The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-19 at 7:02pm:
  - In this episode, Worf makes the comment about bathing more often to the ambushers. But in "Conspiracy," he says, "swimming is too much like ... bathing." I guess being with humans has changed Worf ;)
  - Riker stuns Yuta twice and then kills her!! I know he warned her twice, but did he have to kill her? The second time he stuns Yuta, she barely manages to get up. Stun her a few more times, or get the guards to grab her, or transport her back to the Enterprise, but don't kill her!
• From thaibites on 2010-12-15 at 12:08am:
  So...Riker spends most of the episode trying to charm little blondie. Then, when she comes to his room and wants to give him pleasure, he stops her and says I want you as an equal!?! Yeah, right... Oprah and Phil Donohue were probably high-fiving each other when they saw that. Sometimes TNG is so unrealistically lame and pro-social, it makes me sick.
• From MJ on 2011-02-23 at 12:06am:
  I think it's generally agreed the ending of this episode was a horrible waste of a potentially good story. I was very interested in the idea of a clan based society setting aside its differences and making peace, but not before some of its members wandered off to become intergalactic nomads. That peaceful society is now trying to incorporate the nomads, who obviously live very different lives. And the intrigue involved in the Acamarian ruler's personal aide secretly seeking a vendetta made for a superb twist.
  
  But in the end, it leads to a scene in which everybody is standing around while Yuta tries to kill Chorgan, and Riker repeatedly stuns and then kills her. I can think of several better endings, and I'm not a paid, professional writer. Have a bunch of people subdue Yuta and take her away. Or, if her death is to be a significant part of the plot, have Chorgan or one of his band of warriors kill Yuta, thus endangering the peace process and ending the episode on a question of whether the Gatherers will ever return to Acamar in light of what's happened. Something...anything...but what actually happened.
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-14 at 4:01am:
  Mostly I thought the episode was entertaining, though not exactly inspired. But the secret revelation at the end was very odd. I was expecting Yuta to have been raised in the tradition of revenge, that would make sense. Where did this weird "genetic modification" thing come from? Somehow, in order to exact an exotic revenge scheme, they have discovered a way to greatly extend lifespan. Forget revenge, wouldn't everyone want that? It is like inventing time travel just to restart the warp engines! And I totally agree with DSOmo that there was no reason for Riker to kill her. Apparently the writers wanted her dead, and no one was going to stop them.
• From Percivale on 2011-09-03 at 3:50am:
  This episode had a vaguely interesting plot but the execution was dismal. I thought the Gatherer characters were obnoxious - no matter what their role was in the story at any given time, I just did not like seeing them on screen.
  
  The chemistry (or lack thereof) between Riker and Yuta was really awkward and unconvincing.
  
  I think 2 is more appropriate.
• From John on 2012-12-05 at 6:23am:
  This episode isn't all that bad. The plot itself is somewhat formulaic, but the dialogue and character development are pretty good, so I give it a 7/10. It's certainly not an eye-roller, like some of the more terrible TNG episodes.
  
  That said, this is another one of those 'world divided' episodes where two groups of people from the same planet are completely different, except that one group no longer lives on the planet.
  
  The 'leaders' of both factions are portrayed quite well -- Nancy Parsons, in particular, does a good job as the Sovereign of the more 'civilized' sect, and Joey Aresco's Brull is interesting and fairly well-developed (for a one hour show).
  
  It's certainly entertaining, at any rate, even if you've seen it before. The dialogue is snappy enough to keep you interested.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-08-04 at 8:19am:
  This watch-through, I found this ep pretty dull. The character of Yuta was wasted. She had potential. Agreed that Yuta's death was abrupt and unnecessary. They probably could have cut a bunch of the Yuta/Riker scenes and had a more satisfying ending. Knowing how it turns out, it's pretty weird watching them interact throughout the episode knowing he ends up killing her!
  
  I like that once Riker saw how ... let's just say, girl got issues, he stopped pursuing her sexually and just hugged her. That was nice. I, too, would be pretty instantly turned off finding out a potential lover was just trying to please me but wasn't actually into it herself. Ick. I do kinda feel sorry for Yuta. She probably does feel powerless to change her destiny. She's clearly not happy.
  
  I will continue to be salty at Trek weapons being able to vaporize a whole person in seconds. The amount of energy that would have to release all at once would practically leave a crater. But here: no remains, no ashes, no smoke, no bright light, no wave of heat, no meat vapor cloud, no nothing. Just poof! 60 or so kilograms of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, calcium, etc, whisked out of existence. This isn't specific to this episode, but it's doubly annoying given how pointless the death was. Grr!
  
  Sometimes this show feels like it holds up decently three decades later; sometimes it feels *very* 80s. The whole getup of the Gatherers felt *very* 80s. Not that that's a bad thing! ;)

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-24 at 4:15am:
  - At the beginning of the show, Wesley is helping Geordi in Engineering. At this time, Picard is talking with Anya. Before beaming aboard, Anya asks what species they are. From events later in the episode, it is obvious why Anya asked this question. Wesley realizes this fact in one of his last conversations with Salia. But how did Wesley know that Anya asked the question of species in the first place? He was in Engineering at the time, and the question itself is seemingly pointless, not the type of thing to be repeated readily.
  - As Picard escorts Anya and Salia to their quarters, Wesley steps off a turbolift, carrying the SCM Model 3, and sees Salia for the time. The numbers on the turbolift doors are "22." What is Wesley doing on deck 22? He already has the SCM, shouldn't he be headed back to Engineering on deck 36?
  - Why is Wesley so offended to learn that Salia could change her shape? I think it would be fun, "Let's try blonde today, maybe a little taller, how about some bigger ...." ;)
  - During the episode "Where No One Has Gone Before," Kozinski states that in the past three hundred years, humanity has charted only 11 percent of the galaxy. Wesley tells Salia that they have charted 19 percent of the galaxy. The Federation has been busy!! (or someone is wrong)
  - When the Enterprise arrives at Daled IV, the atmosphere of the planet interferes with their communications. The Enterprise can't even talk to these people, and they can still transport Salia down? Isn't the transporter usually the first thing to go? It seems reasonable that transporting living beings would be a lot more difficult to accomplish than communication.
• From JRPoole on 2008-01-25 at 5:58pm:
  I gave this episode a 1.
  
  "The Dauphin" offends my sensibilities for a couple of reasons. First, virtually all Wesley-centered episodes (especially the earlier ones) are terrible and this is no exception. I realize that Wesley is an adolescent, but his actions in this episode are ridiculous. He loves this girl? Please. They've known each other for about, what 3 days? Why doesn't Geordi snatch a knot in Wesley's ass for not having his head in the game when they're performing maintence on the engines? Again, I realize Wesley's an adolescent, but he's also a serving ensign on the ship, and he can worry about poontang when the work's done. Isn't that the very kind of thing he's supposed to be learning? It seems he already knows everything there is to know about the Enterprise.
  
  The Wesley episodes always leave me cold because they're a waste of a character. Instead of doing something worthwhile with the character, they churn out shlock. His wide-eyed boy wonder sthick gets old really fast, and this episode is an prime example.
  
  In additon to the problems already mentioned, I submit the following:
  
  --I don't buy the sickbay scene. If these shape-shifter beings are really some sort of "light energy" beings, are they really in danger from a virus?
  
  --Why is the crew incredulous that shape-shifting beings exist? They act like they've got the Loch Ness monster or Sasquatch on their hands, but this has been established before. Iman's character in Star Trek III is a shapeshifter, and there are a few more examples as well.
  
  --The teddy bear incarnation of Anya is incredibly stupid.
  
  --This isn't necessarily a problem, but it's underdeveloped. At one point, Picard (I think it was Picard, anyway) hopes that the Federation can establish "formal relations" with Daled IV. Isn't ferrying their new leader around the galaxy something that should qualify as "formal relations"? How is it that the flagship of the Federation comes to be the personal taxi service of a planet they don't seem to know anything about at all?
  
  --Is it just me, or does the scene between Guinan and Riker just not jive with Guinan's character somehow?
  
  --Worf's final exchange with Anya is painful to watch.
• From rpeh on 2010-08-25 at 11:52am:
  For some reason, I quite like this episode. There's a decent amount of technobabble like "In a moment, the harmonic resonance from the neutrino clouds will become synchronous"(!!!!!). There are basic mistakes - you already mentioned the sound in space, but how about you can see the planet rotating? It would fly apart if it was spinning that fast. There are bad alien costumes.
  
  But... it works. For some reason I don't find Wesley objectionable in this one, and the love story is quite believable. I like the interaction between Anya and Worf. I'm not claiming it's brilliant, but I'll give it a 6.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-09-22 at 11:54pm:
  Some of the worst special effects in the history of Star Trek. Even much of TOS was better than this! The shape shifting scenes were embarrassing.
• From Inga on 2011-12-30 at 10:34pm:
  Salia's true form somehow reminds me of the Companion from the TOS episode "Metamorphosis".
  
  Also, I agree with JRPoole - Worf's final exchange with Anya WAS painful to watch :/
• From One Moon Circles eyes in the dark on 2012-02-27 at 5:40am:
  Falling in love your first time as an adolescent actually does happen when not even knowing each other and it can happen in just 2 days. I can testify to this from personal experience. :) Other than that this episode is just so wrong in so many ways I don't even know where to start. I gave this one a 1. The last episode was a hard one to follow but this one didn't even make an attempt.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-16 at 2:12am:
  Ah, young love. It's true, adolescent experiences of "love" can seem trivial through the mists of time, but for them it's pretty damn powerful. And yes, it's possible to get *very* attached to someone over just a few days! Even at 39, I'm not too jaded to watch the scenes between Wes and Salia and feel a little bit of it myself. I think the two actors did quite well together. I even teared up when Wes came to say goodbye, but I'm a sap and I accept that. Kudos to Geordi for realizing Wes was gonna be useless for a little while and validating to Wes how intense puberty is.
  
  I have a soft spot for this ep for a couple reasons, and NONE of them have anything to do with having a huge crush on Salia, nope! How dare you even suggest that!
  
  - Worf's rather licentious description of Klingon sex.
  "what does the man do?"
  "he reads love poetry. ... he ducks a lot."
  Cracks me up every time.
  
  - Guinan's and Riker's (mock?) flirting. Fantastic. Almost sounds like they're reciting a famous play or something. Guinan: "shut up, kid." Thirsty Guinan, rare form!
  
  - Guinan's insight to Wes at the end. I've always loved it. "Each one feels different" may sound like a basic lesson in love, but it's one worth hearing anyway. Wes won't feel the same way again, and that's OK. Salia will be unique to him in that way.
  
  It's not a great episode, but I don't think it tries to be. For me it's enjoyable for what it is.
  
  Worf: "do not be fooled by her looks. The body is just a shell." Indeed.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-05-28 at 3:21am:
  When Dr. Crusher wanted to talk to Worf about his memory block. His response, "I still don't remember having one." :)
  
  - The entity controlled Picard orders a course change of "9-2-5 mark 3-7." No wonder the crew is suspicious!! The episode "Datalore" states that headings have a maximum of 360 for each number.
  - I have a problem with the "transporter retaining Picard's physical pattern in the transporter buffers" idea. Data reconstructs Picard using that pattern. In essence, the transporter has duplicated Picard. With this theory, when someone dies on an away team, the crew could just use the transporter to duplicate the person (just as they were before beaming out)
• From Bernard on 2008-01-10 at 9:32pm:
  The fact that I still like this episode shows it can stand repeat viewings well (for me anyway)
  
  I love Patrick Stewart in this episode, and the meetings held by the rest of the crew to discuss the possibility of removing picard from command are great.
  
  Unfortunately thesse details do not save the episode from being average.
  
  Oh, and nice appearance by o'brien in this episode (who still doesn't have a name yet)
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-23 at 11:44pm:
  I thought it was clever that the mysterious malfunctions were caused by an alien entity trying to communicate a desire to get home and not knowing how to do it. I was confused about why Picard beamed into space, though; they talked as though he wanted to become an energy being, but all I saw was the alien mind-controlling him.
  
  Responding to DSOmo: While the transporters retain the pattern of Picard, they need the "energy essence" of the real Picard in order to recreate him. They state that the process won't work unless energy-Picard has found his way into the transporter circuits so he can be re-integrated with his body. (Maybe it works like reuniting Spock's katra with his body in Star Trek III).
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-09-05 at 6:36am:
  - When Dr. Marr comes on board, Riker escorts her to a turbolift. When they reach it, Riker touches a control panel on the exterior doors and they wait for the turbolift to arrive. I believe this is the first time this happens in this series. For four years, no one has had to wait for a turbolift to arrive.
  - In this episode, the Enterprise must use a pulsed graviton beam to investigate the "possibility of communication" with the crystal entity. In "Datalore," Yar opened a communications channel, and Lore simply spoke to the entity and it responded.
  - At one point, Data and Dr. Marr head for a turbolift. Once in the turbolift, Dr. Marr asks for the bridge. When they reach their destination, the doors pop open and they walk out. The shot shows a section of hallway through the open doors of the turbolift. Didn't Dr. Marr say "bridge"? None of the turbolift entrances on the bridge has a section of hallway like the one shown.
  - When Dr. Marr locks the graviton stream into a continuous mode, both Data and Geordi claim they can't stop her program. Why not just cut the power to the graviton emitters?
• From djb on 2008-03-23 at 8:54pm:
  - The episode opens with Riker hitting on a woman-- by now hardly a rare sight. But what I like about this one was the twist that the woman gets killed within moments. This is sad, but it kind of makes Riker's seduction attempts seem childish and trivial in retrospect. I like, though, how Riker wants to include a personal message to her her parents.
  
  - In response to our trusty resident fault-finder DSOmo, we definitely have seen people wait for the turbolift before, BUT, never have I seen someone have to push a button to summon it. Also, while they seem to exit the turbolift in a hallway, the next scene shows them on the bridge.
  
  - I liked this episode's continuity with other episodes, but I was slightly disappointed that we didn't see Lore. I kind of assumed that if we see the Crystalline Entity, we'd see Lore too, but I suppose that's a foolish assumption.
  
  - I love Dr. Marr's spectrum of emotion, especially her 180-degree attitude towards Data. First she distrusts him, then accepts him, then starts treating him as if he were her son! The progression from fascinated scientist to bereaved mother is also quite well done.
  
