The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-06-20 at 1:50am:
  This a cleverly written episode. The pro-science arguements are woven into the plot seamlessly. Each scene is intriging and fun to watch. The things that happen are unusual, such as Data getting inpaled, Troi taking a test on the holodeck, people handling radioactive metal. What a great episode! My only complaint is that the protagonist blacksmith was a one dimensional character. If it wasn't for that I'd give it a 10, instead I'll give it a 9. I am surprised that people don't talk about this episode more.
• From Wing Fat on 2007-10-12 at 3:01am:
  You list no problems with this episode, but I think the fact that Data can (after a brief recovery period) speak high-level English but doesn't know what the word "radioactive" means could be considered a problem. Regardless, I loved this episode and consider it one of the best from Season 7.
• From JRPoole on 2008-10-30 at 2:42pm:
  This is a personal favorite. I absolutely love the scientist/teacher lady, especially her insistence on empirical knowledge, even if her "empirical" knowledge is dubious.
  
  As for Wing Fat's comment above, I don't think this is much of an issue. I see it as a universal translator thing. I think it's meant that Data is conversing with the natives in their own language, partially via the UT and partially via his own innate ability to learn and decipher languages. The fact the the magistrate calls the English language something like "these symbols" seems to indicate this. Then again, you have to sort of suspend disbelief with UT issues anyway, and this episode is far from the worst offender in that category.
• From djb on 2009-01-30 at 8:59pm:
  Neat episode!
  
  As Kethonov pointed out, it's good to see Crusher in command; I'd say it's good to see more women in command in general (this reminds me of what a shame it was to lose Yar in season 1).
  
  I also like seeing Troi's more "professional" side; the producers finally wised up in season 6 and had her start wearing a regular uniform. I think the writers have done a disservice to Troi throughout the series (up until season 6 and 7) in keeping her character and dialogue relatively confined to her "counselor" role, where in fact she is also a lieutenant commander, a rank which is no small feat to obtain.
  
  I like the continuity with Season 5's "Disaster," wherein she found herself in command and was definitely in over her head-- and that she wants to become a more capable officer.
  
  The only reservation I have about this is that this highlights one of the necessarily unrealistic things about this show-- that everyone continues to get promoted but the senior staff/crew stays the same. In real life, people would get transferred (and killed) more often.
  
  Now, of the seven main characters, we have one captain, two lieutenant commanders, one lieutenant, and three commanders! Also interesting how both Crusher and Troi outrank Data, who is technically third in command. How does that work?
  
  As for the other plot, it's great to see Data be Data even without knowing who or what he is-- all by himself he discovers radiation and a cure for radiation poisoning, which no other character could have done. This whole section was very well written!
  
  As for the antagonist blacksmith... some people just are one-dimensional. The guy was a jerk!
• From Drake on 2010-11-29 at 7:11pm:
  This was the very first episode i ever saw
• From Mike on 2017-03-28 at 1:17am:
  Solid episode, and good continuity for the Troi character with TNG: Disaster. I agree that it's nice when the series puts different characters in command positions, like Data in Redemption and Gambit, Crusher here and in Descent, etc.
  
  Regarding the promotion issue: Starfleet is written like a loose combination of a futuristic organization based on Federation principles, old Earth naval traditions, and a space exploration agency like NASA. I don't think promotion needs to be shown happening at the pace it would in, say, the U.S. Navy (which is very fast in comparison). Promotion in Starfleet seems to be as much about a person's desire to go into the next rank as it is about whether Starfleet is ready to promote the person. Take Riker passing up numerous promotion opportunities. A person's career is more in their own hands. Plus, even in the modern U.S. Navy, medical personnel may hold a certain rank, but aren't typically placed in command situations (the same goes for lawyers, chaplains, etc). It makes sense that Starfleet would allow you specialize in medicine, science, engineering or security, and only go for the command rank when you want to.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-06-28 at 4:39pm:
  Whether you believe in evolution or not, you'll probably agree that the science in this episode is really bad. This is so in the initial transformations, where cats turn to lizards and humans turn to spiders, but also in the part where everyone returns to normal. How can a brain, like Riker's, shrink in size and then return to its original size while keeping all of the original memories intact? I also question how half the crew did not end up dying from the wild animals running around. Perhaps it was because they were all huddled together in certain areas of the ships, as Data specifies, but I have to believe that a large number still would have died.
  
  If you can get past the bad science of the episode, you may find the rest entertaining enough to watch, deserving of a 5.
• From JRPoole on 2008-11-03 at 3:15pm:
  Usually episodes that feature truly bad science annoy me to no end, but I'm willing to let it go with this one simple because it's so much fun.
  
  As the person above noted, the science isn't all that bad with some suspension of disbelief. If we all evolved from a common ancestor in the form of a unicellular organism, you can posit that there are reptilian and even insect DNA fragments lying domant in our genetic codes. Human embryos have gills and tails, for instance. Sure it's a stretch, but the visual effects and makeup were all done well and it's great fun if you don't take it too seriously.
  
  What I do have a problem with is the idea noted above about everyone returning to normal. It's ridiculous to think that the structual properties of the new bodies and the memories encoded in the now physically changed brains would remain intact. Still, I enjoyed this one throroughly. I'd probably hide this episode if I was introducing someone to TNG, as it is pretty goofy, but it's action-packed and entertaining, so I gave it a 5. They can't all be classics, and all I ask of filler episodes is to be entertaining, and this one definitely delivers.
  
• From SS on 2009-01-17 at 3:49am:
  The science could have been a lot worse. "Introns" really are sections of the genome that do not code for anything and certain sections have indeed been identified as leftovers of our evolutionary past.
  
  Mammals evolved from reptiles, which evolved from amphibians, so Troi's change works. Ogawa made a good australopithecine, and Riker made a good erectine (although Data identified him as australopithecine, he was much too large to be anything other than Homo). The spider is much harder to justify, as arachnids are not part of humans' evolutionary past, but it made for a good scare.
  
  There are obviously some major problems that others have identified, but it's all in good fun. This isn't one of my favorite episodes, but for season 7 it's well above average.
• From Albert on 2009-07-08 at 7:53pm:
  Another rare bad episode in my opinion, I agree with another reviewer that it's mainly the bad science that makes it insulting. Sorry to repeat another comment almost word-for-word, but Riker's brain shrinking seems like it would do permanent damage. Unless they are trying to say something unkind about Riker in this episode.
  
  Every crew member surely would have suffered permanent brain damage and physical deformities from this illness.
  
  The primordial version of Worf is the best part of this episode, it makes me wonder if in a first draft he was to be the only on affected, and started to hunt through the ship like the alien in Alien. I would have liked a version like this better.
• From Keith on 2013-02-03 at 3:54am:
  Continuity Error
  
  Troi is in Sick Bay after Worf's attack, then in her quarters when Picard and Data reenter the ship, then back in sSick Bay when Worf is intent on mating with her. Surely Picard and Data did not bring her back to Sick Bay.
• From TheAnt on 2013-11-05 at 3:38pm:
  Biology violated
  
  This is one questionable episode indeed, but it made in a way that almost make me think that the authors of the script told themselves that 'We've violated physics so many times, and the internal ideas of Star Trek, so we better violate Biology bigtime now in the last part of the series as well."
  
  When I did see the episode the first time, U initially thought it were some sort of anti-genetic engineering propaganda piece. But the solution which indeed utilized genetic engineering contradicted that idea.
  (So that was one idea I got when still watching this.)
  
  SS is indeed correct about the introns, but those loose segments left over from our earlier stages of evolution would not combine to make other complete organisms.
  Even so with the extremely bad science the story might still have been able to fly, if they had made a few details more believable.
  
  Sadly that's not the case, and with one completely deflating ending, that the shot Crusher gave Backlay had started all this. I can only give this episode a weak 4, and those points given only for the horror action elements and SFX such as Barclay as a spider and Neanderthal Riker.
  
• From Axel on 2015-03-07 at 3:45am:
  The science problems don't really bother me as much as some people. If someone watches this episode and thinks, "Wow, I had no idea humans evolved from spiders!" I think that speaks more to the failure of public education than it does Star Trek's handling of evolutionary biology. Besides, most of the transformations are believable, such as Riker, Ogawa and Picard himself. And as mentioned before, it's not as if Star Trek hasn't sometimes fumbled other scientific concepts.
  
  The acting is what I enjoyed most about this episode. It gave the cast a chance to try some new things, and for the most part I think it was very entertaining. Dorn's performance was a lot of fun; Frakes did a great job playing the smaller-brained devolving hominid; and Schultz got to play Barclay on steroids, which was pretty enjoyable.
  
  As opposed to DS9 with its story arcs, TNG's 7th season feels like it was just wrapping things up as it went along while also pushing the sci-fi envelope a bit. Some of it worked, some of it didn't. This episode wasn't memorable, but it was fun enough. I'd give it a 6.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Daniel on 2014-01-26 at 12:17am:
  I really like this episode for many reasons. I am partial to any Klingon story episodes. A nice feature of this episode is when K'Mtar is teaching Alexander how to fight on the holodeck. It gives us a glimpse into Klingon hand-to-hand combat strategy. Interesting factoid; James Sloyan, who played K'Mtar in this episode, also played Setal/Admiral Jarok in the STTNG episode, The Defector.
• From englanddg on 2014-08-02 at 6:00am:
  This is one of my favorite episodes of season 7.
  
  They knew the end was coming, and the writers were certainly tying up loose ends this season, and their dealing with Alexander (even though they brought him back in DS9) was masterful.
  
  When it first aired, I just thought it was an interesting show, but every few years I do a re-watch of all the Star Trek series (that's what I'm doing now)
  
  Oddly, I find that they help me center myself, as I grow older. I find that each time I watch them, as I progress through the stages of life, I find something different that I never found before (probably why ST has touched so many, especially TNG)...
  
  As a father now, decades later, rewatching this show just tonight, I think it touches on many of the feelings, challenges and fears I've faces as my daughter turns into a young woman.
  
  Rearing a child is the scariest thing I've done in my life, for all of the reasons indicated in this episode.
  
  I think that aspect alone, deserves praise. I would rate this episode an 8 out of 10, for those reasons.
• From Mike on 2017-04-23 at 6:41pm:
  Until this episode, I wasn’t a huge fan of Alexander. I found Wesley Crusher a lot more tolerable. But they finally came up with a great plot involving Alexander. The messages about children wishing in hindsight that they’d been more receptive to their parents’ teachings, and parents learning to let their children find their own destinies resonated powerfully. And I like the reappearance of the Duras sisters. It portrays these Klingon feuds as potentially lasting generations.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-05-28 at 11:16pm:
  Main Bridge Design: The big curved railing on the main bridge looks great. Unfortunately, the railing is also very impractical (which is very evident in this episode). The captain sits in front of the railing, while the security people are behind it. To protect Picard, Worf needs to run down the ramp a little ways and then jump over the railing! Not the best layout to ensure the captain's safety.
• From Bernard on 2008-01-17 at 12:45am:
  TNG does 'where no man has gone before', but for me it's not as good as the original series despite the excellent john de lancie.
  
  Too many characters are acting out of character, except the consistantly written picard. I love the interaction between him and Q it is delightful as always
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-22 at 3:33am:
  I found this episode too simple-minded. Q wants to corrupt Riker. So he gives him Q powers, then puts his friends in a situation where he has to use his powers to save them. It immediately becomes clear that the Q power has unhinged Riker's mind. Not very sporting of Q, poor Riker never stood a chance. Eventually he decides to give everyone their greatest wishes. But everyone refuses – naturally, since the whole situation is just a big creepy Q game and refusing is the only way to rescue poor Riker's mind. Riker is saved, end of story. No interesting decisions or actions at any point in the story.
  
  The combat scenes with the animal-things are rather stilted and unnatural, especially the way Wesley runs forward to get killed. On the other hand, maybe this is a positive - it sort of acts as an artistic way to emphasize that the confrontation isn't real, but merely a game concocted by Q.
  
  On a positive, the scenes that stick in my memory are Q interacting with Riker (rather than Picard), and the "penalty box" scene with Yar, which was unexpected.
  
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-20 at 11:05am:
  This episode, as well as TNG: Adventure at Farpoint, further elaborates one of TNG's principle themes: That humanity is evolving into some sort of semi-divine state, similar to the Q Continuim. While very common in new-age metaphysical movements (including Bahai of which Gene Roddenberry was a member) the idea is utter nonsense scientifically.
  
  All evolutionary processes require a life-and-death struggle, as I have said on other posts. Star Trek TNG completely misses this point, where other Sci Fi fictional works get it perfectly. (Two examples being Dune by Frank Herbert and Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward.)
  
  While there is some support for the idea of altruism evolving in species (including the human race, see for example The Moral Animal by Robert Wright), all evolution is nonetheless grounded in a brutal, selfish process. That's just the way it is. TNG seems to think that it we all are simply nice to each other and get along, we will evolve into gods. Sorry, folks. Ain't gonna happen.
• From g@g on 2012-02-05 at 2:39am:
  Early in the episode, when Picard finds himself alone on an unresponsive ship, he yells "Turbolift control, do you read?!"
  
  "Turbolift control" ? Seriously?
  
  Can you imagine the kind of log entries they must write in "Turbolift control"? "Today, I heard that Commander Riker gained total control over matter, space, and time - and Captain Picard outwitted the godlike Q. Turbolift 2 is functioning properly, but 3 is running a little slow."
  
  WTF. "Turbolift" control? The image of a "liftman" is anachronistic even in the 21st century... Yet, somehow, 350 years later, even on the flagship of the Federation we still need someone to run the elevators? So much for that infamous "human compulsion" to grow.
• From President Obummer on 2021-07-12 at 9:54am:
  Dreamjob Turbolift Control :D
  
  I thought it was very funny when Data was to describe the scenes with the French Pigsoldiers to Picard and said "you might find it asthetically displeasing". A nice reference to earlier episodes where Data disrespected the French in front of Picard.
  
  Also, I think this is the episode that most shows why they needed to get rid of Tasha. The scene in the penalty box is so embarrassing, she is just a terrible actress and the charater is super-lame.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-05-30 at 8:41am:
  - Near the end of the episode, Lore goes to a cargo bay and contacts the crystal entity. Lore tells the entity to attack the ship the instant the shields drop (for the beaming out of a tree). Then the fight between Lore and Data occurs. The fight ends when Data tosses Lore onto the transporter pad and Wesley beams him into space. Does the entity care what object beams out? Either way, the shields must drop. Since Lore told the entity to get ready for the beam-out, why doesn't it attack?
  - There have been a few episodes where Data has used a contraction. Like you said above, "it's not a big YATI." However, they spend this entire episode telling us that one of the differences between Lore and Data was that Lore used contractions and Data didn't. At the end of the episode, Picard asks Data if he is all right. Data responds, "Yes, sir. I'M fine."
• From Bernard on 2008-09-02 at 11:50pm:
  One of my favourite first season episodes, I too love Brent Spiner here and in many episodes. Good insight into his past and into his character.
  
