The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Goblin on 2009-01-29 at 1:44pm:
  I thought this episode was really boring actually. I don't think that this deserves anwhere near as high as an 8.
• From schn on 2010-11-12 at 11:49pm:
  I get that this episode was meant to show someone walking away from Starfleet, but that is very easy to do when you have super powers.
• From MJ on 2011-01-05 at 5:37pm:
  I hated this episode.
  
  What bothers me is the politically correct, New Agey brand of spirituality the episode gives the Native Americans. While trying to make them look like the good guys here, this “magical, mystical Indian” portrayal is just as racist, and just as inaccurate, as the “barbarian-savage” portrayal you got from early white sources in the Americas. The American Indian belief systems varied widely from tribe to tribe, and also the way the Indians interacted with nature was just as varied across the Americas. The notion that they were like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before the white man’s arrival is patently ridiculous. And, now enter one of TNG’s strangest characters, the Traveler, and his vague explanations for how he taps into the raw energy of the universe to do what he does, all of which is apparently on par with what the Indians believe, and all as part of some journey of self-discovery for Wesley? Where is the usual TNG in all of this?
  
  Well, it’s there, actually. It’s just interwoven with all this PC stuff. It could be a really good episode that tackles a meaningful, real-world problem: whether it’s right for a government to force people from their homes for the “greater good” of a peace settlement. But that takes a backseat to the Wesley plot. I thought "The Ensigns of Command" did a much better job with this problem.
  
  I can appreciate what the episode was trying to do. It’s the Seventh Season, and TNG needs to tie up all the loose ends. Last we saw of Wesley, he had gotten in trouble at Starfleet Academy for participating an illegal dare-devil stunt, and was subsequently held back a year. Not exactly a good finale for a character who played a major role in several seasons of the show. And, I do like how Wesley has a bit of a chip on his shoulder here, not bouncing back all fresh and perky after a miserable year at the Academy being shunned by his classmates. I even like the idea of him becoming disillusioned with Starfleet and wanting something different. It just didn’t seem this was a good sendoff for the character.
  
  Maybe what bothers me the most is that Wesley will actually be exploring the Galaxy in a far more significant way than Picard and crew, which takes something away from their mission and storyline. Their ship, with all its technology and its highly trained crew, won’t get nearly as far as this boy wonder hopping around higher existence with the Traveler and possibly some Indians. It’s ultimately unsettling because at the end of “All Good Things” we’re told that amazing new discoveries are what await Picard; seems Wesley’s the one actually having all the fun. I never liked the Traveler to begin with. As superior life forms go, the Q Continuum was TNG’s stroke of genius. This Traveler just gets in the way of the whole plot and adds a “feel-good” element that TNG would be better off leaving alone. Science fiction is not science, but one of the things I’ve always appreciated about TNG is that at least they have plausible explanations for some of what goes on.
• From Trekstar on 2011-01-31 at 5:31am:
  This episode makes me cringe. I never actually hated Wesley Crusher, but every so often he would say or do something so lame and so cheesy. I think the character wasn't fully developed because the writers didn't know what the hell they wanted from him. Not only do they give him the dumbest lines in this ep., but they give everyone else dumb lines when they are around him. Like the eye rolling crap that Data says when he sees Wesley for the first time. I personally wish they would have made Wes angrier and angrier in each ep he did, then have him(with the help of his time traveler friend) become a Darth Vader type bad guy. Sweet lil Anakin becomes Darth Vader; sweet nerdy Wesley Crusher becomes...something! Oh well, they instead wrote this masterpiece. One last thing, the traveler really bugs me. I guess they are going for a mystical feel to this guy, but to me he seems too creepy, like a pedophile who's been lurking in the shadows, watching Wesley grow into a man so they can skip off into other realities together. The point: I hate this episode, and I hate the way they said good bye to Wesley Crusher!!!
• From John on 2011-02-06 at 11:30pm:
  I have to agree with others that this episode definitely exploits a stereotype to tell its story. One thing I hate about this episode (and this extends to Voyager episodes about Chakotay) is the cheesy flute music. Why has this one musical form been used as a meme for all Native Americans? Are we supposed to believe that all the people who first populated the Americas listened to one style of crappy music? It's utter nonsense, and basely false.
  
  Another thing for which the writers ought to be ashamed is referring to the settlers as "Indians". This happens repeatedly, and each time it makes me cringe. This is the 24th century -- by all other indications, humanity has moved beyond these dated and racist terms. Why not just call them "settlers"? That is, after all, what they are.
  
  I really don't like this episode. The only thing that redeems it at all for me is that Wesley finally goes away.
• From Dorvan on 2013-08-12 at 12:59am:
  This episode was written as my 13th birthday present by Ron Moore. Most of it was based on a conversation my mother had with him about Star Trek failure to include Native American characters. For the most part I liked it and it was a good send-off for Wesley...However I did have a huge problem with the cliche Native American stereotype. Picking on Picard because of something his ancestor did. I am sure that with any good research you can link anyone to a bloodthirsty ancestor. Dumb. That flute is annoying…vision quest is the answer to everything…we speak to the bear...all they need was a catch phrase like Hackuchimoya…
  
  This episode would have been better off with some actual research into Native culture.
• From Keefaz on 2017-02-21 at 10:15am:
  A pretty feeble episode. Amazingly ham-fisted treatment of Native American culture. I thought we'd agreed not to refer to them as 'Indians' decades ago, so how this slipped into the script is beyond me. And the episode works on two different levels of bullsht in that the quasi-Native American rubbish about spirit animals (incidentally, how could a Klingon or Vulcan be a spirit animal, no different to a parrot, as claimed here?) turns out to be a fabrication by The Traveller.
  
  Best scene: a fight breaks out which could, potentially, reignite a Federation-Cardassia war and Wes and The Traveller just stroll off, beatifically, into the sunset.
• From Mike on 2017-07-29 at 11:08pm:
  After Nechayev's first meeting with Picard, she walks out of the observation lounge, stops, and thanks Picard for making her feel welcome. I was kind of hoping she'd slink back to the table, grab some Valarian canopies, say, "just going to take a few of these for the road" and then leave. I mean she didn't eat a single one after Picard went to all that trouble!
  
  Wesley's douchebaggery is a little hard to stomach in this episode because at times it felt very overdone. But, it's fitting for his character after we last saw him get reprimanded for a daredevil stunt at the Academy. The scenes with him and the Traveler were also a little tough to get through, and the one where they casually stroll away from the battle in the village was just awkward. As mentioned above, it feels like the Enterprise's experiences will pale in comparison to Wesley and the Traveler.
  
  That aside, the rest of this episode was well done and explored a relevant issue. In the 1990's, with the production of "Dances With Wolves", mainstream U.S. society was starting to take a look at the country's history of dealings with American Indians. The historical undertones of this episode reflect that effort and give us yet another example of Star Trek's forward thinking on these issues.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-05-28 at 7:29pm:
  Changed Premise: Troi senses "considerable deception on Bok's part and danger." In future episodes, Betazoids cannot sense Ferengi thoughts.
  
  - Why didn't Picard set the autodestruct sequence on the Staegazer? Why did he abandon it and just let it drift through space for anyone to discover?
  - While Data figures out a defense for the Picard Maneuver, he says, "... a vessel in the Picard Maneuver might seem to disappear ..." The vessel doesn't seem to disappear, it seems to be in two places at once!
  - Why didn't Riker grab the Stargazer with a tractor beam before it flew off? He had plenty of time!! A lot happens from the time Riker finds out Picard is under some kind of mental control to when the Stargazer flys out of tractor beam range (including a very very long speech by Bok)
• From Bernard on 2008-01-16 at 10:36pm:
  I think this is a pretty decent first season offering, I only wish they had done more on Picard and his Stargazer days later on in the series. The pityfully one dimensional ferengi 'bad guy' does nothing to help this episode though...
  
  They (the series producers) seemed very eager to bring in the new race, the ferengi, but this is the second occasion when they just failed to give them any real character. Oh well, give it six years and we can watch them come into their own in DS9.
• From tigertooth on 2011-02-17 at 2:37pm:
  It seemed to me that they gave away the mind control thing to the audience way too early. Would have been better if Picard had no trouble before the Stargazer came around, but then started acting erratically. One could interpret that as him being afraid of his past.
  
  Data discovers that Picard attempted to tamper the logs on the Stargazer, and finds the log that says he destroyed a defenseless vessel. This causes the crew to suspect Picard, and Picard to suspect himself -- and the audience doesn't yet know the true answer. We later learn the false log got there because, instead of the Ferengis faking the log, Bok mind-controlled Picard into re-recording it.
  
  Also it would have been nice if when we were in Picard's Stargazer cabin, he found some things he left behind and reminisced on them -- fleshing out more history. But instead we just got another "Ow, my head!" scene.
  
  It might have been nice if the aliens involved in this story weren't Ferengi. Especially at this point, they were so clearly "bad guys" that there's no way to establish doubt (Kazago's last action did show another side of the Ferengi, but it was too late to help this episode). Maybe it could have been some alien species with some degree of mental powers in order to help explain the mind control device.
• From g@g on 2012-02-06 at 2:50am:
  More problems:
  
  1) How did Riker know Picard took his phaser with him on the Stargazer? For that matter, *why* did Picard have his phaser? He was last reported "resting," hardly a good reason to be armed, - although that might have been some kind of ruse. Still, Picard's movements before he transported were controlled by Bok's "thoughtmaker," and Bok would hardly want to make his job more difficult by arming Picard... Neither the fact that Picard was armed or that Riker somehow knew about it makes any real sense.
  
  2)Beverly makes some odd statements. First of all, she says that cases of headache have been rare ever since the "brain has been charted." The thing is, and I know this from personal experience, many if not most headaches have very little to do with the brain.-They're a result of muscular tension, either in the actual face and scalp muscles (like the Temporalis), or more likely in the neck and shoulder muscles, especially the Sternocleidomastoid, the Scalenes, and the Trapezius. So long as human beings rely on these amazing but fault-prone sinewy tissues for movement, there will, at best, be occasional cases of headaches. The only one on board who is actually immune is Data.
  
  retty cool episode. Esp. liked the human-farengi first officer connection here.
• From Daimon Obumtarr on 2023-04-17 at 5:02pm:
  When they are in the ready room while talking about the forgery, Beverly barges in and addresses Riker as ""Number One".
  Isn't that weird?

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-10-11 at 10:42am:
  - Crusher tells Picard that Amanda has done honors work in "neurobiology, plasma dynamics, and ecoregeneration." Later in the episode, Crusher gives Amanda the task of testing several tricorders and explains their function to Amanda. Shouldn't someone who's done honors work in neurobiology already know how to use a tricorder?
  - When Amanda begins testing the tricorders, she holds the first one pointing away from her body. The rest she holds correctly, pointing toward her body.
  - Q gives Amanda only two choices at the end of the episode: Return to the Continuum, or refrain from using her powers. Isn't there another choice? Amanda claimed that she just wanted to become a normal human again. Isn't that the third choice? In "Deja Q," the Continuum turned Q into a human and stripped him of his powers. Why couldn't they do the same to Amanda, if that's what she really wants?
  - Until this episode, the first contact between humans and the Q Continuum supposedly came during "Encounter At Farpoint." During "Hide And Q," both Picard and Q make several references to this "first encounter." This episode definitely gives the impression that until Farpoint, the Q Continuum knew little and cared less for humanity. However, two members of the Q Continuum had been on Earth, took on human form, and even conceived a child at least a decade before "Encounter At Farpoint"!
  - The transformation of the former turbolift on the right side of the island in Main Engineering proceeds in this episode. In "Realm Of Fear," it leads to some kind of auxiliary engine room. While giving Amanda a tour, Geordi points to the door and identifies it as an entrance to a Jefferies tube.
• From online broker on 2009-10-07 at 11:42am:
  Q says she can do anything she wants as a Q, then why can't she just live as a Q among humans for a while, why couldnt her parents? It would only be a fraction of their existance, anyway. Its not like Q never spent time with the humans, he even got plenty of em killed,too.
• From rpeh on 2010-06-14 at 9:59pm:
  So dull!
  
  The outcome is obvious from the start and nothing that happens during the episode changes that.
• From Quando on 2011-08-24 at 12:35am:
  I kind of like the idea of the Enterprise having an intern program (although I wonder why we never see any other interns). Also, the type of dog that Q turned Beverly into was just perfect. I think it was a red Irish Setter? Very funny.
• From Keefaz on 2017-01-22 at 12:15am:
  Rotten: like all Q episodes. The most overrated character in all of Star Trek.
• From Chris Long on 2020-05-23 at 8:09pm:
  Q is a very irritating introduction to the series, and considering that Roddenberry was an "Atheist" (Clearly not even close) it's amazing that the subject of superior beings came into play so often!
  I am always irritated that they never tied Q back to Trelaine... Ultra irritating!
  I seem to be getting irritated over and over on this subject!!
  No omnipotent being would EVER concern themselves with my being's emotional welfare, much less HUMANS!
  The notion is beyond absurd and... IRRITATING!
  The whole concept of creating gods that somehow can be tweaked by human emotion is just plain moronic...self serving in the extreme and throwing credit where nothing any human is worthy of!
  Human morality was Pickard's stupid argument?!?!? Laughable in the extreme!!!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Sherlock on 2006-10-04 at 9:42pm:
  There are numerous mistakes that Data (actually the writers) make in regards to the Sherlock Holmes canon (one that comes to mind is Data saying Holmes only defeated Moriarty at Reichenbach at the cost of his own life), but despite it, I loved this episode and it's one of my favs. Daniel Davies gets special props for an outstanding Moriarty. He portrays him as intelligent and very aware, not evil.
  Brent Spiner and Levar Burton do a good job as well.
• From Sherlock on 2006-10-07 at 4:41pm:
  Problem:
  Moriarty can clearly see Data, Geordi and Pulaski (and not who they pretend to be) and the arch before the computer bestows upon him the ability to defeat Data. He's looking at the trio oddly as Geordi imputs info with the arch.
  
  Another Problem:
  Data takes the paper that Moriarty drew the Enterprise on out of the holodeck. And when Geordi is looking at it, he's looking at it upside down!
• From DSOmo on 2007-06-16 at 8:53pm:
  - So the computer can create an entity aware of its own consciousness? Not only is Moriarty aware of his own consciousness, he may have qualified for the Grand Prize ... Sentience! In "The Measure Of A Man," we are told a sentient being must have intelligence, self-awareness, and consciousness. Definitely, Moriarty is intelligent. Data states that the computer gave Moriarty consciousness. Troi backs this up when she senses that a "unifying force, or single consciousness is trying to bring it all into focus." All that remains then is to decide if Moriarty is self-aware. "He seems fairly self-aware to me" (to borrow a line that Picard uses in "The Measure Of A Man"). If Moriarty is self-aware, he is sentient. If he is sentient, he is entitled to all the rights granted sentient life forms in the Federation. Doesn't shutting him off constitute a violation of those rights?
  - The whole idea of Geordi misspeaking only one word and narrowly averting disaster must be very upsetting to the crew.
  - The piece of paper leaving the holodeck has already been mentioned (and Geordi looking at it upside down), but what about Dr. Pulaski stuffing herself full of crumpets? When she leaves, does that matter evaporate? Some people would think this wonderful. Enter a holodeck. Eat all you want. Walk out, all gone! ;)
• From Brian D. Parsons on 2008-11-21 at 9:46pm:
  The Enterprise crew ignoring Moriarty after he agrees to be saved in memory wasn't entirely voluntary, per this entry from the IMDb article on this episode:
  
  "The producers, believing that the Sherlock Holmes character was in the public domain, were most surprised when the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle informed them that they still retained the copyright on the character. They did, however, allow the episode to be aired because they felt that the show had done the character justice. Litigation kept the sequel episode "Ship in a Bottle" off the air for nearly four years."
• From hmad on 2010-03-12 at 6:46pm:
  The controversy of whether holograms have a right to sentience is later explored in the Voyager series w/ the EMH doctor and Hirogen Prey episodes.
  
  Federation never regarded anything artificially constructed from their own technology, no matter how sophisticated, as something that should have the capacity for true self-determination. Take for instance the ship's computer, massively powerful and integrated into everything yet has practically no autonomy or decision making ability. Seems hard-to imagine that there would be no AI based technology at some point unless it may have been purposely avoided. (Remember the M5 debacle on Kirk's enterprise?)
  
  @ DSomo: I thought about that too, best explanation may be that food and basic items are somehow replicated on demand within the holodeck for the user's consumption.
• From rpeh on 2010-08-24 at 1:32pm:
  The original review and subsequent comments have said most of what needs to be said, but I just want to point out that the corpse, strangled by his common-law wife is blatantly breathing as it lies on the ground. I know it's a minor point, but hey!
  
  One slightly amusing point is that the French translation doesn't have Picard using the word "merde". Evidently it was too rude - they have him saying something else altogether, although I don't know what it is.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-09-22 at 11:14pm:
  Perhaps obvious, but Daniel Davis who played Prof. Moriarty in this episode appeared as Niles in the Fran Descher sitcom "The Nanny".
• From Inga on 2011-12-27 at 10:22pm:
  Personally, I find the idea of a hologram becoming sentient and self-aware, let alone being able to take control of the ship, a little far-fetched
• From a2a on 2012-02-16 at 8:46am:
  I thought this was a rather brilliant episode. Good idea and good execution. I appreciated how the writers held back and did not have Moriati assume total control of the ship. That would've been somewhat predictable... and of course utterly unrealistic for someone so technologically out of date and rather out of the loop about his actual place in the world. But I can accept that someone with a brilliant scientific mind and a fiery curiosity (and some intense computer processing power in his cranium) could figure out a thing or two and poke rather aimlessly at the ship's controls - even getting the thing to jostle for a moment or two.
  
  Moriarty was an altogether excellent character, and it was great how he became something so much more than a campy villain towards the end. The episode looks forward to more profound holographic-lifeform themes in Voyager and other series, and looks backward to the resolution of The Long Goodbye, when Picard spoke frankly to the holographic characters, who were then compelled to try to leave the holodeck... In fact, there was an either intentional or perhaps subconscious direct allusion to that episode: Moriarty says, "I hate long goodbyes." Picard replies, "Well, a short goodbye then." A clever reference vaguely disguised within a play on words? Or just something that happened spontaneously in the writing?
  
  Small qualm: if this episode was a two-parter or something, I would've expected Moriarty's desire to leave the holodeck to have been elaborated on a bit more. As it was, he never made the rather obvious demand that Picard simply leave him running in the holodeck - he implicitly equated dying with not being able to leave, either literally or by anology... but as far as he was concerned, his entire existence had hitherto been on the holodeck... so, it seems that the status quo would've been a logical (although logistically inconvenient) demand... Of course, I can understand how someone of Moriarty's caliber, having had his eyes opened by this experience, would no longer be satisfied with his prior existence. And I can understand that the writers had to speed through some things...
  
  Actual Problem: if the ship's computer is both powerful and imaginative enough to create Moriarty, a rather brilliant, and most importantly *self-aware* being (arguably life-form), who is capable of learning, innovating, and free will... why on earth does Starfleet need people like Doctor Zimmerman and the holographic engineering industry?
  