  -"Avatar" comes from the Sanskrit "Avatara", meaning literally "descent of a deity in incarnate form". It has come to mean embodiment, incarnation, or personification. Here, clearly, the title refers to Marr's son being "incarnated," so to speak, in Data, who is composed of, among other things, silicon. Interesting title...
• From JRPoole on 2008-07-06 at 6:03am:
  This one is a real stinker for me. While I share the disgust with just killing the thing, I also buy Marr's and Riker's justification. The news Data gives Dr. Marr at the end of the episode seems overly cruel and pointless as well.
• From KStrock on 2009-07-22 at 1:54pm:
  I really love Picard in this episode. It's great consistency with the character's respect for all forms of life.
• From Tallifer on 2011-02-21 at 10:46pm:
  I could not fathom the reaction of Picard et alia to Mar's destruction of the Crystalline Entity: yes, it would have been nicer to learn more and even communicate, but it had murdered thousands of human beings: its death was deserved and necessary in the end.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-02 at 6:56pm:
  Sorry to be disagreeable, but I found Ellen Geer's performance terrible. It left me cringing at times.
• From Will on 2011-10-29 at 1:08am:
  Nothing about the review suggests a rating of 3. Could you explain that part further?
• From Kethinov on 2011-10-30 at 1:53am:
  Will,
  
  In the review I mention finding the episode distasteful due to the plot's callous treatment of the crystalline entity. I felt like its murder was unnecessary and cheap storytelling. However, I do understand your desire for a more substantive analysis. Longer, more detailed reviews are coming. Revamped reviews are slowly trickling in, starting with TOS. Have a look at TOS seasons 1 and 2 to see what the new review format will be.
• From Jason on 2014-05-18 at 5:38am:
  Problem: while in the cave conversing with data Dr. Marr's tricorder is upside down.
• From QuasiGiani on 2018-04-26 at 12:13pm:
  Murder. Vengful, spiteful murder. Marr murdered the being just as channels of hope for co-existence began.
  
  The crystal cannot be said to have murdered a single thing; but Marr surely murdered it.
  
  Marr certainly needed it _pointed_ out to her that what _she_ had done was entirely _pointless_. It was not cruel to try and give her the understanding that understanding is the way and vengeance is not.
  
  Excellent episode. Message conveyed.
• From Obampresidentialine entity on 2021-08-06 at 12:01pm:
  Hmm not sure about this one, this is not a whale eating plankton, let us not forget that this lifeform conspired with Lore to consume sentient beings.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-09 at 12:27am:
  - From the time Troi senses trouble to the moment Dr. Crusher declares Aster dead, only about thirty seconds have passed. There are no resuscitation attempts and no efforts to get Aster stabilized. Was Aster not worth the effort?
  - It's no wonder that the energy beings think Jeremy won't be cared for. Shortly after Picard tells him about his mother's death, we watch Jeremy in his quarters. He is there alone, watching old movies of his mom. This concept of Jeremy being alone continues throughout the episode. Does this seem right? This kid has lost his only surviving parent, and everyone stays away. He is only twelve. Shouldn't someone be staying close by to help him through this time?
  - Who shot the old home movies Jeremy watches? It couldn't be his father. If it was, Jeremy hasn't aged in five years.
  - At the end of the episode, Worf says a Klingon phrase. Jeremy asks what it means, and Worf explains. Then Jeremy repeats the complete phrase! Jeremy must be quite a linguist. Do you really think a twelve-year-old boy could repeat that phrase after hearing it only once?
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-28 at 12:20pm:
  The idea of showing what happens when a crewmember dies is interesting. And I like Picard's discussion with the entity at the very end. Otherwise, this episode is adequate but not particularly inspired.
• From Rydeen on 2011-08-20 at 8:40pm:
  I really liked this episode, it was quite touching. I gave it a seven, I really liked that the alien lifeform didn't turn out to be malicious, just very different. On the other hand, I think I will never get to like engergy lifeforms and their "powers", they're just so contrived.
  One thing that puzzles me is that Geordi mentioned that the explosives were just recently put there "to be found". But there's no follow up to this whatsoever and it goes unexplained. So why do it in the first place? That seems like really shoddy writing.
  
  I'd also like to address DSOmo's points:
  1. It's not that she "wasn't worth the effort", it's just that her injuries were to severe and they had to proclaim her dead. Not a flaw at all.
  2. You have to give children some space in such a situation. I'm sure he wasn't alone all the time, but it would also be a mistake to have someone there all the time. Not a flaw either.
  3. Well, that's a little movie mistake really. Though you could reason that it was a friend of the family, an uncle, etc. However, in the end, it was a movie mistake ;)
• From AnalogyShark on 2011-09-20 at 6:43pm:
  In response to Rydeen's comment about the explosives being dug up, I took that as the energy lifeforms dug them out of the ground and disarmed them. They didn't want any more harm to come from the old war, and were probably upset that the mines had harmed someone. As to why the waited, energy lifeforms probably don't fear explosive devices, so it hadn't occurred to them to disarm them till they saw the enterprise crew harmed by them.
• From Inga on 2012-01-14 at 1:12pm:
  When Geordi increased the power of the shield and the contact with the energy being was lost for the fist time, why didn't Picard order to leave the planet right away? Didn't he think the energy being would make another attempt to reach them?
• From Alex on 2020-08-22 at 8:52am:
  There is one small problem, it's just cosmetic. When they scan the planet upon detecting an energy signature (~18:30 mark), you can see it is very obviously Mars and its Valles Marineris.
  
  https://sun9-58.userapi.com/gJHnwSvwi2AK3DlHHw-8XorTtGALKBbPmXN3Bw/tI5y3j3eF1w.jpg
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mars_Valles_Marineris.jpeg
  
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-28 at 10:10pm:
  "Maybe if we felt any loss as keenly as we felt the death of one close to us, human history would be a lot less bloody." I love how Data's questions prompt humans into self-reflection.
  
  The episode was a little bit of a slog until the confrontation between Picard and the energy being. That whole scene was quite moving. One thing I love about Star Trek is that, even though it's part sci-fi space adventures, it's also human drama. This scene served as character development for several of the show's leads, and would not have been as powerful if we had not already learned a good deal about Worf, Picard, and both Crushers. This (second-to) last scene almost makes up for the weird pacing of the rest of the episode. Unfortunately, a la Trek, we never hear from Jeremy again, even though he's supposedly now in Worf's family. It's possible the kid actor didn't want to come back, or had other work. I was quite impressed with his acting in this episode.
  
  I like that Troi had something solid to do in this episode. It occurred to me watching Troi's and Picard's conversations this episode that I like their relationship. They're both introverts, or so it seems to me. Picard trusts Troi in a way he doesn't trust anyone else. She understands his inward and contemplative nature much more than the others do.
  
  Why were Troi and Worf meeting in the computer core?
  
  Data emotion-spotting: "I do not sense the same feelings of absence that I associate with Lieutenant Yar." You're learning, Data!
  
  I also caught what Alex above did. Valles Marineris is unmistakable.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-06-14 at 12:09am:
  I consider this episode to be the sequel to Shades of Grey. If I was going to try to get a friend to watch Trek, I would hide this episode's disc under my couch.
  
  Once again, we are watching a dream sequence, which is exactly what the previous episode was about. It is rare for me to become bored while watching TNG, but this one did it. I really had to strain to pay attention. The story unravels too slowly. It all leads up to a hidden secret at the end, but once you know that, there's no reason to watch it again. I give it a rare 1.
  
  
• From Brian on 2008-01-02 at 10:55pm:
  A young Kirsten Dunst (from the Spiderman movies) plays Hedril in this episode.
• From Dio on 2009-01-18 at 10:55pm:
  I agree with Orion, I just wasn't interested in this one. I gave it a 2, one point for getting to see the arboretum and one for having Kirsten Dunst in it :)
• From tigertooth on 2011-01-10 at 5:31pm:
  The scenes where the alien is creating the link between Troi and Lwaxana are hilarious. So many stares and camera zooms... and they do this exact sequence twice!
  
  And the scene where the wolf lazily lopes after Troi is also laugh-worthy. I can see why it would be hard to shoot a scene where a wolf looks like it's actually chasing Troi down a hallway, but that means that they should have used something other than a wolf for that scene. Really, why a wolf? Was it a reference to the fact that a dog was indirectly involved in the daughter's death?
  
  It was also funny that Troi's childhood home looked so much like personal quarters on the Enterprise. Not a huge deal - there's only so much money to spend on building new sets, I'm sure - but odd.
  
  It was quite clear that they were stretching for time on this episode. Maybe they should have added a subplot -- like the aliens being confused by interacting with Data since they can't read his mind. Perhaps tie it in somehow with the fact that Data, like Lwaxana, once lost a young daughter.
  
  Finally, I hate to say it since everybody (myself included) loves Majel Barrett, but the climactic scene just didn't come off that great. Barrett is great at playing imperious Lwaxana, but her "grief-stricken" didn't come off so well.
• From Arta on 2011-11-28 at 8:40pm:
  I liked the aliens at the beginning as well, but overall, I thought this episode was really terrible. The last few scenes where Lwaxana "dreams" about meeting the dead daughter were just embarrassingly bad. They made me cringe.
• From L on 2013-04-27 at 9:09am:
  This episode made feel sexist for wondering if it was written by a woman. It was.
  Please tell me women wrote some episodes that weren't just mushy emotional psuedo-psychoanalysis.
  
  At least Lwaxana wasn't as irritating as she usually is. For a supposed telepathic ambassador, she is remarkably oblivious to the discomfort she invokes in those around her. Good for comic effect, but not series logic.
• From Rob UK on 2015-02-26 at 12:10am:
  Am i the only Trekky who hates the character Lwaxana Troi? Talk about providing the wife a free paycheck, Majel should have stuck to her regular character as the voice of the computer surely that was enough regular revenue, thank the Gods of mice and men that she spent the majority of this episode in a coma.
  
  The character Lwaxana is for me the worst character in all of the Trekiverse, if i had to choose to spend an evening with Lwaxana or Barclay i'd choose Barclay every time, don't get me started on how much i hate Barclay.
• From CAlexander on 2019-04-08 at 5:03am:
  I think this review really hits it on the nose. The episode really does run out of steam once it becomes clear that Lwaxana is suffering from events in her past. And while the idea of Troi's lost sister seems like it ought to have potential, this story feels drawn out and unsatisfying.
• From JD on 2021-01-12 at 12:17pm:
  Hmmm, given that this is Lwaxana episode, its not one I ever really re-watched and had largely forgotten.
  
  However, I just watched it now and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it and how emotional I found the ending. I became a father 2 years ago and I can totally relate to how the grief of losing a child could be unbearable. I think it was actually quite well done and Sirtis's acting was top drawer.
  
  Still, the alien of the week had a really creepy grin and a laughably intense stare!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-08-05 at 4:57am:
  - Dr. Crusher's skills must be improving. In this episode, Jono stabs Picard with a knife, and in a very short time, Picard seems to be fine. Crusher says the blade glanced off the sternum (a bone in the center of the chest.) In "Who Watches the Watchers," a Mintakan shoots Picard in the shoulder with an arrow, and even after Dr. Crusher fixes him up, Picard wears a sling to support his arm.
  - At the end of the episode, the transporter chief must have read the script to know when to transport Jono back to the Talarian ship. After Picard escorts Jono to the transporter room, Jono steps up on the platform and Picard says good-bye. Then they both pause for almost four seconds. (If I were the transporter chief, I would have hit the button at this point.) Thankfully, the transporter chief doesn't, because Jono wanted to have one final, tender moment with Picard. After this, Jono gets back on the platform, waits less than three seconds, and the chief transports him to Endar's ship. (In case you are wondering, no one says "Energize.")
• From djb on 2008-01-31 at 1:14am:
  I have a hard time believing that the Captain's quarters are left unlocked, especially when he's sleeping! Jono just waltzes in there and stabs him, and no one says a word about how he got in there in the first place. You'd think there would be at least a minimum amount of security on his door!
• From JRPoole on 2008-04-29 at 12:20am:
  Actually, Jono had moved into Picard's quarters.
• From Axel on 2018-08-16 at 12:50am:
  Ah, you said it. Jono's grandmother is going to be *pissed*. Maybe. Or maybe she'll understand. We never get the chance to find out. All we know is that, clearly, she was under the impression that he'd be returning to her and his grandfather. So now they have to digest the fact that he's staying with the Talarians, that he chose to do so, and that in light of what happened, they'll probably never see him. Kind of a large sticking point to an otherwise interesting episode. I suppose Picard could make their break with Jono cleaner by saying in his report, "when I told the boy that he'd be returning to his human grandparents, to you, he stabbed me in the chest and I almost died. Sorry, Admiral...I, uh, I did this for your own protection."
  
  But as you say, it's the obvious moral choice. So I think the grandmother's only role was to give the viewer a small bit of doubt that returning the boy to Endar is the right thing to do. When the episode ends, and the decision is reached, she's quietly forgotten. Maybe I'm making a bigger deal of this than need be, but I it lowers my rating of the episode from a 7 to about a 5.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-23 at 9:52am:
  - Krag claims that Riker fired a phaser just as he beamed out. No one on the Enterprise disputes this. Yet in "The Most Toys," O'Brien can tell that Data has fired a weapon just as O'Brien beamed him off Fajo's ship. If O'Brien can read Data's weapon, why can't he read Riker's weapon? And if O'Brien didn't read a weapon in discharge, wouldn't that constitute evidence that Riker didn't fire a weapon?
  - If the sensors could tell that an energy beam went from Riker's position to the science station's generator, why couldn't the sensor's register the first energy beam coming from the generator to Riker's position?
  - Every scene showing the Enterprise orbiting Tanuga IV has the ship moving across the face of the planet while the planet turns in the other direction! So how did the Enterprise manage to be above the generator at precisely the right time to intercept the lambda field (every five hours, twenty minutes, three seconds)?
• From Shashank Mayya on 2007-08-11 at 4:21am:
  How come the 24th Century does not have something akin to a Closed Circuit Monitor/Camera. Even my local grocer has two.
• From tur1n on 2010-02-15 at 2:31pm:
  I don't get why Riker would have been armed in the first place. The mission certainly didn't require one.
  Plus we never see that thing in one of the other scenes.
  
  
• From MJ on 2011-01-05 at 6:08pm:
  I agree this is an average episode. I still don't understand why Troi would perceive that Apgar's wife is being honest when her account is so very different from Riker's. I can understand innocently forgetting a detail or two, but she seems to be deliberately framing Riker and yet there is no deception from her at all?
  