  You have mentioned above already, but I have to repeat one of the funniest things I have ever heard Geordi say,'Captain I'm picking up a bogey coming in on a five o'clock tangent'... really?? Care to supply co-ordinates? Gets me every time, I love it.
  The scene in the turbolift with Lore and Worf is quite disturbing also.
• From Jumbo on 2009-08-07 at 5:52am:
  The "Shut up Wesley!" was horribly out of character, but also hilarious. I was laughing so hard I had to pause my DVD when Picard and Beverly yelled at the poor kid. That scene is one of the main reasons I love this episode so much :)
• From Rubin on 2010-06-28 at 12:12am:
  First thing I noticed was that "Dr. Noonian Soong" sounds an awful lot like "Khan Noonien Singh"...
• From CAlexander on 2011-02-28 at 2:47am:
  I particularly like the first half of this story, when everything is mysterious and they are learning about Lore. I also like how uncomfortable they are about offending Data, that seemed like a nice human touch.
  
  You are right about the twitching being annoying and irrelevant. All it does is waste screen time; the story would have unfolded in exactly the same way without it.
  
• From Percivale on 2011-11-30 at 5:26pm:
  Many people point out that Picard and Riker's treatment of Wesley was unreasonable. Over the top? Yes. Unreasonable? no.
  
  Wesley did have a reasonable suspicion. But, if you pay attention, he never actually states this in uncertain terms to his superiors. Instead, he passive-aggressively expresses frustration that everyone else is trusting Data. This is socially unproductive, inefficient behavior in general, but it is universally not accepted in authority-based organizations like Star Fleet.
  
  I would say that this is a refreshing instance where the writers understood how healthy, authority-based organizations work. Sadly, the officers' reactions really are over the top, once again demonstrating the writers' notion that setting boundaries is "mean."
• From g@g on 2012-02-06 at 10:49pm:
  I actually *liked* how Picard yelled at Wesley to shut up. It was uncharacteristic and kind of shocking. What I didn't so much like was how he was still arrogant and unapologetic even after he was proven wrong, at the end.
  
  But the initial outburst - that whole scene was quite nice. Not only did Picard yell at Wesley, (even though Wes had a valid concern and was being quite polite about it) but he also practically shooed a protesting Beverly off the bridge. It was a subtle demonstration that the master of composure and diplomacy is very very human, and prone to losing it a bit on his own bridge, under special circumstances.*
  
  * Fair to say that a giant life-consuming crystal thing edging its way into your shields while your second officer is dealing with doppelganger issues certainly qualifies as special...although, relatively speaking, he'll face worse in the future.
• From Alexander Uziel on 2013-12-15 at 11:15pm:
  Wesley: Have you got a cold?
  Data: A cold what?
  Wesley: It's a disease my mom says people used to get.
  
  These little bits are scattered throughout the first couple of seasons and they are noteworthy, not simply for the fact that they are flatly contradicted by repeated trek episodes after the second season, but because they highlight the utopian influence of Gene Roddenberry in the writing room. Gene was constantly rewriting scripts in the first season, usually to conform to his more idealistic, utopian philosophy. The writers fought against this and it wasn't until the piller/taylor/moore staff came aboard that this sort of stuff was minimized.
  
  Also, these exchanges are kind of annoying since they are just so blatant and out of place that it sounds like Roddenberry was preaching to the audience.
• From tigertooth on 2016-08-08 at 2:24am:
  If Noonien Soong is well known, how was Data in Starfleet for decades without anybody noticing the resemblance? Especially given that Soong was known for working on a positronic brain?

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-03 at 8:31pm:
  When Riker hears that the Enterprise will head toward the Neutral Zone, he suggests that they separate the saucer section. Yet, when the Klingon has a phaser pointed at the dilithium chamber, the Enterprise faces imminent destruction and no one even mentions separating the saucer.
• From a2a on 2012-02-09 at 6:41am:
  What ever happened to the "least force necessary" ethos? As soon as there are Klingons on board, its as if everyone suddenly forgets that their phasers have a stun setting... Is the thirst for glorious battle really that infectious?
  
  I can understand why Warf would want to kill the second Klingon (although I don't understand why no one gave him any flak for it, Picard included). But I completely don't understand why the security team clearly had their phasers on some "red hot, burn straight through to the opposite side of Klingon torso" setting. Not only did the first Klingon die because of this, but this recklessness with the phasers directly caused them to lose one of their own crew: during the escape, the second Klingon picks up a Starfleet phaser and shoots and kills a security officer - it was obviously already set to kill.
  
  What gives? Do we all have a bit of Klingon in us or something?
  
  In the very beginning, before the away team beams to the freighter, Riker instructs, "Set phasers to stun, and lets be ready for anything." I guess the stun setting is good enough for anything...anything except Klingons, at which point its OK to crank your boomstick up to maximum, unintended consequences be damned.
• From Cary on 2016-07-20 at 3:23pm:
  The Klingon commander is standing in front of a Federation emblem next to a Klingon emblem because of the alliance.
• From tigertooth on 2017-03-11 at 3:53am:
  So Worf shoots the Klingon, the Klingon falls face first... and crashes through the floor? Did I miss something or did that gangway shatter awfully easily?

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

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

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-22 at 7:52am:
  - If Mendon is a Starfleet officer, the testing officer during Wesley's entrance exam lied. After Mordock won the competition, the testing officer congratulated him as the first Benzite in Starfleet.
  - During a meal aboard the Klingon ship, the second-in-command tells the story about his father and his father's dishonor. It shames the second-in-command, and he states that he refuses to go see his father. Riker reacts with disbelief, repeating over and over, "He's your father!" Doesn't this behavior seem a bit hypocritical for Riker? The episode "The Icarus Factor" reveals that Riker hasn't seen his own father in fifteen years and they are definitely not on good terms.
  - What happened to the weapons scan in the transporter? The Klingon captain manages to get through with a live weapon.
• From rpeh on 2010-08-25 at 10:34am:
  The food scenes are great fun. I love the way Riker really gets into his food while the other humans react with horror at what he's eating. Riker's banter with the Klingons is fun too.
  
  The Benzite is annoying, but no more so than any other. It's pretty much established that some species are just more annoying to humans than others. At least he doesn't get much screen time.
  
  @DSOmo - perhaps emergency transports have less stringent checks?
• From CAlexander on 2011-02-22 at 4:45am:
  While I didn't think much of the Benzite subplot, I loved the primary plot of Riker with the Klingons. It really achieved its goal of showing the Klingons as being very different and scary, but having some good qualities of their own. I thought the episode really made good use of the Riker character, which not many episodes do. Riker's brash, gung-ho attitude made him absolutely the perfect person for the job, I could totally believe that he would dive into Klingon culture where other characters would fear to tread, and earn the respect of the Klingons.
  
  In response to previous comments: My impression from the episode was that the Benzites have a spaceship fleet which is not part of Starfleet, and that is why the Benzite was part of an exchange program. So Mordock could indeed be the first Benzite in Starfleet, even if he wasn't the first Benzite to serve on a starship.
• From Inga on 2011-12-30 at 8:46pm:
  I really like the idea of this episode, although I find the Klingon Captain's aggression toward the Enterprise rather unprofessional and weakly motivated.
  
  As for the 'Problems' of the episode, I personally like when Klingons speak their language - it seems more realistic
• From a2a on 2012-02-20 at 1:14pm:
  Great episode. Perhaps the first (and perhaps even the best) (modern trek) illustration of what Klingons are about and how they think and operate. Quite brilliantly done.
  
  I also enjoyed how Riker's exchange was mirrored by the alien ensign's tour on the Enterprise, and how the two plots intertwined.
  
  But most of all I enjoyed watching a tense but self-assured Riker on the Klingon ship - his interactions with everyone there were great. The scene with him in the mess hall - getting picked on, joking around, getting hit on by Klingon women, eating live serpent worms - was absolutely priceless.
  
  Interesting detail: at the end, when Riker deposes the captain, he claims it was because the Klingon was acting irrationally, and no one challenges him. This type of scenario is discussed throughout the episode, so there is plenty of foreshadowing... except that the criteria for assassinating and usurping your superior is always talked about as *weakness* not foolhardiness. Perhaps Riker succeeded in teaching the Klingons that irrationality is itself almost inevitably a weakness. If that is the case, then this little exchange had a truly profound effect on both sides.
• From rick on 2013-11-11 at 4:14pm:
  "This episode confirms what many of us suspected, each starship has a majority race on board, in the case of the Enterprise, mostly human. It's confirmed by the Benzite telling us about "his race's ships" even though they're part of the Federation."
  
  So the federation doesnt stand for forced diversity in Starship settings? Well alright, chalk that up as a very conservative standpoint for Star Trek. I guess they have never read any of the Supreme Court busing cases.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-01 at 7:10pm:
  I don't usually comment on Continuity Errors (i.e. in one camera angle someone's arms are folded and in a different angle their arms are at their side). Main reason, just too many! There are continuity problems in almost every show.
  
  But I thought I should mention the Poker Game. It is a gold mine of continuity errors. As the episode joins the game, Riker, Pulaski, and Geordi all bet "five." Data folds and Worf bets fifty. Riker then bets fifty and drops the chips into the pile in the middle. A close-up shows there are no neat stacks of chips in the middle. Pulaski beats one hundred. She puts them next to the pile of chips in two neat stacks. A long shot shows there are now four stacks of chips near the pile! Geordi folds. Worf bets one hundred, moving two stacks to the piles. There are now six stacks in the middle. Riker folds, and Pulaski calls Worf's bet. A close-up shows her moving the stack of chips to the center of the table. However, hers is now the only stack of chips! Somehow a bunch of chips just disappeared. Did Data take some with his incredible speed when no one was looking? Worf wins the hand, and Pulaski comments that she has no chips left. The next hand begins. Everyone antes up with two chips. Worf opens with fifty. An emergency message comes through breaking up the poker game. A long shot shows the ante-up pile in the center with three stacks of chips standing near it, AND Pulaski suddenly has chips again!
• From tigertooth on 2011-04-11 at 10:29pm:
  The first scene that Worf and K'Ehleyr have alone together is so, so bad. The dialogue is awful and the incidental music is supercheese. Overall the episode has merit, but they could have executed the concept much better.
  
  And I wish they would have given some reason why the Klingons would send their ship into suspended animation. It's a neat idea except for the fact that I can't think of any tactical purpose for it. If you're in a war, you don't plan for the war to last 70 more years! Plus, you would know that you would be sending a ship that's 70 years out of date into combat. Imagine if Nazi Germany did the same thing, and we suddenly noticed WWII-era planes coming across the Pacific to the US. They wouldn't stand a chance against current technology; they'd be decimated with ease. Those planes would do the Nazis much more good in 1941 than they would in 2011.
  
  I think they should have said it was a mission that was supposed to keep them in suspended animation for just a few months, but something went wrong. They had thought the ship was lost, but now they know that the system just kept them suspended for far longer than intended.
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-18 at 1:57pm:
  - I quite like this episode because I like K'Ehleyr and her clever banter with Worf, and that plot takes up most of the show. I wish she could have been appeared more often, she is a very engaging character.
  - The plot about the Klingon ship doesn't take much time, which is good, because it isn't handled well. As tigertooth points out, the idea of a sleeper ship is cool, but bizarre. In order for this idea to make sense, they needed to give us a clever explanation. We got no explanation at all.
  - The Klingons are portrayed as completely irrational beyond belief, more stupid than Ferengi. Are you really going to go to sleep for 70 years, then wake up and launch an attack without even receiving a strategic update from Klingon high command? Even Klingons understand concepts like chain of command and the difference between being at war and not being at war.
  - However, if you suspend your disbelief and accept the premise, the scene at the end was amusing.
  - Disturbing that the Federation cannot protect its colonies from the attack of a single 70-year old warship without getting warned ahead of time by the Klingons. How the heck did the Federation survive the war with the Klingons in the first place?
  
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-20 at 8:32pm:
  The onesie! Here it is again!
  
  For those of you who have not read my other posts, one thing I point out is the use within Star Trek of the "onesie", a form-fitting, tight, stretchy and provocative one-piece outfit for young, attractive females. In this episode we see K'Ehleyr sporting exactly such an outfit. And she looks good, too! Suzie Plakson is so dang tall! What a set of legs.
  
  Suzie appears in several other episodes of TNG, one other as K'Ehleyr, and one (TNG: The Schizoid Man) as an MD. She also appeared in Voyager as a female member of the Q Continuum.
  
  Other uses of the onesie include:
  
  1. Troi after she loses the micro mini she wore in TNG: Adventure at Farpoint is pretty much always wearing a onesie. Sometimes, it is not very flattering, unfortunately. Marina Sirtis is a bit fat.
  2. Seven (of course). Seven is the archetypal sex bomb on Star Trek. When the camera is on her moving around on Voyager wearing her onesie, we literally wear out our eyeballs staring. (At least I do.)
  3. Kira Nyres ends up wearing a onesie as her uniform, unfortunately. In her case, again, it is kind of unfortunate. Nana Visitor is just not able to pull it off that well. (But how we wish we could get Terry Farrell (Jadsia Dax) in a onesie! I personally believe that Terry Farell is the most meltingly beautiful woman to ever grace the screen on a Star Trek series.)
  4. Other guests have worn onuses. One is Fenna on DS9: Second Sight who is a love interest of Captain Benjamin Sisko. Another is Ishara Yar (sister to Tasha Yar) who shows up in TNG: Legacy and is given an electric blue onesie (with color-coordinate phaser holster!) which shows of her smoking hot body to great effect. (And the Star Trek TNG camera crew takes full advantage of this opportunity, believe me.)
  
  There are probably other examples of the use of the onesie. I will point them out as I come across them. In the end, the onesie is a reminder that, for all it pretensions, Star Trek is really a show for us horny, sexually repressed geeks.
• From Ggen on 2012-02-29 at 11:24pm:
  Not my favorite type of episode, but if I had to watch a slightly sappy romance story, I would definitely prefer it to involve conflicted Klingons like Warf and his half-human counterpart...
  
  Also, I liked seeing Warf's solution in the end. He is finally becoming a little less comical, less silly and irritating, if that isn't too harsh a word, than in the earliest episodes.
• From Arianwen on 2012-12-15 at 10:06pm:
  I'm not usually keen on love-interest stories, but I quite liked this one. It may be because it contains some actual tension instead of fluffy gooey "your eyes are the stars" situations, or it may be the depth of the characters involved. I like Worf: he always seems to be one of the more sensible people on the Enterprise ("shouldn't we send a security detail, sir?" "No, I'm sure everything will be quite all right!")
  
  The main and subplots interact quite nicely, and the whole thing holds together. I agree the reason for the Klingons' 70-year hibernation should have been given: I expected some sort of plot or battleplan, and was disappointed when neither turned up.
  
  The flute tune at the start, as tigertooth points out, is inappropriate to the situation and rather corny, but it's still good music and I think it worked better in the closing scene. The incidental music that starts when the Klingons come into range is superb.
• From Bernard on 2022-01-26 at 6:53pm:
  Can’t believe in ten years nobody has taken issue with Jeff Browning calling Marina Sirtis a bit fat! That is ridiculous! Partly because she plainly is not, and secondly because…. Well I probably can’t say on here why! Crazy.
  