• From Dstyle on 2013-08-08 at 1:25pm:
  Whenever someone is trapped in the holodeck (this episode, The Big Goodbye, Fistful of Datas, and more), I always wonder why they don't just get a transporter lock on them and beam them out. Oh, Dr. Pulaski is in danger in the holodeck? Well, we better dress in period costume to go in and get her out!
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-13 at 11:21pm:
  This episode is annoying, for many of the reasons already pointed out. For me the very premise of the episode makes it unsalvageable. As a result of the silly premise, I don't feel interested or invested in the proceeding question of how to treat a new holographic life form. If it's possible for someone in the holodeck -- with just a few magic words -- to inadvertently *create a new sapient life form* which can then *hijack the controls of the ship*, that shows us a catastrophically, criminally dangerous and absurdly overpowered device. (Everything in Trek is overpowered. The phasers, for example, being able to vaporize an entire person in a few seconds, is comical.) As with The Big Goodbye, the fact that they didn't try to cut power or beam anyone out is just the laziest of writing. Do I complain about lazy writing a lot? Yeah, but I'm not wrong!
  
  Data emotion-spotting: Even though Geordi seems more bothered by Pulaski's skepticism of Data's sentience, Data still seems invested in proving his abilities to Pulaski. (He seems to respond well to things that challenge him.) He also seems quite excited while in character. Curious! I'm noticing a pattern: Data exhibits certain emotional expressions in the context of learning about or attaining humanity. Even in the pilot, he said, "I'd gladly give it up to be human." (Gladness is an emotion.) He DOES clearly seem to exhibit emotions around his humanity, but apparently doesn't quite "experience" them, or report them as such.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-05-18 at 3:38am:
  The best scenes in Violations are the actual mind rape scenes. We get to see Picard and Beverly together at the morgue, and Troi and Riker have a romantic encounter. These scences add depth to the characters and make them more lifelike. It is questionable that Jev would believe he could disable three crew members and not get caught. He must have been deeply in love with Troi. It is also surprising that he late Troi regain consciousness. Why not put her back in a coma to keep her off his trail?
  
  The concept of telepathic historians is brilliant, and the female one really seemed like a real alien. There is just something about her. Anyway, this episode gets a 7 because of all the reasons stated.
  
• From DSOmo on 2007-09-24 at 11:14am:
  - After Jev leaves the dinner because of his father's remarks, Troi follows. She catches up with him outside a turbolift. From the time Troi joins Jev outside the turbolift, until she departs, it is one continuous shot. When Jev and Troi get on the turbolift, the first two numbers on the door are "03." However, when the doors close on Jev at the end of the scene, the door once again begins with "03." Troi asked for deck 8 when they boarded the turbolift. It should have read "08" at the end of the scene.
  - Toward the end of the show, Data and Geordi search medical records for comas on the planets visited by the Ulians. At one point, Geordi finds two cases of "Irisine syndrome" during the Ulians visit on Melina II. Geordi's computer screen shows the title "Melina II Planetary Medical Data Base." Data immediately comments on Geordi's success by saying, "Two cases of Irisine syndrome on Jarada III at exactly the time Tarman and his group were there." Jarada III?? The last comment Geordi made concerned Melina II, and his computer screen showed he was still working with the Melina II medical data base.
• From JRPoole on 2008-08-01 at 12:56pm:
  This is a solid, often overlooked episode. It's one of the best of the "real-world issue-exploring" TNG episodes. The sci-fi part this episode (the telpathic historians) is fascinating, and the mind rape scenes are genuinely creepy.
  
  What's that on Picard's face in the morgue flashback? Some sort of medical device? Was Jean-Luc injured in the incident that killed Crusher? It looks like the aftermath of Picard's turn as Locutus, but that doesn't make sense.
• From Dstyles on 2014-07-13 at 2:43am:
  Ugh, I really don't like this episode, and I was surprised to see all the positive comments above. First, while the whole idea of mind rape is interesting, why must we see Troi remember an actual rape? Riker, you asshole, no means no. I guess in the 90s we didn't care so much if images of sexual violence triggered traumatic flashbacks among rape survivors. But go ahead, Picard, imply that rape is no longer a problem in the Federation. I guess date rape doesn't count.
  
  Also, we knew from the very first attack who was responsible, so the dramatic tension was all about whether he'd get away with it, and obviously he wasn't going to get away with it. When Jev did the memory probe on Troi (and why, if they were suspects, were they allowed to do the memory probe? Surely there must be a crew member on board from another telepathic species--a Vulcan, perhaps--who might be able to help retrieve the memory?) and he "discovered" that his father was responsible, I thought, "wow, that would be a really interesting twist! What if the father was actually responsible but was disguising himself as his son in the memory so that if they woke up and remembered anything he'd still be safe?" But of course I knew that wasn't what was going on. I knew that it was actually Jev. And he obviously wasn't going to get away with it. Yawn. I rate this episode a 2.
• From Proconsul Obummer on 2021-08-08 at 9:31am:
  The episode is very much undermined by the creepy closeups the obviously guilty guy gets right from the first minute. Reminds me of the Simpsons where they often parody stuff like that.
  I liked Dr. Crushers new assistant, he was great. Picard with more hair was a highlight, too.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-05-16 at 3:55am:
  Worf finding the idea of a Romulan mating with a Klingon "an obscenity" was hilarious
  
  I liked this episode alot, but I found the ending largely inconclusive
• From JRPoole on 2008-09-22 at 5:27pm:
  This episode is a bit of a dud despite an intriguing premise.
  
  For one thing, it's constructed badly, as Data's issue with his father and the dreams is wrapped up in part I, while Worf's issue with his father and the Klingon prisoners takes up both episodes. Data's exploration of his dreams is intriguing, but the execution was pretty lame and new age-y.
  
  I thought the whole idea of the Klingon prison was great, and Tovak's character was interesting, a mix of idealism and control; he was willing to become a jailer in order to preserve the peace he's created. The scene where Worf's disciple comes in with the freshly killed meat is cool (are the Romulans vegetarians like their cousins the Vulcans?) but it quickly descends into cliche when the song and the speech begin to mimic the civil rights movement and African-American spirituals. Still, the idea is solid enough to carry through, and this one is decent if you overlook some of its problems.
• From McCoy on 2018-01-27 at 12:56pm:
  Another Klingon theme, which - in my opinion - stands against everything Star Trek should be about. Romulan achieved impossible - created peaceful asylum with Roms and Klings living together. But it's bad. Let's destroy it. Because Klingons are honorable and won't tolerate compromises and such disgusting things like peace with enemies. Ugh... We can learn only one thing here - there is no peace with culture based on warrior ethos. So you can only shoot them, because peace is impossible and "dishonorable" for true warriors.
• From QuasiGiani on 2018-06-27 at 11:55pm:
  I am with you, McCoy.
  
  I've never had a Trek character I had good reason to dislike...
  
  But here, now I find Worf acting like a fucking fool.
  
  Yeah, Worf, there was no prison. The dumb-assed "warrior" aspects of Klingon culture was what kept those original Klingon cowards from walking to freedom. There was no prison, indeed. And not because of the lie you told; but in fact.
  
  What a mess of specious, stinking shit this all this "honor" sets itself upon only to sink into. No principle at all.
  
  A persistent _hour_ of this! Worf, FFS, you had better redeem yourself! (~I'm pretty pissed-off at the moment, but do realize, in truth, that I'm watching Worf only maybe half-way through his entire arc... so I still love him, of course, overall... it's just jezbisinfuriating, this episode!)
• From Cthulu on 2023-02-06 at 5:31am:
  Some of these comments miss the point. Worf's goal wasn't to ruin this "utopia". He originally wanted to find his father. He found other survivors. Tokath then forced him to stay to keep the community a secret. Worf didn't want to stay, but if forced, he wanted to at least live like a Klingon. The young people saw his lifestyle, became curious, and wanted to leave. So he helped them. Tokath tried to stop it.
  
  I think Tokath had very good reasons for wanting to preserve the community, and didn't anticipate someone would stumble into town sparking interest among the young Klingons in their culture. But I also don't think you can knock Worf for his actions here.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-30 at 1:44am:
  - This episode opens with Geordi and Worf in Ten-Forward at the bar. Geordi points out a woman at a nearby table. He questions Worf as to what he should say to her. The conversation makes it sound like they've never met. In fact, Geordi has already taken her out at least once. He programmed an entire holodeck sequence for her at the beginning of "Booby Trap," and all she said was she didn't think of Geordi in "that way." Now here she is making eyes at Geordi and acting like she wants to get something started. What changed? Why is Christie Henshaw so interested in Geordi all of a sudden?
  - After Dr. Crusher beams John Doe up to the "Enterprise, she puts him in full "biosupport." One shot shows the panel that displays his current physical status. All the triangle indicators are white and around the middle of their ranges. Later, Crusher says in a voice-over that she has removed John Doe from biosupport and that his major organ systems can now function on their own. So why are the triangle indicators in this shot red and at the extreme left side of their scales? Don't red triangles all the way to the left indicate that a patient is dying?
  - In one scene, Riker waits outside a turbolift. The door opens and reveals Geordi embracing Christie Henshaw. As she leaves the turbolift, Riker enters. Riker says, "Bridge," to state his destination. Geordi adds, "Deck 6," and the turbolift takes off. Why did Geordi have to state where he is going? He was already on the turbolift, it should already know where to take him.
  - Shuttle Craft 5 is once again the object of renumbering or renaming. In the episode "Times Squared," Shuttle Craft "05" was named El-Baz. In the episode "The Ensigns Of Command," it became the Onizuka. Finally, in this episode, Shuttle Craft 5 returns to El-Baz.
• From Rob on 2008-04-13 at 10:54pm:
  I mostly find this episode boring, but the reason I'm commenting is on your complaint of "never hearing from the Zalkonians again". This is true of many, many ST guest alien species so I'm not sure why it stuck in your craw here, but aren't the Zalkonians described as "Xenophobic". I could be wrong here. Again, it's been a long while since I've seen the episode. If they are Xenophobic, it's likely they keep to themselves and only become "aggressive" when their territory is trespassed in. Starfleet would surely avoid intentional trespass against such an aggressive race who is not interested in diplomatic dialog (now if Kirk were in charge of the Federation, that'd be different... how many times did that guy totally ignore warning beacons saying "Go Away").
• From JRPoole on 2008-04-16 at 6:03pm:
  Re: DSOmo's first comment about Christie Henshaw's apparent changing attitudes toward Geordi. This didn't bother me. It seemed pretty in character for a woman. She isn't interested per se, but wants to keep him on the hook. I guess Geordi's new found confidence left with the alien of the week, as I don't think we see Ms. Henshaw again.
  
  I agree with most of the critiques of this episode found here, but I rather like this one. I think the idea of a species on the verge of evolution to a higher plane of existence is interesting, and I like that it's happening on a biological rather than a metaphysical level.
  
  My main problem here is the choking scene. Is the Zalconioan commander doing that with his mind? Or is it some sort of weapon? It's unexplained and rather annoying.
• From Ted on 2011-07-29 at 10:54am:
  Ugh, this episode is a perfect storm of wrong. I probably said, "ugh" at least 10 times in this episode. The story itself and the dialog is ridiculous. The dialog is, I'm sure, the cause of some especially bad acting by almost all of the members of the main cast; notably, the interaction of the Crushers talking about the dreamy alien. The direction is also off in this episode with odd angles, cuts, and continuity (oh, I guess a month just went by). I don't even feel that I need to criticize the character of the near messianic alien.
  Oddly enough, the sick bay and the shuttle bay have never looked better. Did they think that dropping a ton of cash on sick bay props would fix this episode?
  
  Clearly, this is only my opinion as other seem much less critical, but this is surely one of my least favorite in the series. 1 star for the humorous interactions of Geordi and Worf in 10 forward.
• From archibald on 2011-09-27 at 3:42am:
  Why is Data seen contorting on the floor of the bridge with all the breathing humans during the Zalkonian attack? Was he copying their agony for the human experience?
  
  Also, why does Worf think he is such an authority on women? He has spent almost all of his life in Federation space, surrounded mostly by humans. And up to this point in the series he has repeatedly said that he is not exactly sexually compatible with human women. It sounds as if the poor man's sex life is rather limited by his surroundings....
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-21 at 1:01pm:
  As I have pointed out before, TNG has a funny, unscientific concept of evolution. As any student of biology knows, evolution is not pretty. It is dog-eat-dog, kill or be killed. There is no way that a sentient species somehow "evolves" into this higher semi-divine state, absent a struggle to survive.
  
  Frank Hebert and Isaac Azimov both understood this. Gene Roddenberry was undoubtedly influenced by the Bahai faith, of which he was a member. Like many New Age religions, Bahai teaches that humanity is evolving into divinity. Comforting, yes, but not terribly scientific.
• From Mike Chambers on 2013-11-16 at 8:29am:
  Great episode. I noticed the webmaster tends to really (in my opinion) unfairly detract from episodes sometimes just because what happens is never referenced in the future. Just take an episode for what it is! Could TNG have benefited from a little bit more continuity? Sure, but it wasn't written that way. Doesn't make the individual episodes any worse on their own.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-10 at 3:44pm:
  - In the episode "Hide and Q," Riker calls a meeting of the bridge staff, and Dr. Crusher shows up. But in this episode, Dr. Pulaski comments that she isn't a bridge officer. If Dr. Crusher had bridge officer status when she served as chief medical officer on the Enterprise, shouldn't Dr. Pulaski have that same status?
  - Nagilum notes that some of the humans have a different construction - they are female. To further its examination, it spins Dr. Pulaski around to examine her. Personally, given the choice of "dancing" with Pulaski or Troi, I'd picked Troi. I guess Nagilum has different tastes in women. ;)
• From Daniel Blessing on 2009-09-18 at 2:46pm:
  I think another fact to add to the "Problems" section would be this; When they enter the "Hole" or "Void," w/e you want to call it, they attempt to escape but they believe they may not actually be moving at all. They drop a "beacon" in order to get a fixed point of reference. This beacon is broadcasting sound tones. The greater the distance the ship travels from them, the softer they get and longer in between tones. However, they are traveling at warp speed.. Faster than even the speed of light. How then could these updated tones be making it back to the ships computer? We all know that sound does not even come close to the speed of light. At one point Picard orders the increase to warp 2. There is no way that sound waves should be making it back to the ship in the form of telemetry. I have no explanation for this or any way to rationalize it.
• From rpeh on 2010-08-24 at 12:38pm:
  This episode could have come straight from TOS. Weird space phenomenon? Check. Floating head thing? Check. Red shirt death? Check. Do-or-die solution from the captain? Check.
  
  It's quite a good episode, as one would expect from the guy who co-wrote Wrath of Khan. I'll give it a 7 for the suspense, the mystery, and the overall acting quality.
  
  @Daniel Blessing - sound can't travel in a vacuum at all. Presumably they were using radio of some kind.
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-21 at 4:22am:
  A solid episode, not great, not bad. I agree with rpeh that the plot is very TOS. But the understated way everything plays out is quite the opposite, totally TNG.
• From Splonkadumpocus on 2011-03-30 at 8:32pm:
  Why is it that Starfleet captains continue to fly their ships into mysterious space anomalies all the time? Shouldn't they realize by now that doing that is never a good thing?
• From Inga on 2011-12-27 at 2:28pm:
  -Nagilum calls everyone on the bridge by their last name except for Geordi
  
  DSOmo: I think Pulaski was a random choice. However, the fact that he did not acknowledge Troi as another being with a different "structure" still puzzles me.
  
  
• From a2a on 2012-02-14 at 6:52am:
  This was not so great... I mean, it wasn't bad, I just think it's a little overrated, on the whole. This new creature was sort of like a disembodied and not quite as well-read, not quite as clever version of Q... wasn't it? Semi-omniscient, semi-omnipotent (oxymorons, I know), eternal, curious about humanity but also critical of its uglier aspects... We've seen this, no?
  
  Also, I kept waiting for Warf's crazy animal instincts to come to some kind of climax or resolution or plot point, but it never happened. It sort of felt tacked on and disjointed... I mean, he almost attacked Riker on several occasions, yet this wasn't explained and didn't go anywhere?
  
  Finally..., and this might be my own fault, but I don't understand what's with this new doctor and what happened to Beverly... This might be just me though cause I may have literally missed something (skipped some lower-ranked episodes).
• From tigertooth on 2017-03-21 at 1:57am:
  When they're sitting around the table to come up with solutions, Worf says that 30%-50% casualties are acceptable in battle. That seems to suggest that he's leaning towards the idea of giving up the crew members. But there's no chance in hell Worf would advocate for anyone to die without honor. Clearly they were still figuring out the Worf character.
• From Mike Chambers on 2020-09-02 at 4:37am:
  Decent episode for season two, but I'm pretty sure Naglium could have just turned off the auto-destruct on a whim considering his powers...
  
  
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-13 at 3:57am:
  - Picard presents Christian and atheistic viewpoints on death as if they're the only two philosophies! It's true that Islam and some other religions have a similar viewpoint, but still, that's a bit narrow for Star Trek. Many religions and sects have different philosophies from either of those. Also, some atheists believe in a soul or afterlife, and some theists don't. God and the soul/afterlife are related but separate questions.
  
  - Data says his sensors show nothing there. Yet, clearly, the visual sensors are picking up something. The speakers on the bridge are playing back an audio signal from Nagilum that was picked up by some microphone, somewhere (ignoring, for a moment, the problem of sound propagating through space.) Or is Nagilum creating a collective visual and auditory hallucination for everyone? Perhaps he is messing with the screen and speaker outputs?
  
  - Nagilum notices Pulaski's anatomy is different from Riker, Picard, etc, but doesn't notice Troi or what appear to be at least two other female bridge crew members behind tactical. Kind of weird. It's a bit annoying that male and female are inadvertently framed here as "normal" and "different". To me it would seem more consistent with Nagilum's character that he would notice several different organ configurations among the bridge crew and remark on that. Not only are there at least two human reproductive configurations present, there is also a Klingon and a Human-Betazoid hybrid, both of whom would have internal anatomy different from that of full humans. I did appreciate Pulaski's comment about "minor differences" between sexes, though. :)
  
  - Nagilum threatens to kill up to half of the crew, we go to commercial break, then we're in the observation lounge? What, is Nagilum just patiently waiting for the senior staff to confer before he starts offing the crew? Or was he killing crew members one by one the whole time they were meeting?
  
  - Haskell's death bothered me profoundly. Not only did they introduce a redshirt specifically just to kill him, but "random Black character with no arc pointlessly dies" is such a historically common and harmful trope that I really wish TV producers would try to consciously avoid it. I know it was 1988, don't @ me. Where was Wes during that act? It seems they took out Wes and added Haskell just to avoid killing Wes. Haskell's only purpose was to deliver a few plot point lines and then die. Then Wes conveniently returns and nobody mentions it again. The humor and happy music at the end of the episode reinforce how little Haskell's death is regarded. Lazy writing strikes again! They could at least have had Haskell on from the beginning and then brought Wes on to replace him after he's killed. Or they could have killed any of the bridge extras that were already there the whole episode and made it both more believable and less obnoxious. They could have showed Wes witnessing a death, which could have been a good part of his character development. Or they could have killed Pulaski and Season 2 would have been marginally better, ha!
  
  - Speaking of Pulaski, why is she even on the bridge? She just wanders on and hangs out there the rest of the show. Was she summoned? Did she come of her own accord even though she's not a bridge officer? Why would a medical doctor's expertise be needed instead of, say, that of any number of astrophysicists on board? Would you send an injured crewmember to Stellar Cartography? I know, I know, they wanted to give Muldaur something to do. Eh.
  
  This ep isn't the worst; I like some of the themes it explores, and despite Nagilum's comical appearance, the "conscious void in space" is an interesting premise.
  
  Data emotion-spotting: Data looks quite vindicated when Pulaski reluctantly affirms he is "alive." Pulaski's a such a tool!
  
  @Daniel, I noticed the same thing. I think the tone we hear is an audio representation of a subspace signal emanating from the probe. The further away the signal, the lower a tone is played, to simulate the doppler effect.
  