  Still, for some reason, I like this episode. Maybe it's the interesting concept of a society where hearsay is considered valid testimony and where innocence must be proven in court. I'm not sure, but I enjoy what the episode is trying to do.
• From thaibites on 2011-01-10 at 1:02am:
  Hey MJ,
  Are you sure she is trying to "frame" Riker? Remember the name of the episode, "A Matter of Perspective". From HER perspective, that is what really happened. From HER perspective, she is not lying and that is why Troi doesn't sense deception. Truth is relative, my friend.
  The problem I had was the fact that all 3 accounts show Riker and Space-MILF touching in an inappropriate way. That means it happened. Somebody had to initiate the contact. Who was it? Since they're all telling the "truth", one of them must be completely insane. Couldn't be our dear Riker, could it...?
• From MJ on 2011-02-13 at 3:52pm:
  I don't necessarily think she's trying to frame Riker, only that her account of the events is so drastically different from his that I find it hard to believe there isn't deception on some level. Two people can give different versions of the same story, and as you say that's what this episode is all about. But I think it was a bit mishandled here because everything, from the behavior to the actions, is so different that neither account really resembles the other. They could've had a more slight variation in details and still made the point about perspective.
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-21 at 1:32am:
  I'm a sucker for a good gimmick episode, and this is a good gimmick episode. I tend to agree with some of the technical complaints DSOmo and MJ bring up. I don't think these points are impossible to explain, but they did make me scratch my head as I watched the episode. Nevertheless, I found the episode memorable, and generally fun to watch.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-21 at 12:51pm:
  I agree with MJ in that there had to be some deception somewhere, especially on the issue of sexual seduction. In the three versions shown, Riker claims that Mrs Apgar seduced him, Mrs. Apgar claims that Riker seduced her, and the aide recounting Dr. Apgar's version clais that Riker attempted to rape Mrs. Apgar. These cannot all be true, even from a perception point of view. Sexual relations don't just happen. Someone has to be the initiator. Unless Mrs. Apgar is a master of rationalization and self deception, we must conclude she is lying. Unless, of course, Riker is lying. But Troi would never let him get away with that. So we are left with a logical fallacy, as MJ says.
• From Arianwen on 2012-12-17 at 11:58am:
  I agree with CAlexander. The technobabble was used remarkably well in this episode, especially given the usual standards (the biological nightmare of Picard's heart operation is still fresh in my mind). The waves bouncing off at different angles actually made sense! Probably only superficial sense, true, but it passed my willing suspension of disbelief and it works with the plot.
  Re. DSOmo, if the generator broadcasts in all directions the Enterprise would receive the signal so long as it was within 90º or more of the generator. The waves only hit the Enterprise twice, so even in a low orbit it'd likely still be within range. After all, what matters isn't the risk of a third attack but the unique time difference between emissions.
  
  Re. the "seduction": anyone telling an embarrassing story will unconsciously cast themselves in a better light. Riker and Mrs. Apgar weren't being deliberately dishonest, so Troi wouldn't detect deception - and in both cases it was the other one who started things! Since the personality of the rape projection was so unlike Riker, and since Riker is... well, put it this way, Riker must be at least distantly related to Jim Kirk, I think they probably both seduced each other.
  In other news, watching Dr Apgar punch out Riker was hilarious.
• From Dstyle on 2013-09-18 at 3:29am:
  The most unbelievable part of this episode: the fact that the Enterprise crew all seem to think it would be completely impossible for Riker to mack on some foxy alien lady while on duty. Umm, you guys have met William T. Riker, right?
• From Rick on 2014-03-05 at 6:34pm:
  I agree completely with MJ. The wife is lying and its a plot hole that Troi doesnt recognize it. The whole "matter of perspective" theme only goes so far. Where it doesnt go, is attempted rape. Next, where does everyone get off saying it would be in character for Riker to seduce and take advantage of this lady? Riker will no doubt go for the young, single alien females but since when is it Riker's practice to seduce older married women in front of their husbands?
• From Epsilon Obummer 5 on 2021-07-24 at 4:58pm:
  Guilty until proven innocent, huh?
  They should have just accused the prosecution witnesses of lying. That would automatically "prove" Riker innocent, since the witnesses would be guilty.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-05-25 at 9:19am:
  - Picard states in his log that he is concerned "at being in such close orbit" to the collapsing star. Later, when Data states that the downloading of the research information will be complete in forty-one minutes, Picard seems irritated at the length of time. If Picard is so concerned about the collapsing star, why doesn't he just lock a tractor beam on the Tsiolkovsky and pull it to safety? BUT WHEN Worf tells Picard he is getting strange readings from the star, Picard tells him to wait.
  - Wesley blocks the door to Engineering with a repulser beam. Riker and the Chief Engineer spend their time trying to get past the beam, when they could just transport in.
  - Data drunk ???
  - Riker handles his "intoxication" surprisingly well (considering what it's doing to the rest of the crew) However, Picard gets intoxicated very quickly after only breathing Dr. Crusher's breath.
  - Hundreds of crew members are intoxicated. But when Riker brings Troi to sick bay, Dr. Crusher wants to quarantine Riker??
  - As Riker talks to Data about remembering someone "getting a shower with their clothes on," he sits down on the data entry section of the adjacent workstation. Wouldn't this be like sitting on a computer keyboard?
• From Bernard on 2007-09-17 at 8:24pm:
  I enjoyed this episode as a 'getting to know us' episode, some great early character development that also paid homage to the original series. I agree that it is better than the original...
  
  Unfortunately this episode really cannot stand up to repeat viewings, so that counts badly against it. Not a bad early effort though
• From TashaFan on 2008-09-08 at 3:38am:
  Two words: Tasha's dress.
• From Michael B. on 2009-12-20 at 7:11pm:
  I thought the direction in this episode, by Paul Lynch, was much better than the first. The story may have contributed to better acting, as well, as the plot device called for everyone to "loosen up", it seems the actors were able to, as well. All in all, I felt that everyone was quite believable as a drunk, which is not the easiest trick to pull off.
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-05 at 1:15pm:
  In general, I thought the "drunken" performances were somewhat boring, I preferred the Naked Time. Except that I did like Dr. Crusher acting "half-drunk".
  
  - I've always thought that Data was portrayed inconsistently in this episode, as if the conception of how he was built changed. Later shows with Data repeatedly make a point about how different he is from the rest of the crew, how it unaffected by things which affect every biological crewmember regardless of species. Yet here is affected by, of all things, water molecules which act like alcohol. They seem to be implying that he has a strong biological component in early episodes, yet in later episodes, whenever he gets damaged, there is never any sign that he is filled with water.
  - I think it would be quite fair to be impressed by Wesley. He endangers the ship because he is infected with the water virus; that shouldn't be held against him, that isn't his fault.
  
• From Rob UK on 2014-01-17 at 1:20pm:
  Argghhhhhh!!!!! I just noticed Data is a sexbot, possibly even a prostidroid, he tells Tasha (much to her delight) he is programmed in multiple techniques, a broad variety of pleasuring?!?
  
  Really Dr Sung???? What were you really up to with your fleet of manbot sex dolls?
  
  Clearly when data joined the asexual almost androgynous Starfleet culture his sexbot functions were of little use so he adapted his programming to be of use.
  
  Clearly i am having a laugh here but with a serious observation, I just started watching TNG from the beginning (again, lost count long ago) enjoying the good and the bad episodes equally as always, for some reason the suffering of going through a bad episode makes the next good one you watch all that more a piece of delicious sweet mind candy to gorge on.
• From jeffenator98 on 2019-08-08 at 5:26pm:
  A lame episode based on another lame episode. 1/10.
• From Three of Four on 2022-05-15 at 9:48pm:
  Didn't know the YouTube video. Had to post a comment just to thank you for that hilarious tip!
• From The Naked President on 2023-04-16 at 12:09pm:
  Picard explains to Troi that it is not an infection. After that he says infected/infection like 5 times.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-05-29 at 1:47am:
  Data: "Could you please continue the 'petty bickering'?" :)
  
  - The slow approach of the Tarellian ship ... as the vessel draws closer, the tension increases. Picard calmly waits for the plague ship while the Haven government is going crazy. He even allows the ship to get within transporter range. Why doesn't Picard take the Enterprise out of orbit and meet the incoming ship?
  - For a chameleon rose, it doesn't change colors very much. During the time Troi is holding the rose, she becomes visibly upset and embarrassed, the rose stays white.
  - When we first get to see Ariana on the viewscreen, there is a man to her right, sitting in a chair. The chair is made of several spheres. In future episodes, this chair will be seen in Worf's quarters.
• From Joey Poole on 2007-07-12 at 2:41pm:
  While I agree with many of the concerns listed in the main review, I have a real soft spot for this episode. Lwaxana Troi is a great character, and this is a good introduction to her. As pure entertainment, this episode works, due mostly to the interaction between Troi, her mother, and Picard. I also like Riker's reaction to the whole marriage business. I view it as one of the "humor" episodes, and one of the best of those at that.
  
  My only real problem with this episode is the lame, seemingly random connection between Wyatt (who's a bit of douchebag, by the way) and Ariana. Plus, for the dying remanants of a people killed off by an incurable plague, the Tarellians don't seem very sick.
• From Bernard on 2008-01-19 at 6:20pm:
  I don't treat this episode with too much scorn, it is to me... average.
  
  The main problem for me is that I do not care about the terellians or wyatt. If you do not care about either of those by the climax of the story then to me the whole build up has been pointless.
  
  I do however love majel barrett as lwaxana, and also Mr. Homm. Some really funny bits in this one too as Datas role in comedy is used to good effect here as the perfect straight man.
• From djb on 2008-01-25 at 3:05am:
  It's true that this episode is not one of the best, but what I find absolutely remarkable about it is this dialog:
  
  Lwaxana: "Now the answer to the puzzle of Arianna and you is so simple, it's too simple for most humans to understand."
  Wyatt: "Too simple."
  Lwaxana: "Of course. It's something they all know instinctively yet go to great effort to reject or build complicated superstitions about. All life, Wyatt, all consciousness, is indissolubly bound together, indeed, it's all part of the same thing."
  
  I was amazed and extremely pleased to find such a fundamental mystical truth exposed in a relatively agnostic TV show!
• From thaibites on 2009-08-14 at 2:37am:
  This is one of the worst TNGs I've ever seen. It's one of those episodes where they need to take a break and save some money. Lwaxana is the most unlikeable character in the ST universe. As an American, I've gotten enough bossy, ignorant, demanding white women to last me a lifetime. I certainly don't need it when I just want to be entertained!
• From CAlexander on 2011-02-20 at 6:18am:
  This episode suffers from a common problem - two plots, one of which you wish they had left out completely. I had no real problem with the wedding plot, it is OK. But the Terellian plot is quite inadequately developed.
  - Totally agree with DSOmo that Picard should have tractored the Terellians long before they reached Haven.
  - No reasonable explanation given for the central point of the episode, the connection between Wyatt and Ariana.
  - No explanation given for why the Terellians appear perfectly healthy. I can explain this (the virus lies dormant until it kills you), but I shouldn't have to, the episode should have done so.
  - It is unclear what the Terellian motivations really were. They make a point of rejecting all communication as they come to infect Haven, then when they are stopped, they start chatting as if they are pleasant people who had done nothing suspicious.
• From Omcn7 on 2012-01-28 at 6:58pm:
  Ariana? Please stop the hair. I have nightmares about the hair. Wyatt is a moron to want to go with this freak hairdo women. I thought this episode was great for the character development. However, as many have said the plot was sub-par in the least.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-07 at 7:23am:
  This time, I found this episode oddly entertaining and more interesting than I had anticipated.
  
  Boy oh boy, has my mind changed on some things, though. I commented here as "djb" (old initials) in 2008 and now I completely disagree with myself. It's not a "mystical truth," it's quasi-spiritual mumbo jumbo! But, then again, the Star Trek universe does have tons of mumbo jumbo in it, so... it's not untrue in-universe, I suppose.
  
  Putting on my "killjoy feminist" hat for a second: Overall this show is refreshingly not-sexist for the 80s. Hell, there are much later shows that are unwatchable because of the sexism (BBT anyone?). But I like noticing the tiny things that sneak through--not as a "show bad" sort of thing, more of a curiosity. A study of evolving cultural norms, if you will.
  
  Take Wyatt's commenting more than once on Troi's looks instead of her intelligence, accomplishments, maturity, depth, etc. Or the ridiculous outfit worn by Ariana. Like, don't get me wrong, my lesbian brain is like PRETTY LADY!!1! but her outfit is such obvious pandering and so strikingly unrealistic that it kinda harshes my mellow, as weird as that may seem. Or makes me laugh, depending on my mood. ... Then again, maybe she wanted to look extra nice for the man of her dreams, so she put on her most alluring outfit for him. I'd buy that.
  <takes hat off>
  
  Data's emotion-spotting: During the reception where the parents fight, Data looks positively amused. Given his "please keep bickering" comment (maybe the best line in the episode), Data seems to be programmed with a rapt interest in petty humanoid conflicts!
  
  This episode is a must-watch for anyone interested in Riker/Troi's relationship. Here we hear "imzadi" for the first time since the pilot, and find out what it means. I do enjoy their relationship throughout the series. You don't see relationships like theirs on every show, and I think it's handled pretty well.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From L on 2013-04-27 at 10:02am:
  Did they ever show or explain the probe that Geordi was virtually operating? Was it a humanoid robot? Remote contolled mecha? Ball of energy?
• From OmicronThetaDeltaPhi on 2013-05-14 at 1:44pm:
  It's a metallic probe in the shape of a cylinder, about 3 feet high and one foot in diameter. We know, because there is a scene in the episode where Geordi sees "his" reflection while using the interface, and it is actually the probe shown in the reflection. Geordi then jokes about it and says "I'm seeing my reflection in a panel. I forgot what a handsome guy I am". :-)
• From Daniel on 2014-01-11 at 11:40am:
  An interesting side note: Ben Vareen plays Geordi's father in this episode. And Levar Burton (Geordi) played young Kunta Kinte, the father of Chicken George (played by Ben Vareen) in Roots.
• From Doug on 2016-08-30 at 3:51pm:
  Actually, Ben Vereen played Kunta's grandson in "Roots". however, Madge Sinclair (who played Geordi's mother) was also in "Roots". She was Bell, the wife of older Kunta (played by John Amos).
• From ChristopherA on 2019-04-30 at 8:59pm:
  I agree that this episode is annoying. The idea of exploring with the probe was neat, but instead of focusing the episode on the mystery of the alien messages, which could have made a good episode, instead it made the crew more obtuse than usual to create conflict, so it could focus on that. It isn't the worst episode but it isn't that great.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-22 at 6:31am:
  - When Pulaski decides to test her theory that the genetically perfect boy is harmless, she has Data pilot the shuttle. Why can't they pilot the shuttle by remote or have Data beam back to the Enterprise before they beam the boy over to the shuttle? That way, if something goes wrong, they will lose only one senior staff member, not two.
  - Because this cure with the transporters filtering Pulaski's DNA worked, everyone in the Federation can now remain eternally young. All they have to do is take a sample of their DNA when they are young. When a person approaches death, they can have the transporter redo their DNA. At this point, they should become young again.
  - When the Enterprise reaches the Lantree, Data reports that all systems seem functional. This seems reasonable. The problem with the Lantree wasn't the ship, it was the people. So why was the first transmission from the Lantree full of static and the voices garbled?
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-23 at 2:54pm:
  I agree with your points. I especially liked the efficient way they investigated the Lantree disaster and the respectful sendoff at the end. But the technical flaws were really noticeable. The genetic engineering is a huge discontinuity with both Space Seed earlier and DS9 later, where it is made clear that even subtle forms of genetic engineering are illegal and heavy discouraged. In this episode they proudly announce that they are creating fast-growing superbeings with flying hunter-killer biological defenses, and the crew doesn't seem bothered in the slightest. Then there is the cure. Let me paraphrase the scene where Picard comes up with the cure:
  
  Picard: "Chief O'Brien, I just had an idea. Could we modify the transporter into a magical plot device that can modify the molecules in the target in any way we choose?"
  
  O'Brien: "Sure, Captain, but I'll have to make a few modifications."
  