  This episode though, is solid, the Worf/K’Ehleyr stuff is good, the rest is very season one ish. Like the returns of the poker game and the calisthenics program…
• From Encounter at Obamberg on 2023-04-26 at 5:01pm:
  Why is Worf still using this archaic calistenics program, has he not heard of the "ultimate evolution of martial arts"? :))
  And Jeff, the traveler also wore a onesie in the second appearance
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

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

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-28 at 11:53pm:
  The writers didn't do their math for this episode:
  
  - The maximum range for safe transport is 40,000 kilometers. In this episode, Data and Tam beam over to Tin Man when the Enterprise is 18 minutes away by impulse. Traveling at full impulse is traveling just under the speed of light. The speed of light is just under 300,000 kilometers per second. In other words, Data and Tam beamed a distance of almost 324,000,000 kilometers. This is well above the maximum transporter range.
  - Wesley tells Picard that the repulser wave from Tin Man threw them 3.8 billion kilometers. However, only 50 seconds elapse from the time the repulser wave hits the Enterprise until Picard witnesses the supernova of the dying star on the main viewscreen. As noted above, light travels just under 300,000 kilometers per second. If the Enterprise was thrown 3.8 billion kilometers from the dying sun, it would take about 12,667 seconds for the light of the explosion to reach the Enterprise. That figure equals 3.5 hours. It is not possible for the light produced by a supernova to reach a distance of 3.8 billion kilometers in 50 seconds.
• From JRPoole on 2008-04-10 at 11:59pm:
  Solid all around. Math problems aside, this episode features an interesting premise, Romulan intrigue, and a solidly written and acted guest of the week.
• From Ggen on 2012-03-26 at 10:09pm:
  You know what, I thoroughly enjoyed this one, much more than most people it seems. For one thing, this is very much a psychological episode, almost a psychological profile of "Telepath guy," and a rather believable one at that. (Maybe it's the fact that I have some personal experience with intense, almost overwhelming empathy, and the resultant anti-social tendencies that almost automatically come with it...)
  
  I just love this tortured soul, unable to shield himself from other people's thoughts, "loves, hates, desires... needs," drawn to thoroughly non-human, "restful" sentience like Data's, Tin Man's, and other non-humanoid life.
  
  The connection with Data is another thing that makes this episode rather grand, because this also manages to be very much about Data... Data is used brilliantly here, both as a contrast to the crew (from a telepath's POV), and as a parallel to both Tin Man and Telepath Guy, as a unique lifeform trying to make sense of himself and his role in the universe.
  
  The whole episode is considerably more layered than I first described it - it's much more than a simple psychological profile of a single character. It's about "Telepath guy," Tin Man, and Data, all three rather fascinating beings, all three struggling to find meaning and a suitable place in the universe...
  
  And they all succeed in the end!
  
  So, quite excellent, on the whole. Makes great use of a number of elements and concepts: nearly crippling telepathic ability, a living ship, Data... all tied together into something surprisingly coherent and compelling.
  
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-08-23 at 8:41am:
  - During a meeting with the senior staff, Data claims that the people of Ventax II consider it bad luck to speak Ardra's name. However, the prime minister does it quite frequently.
  - When Ardra shows up on the bridge, Picard has her beamed back to the planet. Immediately afterward, he orders an ensign to put up shields until further notice. The ensign turns around, it is Ardra again. A few minutes later, she leaves on her own. Picard never repeats his orders, and everyone on the bridge must have forgot he said anything about putting up the shields. The end of the show makes clear that she is using standard transpoter technology. That means the crew never raised the shields, because if they did, Ardra could not have beamed into Picard's bedroom later in the show!
  - During the trial, Ardra demands that Picard explain her abilities. He claims he can't. Granted, he doesn't know exactly where her power source is during this scene. However, earlier in the episode, he gave a good guess about her methods during a discussion with his senior staff. Instead of repeating that explanation, Picard simply replies that he can't explain Ardra's abilities.
  - After Picard performs Ardra's tricks, he explains that a team from the Enterprise took control of Ardra's ship. Picard then touches his communicator and thanks Riker for his help. Picard explains that the team had monitored him on his communicator. In other words, the communicator was already on. Does that mean that Picard shut it off when he tapped it?
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-23 at 7:51pm:
  A solid episode. I thought the underlying concept was clever.
  - This episode seems a little confused about how it is trying to portray Ardra. In general, it seems to be saying that she is just a magician using clever tricks (like when they comment on her "bad copy of a cloaking device"). But at other times it seems more like the message is that she is a hyper-advanced alien, but still a con artist. In particular, her ability to undetectably beam people on and off the Enterprise is beyond any capability we've seen from normal Federation opponents.
  
• From John on 2012-03-14 at 12:56am:
  Factoid: Patrick Stewart would win the 1992 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show for his one-man adaption of "A Christmas Carol" on Broadway.
• From Rick on 2014-03-07 at 5:44pm:
  Problem: Two parties cannot make a contract that binds or obligates a third (unrelated) party. I dont care how alien a world is, no one can make a contract that will give away the enterprise in 1000 years. That does not stand up to scrutiny.
• From Rob UK on 2014-06-21 at 2:42pm:
  Got a problem for you, the quote mentioned between Data and Picard when discussing the con game in regard to the P.T Barnum quote is incorrect, it was actually said by Barnum's competition Mr. George Hull, who said "There's a sucker born every minute." after Barnum tricked the press into believing and publishing that his stone giant was real and Mr Hulls a fake, both were fakes but Hull was the original creator of the scam

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-08-24 at 10:44am:
  - The head of state needs a more observant receptionist. When the chief scientist introduces Picard to the head of state, they walk into his office. Actually, the scene features the calm voice of a receptionist - over an intercom - announcing that the chief scientist has someone for the head of state to meet. The receptionist's voice is amazingly dull considering the striking physical differences between Picard and the Malcorians.
  - After Picard proposes a toast, the head of state says of the wine, "We have something very much like this on Malcoria III." What are the chances that this man would use the same designation for his planet that Starfleet does, especially since the Malcorians believe they are the center of the universe? Would a culture that believes itself the center of the universe call its planet by the name of its sun and the planet count to that sun? Maybe we should change the name of our planet from Earth to "Sol III."
  - This makes three times that the matte painting of this city has been used: It was the main city on "Angel One"; it was also Starbase 515 in "Samaritan Snare"; and in this episode, it serves as a medical facility in the capital city of Malcoria III.
• From djb on 2008-02-29 at 8:40am:
  - I wouldn't be so quick to judge Krola, or the writers' intentions in making his character as he was, or even conservatism in general. I definitely have my problems with conservatism, but I have my problems with liberalism as well. I think they need to both exist to balance each other out. Indeed, without conservatism acting as a bit of a brake on the speed of progress, things can easily get out of hand and overwhelm people. Of course, without progressive ideas, society stagnates. Krola may be an extreme example of conservatism, as he was willing to not only martyr himself but actually martyr himself in the context of a lie with very serious repercussions, but the point still gets across.
  
  The fact that a man like him is so high up in government strongly indicates that a large bloc of the population shares, to some degree, his conservative outlook, and would be just as hostile, if not more so, to accords with alien races. One can therefore come to the correct conclusion that the Malcorian people in general are not ready for contact with alien races, even though some of them might be happy about such a development. The final assessment that first contact should be put off for a time is sad, but most likely correct. Until the people in general reach a "critical mass" of readiness for such contact, ramifications of such an event could be disastrous, and counterproductive to the goals of interplanetary contact.
  
  - Establishing first contact with an alien race is the kind of mission I would expect the Federation's flagship to go on. It's good to see them doing something other than scientific surveys and taxi services. It's also good to peer into the very complex and delicate situation of first contact. Imagine yourself in Durken's or Mirasta's place... or Picard's. Or Riker's!
  
  - I liked the humorous interlude of the Malcorian nurse bribing Riker for sex. You could tell her intentions the minute she walked in the door! (Can any one say "Xenophile?") Riker is a ladies' man, for sure, but you could tell he was more than a little dismayed at being forced into sex with an alien just to get free... only to be beaten within an inch of his life while attempting escape. Talk about adding insult to injury. Or, in this case, injury to insult.
  
  - Just a thought: The Malcorians apparently have a 29-hour day. I wonder... since they don't have ten distinct digits like we do, who's to say they are necessarily operating in base 10? Or did the universal translator figure that out? How long is their day, really, and why in the world would anyone use a large prime number for any measuring system? One wonders...
  
  - I, too, wonder why someone down on the planet didn't notice a rather large UFO in orbit. Even if the Federation is against the idea of their ships using cloaking devices, wouldn't they want to develop them for this purpose at the very least? A civilization advanced enough to develop warp drive is almost by definition able to detect objects in orbit around their planet!
  
  - The only drawback of this episode, for me, is how it starkly reveals the shortcomings of the "universal translator" storytelling device. Riker had the Malcorians fooled until they discovered his out-of-place organs and his digits. Either Riker learned the Malcorian language flawlessly (not very plausible), or the Universal Translator manages to simultaneously translate the speaker's words, simulate their voice, and make the speaker appear as if they're speaking the language (also quite implausible). This makes me beg the question: how exactly does this device work?! Do the producers just sacrifice believability for ease in storytelling?
• From JRPoole on 2008-05-09 at 4:45pm:
  I'm in almost complete agreement with the post above. Aside from the (admittedly huge) problem of the univeral translator, this episode is top-notch.
• From Jim on 2008-06-08 at 1:19pm:
  "I'm not going to go off on a political rant here, but I will say that this fictitious situation clearly illustrates how much a conservative mindset can hold back the progress of an entire society."
  
  You clearly are going off on a rant. Krola's point is one which the writers may not be sympathetic with, but which is understandable and which the Prime Minister sympathises with. Your own propensity to fly off the handle at 'conservatism' makes you seem as narrow-minded as the people you criticise.
• From Kethinov on 2008-06-08 at 7:49pm:
  Your comment is as needlessly insulting as its point is baseless. The whole point of conservatism as a political ideology is to keep things as they are. That is the very antithesis of the progress and growth of a society.
  
  Maybe you didn't notice, but the whole point of this episode was to take the conservative political ideology to its logical extremes to point out how silly the whole perspective is in the first place.
• From Bernard on 2008-06-08 at 10:51pm:
  Firstly, I like this episode a lot, mainly for the reasons djb has already stated. But I have to say that I feel that storytelling works nicely when you use characters to portray opposing sides to a debate. Here we have Yale on one side, Krola on the other and Durken somewhere in the middle. I do not agree that they are trying to show the futility of conservatism at all, they show both sides of the argument and allow the viewer to make his/her own mind up. Some of us will see it one way and some of us will see it the other way and some of us will probably come into the middle. It is precisely this that makes it a good episode for me anyway, you can have good people on both sides of an argument. Perhaps this is the point that jim was trying to put across. :)
• From Mark McC on 2008-12-30 at 3:43pm:
  I first watched this episode when it aired and I was quite young. Watching it again today, I can't believe I missed the parallels it draws with the alleged Roswell, 1947 alien spacecraft crash that conspiracy folks are so fond of. Only here we have Riker as the alien whose body is recovered and taken to a government medical facility.
  
  Later, when the Chancellor informs Picard of his decision to keep the truth about first contact from the people, he rhymes of a list of ways in which the evidence of alien life will be dismissed or watered down, including weather balloons (which were the official US government explanation of what was recovered at Roswell).
  
  Overall, I think this episode is a very enjoyable piece of allegory about what would happen if/when an advanced civilization contacted us here on Earth; even going so far as to suggest that maybe they already have and the government of the time decided that we too weren't ready for such a consciousness-raising event.
  
  PS not a UFO nut/conspiracy believer in any way, but it's always fun to speculate ;)
  
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-24 at 2:16pm:
  I enjoy this episode, getting to see first contact from the point of view of the "aliens" is pretty cool. But I wouldn't say it was a great episode, in many ways it is rather timid and limited in how it shows the first contact. As though it needed more time to really explore the situation on the planet and the motivations behind the Malcorians.
  
  - Why was Riker carrying a phaser on a delicate first contact mission? And even if he had to for some unknown reason, it seems like it should have been built with a safety mechanism so it can't be activated by the natives.
  - Bringing a member of a race subject to the Prime Directive off of their home planet, and into the Federation, is rather unusual in Star Trek, for good reason. Picard doesn't want to give advanced technology to the Malcorians, as they won't have the wisdom to use it. Now Mirasta is going to enter the larger universe and will surely learn that technology. That's fine, but what if she becomes homesick and tries to charter a flight home? Starfleet is put in the awkward position of having to either forbid her from seeing her friends and family, or trust that she won't reveal her scientific knowledge to a planet for which she is (or was) the Minister of Science!
  
• From Pete on 2011-07-08 at 12:54pm:
  This fictitious situation clearly illustrates how much the conservative mindset can hold back society?
  
  Give me a break. The majority of conservatives don't fear "progress" they just don't want to pay the bill.
  
  If progress is to punish those that are smart and work hard and reward those that are lazy and stupid... I don't think we'll be getting out of this solar system anytime soon.
  
• From Kethinov on 2011-07-13 at 5:04am:
  Conservatism: a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society.
  
  How does that not precisely describe Krola's character, who is the clearly unsympathetic antagonist of this story?
  
  Not all conservatives are as absurd as his character, but I think it's pretty clear that this story was meant to attack conservatism in general, as does much of the storytelling in Star Trek.
• From thaibites on 2011-07-30 at 1:09pm:
  Personally, I think this episode is a "tip of the hat" to Galileo and acknowledges all the aggravation and oppression he suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church. The Malcorians talked about how their doctrine claimed their planet was the center of the universe, and the Church used to BELIEVE that the sun revolved around the Earth - God's perfect creation. To question either of these beliefs is/was heresy and is/was sure to irrevocably destroy everything these people held dear. It would be the end of EVERYTHING! (Or at least that's what the people in control thought and told everybody...) Honestly, those in power ought to give common people some credit and stop trying to spoon-feed them and "protect" them all the time.
• From Brad Smith on 2011-09-13 at 5:48am:
  Good review of this episode as it is quite fascinating. Your understanding of conservatism is a little lacking though and the "conservatives suck" comment is certainly unnecessary. I think you are confusing the classical definition of conservatism with the way it is used in the modern day U.S. Generally, the word just describes people who want smaller government, lower taxes, fewer regulations and the preservation of federalism. The group you are describing makes up an extremely small portion of conservatives and it is a little offensive to pigeonhole all of us into that category.
• From Kethinov on 2011-10-07 at 7:19am:
  I'm sorry you feel that way. To be clear, the episode's critique of conservatism (as well as my own) is limited to the aspect of that political ideology which resists change. Certainly the branch of modern conservatism which favors smaller government, lower taxes, and fewer regulations is not at issue here, as those are actually desires *for* a change from the status quo. Granted, I am critical of that branch of conservative politics as well, but for entirely different reasons which have nothing to do with the political commentary reflected by this episode.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-23 at 10:11am:
  Nurse Lanel was played by Bebe Neuwirth who was a star in the movies "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and "Jumanji" as well as a major character in the TV show "Cheers". I loved her performance in this episode. So deliciously salacious. It is apparent tha Riker did indeed have sex with her. Riker is a total manwhore as I have pointed out elsewhere. There is no question Riker would readily agree to have sex with Nurse Lanel.
• From Mike on 2017-03-31 at 7:02am:
  A good spectrum of reactions to contact with aliens is shown here. I have no doubt that if aliens made contact with Earth, there would be similar reactions and that includes Nurse Lanel's :)
  
  The dialogue between Picard and Durken is some of the best written of the entire series. I really enjoyed watching the two of them sort each other out and discuss the various aspects of first contact between their peoples.
  