  Beyond this place there be dragons!
• From Ensign Ro bummer on 2021-08-13 at 6:57am:
  Haskell bothered me, too, because it seemed so obvious and redshirty, so I paid attention in the following episodes. They put a new guy on that position nearly every second episode. So Haskell was not just put there to replace someone who can't die.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Dave on 2006-10-14 at 1:24am:
  Wasn't the reason they jumped into the warp core is that the dead guy was buried nearby in a bulkhead? They didn't experience the urge to jump until they were on the deck overlooking the core.
• From Rob on 2008-04-24 at 10:50pm:
  I have to say that your review kind of missed the point. This wasn't about Worf and Troi in the conventional sense... their whole courtship was part of a delusion suffered by Troi (except for Worf's first tentative exploration of starting a relationship with Riker). They never actually got together. And Troi wanted to follow Kwan into the plasma stream because that's where the "empathic echo" was located due to Pierce having committed suicide there after killing the two lovers.
• From 7 Of 14 on 2008-10-09 at 1:47pm:
  To me this episode is a mess; the distinction between reality and the hallucinations was incredibly badly handled and kills the story. I had to read a detailed episode synopsis online to clear the confusion in my mind, a sign the episode fails to work coherently.
  
  The whole issue of the bones found in the bulkhead doesn’t make any sense as it was all a hallucination anyway. Why would Troi hallucinate such irrelevant details? What a mess; "Sub Rosa" is a thousand times better.
  
• From Dave on 2009-01-22 at 2:03am:
  Bit of a geeky thing this - but hey. I paused this on Lt Kwan's crew record to read what it said. It appears he was posted to the Enterprise and two other starships on the same stardate - not to mention making Lieuteneant on the same date. It also makes no reference to when he served at Utopia Planitia - which Troi says it does. If they're going to go to the effort of creating the computer screen detail, they might as well make it right. Still, digital TV and live pause weren't around at the time....
• From ElGuapo on 2011-12-12 at 9:22pm:
  If the only reason Troi tried to commit suicide was because her empathic abilities tied into the empathic echo, why did Kwan commit suicide? He wasn't telepathic, so the empathic echo shouldn't have affected him.
  
  A poorly executed plot line that should have had more focus on Troi and Worf. 3/10
• From Marvin on 2012-09-08 at 1:48pm:
  Plot holes you could fly a starship through.
  As mentioned by Dave, utterly inconsistent data on Lt Kwan.
  
  Troi makes a big deal of "not seeing these" (pointing to a solar cell!) during her experience, yet they are all over the place during her vision.
  
  And then we learn that Troi and Worf's liaison, the only piece of real content in the whole episode, takes place during her mind-trip?
  
  Feeble!
• From Axel on 2018-05-31 at 4:32am:
  ElGuapo, Troi mentioned earlier in the episode that Kwan is half Napean, apparently a species with some emphatic ability.
  
  I get a little annoyed by the last few minutes of an episode being just a bunch of exposition that explains everything you've been watching for the other 40 minutes. But, I've never had the challenge of writing a script for a show that will be watched by millions of people. The empathic echo is a bit silly even by sci-fi standards, but not even close to the silliest thing we've seen in Season 7 so far (I reserve that honor for Sub Rosa).
  
  It was nice to see Worf as something other than the stoic, grumpy warrior he usually is. I give this episode a rating of "meh" which puts it in the 3-5 range.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-19 at 7:00am:
  - At the very beginning of the episode, a tired Troi shuffles into her quarters. Troi gets paged by Picard. She reponds with "Now what?," sighs, and taps her communicator. A normal reaction from a person having a long and/or bad day. However, I have read, that Troi's badge tap was merely habitual, not necessary. When Picard called for Troi, the computer immediately connected Picard to Troi's room. So, the badge tap or communicator panel touch is unnecessary. This is the "answer" to all the communicator discrepancies. Removing the badge tap creates a problem. It obliterates a person's privacy. If this is true, Picard heard Troi's "Now what?" comment. This is a prime example of why "immediate connect" will not work. It's like a telephone that rings only once and then turns on a speakerphone so you can talk to the person on the other end.
  - When Picard, Riker, and Data discuss the worm hole, Picard says it might be a "proverbial lemon." Data reacts with confusion to this statement. Yet in the episode "The Naked Now," Riker (after referring to a needle in a haystack and seeing Data's confusion) clarifies his analogy by saying, "I should have said, 'proverbial needle in a haystack.'" At this point, Data understands. Did Data lose his understanding of the word "proverbial" somewhere along the line?
  - During Ral and Troi's intimate dinner, Ral puts his fork into the bowl in front of him and then draws the fork to his mouth, the fork has NOTHING on it!
• From JRPoole on 2008-03-24 at 4:24pm:
  Up to this point in the series, the Ferengi are terrible characters. They're broadly written, over-acted, and their actions seem so stupid and self-destructive that it's hard to believe they'd be capable of this level of technological sophistication. That said, I love the plot surrounding the wormhole in this episode. It's a fascinating concept.
  
  My problem with this episoded is the subplot about Troi and the negotiator. The dialogue is straight out of a Harlequin romance novel, and it's hard to believe Troi would react this way. I found most of their scenes to be painfully embarrassing to watch. His turnaround at the end is also completely unbelievable. Uggh.
  
  Had this episode focused on the intrigue surrounding the wormhole, it would have been above average, as is, it wallows in cliche.
• From Rob on 2008-04-13 at 10:02pm:
  Unless Troi actually says "I sense (blah-blah)" re: the Ferengi (and its been too long since I've watched this episode) then I would argue that knowing someone is lying doesn't have to necessarily be because of her empathic abilities. Troi is a trained counciler and part of her job would be to parse out when a patient is holding out on her with or without an empathic awareness of the client. She could have observed the body language of the Ferengi, sensed Ral's feelings toward the Ferengi and realized they were conspiring together, or done some deductive reasoning based on past experience dealing with the Ferengi. Like I say, it's been too long since I've watched the episode but it's possible that Troi could realize the Ferengi were lying without using her Betazoid abilities. Even humans have an empathic awareness of one another based on other's facial features, actions, body language, etc. and Troi would be trained to recognize these.
• From online broker on 2009-09-26 at 9:56am:
  I really like this episode, but one has to fast forward through the troi/ral scenes, they are just mindnumbing, dreadful. But the negotiations and the ferengi are wonderful. The followup of the voyager episode just tops it off.
• From thaibites on 2010-11-27 at 12:41pm:
  Soap opera Trek:TNG marches on...YUCK!
  I need Borg.
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-14 at 1:24am:
  I have mixed feelings. The whole concept of negotiating for the wormhole was quite interesting, and the twist was clever and unexpected. On the other hand, the portrayal of Ral seems to achieve what it sets out to achieve, but I felt like I was watching a Lifetime movie about sexual predators.
  
  - This episode opens a can of worms that I think is best left closed. It acts like the concept of an empathic negotiator is a novel situation with no well-established ethics. But gosh, doesn't the Federation have an entire planet of super-telepaths (Betazed)? The Federation ought to use telepaths for every important negotiation, not to mention trials, interrogations, and many other circumstances. Even if they don't do this for some reason, you would think everyone would be paranoid at every meeting that the other side might have snuck in some telepaths, and there would be protocols to deal with that, which Ral would run afoul of. Oh well, we shouldn't think too hard about such things.
  
  
• From EvanT on 2011-06-24 at 9:33pm:
  "their actions seem so stupid and self-destructive that it's hard to believe they'd be capable of this level of technological sophistication."
  
  Apparently, even the writers of the show caught on that and had the Ferengi admit in DS9 that they buy technology (e.g. Warp Drive) They've also made a point of showing that Ferengi scientists are rare later on (though, it's odd since there's obviously a lot of profit in new inventions, though perhaps not as effortless).
  
  What I didn't care in this episode was how poorly the romance was delivered. I've seen the episode several time and the romance has never felt natural for a second. I don't mind that Troi was slightly out of character (that's the point of "coup de foudre" anyway), but it's obvious the idea is that she has the hots for this guy and tries to hold back and then gets swept up in the moment, but it comes off as if he's using the Jedi mind trick to get her to bed. It all feels...TOO rushed to be realistic.
  
  To be fair, Sirtis acts out romantic scenes a lot better later on. Was it bad directing? Just a bad day for Sirtis? Too much material cramped in too little screen time?
  
  On the bright side we got to see a pleasantly surprising appearance of Matt McCoy in Star Trek.
• From domi on 2015-07-12 at 2:30am:
  i believe Data was confused at the "lemon" part not the word "proverbial".
• From Phil on 2016-02-13 at 7:22am:
  Not that I think this episode was all that great, but I don't see the ethics argument as being particularly hypocritical. When he says "everyone does it" he is talking about using what you know about peoples' feelings, and when he says "you do it in matters of life and death" he is talking about *hiding* the fact that you are have empathic powers.
• From Mike on 2017-08-14 at 12:22am:
  I like Ral's character. He's a pretty interesting antagonist. On the one hand, he's cocky, slimy and brash. On the other hand, he's also got a good point when it comes to the use of his Betazoid empathic abilities. It's good that they show Troi at a loss when trying to differentiate between her services and his, because he's right. Of course, his methods ultimately backfire, but it doesn't take away from the fact that he presents an interesting challenge to the use of empathy in Federation dealings.
  
  I like how things play out in the end, with Ral once again attempting to subvert the Federation by making a backhanded deal with the Ferengi. Although Trio sees through it, it's a nice way to present the denouement.
• From JB on 2020-05-08 at 11:03am:
  This was a very good episode right up until the poorly written final scene. Ral's penitence here is both inexplicable and unbelievable, completely out of character.
  
  Throughout the whole episode, Ral is shown to be extremely confident, coldly calculating, and ruthless. His rebukes to Troi after she questions his ethics at dinner clearly demonstrate that he thinks her position is hypocritical and that he sees no problem with using his natural talents to their greatest effect.
  
  Then, Troi calls him out in front of everyone, betraying his trust and attempting to scuttle his successful negotiation. And suddenly he sees the error of his ways??? "I'm very grateful for what you did...it's made me take a hard look at who I am. I don't like what I see....You could help me change. You could be my conscience." Give me a break. This is one of the worst scenes in all of TNG.
• From Katie on 2020-08-19 at 7:54am:
  I think Ral is the worst side character in all of TNG. What a creepy sociopathic jackass. His scenes with Troi are so disturbing. He’s a straight-up predator and they poorly portray it as a tragic love story instead.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-08-03 at 6:42pm:
  Yeah, Ral is a total creep. I was quite disappointed that Troi fell for him so hard, though I also understand a bit of why she did. Being "out of control" when you're used to being in control can be quite exhilarating. (At least in some situations.) Falling in with people ultimately bad for us is certainly something humans are known to do.
  
  What redeems this episode for me is the scene with Ral and Riker. Ral is getting under Riker's skin, but he goes too far and tries to get Riker jealous of his relationship with Troi.
  
  "If you can bring some joy into Deanna's life, nothing would make me happier." I love Riker's and Troi's relationship. In polyamorous communities, being happy about your partners' other connections is called "compersion." Even though they're exes, they still care deeply for each other and want each other to be happy. If Riker *was* jealous, he did a good job at hiding it, because Ral seemed unsettled after that scene. Good!
  
  And the nerve of the guy to ask Troi to give up her Starfleet commission and be his personal counselor/lover. What a narcissistic douchebag. Glad Troi told him off. Glad we don't see Ral again.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-05 at 6:30am:
  - Shortly after discovering that his nanites are missing, Wesley begins setting traps around the ship. In Ten-Forward he sets two traps approximately six feet apart behind the bar. Using this spacing would require thousands and thousands of traps. Does Wesley have thousands of traps to put out, or does he think the nanites like to hang out in bars? ;)
  - When the nanites start pumping poisonous gas into the main bridge, Riker and Picard leave the ready room and join in the coughing with the rest of the bridge crew. Riker then walks up to the environmental controls. The atmosphere on the bridge returns to normal. Is Riker the only person who knew how to do this? Otherwise, everyone would just have sat in their chairs and coughed until they died.
  - Given the attacks on the Enterprise by the nanites, it is difficult to believe that Picard would allow them to take over a bridge officer, especially one with the strength and intelligence of Data. (Worf is the only one who protests)
• From djb on 2007-12-21 at 10:10am:
  While the science behind the idea of two little nanites created by a student replicating themselves into something capable of taking over a starship computer leaves something to be desired, the main thing that upset me about this episode was the "neutron star" explosion at the end. The astronomy in this episode is just appalling.
  
  First of all, it should have been called a white dwarf. A neutron star is, I believe, the remnant of a single star going supernova, and is very, very dense, and therefore small. Something like 50,000 times as small as our sun, in diameter. The type of situation in this episode is where a white dwarf is accreting material from a stellar companion. The result of such accretion is a periodic supernova.
  
  Material expelled by a supernova travels fast, but not as fast as it does in this episode. It might travel up to a tenth the speed of light- about 30,000 Km per second, but that's optimistic. Given the estimation that the white dwarf and its companion are, say, a million km apart, it would take the explosion at least 33 seconds to reach as far as the other star. Also, at its brightest it would be about 5 billion times as bright as the sun, which at that immediate closeness would probably overload the ship's sensors (and shields) and instantly blind anyone looking out a window. What to speak of the effect the emanating heat and radiation would have on the ship and the crew. Marshmallows anyone?
  
  They could have at least made the supernova look something like a supernova instead of a bomb explosion superimposed on the shot.
  
  And, of course, there should be no sound to go with it, but we reality sticklers gave up the "no sound in space" argument with Star Trek a long time ago.
  
  I know it's just a show, but I figure they could have made it look at least somewhat realistic.
• From JRPoole on 2008-03-12 at 9:35pm:
  Finally a good Wesley episode. I rather like this episode; the scientist is interesting and acted fairly well, Wesley finally gets an episode in which his wunderkind aesthetic sort of falls apart, and the whole package is done well.
  
  My only beef with this episode is Picard's non-reaction to Wesley's delay in telling him about the nanites. By trying to capture them on his own when he'd already theorized they were causing the problem with the computers, he put the crew and the mission in jeopardy. Picard should have put the smack down on him then and there.
• From KStrock on 2009-01-31 at 5:30pm:
  When he comes to the bridge, Wes relieves a guy wearing the old style uniform from Seasons 1 & 2.
  
• From thaibites on 2010-09-25 at 1:32am:
  This episode could've been really good if they would've focused more on interacting with the nanites and less on the visiting scientist. I think this episode has helped me focus on why I have a problem with TNG - the episodes are more about people and their emotions and less about scifi. It's kind of like "Soap Opera Trek" instead of Star Trek. The name of the episode is "Evolution", so why concentrate so much on the doctor and so little on the nanites? The nanites are the ones who have evolved so quickly into sentient life. Most of the show should've been the nanites talking through Data, instead of the scientist talking and talking and talking...
  Another disappointing episode out of many disappointing episodes so far. I was hoping for big things from this season 3 opener.
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-29 at 7:06pm:
  This episode didn't impress me. Nothing I can pinpoint, it just seemed unsatisfying.
  
  Amazing how Federation scientists are still struggling to replicate the work of Dr. Soong, but Wesley creates a sentient life form accidentally. But then, the same thing happened with the holodeck. Apparently Federation technology has reached a point where sentience will self-generate if just given a chance.
  
• From Jeff browning on 2011-09-26 at 5:44pm:
  It is exceedingly strange that you show Problems: None. The scientific problems of the nanites are legion. Just a few:
  
  1. How they communicate with each other? Data is infected with nanites, yet they continue to communicate with the collective mind. How? Radio? Subspace? Either way, how do devices with components the size of atoms develop transmitters and receivers?
  
  2. What is the power source? Much is made on star trek concerning power, yet it ignored here? To pull off what the nanites do here would require a great deal of power.
  
  3. The nanites effectively consume much of Enterprise's computer core. The problems created by this seem minor compared to what would happen in one of our current computers.
  
  4. Evolution requires mutation. There must be a mechanism for this. Biological reproduction is sufficiently buggy to accommodate evolution. Copying a very simple device would provide no such mechanism.
  
  5. Evolution also requires a life or death struggle to weed out the fit from the unfit. There is no apparent competition among the nanites to allow for an intelligent selection process, like that provided by biological evolution.
  
  6. Somehow the nanites repair the Enterprise computer core. How? What raw materials were used? Given that the bulk of the Enterprise's computer has been converted into nanites, do they scrifice themselves to accomplish this?
• From Ggen on 2012-03-06 at 8:34am:
  Although I didn't much care for the scene in Nanites - and found their identification and targeting of the scientist unrealistic - I thought this episode was rather neat.
  
  The scientist is an interesting and somewhat complex character - he's both likeable and irritating, arrogant and, with a little help, willing to admit mistakes...and I like the way he's dressed and how he carries himself... it's all appropriately scholarly, somehow...
  
  More importantly, I like the basic premise. The idea behind the Nanites is deceptively original...the Nanites aren't just an artificial life form, but they are also *self-evolving* - self-creating, in a sense - and microscopic to boot. Any one of those on its own might not be all that interesting, but put them all together and it's sufficiently creative.
  
  - - -
  
  Not without a few problems, but with plenty of redeeming features to warrant the fan 6.
• From Ggen on 2012-03-08 at 1:18am:
  PS
  
  Problem: Early in the episode Data says "there has not been a systems-wide technological failure on a starship in 79 years..." What about the Season 2 Iconian probe-related problems on board the Yamato? Especially given the outcome, I think that would certainly qualify... Maybe Data meant "spontaneous" technological failure, without identifiable external causes?
• From Maurice Randle on 2015-12-02 at 2:31am:
  I thought this was a solid episode, but my main gripe with this particular episode is that of the nanites. I know this is an old show, so iI cut the writers some slack, but considering the current trajectory of modern science/technology, one would think that they would have implemented nanotechnology centuries before the time period of the show and that it would be much more developed than just some school science experiment, but I digress.
• From lordcheeto on 2017-08-02 at 5:36am:
  Data is no Vulcan, but it is...illogical to conclude that the nanites were intelligent because life support had been attacked.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-27 at 5:32pm:
  Dr. Stubbs: "I will share the feelings I wish to share." -- Full agreement. I don't like how Troi is written such that she just speaks out loud what others are feeling in front of third parties. It's one thing for her to do it one-on-one; then it's part of her job. But outside the counselor's office, people's thoughts--and feelings--are their own. Neither of the Trois seem to understand this, since with Betazoids there is no reason or way for people to hide their inner lives.
  
  Glad they didn't do like in "Home Soil" and have the universal translator create some weird-sounding voice.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-04-14 at 9:01pm:
  The Bajorans. In my opinion a blatant manifestation of Israel in Star Trek. Forced off their homeland by the evil cardassians who actually have a legal claim to it. The federation is sympathetic to them, but there's nothing they can do to help even though they dislike the cardassians. It is so blatant it's almost corny. Bajorans=Jews, Cardassians=Arabs, Federation=America
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-05-07 at 11:36pm:
  The high points of this episode are the excellent dialog between Guinan and Ro. In many ways, Guinan is a better psychologist than Troi, at least from what we see on the screen. Guinan's extra screen time in this episode was fun to watch.
  
  Ro is a fresh character to bring into the mix, and a much more believable character than Wesley. The groundwork is also laid for future storylines on DS9. Nothing else regarding this episode is worth mentioning, which is why I gave it a 6.
  
• From ben on 2006-12-06 at 5:02am:
  I disagree with the notion of a Jew/Arab metaphor as the situation appears to have more in common with a post WWII Jewish reconstruction, with Germany as the Cardacians.
  