  I'll imagine what must have happened after that scene:
  
  Data: "Fascinating that no one ever thought of that before. A 10 second conversation has resulted in a discovery that will have massive repercussions throughout the galaxy."
  
  Picard: "No, Mr. Data, I'm a modest man. Let's forget about my little invention and never use it again."
  
• From Inga on 2011-12-29 at 11:59am:
  The planet, Gagarin IV, was named after Yuri Gagarin (???? ???????) - the first human in space
• From One Moonie Pants on 2012-02-22 at 8:49am:
  Rename: In which Pulaski makes a complete ass of herself. Once again she is quite rude to Data and then complements him later. She is outright nasty to Picard. Many medical officers learn to pilot a shuttle craft, I can only guess that she never learned cause she thought that particular skill would never come in handy on a starship?! Where is Crusher, I dislike this lady very strongly.
  OK done ranting about Pulaski, the positive points of this episode were the introduction of O’Brian who is an excellent actor (unlike Pulaski). The techno babble in this ep. I think is just to show that this new guy knows his stuff and therefore is awesome and worthy of hundreds of hours of screen time in future. Up until now he was just some dude standing where so many others have stood before (like the good looking women who the "rouge" hits on in 2x4.
  I thought the transporter cure was very far fetched and brought up to many questions, it was too much like cloning an earlier version of her. If that were the case why did she retain memories from her time over on the station. Also if she is in some way a clone then this would solve the death of every crew member…… ever. Just make a new copy from a hair when they get really old, human aging problem solved...?
  Early in the ep. The computer takes control of the ship and shows view screen of the bridge, trick was pretty cool. I wonder how many times that could have been used to solve problems on other episodes? :)
  All around this ep was just, put up with annoying character that we have to live with this whole season. As well as intro of new awesome character. The plot of this one is pretty dull and the philosophical eye brow raising was nonexistent.
  
• From idiotek on 2012-09-04 at 6:10am:
  I want to believe you're trolling with the Pulaski love-in, seeing as she's the worst recurring character out of any TV show ever (never mind the trek franchise). Don't think you are though. McCoy 2.0 is probably the biggest blasphemy you could have gone for. Picard facepalm.
• From McCoy on 2017-11-13 at 8:24pm:
  Sorry, Idiotek. Pulaski is my favourite character from TNG:) What a shame she was only for one season. I'm serious, really.
  And this was nice episode with good interactions between her and Picard.
• From jeffenator98 on 2019-10-02 at 5:04pm:
  They did use this technique before in TAS episode the Lorelei signal. I also like Pulaski.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-15 at 6:56am:
  The treknobabble in this episode is just .... mwa! *chef's kiss*
  
  "Well, I'd have to get into the bio-filter bus and patch in a molecular matrix reader. That's no problem. But the waveform modulator will be overloaded without the regeneration limiter in the first stage circuit." ... Makes me wonder if the Trek writers read their own scripts sometimes.
  
  Amazing job that transporter did on Pulaski's makeup!
  
  I don't dislike Pulaski as much as I dislike Crusher's absence. Nice to see her learning to be a little less of a jerk to Data.
  
  Data emotion-spotting: he smiles a little bit when Pulaski says he has a way with computers. He's clearly programmed to crave human approval and display signs of vindication when he gets it.
• From The USS Obamtry on 2023-04-23 at 4:13pm:
  Pulaski is great, she is more interesting, fun interactions with some of the crew, finally someone who rembers that Data is an android, and she was in TOS a few times!
  And to that guy who says she is a bad actress, ridiculous! Unlike for most of the usual trek cast, including the Crushers, she had a multifaceted acting career besides Trek.
  
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete on 2006-05-03 at 10:41pm:
  In my opinion, they feature Lwaxana troi waaaaaay too often on this show. Her character is NOT enjoyable dammit!!!
  
  A really stupid episode
• From DSOmo on 2007-10-01 at 4:09am:
  - Does it strike anyone odd that Troi - a person who has never had children and can't even get along with her own mother - is providing parenting advice to Worf?
  - During Lwaxana and Alexander's first mud bath, an almost nude dancer entertains them. Is this acceptable entertainment for a young boy?
  - After Geordi and Data discover the metal parasites, Data claims the sensors cannot detect the metal parasites. He also suggests a strategy to slow them down, but Geordi comments, "The problem is finding them." Why don't they scan the ship for nitrium, wait a few seconds, and scan the ship again? Wouldn't the parasites be wherever nitrium is disappearing?
  - Just before the Enterprise flys off to the asteroid field, Campio and Erco board the ship. After Data successfully cleans the Enterprise of the bugs, the wedding proceeds. There is no mention that Campio departed and rejoined the ship later. Did Picard drag Campio and Erco all the way to the asteroid field with them? During the trip, life support is lost, and people started passing out. The structural integrity of the dilithium chamber decayed, and the entire ship almost exploded. Picard knew the danger involved, and he allowed a person of royalty to stay aboard anyway?
  - As the Enterprise prepares to fly back to the asteroid field, Picard and Data board a turbolift for the main bridge. During this entire scene in the turbolift, Picard has only three pips on his collar.
• From Remco on 2008-01-22 at 9:25pm:
  @DSOmo regarding:
  "During Lwaxana and Alexander's first mud bath, an almost nude dancer entertains them. Is this acceptable entertainment for a young boy?"
  
  Lwaxana has no problem with nudity. It's even the preferred 'dress' to wear at wedding ceremonies. I suspect Betazoids are a lot less sensitive about their sexuality. And what else do you expect from the care-free holodeck people?
• From JRPoole on 2008-08-19 at 3:40pm:
  I generally like Alexander episodes, but this one is embarrassing. The wedding subplot is interesting (if you overlook the broadly-drawn Alien of the Week) but the whole holodeck thing is so stupid that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth for the whole episode. I can buy this as a holodeck destination, but I have problems seeing it as a real colony. Are there really that many lame performance artsts in the galaxy? this was absurd.
• From Mr. Awesome on 2016-01-14 at 7:57am:
  Overall this episode was pretty weird. I like how it sort of predicts online dating. However, I don't see how in the world Troi and Campio's profiles could in any way be compatible, seeing as how they're completely different. Also, I have no clue why they would jump straight to marriage when they've never even met. I mean who does that? Also, why would someone who's supposedly royalty need to hook up with chicks online? Also, even though Troi's nudity is understandably surprising to everyone to say the least, I'm confused as to why Campio and his assistant were so appalled at her, with the assistant shielding Campio's eyes. If she is to be Campio's wife, wouldn't he ENJOY seeing her naked? I'm sure one doesn't choose to marry someone they don't find attractive unless some ulterior motives are at play.
  
  Most importantly, I simply didn't understand the point of either plot. The whole thing about the ship's malfunctions wasnt really a big deal, and I'm confused AF about the whole Troi/Alexander relationship. I agree with Kethinov that this episode is mostly filler, serving only to develop characters, but I agree with Pete up above that Lwaxana's character is simply insufferable and featured WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY too much on this show! She's not funny or charming, simply annoying AF!!!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-01 at 6:49am:
  - Given Lwaxana's dislike and distrust for transporters, why are they beaming her aboard the ship? She is traveling in a "small transport craft." A shuttle craft? Why not just dock the craft in one of the shuttle bays and let her walk off. But then we wouldn't have had the "Legs, where are the legs?" scene.
  - Doesn't Troi have a dress uniform? Every time the delegates come or go, Captain Picard gets in his dress uniform, but Troi wears the same outfit for the whole show.
  - Troi takes her mother out into the hall to have an intimate conversation about her mother's condition (because Mr. Homm is in Lwaxana's quarters). On top of that, they have the conversation out loud when they could communicate telepathically. Not a very private conversation!
  - After exposing the Antedian assassins, Lwaxana states that it was quite easy for her to read their minds. If it was so easy, why wasn't Troi at least able to get a sense that the Antedians were up to no good?
  - In "The Big Good-bye," Picard begins coughing immediately after lighting up a cigarette. In this episode, Picard just starts puffing away.
  - Also, in "The Big Good-bye" Picard wore his uniform into the holodeck the first time he entered. Several holodeck creations commented that he looked like a bellboy. In this episode, Riker wears his uniform into Rex's bar and no one gives it a second look.
• From JRPoole on 2008-02-15 at 3:20pm:
  I agree with the overall sentiment on this episode, but it makes me smile, so I can't hate it altogether.
  
  I have a hard time believing that Lwaxana doesn't know what a holodeck is, but the bit with she and Picard in her quarters is priceless. The alien-of-the-week here was ridiculous as well.
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2009-05-04 at 3:11pm:
  The first half of the show has a lot of funny moments that are fun to rewatch. The seconf half, after Picard steps onto the holodeck for some Dixon Hill, is very boring.
• From Rob Herbert on 2010-06-22 at 2:11pm:
  It's worth noting that Robert O'Reilly, who plays the wide-eyed villain who grabs Dix/Picard's lapels in the Holodeck returns in the future, still with wild, staring eyes, as Gowron.
• From Ry-Fi on 2010-08-14 at 9:39am:
  After Lwaxana passes on choosing Worf as a mate, saying "Pity, you'd have made a fine choice", the shot switches to Worf for a second, then back to her. Is it just me, or does she look down at his crotch for a split second and smile before looking back up and turning around?
  
  I burst out laughing when I saw that! It would in no way surprise me if that was an intentioned little flair that Majel threw in there. What an AMAZING woman she is! Her acting nuances are sublime!
  
  :-D
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-15 at 3:12pm:
  There are a couple of cute scenes, but basically this episode is pointless. Not to mention that I find Lwaxana painful to watch.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-20 at 7:48pm:
  Everyone is always hating' on Lwaxana,when I love her! I suppose she is an acquired taste, though.
  
  This girl has an organizing principle to her life: She just wants to get laid. She is so deliciously ranchy and blatant in her sexual appetites.
  
  The problem is: With her level of nobility, sex must be accompanied by marriage. (I love it when she recites her titles: "daughter of the seventh house, holder of the sacred chalice of reeks, heir to the rings of Betazed". It's particularly great when Deanna points out that the sacred chalice of reeks is just "an old clay pot with mold growing in it".)
  
  You get the imoression that she would love it if she could just blow all of that off and go shag someone.
• From John on 2012-03-08 at 3:59pm:
  re-watching this episode and I just noticed something: when Riker is on the bridge telling Wesley and Data about Ms. Troi complimenting the captain about his legs, Data is shown laughing.
  
  I repeat: DATA IS LAUGHING. At this point he doesn't have an emotion chip and Q isn't helping him, so why is this not a big deal to any of the other crew members. I'm guessing Spiner just maybe adlibbed it or something? Still, it's very odd that it's not a big deal, given that one of Data's goals is to learn to laugh.
• From Dstyle on 2013-08-21 at 8:48pm:
  Maybe I missed a similar interaction in the first Lwaxana episode, but I love the moment when she interacts with the ship's computer. Majel Barrett acting opposite Majel Barrett!
• From Arianwen on 2018-07-26 at 1:38pm:
  @John re. Data laughing: in an earlier episode this season Data is shown practicing laughter, so I think this is only continuity. It sounds quite unnatural, too ("Ha ha ha ha!") and you can even see the moment where he goes "ah, this is a place where laughter is socially appropriate".
  
  ...oh god, this is my life now.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-22 at 6:33am:
  Egads, Lwaxana is over the top. This "phase" she's supposedly in doesn't just make her horny; it makes her *stupid.* (Protip to the writers: those are different things!)
  
  Data emotionspotting: do you see how excited he is to get into character and get back on the holodeck? He's like a little kid! It's rather cute.
  
  Those fish-like aliens are fascinating to look at.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-02 at 8:03pm:
  - The Aldeans take only seven children. Will seven children be enough to continue a society?
  - How come everybody's got a cloaking device except the Federation? The Klingons, the Romulans, and now the Aldeans.
  - The Aldeans shield is capable of protecting and cloaking their planet. This isn't a spaceship. This is a planet. What about the gravitational displacement caused by the planet's mass? Scientists should have been able to calculate the existence of Aldea based on the gravitation disturbances caused by its orbit around its sun.
• From The Professor on 2007-09-08 at 6:05pm:
  Seven people is certainly enough to maintain a society. Skipper, Gilligan, Professor, Mr. & Mrs. Howell, Ginger, and Mary Ann. The only other things you need are some monkeys, coconuts, bananas and the occasional visitor with a boat or an aircraft.
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2008-09-20 at 4:45am:
  This is one of the better "children" episodes in Trek. Just watch Miri from the original series and you'll see what I mean. Which episode would you want to live out in real life?
  
  As far as the comment about the Federation not having a cloaking device, that is because the Federation refuses to use one. They see cloaking devices as being most useful for sneak attacks, not exactly part of the Federation's mission. They also want to appear with openess open, not hidden and deceptful, to other planets. Of course, there are exceptions.
• From thaibites on 2009-09-13 at 2:14am:
  I thought this was one of the better episodes. If you have kids, you'll be able to identify with it.
  As far as this being "another identical-to-humans race", what do you want? How about a bunch of Star Wars muppets that look silly and detract from the seriousness of this episode? Maybe they could've been like the lizard man in the TOS episode THE ARENA. Then the kids could just run around terrified and screaming. If you can't relate to someone's child being stolen, then you mustn't have much humanity. Maybe a little less computer time and more time interacting face-to-face with real humans would help...
• From geld verdienen on 2009-09-20 at 4:31pm:
  what annoyed me most about this episode is that I was screaming the whole time GET THEM SOME OTHER KIDS, dont they have foster kids or poor people in the galaxy anymore? Tasha said otherwise. The must be millions you would embrace living it up on that planet.
• From Cal on 2017-02-06 at 11:24am:
  The peace Treaty with the Romulans (Treaty of Alegeron) forbids the use and development of cloaking devices by the Federation.
• From Maggi on 2020-01-16 at 2:19pm:
  Strongly disagree with this one, this is one of the best episodes of S1 for me. I thoroughly enjoyed nearly all of it.
  Just as another reader already commented, it seems like utter nonsense that they don't even mention the idea of asking foster children if they would want to live there. Picard was way too "absolutely denying" and ultimately caused this to escalate since the Aldeans felt like they had no other options.
  
  Also I get that all the alien species looking like humans is bleh but c'mon its easy to accept under budget restrictions, etc. Feels like you have a base negative attitude towards every episode that has human looking alien.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-05-28 at 3:36am:
  I felt really stupid when I JUST noticed in THIS episode that you can pull chairs out of the science and engineering stations on the bridge. I had seen people sitting there before, but never really thought about where the chairs came from. You learn something new every day....
  