  Some interesting comments on this one. I think, as mentioned above, "conservatism" is being used here in a general social sense. The conservative outlook is indeed one that resists change and tends to perceive change as unstable and disorderly. Conservatism within American politics is a set of positions on the major issues facing the U.S., and not necessarily the same thing. I mean, both U.S. liberals and conservatives are liberal in comparison to 19th Century European conservatism. That label means different things in different contexts.
  
  But, "conservative" in the way this episode deals with it reminds me more of the Catholic Church/Galileo situation mentioned above. In this case, there is evidence that challenges a society's traditional view of something. The conservative reaction is to suppress or prevent that evidence from bringing about change. The episode isn't justifying what Krola did; Durken does not see him as a martyr who stopped disorder. Rather, Durken realizes that his society, overall, is not ready to confront evidence that challenges its traditions. In other words, his society is conservative and will have to remain "in the dark" until it is truly ready. No wonder Yale wanted to get out of there.
• From McCoy on 2017-12-06 at 7:57pm:
  While analysing conservatism and Krola character, you didn't noticed that he isn't as absurd as it may look. He's suspicious, yes. But come on! Disguised aliens among people ARE suspicious. And I would be cautious as hell if an well-mannered alien beams in front of me and serves me an utopian speach about long life and prosperity:) As it was well pointed in this episode, the conquerors very often are presenting good will, and then... Boom! Cortez is coming...
• From Mike Chambers on 2020-04-18 at 8:31pm:
  "Maybe you didn't notice, but the whole point of this episode was to take the conservative political ideology to its logical extremes to point out how silly the whole perspective is in the first place."
  
  Eric, the logical extreme of practically any political ideology is silly. Whether that be conservative, progressive, libertarian or whatever. That's why it's called an extreme.
  
  Krola's character is indeed very annoying, and supremely ridiculous. I think he's very poorly conceived of and written. Cornball stuff. He should have been more nuanced, and not such a caricature. Very lazy work by the writers of this otherwise decent episode.
• From Kethinov on 2020-04-20 at 1:09pm:
  In the 12 years since I wrote that comment, history has only made the insight more relevant.
  
  It turns out it was overly generous for me to say that merely the "extreme" side of conservatism is characterized by the toxic status quo bias Krola exhibits in this episode because it turns out it was never all that fringe an attitude at all. Where once we could debate which variant of conservatism was dominant within the coalition, it is overwhelmingly clear that people like Krola define modern conservatism nowadays. Their political project is focused almost exclusively on resistance to change or rolling back change. Social change, demographic change, etc. You don't get a terrible rise in right wing populism globally without fear of (or resentment about) change being the basis of your political psychology.
  
  I've long suspected that status quo bias was an underrated psychological driver of conservative politics. As far back as 1955, prominent American conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. wrote that a core part of his political ideology was to "[stand] athwart history, yelling Stop." The quote is frequently misinterpreted and clearly wasn't meant to be taken literally, but it does clearly signal a discomfort with change, or at least the rapidity of change at the time. It should be no surprise that more than half a century later, conservatism has metastasized into a movement dominated by people obsessed with tradition, anti-intellectualism, and authoritarianism; all of which are political attitudes focused on resisting or rolling back change.
  
  If Krola is poorly-written, then so are millions of voters in the real world all across the globe who are just like him.
• From obumpresidency 4life on 2021-08-01 at 3:10pm:
  I just wanted to point out to that one commenter that the opposite of conservatism is not liberalism, it is progressivism. Liberalism is the opposite of fascism.
  
  Apart from the good scenes with Picard, the episode is pretty bad, though. It is bearable if you skip the Riker and Malcorian only scenes.
• From Brad Smith on 2023-09-13 at 3:24am:
  Kethinov, My how things have changed. Your response to my comment from 2011 is appropriate in some respects. It turns out it was just me and like three other guys that actually cared about small government and what we called conservatism. That being said, I disagree about calling the political party in the US that you are referring to conservatives. The populism they are espousing is mostly policy free and ideologically void of any conservative principles, especially on the economic side. Conservatives once stood for limited government, a strong national defense, free markets, fiscal responsibility, and the rule of law. But this party now reject free markets, ignore deficits, embrace international appeasement, and could not care less about the rule of law.
  
  I think people like me need to look inward and ask if we ignored the bad seeds in our movement for too long and allowed them to grow unchecked (obviously I have no political power, but I mean people like me generally).
  
  I would encourage you (and people of your ilk) to also look inward and ask if your generalizations of conservatives for decades as misogynistic, racist, unsympathetic, and out of touch helped contribute to the problem. And by that I mean, when you call all conservatives those things, you really pissed off a lot of people that weren’t those things. Pissed them off so much in fact that many of them voted for that guy just to get back at you (I certainly didn’t).
  
  For example: you all hit a demonstrably decent man in the 2012 nominee of that party with each of those false accusations (along with felony tax cheat, thank you very much for that lie Harry Reid). By the time that party nominated someone who actually is all those things in the next cycle, people just tuned out and just assumed it wasn’t true like the last time. Well, unfortunately it was and is true, but now we cannot agree on what truth is anymore. As Andy Shepard said in American President, “people drink the sand (leadership) because they don’t know the difference.” Unfortunately, when you use the same words to describe the 2012 nominee as the 2016 nominee, you contribute to that unfortunate reality.
  
  I could go on forever on this subject, but I guess I’ll close with saying, we still aren’t all like what you describe.
• From Kethinov on 2023-09-14 at 3:02am:
  Again, what I was referring to in the review is temperamental conservatism, or status quo bias, not an entire political party. And if your politics includes a robust policy agenda of things you want to change in society — whether those changes are primarily aligned with left or right-wing political thought or not — then congratulations, you're not conservative in the sense that I'm critiquing here: status quo-oriented temperamental conservatism. And while the political right definitely has its "change is scary" faction, rest assured, there are plenty of people on the political left who are like this too who should be criticized for being like Krola as well.
  
  For example, the internecine left-wing fights about things like replacing means-tested social programs with universal ones are vicious. Likewise the internecine left-wing fights about whether or not to levy wealth taxes are vicious. It's because the debate isn't really about whether or not doing these things would be more redistributionally progressive or lead to a more progressive society or whatever. The debate functions as a proxy for whether it's good to have faster change or slower change. It's just temperamental progressives fighting with temperamental conservatives about how much change how quickly is too scary and they dress up that debate with fancier arguments to mask their fear.
  
  So no, the political right doesn't have a monopoly on these people and never did. I do however think those kinds of people are more common on the political right simply because of the coalitional incentives at play, this has almost always been the case for the reasons I outlined above, and I think it likely will remain so into the future.
• From Axel on 2024-02-12 at 11:05pm:
  I know that not every episode of TNG (or any Star Trek) could make a sequel of itself. But this one, in my opinion, screams for a sequel. If nothing else, it would've been interesting to see what happened to Yale.
  
  This one seems to have ignited quite a debate about conservatism, progress, and such. It did get me thinking; the Malcorians in this episode are an obvious mirror for humanity, and how ready (or not) we would be for alien contact that might shatter our traditional views.
  
  Is it a simple question of majority rule, i.e., once the majority of people are open to first contact, then it would all work out swimmingly? That is simple and makes sense, but of course, I can't imagine a minority that senses its power slipping away, or its traditional views eroding, simply agreeing to go peacefully into the night and concede to majority rule. We have plenty of examples of how that never happens, including in our own time. Conservatism often has a staying power that does not at all rely on its being in the majority.
  
  I disagree with the portrayal of Krola being "stuffy" or a caricature. That staying power I speak of is almost always based on fear, and fear is incredibly potent, powerful, and metastatic. Krola is afraid, and he no doubt represents many others who are, even if that fear is a bit exaggerated for dramatic effect and to fit into a one-hour TV slot.
  
  In the end, the wise Chancellor made the right decision for his people, the visionary Yale got to get out of a society that didn't entirely appreciate her talents or foresight, and the crew of the Enterprise avoided what could have been a disaster, thanks largely to the good fortune of both the Enterprise and Malcor having leaders like Picard and Durken at the helm. This was TNG at its best.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-08-24 at 8:19pm:
  Great confusion surrounds this matter/antimatter ratio thing. When Brahms come on board, she claims the matter/antimatter ratio has been changed. She says that the mixture isn't as rich as Starfleet specs call for. In "Where No One Has Gone Before," Picard says Kozinski is coming on board to test "different intermix formulas." And the chief engineer in "Skin Of Evil" talks about setting the ratio of matter and antimatter to 25 to 1. Isn't there only one matter/antimatter ratio? While taking the Starfleet exam in "Coming Of Age," Wesley and Mordock said there is only one ratio with matter/antimatter ... 1 to 1.
  The energy needed for warp drive come from the mutual annihilation of matter and antimatter as they mix in the dilithium chamber. When an electron and a positron meet, an explosion occurs, destroying both entities. If two electrons and positron meet, wouldn't that leave one electron with nothing to do? So if the ratio is anything but 1 to 1, what does the extra matter do once the antimatter is used up?
• From djb on 2008-02-25 at 9:47am:
  Poor Geordi! He just tries too hard.
  
  I was excited when they mentioned Leah Brahms at the beginning, because Booby Trap left open so many great questions: What is she really like? Will Geordi ever meet her? If he does, is his love life finally going to change for the better?
  
  Geordi is a great character, very likable. Unfortunately, his luck in love hasn't always been so great. I really root for him, but have to shake my head at how he shoots himself in the foot. Having them meet in his quarters, him in casual clothes, with just the right lighting and music... really laying it on thick!
  
  I like how he finally starts to be honest with her; as he points out at the end of the episode, he should have just told her about the holodeck program from the beginning. Of course, we wouldn't have had that great scene between them later on! I like how they come to terms at the end, even if it is abrupt. The poignant ending with Brahms answering a call from her husband was a nice touch.
  
  I was a little disappointed in Geordi's handling the situation in general; he still seems pretty insecure, even though he supposedly gained confidence after an encounter with the alien in "Transfigurations." Maybe it would have been even worse...
  
  I enjoyed this episode on multiple levels. One level is obvious: good character development for La Forge. Another is more subtle, but also important: holodeck ethics. Hearkening back to "Hollow Pursuits," one wonders what really are the ramifications of being able to holographically simulate real people? If the holodeck were a real invention, would there be laws or restrictions as to whom you can simulate, or what situations? Would people have to sign releases allowing their likenesses to be used in holodeck programs? Would hackers sell underground holodeck programs that illegally simulate celebrities or other people for consumers' basest fantasies? I mean, what happens when a wife walks in on her husband having sex with a virtual woman?
  
  More relevant to this episode is the striking contrast of holodeck reality with actual reality. Even though I doubt Geordi had replayed that program in the year or so between meeting holodeck Leah and meeting actual Leah, one gets the strong impression that the one exchange on the holodeck in "Booby Trap" made him develop a serious crush on Leah. Or, at least, holodeck Leah. In the time between meeting holodeck Leah and actual Leah, it's clear he'd thought about her a lot, imagined the possibility of a romantic connection, and probably gotten a little carried away.
  
  Unfortunately, as Guinan tries to warn him, there's a big difference between a holodeck's approximation of a person (which is, basically a computer program) and the person herself (not at all a computer program). To me, this is a warning about not becoming too emotionally involved in a fantasy, whatever that fantasy might be.
  
  I like the actress who plays Leah and it was good to see her again, and it's great to see subplots in characters' lives pick up where they had left off in previous episodes.
  
  I found the plot about the space-borne life form mostly unremarkable, except I did like how the two subplots fused towards the end.
  
  And hats off to whomever came up with the name! "Galaxy" refers to both the life form's home (interstellar space), as well as the Galaxy-class Enterprise; "child" refers to the dead life form's offspring as well as both La Forge's and Brahms' attitude towards their engines! Great name.
• From JRPoole on 2008-05-07 at 2:20pm:
  I don't usually comment on technobabble errors, but the matter/anti-matter thing bothered me as well. But DSOmo has already said that. In other technobabble news, what in the world are Geordi and Brahms referring to when they say that all matter in space resonates at a 21 centimeter interval? Granted, I'm not a physicist, but this seems absurd to me. Can anybody explain this, or is it just another instance of really stupid technobabble?
  
  I do, however, really like the idea of the space creatures. We've seen something sort of like this with Tin Man, but these seem to be slightly lower-order animals, I'm thinking something along the line of "space whales." The Geordi/Brahms plot is welcome as well. Overall, a decent episode.
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-28 at 1:14pm:
  A solid episode. I actually rather liked the "filler" B plot about the baby.
  
  Answer to JRPoole: 21 cm is the "hydrogen line" that can be seen in interstellar space from quantum transitions in hydrogen. So all matter with hydrogen (not "all matter in space") would emit a tiny bit of radiation at this wavelength. Not that this really justifies the technobabble, but it is based on something.
  
• From EZ on 2012-05-06 at 11:33pm:
  Wow, this had such great potential and then crashed at the end. Calling Geordi's emotional hissy fit "standing up to Brahms" is baffling.
  
  Once she discovers what's going on, she has every right to be outraged. Geordi is right, it's not what she thinks. But instead of explaining that to her, the writers have him get emotional and shut her down because he "tried his best." What a horrible excuse.
  
  Her response should have been something along the lines of "How dare you try and make me feel bad about this. You were the one creating and then flirting with a digital duplicate of me. You're the one using that experience to hit on me, despite the fact that I am not interested. You are the one who crossed boundaries. You do not get to pretend that you're the one on the high road here. You're the one that needs to explain yourself."
  
  I could have chalked that up to the characters. But the worst part is Geordi's hissy fit ends up solving the problem. Not only that, but now she's acting shy around him and begrudgingly takes her husband's phone call. A man who was established that she's strictly monogamous with. The whole ending completely undermined Brahms character in order to try and show Geordi as the good guy in the end. Geordi did and acted nothing like a good person would. And a strong female character like Brahms had been up until that point should have called him on that and not been taken in.
  
  Such a wonderful and interesting thing to explore, completely ruined not just the episode but the character of Geordi by poor writing without a lick of emotional intelligence.
• From Axel on 2018-08-20 at 3:29am:
  I think it's safe to say this episode would never be made today, at least not without sparking a lot of backlash. In the 27 years since this episode first aired, the digital/internet age has changed the conversation on this issue. So have society's views of what's considered sexual harassment. Geordi's actions in a modern context seem borderline creepy, and I recall Burton saying something to that effect when asked about this episode at a convention a few years ago.
  
  Had this entire thing not been given a sexual undertone, it might've been more apt for Geordi to react to Brahms the way he did. In his diatribe, he claims he was merely reaching out to her in friendship, but it's obvious he wanted more than that. And the dialogue he assigns to holo-Brahms was much too intimate for her to mistake it as anything but a fantasy. I think a modern audience would applaud her disgust, and would in turn be disgusted at Geordi's defense of his actions.
  
  This is all a shame, because it's a solid episode. It involves the discovery of an interesting species and a dilemma that the two must work together to resolve. But, the "resolution" of the Brahms and Geordi relationship is too poorly handled for me to think of this as above average.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Rozenn on 2006-04-02 at 6:59pm:
  I can't for the life of me remember where I read this, but I think the tensile strength of the body is enough to keep the blood in the veins from boiling. So no exploding bodies...
• From Pete on 2006-04-15 at 5:35am:
  I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. Good acting by the kids, and Worf delivering a baby is priceless. However, I cannot tolerate Picard's overcoat. It's probably the single most annoying thing for me in the later seasons. Whenever I see it I get distracted and think about how much I hate it. I just don't understand why the directors feel like they have to change the uniforms up every year. I mean, the real Navy never EVER changes their uniforms. Starfleet changes them about every other year. It's extremely irritating, and Picard's overcoat is the worst. It makes him look extremely unprofessional. The only things I hate worse are the uniforms they wear in Nemesis.
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-05-09 at 12:27am:
  This episode works because there are so many interesting, tiny plots. They are skillfully woven into each other. The cargo bay scene is a very creative idea by the writers, and it does not seem implausible. Also, Riker taking off Data's head is one innovative, and hilarious concept. The three kids are not typical of the kinds of kids you normally see on Trek. These three were off the wall, and entertaining, except for the crying.
  