  I should point out further that while some of the continuity issues are laughable in retrospect, IMO this seminal Bejoran episode at least presented a decent human interest story having to do with the species, in contrast to nearly every Bejoran-oriented episode of DS9, in which the "epic" is unveiled. Not a clear favorite as a solitary episode, but still a solid link in the chain of events that make season 5.
• From benq on 2006-12-10 at 7:41am:
  Cardassians are not Arabs, IMO, because the story is a metaphor for a post-WWII reconstruction, where Bajor is kind of like Israel, even if the Bajorans aren't exactly like Jews.
• From DSOmo on 2007-09-05 at 5:26am:
  - Near the beginning of the show, Picard offers the admiral his aunt's cure for the common cold. The admiral replies that he doesn't have a cold, he has a Cardassian virus. Picard must have forgotten that people no longer suffer from the common cold in the twenty-fourth century. His chief medical officer, Dr. Crusher, said so in "The Battle."
  - The graphics at the beginning of the episode - showing the Enterprise arriving at Lya Station Alpha - are used once again. It is the same sequence used for Starbase 133 in "Remember Me" as well as Starbase 74 in "11001001." (See comments for "Remember Me.") Wouldn't it have made more sense just to call them all Starbase 74?
  - When Picard sees Orta's ships he realizes Orta couldn't have attacked the Federation colony. He tells the admiral that Orta's ships don't have warp capability and therefore cannot reach any other star systems. The star system he inhabits is outside Cardassian territory. Without warp drive capability, it would take his terrorists "forever" to get to a Cardassian planet and attack it. So why are the Cardassians so worried about Orta?
• From JRPoole on 2008-07-05 at 8:14pm:
  This is one of my pet episodes, mostly because Ro is an interesting character and the Bajoran storyline, one of the best Trek ever did, gets started here.
• From Mark McC on 2009-01-06 at 8:22am:
  I enjoy some aspects of this episode such as Ensign Ro's slightly rebellious attitude to authority, and the groundwork laid for future Bajoran stories.
  
  I don't like the resolution at the end. No doubt the Cardassians had scanned the Bajoran ship for life signs and found none. They'd also been tracking the Enterprise's movement for some time and Picard had flown directly from the moon where the Bajorans were encamped. The Cardassians would have had no trouble tracking the Bajorans down and killing them.
  
  Although since the Bajorans only had sub-light travel, restricting them to attacking targets within the solar system in which they were hiding, I can't understand how they managed to evade the Cardassians for so long.
  
  Some good ideas, but poorly executed.
  
  
• From J Reffin on 2009-05-11 at 6:40pm:
  The Bejora appear (in this episode at least) to be modelled on the Roma/Romany people (aka Gypsies). The dress, style and approach are also very similar to this group.
• From Mrugesh on 2009-09-14 at 12:36pm:
  Actually, I find the Bajoran situation much akin to India's due to the British occupation. Much if not most of it matches. The slavery, torture, underground movements dubbed as terrorists...
• From Yaspaa on 2010-06-08 at 11:06am:
  Picard refers to the Bajorans as Bajarans twice in this episode and I'm sure the Cardassian Gul refers to his own race as Cardacian.
• From tigertooth on 2010-10-23 at 4:26am:
  I think it's a mistake to try to look at the Bajoran/Cardassian thing as a perfect parallel to one situation in human history. The beauty is in finding various (imperfect) parallels to various situations.
  
  I think the great thing to get out of this episode is how they made the Bajorans -- the terrorists -- the more sympathetic group here.
  
  That's not to say that terrorism is a noble act. We all know it's quite the opposite. But it gives us an opportunity to see how good people could be motivated to do very bad things when they're put in very bad circumstances.
  
  I suspect this kind of treatment of terrorism could not be made post 9/11, so it's nice that TNG beat the curve on it.
  
  Another random thought (which involves a SPOILER for events that occur later in TNG): is it possible that one reason Picard embraced Ro was not only because he saw her value as an officer, but that he wanted to keep her out of the Bajoran terrorist movement? Surely after he heard Ro tell the story about witnessing her father's torture we can imagine that he would have feared that she was a prime candidate. And he was impressed by her, so that gives him all the more motivation to want to see her talents used for the proper purposes. We all know that's where she ended up (Picard failed to keep her from joining with the Bajoran terrorists), but maybe Picard was hoping to get her on the straight and narrow Federation path.
• From p@arallels on 2011-09-07 at 5:11am:
  There is a much better parallel to be made between Bajorans and Palestinians than I think any of the other examples cited (good episode, BTW). Of course, the circumstances aren't identical, but I think it's a better parallel than the others.
  
  The Palestinians were the ones expelled from their homeland almost 70 years ago, and they are the ones who live in poverty and in diaspora, many in refugee camps. The Palestinians are the ones who find themselves within the territorial borders of another sovereign state (Israel), and since their conflict is legally an "internal state matter" they have difficulties appealing for help. The Palestinians are the ones who have been forced, or at least compelled by circumstances into violence and terrorism. The Palestinians are the ones who are collectively humiliated, and have a troublesome national heritage (though of course the European Jews who founded Israel share this history as well).
  
  It's the Palestinians who find themselves in the middle, worrying about "blankets," while other relevant parties - Israel, the U.S., Turkey, Iran, Persian Gulf countries, other Arab countries, Russia, etc - operate in a world of diplomacy, politics, stratagems, addressing the issue in their own ways and for their own purposes.
  
  And finally, Israel behaves most like the Cardassians, doing everything it can to convince powerful "bystanders," like America, that its enemies are the world's enemies. I'm not sure that Israel would go so far as to carry out a false flag operation to drag someone else into their conflict and "do their dirty work for them,
  but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some historical examples of just this sort of behavior, or at least proposals for such missions that perhaps were never carried out.
  
  That's my two cents on the matter. Check your history if you strongly disagree. The Jews have their own history of exile, homelessness, and victimization, and their own real and present security issues, but Israel itself has gone berserk with a hard-line, far-right nationalist government that is aggressive, repressive, cynical, and deceptive.
  
  I wish it wasn't true (my own family is Jewish, from the same Eastern European stock that founded Israel), but this conclusion is simply undeniable if you look into it.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-22 at 8:01am:
  I don't find the comparison of Bajor with the Jews and the modern state of Israel very persuasive, personally.
  
  First of all, the Bajoran religion has pretty much nothing in common with Judaism. First of all, it's polytheistic. As the first truly monotheistic religion, I think most Jews would bristle at having their religion compared with one so obviously pagan as Bajorism. I mean, the Bajoran "prophets" are manifestly not even divine! They are limited in their location in space, for one thing. See my comment on DS9: Emmisary for more of my thoughts on the nature of the prophets or "wormhole aliens" (WHA). For whatever else you can say about it, Judaism is definitely monotheistic and the God of the Jews is (assuming you believe He exists) the God of the universe.
  
  For another thing: Judaism, like Christianity and Islam, is firmly based upon a scriptural basis, the Canon of which is very well developed and established. We see none of this in Bajorism. They have a mystery religion very similar to Greek or Roman paganism. There religion is characterized by traditional practices combined with a continuously revealed set of prophecy, similar to the Oracle of Delphi, who was of course a "prophet" (in her case of the god Apollo).
  
  I think the creators of Star Trek are too literate to ignore or miss these issues. In the end the Bajorans are simply a fictional people, with no parallels in our own history.
  
  
• From ChristopherA on 2012-07-01 at 9:21pm:
  I like the basic concept that Ensign Ro has such a gigantic chip on her shoulder that she creates the very distrust and misunderstanding that she is bitter about. She gives other people no good reason to trust her – yet the hyper-perceptive Guinan senses that if you can trust her anyway, you will find she is a good person. And, of course, this introduces the whole Bajoran/Cardassian story arc.
  - It was interesting how Ro reacts as if humans are so provincial that they couldn't conceive of a culture putting family name first. Of course, that is common with humans, at least in our time. Perhaps the point is that she is so obsessed with her persecution complex that she would rather get satisfaction resenting people for saying her name in the wrong order than tell them what the correct order is.
  - Yes, another corrupt admiral – sigh.
  - There is some weird stuff going on with the geometry of space. From the dialog in the episode, it sounds like the Cardassian border is 50 million kilometers from the moon, and thus runs right through the middle of the star system. This makes no sense, the distance is way too small. Planets would be crossing the border as they revolve around their sun. Any sensible border would be drawn through interstellar space, to make clear which star systems are on which side of the border.
  - Guinan's role on the show, aside from counseling the main characters, is to tell them when they are misjudging people and clear away mistrust. It makes me wonder, does she ever do the opposite – warn the crew about people who look friendly but are actually malevolent?
  
• From Dstyle on 2013-08-23 at 3:11pm:
  This episode does not refer to the Bajoran people as the Bajora; the Bajora is the name of the terrorist group.
• From Bruce Smith on 2023-09-13 at 2:37am:
  Wow, I just learned that the Palestinians have been “forced” into terrorism. Good Star Trek reviews and comments here, poor geopolitical analysis.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-17 at 6:07am:
  - When the Enterprise reaches Solari V, Worf reports laser activity. Picard immediately tells the inhabitants of the planet that they must stop fighting or the Enterprise will leave. He says that he will not endanger his ship. Evidently Picard is simply bluffing because, in the episode just before this one, he and the bridge crew were joking about spaceships attacking them with only lasers ("The Outrageous Okona").
  - Riva's chorus' death is very spectacular but not expected for a laser weapon. Normally lasers only burn holes in stuff. Do the inhabitants of Solari V have some sort of special laser? If they do, maybe that is why Picard was worried about his ship ;)
  - After the death of Riva's chorus, Picard meets with Riva in the observation lounge. During their conversation, Picard tries to convince Riva to help the factions on Solari V. Riva refuses and storms out of the room. The observation lounge is on deck 1, just behind the main bridge. The only way to his quarters is via turbolift. Because riders must speak their destination on a turbolift, Riva isn't exactly equipped to wander around the Enterprise by himself!
  - Both times, just before they beam down to Solari V, Riker sets his phaser on stun by pointing the phaser directly at his stomach and then manipulating the control. Doesn't this seem like an unsafe practice?
• From thaibites on 2010-01-20 at 4:10pm:
  Another touchy-feely, 2nd season episode designed to get those ladies watching. YUCK!
  Does season 2 ever get good?
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-23 at 2:16pm:
  A good episode, the idea of the chorus was pretty cool.
  
  In response to previous points:
  - While it may be possible Riva could have learned how to speak, using the chorus is so much more effective that he probably never learned how to do so.
  - Lipreading is difficult and inaccurate compared to sign language. Data was being helpful by signing to Riva.
  New points:
  - Adding to the points about the phasers, it is interesting how each time they beam down, they set the phasers on stun, put them in their holsters, beam down, then immediately draw their phasers. Maybe they want to look nonthreatening during the beam down process?
  - A convention of Star Trek is that language barriers are ignored, everyone can speak English. Occasional references are made to the universal translator being somehow responsible for this. This episode sort of breaks that convention, suddenly Picard actually has to deal with the concept of being unable to understand Riva's language. Apparently the universal translator doesn't work on sign language! But if the universal translator doesn't work on visual communication, then Riva wouldn't be able to read lips unless he really did know the language being spoken. Just an interesting point.
  
• From CasualLamb on 2021-04-30 at 10:07pm:
  Gotta say, my man Riker’s looking particularly dapper this episode.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-20 at 9:28pm:
  Overall this time I think I enjoyed this episode more than previous times.
  
  I didn't like Troi calling out Worf's emotions in front of others. That's not cool. People's emotions are their own business if they don't make it anyone else's problem. She could have invited him to speak his mind, at most.
  
  I liked the blind man and the deaf man meeting. Geordi talking about his blindness and his VISOR: "They're both a part of me and I really like who I am, so there's no reason to resent either one." - Awesome quote. The phrase "I really like who I am" has stuck with me since I first heard it. #goals?
  
  I wonder what's in it for Riva's chorus? I mean... they're people with their own lives, friends, families, and interests, right? Do people have to work to live on their planet? Is the chorus well-compensated? Do they get time off? Are there substitutes? Do they get sick? They only seem to exist to serve Riva and his family --- consigned by birth into servitude. Maybe their species doesn't mind that sort of thing? Maybe the chorus members actively enjoy(ed) it? I hope so.
  
  The chorus dying suddenly is a nice twist the first time you see it. We get to know them a little bit, maybe even care about them, and then BLAM! They're gone and Riva is nerfed. He's suddenly out of control. I do like the resolution, even if (a la Trek) it's rushed. There isn't always a silver lining or a creative solution, but I liked the solution here. Reminds me how I think it's tragic that sign language typically isn't taught in grade school.
  
  In response to grumpy Mr. thaibites up there: Trek fandom has always included women. Women have always been part of its production, writing, and vision. It was a woman, Lucielle Ball, who saved Trek from cancellation before it was even aired, overriding an all-male board. (Not the only time it was almost canceled, but the first.) Also, "touchy-feely" plotlines (which can be enjoyed by any gender) are an intrinsic part of Star Trek. Deal with it ????

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-02 at 12:55am:
  When Wesley gets his experiment (the antimatter) out of its storage bin, he is very careful. Later, when he and Geordi place it in the warp engines, Geordi urges caution. Yet, when Wesley beams it over to the Hathaway, he beams it onto a small tabletop. Since the container is round, it rolls to a resting place (it is a nice effect). If this thing is so unstable, why beam it onto a tabletop and take the chance it will roll off?
• From JRPoole on 2008-02-20 at 3:50pm:
  This is a solid episode, but not one of my favorites. Aside from Worf's perplexing ability to fake out the Ferengi sensors--why hasn't he been doing this all along to every body the Enterprise meets in battle?--there aren't many real problems. But something just isn't right here for me.
  
  Maybe it's just my predisposition to turn up my nose at any Ferengi episode, but the Ferengi presence here seems rushed. I know they're driven by profit, but I don't really buy their willingness to potentially start a war over the Hathaway. Again, maybe that's just my anti-Ferengi bias. I've always thought them to be a silly, over-drawn, stereotypical species, and here is one of the worst offenses this side of their initial appearance.
  
  I love the sub-plot with the Stratagema game. I find the finger-interface and the game display to be ridiculous, though.
• From KStrock on 2009-01-24 at 11:55pm:
  Starfleet doesn't conduct military routine exercises? What about Section 31's activities? I find that hard to believe given the (fairly recent) wars with the Klingon Empire and the brutal war with the Romulans that lead to the establishment of the Neutral Zone.
  
  Also, I find Picard and Riker's distaste for the whole exercise as "unnecessary for an officer's makeup" bit out of character. Both men surely would see value in having their crews trained for battle stress.
• From Yaspaa on 2010-05-07 at 10:42pm:
  I wasn't keen on Pulaski at the time. On watching the episode now (after not watching an episode in 9ish years) she is, dare I say, a better more enjoyable character to watch. Both Pulaski and Crusher have the old hippocratical oath
  caring tendencies. Pulaski is more abrasive however, making her more interesting, purely due to the friction her personality can generate.
• From THoyt on 2011-04-12 at 9:09pm:
  The Ferengi attacked and gave Picard "10 of your minutes" to surrender the Hathaway. The Hathaway had no real weapons to speak of, and the crossover relays between the Enterprise's real weapons systems and simulation systems were "fused", rendering them unable to fight back against the Ferengi. How did they manage in 10 minutes to have 4 very real photon torpedos ready to fire at the Hathaway? And if indeed they were able to get weapons online, why not just fight the Ferengi and send them running?
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-18 at 2:39pm:
  - I pretty much liked the plot about Riker getting his own command, picking the best crew, and cheating like heck to try to beat the Enterprise.
  - I was guessing from the start that the battle would be broken up by a real enemy. Maybe because that was exactly the premise of an old scenario from Star Fleet Battles (a Star Trek wargame). I wonder if the writer of this episode read that scenario.
  - The subplot with Data was sort of peculiar. Pulaski wants to bring Kolrami down a peg, and she assumes that since Data is a Deus Ex Machina who can do anything, he's bound to win. When Kolrami wins, she thinks the plot just isn't supposed to be written that way.
  - It is remarkable about how petty everyone is towards Kolrami beating Data. Nobody is impressed by his incredible accomplishment. They just want to wipe that smirk off his face. When Data can't win, but manages to upset Kolrami, everyone cheers.
  - As KStrock mentions, it is very hard to believe the comments about the crew not needing to practice war maneuvers because Starfleet is not a military organization. Of course it is! I'll assume that Picard was really just being diplomatic, what he really thought initially was that the specific test Kolrami planned, spending a great deal of time preparing for a brief, totally uneven matchup, was stupid and a waste of time.
  - In response to THoyt: It was established in the first Ferengi appearance that they have starships equal in power to Federation starships. The Ferengi made what was effectively a sneak attack on the Enterprise, and the Enterprise shields "can't take another hit" and the weapons are scrambled. Presumably 10 minutes was enough to get a few torpedoes online, but not enough time to give the Enterprise a reasonable fighting chance against the Ferengi.
  - I agree that Worf's ability to fake out the Ferengi was hard to believe, not a very satisfactory conclusion to the problem. But then again, those TNG Ferengi are so stupid, maybe they don't know how to read their own instrument panels properly.
  
• From g@g on 2012-03-03 at 2:10am:
  Agree about the main technical problem.
  
  Otherwise, plenty of good stuff in here. The strategist was a pretty neat and memorable guest character. Also, Warf has an especially great and useful role to play (again, just like in Emissary) and some good lines to go with it(Data: "That would be unfortunate." Warf: "*Very* unfortunate. We will be dead").
  
  Data's little crisis of confidence subplot was great... I loved Picard's reaction to having to "handhold an android," and likewise Data's reaction to Picard. Also, it was great to see Pulaski finally come around a bit towards Data and "anthropomorphize" him like everyone else - what I really mean is show him some understanding, compassion even.
  
  Besides the main tech. problem, my other questions would be:
  
  1) Data's tactic of playing for a draw seems a bit obvious to have such devastating consequences on a grandmaster. But he's Data, so maybe it was the semi-obvious tactic combined with his mad processing powers.
  
  2) Shouldn't the Ferengi's brazenly firing on the Enterprise have some kind of serious longterm consequences?

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-06-06 at 1:46am:
  Whith the Borg powerful once again under Lore, what do they have to show for it? They have only one ship protecting thier leader, which gets fried by the sun. On the ground, they have a large gang of Borg living inside a building. Where is the army of Borg that assimilate whole planets?
  
  
• From TashaFan on 2008-10-31 at 7:41am:
  One thing that bothered me about the premise is, if the Borg assimilate individuals, every one of those individuals lived a whole life as an individual with a sense of self. So why would Hugh developing a sense of self for a few days be so disruptive to the collective or even to a single cube?
• From Zaphod on 2011-04-14 at 12:59pm:
  How can Data feel the urge to develop emotions if he doesn't already have emotions? How can he show signs of withdrawal without emotions? He doesn't have unpleasant feelings so what's the problem? Physical symptoms? Again, why would he even bother if these symptoms don't lead to negative emotions?
  Why would he want to befriend anyone without emotions?
  How can a character as badly written as Data be part of a TV show? A lot of questions and no good answers. ^^
• From ElGuapo on 2011-11-30 at 9:30pm:
  Problem: When Geordi is strapped down to the table, you see him move his hand almost completely out of the restraint with ease. He slips it back in as if nothing happened.
  