  I give this episode a zero not because of its non-canonness, but rather because of its purely political agenda. The fact that it is not taken into consideration in future episodes only proves the point that it is a standalone episode meant to promote a liberal environmental agenda. The warp drive is a metaphor for cars putting out exhaust, and the "rift" is a metaphor for the hole in the ozone layer. Putting restrictions on warp speed is like putting emission restrictions on cars. I would think star trek would be above trying to give Al Gore a pat on the back in the early nineties, but I guess I overestimated them.
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-06-16 at 4:57am:
  In response to the other comment. I hope that environmental concerns someday become less political. The automatic knee jerk reaction of placing all environmental movements on the "left" is rooted in bogus thinking. There are religious organizations that are organizing themselves into environmental groups. They believe that we are all caretakers. I advise that people take this under consideration before they post political rants on Star Trek websites.
• From Wing Fat on 2007-10-02 at 4:24am:
  I agree that this episode is terrible and completely motivated by political agenda. The whole basis of Star Trek is the exploration of space. Why would you want to suddenly say that the technology that allows that to happen is bad and has to stop? You wouldn't, that's ridiculous. I kept expecting them to discover something they overlooked and find the whole theory was wrong after all, but they didn't, and when it gets to the end and Picard gives his "I was destroying the very thing that I loved" speech I felt, as a Star Trek fan, that I had been slapped in the face.
  
  Star Trek has always tackled social issues, but if you want to point out the evils of polution do it in a more direct manner by having a mission to a planet that's poluted. You don't say "space flight is bad and needs to be stopped" when your show has always been about what a wonderous adventure space flight is.
• From JRPoole on 2008-10-29 at 2:50pm:
  I don't want to defend this horrible episode, but I do want to cast my lot with the person above who lamented that environmental issues are always political. The fate of the planet is (or at least should be) bigger than any political agenda. If you're interested in this kind of debate, I suggest E.O. Wilson's execeptional book "Creation." It's basically an open letter to a hypothetical Southern Baptist minister. Wilson, who, as an evolutionary biologist, is an agnostic, argues that conservation and taking care of the planet are issues that should be shared by both Christians and atheists alike. I like it because it'a an attempt to bridge the gap and stake common ground, something that people on either side of the political divide have seemingly lost the ability to do.
  
  As for this episode, I agree that it deserves a zero. There is a lame attempt in a handful of later episodes to make in canonical, but it just doesn't stick. The agenda is heavy-handed, especially Picard's moralizing at the end, the whole thing is just plain dull. Trek has always been on the forefront of social commentary, and, as a general rule, it does a good job. Episodes like this one, though, are so thinly-veiled that they become annoying, much like the TOS episode featuring the half black/half white mime makeup aliens. I know that's a fan favorite, but I've always thought it was a really lame, overly obvious comment on race relations, much like this dreadful episode is a really lame, overly obvious comment on fossil fuels.
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2010-01-14 at 2:20pm:
  Regardless of my response from years ago, I think that both sides can agree on one thing: this episode sucked. I think the wrting staff wanted to do an environmental episode, but didn't have a lot of good ideas. In the series, space travel was always made out to be a wonderous thing that helped humanity grow. Now it's a bad thing?
  
  There was another episode where there was a planet with huge amount of air pollution. The race living on this planet created technology to take the pollution out of the air, but it could hardly keep up. It didn't go into any more detail than that. I can't think of what episode that is, but I think it could have been an "environmental episode" if the had fleshed it out more.
• From Paul on 2010-08-19 at 11:54am:
  It would have been better if it was only in this small region of space there was a problem (as opposed to the whole universe). Initially I did think this was the case, that the rifts were limited to the vicinity of the alien planet, but then at the end of the episode they start talking about universal warp drive limitations. Shame
• From Florian on 2011-01-09 at 11:40am:
  I don't see why there is so much hatred against this episode. Basically, I think the central idea is quite witty; it is another real-world problem transferred to a futuristic setting as seen in many successful episodes before. It is not uncommon in our world that many decades after the initial enthusiasm, a new technology turns out to be not that beneficial to our health or environment at all. Reacting to the newly discovered problem takes its time, particularly when the technology is meanwhile perceived as indispensable. Obviously, this always leads to a certain amount of denial before habits are changing. After the initial skepticism, this episode complies with the spirit of TNG's more enlightened mankind that the crew quite quickly accepts that habits must indeed be changed, a process that would probably not happen within the same generation in our current world. As an example, some 50 years ago highways were being extended and increasing car numbers seen as a sign of progress, while environmental concerns were considered the opinion of radical minorities. As opposed to that, only nowadays hardly anyone in their sane mind would actually doubt that car emissions do some harm and must be reduced or avoided in the future; emission restrictions for motorized vehicles, speed restrictions along environmental protection compounds and reducing/rerouting highways so as to preserve or regrow forests are commonplace and it has become totally natural to leave your car in the garage if you can reach your destination by bus or train, unless there are any heavy goods to transport.
  Along the same lines, it is interesting how exactly the fundamental concept that makes the whole Star Trek universe possible as it is is questioned. After all, nature is not an intelligent being (unless we want to consider some esoteric claims) and cannot be reasoned with. No matter what other benefits space travel might bring, this will not reduce the problems caused by warp engines. Thus, reducing the deteriorating effects by imposing a warp speed limit is a straightforward step, even if not all warp-capable species will obey to those rules right away (after all, some third-world countries still polluting the air is not an argument against reducing pollution in the own country - somewhere, a start has to be made). Unfortunately, this is where the episode starts to turn irrelevant, as the speed limit is mentioned a few times later, and that's it. As stated in the episode, the speed limit may be ignored in the precise event that there's an emergency, which is exactly the one situation that we usually see when Enterprise is running out of time. So, the speed limit mostly affects all the off-screen vessels. Another, similar problem is that warp speeds and travel times have always been the archetype of a plot device on Star Trek, so realistically, the speed limit cannot have any deeper impact than being mentioned every now and then. For that reason, it might have been better to make another technology rather used as a tool than as the base of the adventures the culprit, such as phasers, tricorders or the transporter (which could all be replaced with more environmental-friendly, but more cumbersome alternatives).
  Plot-wise, the episode somewhat trickles down and fails to really build up much suspense. Particularly for a problem of this scale, it might have been beneficial to build up the story over several episodes (which was of course not yet usual in the days of TNG). As it is, all we have seen about the problem is a new colorful anomaly. The alien scientists refer to geological problems on their homeworld, but as we don't even get to see the homeworld, we have to take their word for it. Therefore, I'd give this episode a score of 3/10 points.
• From Robert Koenn on 2011-06-27 at 1:39pm:
  Well I rated it a 2 mainly because of technical inconsistencies. It was obviously a blatant plot line written to express an analogy with pollution in our world. But the worst part for me was that the plot line was basically ridiculous and only used for this episode while not be followed up with on future episodes or series in the Trek universe. I thought initially it only applied to this region of space as well and that might have made it more palatable but in the end it seemed that it was for the universe. There have been other episodes that stressed morale significance and I found some interesting as applied to our countries reaction to 9/11 with a much more enlightened view but this was a very poor plot line to express environmental concerns. I wonder if it was simply a vain search for a plot line or the writers coming up with an absurd plot line to stress a point.
• From Dstyle on 2013-09-09 at 8:45pm:
  The Enterprise spent quite a bit of this episode being bumped and jarred through subspace rifts and whatnot, which reminded me of an obvious yet easy to forget fact: the set is not moving, the camera is. So when the Enterprise gets hit by enemy fire or a subspace distortion wave or is just having a bumpy ride, all of the actors are sitting there bouncing in their seats, which is a pretty funny mental image to have. You're welcome. :)
• From Bronn on 2015-08-02 at 4:53am:
  I have a tough time with this one. I'm sympathetic to environmental issues, and I get Trek wanting to create an environment aesop. I like that there isn't a cheap solution because that would diminish the struggle of environmental concerns in the real world: we can't just invent a magical device that solves all our energy problems without any side effects.
  
  What harms this episode is that it's picking on one of the necessary plot devices that underly the series. We like Star Trek, so we obviously just want to enjoy our entertainment without thinking that we're contributing to the destruction of reality just wanting to see our heroes go on adventures. We're not going to receptive to saying, "Well...guess they should all stop exploring and go home, then." It'd be like an episode of the Dukes of Hazard where someone tells the Dukes that they should trade the General Lee in for something more fuel-efficient. Viewers of the show aren't receptive to that message.
  
  Moreover, the Enterprise itself is a pillar of eco-friendly ideas. Recycling on a starship is taking to its greatest extreme. I mean, Geordi is talking about energy efficiency of 97.2% on the ship: If we had a process that could do that, we'd solve so many real-world problems!
  
  A better message would have been to say it's a problem with the anti-matter, which is the real source of energy on the Enterprise, and go with Geordi's plot of efficient energy use which is part of the subplot. If you say that Anti-matter reactions are producing small amounts of radiation, you can call the Enterprise crew out on the little ways they can save energy so they're using less, which is a MUCH better real-world environmental message. Have someone wonder if their ship really needs to be so big that they have these lush individual quarters as nice as small apartments. Turn the lights off when they leave a room. Save cups and plates instead of producing new flatware everytime you replicate a meal. It would have been EASY to make little continuity nods to that sort of thing in DS9 and Voyager. And then, it wouldn't be the magic tech creating a magic problem that's contrived to be very important here but will never matter again.
• From Mike on 2017-04-23 at 3:01pm:
  I think where this episode went wrong was in attempting to suddenly make this a problem for the entire galaxy. Initially, it sounded like something that was affecting subspace in the corridor and therefore any warp restrictions would just be in that one sector. Had they stuck with that, they could've gotten the environmental message across and been able to avoid any problems with canon. As the episode itself points out, there's no indication other warp-capable species will all abide by this or even agree with the findings. And, like I say, why this affects Federation warp travel everywhere and not just in the Hekarans' own sector is never made clear.
  
  I get the sense it was Picard's reaction at the end that really soured a lot of people on this one. He basically makes it sound like the entire Star Trek endeavor is destroying the universe, which is a true overreaction. La Forge's reaction fitted the episode a bit better. He's confronted with warp engines-a think he's been working on his whole life-being responsible for destabilizing a particular area of space purely by doing what they do.
• From Captain Obumico on 2021-08-22 at 4:05pm:
  Agreed, I like episodes that annoy conservatives (who strangely never want to conserve the environment) as much as the next guy, but they should have done it without the lame warpspeed limit.
  I see the whole thing not as a climate change analogy, but about the CFC ozone layer thing in the 90s.
  That also got resolved despite conservative resistance and without speed limits :D

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-10 at 8:07am:
  When Hesterdel comes on the Enterprise he inspects the containment field for hours before allowing transport. Yet when the Enterprise reaches the destination for the samples, the Enterprise begins beaming them down immediately. Shouldn't Hesterdel be inspecting the containment field at the destination also?
• From Evan on 2008-05-26 at 1:14pm:
  Regarding DSOmo's first comment, see "Thine Own Self". Crusher took the bridge officers' test a year before the first season (8 years before Thine Own Self) because she felt like challenging herself, not because it was needed for her carrier path. Pulaski probably didn't feel the same need.
• From thaibites on 2009-12-03 at 4:55am:
  If you haven't watched this episode yet - grab some tissues, some chocolates, and a box of tampons because this one is a total chick flick!
• From Anna Lisa on 2010-12-16 at 11:38pm:
  You'll need the tampons to throw at the screen when Pulaski is ragging on Data.
• From John on 2010-12-23 at 4:41am:
  I'd suggest as another remarkable moment the way Picard instantly silences the debate once Troi states that she intends to have the baby.
  
  I'm all like "Hell yeah, Jean-Luc!"
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-21 at 3:20am:
  This felt like they filmed the first half of a good two-part episode, then never filmed the second half. I'm watching the episode, it seems promising, then suddenly it's all over, and nothing happened! Also, Troi seems to be filled with strong feelings, it is unfortunate that she never explains to the audience what she is thinking during the episode.
  
  In response to radiation making the virus grow: This doesn't seem strange for an alien virus. Radiation contains energy, living things can turn energy into growth. Plants grow when exposed to radiation (light). Even humans can grow when exposed to radiation (in that cancer is uncontrolled tissue growth).
  
• From DanMcCoy on 2011-06-29 at 2:20pm:
  Problems: What about O'brien's pips? Why is he a lieutenant?
  So true about Guinan being a better counselor than Troi! lol
• From Omcn on 2012-02-20 at 7:40am:
  Wouldn't it have been more interesting if the energy thingy (looking for someone to grow inside of) chose the hairy man instead of Troi?
  
  Bunch of men talking about what Troi should do with her baby, classic!
  
  The way our new doctor speaks about/to Data makes me want to smack her. Data's questions to Troi during delivery are to awesome for words.
  Tv birth scenes are always far to G rated, what silliness.
  
  I think the best part of this episode was not the plot or the actors of anything strange like that. The best part for me was how much of the ship was shown and that we get to see for the first time some of the functions of the ship. Blinds going down. The window in ten forward etc.
• From Arianwen on 2012-12-14 at 3:23am:
  Re. "radiation makes it grow", photosynthesis is based on just that (energy from solar radiation is absorbed by a specialised molecule which sets off a reaction chain: basically, light energy is converted to chemical energy and stored by the organism). Whether this could work with something as simple as a virus is a whole other kettle of fish.
  </infodump>
  
  BORING. Troy is mysteriously impregnated: possible threat. Highly dangerous viral strains must be taken onboard: definite threat. Troy has baby. Virus fed by radiation from child inevitably threatens to escape. Baby-now-child dies, neatly disposing of both threats. Troi explains everything in a ten-second infodump which the audience is too comatose with boredom to listen to. Oh, and Wesley's leaving. Wait, no, he isn't. Yaaaay.
  
  I've no doubt this was all very intriguing and exciting for the characters actually living it, in the same way your aunt's Barcelona holiday isn't accurately represented by her 1.12GB of photos of Gaudí's Casa Batlló. Fifty minutes of your life looking at someone else's holiday photos.
  
  You're welcome.
• From tigertooth on 2017-03-20 at 4:04pm:
  Too bad nobody thought to send Troi and the kid out in a shuttle craft a safe distance from the Enterprise. After they offload the cargo, both can come back to the Enterprise, and the kid can stay/grow as long as he wants.
  
  Maybe they should have had the kid's energy "infecting" the warp plasma or something so that it would make more sense that he'd have to leave and never return.
• From jeffenator98 on 2019-10-17 at 5:09pm:
  Only Worfs comment at the end "I will assume that duty." saves this one from being a zero 1/10.
• From the obampresident on 2021-07-15 at 9:09am:
  I like how the new and improved doc treats Data. Aside from a few remarks from Riker in the first episode nobody on the crew ever seems to care that they are working with the only sentient machine in star fleet!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-05-28 at 6:02pm:
  - How can Yar review the Edo's laws and customs, but not know the price for violating them (one punishment for any crime)?
  - Picard tells Troi that he wants to speak to Dr. Crusher personally about what has happened to Wesley. When Picard returns to the Enterprise, Dr. Crusher stops him and demands to know what he is going to do about Wesley. She states that she read the away team report. What away team report? The away team is still on the planet. Even if they had made the report from the planet, Picard just told the away team that he wanted to handle the situation.
  - There is a simple solution to the Prime Directive dilemma in this episode. Picard already used this solution in "Code Of Honor." Why not let the Edo inject Wesley, watch him die, beam him back to the ship, warp away, and resuscitate him? At one point, Riker took a syringe from a mediator, they could have used it to make an antidote.
• From Bernard on 2008-01-16 at 12:46am:
  There are not many episodes that I rate as lowly as this one.
  