  It would have been great to know what the final death toll was, since it can be assumed that people died all around the ship. Engineering was vacant. Where did everyone go? Either way, this episode deserves an 8.
  
• From Bob Bracegirdle on 2006-07-14 at 1:20pm:
  Decompression scene is ridiculous. Quite apart from the best policy being to totally EXHALE so there is no air in the lungs, the "holding" on to a frame would be impossible in an explosive decompression - you would be blown out with the cargo. You would have to tie yourself to such a frame.
  
  Incidentally why is the recompression button so far from the decompression one?
• From DSOmo on 2007-09-06 at 5:36am:
  - Troi asks what a containment breach is! At the beginning of "Contagion," the Yamato explodes when matter and antimatter mix uncontrollably. Troi is on the bridge at the time. Later, in the observation lounge, Geordi explains in great detail about the magnetic seals dropping and the catastrophic consequences of unregulated combination of matter and antimatter. Troi is also at that meeting. Why doesn't Troi know what will happen if the antimatter containment field goes down? How did she get a rank of lieutenant commander without learning about warp engines? No one expects her to be able to field-strip a warp coil, but antimatter containment seems pretty basic.
  - When Picard and the children finally find a turbolift door they can open, Picard's waist is level with the deck floor. Picard heaves the top half of his body onto the floor and then yanks and pulls himself the rest of the way. Why is Picard going through all these gymnastics? The ladder goes all the way up the turbolift shaft, with the doors for each deck to his right. Why not just hop up a few more rungs with his right foot and then step off when his right foot is level with the floor?
  - While Geordi tries to open the door manually, Crusher places her hand against a wall. She then tells Geordi the wall is hot, and Geordi says, "Where?" Where? Geordi can examine things thermally. He should be able to look at the wall and see the heat.
• From Fred on 2008-01-10 at 4:53pm:
  For anyone interested, a search on Google, and a wade through many less than useful posts like 'you suffocate and explode', it turns out that Dr Crusher and Geordie's experience was reasonably accurate... except neither of them lost control of their bowels.
  
  In short, they would have survived, and Dr Crusher's summary of what would happen is largely accurate, according to research performed by NASA in the 60s. Our bodies would mostly hold us together, but the expansion of fluids and gases would be what kills you, starting from the outside working in.
  
  One other interesting thing I read, was that if you model the human body as a black blob, it would take several hours for it to loose enough heat to freeze.
  
  For more info, these site's give some good info: http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q62.html
  http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=741
• From djb on 2008-03-23 at 11:03pm:
  I used to watch this show when it was running, though it started when I was only 6. Many of them, though, I have no recollection of having watched before. This one I do remember. The main scenes I remembered were Picard with the kids in the turbolift, and LaForge and Crusher in the shuttlebay. It was a pleasure to see it again. As a funny little aside, I recognized one of the kids-- I used to go to school with him.
  
  I wonder, if the results of hitting a quantum filament are so potentially severe, why a starship is so susceptible to them. Even if the likeliness of hitting one is low, you'd think there would be some kind of special protection against them, or increased ability to sense them. Since we don't hear from quantum filaments again, this falls into the AOTW category, except this time that stands for "Anomaly of the Week" instead of "Alien of the Week." The premise could have been better.
  
  Seeing counselor Troi completely bewildered at the prospect of commanding the bridge is good for character development, but rather unrealistic. She's an officer, meaning she's been through four years of starfleet training. She holds the rank of Liutenant Commander, meaning she's supposedly quite capable. Wouldn't starfleet training and rank-advancement tests prepare one for this kind of situation? I will say, though, that I like how she gradually transcends the sense of being in over her head (it really doesn't become her) and takes to command quite decently. She's able to put Ro, quite a forceful personality, in her place, without being forceful back. This is a good example of Troi's "gentle-but-firm" personality.
  
  An interesting thing to note here is how she is always wearing off-duty attire even while on duty, which helps lend an informal air to her in general. That is usually good, except in situations like this, where I suspect that she would have taken to command more easily if she were wearing her uniform. I certainly wouldn't want to take command of the ship in my sweatpants!
  
  My two cents on the suttlebay decompression scene: I think it was slightly unrealistic, but not overly so. I doubt that the shuttlebay was 100% decompressed: while the majority of the air would have escaped immediately, I think enough would have lingered after the forcefield was re-activated to allow someone to live for a few more seconds. A total vacuum would have killed them pretty quickly. I think, though, that both LaForge and Crusher would have been severely bruised. What I don't understand is why the atmospheric controls weren't on the same console as the forcefield controls! Aren't these ships designed with tons of redundancy for this exact type of situation? Also, the main problem I had was how quickly the air was returned to normal compression. It should have taken at least a minute, and both of them should have fallen unconscious.
  
  Despite all that, I like this episode a lot. I like the isolated subplots, and I like the interaction of the sub-groups of the main cast. I liked the birth scene, with the normally mild-mannered Keiko yelling at Worf. I liked seeing O'Brien on the bridge (again). I loved seeing the turboshaft; it definitely helps one to grasp how big the ship is. I also like how Picard is forced to learn how to deal with the kids he's stuck with.
• From Matt on 2008-04-24 at 12:49pm:
  No, they wouldn't "explode". Humans do not explode when in space :-)
  
  Dr Crusher had it about right - the capilaries on the surface of the skin could burst and there'd be some bruising... but no humans exploding :-)
• From JRPoole on 2008-07-16 at 4:17pm:
  This episode is a personal favorite. The Worf/Keiko interaction is great, and all the subplots--especially the Ro/Troi tension are handled very well. Like someone above, it also annoys me that there's never a mention of the death toll, but that's pretty minor. Good stuff all around.
• From paul on 2010-07-12 at 11:29am:
  Technically, when you 'suck' in real life, you are creating a vacuum where your diaphragm was, so the air is blown into your lungs from the outside due to the pressure imbalance. So being sucked out into space is the same as being blown out
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-22 at 10:21am:
  One glaring issue: in whose dreams would Captain Picard ever consent to giving a bunch of children a tour of the ship? It does not accord with his character at all! He would have simply delegated the problem to someone like Troi.
• From John on 2012-03-15 at 1:36pm:
  @Jeff: Picard would do such a thing if he felt it was his duty. No doubt Troi managed to convince him that it was part of his responsibility as captain, the same way she convinced him to do "Captain Picard Day" later on in season 7 ("The Pegasus").
  
  That doesn't mean that he would enjoy it, just that he would force himself to do it and be a gentleman about it.
• From Trekkie on 2012-07-07 at 5:49pm:
  Picard has never been one to care for and have children aboard his ship.I think this episode may have changed his output on that a bit.I liked this episode, yet it seemed a little rushed.44 minutes is not always enough time to fit all the details of the episode in.It should be more like 50, like TOS(51min)
• From ChristopherA on 2019-04-30 at 5:44am:
  I really liked the feel of this episode, it really felt like some terrible disaster had struck the ship. I liked how Troi was a little out of her depth, but still able to function. And although I cried "Don't do it" when I saw the cliche of Keiko giving birth coming on, the scene was actually handled pretty well.
  
  There was some extra heavy suspension of disbelief required, however. I don't really believe the ship would completely lose communication (the comm badges are routinely used independent of the ship) but it was necessary for the plot. The fact that engineering was empty was very strange, I totally thought it would make more sense for Data and Riker to rally the trapped engineering staff and save the ship, rather than doing it all by themselves.
• From rpeh on 2021-07-25 at 10:39pm:
  Watching this again, the most remarkable thing is that despite ship-wide power outages, the artificial gravity and lighting work perfectly throughout.
  
  It's an underrated episode. There are a few scientific problems, and the acting of the three kids at the start is awful. But apart from that there are some strong performances and it maintains the tension right up to the end. And then the comic moment.
  
  I like this one. It's not important enough for a 9 but I'll give it an 8.
• From Ensign Obummer on 2021-08-06 at 4:49pm:
  Is it just me or did the O'Brien baby turn from a boy into a girl? I'm sure they only discussed male names last episode it was mentioned?

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-09-08 at 4:14am:
  When the quartermaster of the junkyard gives directions to the location of the T'Pau, he tells the helmsman the heading and the speed of 200 kph. Which is correct, since Star Trek uses the metric system. However, when the quartermaster makes small talk with Troi he tells her about a "fourteen-foot Caldorian eel." I suppose he could be referring to an eel with fourteen feet ;)
• From CAlexander on 2011-02-22 at 4:00am:
  This episode was generally entertaining, and I quite liked the scene between Picard and Sarek. But I found the setup quite contrived. Picard and Data leave their ship, call in special favors from the Klingon High Command, risk the lives of themselves and the Klingons for a dangerous mission into enemy space, and beam down into a situation with a high probability of capture. You would think they must be on some incredibly important mission for the survival of the galaxy. But no, they are just curious what Spock is doing on Romulus and want to have a chat with him. What? It was hard to be impressed by the drama when I kept wondering why they were doing all this. Talk about a dramatic turnaround from first season Riker's declaration about not letting the captain into dangerous situations. Why is Picard moonlighting as a Federation secret agent? He already has a job as a starship captain. Don't they have any real operatives on the payroll?
• From thaibites on 2011-11-20 at 12:49am:
  In answer to CAlexander's comment, I thought they made it pretty clear that this mission was of the utmost importance because they thought Spock had defected and would give all the Federation's secrets away to the Romulans.
  
  The problem I had with the situation was that is was way too easy for everybody to do what they wanted to do on and around Romulus. For example, how did they get a picture of Spock on Romulus when it is located on the other side of the neutral zone? How did Tasha Jr. get a report that told her Picard was coming? How did the Klingon ship remain completely undetected? Picard and Data were going up and down from the planet so much, it was like they were using an elevator. It just seemed too easy. AND, if it was so easy, why didn't the Klingons just send a whole armada of cloaked ships to Romulus in the past. They could easily blow up the planet if it was so easy to move around in Romulan space.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-04-16 at 1:12am:
  The continued failure of the Romulans is due in large part to their overwhelming arrogance. Sela's arrogance and hunger for power is a little bit ridiculous, even for a Romulan. It seems as if every other episode the Romulans have devised some new scheme for bringing down the federation, but their obsession with conquest is not realistic at all.
  
  Despite the Romulan trickery cliche, I enjoyed the episode. Reminded me of Star Wars, what with the cantina scenes and all the hunting down of the rogue pilot, etc. Very starwars-esque.
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-05-09 at 9:26pm:
  Problem:
  Just before Picard, Spock, and Data exit Sela's office, after putting her to sleep, you can see a cameraman's face in a glass jar in the foreground. He's chewing gum, too.
  
• From DSOmo on 2007-09-09 at 5:39am:
  - The junkyard at Qualor II serves as a depot for all types of Federation ships, including ships with weaponry. For security reasons, doesn't it seem likely that the junkyard would be in an out-of-the-way and easily defensible location? Doesn't this make strategic sense? Yet in this episode, we find that Qualor II has a bar - a place that serves as a crossroads for every sort of riffraff, including arms traders!
  - To create a diversion, Data programs holographic representations of Riker and two ensigns. Afterward, Picard comments to Data that Data didn't get Riker's hair quite right. It's a cute moment, but not believable. Data is an android. His memories are precise and accurate.
  - After Spock sends the warning about the Vulcan ships, a Romulan warship decloaks beside them and destroys them. Geordi comments that there were more than two thousand Romulan troops on the ships. Troi adds that they destroyed their own invasion force. Doesn't an invasion force of two thousand troops seem a little small to conquer an entire planet?
  - Galorndon Core seems to have changed color. When the Enterprise visits Galorndon Core in "The Enemy," every shot of the Enterprise in orbit around the planet shows a predominantly blue planet. In this episode, the planet is mostly yellow, gradually fading to blue at the very bottom. This is a case where the creators could have reused footage and yet didn't.
• From Rob on 2008-04-17 at 9:38pm:
  Just as an aside: Sela is demoted due to her Intelligence service failures, if you follow the ST Novels (and I'm not getting into Canon/Fanon/blah-blah, I'm just throwing it out there). She's given a out-of-date starship and assigned to a first contact mission in which the Romulans and Federation are attempting to sway a border-world to choose their side to sign into a treaty with... the Romulans win out on that score. I wish I could name the novel now, but with all of the fan-sites, it shouldn't be hard to locate for anyone with more obsessive-compulsive tendencies than I ;-)
• From Kevin on 2008-05-21 at 3:49am:
  Couple of things I never understood about the 'Unification' episodes. How exactly were the Romulans and Vulcans to be united? Since Vulcan is part of the Federation, was Spock planning on Romulus eventually becoming a Federation member? Or, was he looking more towards Vulcan leaving the Federation and uniting with the Romulan Empire? This was never made clear. Also, I found it highly illogical (to use a Vulcan phrase) that 2,000 Romulans could take over the entire planet of Vulcan. Even if they did, wouldn't the result be an all-out war with the Federation?
  
  Although I enjoyed the acting, Spock's cameo and the humour, the 'Unification' two parter was poorly thought out.
• From JRPoole on 2008-07-23 at 4:09pm:
  This two-parter is a fanboy dream with the presence of Spock and the Romulan Tasha Yar, but it never really comes together for the reasons mentioned in the posts above. I wish that they would have decided to further this plot idea in the movies, as it would have been nice to have some closure, and it would have explained how the takeover was planned, etc., but as it is we're left with more questions than answers.
  
  That said, this is a well-paced two parter, and the Sarek/Picard interaction was handled very well. Mark Leonard is a great actor, and it's rare when someone steals a scene from Picard, but he managed to do it.
  
  I also liked that they had the 'junkyard' run by the Zakdorn, picking up an interesting race we've seen a little of before, rather than resorting to yet another alien-of-the-week. The Zakdorn administrator was a cool character. Too bad the bar scene in which Riker confronts the Ferengi is poorly done, though.
• From CAlexander on 2011-02-26 at 2:02am:
  I agree with Kevin that this episode is filled with things that are highly illogical.
  - As he mentions, can 2000 troops really take over Vulcan? Especially when the Vulcans are prepared for them to be full of Romulans.
  - Sela acts exactly like a campy supervillain. She explains her plan in detail, says "I have duties elsewhere", and leaves the heroes alone so they can escape her deathtrap. Except that she forgets the deathtrap part. This would be OK on the 60's Batman TV show, but seems out of place on ST:TNG.
  - Sela mentions that she can't make the holo-image interactive. Romulan holo-technology must be pretty far behind the Federation. Maybe the Romulans are only humoring Sela and she can't afford sufficient troops or good technology.
  - The capabilities of the Klingon cloaking device, on the other hand, are pretty scary. How can the Romulans survive a war if the Klingons can send a ship undetected to their homeworld and transport people (bombs, armed photon torpedoes?) down undetected? And the Romulans have the cloaking device, so why the ruse? Why not just send a few cloaked ships to Vulcan and send in the troops by surprise?
• From Quando on 2011-08-15 at 3:25am:
  For me the believability of the episode was shot by the set design of the Romulan Preator's office (is that what he's called)? I mean, this guy is the leader of the whole freaking planet - indeed, the whole Romulan star empire - and he has an office about the size of an IBM middle manager. The guy doesn't even get a window! Just a cheap glass desk and two guest chairs (even Picard's ready room on a starship had a couch). In fact, it appears that Sela got an office the same (pathetic) size. I know they were trying to save money on set design, but that is really weak. We have a two-parter about the Romulan home world, and all we get to see are a few matte painings of the city, a lame interior office, the inside of some nondescript caves, and a soup shop.
• From Mike on 2016-10-27 at 4:02am:
  Yeah I agree with the issues that have been pointed out about this two-parter. Sela's boneheadedness is especially inexcusable since the writers had a built in way of getting Data, Picard and Spock free: they could've had Romulan dissidents pose as security guards, or maybe there are security guards that are secretly part of the dissident movement, perform that task. Anything would've been better than asking us to believe Sela would leave them alone in an office with access to a computer.
  