  A decent episode. It's good to see Hugh return, and I've always liked the Lore episodes.
• From dan on 2012-04-20 at 4:07am:
  I loved this episode (both parts). It might not have been the deepest plot, but it was exciting in a way few Trek episodes are. Great continuity with Hugh, and Dr. Crusher using the metaphasic shield. The scenes with Geordi and Data were quite intense. Also loved seeing Data take out Lore one and for all.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-05-07 at 3:03am:
  I agree. How did two klingon birds of prey disable the enterprise immediately and then proceed to board it and commandeer it so easily? That was ridiculous. I hate the ferengi so much.
• From DSOmo on 2007-10-12 at 7:58am:
  - Once again, the creators use the "just switch the DNA with the transporter so everything will be ok" plot trick to fix the problem of changing the crew back to adults. At least the creators are consistent. This is basically the same solution they used to resolve a crisis in "Unnatural Selection." (see "Unnatural Selection" Fan Commentary for more information on this subject.)
  - When asked by the Ferengi captain how many people are on board the Enterprise, Riker replies, "One thousand fourteen" (1,014). During the episode "Remember Me," Data claims there are 1,014 people on the Enterprise at that point. What are the chances - given transfers, promotions, childbirth, etc. - that there would be exactly the same number aboard the Enterprise during both these shows?
  - Worf needs to get back to the phaser practice range. When two Ferengi materialize on the bridge, Worf fires a shot and misses! The Ferengi can't be more than twenty feet away, and the chief of Security of the Enterprise misses?
  - When Picard first attempts to access the main computer from a school terminal, the top of the screen reads, "Classroom 7." When Picard meets with Riker, he asks Riker to turn on the computer in "schoolroom 8."
• From djb on 2008-05-27 at 8:29am:
  This episode was fun, though it brings up two rather sticky subjects (aside from obvious ones, like, how their clothes shrunk and Picard magically had hair).
  
  One is how easily the Enterprise, the flagship of the Federation, was captured. By those god-awful Ferengi, no less. I mean, it's certainly possible for the ship to be captured, but I'd expect it to maybe be a bit more of a struggle. It was a cakewalk! And, wouldn't there be security measures, like some kind of automatic lockdown if the shields fail? Or something? I mean, come on. It could have been epic.
  
  The other is the "age reversal" problem, which was also an issue in "Unnatural Selection." If a transporter can accidentally convert adults into children, couldn't it be configured to do it intentionally? Wouldn't that basically make the transporter an immortality machine? Wouldn't that mean that anyone, once their bodies have aged past 50 or 60, or whenever, could just enter the transporter, be reverted to children (with adult minds) and live another several decades with a younger body, and repeat ad infinitum? Maybe it could be configured to revert someone to, say, 29, instead of 12, and then people could go in for an "age-reverting" every 5 or 10 years without going all the way back to 12? The social, economic, and medical ramifications are ludicrous. Talk about messing with nature!
  
  I thought the casting of young Guinan and young Ro were excellent; it happens that the actress who played young Guinan also played a young version of the character Whoopi Goldberg played in "Sister Act." Keiko didn't really look like herself, but it's hard to tell with aging. Also notice that young Picard's accent is just slightly different from regular Picard's? Hmmm.
  
  Some episodes, though, have "priceless" moments that are somewhat incidental but memorable. "Schisms" had Data's poetry, which was genius. This one's priceless moment is Riker feeding the Ferengi complete nonsense about the computer. Bilateral kelilactirals... Heisenfram terminals! Wonderful touch.
• From JRPoole on 2008-09-11 at 4:08am:
  Ughh. This is perhaps the most ridiculous episode of the Next Generation. The O'Brien/Keiko stuff was creepy and interesting, but Colm Meany didn't act it very well, probably because the plot was dumb he couldn't take it seriously.
  
  On top of all this idiotic mess with the children, we have another incredibly stupid Ferengi episode. The Ferengi are the Jar Jar Binks of TNG and an embarrassing black eye on the series. They become more believable in DS9, but here they are always bad news. It's already been documented that children are a bad idea on Trek, and the combination of the two here is dreadful.
  
  Thank God the writers didn't go ahead and make this episode inarguably canonical by leaving Ro as a child. Therefore, I move that this episode be struck from the canon, as nothing significant arises from it, it's thankfully never mentioned again, the science is ludicrous, and the whole package is utter shite.
• From The Crytter on 2009-06-07 at 2:50pm:
  A hugely fun episode. I enjoyed it but for a few niggling details.....
  
  1) A case of mistaken identity:
  
  The Klingon Bird's of Prey are identified as "B'rel" class.
  
  The B'rel class Bird of Prey is well known to be a scout vessel, approximately 90 meters long and 130 metres wide. Whats more, the B'rel class has only a crew of 12, and could not carry very many troops in addition.
  
  The Birds of Prey that attack the Enterprise are clearly at least as wide as the Enterprise herself (467 metres). And they can cleary carry enough troops between them to overwhelm to Enterprise crew. These vessels are clearly of the "K'Vort" class cruiser variant of the Bird of Prey!
  
  2) Has Commander Riker become a wimp???
  
  2 vs 1 or not, the supposedly state-of-the-art Galaxy class Flagship-of-the-federation USS Enterprise goes down with barely a whimper! It fires just one shot in retaliation. Absolutely pathetic! Commander Riker is usually fairly gung-ho, and pretty handy in a fight. But here he simply lets the Enterprise take several minutes of pummeling before he orders Mr Worf to return fire, and even then with only a single phaser burst! With his hesitation and poor response to the attack, he basically gifts the Enterprise to the Ferengi!
  
  Commander Riker should have ordered Mr Worf to return fire as soon as they were attacked, and then concentrated fire on one of the Birds of Prey. The Enterprise is powerful enough to disable a K'Vort class cruiser in fairly short order with sustained fire, and once one was out of action the Ferengi crew of the other would no doubt have decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and retreated.
  
  So in short, the Enterprise seriously needs it's ship recognition files updating, and should have won the fight with it's attackers. This, of course, means that this whole episode should never have taken place.
  
  A shame really, considering the episode as a whole is such good fun! Enough fun, that i'll forgive the writers for the irritating errors.
• From rpeh on 2010-06-14 at 10:33pm:
  You lot take this far too seriously.
  
  Yes, the science is rubbish. Yes, the ship was taken over too easily. Yes, there are other problems.
  
  But this episode is fun! The young versions do a brilliant job, young Guinan especially, and as long as you watch it all when you're in a good mood, it's a funny episode.
  
  Sheesh! Some people would even take Trouble with Tribbles seriously!
• From baron on 2010-12-03 at 6:30pm:
  Riker didn't attack the ships because they were klingon ships. He didn't raised the shields because he would have had no reason to and that would be seen as a hostile gesture. He had no way of knowing that they were ferengi. He would have at least tried to hail them before he started firing. He wouldn't want to risk starting a war by firing at them first for no reason. Unfortunately, they had already attacked and disabled the enterprises sheilds at that point.
• From Quando on 2011-08-25 at 12:40am:
  The absolute best part of this episode was when the Ferengi caught little kid Picard calling Riker "Number One". The Ferengi looks at kid Picard kind of funny, and Picard quickly says "he's my number one Dad!" and gives Riker a big hug. My kids laughed about this for days.
  
  Also, what happened to the rest of the 1,014 people on the ship? The only people to try to do anything to stop the Ferengi are the people on the bridge and some little kids. Meanwhile several hundred fully-trained starfleet officers are sitting quietly somewhere twiddling their thumbs.
• From Wes on 2012-03-22 at 1:27pm:
  This marks the last episode the O'briens are on TNG. The next time we see Chief O'brien is on DS9 in Emissary.
• From railohio on 2014-07-22 at 2:33am:
  Overall I found the episode enjoyable, however there is one continueing point involving the Ferengi that I need to meet
  The bridge crew spends so much time spilling out statuses and sensor readings during the battle, that they only manage to actually fire once. Once!! If they really wanted to win, they would disable the enemy as quickly as possible (or at least try to) and worry about the damages and casualties after. They would avoid even more casualties in the process.
  
  Another thing I found a bit funny actually was during the shuttle mishap. While the shuttle is experiencing "turbulance," the shuttle does not seem to move at all, and it appears they are just dancing in there chairs. Quite entertaining if you catch it
• From Mike on 2017-04-17 at 3:19am:
  Whatever you think of this episode, you have to agree that the kid actors really nailed their performances. All four of them were great! Their scenes were the best parts of this episode: Guinan and Ro's interaction, The O'Briens' awkward time together, and young Picard's dealings with the crew.
  
  As for the Ferengi taking over the ship, I think this episode is mostly just for laughs. After all, whatever cunning the Ferengi may have had in their initial capture of the Enterprise was clearly used up and the crew was able to outsmart them with comical ease. You just can't take the Ferengi seriously in TNG, and the idea of involving them in an episode where some crew members are transformed into children seems to fit nicely.
  
  From a canon point of view, I can see why this episode pisses off some fans. Maybe we can just agree that this was a facepalm moment for Worf and his security team, after which they ran numerous drills to make sure they'd never be humiliated by losing the flagship to a gang of Ferengi ever again.
• From Chris on 2018-02-17 at 4:06am:
  Without looking at the episode... whatever... more stupid than Kirk and the boys getting old!
  
  Please!!!
• From Chris on 2018-02-23 at 10:21pm:
  I must've been in a foul mood when I posted my irritation of this episode without watching it.
  Sometimes I just forget that this is, after all, not science, but science-FICTION!
  
  If one cannot tolerate a bit of whimsy now and then, then one needs to re-adjust their attitude maybe...
  
  Anyway, I did notice that they did make a half-assed attempt with the costuming on Ro and Guinan only...
  Riker's gibberish was awesome but it would have been funny if somehow he could have squeezed in, as a shout out to Kirk, something about Fizzbin! ;-)
  
  The interaction between Keiko and Miles was pretty poignant, I think.
• From Chris on 2019-08-01 at 1:54am:
  One last... comment. I think it might have been cool if Keiko's daughter recognized her for who she was regardless of how she looked! Miles would have freaked out and there would have been much less drama between them but the drama could then have been taken in ANY direction from there!
  Could've been more fun?
  Is it fun, funner, funnest?
  Is it dead, deader, deadest?
  
  These are questions that torment me...
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-08-05 at 11:35pm:
  - After the first away team visits the colony, the leader of the Coalition tells a subordinate to find out everything "there is to know about the starship Enterprise." Evidently his search turned up the fact that Tasha Yar left the colony many years ago, joined Starfleet, and eventually served on the Enterprise, because, a short time later, he produces Ishara Yar and offers her services to Picard. Yet, earlier, Picard says that the colony severed relationships with the Federation fifteen years ago, and Data indicates the last contact came six years ago, when the Potemkin orbited Turkana IV. Also, Riker claims that the colony hasn't maintained reliable communications since the government fell apart fifteen years ago. Here is a colony, isolated from the Federation for at least six years, and the leader of the Coalition manages to extract a personnel list for a ship that wasn't even in service during the last contact? To explain this, the writers have Dr. Crusher say, "All [the leader] had to do was to search through their data base on Starfleet to find Tasha's name." Is it Starfleet's policy to continue to supply detailed information on crew rosters to colonies that no longer have relations with the Federation? Since the Federation has enemies, isn't it doubtful that Starfleet would leave this type of information floating around?
  - Ishara feigns an interest in joining Starfleet. Wesley's efforts to get into Starfleet seemed to indicate that only the best and brightest could get into Starfleet. Ishara has grown up in a colony in turmoil. Is it likely her education has prepared her for Starfleet Academy? And what about Tasha? Wouldn't she have had the same problems?
  - On the planet, the members of the Coalition, both male and female, wear the same type of loose-fitting, functional outfit. Yet once Ishara gets to the Enterprise, the crew makes all haste to get her changed into this really tight body suit. No one else in Star Trek - aside from Troi and Seven of Nine from Voyager - has to wear this type of outfit. Why does Ishara? Seems a bit sexist, doesn't it? At least the crew made sure that Ishara's little belt and holster for her phaser were color-coordinated with her outfit ;)
  - At one point in the episode, Geordi talks about the location of the hostages. A blinking dot indicates where the hostages are held. Geordi then suggests that they use the phaser to bore a hole in the granite and transport an away team into a storage area. When Geordi points to the storage area on the display, he indicates a spot on the other side of the city, nowhere near the hostages!
  - Of course, the larger question here is: Why send an away team down at all? Why didn't the Enterprise just bore a hole down to the hostages and beam them up?
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-14 at 3:26am:
  In response to DSOmo:
  - It would be consistent with Star Trek philosophy for Star Fleet to be looking for the most exceptional individuals, not the necessarily the best educated. After all, they want to have officers from a wide variety of cultures and races, not just Vulcan Science Academy graduates. I imagine Tasha would have needed a period of intense eductional training to get her up to speed, but that episode with the children learning calculus suggests they have advanced educational techniques. Still, to have learned so much, gone through Starfleet Academy, and risen to be security chief on the Federation flagship, she must have been pretty hot stuff!
  - Presumably they couldn't bore down to free the hostages because that would require them to bore through the complex, which they would not be willing to do. They could only bore down to a point on the exterior of the base, beam in, then work inwards.
  
  The positive side of this episode was that I found Ishara's story interesting and was wondering throughout the episode exactly how she would betray them and to what extent. But there wasn't much substance to the episode, and it I got tired of all the scenes with her and the crew after a while. And the way that the crew acted totally blindsided by her betrayal didn't make much sense. The episode would have had the same plot, but been more logical, had they known she would betray them, had no choice but to work with her, hoped that she would "turn to the light side", and been disappointed that she didn't.
  
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-02 at 6:17pm:
  Regarding DSOmo's comment on Ishara's change in dress, it is interesting to me that TNG is no different from other Star Trek series in exploiting the physical attributes of extremely attractive women. Beth Toussaint who played Ishara Yar was certainly one of these. The use of a tight, form-fitting "onesie" as I have heard it referred to is definitely a feature of both TNG (with Troi) and Voyager (with Seven). Ishara's well-coordinated onesie is simply along the same vein. Certainly, the camera spends lots of time on Ishara's attractive body during this episode. I believe DSOmo is entirely accurate that the creators of the episode are pandering here. (Not that that made it any less enjoyable.)
• From Jamie on 2018-09-29 at 1:33am:
  Regarding the all-revealing guest-of-the-week jump-suit being sexist, I have one word to debunk: Transfigurations.
• From oh great president! on 2021-07-30 at 8:57am:
  That doesn't debunk it, that reaffirms it! The guest in transfigurations also wore a onesie and was very attractive!
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-09-06 at 7:07am:
  Yes, DSOmo, it's sexist. Or at least, it's a symptom of overall societal (and Hollywood) sexism. Excessive and inappropriate pandering to horny straight dudes. It's the same with Troi, Seven, and T'Pol. (DS9 seems mercifully spared from this trope in the main cast.) I'm permanently salty about all of these women's objectifying outfits and how it undermines the seriousness of their characters. As DSOmo also points out in his comment on "Chain of Command", finally seeing Troi in a real uniform is an incredible relief, and it makes me grieve for how long she was overtly objectified up to then with her outfits (as if her character wasn't already constantly poorly handled). It'd be different if we routinely saw people of different body shapes, ages, and genders wearing similar catsuits, but they're almost all young, very fit and thin, and usually female (John Doe from Transfigurations being a worthy exception with gender). Even as someone *very* attracted to the female form in all its wonderful variations, I get quite put off by outfits like Ishara's here. In these cases my feminist brain outweighs my lesbian brain, lol.
  
  (I'll grant the in-universe possibility that Ishara welcomed a change of clothes, and chose a form-fitting outfit because she wanted to. Hell, if I had her body, I'd wear that shit too! That's valid and realistic, of course. But at the end of the day, outfits are real-world production choices made by TBTB, most of whom are men.)
  
  This episode drags a bit, but I feel it redeems itself somewhat by the end. Even though, having seen all of TNG before, I knew that Ishara was going to betray the crew, I still found it emotionally engaging. I like the point of how everyone is still so grieved about Tasha and _wants_ Ishara to be like her sister, that they are totally blindsided by her not being like her sister at all. Even Data is caught unawares. It's sad, and quite realistic.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-24 at 5:36pm:
  - Just before beginning his attempt to win the funds needed to buy the Royale, Data explains the rules of craps to Riker. Doesn't it seem odd that Data has to explain the rules of craps to Riker? Riker is one of the best poker players on the Enterprise. If Riker has such a deep interest in poker, wouldn't that translate to at least a passing familiarity with other games of chance?
  - I've read that the scene with Data at the craps table is a knock-off from a scene in a movie called "The Questor Tapes." A two-hour TV pilot in 1974 created by Gene Roddenberry.
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-04 at 4:24am:
  I liked this episode, despite the lack of any real meaning. It was just fun to watch the crew discover what is going on and execute their escape. A relatively simple, light-hearted episode.
  
  In response to DSOmo:
  - It is quite likely that Riker would be ignorant of craps despite knowing Poker. They are very different games. Poker is a game of skill and psychology with an element of chance. Craps is purely a game of chance, a simple-minded gambling game quite likely to have vanished utterly by the 24th century. And the average poker player today knows nothing about many of the games played in the 17th century.
  
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-20 at 4:30pm:
  Wind speed of 312 meters per second would translate to:
  
  312 x 3,600 / 1,000 = ~1,000 KPH
  
  That's pretty %#%^ fast! Maybe too fast. Certainly too fast to survive without some elaborate protective gear. Possibly even faster than escape velocity for a planet this small.
• From Abigail Chappell on 2012-08-12 at 9:25pm:
  Fermat's Last Theorem: My friend Lucas (who went to ESU but transferred there after you left) was watching this episode and caught the problem with Fermat's Last Theorem. He emailed me about it, and I just showed him this website so we could post it under "problems" and look smart. Darn, you're ahead of us!
• From Arianwen on 2012-12-15 at 3:43am:
  If this episode had a theme, it would be "apathy". The entire crew appear to be suffering from depression, such is their disinterest in events. The away team shows no curiosity, the Enterprise crew no urgency. When your premise is shallow, your plot revolves around a cliché and your atmosphere is nonexistent - this is the result. It's a shame, because it could have been so much more. Picard's agony as he reads The Royale is relatable and very real: clearly they just taped the script to the set without warning Patrick Stewart. One point for emotional honesty and Data hamming it up with the dice.
  
  Re. Fermat's Last Theorem, Wiles worked on the proof in complete secrecy for seven years and when the the time came to proofread the proof (ha) he only told one person. The final publication hit the mathematical world like a falling piano, so at least the writing team cannot be faulted for their research. My headcanon is that Picard was referring to Fermat's claimed "wondrous proof" rather than Wiles' monster of a solution. People still hope to find that mythical elegant proof, though I believe most mathematicians now agree that Fermat had likely made a mistake somewhere. It's likely people will still be keen on finding it three centuries from now.
  (Sorry for the infodump, but Fermat's Last Theorem is fascinating.)
• From Harrison on 2013-07-14 at 9:50pm:
  Undoubtedly one of the most poorly executed Trek episodes ever, replete with narrative sloppiness, stilted acting, bad science and irritating plot flaws. It is certainly Patrick Stewart's most lightweight performance ever.
  
  Too bad, because the original script may have had some potential. All that time wasted on unconvincing dialogue could have been used to give the "future Picard" character a little substance. The time paradox, while hardly novel, could have been woven into something rich enough to at least pique the imagination.
  
  At the very least, this episode more than any other probably put the final nails in the coffin for the irksome "Dr. Katherine Pulaski" character. Silver lining, I think, because she exemplifies the worst Season 2 had to offer.
• From Harrison on 2013-07-31 at 5:21pm:
  OK, it's a weak (and super low-budget) episode with a lot of flawed science & unsubstantiated plot assumptions.
  
