor point, and one that can be handwaved away (Geordi had already tested it before mentioning it to Riker, and the test was what drew attention), but worth mentioning.

Still a good, creepy episode with an ending that avoids evaporating the atmosphere. Schisms is a bit reminiscent of Night Terrors in overall feel - but solid storytelling and a good use of a slow build make this episode succeed where that one failed.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Relics
Next Episode: True Q


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