  In "Face of the Enemy" we learn the Romulans are aware that the Federation has sensors and listening posts that would make it difficult for cloaked Romulan ships to operate very long in Federation space. Are we to believe the Romulans, who invented the cloaking device, don't have a similar setup given that they've been at war with the Klingons?
  
  I think Spock should've known something was wrong when the Romulan proconsul said he'd support reunification. If the goal is for Romulus to give up its empire and become more like Vulcan, then this just seems ridiculous coming from anyone in the Romulan government. And if that's not the goal, why would most Vulcans, including Spock, ever agree to unify with anything resembling the Romulan Empire? Spock falling for all of this just makes him look extremely gullible and naive.
  
  I can buy that Data successfully hacks the Romulan information net. But why didn't the Federation and Klingon Empire try this sooner? "You guys provide the cloaked ship, we'll provide the android computer genius, and we'll never have to worry about another Romulan surprise again".
  
  All in all, a disappointing end to what began as a promising two-parter. Like the movie "Generations", I think the goal here was to dangle a TOS/TNG merger in front of us fans like a set of keys in the hopes that we wouldn't notice the gaping plot holes. They should've known better....
• From Subcommander T'Obummer on 2023-05-12 at 4:22pm:
  Romulus has a very open society to let a half-member of an enemy species into such an important position.
  Many civilized nations today don't allow members of hostile nations even into deskjobs of their military organizations, even if like Sela they have spent their entire lives there and are only one parent is foreign.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-09-29 at 11:57pm:
  - When the barrel falls on Worf, it ends up near his FEET. Another barrel follows it down, and when it hits the floor, the top pops off. In the next shot, Geordi runs up and pushes a barrel away from Worf's SIDE. Also, the second barrel suddenly has its top back on.
  - During his first visit with Worf, Riker makes small talk by commenting that Worf looks pretty good for someone who's been eating sick bay food for three days. How can institutional food still have a stigma in the twenty-fourth century? Everything is replicated!
  - When Worf dies at the end of the operation, Dr. Crusher uses a drug that under normal circumstances would kill him. Even after being taken completely off life support and giving flatline readouts on all the medical displays, Worf manages to come back to life! Dr. Crusher makes a comment that Worf must have a "backup for his synaptic functions." Even if Worf had a backup, wouldn't the lethal drug Crusher administered have killed that, too?
  - Also, why didn't Worf's backup show on a medical scan? And why didn't the medical displays show the activity of his synaptic backup?
• From KingElessar8 on 2009-03-22 at 1:52pm:
  I like this episode, probably more than most. It's an unusual subject for Trek, and it always seemed to me like there was more character conflict here than is common for TNG, making this one a little sharper-edged and more personal than the usual "ship in peril" type plots we so often are given. I liked how Picard, Riker, Troi, Beverly and Worf each have a very distinct way of reacting to this problem, and in each case it is fully in character - but it was interesting to me that Data plays no real role in the story. What would Data's reaction be to Worf's desire to commit suicide? Accept it as logical, or does suicide run counter to his ethical programming?
• From MJ on 2011-02-13 at 5:06pm:
  I think this is TNG at its finest, the real essence of the show that sets it apart from other shows. Here you have several different points of view, each of them with strong justification, and none of them able to be reconciled with the others. The solution is not easily found, and getting to it ends up straining some relationships along the way.
  
  You have Crusher, who takes her usual cavalier attitude regarding the customs of her non-human patients. She's rigidly tied to her perception of good medicine and doesn't apologize for it. You have Riker, the chosen friend and honorable companion, who fought alongside Worf and loves him, but finds it difficult to abandon his human morals on this matter. You have Picard, able to see the Klingon perspective and, while certainly not wanting Worf to die, tries to give Crusher and Riker a new perspective. And then enter Dr. Russell, who practices a wildly different style of medicine than Crusher, who sees Russsell as being reckless and is thoroughly unimpressed by her. All of this makes for a fascinating work of TV.
  
  In the end, things are more complicated than anybody might be willing to admit. Worf is confronted with a flaw in his plan. He is prepared to accept the Klingon fate for a crippling injury, but is unable to involve his son in the ritual, a flaw which absolves Riker of the burden he wrestles with. And while Crusher is disgusted with Russell's brand of medicine, the fact is, Worf represents the one type of situation where Crusher's do-no-harm, play it safe style simply doesn't suffice. Being risky might be bad medicine, but as Picard points out, it's exactly the type of medicine needed for a patient like Worf.
  
  Underlying this episode, of course, is the euthanasia/assisted suicide debate. The old points of contention over sanctity of life, playing God, sparing suffering, and all the rest are brought to bear, but since it’s not a human patient, there’s a new twist: for humans, this particular injury would never call for assisted suicide. By exploring it from the point of view of another species for whom it does call for assisted suicide, however, we can ask the same types of questions in a more dispassionate setting.
• From Daniel on 2014-07-18 at 12:50pm:
  I like this episode for its examples of contrasting morals and ethics in the various characters. I also like it for its emotional impact. But, it brings up two general questions for me... 1. When the doctors perform surgery, why do they go to such lengths to cover their bodies to prevent contaminating the sterile environment, yet they don't wear face masks to prevent breathing germs onto the patient, as any surgeon would? 2. Aside from Geordi's blindness, why are there no handicapped people in Starfleet, on any ship, or any space station? If Worf were to be confined to a wheelchair, do you think they'd still let him do his duty as chief of security?
• From Mr. Awesome on 2016-01-11 at 9:08pm:
  I have mixed feelings about this episode contrary to popular belief. While I do like the premise of this episode (any serious subject requiring lots of thought with no easy solutions are the most fascinating to me), there are numerous flaws, ranging from the practically absurd to intellectual inconsistency.
  
  First, you would think that silly ailments like paralysis would have long been easily treatable by this time. In real life right now, as I'm typing this, medical advancements are being made with such things as stem cell research, nanotechnology, and bionics. You would think heavily advanced versions of these would be readily available. That's why it kind of irks me that La Forge would be blind, requiring a visor for corrective vision.
  
  Secondly, it was mentioned that Klingon anatomy was still not fully understood. How is this possible so far on the future? How could you have members of Starfleet whose basic anatomy you still don't understand? How can Klingons have advanced technology allowing them to pursue interstellar travel, yet not have basic medical understandings of their own physiological makeup? Considering the fact that Klingons are now members of the Federation, this seems illogical.
  
  Thirdly, my biggest gripe is with Dr. Crusher's hypocrisy considering her "holier than thou" attitude. She condemned Dr. Russell for testing new treatment methods on patients, which is understandable to a degree. However, wasn't Crusher the one who, in a previous episode, suggested, or even ordered, Captain Picard undergo a surgery to fix his heart, a surgery holding the potential of killing him? Also, as aforementioned, Crusher admits in this episode that her medical team lacked a full understanding of Klingon biology. As such, wouldn't ALL her treatment methods for Klingons be dangerous, seeing as how there's no telling what kind of adverse effects could occur from various treatment methods designed to treat human ailments? In addition, Crusher can't pretend as if she has a perfect track record when it comes to treating patients. Numerous patients have died under her care over the course of this show. On top of that, she condemns Dr. Russell for her failed treatments for the patients that died under her care, yet Worf dies after Crusher chooses to administer a drug that Russell claims would kill him. Furthermore, Crusher lectures Russell at the end about "conventional research/medicine", yet Crusher doesnt offer any kind of assistance to Russell in terms of developing and perfecting this new surgical technique to perhaps enhance Worf's chances of survival, which could be revolutionary for Federation medicine overall. On top of ALL of that, Crusher is willing to hold Worf hostage against his will in sick bay rather than respect his wishes to die or undergo a dangerous yet potentially revolutionary treatment that could help him regain his abilities. Wouldn't that violate the Hippocratic oath? I understand this episode was made around the time of the real life issue concerning Dr. Kevorkian and his physician assisted suicide methods, but one would think that hundreds of years from now, these types of ethical conundrums would have long been solved.
  
  Despite these gripes, it's still a good episode. Obviously it's very thought-provoking, but I wish it could've been put together a little better.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-10-09 at 6:15am:
  - Doesn't it seem as if Barclay is staying conscious for a long time through his process of molecular deconstruction?
  - The away team finds a Lieutenant Kelly dead and covered with second and third degree burns, on the USS Yosemite. Crusher states that he did not die from the burns. But the episode never says what Lieutenant Kelly did die from.
  - It appears the crew of the Yosemite ran their plasma tests with the comtainer still on the transporter pad. Don't they have a lab for this type of activity? This is a science vessel.
  - If the worms in the transporter are members of Starfleet, aren't they behaving rather strange? One did bite Barclay's arm.
  - For the past five seasons, the doors adjacent to the center island in Main Engineering have led to turbolifts. In this episode, Barclay opens this same door and the turbolift is gone! Now it's some kind of auxiliary engine room.
  - When did O'Brien get demoted? At some point he got busted back down to ensign! He takes a direct order from Barclay. I thought both Barclay and O'Brien were lieutenants. However, in this episode, O'Brien is wearing only one black-centered pip.
  - After discovering the life forms in Barclay's arm, Crusher gives him an armband monitoring device. She says it will tell her if "there is the slightest sign" of the life forms increasing in his system. Later, in Engineering, Barclay collapses as a blue glow erupts from both arms and his neck. Oddly enough, the monitoring device attached to his arm doesn't seem to inform Crusher of this development.
• From JRPoole on 2008-09-08 at 1:38pm:
  I'm fond of this episode, like I am of most Barclay episodes, but the premise here is borderline ridiculous. I don't mean the existence of the matter/energy microbes in the plasma stream. I don't even mean the idea of the crew members trapped in the energy stream.
  
  But how does Barclay "see" these entities? I can buy that there's a moment or two when the transporter process first begins where it's possible to see the world around you swirling through all the phased matter. But it's ridiculous to think that you can reach out and grab something sharing the stream with you and simply bring it back with you. Reach out with what? You don't have arms (or eyes, or legs, or teeth, or hair). You exist as a pattern of energy.
  
  I'm usually willing to overlook questionalble science (except when it's REALLY bad, as in the upcoming "Rascals" episode) but this is pushing it a little for me. Although I believe this episode is well paced and interesting, this terrible science drops it down a bit.
• From Drake on 2010-11-08 at 7:10pm:
  Barclay is such a terrible character. One of The worst episodes of the 90's.
• From Sanduzzo on 2014-02-06 at 5:03pm:
  Any episode with Barclay is both boring and annoying to watch.
• From Rob UK on 2015-02-23 at 5:12am:
  Goddammit i hate the character Barclay, annoys the shit out of me in so many ways, what a twat, how the hell this supposed character ever got into Starfleet beggars belief, he gets even worse when they regurgitate him in Voyager.
  
  Dwight Schultz should have retired from acting after playing Murdoch in The A-Team as it was the only character his stupid face fits.
  
  Even Neelix is less annoying than Barclay
• From Bronn on 2015-07-01 at 10:16pm:
  Don't get why this episode is voted so low. Love Barclay, unlike the other commenters, and think he's a delightful addition on the show. Dwight Schulz nails this character, and honestly, this episode really addresses the elephant in the closet: transporters are scary, when you consider the implications of them.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

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

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-05-07 at 11:43pm:
  remarkable scene addition: Patrick Stewart uttering the words "I'm not much of an actor"
  
  Brent spiner is an unbelievable actor. God knows how many parts he has played in Star Trek. I'm willing to wager more parts than any other actor.
• From DSOmo on 2007-11-01 at 7:16am:
  - Data and Geordi ask Picard for permission to take the computer in Engineering off line. Geordi says they are working on a new interface so Data could act as an emergency backup in the event of a shipwide systems failure. Data adds, "In theory, my neural network should be able to sustain key systems until primary control is restored." In theory? Hasn't the crew already done this? Wasn't it a direct link between Data and the engineering systems that prevented the destruction of the Enterprise during the episode "Disaster"?
  - In the first saloon scene, the bad guy Worf is supposed to arrest rises slowly to his feet. Worf seizes the opportunity and knocks him out with one blow. Immediately, Alexander stops the program and complains that the arrest was too easy. He then restarts the sequence, with a higher difficulty level. The odd thing here is that the second time through, the arrestee gets up from his chair with the same slowness he showed before, only this time Worf lets him back out of range.
  - After Geordi discovers that the problem is in a computer subroutine, he tells Picard it will take a couple of hours to fix it. Isn't this problem similar to that faced by the main computer in "Contagion"? In that episode, Geordi simply shut everything off and reloaded all the programs from the protected archives. Why not do the same thing here? Answer: The creators needed to stall the resolution so Worf could be in the shoot-out on Deadwood's main street.
  - To make his personal force field, Worf tears apart his communicator. Let me say that again: Worf TEARS his communicator apart. Why not just tap it and call for help? Geordi said only secondary systems were affected by Data's overwrite. Communications is a primary system. Shouldn't it still be functioning? Does the holodeck put up some sort of jamming field that prevents communication outside the holodeck?
  - Worf certainly has improved his markmanship skill since the previous episode ;)
• From wepeel on 2008-07-03 at 4:56pm:
  When Data is shuffling cards in his cell, look at his arms...obviously they used another person's hands to do the shuffling, but couldn't they have found someone who had arms similar to Brent? You'll notice that in all the other shots, the excessive arm-hair is gone...
  
  After one of the commercial breaks, we see Geordi working on Data as Riker comes into the scene. Data greets Riker with a "howdy." After Data says, "You got it, partner," look at Geordi...this is purely my opinion but I think he is trying to hide his laugh by looking down. I thought it was pretty funny...
  