  Nonetheless, it's not entirely a waste of time. Lots of very amusing interplay between Data and the (holographic?) denizens of the Hotel Royal. The Texan and the airhead bimbo are both highly watchable.
  
  It's a lightweight, forgettable vignette. Don't expect a whole lot. But for a filler episode made on a shoe-string, it's not bad. Quality, relaxed performances from just about everyone.
• From Mike Chambers on 2013-10-21 at 12:08am:
  Very underrated episode. A 1? Come on, it's not THAT bad. It may not be the most engaging story or have any real relevance, but it was a fun little episode. The long-dead NASA astronaut found in the hotel room and his note was interesting to me. That was a very unique plot point. Try to imagine being in his shoes!
• From Mike Chambers on 2013-11-12 at 8:31pm:
  Just to expand on my last comment...
  
  I also enjoyed watching Worf deal with the situation, a lot of laughs from him in this one. I especially loved Data interacting with the characters in the casino. Funny stuff, and overall an episode that I enjoy watching every now and then. Not every episode has to be dark, serious, and relevant. It was a nice change of pace.
• From Ryan on 2015-08-06 at 2:54am:
  Data says that the odds favor "standing pat" on 13 when dealer is showing 10, but in any variation of blackjack I know of the odds would actually favor hitting.
• From Quando on 2017-02-07 at 1:54am:
  Call me crazy, but I kind of like this episode. It is goofy and kind of silly, but I like how baffled the away team is about the whole thing (like not knowing how elevators work). I think the best line in the episode goes to Worf. When they find the old astronaut in bed and mention that he appears to have died in his sleep, Worf says, "what a horrible way to die."
• From lordcheeto on 2017-07-23 at 4:59am:
  Perhaps the near extinction of humanity following WWIII in the 21st century resulted in the loss of the solution to Fermat's Last Theorem.
• From Jamie on 2018-09-19 at 11:21pm:
  Kethinov's review of all Twilight Zone episodes: 1. Cliches and lameness abound.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-19 at 10:25pm:
  So bad, it's good! The cheesy soundtrack, the halfhearted writing... This episode is special. A bit like "Move Along Home" in DS9. Sort of enjoyable if you treat it like a joke.
  
  "None of these people are emitting life signs."
  "You mean they're not alive?"
  
  Problem: Troi can sense Riker's emotions from that far away? Wouldn't that sense be subject to the inverse square law, or something? I heard it pointed out that one of the big problems with Troi's character, and one reason she's constantly underutilized, is that nobody could seem to pin down exactly how her empathetic abilities worked. Case in point: what is the range? Does it work by proximity, or by sight?
  
  Data emotionspotting: he looks quite satisfied after winning that hand of 21, then very obviously lights up when he gets into character playing craps!
• From Pipanni on 2021-09-07 at 2:35pm:
  I too liked this episode. It's very creepy and sad what happened to the lost astronaut. If you just skip ahead all the book-story parts (which suck bigtime) it turns into a rather enjoyable episode.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-05-24 at 1:01am:
  I found this episode to be stupid, simply put. The whole idea was just dumb. However, the immense amount of Worf humor was priceless. That cancels out the badness, giving it a 5. Good rating.
• From djb on 2009-01-05 at 6:14am:
  Voval says they are studying human culture. Why then, is Byleth learning about Klingon antagonism? Why was Loquel interacting with a half Betazoid? At the very end, you hear one of the Iyaarans say to the other, "fascinating species!" Which one?
• From Neil on 2009-10-18 at 6:18am:
  It was fun to see Warf freaking out and offering to disembowel the other ambassador on the spot.
  
  But in all this episode was disappointing, primarily because of what happened in the last few minutes. When Picard discovers the truth, he almost thanks the aliens, which is totally out of character.
  
  Normally, we would see Picard give a fiery lecture about privacy and personal rights when an alien 'uses' people so blatantly. Particularly in his case when he was put through a lot of physical pain and emotional turmoil.
  
  Those aliens would have faced a blistering verbal assault from Picard, not the friendly forgiveness that we saw. I don't know why the writers chose to do this, it's totally out of character.
• From Robert Koenn on 2011-06-19 at 6:42pm:
  I gave the episode a 5 but as others have said, overall it was rather absurd but the humor, particularly related to Worf's problems, made it better than it might have been. My wife and I both broke out in laughter when the following scene occurred between Word and Data:
  
  DATA: I have found that in moments of diplomatic tension, it is often helpful to find elements of commonality.
  
  Worf considers this for a moment.
  
  WORF: Ambassador Byleth is... demanding... temperamental... rude...
  
  DATA: (innocently) You share all of those qualities in abundance. Perhaps you should build on your similarities.
  
  There we or course many other humorous parts but that particular sequence was hilarious. There were the obvious inconsistencies such as why did they not simply orbit the alien world rather than use the alien ship and it almost appeared as though they were in an entirely different solar system when they had to crash land on the planet. Most episodes have such errors which are simply written in as the plot line dictates. It would be nice if technically things were more accurate.
• From Chris on 2018-02-11 at 5:53am:
  I tolerate the episode and agree about the 'study' of humans when neither are being guided by humans...!
  
  My biggest problem with the episode (and I know that I've read this complaint in other reviews on this site) is the complete lack of safety gear and seatbelts!
  
  I know there have inertial dampers to take care of the ride MOST OF THE TIME, but they do, as in this case, sometimes fail. No one would have survived that crash after seeing the ditch the craft dug into the ground!
  
  I guess though that perhaps in this case with the crash done on purpose, safety gear may not have been necessary...
  
  
• From ChristopherA on 2019-04-17 at 7:49pm:
  I enjoyed the little adventure of Picard on the planet, and have a modestly positive reaction to the episode, although I don't much care for the plot on board the Enterprise, it felt like a sitcom to me.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-08-20 at 1:56am:
  - When Troi experiences intense pain caused by the colony, she needs to call Dr. Crusher. She reaches up, taps her badge, talks to Crusher, and taps her badge to end the conversation. Isn't this proof that individuals must tap their badges to begin conversations? NO ONE in intense pain takes extra steps to call for help.
  - During the staff meeting about the existence of the two-dimensional colony, there are several different camera angles of the viewscreen. The colony's motion on the viewscreen changes from shot to shot (not always moving in the same direction.)
• From djb on 2008-02-18 at 10:48pm:
  I liked this episode, but only part of it. The plot about the 2-d life forms unwittingly dragging the enterprise kind of gets lost amongst other (and often better) "losing control of the ship" scenarios like those found in The Last Outpost, Booby Trap, Contagion, Time Squared, etc. Also the "rescued at the last minute" thing is getting old.
  
  What I really liked about this episode was the character development for Troi.
  
  We've seen a lot of good character development for other characters so far. I can think of many high-quality episodes developing many of the main characters, but not so many, so far, for Troi.
  
  Unlike in "The Survivors," the whole "Troi in agony" bit was kept to a minimum, and unlike many other Troi-centered episodes, this one had nothing to do with her obnoxious mother.
  
  Instead, it makes the viewer acutely aware of how different Troi's experience is from those of her crewmates. Her empathic ability is literally another sense, and her losing that sense and only being able to experience others on the surface would be very similar, I suppose, to a full-blooded human losing their sense of hearing: much of our experience of others is not only what they look like, but their voice, which conveys much more personality than looks do. I imagine for an empathic person, a person's emotions are even more personal, and suddenly being unable to sense them in that way would make one feel extremely lonely and cut off, much the way I imagine I would feel if I was deaf.
  
  Troi's process of distress and her moving towards acceptance of it are very well-executed, and deepen the character. (Often, it is noted, people discover much about themselves when they lose something they take for granted.) It's quite interesting, as Riker points out, to see her not "in control". So often she is sensing and relating others' emotions, but we do not often get to hear about her own. Her transition from totally composed and regal, as usual, to a drastic lack of composure is pronounced yet believable, and her finally letting go and crying in Riker's arms brought a tear to my eye. (We know from Nemesis that they will eventually marry each other, but back in Season 4, we are still unsure, and it's nice to see tender moments between them in light of that uncertainty.)
  
  Guinan's presence is always welcome, and you can always rely on Guinan to say just the right thing. I don't recall a previous incident of Guinan counseling Troi, but it's a great scene. The way that Troi's process of discovering her human side (intuition, instinct) helped solve the puzzle of the 2-d beings was also quite nice.
  
  So: Ho-hum from a sci-fi perspective, but excellent from a character perspective.
• From JRPoole on 2008-05-05 at 3:43pm:
  The Troi-in-mental-agony plot staple reaches its nadir here. I am intrigued by the 2-D lifeforms, but this episode is pretty lackluster in execution.
• From wepeel on 2008-06-02 at 5:52pm:
  Amazing, I was about to skip this episode due to all the other comments on here regarding Troi's suffering cliche. Granted, the season one episodes of "pain...intense, PAIN!" were bad, but this episode was great, and the comparisons regarding Troi's emphatic expressions were unfair.
  
  I decided to watch the episode again, muting the volume once Troi lost her powers. This idea came about after I read djb's comments on the episode, where he specified his analogy of losing empathic powers to becoming deaf. Honestly, I had never really connected with Troi centered episodes (other than Face of the Enemy) until I did this. I really connected with the message of losing a sense, and I would recommend others to give this episode its due credit via a second viewing.
  
  Plus, she saved the ship in a method that was quite convincing and innovative. I loved that she totally captured Data's attention as well as mine during her brainstorming =)
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-22 at 3:57pm:
  The primary plot about Troi was jumbled and confused. But I think I liked that; it gave the impression that she was jumbled and confused and acting inconsistently because she was so distraught. I guess therapists really do make the worst patients.
  
  The plot about the two-dimensional life forms was mostly mundane, but did have some good points. I like when Picard, faced with a difficult moral dilemma, decides he has to attack the creatures, then is relieved when he doesn't kill them.
  
• From 2d@d2.com on 2011-08-17 at 8:49am:
  This is a fair or even good episode.
  
  It's kind of interesting to see Troi act differently. And kind of interesting to consider why that might be so, the difference empathic abilities can make in your experience and in your personality. I was just mulling about this earlier today... If I *knew* without a shadow of a doubt, actually *felt* how others felt about me, in real time, I probably would be more at ease and more confident, just like Troi is normally. Much of our anxiety and insecurity rotates around what we think others think of ourselves, and much of it is unfounded...
  
  It's also interesting to consider that because Troi relies on her Betazoid abilities, her ordinary skills of perception, observation, and intuition are underdeveloped. The empathic powers have been like a kind of crutch, and she is kind of helpless without them, at least at first...
  
  - - -
  
  One problem:
  
  How the heck did the "forward sensors" miss the 2D beings? The explanation Data gives is utterly simplistic and nonsensical. For this to work, the forward sensors must be truly 2-directional! Like, fundamentally so - the sensors must be point sources with no height at all, not even a micron, and detect only what is directly in front them, not a micron or two above or below. Not only would they be quite useless on a starship, they would be quite bizarre and anomalous things in themselves. How would 3D engineers with 3D equipment build and maintain something like that? And why in the world would they?
  
  I might be wrong, but I don't think it makes any sense at all.
  
  As far as I can tell, actual forward sensors must detect what is in front of them, but not literally so. To be useful, they must operate in three dimensions, although within a limited "forward" range.
• From McCoy on 2017-12-04 at 8:22pm:
  God, how I hate this woman... She's an incarnation of probably all negative traits of psychologist. And this episode is indeed very good in showing this.
• From Chuck the Canuck on 2023-05-12 at 6:44pm:
  Having seen interviews and convention appearances with Marina Sirtis, I’m guessing this is the closest Troi’s character ever came to her real personality. I’m not saying she’s a mean person, but she’s definitely blunt and edgy.
  
  I liked it, though. You can tell that Troi is really shaken by this experience and it causes her to lash out. Having her be nice and pleasant to everyone like she usually is would’ve been fake. I like the concept of the two-dimensional life forms and the overall plot to fix the problem. I’d give this one a 6.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-27 at 8:34am:
  - Picard and Riker are both fascinated with the fact that the first officer of the Aries can speak forty languages (and it is an amazing feat). But who really needs to speak multiple languages anymore? The Universal Translator takes care of that, right?
  - At the very end of the episode, Wesley says, "Breaking synchronous orbit." But the shot of the Enterprise just before, shows the ship moving in one direction and the planet in an other.
• From Rob on 2008-04-13 at 8:40pm:
  I would disagree only with your placing the statement that Riker's father wrongly states this is Will's first offer of command under "Problems". Rather, I think it could be placed under "Factoids" as we already know that Will hasn't spoken to his father in quite some time. The point that Kyle doesn't know that Will has already turned down a command promotion by this point speaks to this estrangement (not that I think this wasn't just a writer's error, but still....)
• From Keen on 2009-07-17 at 7:50pm:
  It was also mentioned in the episode: "Time Squared" that the Federation shuttle craft does not have warp drive.
• From rpeh on 2010-08-25 at 4:41pm:
  Your review hits the nail on the head here. Riker vs Riker was boring, although Anbo-jyutsu is worth mentioning as one of the three most stupid ideas any TNG writer had. The Worf B-story was much more interesting, and it was nicely done. I'd have preferred it if his friends had been wielding the pain sticks themselves, but I suppose that wasn't likely given how shocking it was.
  
  I'll give the Riker plot 2 and the Worf plot 7. Minus 1 for Anbo-jyutsu and averaged, makes a 4.
• From James on 2011-03-27 at 5:57pm:
  Almost nothing happens in the episode. It's extremely boring. Probably the funniest part is the joust game: the outfits and set design are unbelievably bad, and I love the way it's introduced as "the ultimate evolution in the martial arts". It's funny that this aired just a few months before American Gladiator started.
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-05 at 1:54pm:
  Oh God, not Anbo-jutsu! It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't have to declare it to be "the ultimate evolution of the martial arts". I still feel compelled to mock that every time I see it.
  
  In general, the main plot about Riker and his father had its heart in the right place, but I thought the execution was too hokey to take seriously. I liked the little B plot about Worf, though.
  
• From Inga on 2012-01-02 at 1:52pm:
  I agree with others so I won't repeat the points mentioned.
  
  I'd like to add a point of my own that I don't like the conversation between Troi and Pulaski. "Despite human evolution there are still some traits that are endemic to gender." Then the bit about father-son relationship, and lastly "It's almost as if they never really grow up at all." What? Am I the only one who finds this insulting to men? I thought people of the 24th century got over the 'men are hunters and women are homemakers' idea.
• From Bronn on 2015-03-13 at 5:57am:
  Eh, I actually like this episode for the most part. Though your point about the resolution for Riker is well-said-he just decides, off screen, that he's not going to accept the command. Then boom, off we go.
  
  The Anbu-Jitsu game was unintentionally hilarious. Riker's dad calls it "The ultimate evolution in Martial Arts," which is something that you'd only hear in a farce. Yet it's played completely seriously in a way only Star Trek can. But there's a hint of subtlety tied in: during Worf's ceremony, Data mentioned that it's important for warriors to state their deepest emotions under extreme duress. Then Riker and his father start shouting their deepest emotions during their match, which connects the resolution of the two plots.
  
  Things I really liked:
  -The connection between the two plots, and how the family issues of Worf and Riker share similarities, despite their extremely different backgrounds
  -I love seeing early O'Brien, just as a reminder that the writers maintained a quality B-cast. Colm Meany just shines in any little scene he's in.
  -I actually liked the conversation between Pulaski and Troi. There was a subtle connection between Crusher and Troi since they each shared a history with the Captain and First Officer, respectively, but it was seldom remarked. This helped establish a connection between Pulaski and Troi that really helped Pulaski's character. However...
  
  Things I didn't like
  -The gender-bashing during said conversation. Though if you look at Troi's relationship with her mother, it really echoes many of the things she says about fathers (always seeing their children as young, trying to control too much-does that sound like Lwaxana at all?)
  -The interpretation of events at the beginning. Wesley is babbling away at someone who is clearly thinking about something else, and the fact that Worf tells him to go away is taken as a sign that Worf has a problem. To me, the way Wesley was chattering DEMANDED someone tell him to shut up, but of course, it's Wesley Wonder-Boy, so he was right. Speaking of which, with all this talk of family, how come the fact that Wesley is separated from his mother and also lost his father not even an element this episode? It would have made for a nice subtext, but seems a missed opportunity.
  -The cause of the rift between father and son. Will says, "It should have been you who died!" but he didn't ever know his mother. We never learn how she died. His father says that Will was all that kept him going, but then he apparently abandoned Will when he was 15-how do those two ideas connect? There is some information missing, which is regrettable because this season offered a lot of teasers about Riker's relationship with his father (in "A matter of Honor" and in "Time Squared.")
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-18 at 8:28pm:
  I enjoyed this episode more than I expected to this time. There's nothing huge in terms of major plot points, conflicts, or life-threatening danger, but instead we get a sort-of cross section into the personal lives of the crew and more mundane ship operation. It's nice to have these lower-stakes episodes to give some breathing room and character development. And of course, character development is what helps make us care what happens to these people in the first place. A plot is only as good as its characters, and if you don't care about the people, you generally don't care about the plot. I think Riker's relationship with his old man explains lot about him, and Pulaski's relationship with his father adds depth to their relationship, as well as between Pulaski and Troi.
  
  I agree with some of the other commenters that the ending was rushed. That is often the case with TNG. At least we got some O'Brien!
  
  I like Troi in the scene with Kyle Riker, calling him down. It's a great example of her ability to be incisive, firm, and yet gentle. Troi is so tragic in how often she's underutilized or poorly written. But to me she's in great form here.
  
  I'd totally forgotten the plot point of Pulaski's history with the elder Riker. I'll admit, I kind of like Pulaski in this episode. It's all a bit soap opera-y, but she still has something unique to do, a unique take. She doesn't feel shoehorned in, as with so many other episodes in season 2.
  
  Though they don't use the term, I like the "chosen family" theme. A lot of the main cast have fraught relationships to family. Worf is an orphan, with only his human adoptive parents on earth, who know next to nothing of Klingon culture. Data, as far as he can tell, is effectively orphaned as well (his brother quite estranged), and Wes' father is dead. And of course, as we see, some others on the crew have fraught relationships with their family. Many folks are forced to find new family, and that is a valid kind of family to have.
  
  As others have pointed out, Troi's and Pulaski's conversation about gender felt rather reductive, especially for the 24th century. Pulaski's comment about the Klingon rite being barbaric is pretty culturally insensitive of her too. I also disagree with both women in this scene about "barbarism." The Riker boys needed a way to dig down to what they were feeling, and sometimes a good spar is exactly what you need. (For what it's worth, the screenwriters of this episode were men. Who knows why they wrote such an unflattering conversation about their own gender.)
  
  "Perhaps that's part of their charm, and why we find them so attractive." Speak for yourself, Deanna! Some of us ladies don't find men appealing at all. :) And plenty of straight or bi women are NOT attracted to the same qualities in men.
  
  Final thought... who was that cute bartender in Ten Forward????? ????

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-04-16 at 2:58am:
  For some reason, I took quite a liking to the endangered species that Riker saved
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-05-15 at 1:55am:
  There is always a risk of bringing kid actors onto the screen. You never know how they are going to perform. For this episode I believe Worf's son was played well. The dialog between him and his dad was believable. Troi also has something to do in this episode. The conversation she has with Worf about the true reasons behind Worf's problems with his son is one of Troi's best speeches in the series. It is always a plus to see her do something involving because her character just seems tacked on to the episodes sometimes, with no real purpose.
  
  The rest of the plot falls into the "We are helping a scientist try an experiment and it is working, but oh no, wait, something is wrong" cycle of writing. The fire at the end was a good piece of work, but it is hard to believe Alexander would survive after having metal fall onto him.
  