  I find it insulting to my intelligence that picard and the crew spend the latter portion of the episode worrying over breaking the prime directive when by the very fact they have revealed themselves to such a primative culture is surely against the prime directive in the first place!
  
  Other than that, there are a few small delights such as the first time worf describes something as merely 'nice'. A few nice moments for Gates McFadden to sink her teeth into, and in my opinion Wil Wheaton does remarkably well with some atrocious dialogue.
• From Sherman on 2016-06-30 at 7:55am:
  I've been watched everything on this list and read every review after I watched an episode and out of everything this episode stuck with me the most because of the absolute law and the captains decision to ignore the prime directive and just take Wesley with him.
• From Chris Long on 2020-07-25 at 1:24am:
  You know? I like light-skinned folk as much as the next guy, but this race of beings is far more irritating than the TOS Episode, the Apple where everyone was some hunk version of a white Adonis!
  
  Who thought this was a good idea?!?!?
  
  ... I'm no BLM guy but come on!!!
  This episode just insults every sense of intelligence of all but the absolute stupidest people in existence!
  
  How could this crapfest ever get past the producers?!?
  Pure garbage, start to finish. And While I understand they were fleshing out the characters, this is worse than the worst TOS episode by miles and miles!
  Season one of TNG is truly a throwaway season in every sense. I can't believe my kid and I loved it so much when it first came out!!!
  
  He even had genuine TNG uniform! He'd have been a much better Wesley too!
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-05 at 11:50pm:
  This ep is so silly it should basically be non-canon, like Force of Nature. Many violations of the Prime Directive in TNG are a little bit more circumstantial, but this is one is straight up "we found a nice planet with some horny aliens on it and we're gonna go chat with them and vacation on their planet!"
  
  They don't seem to have (or even think to look for) any anthropological data on the history of Edo society or any other societies on their planet. They just materialize out of nowhere and the Edo are apparently not fazed by this!
  
  Agreed with DSOmo above -- Yar says "I've listed my report on their customs and laws, sir. Fairly simple-- common sense things." Not looking at the punishments is a massive oversight for a security chief.
  
  I also noticed something along the lines of Chris Long's comment above: Every Edo is white, blonde, fit, and apparently straight, living in an orderly society enforced by an extremely authoritarian legal code and protected by an actual god. An Aryan paradise! We're not supposed to respect the Edo, exactly, so it could be interpreted as a subtle dig, but it still rubbed me the wrong way just a tiny bit, even as a white person myself. (Maybe I'm just jealous I'm not blonde.)
  
  I do like the takeaway: that justice -- and morality -- aren't about blindly following a rulebook. Despite the hamfisted way they delivered it, it's a nice way of stating one of Trek's principles directly.
  
  Data's emotion-spotting:
  - when the orb appears out of the bridge floor, Data looks scared.
  - his un-self-aware babbling isn't quite an emotion, but it's not logical!
• From The T'Obum Empire on 2023-04-16 at 8:31pm:
  In the beginning Wesley gets told this:
  
  LIATOR: "Our rules are simple. No one does anything uncomfortable to them."
  
  He forgot the part where you get the death sentence if you step on the wrong patch of green at the wrong time.
• From Chuck the Canuck on 2023-05-19 at 4:27pm:
  Liator, the male Edo leader, responds to the Away Team with dripping sarcasm about how backward their justice system is compared to the Federation's. But take away the sarcasm, and his words are correct. They're in pretty desperate need of some social evolution on this. You would think living in such a leisurely paradise of society is an appealing enough reason not to break the law. Are the Edo so prone to violence or crime that the only way to enforce this idyllic society is to execute even those in the wrong place at the wrong time?
  
  More interesting to me was the ship, city, being, or whatever you want to call it in orbit of the planet. After being contacted by it, Data speculates they have accepted their role as a deity for the Edo at this stage of their development. Perhaps they even planted the Edo there. What's the backstory on this, and did it happen before or after the Edo became...the Edo?
  
  In the end, all this episode does is contribute to TNG's gradual chipping away at the logic of the Prime Directive. By the end of the series, it will be in tatters.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-01 at 3:45am:
  - More matter leaving the holodeck, a snowball hits Picard as he is walking by.
  - When the Enterprise begins to search for the survivors, Picard orders Geordi to break fixed orbit. If the Enterprise is in fixed orbit, it would remain above a given location on the planet's surface. However, the shot before Picard's order shows the planet turning in one direction and the Enterprise flying in another.
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-02 at 6:05am:
  I found the acting of the denizens of Angel One, and the shipwreck survivors, to be boring, and I didn't care about any of them. And the side plots weren't interesting at all - they get sick, they get better, they fly away. I was, however, amused by Riker going native, and his ending speech was good.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-20 at 12:43pm:
  This is the first episode to feature Riker's propensity to be a manwhore. He has absolutely no compunction about jumping into bed with any reasonably attractive female. Of course, this makes him the stud of TNG, at the expense of Picard who is, in live stock terms, a "shy breeder". I.e., Picard has intimacy issues. Both themes get played out later in future episodes, e.g., TNG: The Game for Riker and TNG: Captain's Holiday.
• From dubton on 2016-07-24 at 7:28am:
  Having sex while this episode plays in the background is, by far, my greatest fantasy. All criticism, in the interest of diplomatic relations, is forfeit. We have muuuuuuuuch to discuss and set phasers to sttttuuuuhhhhh-unnnnnnnnn
• From Rick on 2017-02-24 at 1:06am:
  It is my understanding that the Prime Directive does not apply to non-Starfleet personnel. The Federation is all about freedom and equality, so I do not think they would have this overbroad restriction on the liberty of all of their citizens. What right or jurisdiction would the Federation have over the actions of its citizens hundreds of lightyears away on non-Federation planets? None of course.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-05-27 at 3:19pm:
  Changed Premise: during this episode, Troi says she "senses the Ferengi captain is hiding something." In the future episode "Menage a Troi," Betazoids cannot read Ferengi minds.
  
  - Just after the force field seizes the Enterprise, something begins reading information from the ship's computer. When Data's workstation is shown, some of the information is being displayed upside down (i.e. the Klingon and Federation symbols.
  - In Picard's first attempt to contact the Ferengi, he asks Yar to open hailing frequencies, and she quickly responds. Then Picard says, "At least we won't begin with weakness." Why would he say something like that with the hailing frequencies open? That is the last thing he would want the Ferengi to hear!
  - When the away team beams down to the planet, Riker appears alone. He begins walking around and yelling for the others. Why doesn't he just use his combadge? It is true that Data later discovers the communicators are out, but Riker never even tried to use his.
• From Bernard on 2007-09-30 at 12:10pm:
  I don't rate this episode very highly now, but I do find it to be a bit of fun and at the time I thought it was fascinating. Probably because of the following;
  A good glimpse at a new race that have some kind of genuine technology and menace (not for long though)
  Riker gets something of a centre stage while picard is stuck on the ship (something that happens many times over the first 2 seasons)
  The start of this episode is great, the tension created by following the unknown ferengi (which soon evaporates as the story unfolds)
  
  overall not a terrible outing for me, but too many weak points
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-20 at 9:51am:
  An interesting, if small, detail: In early TNG when establishing communications, Star Fleet personnel say "open a frequency". Later this shifts to "open a channel". Not sure for the reason for this change, but "open a channel" sounds better to me.
• From Jim on 2011-12-25 at 2:28pm:
  Geordi's reaction to Riker's plan to jump to Warp 9 then "come back fightin'" is far and away the worst line and the most poorly delivered line in the entire series.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-04 at 6:22pm:
  This ep certainly isn't the worst of Season 1. It's not quite "bad," per se, but there's not a whole lot redeeming about it either. Watching it this time, though, it sparked a new idea for something I can do during my current rewatch: I'm calling it "Data's Emotionspotting." I know a lot of it in this episode is first season awkwardness, but even later on, Data displays MANY expressions that could be interpreted as emotive or illogical. It's clear that Soong has programmed him to have at least *some* quasi-human reactions to things (such as interest and confusion), even though he reports not experiencing the emotions themselves. That's actually somewhat believable, considering what we find out about Lore later.
  
  Examples of Data's weird behavior in this episode:
  - his aside to LaForge about second officers. He'd display no dismay or relief, especially around a comment that doesn't not actually affect him. It was a cool little camera trick, and kind of a funny line, sort of, but it's so out of character it just feels gratuitous.
  - his offhand comment about Yankee Traders while the Ferengi captain was onscreen. Unprompted and -- as he should know -- counterproductive. Data is usually cautious about talking out of turn.
  - when he gets his fingers stuck in the finger trap, he seems embarrassed. Also, he should be strong enough to break the finger trap! (BTW, what was that finger trap doing there in the first place?)
  
  I wonder what TPTB (the powers that be) were thinking when they designed the Ferengi in this episode. Could they not see how pathetic and dislikable the Ferengi are here and how unconvincing of a villain they are? Fortunately TNG did come up with some very worthy antagonists like the Borg and the Cardassians later on.
  
  Nitpick: on the planet in front of the Portal guy, they keep referring to "humans" when Worf, a Klingon is standing right there, and nobody points it out. This is a continuing problem throughout the series, too - Troi, Worf, and/or Data are constantly lumped in with "humans", even though Troi is half human, Worf was only raised by humans, and Data is a human-shaped android lacking (most) human emotion -- none of them full humans.
  
  Agreed with Jim above how LaForge's line about "come back fighting" is cheesy as hell!
• From kevin on 2021-09-01 at 11:32pm:
  Wow, I just watched this today, in 2021, have not seen it for literally 30 years. I forgot the story. The beginning is QUITE suspenseful and has great music and packing. I was tense and trying to figure out what the Enterprise and crew were going to do. THEN....They hit the planet with the Ferengi and the story goes mostly to hell. It becomes an old TOS type story, and is silly on top of it. SO, not horrible, but just quite blah overall.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-29 at 8:15pm:
  - Changed Premise: This episode makes the point, several times, that Betazoids cannot read Ferengi minds. Troi is half Betazoid. That means her empathic capabilities are scaled-down versions of a full Betazoid's telepathic capabilities. Yet in several previous episodes, Troi comments that she senses certain emotions from the Ferengi.
  - At some point the Ferengi gave up their "phaser whips." In "The Last Outpost," the Ferengi used a bullwhiplike device that emitted a stream of energy when snapped. In this episode, the Ferengi use more conventional-looking weapons.
  - When Lwaxana beams from the Ferengi ship to the Enterprise, she starts out sitting on the Ferengi captain's bed and ends up standing on the bridge. In other words, the transpoter had to rearrange her skeletal-muscular structure in transit.
  - I think Wesley would do a lot better with the women if he'd remember to zip up his pants. The pants on Wesley's "acting ensign" uniform don't close all the way in back! Maybe his promotion and Starfleet uniform will help ;)
• From JRPoole on 2008-04-15 at 5:23pm:
  Uggh.  My general disdain for Ferengi episodes aside, this is still a mess.  I can't buy the way Riker is able to make subtle shifts in the warp signature without being able to read Ferengi.  I can't buy the Ferengi themselves; they're just to ludicrous.  I can't buy the new-found (and then suddenly lost again in subsequent episodes) chemistry between Riker and Troi.  This one is a zero for me.
• From Kethinov on 2008-04-15 at 8:18pm:
  Keep in mind, JRPoole, that it's always been implied that the universal translator allows people to read alien languages as well as understand the spoken variety.
• From JRPoole on 2008-06-13 at 7:06am:
  I guess you're right about the universal translator. But that would that mean the translator is inside the brain?
• From CAlexander on 2011-05-26 at 2:34pm:
  I don't much like Lwaxana, I don't much like the Ferengi, and the combination of the two is almost too much to bear. The only parts I liked were Riker's escape from the prison cell and Picard's Shakespearean performance at the end.
• From Bronn on 2012-10-19 at 9:13pm:
  What I hate about Lwaxana is that, for a telepath, she's so terribly uninsightful. Also, I hate Deanna for telling her that she needs to speak out loud around non-telepaths. She already is too overbearing and loud to begin with.
• From TDV on 2014-07-28 at 6:35pm:
  The worst part of this episode is that it provided the still frame for all the horrible "annoyed picard" gifs on facebook!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-10-02 at 6:42am:
  At the beginning of the episode, Clara states that Isabella has pierced ears. When Isabella materializes, her appearance exactly matches Clara's description, except Isabella doesn't have pierced ears.
• From djb on 2008-04-20 at 12:03am:
  This episode was largely a waste, except for a couple things:
  
  Data says the "clouds" look distinctly like a bunny rabbit!
  
  The girl who plays "Isabella" is delightfully freaky. She gives me the creeps!
• From curt on 2010-04-07 at 8:57pm:
  DSOmo is that supposed to a plothole or something? Everything you identify as a problem is so ridiculously unimportant or not a plothole at all. You say it as if you've uncovered something amazing, and crucial to the episode.
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-26 at 4:43am:
  The only part of this episode I liked was the end, where Picard figures out how to pacify the aliens and makes his little speech. I thought the idea of aliens judging humanity through children could have been the plot of an interesting episode." But not this episode, which was more of a children's story about how an evil ghost, who grownups don't believe in, gets you into trouble.
• From Bronn on 2012-12-01 at 7:21am:
  Actually think there's some unintended hilarity in this. We know how Picard hates children (though this comes after episodes like "Disaster" where he starts dealing with them more prevalently).
  
  When he hails Worf over the comm, asking for security to be on the lookout for a dangerous alien masquerading as an 11 year old blond girl, Worf seems to take it completely in stride. I had to laugh and imagine that it's not the first time that the Captain has asked for security to detain children that he didn't want to deal with.
• From Mike on 2017-04-23 at 7:13pm:
  Well, hopefully Clara doesn't need too much therapy after this. I'm sure Ensign Sutter is happy that psychological treatment is free on a 24th Century Federation starship.
  
  I'd put this one at about a 3. It suffers from the same problem as several of the more mediocre Trek episodes. The crew encounters an intriguing new phenomenon, alien, or problem of some kind which takes up about 45 minutes of the episode. It reaches the denouement and tries to wrap it all up in about 3-5 minutes, usually poorly. I liked Picard's confrontation with "Isabella" but it would've been nice to learn a little more about these life forms rather than spending so much time on Clara's imaginary friend issue. I get it, though. TNG did try at times to cater to the younger age group, so they occasionally have these messages directed toward kids. That's the only explanation I could come up with for why we have multiple scenes where Guinan talks about her own imaginary friend.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-05-27 at 7:49am:
  - While presenting Lutan with the horse statue, Picard says that he is aware of the Ligonian culture's unique similarity to an ancient Earth culture that he "admires." However, later in the episode, Picard states that the customs of the Ligonian culture are the "same kind of pompous strutting charades that endangered our own species a few centuries ago."
  - Just before the battle to the death, we are told: "The rules are known. Let combat continue until there is a victory. It will not be interrupted." But during the battle, when Yareena loses her weapon, Lutan stops the fight. I thought the battle would not be interrupted!! And why is Lutan stopping the fight to return the weapon to Yareena? Doesn't he want Yar to kill his wife so he can inherit her wealth?
• From Bernard on 2007-09-21 at 10:31pm:
  Another good early effort, that holds up to repeat viewings well. Maybe I'm one of the few that agree with you there!
  