  And also, right afterward, while Data is looking at Riker while Geordi is talking...look at Data's face. Tell me he's not trying to suppress his laughter! ;)
• From thaibites on 2012-06-07 at 2:21pm:
  More like "A Fistful of Stupid". This one was painful to watch...
• From Mike Chambers on 2013-11-26 at 6:02pm:
  Terrible episode. One of the worst ever, how this one has a fan rating of nearly 7 is beyond me. I give this a 2 only because there are a few genuinely funny scenes, like Picard continuing to get interrupted in the beginning. The way he says "Computer, pause recording" the very last time when it's Worf makes me laugh every time. Sounds like he's about to have an aneurysm. Overall though, just a CORNY filler episode with a ridiculously far-fetched premise. Alexander is just annoying (when is he not?) and so is Troi here for that matter.
• From Quando on 2014-07-29 at 4:38pm:
  I think this is a really fun episode. Best moments: Alexander saying, "saddle up father" and Work not wanting to go; Worf starting to "get into" the program after the fistfight in the saloon; Data unconsciously saying things like "I recon" and "vamoose"; Worf's final look in the mirror in his quarters showing a sense of imagination. It may not be the most meaningful or the most technologically accurate episode, but it is very entertaining.
• From Damien Bradley on 2017-05-30 at 9:17pm:
  It's always interesting watching these again with more and more time passing since the show was produced. I often catch little things each time I watch the show that I didn't catch before. For example, in this episode, the tiny little dash of homophobia at the very end -- where Worf, the proud, fearless warrior, is seemingly terrified of having to hug or kiss a holographic Data in drag -- is pretty silly! It's relatively innocuous, and forgivable in a franchise that was proudly progressive in many ways, but it's interesting nonetheless.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2008-09-22 at 7:57pm:
  Although the execution sometimes leave a little to be desired, this remains one of my favorite episodes.
  
  I absolutely love the idea of genetic "seeding" and the idea that all humanoid life comes from an ancient common source. It's perhaps a little bit unrealistic that they all found out at the exact same time, but it's necessary for the plot; I found it a little forced that the Cardassians and Klingons thought there would be a weapon or limitless power source at the end of this chase--why would anybody put this kind of code in our DNA if it was simply a weapon? But I guess their suspicions are in character.
  
  A few loose ends: what's the deal with the ship that Worf destroyed? Maybe I missed it, but there didn't seem to be an explanation why a minimal phaser blast destroyed the whole ship. Also, while it's plausible that the Klingon captain would destroy all life on the planet after getting the DNA sample, it seems like there would be some sort of repercussions.
  
  The only person who seems to share Picard's wonder and fascination at the Romulan captain. By this time in the series, the Romulans are becoming the most interesting and well-developed alien race around, and this is no exception. The Klingons and Cardassians hold on to their hatreds, but the Romulans, represented by the captain here anyway, see the bigger picture. Looking back over the next generation, it's a pity the Romulans couldn't have taken a bigger role. They would have made a much more interesting and engaging species to study than the newly-found Ferengi. Maybe that's just my bias talking, as anyone who's read my posts here knows that I loathe the Ferengi and find them to be an embarrassing additon to the series.
• From Mark McC on 2009-02-09 at 12:23pm:
  A strange episode where all races go in search of something that surely must be accepted scientific fact by now.
  
  We've had Human/Vulcan, Human/Klingon, Betazoid/Human, Klingon/Romulan and Human/Romulan mixed-species characters. There's probably more, since Kirk and Riker seem to consider anyone with two legs and breasts a suitable candidate for mating with!
  
  With all these successful hybrids, wouldn't scientists have already concluded that the vast majority of bipedal sentient species in the galaxy must share not only common DNA, but also compatible reproductive systems?
• From Random Guy on 2010-04-30 at 7:34pm:
  Regarding the repercussions bit:
  
  The guy only killed a bunch of trees on some distant planet. There wasn't any kind of civilization there, nor any animals at all, so it's not as big of a deal as it would appear.
• From MJ on 2011-02-23 at 11:22pm:
  This episode reminded me of the TOS episode "Bread and Circuses" in which they talked about parallel planet development. I liked how in that episode, and this one, Star Trek tries to give a somewhat plausible (at least in sci-fi) explanation for why there are thousands of beings in the galaxy that are some variation of the Human form. Star Trek is just as anthropomorphic as any sci-fi show (or religion, for that matter), but at least they acknowledge it.
  
  However, the first time I saw this, I felt a bit as the Klingon captain did: "That's all???" They could've stretched this into a two-parter, adding some more intrigue and action to the chase, and also providing more as to how these original aliens seeded the galaxy. In truth, you actually have the makings of a movie here, certainly a better one than TNG would later field.
  
  Galen was an interesting character, and shows us another side of Picard. The one thing we've seen Picard excited about in previous episodes is archaeology. It's more than a hobby, it's a passion, and now we learn it's something he had the opportunity to devote his life to. And, his mentor hasn't really forgiven him for not doing so.
  
  The scenes with Data and the Klingon captain are priceless. I love the part where Data is trying to logically explain why the captain's offer was indeed a bribe, innocently ruining the subtlety of it.
• From Zaphod on 2011-04-14 at 9:47am:
  Annoying Episode, packed with everything I don't like about Star Trek.
  Here the wise and peaceful Federation guys, there a bunch of insanely stupid and childish aliens not capable of understanding the message of peace and tolerance. Everything we know about these races is thrusted aside and again they are reduced to irrational and aggressive morons not blessed with the superior wisdom and diplomatic skill of the federation. Naturally all suggestions to defuse the situation are made by Picard, the Federation representative.
  
  And how on earth can that Klingon be so foolish and think that a trial of strength with an android is a good idea?!
  
  These caricatures remind me of the arrogant and selfish view Europeans had in past centuries, especially in the imperialistic age. Our ancestors back then also honestly believed they were the good guys and their conquers were beneficial for the "savages" they conquered.
  Star Trek seems to preach tolerance and respect for other cultures but the way the Klingons, Cardassians and Romulans are depicted tells me the opposite.
  And why does every peaceful civilization join the f*cking Federation? Why aren't there many more alliances who are not just stupid warmongering caricatures like the Cardassians and why do these Klingon, Cardassian and Romulan boneheads get so much room in Star Trek? Because it gives the audience a feeling of superiority so they can do the same thing Roddenberry did, feel comfortable with the worldview they have and preach about it everytime someone listens without any doubt and the need to ever think again in their lives or to listen to the unimportant stuff other people say. ^^
  
  And what moron wrote the speech that ancient alien gave them? Didn't sound wise to me, sounded more like an inept preacher trying too hard to reach the poor lost souls of his fold. Really embarrassing.
• From Robert Koenn on 2011-06-06 at 2:08pm:
  I found this episode to be very good and definitely liked the ancient planting of space seed around the galaxy. I told my wife as we watched that was the intent of the riddle right from the beginning and said it reminded me of the theme of 2001 from the perspective of an ancient galactic civilization being the creators of new civilizations. While I still have problems with such militaristic races, particularly the Klingons (how could a race such as that even manage to survive each other and develop technology), it did make sense from how they are portrayed in the series. And I for one liked the morality of the counterpoint of this ancient race hoping we had overcome our war like ways and learned to live peacefully with each other. Even that final point between the Romulan and Picard. Yes it is simplistic but there is a huge portion of the human race that hopes for such a thing even on this rather pathetic human planet with all its' hatred and killing and inequality.
• From Brendan on 2011-09-15 at 12:17pm:
  So would it be a stretch to assume that this ancient civilization evolved to become the Founders of the Dominion. I say that for several reasons.
  
  1. The alien in this episode is played by the same actress who portrayed the female changeling in DS9 (Salome Jens).
  
  2. They look kind of similar, not identical, but the again the Founders are changelings.
  
  3. The Founder mentions to Odo in one episode that they were solids once but then they evolved. Judging by how much time must have passed for life in the entire Alpha Quadrant to evolve, I imagine that would be enough time for this alien race to evolve into the Founders.
  
  Kind of a cool thing to think about....even if it was never intended to be that way. It does seem like sort of a wink and a nod from DS9's producers in casting Salome Jens as the Founder.
• From Ggen on 2012-04-21 at 1:00am:
  This was a most excellent idea that unfortunately was pretty much botched during execution. I really enjoyed the initial scenes with Picard's professor, but although the premise got even more interesting, the actual episode got worse.
  
  The main problem was that the whole thing felt very contrived and everything just lined up in an all too convenient way, one link after the other, one gratuitous-feeling exposition after the next. Virtually everything said in this episode didn't feel like realistic dialogue, although it was all very convenient for explaining the story.
  
  I also didn't really care for how it turned into a who's who of TNG: the Cardassians show up (that captain was kind of ridiculous by the way), then the Klingons, then the Romulans... Although it made sense in the context of the story, it also didn't quite feel right...
  
  I do have to give the episode credit where its due, because the basic idea of a DNA-based computer program was rather original. The "extraterrestrial origins" thing is original for TNG, although not entirely original among scientists/paranormal researchers/ufo buffs, etc (look up "panspermia" and "directed panspermia"). It was certainly a welcome topic, in any case, because it successfully addressed that longstanding nagging question: "Why are almost all aliens in Trek humanoids, some even indistinguishable from humans?"
  
  - - -
  
  Then again, although I'm not a biologist, I'm not sure that question is really answered. Introducing basic DNA material into the primordial soup is one thing. But our humanoid appearance also depends on millions of years of unpredictable, blind evolution, complete with countless random factors, environmental changes, etc.
  
  As far as I understand it, there's really no way to draw a direct line from seeding the genetic material and the eventual outcome, millions of years later, unless you also control or manipulate countless other factors and events.
  
  
• From thaibites on 2012-09-20 at 2:09pm:
  This was a very enjoyable episode with good pacing. It had mystery, intrigue, and even a little action.
  
  I agree with Brendan about the Changelings. I thought the same thing when the Founder appeared to all those gathered on the planet.
  
  
• From Axel on 2015-06-01 at 6:42am:
  I see Zaphod's points about the Federation, but a lot of that gets explored in the DS9 series. There is a lot more moral ambiguity when it comes to Federation policy and the actions of Starfleet in DS9. That's one of the greatest things DS9 brings to the franchise, IMO.
  
  Also, note that the Romulan commander, at least, appeared to grasp the alien's message and hope that the day may come when there could be peace and tolerance between worlds.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-05-21 at 9:48pm:
  Yeah, yeah. good acting by frakes. However, acting doesn't get you anywhere if the plot is incoherent, which the plot of this one is. The entire thing is unbelievably fucked up, and just impossible for the viewer to follow along. It took me like 15 minutes to sit there and rationalize what was real and what wasn't, and just figure out the whole thing. And they didn't even explain it well at the end. I didn't care for this episode at all. It's like star trek on PCP. I can't believe someone gave it a 10.
• From Robert Koenn on 2011-06-07 at 1:16pm:
  Myself and my wife didn't care much for this episode either, we rated it a two. There have been three or four dream based episodes like this and there were some on DS9 as well. The dream sequences seem to get out of hand and the surrealistic scenes of the dream episodes never play well with me. While I managed to pick up on what was reality and what was dreamed a short way into the episode, I was telling my wife this scene will end up being a dream, the numerous episodes of dream became far too much. And the beginning where you are given the scenario apparently was a dream as well but necessary to setup the episode which didn't play well with the overall logic and flow. Frakes did do an excellent job of acting but as mentioned previously, that can't make up for a very flawed theme.
• From Ggen on 2012-04-22 at 10:19am:
  This is a brilliant episode that goes straight into my personal TNG hall of fame.
  
  The writing in this episode is consistently top-notch, as is Jonathan Frakes' performance. The story has some superficial similarities to a previous great showing from this season: Ship in a Bottle. Gotta love the multiple levels of illusion.
  
  I've actually had some amazingly vivid dreams where I've "woken up" inside what turned out to be yet another dream, and then had yet another false awakening, and so on... So I can identify with Riker a little bit in trying to sort out fact from self-generated fiction. I also know the feeling of your subconscious throwing up clues that something's not quite right here (in Riker's case, it was the recurring cut on his head that served as a sort of "reality check"). And of course there's the ever-present problem of memory, also similar to remembering dreams (or remembering you're dreaming while inside a dream) - when Riker's on the ship, it's almost as if he has access to one set of memories, when he's inside the hospital, a different set. The ship memories have their own internal logic, but then make no sense from the perspective of the other reality, and vice-versa. Anyone who's messed around with lucid dreaming will find a number of things familiar here.
  
  That's part of the damned awesomeness of this episode: it's a considerably sophisticated psychological episode, well beyond the token Troi psychobabble. The whole thing really made a damned lot of sense.
  
  As Riker eventually realized, the preparation for the mission, the preparation for the play, the play itself, being transplanted *inside* the play, all of that was self-created from recent memories in his mind's attempt to hold itself together and regain consciousness. The way it all plays out - the switching back and forth, that one alien being the "one constant," the "reflection therapy," the multiple layers - is all pretty much brilliant.
  
  - - -
  
  This line was just a bonus: "That's not a phaser. It's a knife. You took it from one of the food trays."
• From thaibites on 2012-09-22 at 12:33am:
  I really enjoyed this episode tremendously. It was great to see Riker completely out-of-control and manic. He's usually so perfect - a true Renaissance Man. Which is probably why they did this episode, so that he could break out of his "perfect" mold. Or maybe they were addressing complaints about Riker's character?
  I think the comment by Pete Miller really sums up this episode well. He says the plot is incoherent. Well...YES! What do you expect from a story about a man slowly being driven insane? I think it was a brilliant decision by the writers to do this, and they should be applauded not panned.
• From FH on 2016-01-23 at 4:46pm:
  Nitpick: When talking to Picard, Riker expresses his desire to find an excuse to not participate in the theatre play, whereupon Picard says he'd be asked to replace Riker, and he doesn't want that, either. This doesn't sound like a healthy state of an after-work theatre group, which normally live on the enthusiasm by those involved.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2008-09-29 at 3:01pm:
  Two Rikers = way better than two Kirks.
  
  I love this episode, and I rate it higher than most here. While it is a little annoying that we don't hear from Thomas Riker very much after this, it's pretty realistic. They both seem to want to go their separate ways, and they do. This was an interesting idea for an episode. How weird must it be for Riker to watch his double/former self hooking up with Deanna?
  
  I also like this episode for the back story it gives on Troi and Riker's relationship. It's always seemed that they split up amicably with little drama (though it's also clear that they still hook up from time to time) and finally we get the real story. Will broke Deanna's heart. Awww.
• From djb on 2008-11-26 at 9:39pm:
  While I disagree with the idea that someone can be duplicated like this (which betrays a purely materialistic and mechanistic view of the universe), I really like the issues that this episode brings up.
  
  Lt. Riker is basically Riker from eight years ago. We can see how much Commander Riker has matured in that time, and naturally his other self has not, being stuck alone for eight years. What would you do if you met yourself from nearly a decade ago? Would you not get a little impatient and condescending at your own immaturity? Conversely, would your past self not feel intimidated or condescended to by your older self, or perhaps resentful of the decisions he made? This very matter is well-written and well-acted.
  
  I love how they get into some back story about Riker and Troi, which was nice as there are far too many episodes where we see hardly anything of Troi. Interesting that Lieutenant Riker acts as if Commander Riker is a different person and made different decisions than he would have; of course that is not true. They are one and the same person, and therefore both would have made the same decision. I imagine that that is something that Lt. Riker doesn't wish to face in himself: that he was willing to leave the woman he loved for the sake of his career. The only way he can cope with that is by acting as if they are different people.
  
  The only problem I had with the execution of this episode was that when they found the marooned Riker, he had the same haircut and facial hair as the Commander. One would expect his hair to be long and his beard to be big and scruffy. True, he might have been able to fashion some kind of razor from whatever equipment there was down there, but he still would most likely have a different appearance. Maybe their makeup budget fell short!
  