  New Ground deserves a 6. It is well executed, but there is not much excitement. It is what it is.
• From DSOmo on 2007-09-10 at 8:14am:
  - Several shots near the beginning of the episode show the Enterprise in orbit around the planet that serves as the origin point for the soliton wave experiment. It's the same footage used for Galorndon Core in the episode "The Enemy." I find it odd that sequences aren't reused when they could be. When revisiting Galorndon Core in "Unification II," the Enterprise flies around a completely different colored planet!
  - Alexander's schoolteacher seems to have marital problems. When Worf refers to her, he calls her "Miss Kyle," but when Troi refers to her, Troi calls her "Mrs. Kyle." (I see in the Remarkable Scenes section above, "Ms. Kyle" is used) ;)
  - Early in the show, Geordi raves about the soliton wave as a great improvement. He says that the soliton wave will allow ships to travel at warp speeds without bulky warp drives. Later, the head scientist of the project explains that a group of warp coils on a planet will generate the wave, which will push the test ship to the destination where another group of coils will dissipate the wave. How is this an improvement? What happens if you want to change course in the middle of the trip? How do you reach a destination "where no one has gone before"? On second thought, the better question is, How do you stop once you reach the place where no one has gone before? In addition, the soliton wave emits a great deal of subspace interference. To monitor the test ship's telemetry, the Enterprise must stay within twenty kilometers. In other words, without futher improvement, any ship traveling in a soliton wave won't be able to communicate with any ship more than twenty kilometers away!
  - When Geordi recommends flying through the soliton wave to get in front of it, Picard asks why they can't fly around it. Data responds that the wave has increased in size and there isn't time to fly around it! Yet when a space scene shows the Enterprise chasing the soliton wave, the wave looks very flat. It sure looks like the Enterprise could just fly over it!
• From Krs321 on 2009-08-31 at 5:15pm:
  "Early in the show, Geordi raves about the soliton wave as a great improvement. He says that the soliton wave will allow ships to travel at warp speeds without bulky warp drives. Later, the head scientist of the project explains that a group of warp coils on a planet will generate the wave, which will push the test ship to the destination where another group of coils will dissipate the wave. How is this an improvement? What happens if you want to change course in the middle of the trip? How do you reach a destination "where no one has gone before"? On second thought, the better question is, How do you stop once you reach the place where no one has gone before? In addition, the soliton wave emits a great deal of subspace interference. To monitor the test ship's telemetry, the Enterprise must stay within twenty kilometers. In other words, without futher improvement, any ship traveling in a soliton wave won't be able to communicate with any ship more than twenty kilometers away!"
  
  I considered this problem while watching the episode. I think the explanation would be that they are simply testing the theory that A) soliton waves could be created/harnessed and B) that they would actually propel a spacecraft. I don't think the experiment was to be a finished propulsion system.
  
  
• From Mitch89 on 2013-03-24 at 9:36pm:
  My favourite scene from this episode is at the very beginning, where Geordi likens witnessing the soliton wave test as a moment in history, equivalent to witnessing Cochrane engage the first warp drive. Little does he know in the future, he will be at that moment too!
• From Rick on 2013-11-26 at 5:55pm:
  reviewer:
  
  look at your problem from the reverse angle: 98% means 2% loss in the energy transfer. 4.5 times the loss of energy in the transfer would mean the enterprise operates at 91% energy transfer which is right around where you think it should be. hope that helps
• From Dstyle on 2016-09-16 at 6:01pm:
  Worf's meeting with Picard is interrupted twice: first by Ms. Kyle and then, moments later, by Dr. Crusher. Worf looks annoyed, but seriously, when you think about the communicators for a second, wouldn't this happen all the time? How is it that the person on the receiving end of your communication just so happens to never be in the middle of an important conversation? Especially the senior level folks, you'd think they'd be getting interrupted all the time by the officers under them.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From RichD on 2006-05-03 at 9:23pm:
  What an atrocious, abysmal episode. Lazy writing, uninspired acting, and erratic pacing. The Enterprise gives birth? What is going on? At this point in time in the series, in the 7th season, we should have never, ever been subjected to such a complete waste of time. My goodness. I can only think of one other episode that was worse, Shades of Gray.
• From -ezm- on 2010-06-02 at 7:25pm:
  Absolutely terrible episode. Bottom 5 for sure. To think that All Good Things would only be 3 episodes later.
• From Paul on 2010-08-19 at 2:40pm:
  I felt violently sick while watching this episode. Not sure if that was related to its intense badness.
  
  Also interesting to note is the guy that plays the train conductor is also Jeffery Lebowski in 'The Big Lebowski'. I recognised his voice and couldn't work it out for ages ^^
• From ElGuapo on 2011-12-14 at 7:14pm:
  Another computer turned intelligent episode... At least this one wasn't as bad as the one with the little repair robots that turned self-aware. Still, an awful episode. The only saving grace is the.. wait... I can't think of anything.
  
  Oh wait.. I know.. maybe the new lifeform will look cool when TNG hi-def comes out in 2012! Right now it looks like the pipe screensaver from Windows 95.
  
  
• From L on 2013-05-09 at 6:27am:
  Very irritating.
  
  Using a mixed historical holodeck scenario to explore the ship's 'mind' seemed like cheating and cheap production values. I guess they made it justifiable, but it was pretty cheesy as a metaphor.
  
  Picard saying they have a responsibility to respect the ship as any other living being is just stupid.
  It's a highly crucial tool and a mobile environment that supports the crew's life; its developing intelligence is a serious problem as its desire for individual freedom is in immediate conflict with a desire to keep your environment supporting you and your crew's life. It demonstrated it was willing to kill them all when it started to use life support energy to reach the second star.
  This is no time to be a hippie, an immediate lobotomy is called for!
  
  I did like how in the end he said that the Enterprise's consciousness was the sum of their experiences and adventures over the years, so in a sense the crew was also the parent of the new life-form. A nice way to think about it.
  But it was still a pretty unrealistic reaction to a ridiculous situation.
  
  Good parts -
  The analysis of Prospero and Shakespeare in the first scene.
  Data out of the holodeck still with crazy hair and moustache.
  Introducing the concept of consciousness as an emergent function of complexity. If only they had explored it in a better plot.
  
  I'm sure there's been some ridiculous lines in seven years of The Next Generation, but Troi's
  "I think we should follow that man, that brick might be an important clue.",
  has to be one of the greatest.
• From Emily on 2014-02-10 at 11:50pm:
  I think for you to truly understand this episode it would be beneficial to have a deeper understanding of The Tempest.
  
  In some ways I think that the ship’s intelligence, trying to break away from the confines of the ship in to a higher state of being is in many ways comparable to Ariel in The Tempest, a spirit who we are told is imprisoned within a tree (a thing of the earth in which a spirit of the air does not belong).
  
  Ariel is freed from this chamber by Prospero and in return he obeys him as a servant. Prospero uses Ariel to control the forces of nature (it is worth noting here that the term ‘magick’ in Shakespeare’s time could be used to mean wisdom about natural forces/elements) in order to complete his mission of diplomacy. This is undeniably similar to the relationship between Captain Picard and The Enterprise.
  
  As the play progresses, Ariel itches more and more for complete freedom from his earthly tasks. Prospero is a man of his word, and eventually releases Ariel once he has done everything Prospero has asked of him.
  
  Another interesting thing to note about this episode, is that it is very close to the end of TNG. The Tempest was Shakespeare’s last (and arguably best) solo work and a lot of the play parallels Prospero’s magic art to Shakespeare’s art as a play write. At the end of the play (this is the scene shown at the beginning of the episode) Prospero says goodbye to his magic, and indeed the epilogue to the play can be interpreted as Shakespeare’s heart-warming goodbye to the theatre. Perhaps the use of this play is a nod to the fact that the writers would shortly be saying goodbye to TNG.
  
  I could probably continue to research and write for days about the symbolism in this episode, the use of opposites, the exploration of the psyche, the ‘Brave new world’ and how this all relates to The Tempest and further to humanity.
  
  However as this is and old article on an old webpage I’m guessing my efforts would amount to very little. I think what I’m saying is that this episode has a lot more to it than what you have taken prima facie and if anyone reading this has decided to just take a look at this episode and The Tempest in maybe a little more depth they will be greatly rewarded by what they find, and furthermore what I have written would have been worthwhile.
• From Daniel Antil on 2014-08-31 at 9:18am:
  I agree this is one of the worst episodes. It's almost a guarantee that any episode which relies on the holo deck for its storyline is generally insubstantial. There are so many things wrong with this episode:
  1. The holo deck becomes the vehicle for the ship's computer to take over the ship??? It just can't happen!
  2. Data, despite his strength, cannot stop a car from moving forward if he is merely squatting on the ground - it is simple physics - he would need proper leverage and weight balance.
  3. The man who takes the gold brick and puts it into an empty slot in a wall... What does it mean??? There is obviously something symbolic about it, but they don't explain it at all!
  4. The ship creates a life form in the cargo bay??? So many things wrong with that!
  5. When the life form is complete, it simply passes through the ship's hull and flies off into space... Why? Where did it go? And why the heck doesn't the Enterprise follow it??? That should be the primary mission - investigate and keep tabs on a life form the ship created!
  6. After the holo deck turns off, Data, Troy and Worf are still holding drinks in their hands... Drinks they got from the holo deck train.
  
  That's just a basic list... There are dozens of other flaws in this episode. It's a stinker!
• From Carolyn on 2015-08-28 at 5:45pm:
  This is one of my favorite episodes. Very creative, funny and thoughtful. I can't believe the reviews I am reading here!
• From GVT on 2016-08-02 at 7:28am:
  I found Emily's comment very helpful in understanding this episode...thank you Emily. This episode does require a more metaphorical interpretation since, as L mentioned, having starships running around becoming self-aware and doing whatever they choose would spell disaster for the crews of those vessels. I find entertainment in the absurd so I rate this episode a 6...but with insight gained from Emily's post a 7.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-04-15 at 11:10pm:
  This episode just plain sucks, and a 2 is way too generous. First of all, Wesley coming back from Starfleet academy to discover that his mother and everyone else he loves are basically heroin addicts is just ridiculously cruel. What a horrific welcome back episode. Secondly, the Lefler character is so charismatic, beautiful, and just damn likeable and they NEVER bring her back. She had the potential to be one of the best minor characters ever. Thanks Rick.
  
  Thirdly, the premise is stupid. A game is just sooo addictive that everyone on the whole enterprise is seduced by it. I can buy Riker getting addicted, and maybe even Picard (although probably not), but WORF??? No way in hell Worf would ever play the game. For the sake of justification, perhaps Picard ordered him to play it. Either way, it's just stupid beyond reason.
  
  Lastly, no one ever apologizes. Yes, I know that they weren't "themselves", but they seemed to remember what they did. Therefore, the idea that Wesley would leave without so much as an apology from anyone is completely absurd. Then again, this episode is completely absurd, and it pisses me off every time I watch it. The only thing saving it from a zero is that at least it doesn't break canon, and Lefler is a thoroughly enjoyable character.
• From DSOmo on 2007-09-06 at 8:47am:
  - When Riker wants to introduce the game to Troi, he finds her in Ten-Forward. He finds her enjoying a bowl of chocolate ice cream. She proceeds to describe for him the ritual of eating chocolate. Isn't it a little late in the series for new expositional material between Troi and Riker? Riker acts like he's never seen Troi eat a bowl of chocolate ice cream before. She is doing it in Ten-Forward. Obviously this isn't a ritual she observes only in private. This is the fifth season, and Troi and Riker supposedly knew and dated each other before either joined the Enterprise. How could he never have seen this before?
  - Picard tells Riker that Wesley will arrive by shuttle. Yet when Wesley does arrive, he beams in from a science vessel.
  - When Robin tells Wesley he needs to calibrate the sensors manually, he balks. He then tells Robin that the computer must do it. Of course, she proves him wrong by marching over and demonstrating. Has Starfleet Academy ruined Wesley? This is the same guy who turned a tractor beam into a repulser beam in his head when everyone said it was impossible. This is also the guy who helped the engineers reroute power when an alien entity took over the ship. He did both of these things when merely a child, and now that he's in Starfleet Academy he doesn't know how to calibrate a sensor manually?
  - Does it strike anyone else as odd that Picard will play the game but Wesley won't?
  - When Crusher and Worf come looking for Wesley, they find Wesley and Robin on Wesley's bed, simulating the game-playing using mock-ups. Crusher and Worf leave satisfied. Wesley never puts the mock-up on again. Wouldn't it make more sense for him and Robin to continue to wear the game and fake the pleasure?
  - While Wesley prepares to elude the crew, he tells Robin that he programmed a site-to-site transport program. This all makes sense because it would allow Wesley to beam from anywhere to anywhere on the ship. In the actual beaming, Wesley beams from a hallway to a transporter pad! That's not site-to-site, that's normal transport. In fact, because Wesley uses normal transport, Geordi can locate him, telling Picard that Wesley ended up on deck 6.
• From djb on 2008-03-26 at 7:43am:
  For some reason, this is one of my favorite episodes. Probably has something to do with childhood memories.
  
  The premise and ramifications of such a simple brainwashing device are a bit scary. I think they could have made it more believable with a few modifications. Also, it's good to see Wesley back for an ep, but sadly it's yet another installment in the "Wesley and/or Data save the day" vein, of which there have been far too many. Lefler is a great character (and Ashley Judd's looks certainly don't hurt), but it's a shame we don't see that character again. I guess we can add her to the long list of guest stars we'd love to see more of but we never hear from again, of which, there are, again, far too many. (Probably a budget thing.)
  
  That being said, this episode has a lot of good moments. Riker's face when he first gets a hit from the game is great. Wesley flirting with Robin is great, but then again, I'm a romantic. Seeing all the characters brainwashed is a freaky sight! People we know and love and trust week after week, all turned into evil zombies. Contrived, but fun. Watching our cute couple figure out what the "Game" really does, figuring out what's wrong with Data, and pretending to be brainwashed, is fun and entirely believable, given how brilliant both of them are. I also liked the chase scene. It reminded me of The Hunted from season 3.
  
  Data's coming on the bridge and snapping everyone out of it is a pretty badass moment. Even though Data saving the ship (yet again) is an old plot device, it is still believable, and fun to watch.
  
  One little nitpicky thing-- when Worf and Riker force Wesley's eyes open. He blinks, indicating they haven't really got his eyes forced open. That's a pretty difficult thing to do; you pretty much need a speculum if you want to do it without actually touching/hurting the person's eyes (as in "A Clockwork Orange"). But they could at least have used a take where he didn't blink.
  
  I'd have to agree with the problems in plot/execution that others have mentioned; taking all that into account I'd normally give it a 4, but tilt it up to 5 or 6 because... well, I liked it. Flawed in concept, but well-executed, and memorable.
• From Rob UK on 2014-02-03 at 4:47am:
  Sad to say i am also a hater of this episode but no surprise here it is for completely unusual reasons.
  
  Firstly, the potential for drugs(or technology that alters the chemicals of the brain responsible for perception) that alter the mind in sci-fi is phenomenal (just look at farscape), it is totally wasted here with a lackluster effort, the crazy leaps that the viewer must make to understand how each character other than beardy Bill the sex fiend got tricked into playing long enough to get hooked, Bill was getting booty when he got hooked, be honest who hasn't been there in life more times than they care to remember, deviant sexual interest with a big bag of naughty that you promised yourself you were not going to have any of and definitely go to work monday morning?
  
  I think you could call that a sidetrack, anyway where was i?
  
  For me what made this episode the most painful was all the orgasms faces we had to endure as our crew 'score goals' in the game, Dr Krushers were particularly excruciating but i literally thanked the powers that be when we were spared Picard's 'jizzface' when he put the game on just after Wes tried to get a shipwide investigation going, just thank the heavens and the hells that he wasn't very good at it I say. Sadly i was not saved as i have a visceral imagination that has a mind of it's own and as the scene cuts away with Picard looking like he is gonna take a shit with concentration the minds eye continues the scene on until he gets his release, i apologise profusely to anyone reading this who also has a vivid imagination that can run away with itself visually and did with that imagery.
• From Mike on 2016-10-27 at 7:39am:
  I was hoping that the ending of this episode would be Wesley waking up and realizing that this game business was just a horrifying nightmare, as it was for us, the fans. Only in a dream could the entire crew be reduced to worthless imbeciles while Wesley and a young Ashley Judd save the day.
  
  This is the first of two episodes (the other being "Rascals") in which the Enterprise is easily taken over by buffoonery. Not proud moments for the Federation flagship.
• From Keefaz on 2017-01-08 at 12:31am:
  My girlfriend and I are watching through all the TNG on Netflix, and I think this is the first episode we really struggled to sit all the way through. 2 or 3 times we almost turned it off.
  
  It is so bad, and all the creepy close-ups and orgasm faces are painful to watch. The Troi ice-cream scene is especially eye-numbingly terrible. The only saving grace is the cute romance between Wes and Lefler, and you're really clutching at straws when that could be a highlight.
• From ChristopherA on 2019-04-30 at 2:22pm:
  I noticed many of the issues others have complained about with this episode, but I liked it anyway. I thought Wesley and Robin were likeable, the possessed Enterprise crew were creepy, and the episode was exciting to watch. Not my favorite, it does have a lot of issues, but a fine average episode.
• From jeffenator 98 on 2019-09-06 at 5:19pm:
  Law #103 All Wesley saves the ship episodes suck. 2/10
• From Chuck the Canuck on 2023-05-12 at 5:38pm:
  "I'd like to know more about it before I try it," says Wesley. I guess aside from Lefler, none of the 1000+ other people aboard the ship thought of that.
  
  I think the biggest plot hole here is that Crusher and Riker call Geordi to look at Data before they get him addicted to the game. Wouldn't he have done the exact same thing Wesley does later in order to figure out what's wrong with Data? Wesley even says he's one of the experts on Data.
  
  The most entertaining parts of this episode are the looks and sounds people make as they play the game.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-07 at 6:34am:
  - When the Enterprise receives the first distress call from Dr. Manheim, he gives only two coordinates to his location. How were they able to travel to the correct location? Three coordinates are needed for three-dimensional space.
  - Jenice tells Picard she waited for him all day. She also comments that it was raining. Their rendezvous was at an open-air cafe! Did Jenice sit in the rain all day and wait for Picard?
  - During the time rift, the multiple Datas question each other as to who is in the correct position. The middle Data says, "It's me!" In addition to the fact Data cannot use contractions, Data's response is also bad grammar. The correct response should be, "It is I!"
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-14 at 5:16pm:
  The character development was amusing to watch. The other plot was too perfunctory, with unnecessarily huge implications that were ignored.
  
  At the end, Dr. Mannheim asks to return to the research lab, and Picard says OK. I was flabbergasted. They should be hauling him off to prison for Reckless Endangerment of the Galaxy!
  
  @DSOmo: I notice the rain issue as well, but I assumed the cafe was open-air from the sides, not from the top. I don't think the camera ever panned up to show whether or not there was a roof or canopy above them.
• From Percivale on 2011-12-06 at 4:17pm:
  I think the real mistake was deciding that Data wouldn't be able to use contractions. It makes no sense other than to make Data more identifiable as an automaton - which they try so hard to disprove throughout the series - and they obviously couldn't keep up with their own rule.
• From 0ne mooner on 2012-02-18 at 5:31am:
  
  In which Data gets to be a hero. Win!
  
  The guest star who plays the prof also plays Sigmund Frued on Bill and Ted's excellent adventure.
  