  Probably one of two episodes where yar is brought to the fore.. she was an interesting enough character with a good background story just a shame denise crosby didn't hang in there for longer
  
  one aside here, tng at this point is still very much working on the OS premise of 'planet of the week' episodes (coupled with the aliens that look identical to humans)
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-06 at 10:25pm:
  I'm one who never liked this episode, but it doesn't seem quite as awful now as it did the first time I watched it. The basic concept is not that bad. I think my problems are twofold:
  1. The acting from everyone is painful at the beginning of the episode. It felt like they hadn't gotten the hang of how to do TNG yet and were overreacting to everything in a way reminiscent of TOS, and this didn't work in the context of TNG.
  2. The episode led up to the fight scene at the end, which I found to be quite underwhelming. When rewatching this I had no expectations for the fight scene so it didn't bother me.
• From Axel on 2018-06-09 at 2:55am:
  The only way the portrayal of the Ligonians could've been more racist is if the actors had been white people in blackface. Whenever I re-watch TNG's first couple seasons and see aliens in hilariously dumb costumes, I think of these guys and realize it only went uphill.
  
  Data refers to French as an "obscure language" which of course sets off Picard. This is a bit weird since Data, having the crew's personnel records, would no doubt be aware that Picard has French ancestry and is presumably familiar with the language. But Picard's response must've had some effect, because in "Time's Arrow" we see that Data now speaks fluent French.
  
  During the fight, Yareena's spikey glove flies off her hand and strikes a spectator. A few seconds later, he keels over, dies, and is carried away by other Ligonians almost as if they were expecting it. Is it also considered honorable in Ligonian society to die from watching honorable combat? Otherwise, poor bastard didn't get the benefits of the Enterprise medical treatment.
• From Harrison on 2020-01-26 at 6:02pm:
  Political correctness has long demanded that this episode be viewed as an offensive aberration. That's nonsense, of course. Sure, the episode has some typical early TNG plot foibles (eg, the Ligonians were able to develop transport technology?) and the combat scene is a little silly, but overall it is actually a solid effort that explores some interesting themes. Stewart and Crosby are both in great form. It's far more engaging than many early TNG clunkers (like the episode that follows, "The Last Outpost".)
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-03 at 7:23am:
  I basically agree this episode is terrible, but for me, watching it again for the first time in years, it's ventured into "so bad it's good" territory. While I agree it's pretty skippable, I'd say if you're a newbie to TNG, do watch this episode at least once and revel in the cringe. (Protip: you don't have to be sober.)
  
  A few things I think make it worth a watch:
  - Wes sitting at ops for the first time. Significant, and hilariously awkward. The way it's handled, I can't tell if the producers were *going* for the awkwardness, or not.
  - Has a bit of iconic dialogue that made it into the famous "Picard song" where Troi answers "you're the captain, sir; you're entitled."
  - focus on Yar, which is unfortunately scarce in TNG.
  - the over -the-top cheesy music. It's almost TOS-level campy.
  - Data's attempts at humor. Or rather, the writers' and Brent Spiner's attempts to get a bead on Data's relationship to humor.
  - "Troi, I'm your friend, and you tricked me!
  
  Problem: Where was Worf? They could have made a lot of use of his character, being from a culture that also places a high emphasis on honor. Very disappointing they didn't work Worf into the plot somehow. (Maybe, just as in "Starship Mine," he called dibs on not having to show up in this episode.)
  
  It's a strange feeling, watching an episode centered around "the vaccine!" now in mid-2021. Knowing a bit more now about how vaccines are developed and how they work, it seems kind of silly for this episode's MacGuffin to be a vaccine, considering the people on this planet are a different species, and thus would not be able to develop, test, or manufacture a vaccine for any offworld species, let alone manufacture millions of them. They could have had some plant or rare compound used in an antidote, or something. A nitpick, sure, but it's damn lazy writing!
  
  negative 5/7.
• From Chuck the Canuck on 2023-05-19 at 1:17pm:
  Yes, yes, this episode holds up extremely poorly especially with our post-2020 hindsight. That said, I don't believe in judging it by modern standards; I think even in 1987 it was a bit much, especially when you look back at The Original Series twenty years earlier. Kind of a slap in the face to the progress TOS had made with Uhura.
  
  I agree this episode is worth watching mainly to see how the actors and writers were working to figure out the show and characters. Spiner and the writing team didn't just create the beloved Data we know from the beginning. It took some trial and error mainly in the first season to sort it out. Same with Picard, who is very, noticeably different in the first season in terms of dialogue and temperament. That exchange with Troi that Azalea Jane mentioned is also a flash of later Picard.
  
  On a side note, Garrett Wang routinely roasts this episode when he appears at conventions. Apparently, it was the first and only episode of TNG he saw prior to getting cast as Ensign Kim on VOY. So, he came into that show thinking TNG had set a pretty low bar. It wasn't until later that he watched more TNG and became a fan.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-10-09 at 7:56am:
  - When Crusher proposes to kill Troi so Alcar will break his link, Riker reacts immediately. Crusher responds that she will be able to revive Troi as long as thirty minutes do not elapse before resuscitation. Why thirty minutes? In "The Neutral Zone," Crusher revived humans who had been frozen for hundreds of years.
  - After making a scene in Ten-Forward, Troi gets escorted out by Riker. They board a turbolift and the doors read "08 Turbolift." Ten-Forward is on deck 10, not deck 8.
  - At the end of the show, Picard predicts that Alcar will attempt to find another person as soon as Troi dies. To protect Alcar's intended victim, he contacts Transporter Room 2 and tells them to lock on to the female in Alcar's quarters. But when he wants to beam her out he says, "Picard to Transporter Room 3. Energize!" How does the transporter chief in Transporter Room 3 know what to do? Picard gave his instructions to Transporter Room 2.
• From Rob on 2008-04-17 at 11:50pm:
  The only scene that is really worth watching more than once to me is Troi cutting down Ensign Janeway... I laugh every time.
• From JRPoole on 2008-09-07 at 4:49pm:
  Mind rape in various forms is getting to be a little ho-hum aboard the Enterprise. It seems like something similar comes up at least once a season.
  
  What we get here is little more than another Troi-in-mental anguish episode. This one gets marked up a little because Marina Sirtis gets to walk around in sexy dresses and she does a great job acting, especially in the scene someone mentioned above where she breaks it off in Ensign Janeway, who probably needed to hear that anyway.
  
  This one loses a couple of points, however, when Troi transforms back in to her old self. I just can't buy that she's instantly back to her regular appearance as soon as the mind lock is severed. The tissue changes (wrinkles, discoloring, gray hair) aren't going to disappear instantly. I know this is minor and mostly cosmetic, but it irked me. Still, not a terrible episode. I give i a 3.
• From Will on 2011-10-27 at 2:01am:
  I just want to point out that OJ was not acquitted simply because he was famous, he was acquitted because he was black and famous.
• From Dstyle on 2015-09-21 at 5:35pm:
  I just want to point out that OJ was not acquitted simply because he was famous, he was acquitted because the prosecution monumentally bungled the case, leaving A LOT of room for reasonable doubt. The only folks who think otherwise either didn't follow the trial or already wanted a guilty verdict before they heard any of the evidence presented. Our previous commentor--who I assume managed to post from an alternate universe--seems to be laboring under the misapprehension that being black is somehow a "get out of jail free" card in the American judicial system. Don't worry! America still puts a lot of black folks behind bars (or worse)!
  
  A much better comparison could be made between the ambassador and Bill Cosby, although Mr. Cosby's long string of crimes had not been widely publicized at the time this review was written.
• From ChristopherA on 2019-05-25 at 1:45am:
  Agreed, this episode has an interesting idea but the execution could have been better. I was perfectly satisfied watching the episode but it is just OK, not one of the memorable episodes.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Wolfgang on 2008-05-20 at 10:58pm:
  Why did they make this episode? It's not even science-fiction, and certainly not Star Trek. Just a waste of time. If they wanted to put some spotlight on Crusher, why not give her a good episode...
• From Paul on 2010-08-18 at 12:43pm:
  I am Scottish so yet again I am forced to listen to the worst american versions of Scottish accents I've ever heard
  
  Also if they were trying to recreate the Scottish highlands why did they use stones from Glasgow and Edinburgh?
• From Tallifer on 2011-03-13 at 9:36am:
  I like stories where the ghosts are shown to be tricks, hallucinations, dreams, mere legends or hoaxes. That is the triumph of rationality which is fitting in a science fiction universe.
  
  I hate stories where ghosts are explained by nonsensical pseudo-science. Which is more rational? The spirits of dead people haunting the world and possessing the living, or "anaphasic" aliens using "plasma" candles as foci and inhabiting people with green energy? Neither is rational of course, and the latter is just as stupid as television psychics and alien abductions.
• From thaibites on 2013-01-05 at 2:50am:
  Another one for the ladies. I think Dr. Beverly actually had a couple orgasms during this episode, which is pretty daring for TNG.
  At least this one was better than the episode where where Dr. Beverly fell in love with a big intestinal sea cucumber.
• From L on 2013-05-02 at 2:26am:
  Beverly's performance was quite, um, erotic. It was clear what form the energy alien's 'gift' to her took. Her aura of post-coital bliss/addict with a fix was quite convincing.
  
  There was nothing particularly wrong with the relationship as it seemed quite symbiotic, it could have worked quite fine in other circumstances. It did however make Beverly act like an irrational addict and cut ties to her friends.
  But really this was just an excuse for a gothic genre episode. Worth it for Beverly's performance.
  
• From Sloganlogo on 2014-04-30 at 8:22pm:
  small trivia…In the first Scene after the titles between Troi and Beverly you can clearly see a grave stone with the name McFly…The scene ends with Beverly asking Troi to walk with her to visit a house and off the go.
  
  In the next scene Picard is chatting to a Colony local and in the background you can clearly see Troi in the background walking right to left. She ends up in the same position she was in the the last scene. I suspect they swapped the two scenes about.
  
• From rendraG on 2015-01-08 at 7:32pm:
  Great ghosty fun with lots of olde world sets. Nice to see Picards almost death for love to overcome passion and the spell Ronin had casted over Beverly and her unfortunate but clearly sexually exhausted ancestors.
  
  Ronins emotional and sexual domination of Beverly combined with the sensual acting of Gates McFadden make this the naughtiest episode in all of Star Trek. Woof.
  
  
  
• From Keefaz on 2017-02-18 at 11:45pm:
  Amazingly rotten episode. Absolute guff from start to finish. The bizarre Scottish colony which has 25th century power and weather stabilisation facilities but also candles, open fires, dusty books and so on. Weird accents. Ghost sex. The creepy revelation the ghost has been preying on every female ancestor of Beverley.
  
  A terrible episode, then, but one that is so odd and singular that it doesn't diminish the series as you couldn't even consider it a Star Trek episode.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-17 at 4:12am:
  When Worf goes to retrieve Okona, he find's him on deck 7. We know this because the first two numbers on the woman's door are "07." Yet when Worf and Okona walk out of the room and onto a turbolift, they are now on deck 11 (the door says "11"). Wrong door markings or did they take a side trip we didn't see?
• From Jon on 2008-09-01 at 3:11am:
  Navigational shields are shields projected ahead of the ship by the deflector dish to protect the ship from damage by micro-particles, space dust and other small debris that could cause catastrophic damage to a ship traveling at high speeds, relatavistic or warp.
• From Razorback on 2009-06-22 at 3:50pm:
  I agree with jon. It would make sense that all warp vessels have them.
• From Daniel Blessing on 2009-09-18 at 3:35pm:
  You stated, and asked...
  "- Picard: "Lasers do not even penetrate our navigational shields." What the hell are navigation shields?"
  
  Navigation shields are the shields the ship uses to move aside space particles, dust, micro meteorites, e.t.c. while traveling. I am not 100% certain, but I believe they are powered by the main deflector. The power output required to keep them up and running is so minimal in terms of what the ship can generate, they are actually tied into life support systems. They are always up and running as long as life support is functional.
  
  This may however be the only time they are actually called "Navigational Shields." Silly Picard.. =]
• From Matt on 2010-07-17 at 10:33pm:
  I think navigational shields are low powered shields that protect the ship's hull from various floating debris and radiation. They aren't shields powerful enough to stop phasers however.
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-23 at 9:27pm:
  I can't exactly commend this episode, but it was amusing. It feels as though there wasn't really a script; the director just got up and said, "The premise of this episode is that Okona is a Loveable Scoundrel. Everyone act accordingly. Now improvise!"
• From One mooo on 2012-02-21 at 6:27am:
  
  Perhaps it is because I have seen this episode half a dozen times before but the comic guy scenes are actually painful for me to watch. I would call this a so so episode. With a rating of meh.
• From Chantarelle on 2014-06-29 at 9:16am:
  I'm not sure if it's coz I'm a girl, but I loved this ep. I agree that it was meh, and somewhat unremarkable, but that scoundrel was just too fun, and too damn cute not to enjoy. I wouldn't have cared if he was knocking up half of the galaxy, I just wish they'd put him in the same amount of clothing that the women from TOS had to wear ;-)
• From Diane on 2015-06-20 at 4:24pm:
  Liked Okana and that TOS-ish storyline. Agree that the comic scenes are painful and that storyline feels like a worst night at the improv.
• From jeffenator98 on 2019-10-25 at 5:16pm:
  Excruciating. 0/10
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-14 at 6:27am:
  "Well, the unexpected IS our normal routine."
  
  Data's explorations around humor in this episode are interesting and often entertaining. The way he moves his hands while telling a joke gets me laughing every time. And I like how he can't be funny on purpose, but keeps being accidentally funny. "My timing is digital!"
  
  I do feel like humor could be explained better. There's been a lot of theorizing about what makes people laugh, and it would have been interesting if they had dug into that a little more. Everyone is giving him examples, but nobody gives him theory that he could really dig into.
  
  Some of it was odd, like Data's line "jump around like an idiot," which seems out of character. You can also spot visible disappointment when he realizes the crowd is programmed to laugh. I continue to wonder if Data's clear expression of hope and/or letdown around his understanding of humanity is intentional or not.
  
  Data's habit of asking about a term he's not immediately familiar with, then looking it up in his own databanks and answering his own question, is getting pretty old. They did it in the pilot ("snoop"), they've done it a few times since, and they do it here ("rogue"). And then he runs at the mouth. Why, writers?? Why would Data ask a question when he has access to the answer?
  
  If you freeze frame right when Picard says "terminate communications" with the two other ships, both the men on the screen raise their arms up at the same time. Nice touch.
• From MJ on 2023-01-17 at 7:03am:
  "A monk, a clone, and a Ferengi decided to go bowling together..."
  
