Ah, season one TNG. It’s so hard to believe we liked this stuff in 1987. So if this episode is another sub par season one episode, why do I like it?? Let’s see:
Plot Synopsis:
As the Enterprise is carrying delegates for two worlds vying for Federation membership, who hate each other, it passes by a strange cloud some kind of force penetrates the ship and inhabits Worf. It then moves on to Crusher. At the same time all kinds odd malfunctions occur in the ship.
The entity jumps from system to system and accidentally kills an engineer before moving on to a Bridge station. While the crew determines that the malfunctions are neither a design flaw or the alien delegates on board, the entity takes over Picard. Picard, under the control of the alien force, suddenly turns the Enterprise around back to the cloud.
Despite concerns from the senior officers that the captain is acting odd, they do nothing until arriving back at the cloud. Where Picard reveals he and the alien are sharing identity and will be beaming off the ship to exist together. Picard manages to incapacitate the crew and beam off the ship, but somehow (it’s lame) manages to return and is safely beamed back on board with no memory of what happened.
\What I Liked:
The mystery really isn’t that bad. We only have passing idea what is going on, and the episode does a decent job of keeping us wondering. When Picard is taken over Patrick Stewart does a great job being the combined Picard. It’s amazing how his relaxed demeanor is almost chilling. And Troi is shown to be competent here when she examines Crusher, you know it has to be season one when she gets directly involved.
That suspense of what is happening with our captain is pretty good to leading to the scene where Picard announces what is going on and his plan to leave the ship. The entity stowed away when the Enterprise passed by and has been trying to get help somehow. The speech is well done as Picard explains he is beaming out with the entity. It’s a pretty well executed moment when he uses energy to incapacitate the crew. It’s a little vague just what he is doing to others, some seem to immobilized and others can’t see (?) but the scene works really good. Ok it’s not perfect you could argue the acting is a little over the top. I still liked it. And since I hated Picard when I first saw this episode, I was kind of hoping this really would be the last we’d see of him. No such luck.
The alien delegates. Let me explain, when the first line of TNG action figures came out they didn’t have much to go on. So they created action figures for the Antican and Selay that appear here. I had them and played with them, so seeing this episode always reminds me of those toys. Silly, I know.
Colm Meaney makes his second appearance here. He’s an unnamed officer, but it’s still cool to see him in such an early episode. And yes the Antican is played by Gul Dukat himself, Mark Alamo.
What I Hated:
Season one silliness permeates this episode. The lack of a chief engineer for one. Also the smiling and smug Riker. Hard to believe I liked him in this era. Dr.Crusher is seen wearing a shower curtain prop over her eye so hideous that it was instantly mocked and thankfully never seen again. And of course Wesley is insufferably annoying. And yes there is a pompous attitude with out crew which was standard in season one.
There is a lot of filler in this episode. As the entity bounces around the ship the crew kind of stands around wondering why there are so many malfunctions. It really goes nowhere, including the bit about Data taking an interest in Sherlock Holmes (which did last admittedly). And the death of the assistance engineer is extremely pointless. I get the feeling the writer felt like they needed something interesting to happen, so killing this guy was all they had.
The ending gets kind a silly. First Picard manages to find the ship in energy form..somehow. The union between Picard and the entity failed…for some reason. He manages to get back into the ship and notify Troi…somehow. Data saves the day when he is able to materialize Picard’s energy form with his physical pattern that is still in their transporter (yeah that sounds kind of lame as I read it). Picard materializes and of course remembers nothing. But that’s not all! It could have ended there but instead Tasha storms into the transporter room to announce the delegates are killing each other or something. Not only do Picard and Riker seem to not even care, it’s just a bad scene as Denise Crosby delivers her lines like she has no idea what she’s saying. I wish this ending had been cut in the BBC America re-run rather than gauging Picard’s speech on the Bridge. While I normally loathe the BBC America edits (some actually hurt the episode! Don’t they know the show was designed to have five breaks?) this one would have been ok.
Ok I get the conference the senior officers have to discuss Picard, it’s a good scene and establishes the officers are at least paying attention. They wait to see what happens next. But later the entity basically admits to Crusher that he and Picard are of a single mind now. And Crusher still refuses to act! Relieve him! No she waits until it’s literally to late! What the hell Beverly?
Fast Forward Moment :
Almost any scene with the alien delegates honestly. While I have a nostalgic fondness for them, they are boring characters who add nothing to the story. Who we never see or hear from again. And no, I’m not getting into the animal enslavement crap in this episode.
Final Thoughts:Not the worst of season one, but that’s not saying
much. Why do I it like then? No idea really, guess that’s what makes it a
guilty pleasure.
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