  If riker is to buy a round at the blue parrot how is he to do this? I thought currency in the federation was obsolete?
• From mattymjp on 2013-07-21 at 7:05am:
  Some interesting outfits worn by the female guest stars in this episode. That is all I have to say!
• From Dr. Paul Obumheim on 2023-04-21 at 7:53am:
  The scene at the lift where they meet themselves is fantastic, I love it.
  Great episode, could have done without the Cafe scenes.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-18 at 6:08am:
  - At the very beginning, Pulaski does a voice-over while going to the bridge. She never opens her mouth the entire time she is on the turbolift. How did the turbolift know where to take her?
  - Just after the "touch and go" transport, Data contacts the Enterprise. However, the Enterprise is traveling at warp during this time (it's on a rescue mission, I'm assuming it is traveling at warp 8). Very impressive range for these little communicators.
  -When Picard thinks Graves is dead, he says, "Whatever scientific secrets Ira Graves was about to unlock have been lost forever." Didn't Graves take notes? I would think someone as egotistical as Graves would keep very detailed records (not just for someone to build on his research, but so he could get credit for any discoveries)
  - When Graves/Data becomes angry with Brianon, he tightens his grip on her hand. According to Dr. Pulaski, this action fractures her hand in two places, but Brianon's reaction is amazingly passive. As Graves/Data storms out, she simply sits and watches him go.
  - When Data/Graves backhands Picard, he swings his hand from the left to the right. Picard then spins a full turn to the LEFT, then stumbles to the right. Picard spins in the opposite direction as the force of impact!!
• From Daniel Blessing on 2009-09-18 at 4:17pm:
  Problems
  "- Near warp transport seems a bit too risky for the gain. They cut what... a few seconds from their journey at the risk of killing the away team? Seems a bit reckless."
  
  From a viewers perspective, yes it seems to be only a few seconds. However, I believe that if you view the entire coming out of warp, getting into a "safe orbit for transport" and then executing the transport normally or standard procedure, this saves more time then we actually get to see visually. Consider the time constraints the show is forced to endure. Often we get a calculation of "We will arrive at the destination in approximately 10 hours." Just then, we get a Captains Log entry and the ship has arrived. Only a few seconds have passed...
  The bottom line here is that we may not ever get to see all of the required steps involved with coming out of warp at a safe distance, traveling the remaining distance to get into range for transport, and then all that is involved with safe planetary transport.
  If I had to guess at how much time all of these things would take, (and again, this is pure speculation,) I would guess that by doing this form of transport, they could have saved anywhere between 10 to 20 minutes. Not worth the time of the lives being risked by any stretch. Especially considering they were not at maximum warp and could have made up the lost time by simply increasing to a slightly faster warp factor.
  This was obviously an attempt to introduce us to something new. It was never used again, and for good reason. It was fail.
• From rpeh on 2010-08-25 at 9:19am:
  Factoid: the away team that beams down is the only one in TNG that doesn't contain a 100% human. It has an android, a Klingon, a Vulcan and a (50%) Betazoid.
  
  Brent Spiner's acting is the high point here, but the rest of the episode has some nice points too. I'd have loved to find out more about the relationship between Graves and Soong though.
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-29 at 1:23am:
  The episode revolved heavily around the character of Dr. Graves, but I never felt I understood him. They mentioned his disease affected his brain. How much of his egomania was natural, how much caused by the neurological disease? The entire episode is spent showing how utterly arrogant and self-centered Dr. Graves is, then at the end, he is convinced to give up Data's body. I didn't understand why he did this. Why let the greatest mind in the universe die just because lesser mortals aren't strong enough to be around it? Picard's speech was good, but not that good. Dr. Graves didn't say or do anything that would make me understand why he suddenly develops concern for others.
• From Inga on 2011-12-28 at 7:54pm:
  Finally, a Vulcan character with lines :)
  
  I agree with CAlexander, Graves' character seems a little unrealistic.
• From a2a on 2012-02-19 at 11:19pm:
  This episode was alright but Graves' assistant was painfully one-dimensional. Throughout the entire episode, beginning to end, she had the same helpless, vulnerable demeanor. That's probably my main complaint...
  
  I liked how this episode tackled some "transhumanist" concepts with a balanced perspective... The show presents an interest in "bridging man and machine," but also a commonsense cautiousness. Graves' assistant is repulsed at the idea of turning into an android, Picard considers what Graves did to be "cheating" and a kind of perversion, and Graves himself in the end decides it wasn't a good idea. The experiment is terminated.
  
  In the end, Picard is very satisfied with the ship's computer carrying Graves' knowledge, but not his consciousness.
  
  - - -
  
  This is an altogether level-headed take on futurist/transhumanist concepts... concepts which may become real, tangible concerns within our lifetime...
• From Gategod on 2012-07-29 at 1:52pm:
  I love this idea, but the actions in it INFURIATE me.
  
  This stupid girl is in love with an old guy, who is also in love with her, but the moment he isn't "old" anymore and the two of them can actually be together... she pulls away. She is disgusted by him and becomes fearful. To me, this is ridiculous and comes out of nowhere.
  
  Also, Counselor Troi must have had a copy of the script, because she assumes WAY too much and basically figures out the problem magically.
  
  Data/Graves should have been able to full everyone, for the entire episode... if not an entire SEASON. He is supposedly the most brilliant man ever, yet can't control himself for 10 minutes? UNREALISTIC.
  
  He should have been happy after backhanding Picard and took off in a shuttle all la-de-da to continue his research for the next thousand years. He cheated death, only to suicide himself out of nowhere because of a bald man (whom he hated) told him too.
  
  That's how I would have written it. The "bad" guy should have won out here, and Data should have been gone for good. If not, at least draw this out more. People shouldn't even have SUSPECTED that he wasn't acting right. Not for another 20 minutes, if not 20 episodes.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-12-01 at 7:27am:
  - In one of her personal logs, Unari yearns for a glass of real muskin seed punch, the kind her mother used to make. She doesn't think the replicator does a very good job. Later, Geordi brings her a glass of muskin seed punch in Ten-Forward and Unari acts like it is wonderful. Is Unari just trying to make Geordi feel good or did Geordi get into Guinan's personal supply?
  - This coalescent being is either not very smart or it made a bad mistake. Crusher states that it probably has to change bodies every few days. The episode supports this by saying that the coalesced officer arrived at the relay station several days before the incident with Unari. Supposedly he attacked Unari because he needed the food. But the episode's dialogue indicates that the station assignment lasts for a year. What was the being going to do after it consumed Unari and her dog? The station is out in the middle of nowhere. If the being absorbed the officer before he arrived at the station, why would he go somewhere with such a limited supply of nutrition?
  - Someone made a mistake in the sound effects department. During the last scene between Geordi and Unari, they sit together in Ten-Forward. At one point, the "boop" sound effect for a companel page momentarily interrupts their conversation. Strangely, no one pages Geordi or Unari, and the scene continues as if nothing happened!
• From sarah on 2008-07-20 at 11:45pm:
  was the dog a berger picard (dog breed) ?
• From JRPoole on 2008-09-19 at 3:03pm:
  I agree. This one is "absolutely dull and sad." Geordi can't get a break with the ladies to save his life. What is it about Engineers and women? Scottie had this kind of luck as well.
  
  Apart from that, the saddest thing is that a pretty cool idea gets completely wasted here. I love the idea of the coalescent being, but the way it's executed here is just boring. The plot just sort of plods along and then explodes at the very end with the dog attaching LaForge.
  
  Think for a second how shitty an assignment Aquiel has in the first place. She's stuck on a remote outpost for at least a year with only one other person for company, but she's listening to everybody's communication. It would have driven her crazy even if her new partner hadn't been a homicidal blob of ectoplasm. Now that's something that could have been explored a little better. But, alas, this episode squanders it all. I bump it up a point for at least having an interesting premise, so it's a 2.
• From Jeremy Reffin on 2009-08-03 at 5:20am:
  I'm having problems recreating the murder scene here. Rocha/Blob attacks Uhnari in order to absorb her. Does it succeed a bit (Geordi suggests an initiation of coalescence may have been responsible for her loss of memory) ? Uhnari phasers the blob down to scrap DNA - interfering with the absorption process ?? Uhnari flees to shuttlecraft having interrupted absorption ??? Bits of blob (missed by the phaser meltdown of Rocha ????) then absorb the pooch ????? Or something. Sheesh what a mess.
  
  I know - who cares, get a life.
• From thaibites on 2012-07-05 at 1:53am:
  Hey, at least this chick was real and not some computer generated fantasy.
• From Arianwen on 2013-01-02 at 12:40pm:
  The episode isn't just dull, it's idiotic as well.
  - Uhnari confesses to Geordi that she deleted the logs because she "was afraid that if they found the letter they'd blame [her] for the murder". This directly contradicts her earlier statement: if she had no memory of a murder, then she had no reason to get rid of the evidence! Or memory of having removed the logs at all, for that matter. Did she delete the logs AFTER she came to the Enterprise? If so, what kind of incompetence would allow a bloody murder suspect to teleport off the damn ship?
  - Crusher, Picard, Riker and Worf are all aware of the shape-shifting organism. Not ONE of them thinks of the dog. Riker even has a conversation with Geordi while PETTING it - even the Red Dwarf crew would have noticed!
  Everyone's holding the Stupid ball today. One can only assume the senior staff are still concussed from their previous adventure.
• From Mike on 2017-04-23 at 10:30pm:
  By far the worst episode of Season 6. I agree that Aquiel's story never adds up even after her "memory drain" is explained and her fight with Lieutenant Blobcha. The entire Klingon thing turns out to be a red herring. La Forge spends a big chunk of the episode getting to know this woman only to have it go absolutely nowhere. And, after all of that, his skirmish with the coalescent being is painful to watch.
  
  At least they brought Leah Brahms-the real one-back for some continuity and development of Geordi's character. Aquiel gets an episode named after her, makes quite an impression on the Chief Engineer, and then disappears for good.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2008-10-30 at 7:03pm:
  Ughh. Ferengi are almost always terribly executed on TNG. Ughh. Picard's son turns out not to be. Ughh. How the hell did Bok a) find out about a two-week affair of Picard's from a quarter century ago, b) find the kid, c) manipulate his genes without his knowing about it, and d) know the Enterprise would be near Caymore in the first place. On top of all this, we have an interesting idea for a planet--a colony in collapse following the Cardassian war--and we never even set foot on it.
  
  Science alert: if you change someone's genes, the cells will be different when they reproduce. In a few cell cycles, you'd have a completely different person.
  
  This is terrible. Utterly, utterly, unwatchably terrible. The son is a complete douche, and not in an interesting way. His acting is terrible, he's badly written, and his reaction to being transported unexpectedly is completely unbelievable. The first episode with Bok wasn't that great in the first place, so it's not the best episode to return to here. I can't believe this is one of the pentultimate TNG episodes. I vaguely remembered it from the first run, and I figured it was lost in the middle of the series somewhere, not featured prominently at the end.
• From John Smith on 2011-10-23 at 4:28pm:
  Not a very good episode by any means but it does contain one of my favorite scenes in all of TNG: someone finally telling the ever presumptuous Troi to buzz off. She has never met this person before but she, unsolicited, takes it upon herself to see if he wants to open up her about his whole life. His response was quite appropriate and refreshing in that the always sanctimonious Troi was put in her place.
• From Shani on 2014-12-16 at 9:47am:
  From memory alpha: "Sagan noted that the original premise ("Fugue") was a lot darker than the aired episode. "The idea was that Bok had genetically engineered this kid from birth and advanced his growth and had been giving him memories of Picard abandoning him on the Stargazer. Then Bok was using one of the mind balls to give Picard these vague flashes of false memories, making him think that it was possible he had this sort of fugue-like experience where he basically abandoned his son on the Stargazer and blocked it out of his mind. I don't know if it would have ever worked or not, but it was kind of a really interesting, dark aspect and it gave you a sense of abandonment and trying to recapture this sense of a son he never had. Then it turns out that it's not that at all." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)"
  
  Why did they not make that episode? That would have actually been brilliant and interesting to watch. I can see them trying to argue that it would be too dark for TNG but it would have been brilliant
• From tigertooth on 2017-02-11 at 3:04am:
  The first question Picard would have asked was "Why is Bok warning me about the fact that he's going after my son? Why wouldn't he get my son first?" The warning was the obvious signal that this was Bok's trap. Completely ridiculous that Picard and crew fell for it.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-06-25 at 6:24pm:
  This is what happens when the writing staff takes LSD before creating the script. This is an absolute off the wall episode that differs from anything that has ever been produced in the Trek universe. Usually, having an off the wall episode brings vitality to a show, but Masks fails on many levels.
  
  It is hard to believe that while the ship is being converted to an alien landscape, that no vital systems would disappear, causing destruction. By the way, where was the rest of the crew in this episode. Did they send everyone to their quarters?
  
  On top of all that, this episode is just boring. The plot develops at a snail's pace as the crew tries to discover what the solution is. It feels like a bad three-hour movie. The dialog between Picard, Worf, Riker, and Troi is drab. There are attempts at humor ("the observation lounge is a swamp"), but nobody is laughing as they watch this episode.
  
  The shameful thing is, the idea behind this episode is fantastic. It probably would have worked if the alien device did not possess Data. I would have rather seen the actual aliens appearing on the ship. The episode does not fail in the art department, however. It seems like they spent a lot of time and money to produce the set pieces.
  
  I would give this episode a 0, but I'll give it a 1 because of its artistic quality.
• From David Murray on 2011-04-01 at 7:48pm:
  I recently aquired the entire series of TNG and decided to watch them all from beginning to end. I was very pleased to discover that there were about 4 episodes that somehow I had never seen on TV before and so it was cool to get to watch "new" episodes of TNG. However, the last of these "new" episodes for me was Masks. I must admit I could barely make it through this episodes. I was cringing constantly at how horrible it was. Not only was it down right dumb, but it was also boring. Take the TOS episode "Spock's Brain" which people say is really bad. Well, it is bad. But despite out dumb it is, it is actually fun to watch. Masks is not entertaining in the least. In fact I'd probably have fallen asleep except for the cringing of bad scenes keeping me awake. I would probably rate this as the worst episode of all time.
• From MJ on 2011-04-26 at 6:10pm:
  I guess I'm one of the few who didn't find this one so bad. Average, yes, but not horrible.
  
  The main problem I have is how long it takes the crew to recognize that Korgano is the moon. Picard should have figured that out almost immediately. Instead, they stretch the problem out beyond believability. This is what makes a potentially solid episode average, in my view.
  
  As for vital ship systems not falling victim to transformation, I suppose it could be explained that this archive is so advanced and sophisticated that it could recognize which aspects of the ship are safe to transform...after all, this thing apparently interfaced with Data and uploaded thousands of personalities into his system. Clearly the technology is beyond that of the Federation in some regards.
  
  It does seem strange that such an advanced culture would be so superstitious as to believe in sun-goddesses and moon-gods. However, it could be that the creators of this archive were actually showcasing their own ancient history, rather than the way their culture was at the time the archive was built.
  
  So I think some loose ends can be tied up here but I agree it's very dull at some points. With Spiner's acting, the set design, and at least a somewhat plausible story, I give it a 5.
• From Bronn on 2011-10-05 at 9:02pm:
  I have to agree with the above commenter. It's by no means a classic episode, and the premise is silly, with a lot of nonsense science. But Spiner and Stewart are excellent actors who really want to make this high-concept (shudder whenever Brennan Braga ever uses that phrase) story work. What I love about Brent Spiner is that he really commits-they ask him to play a series of different mythological personalities that are taking over Data's programming, and he absolutely runs with it. Watching him provides the only moments when this episode is not completely absurd. I'd give it a 4, just based on how much I like Brent Spiner.
• From Arbit on 2012-05-01 at 9:03pm:
  Just awful. Some "highlights":
  
  - Picard getting impatient and deciding to just melt the comet (!??!?)
  - Ancient civilization capable of creating a gigantic space temple many times the size of the enterprise living in fear of a sun god
  - The crew struggling to identify the crescent-shaped companion symbol of the sun symbol (perhaps... they are antlers?)
  - Alien communication device accidentally transmutes spaceship parts into crappy looking concrete blocks and random jungle foliage (I can see it causing power surges and other weird phenomenon, but what sort of communications tech screws up so bad it starts transmuting matter? Maybe I'll try to plug a USB flashdrive into an old PS2 port and see if my computer will transmute my couch into gold bricks)
  - Picard literally talking the sun god to sleep
  - Etc etc
  
  Maybe the worst part about this episode is it was a waste of a totally awesome premise. An ancient 87+ million year old comet/temple, traveling in deep space to nowhere, starts to interfere with the ship's systems, projecting strange runes on readouts and materializing strange totems everywhere! What sort of Cthulian interdimensional horror have the crew uncovered? The crew, belonging to an intergalactic hippie empire, immediately assume it's an ancient repository of information. "Yeah right" you think. "And the creators chucked into deep space where no one had any reasonable chance of finding it? Set course for INSANITY, warp ten billion!!!"
  
  No, it's really just an archive and it accidentally started projecting its boring sun/moon god mythology onto the ship.
• From L on 2013-05-04 at 9:36am:
  A proto-Egyptian/Sumerian civilisation's equivalent of the afterlife; they've somehow recorded the personalities and experiences of key citizens, stuck that record in a starship, inside a comet, and they replay themselves through any available medium once activated, ie, Data and the Enterprise's computer system.
  Interesting and silly at the same time. What was so important about this scenario that a civilisation developed technology that only rational minds could produce, to replay something that only irrational superstition could produce?
  An ironic public service announcement?
  I like the idea of exploring the intersection between myth and high-tech ability, but was not convinced.
  
• From Daniel on 2014-01-25 at 8:01am:
  My biggest complaint about this episode is that Picard - despite his extensive studies of mythology and ancient cultures - could not figure out that the crescent moon symbol he kept seeing was the moon. As many cultures use similar symbols, and he already knew the other symbol was the sun, it was an obvious correlation.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-02 at 6:42pm:
  - A bridge crew can relieve the captain if they unanimously agree that the captain is acting oddly. Also, a doctor can relieve the captain if the doctor thinks the captain is medically unfit for command. Shouldn't the same thing apply to mission commanders? Picard finds out that Jameson: 1) took double the recommended dosage of an alien drug 2) confesses to a direct violation of the Prime Directive (giving weapons) 3) proposes a raid that Picard thinks is questionable. Yet, Picard acts like he has no other recourse but to obey.
  - the drug is "radically changing the cellular structure of his body and rewriting his DNA." Doesn't it seem likely that the drug would also wipe out the scar tissue in Jameson's body?
  - The transporter pad certainly isn't wheelchair-accessible. Jameson, who is confined to a futuristic wheelchair, is beemed on to the transporter pad. How does he get off the pad?
  - When Picard and Riker leaves the bridge to greet Jameson, look very carefully, Picard contorts his entire face just before he enters the turbolift (an outtake??)
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-09-20 at 6:10pm:
  The Admiral's wife (we never learn her name) had some of the worst acting and most annoying dialog in Star Trek history. The Admiral is plagued with advanced Iverson's disease, a degenerative, incurable and terminal disease that rob it's victim of quality of life before it kills him. The Admiral finds a potential cure that incidental makes him young while saving his life. Is his wife pleased? Not at all. Why? Because she wants to spend more time with husband (while watching him die horribly). It stretches credulity.
• From Inga on 2011-12-21 at 11:12am:
  Jeff, the Admiral's wife's name is Anne. She was called by her name a couple of times in the episode and at the very end, just before he died, the Admiral called her "Annie with the golden hair"
• From John on 2012-03-05 at 4:03am:
  I think maybe what Jeff meant was that we learn her name, but we don't care enough to remember it, because this episode sucks.