  My rating for this episode, and the entire TNG series, takes a slight hit because we never get the punchline for this joke. At the very least, they could've made this the joke that Data finally "gets" when Geordi installs his emotion chip in the movie "Generations."
  
  Anyway, this is standard TNG Season 1-2. It's light and entertaining, a semi-interesting plot, but no real substance or intellectual delivery like we'll get in the later seasons. It doesn't suck, but it's not amazing. I think "5" is a very fair rating.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-01 at 12:32am:
  - How did the Bringloidi send a distress call in the first place? When the Enterprise arrives at the Bringloidi's planet, the sensors show no advanced communication network and no artificial power source. These people use spinning wheels and were still able to send a distress call all the way back to Earth?
  - Dr. Pulaski claims that the clones are "among the walking dead now. They just haven't been buried yet." If the clones are really that bad off, why would anyone want them to be part of the gene pool to repopulate a planet?
  - When Riker and Pulaski go to the cloning lab, a close-up shows the markings on the machines. The markings are some sort of alien calligraphy. These people are humans. Wouldn't it make more sense for the writing to be in English? True, the clones have been isolated for three hundred years, and language does evolve. However, three hundred years is not a very long time. Old English documents from three hundred years ago are still readable today. A few characters differ, but the majority are the same.
• From JRPoole on 2008-02-15 at 10:17pm:
  I'm in almost total agreement with the review here; this is an entertaining episode if you just take the bad science at face value. O'Dell's daughter is an entertaining character--as are all the Bringloidi, even if they're a little stereotypical. She's also exceptionally beautiful.
  
  I'm also enough of a dork to like any episode that shows us the inner workings of the Enterprise, like the fire containment field.
  
  I do have a few other quibbles with this episode. The first is fairly serious: I don't buy Riker's response to seeing the clones. Despite the fact that these beings were created without permission, they're still life forms. They seem virtually ready to be viable outside of their cloning chambers, and this is still murder. Even if we don't define it as murder, it's enough of a gray area that I can't imagine Picard and Star Fleet would approve of Riker's rash action.
  
  The other two are fairly minor. Geordi's lie detecting abilities are problematic. Does he cheat at poker? Wouldn't this have come into play earlier in some more serious situation?
  
  And finally, just what is a normal shift like onboard the Enterprise? Is Will free to go chasing tail in the middle of his duties? I always wonder about this when a bridge officer gets a summons to the bridge in the middle of a holodeck program or something, and this episode made me wonder what a normal workday on the Enterprise is like.
  
  
• From Eric on 2011-02-07 at 4:57pm:
  I think many TNG episodes are fraught with problems, but this one horribly so. As mentioned, Riker nonchalantly murdering the clones seems awfully unethical. A cloned human is a human.
  
  O'Dell's daughter commented on not being sure she wanted to be Eve. Isn't she already in that position? How many of their people are there? It didn't look like very many.
  
  Watching it this time around, I was really bothered at the crew's attitude toward the Bringloid. Those people didn't have much choice other than be fairly unsophisticated. Also, surely the crew would have interviewed them at the earliest opportunity to learn anything they could. They would have known about the other ship. Instead the Enterprise beamed them up,was repulsed by them rather than interested in them, and made no effort to learn anything!
  
  I like the premise if the episode could be 99% re-written.
  
  This time around I've also noticed that the writers were really trying to make Pulaski an important character. For at least a few episodes she was on the bridge a lot, for no apparent reason.
  
  
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-12 at 3:48pm:
  A mediocre episode at best, but amusing. There are a lot of things that are odd or out of character in this episode, but I didn't mind as much as usual because I chalked it off to being a humor episode.
  
  - When the Mariposans ask for 5 cell donors, Picards says no one on the Enterprise will agree, and acts like that is the end of it. This seems rather disingenuous on his part. The Mariposans won't die out for years; surely they could find somebody – somewhere – who would sell them some cell samples. I can only imagine that cloning is viewed by the Federation as either illegal, or so abhorrent that Picard will have no part in helping the Mariposans.
  - It is hard to figure out the ethics of disintegrating the clones, when the cloning technique makes no sense to me. At first I assume the Mariposans were making real life clones who start as babies. But no, we see they are making Hollywood clones that start as adults. But that kind of clone usually involves copying the mind of the clonee, and there is no indication of that. And Mariposan technology is too primitive for that anyway. So how are the clones given personalities? Are they raised like children, but in adult bodies? Seems strange, but the most likely possibility. In which case I guess they are total blanks when they are killed by Riker.
  - Speaking of ethics, it seems odd that there is no moral debate about killing the clones. But it does have some nice continuity with the Federation dislike of genetic engineering and computer-controlled starships and cyborgs. They seem to have a humanistic belief that people should live out their own potential and not change themselves into something else.
  - I'm not convinced replicative fade is totally unreasonable, but it is odd. The presumption has to be that the cloning technique only works on cells fresh from a living host. But I certainly couldn't say why. Especially when suspended animation was standard technology in the 1990's in the Star Trek universe.
  - I agree with the gene pool comment, I also thought that the Mariposans wouldn't have great genetic material. But I don't think we can complain, the DNA just has to be good enough, and more diversity is better, especially when the Mariposans' have an understandable desire to be included in their own gene pool. Maybe that is the reason for the three husbands concept.
  - I agree that Geordi's lie detection is problematic (and soon forgotten).
  
• From John on 2011-11-21 at 3:44am:
  @DSOmo: The Bringloidi didn't send the distress message, the other colony did -- the two planets were within half a light year of one another. The Enterprise just happened to enter that sector of the galaxy nearest to the Bringloidi planet and encountered them first.
• From Inga on 2012-01-06 at 11:26am:
  @John Then why were the crew surprised to learn that there were another colony?
  
  Also, why didn't the Mariposans take Geordi's DNA? They did ask for 5 donors, so why take only 2, when you can take at least 3?
• From Ed Flinn on 2012-03-31 at 12:49am:
  Stan Freberg used to claim that the Swiss were the last ethnic group against whom bigotry was safe. Star Trek claims that in the 24th Century it's the Irish, as long as its done with a smile.
• From John on 2012-12-03 at 3:48am:
  @Inga: they were surprised because they were under the impression that the one ship they found the record of only went to one destination. The only information about that ship was the cargo manifest, which said nothing about the mission itself.
  
  It's not shown, but I suspect a red flag went up when they discovered the Bringloidi had no communications equipment. A second colony was confirmed when the leader asked about the 'other colony'.
• From Arianwen on 2012-12-15 at 6:46pm:
  Cute? Fecking offensive would be my word for it. I'm not Irish, and I'm not hugely familiar with Irish stereotypes, but this is so unsubtle it sets even my alarms blaring. And hey, the only two speaking parts are given to English actors (good though they are) because there are clearly not enough actors in Ireland: aside from dialectisms, the accents sound very Scottish at times. And, of course, the accordion, the whisky and the sweary women who complain that the husbands do no work. See, when an Irish show does it it's self-parody, and it's funny. That's the difference.
  The other objection I have is the moral of the episode, or rather the lack of morals. The crew simultaneously preaches tolerance of other cultures while displaying an uncharacteristic revulsion towards both sets of colonists. Case in point, Riker kills the clones with no move to check whether they're alive yet. He's motivated solely by disgust and a sense of property (my DNA! mine!) and yet no-one calls him out on this. The "solution" to the population problem is to effectively press-gang a more primitive people into becoming breeding stock for a technologically advanced elite. Not a hint of dilemma throughout. WHAT.
  
  One point, for the
• From bodner on 2014-05-27 at 8:36am:
  Pretty troubling that they just murder their clones and there are no repercussions.
  But maybe Picard showed the way when he murdered the timeshifted version of himself some episodes before.
• From Rob UK on 2015-02-16 at 11:58pm:
  Beardy Bill the Enterprise's resident sex pest at it again
  
  "As first officer i feel it is my duty to smash your back door right in pet, legs get them dorty feet washed"
  
  Fun homour episode, i like the old hooch fiend trying to palm his mental henpecking daughter off on anyone he can he thinks has a few quid
• From Jadzia Guinan Smith on 2018-02-12 at 2:34am:
  I find myself agreeing with every criticism I’ve read here. This episode is morally and culturally offensive; logically and scientifically absurd.
  
  I would also ask: even if cloning was the primary way they grew their population, why would it have been been necessary to “suppress the natural sexual drive”? It’s not like sexual activity would get in the way of cloning! Also they could get a few new gene combinations, that could add some strength, it certainly wouldn’t do any harm.
  
  And... why would they not try to get LaForge’s tissue sample? Is it because he is blind? It’s not the sort of thing the audience should have to guess at.
  
  I do like the idea of 2 peoples who started out together being separated for centuries and then being the exact answer to each other’s problems. But beyond that generic notion, nothing about this episode is remotely tolerable. Even the so-called “humor” is nothing more than derision based on ethnic and gender stereotypes. I give it 1.
• From jeffenator98 on 2019-05-30 at 5:24pm:
  Picard had more fun in "Chain of command 1 and 2" than I did watching this episode. Embarrassing 176 out of 176.
• From Alex Malizia on 2020-08-28 at 3:02am:
  While a terrible episode, the bit with O'Dell and Worf and talking about the moment of fun/silence being paid for by his wife shrill yell in the background (err, daughter i guess) is hysterical.
  
  "Every moment of pleasure in life has to be purchased by an equal moment of pain."
  "FATHER!"
  "Remember what I said about the moment of pain? Well, 'tis about to begin!"
• From Poutine_On_The_Ritz on 2023-02-01 at 5:40am:
  O'Dell and his daughter definitely salvage the episode, as you say. Otherwise, I'd give it a 1 or 2.
  
  I do have one factoid on this one: there's a 1981 Broadway musical called Copperfield. It includes a song called "Up The Ladder" performed by a character named Uriah Heep. Heep is played by Barrie Ingham, who also plays O'Dell in this TNG episode. I have no idea if the writers of this episode named it after the song that O'Dell performs in Copperfield, but it seems like a crazy coincidence if they didn't.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-04 at 10:05pm:
  - Pulaski recognizes that the microbes respond to brain endorphins. She then proceeds to jolt Riker with a machine so his brain can produce them. Yet, she worries that the stress may kill him. In "The Battle," Dr. Crusher claims that twenty-fourth century medical science has "mapped the brain." If they have, doesn't it seem reasonable that they would understand the endorphins the brain produces under different circumstances? Shouldn't they be able to manufacture these brain endorphins in a replicator and inject them in Riker? Then again, if Pulaski could make the endorphins, we would miss all there wonderful flashbacks! (Sorry, fighting to control my hatred for flashback shows)
  - As Pulaski uses a machine to stimulate Riker's brain, she looks in a pair of eyepieces and presses buttons. She seems to hit the right buttons without even looking. Considering that all the control surfaces on the Enterprise are flat, that's quite a feat!
• From JRPoole on 2008-02-21 at 2:58pm:
  This is not a comment on this episode--what is there to say about this one, really?--but on the second season as a whole.
  
  The second season is superior to the first, mostly because the characters started coming into their own, the seeds of coming plot arcs are sown, and the writers stopped rehashing TOS plots (with the exception of "Unnatural Selection"). On my slow process of re-watching the series for the first time in years, I was surprised to see that some of the episodes I remembered most fondly--"Contagion," "Up the Long Ladder," "The Emissary," "A Matter of Honor," "Q Who"--are all this early in the series. I distinctly remember it getting better as it went along, so I'm looking forward to the upcoming seasons.
  
  I'm watching the series via Netflix, and the last disc I received contained the final two season 2 episodes and a smattering of special features. One of the special features was called "Memorable Missions" and consisted of the actors, producers, writers, and other behind-the-scenes types discussing their favorite episodes. I was surprised to see that the people behind the show seem to love "The Dauphin," which I consider to be among the worst episodes in existence.
  
  Anyway, on to season 3....
• From JR on 2008-10-28 at 3:02am:
  DSOmo commented:
  
  "If they have, doesn't it seem reasonable that they would understand the endorphins the brain produces under different circumstances? Shouldn't they be able to manufacture these brain endorphins in a replicator and inject them in Riker?"
  
  Neurotransmitters released in the bloodstream can't reach the brain because of the blood-brain barrier. So this wouldn't have the same effect as stimulating the natural production of endorphin.
• From Wayne on 2009-07-16 at 5:36pm:
  No one seems to remember that this episode and "peak performance" were made at the beginning of a writers strike. that why the seconds season only has 22 episode instead of the usual 26. This was a clip show that was made as filler to finish the season.
• From curt on 2010-04-15 at 6:19pm:
  Its a clip show show, so I don't hate it! it is what it is. Im not really a fan of it, Id not even give it a rating.
• From thaibites on 2010-09-19 at 12:21am:
  This episode is a microcosm of the 2nd season - crap. It's all probably due to the writer's strike, but it's still crap and you can't polish a turd. The only memorable episode was "Q Who". The rest were OK to forgettable. I like action, tension, and big stories. Season 2 was a collection of little stories that allowed us to get to know the characters better, which is nice, but there needed to be more "on the line" - more stories where you felt they were pushing the limits of space and may not survive. Also, Pulaski was a complete disaster. Thank God she didn't survive season 2.
  Bring on season 3 - give me Klingons, Romulans, Borg, ANYTHING - just give me some action and suspense!
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-18 at 4:42pm:
  This episode is a fraud perpetrated upon the innocent viewing public. It should come with a label – "Warning – we didn't have the money or the script to make a genuine Star Trek episode. Proceed at your own risk."
  
  I watched it not knowing what it was. The first 15 minutes seemed promising. Then the clip show starts. So pointless! So random! But if that isn't bad enough, when they return to the main plot, it starts to get melodramatic. And the acting gets more and more painfully awful, the clips more and more random, until I was begging for the episode to end.
  - The one good point is the final scene. It made me laugh.
  
• From Dstyle on 2015-11-09 at 2:19pm:
  Pulaski (melodramatically): "We need to access intense, negative emotions to drive this infection away!"
  
  Troi (even more melodramtically): "Well, how about the time his mother died when he was a child? That was a major trauma! Or how about when his father abandoned him when he was fifteen? Or the time he had to fight his way off The Pegasus when the crew mutinied against the captain, even though his actions went against his principles? I mean, his early years are a goldmine of negative emotions!"
  
  Pulaski (desperately melodramatic, somehow topping Troi's melodrama): "No! For some reason I can only access negative memories from the last two years!"
  
  Clip shows, eh? What can you do? I feel bad for cast members like Brent Spiner and Michael Dorn who had to sit in the makeup chair for hours so they could be a part of this. (Wait, was Worf in this episode? Maybe in the beginning? No, I don't remember him in it at all, probably for exactly this reason.)
• From Mark Boris on 2016-08-27 at 4:02am:
  Finally got around to watching this one. Only one I hadn't seen, can you believe it? I saved the worst for last it seems.
  
  
  Away teams ought to beam down in biohazard suits. Just sayin'.