  A strong episode; I'd give it a 7.
• From Mark McC on 2009-02-12 at 12:52pm:
  An interesting episode, but the premise opens up a lot of questions about the use of transporters. If it's so easy to duplicate someone, complete with all their memories, personality and experience, what's to stop someone doing this deliberately?
  
  People could keep backup copies of themselves before going on dangerous away missions. Or an evil person planning to commit a crime could duplicate themselves, have the clone commit the crime while they set themselves up with an alibi, then kill the clone (or maybe the clone would have the same idea and try to kill them!)
  
  What happens in cases like this if the person duplicated has a husband/wife and children? If Riker's relationship with Troi caused problems, imagine how difficult it would be in a family situation to suddenly have two mothers wanting to care for one child.
  
  Good to see that Dr Crusher is always updating her medical knowledge. In the previous episode she had no way at all of telling that Khaless was a clone of the original. Here she simply has to point her tricorder at Lt Riker for a few seconds before declaring that the telltale <technobabble> patterns indicating whether he's a clone aren't present (or maybe it only works for humans).
• From J Reffin on 2009-08-05 at 5:59pm:
  This episode has made me reflect on what it must be like to have an identical twin. The differences to the "two Rikers" is not that great - same DNA and (usually) very similar upbringing and experiences until early adulthood. In my experience, identical twins tend to get along fairly well - but then they have had rather longer to get used to the idea.
  
  A good episode though once again poor Troi gets put through the emotional wringer.
• From Bernard on 2009-12-09 at 6:33pm:
  Happened by this episode a couple of nights ago by way of TV reruns. I enjoyed it so much I dug it out and watched it again!
  
  All of Jonathan Frakes' scenes are remarkable in this episode. He really got it spot on in terms of how both Rikers must be feeling. Hats off to him.
  
  I know it's an interesting premise created by the plot device that sets up so many episodes, the transporter, but who cares. It's the storytelling that gets you past minor problems like that.
  
  Like other reviewers before me, I too wish they had used Thomas Riker more frequently after this. Definitely worth an 8 though for me.
• From Mike on 2010-12-01 at 8:25am:
  If you watch when Com. Riker grabs Lt. Riker on the shoulder (about 17 minutes in) it's really obvious that they're using two different arms. In fact, his arm almost looks like a muppet. Otherwise though, I thought the special effects were pretty good, and that the episode was pretty enjoyable over all.
• From ChristopherA on 2019-04-18 at 5:21pm:
  I think this is an excellent episode, I would rate it higher than a 6. I don't see how you can rate this episode down because you don't like what is done (or not done) with the character in later episodes.
  
  The only thing holding this back from for me is that I still feel Riker feels a bit flat compared to the other characters; I don't feel I got as much from his acting as I get when I watch episodes focused on other characters.
• From jeffenator98 on 2019-10-03 at 5:05pm:
  God awful. 2/10
• From Chris Long on 2020-06-13 at 1:44am:
  I get very irritated with a lot of TNG episodes due to all the 'mysteries' that seem to occur throughout the series... stuff happening in crew quarters that can never be verified because of some imaginary privacy this that appears to dominate. I call BS on any of those notions. Further, several years ago I saw a science episode about the brain where they could almost read a man's mind!
  It was flaky but convincing enough to illustrate how close humanity and its science is to really be able to read someone's mind!
  That has nothing to do with any complaint about this episode because I really love it!!!
  
  I saw a dimension of Frakes' acting that I never saw before. He has always been so businesslike but his humanity really shone through when he and Troi were talking in 10-Forward. I was truly moved.
  A great episode all around!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-06-04 at 10:34pm:
  Wow! Having Ro Laren on the cast of Voyager would have made that show WAY better. I bet it would have been much more popular, too.
• From JRPoole on 2008-11-05 at 3:26pm:
  This has always been one of my favorite episodes because it looks at the Federation from an outside perspective. The Federation has always been presented as somewhat infallible; the politics of the show are rarely in disagreement with those of the Federation itself. This is a little different.
  
  I think that everyone was right here. The Federation was acting in its best interest in the treaty with Cardassia. The Maquis certainly have a valid point, and their militancy, especially for the Bajorans among them, is understandable. Ro made the right moral decision by joining them, and Picard's insistence on duty is also understandable. All this also sets the tone not only for Voyager, but for what DS 9 becomes as well. I give it an 8.
• From Paul on 2010-08-19 at 3:14pm:
  Bajoran Hasperat = a fajita
• From Lt. Fitz on 2012-06-19 at 9:45pm:
  It seemed to me that Picard had very deep feelings for her - sort of like a daughter to him. I felt like he was more upset that he wouldn't be able to continue in occasional relationship with her on federation terms than he would have been about her simply defecting. It was a very moving episode for me. Although I felt the Ro character was a bit overwritten, I sympathized with her a great deal.
• From Axel on 2015-03-29 at 3:23am:
  The Maquis got more attention in DS9, but this is one of the few episodes in TNG where there is a valid alternative position on an issue to the one the Federation takes. This time, the moral dilemma is not Picard's but Ro's. I think it's a great way to tie up the character given her past issues with Starfleet.
  
  It was pretty obvious from the beginning that Macias was going to sway Ro to the Maquis side, so maybe they could've used a more morally ambiguous character. Still, this episode had a lot of great continuity and a really good plot.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-05-22 at 9:17am:
  This is the only episode where Riker and Troi communicate telepathically.
  
  Problems:
  - The computer gives Riker directions to the holodeck: the entrance is the next hatchway on the RIGHT. Riker turns LEFT!
  - While talking to Data in the holodeck, Riker comments that he looked up Data's record. He then asks Data if his degree is honorary. If Riker had read Data's record, wouldn't he have known the degree was earned?
  - While in the holodeck, Wesley fall into a stream. When he leaves the holodeck, Wesley is still wet. If matter created on the holodeck can't exist outside the holodeck, shouldn't Wesley be dry?
  - The alien ship attacks the Bandi city with energy pulses. Why didn't the alien just beam the energy down to its mate?
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-28 at 11:06pm:
  The good part of this two-part episode is the interaction with Q. I like the scenes in the 21st century courtroom. The actual plot about the creature is rather pedestrian, not really of great interest.
  
  Historically, I have to give this episode big props for being the pilot for a great show. But if you look at it as just another episode, it has some definite weaknesses. First, as Michael B pointed out in the comments to part 1, the acting hasn't hit its stride yet. Second, there were a number of elements that they later realized were mistakes and removed.
  - The music is way too dramatic, going off like crazy at rather trivial revelations.
  - The Ship Separation scene. I guess it seemed like a good idea on paper, but wow, what a waste of time! And that "headless" ship is ugly!
  - Counselor Troi going totally over the top acting out her empathic connection with the creature.
  
• From Amiable-Akuma on 2017-06-01 at 12:35pm:
  I agree that the Bandi city stuff is more boring, cheaply-manipulative, and less-interesting than the Q stuff - but upon re-watches it has grown on me. The saccharine ending feels more genuine to me now and I enjoy how the guest-actor who plays Groppler hams it up.
  
  -Note how in the holodeck scene, a clear "stuntman given makeup/hair to be Data" is used for that entire significant sequence where Data springs into action and pulls Wesley from the water. I find it odd that Brent Spiner couldn't at least perform the part where he is jumping down the hill quickly to get there. Maybe Spiner tried it several times and didn't look as smooth as the stunt-performer?
  
  -There's at least two shots in the 2nd half of this two-parter where Counselor Troi is standing, and her "official" skirt is shown to be absurdly short. I kind of love it. Shows that the 80's and Starfleet had an "innocently" sexy vibe.
  
  -Note Troi's headband, hair, and uniform in general. Odd seeing her introduced as such, given that her classic "cleavage" unitard and style becomes so familiar to her
  
  -Finally, Marina Sirtis' acting as Troi bothered the hell out of me when I first saw this, especially the director's choice to linger so much on her "feeling the emotions" scenes. It felt cheap, corny, unnecessary. But I'm over it now. I realize it's part of the silly charm to her character and that's all a means to an end for many storylines, etc.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Bernard on 2007-12-03 at 9:09pm:
  I like this one, but it could and should have been so much better. The guest characters are excellent too.
• From CAlexander on 2011-02-17 at 2:23pm:
  I thought this episode was fairly successful, especially by first season standards. In many of the early episodes the characters seem unreasonably obtuse just to move the story along, but here their decisions mostly made sense. I liked how everyone knew Kozinsky's equations were nonsense, but since they worked on other ships, they had no choice but to let him try them. I liked how Picard decided to skip the science after the first trip and concentrate on getting back home. That is what I would have done, if I thought I had discovered a new warp formula; the potential military and scientific value of nearly limitless warp speed would far outweigh the value of one more scientific survey. I liked the pacing of how the first trip takes them far, and the second takes them some else totally different, and the way Picard comments on how he could believe the first, but not the second. Riker's dismissal of Wesley seemed rather obtuse, but I like how he admitted his mistake. The main down side: I wasn't that fond of the "super-Wesley" idea when I first saw the episode, and it doesn't seem any better now.
• From Jason on 2011-07-15 at 6:16pm:
  I agree with Wil Wheaton from his Season One reviews: this is the first episode that is not "a stinker", and it's leagues beyond the five episodes that precede it.
• From Omcn_7 on 2012-01-25 at 4:47am:
  
  On first viewing (when I was a kid) this was one of my favorite episodes for the series. I watched it so many times I wore out the tape. :)
  
  As an adult viewing this episode I remember why I liked it but it doesn't have quite the same appeal. However I give it a 9 because of how much enjoyment I had as a child. I think this is the very episode that made a trek fan out of me for life.
  
  Watching again I noticed one error. Kozinsky mentions that being out this far they have an excellent chance for scientific discovery, to which Picard replies and we report our findings how and to whom? I am not certain this is consistent with Picard's character. In later episodes it would seem to me that Picard is out there to discover, period, regardless of if he can report it to Starfleet or not. The man is kinda a loner.
• From Trekkie on 2012-07-07 at 5:06pm:
  One of my favorite TNG episodes.I just wish they could have explored the far away galaxy more.It would have been cool to see all the civilizations that inhabited some of the planets.
• From dms on 2012-09-22 at 6:00am:
  In my opinion, this is the best episode in the series up to this point. While the Picard turbolift scene was surprising, the scene that really struck me was the one with his mother.
  
  One of the problems you did not mention was that some of the "hallucinations" are visible to everyone, but others only appear to the person having them.
  
  Kozinsky I thought was over-the top. A little bit too much of Wesley also. The actor playing the Traveller did a good job though.
• From SJ on 2013-03-04 at 3:20am:
  Remarkable 1980's futuristic fashion in this episode:
  
  Wesley's sweater. Did grandma knit that, or did he swipe it from Bill Cosby? Possibly worse than his infamous rainbow GrrAnimals suit.
  
  Redshirt ballerina's Jhericurl.
  
  Redshirt dude's manskirt uniform.
  
  Factoids: Chief Engineer Argyle was later sent to by the Traveler to the Star Wars universe, where he assumed the name Porkins and tragically died in the battle of the first Death Star.
• From Oren on 2014-02-03 at 3:18am:
  One of the most memorable episodes of my younger years. Watching it now that I'm older doesn't have the same impact but as a teenager the mysterious episodes, those with a sense of wonder where some thing go unexplained, were my favorites. Both the Traveler and the far away galaxy ignited my imagination during and after the episode.
• From Axel on 2018-06-10 at 9:49pm:
  I swear I've seen the "edge of the universe" in one of my digital effects libraries as a Christmas/winter holiday background.
  
  Ah, the Traveler. He's TNG's version of Prophet/wormhole alien, albeit thankfully far less featured. I agree that this brand of New Age/sci-fi fusion is annoying, although it was all the rage in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
  
  It would be interesting to see an episode like this made now, given what we've discovered or theorized about what's beyond the observable universe. It could make for a cool, fascinating episode without delving into "thought becomes reality" crap. Humans have always fantasized about our thoughts, dreams, imaginations, whatever somehow being connected to reality. What may be at the "edge" of the universe is far more mind-blowing.
  
  Anyway, enough geeking out. The episode was at least entertaining and attention-grabbing, a very nice break from turban-wearing African stereotype aliens, Aryan free-love aliens, and humanoid fish and snake aliens.
  
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

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

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-05-30 at 6:41am:
  - The crew works the whole time trying to get the doors open to the holodeck. Does it have some kind of shield or force field? Why can't Picard and the others just be beamed out of the holodeck?
  - Matter created on the holodeck cannot exist outside the holodeck. However, during Picard's first visit, he is kissed by a woman. When he leaves the holodeck and goes to the bridge crew briefing, the lipstick remains. Shouldn't it have evaporated?
• From Bernard on 2008-09-01 at 8:37pm:
  The very first 'holodeck episode'! Certainly a landmark, but is this what we want to be watching? Star Trek OS used to just do parallel earth episodes to tell this kind of story.
  
  I would rather have seen one of the other characters being the subject of this episode as Patrick Stewart seems to have had the monopoly on most episodes upto this point.
  
  Where this one really falls down is the virtually non-existant B plot, so the A plot has to hold our attention...
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-09-19 at 5:33pm:
  Another problem. Picard is kissed by a woman in the holodeck and has lipstick on his face after leaving the holodeck. Not possible.
• From Kethinov on 2011-09-20 at 7:18am:
  Not necessarily, Jeff. It's possible the lipstick was real, replicated matter. There has always been speculation for some time that the holodeck combines both photons and forcefields with actual matter produced via replicator technology to enhance the realism. This hypothesis goes a long way toward explaining any number of similar continuity errors across a number of other episodes as well.
• From g@g on 2012-02-07 at 12:02pm:
  I have to comment on the humour in this episode, which was top notch. Data was maybe a little over the top (although his scene at the very end, esp. Picard's reactions was amusing), but Beverly was pretty much hysterical. As soon as she put on "period dress," everything she did and said had perfect comedic timing.
  
  A small criticism is that perhaps this entire episode, main plot included, was just a little too funny, a little too light-hearted. Comic relief is good, but it would've been nicely contrasted against something more serious. As it was, with the mysterious "insect species" that never made it on screen, talked with a strange pseudo-Japanese accent about pseudo-Japanese honor and greeting rituals in its funny native tongue... well, it was all a little too much like a parody of itself.
  
  But I enjoyed it nevertheless.
• From Bronn on 2012-12-20 at 12:16am:
  Anyone else thing it's weird that this won a Peabody Award for 1987 when it didn't air until 1988? I mean, that's not a typo, and I can understand why things like this sometimes happen, but it sure is awkward.
• From Dstyle on 2013-08-06 at 5:11pm:
  So if there's a small army of engineers sitting outside the holodeck, desperately trying to get it open and get Picard out, where are they when the doors open and the holograms walk out? And why doesn't Picard hurry out of there to get to the bridge once the doors open?
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-08 at 5:29am:
  The title of this episode always bothered me. "The big goodbye" would be more emotionally weighty if it weren't coming from a barely-developed hologram. Why Picard doesn't just leave and/or try to end the program so he can go attend to other pressing matters -- and instead pauses to have a sentimental moment with a holo-cop I don't find myself caring about ... just weird. An NPC's belabored existential crisis just doesn't seem episode-title-worthy to me. My alternate episode title: "Another World".
  
  I guess by this point they had not yet established that Data is bulletproof. We know he's super strong; he could have incapacitated and straight-up killed the mobster holograms with little trouble even if they'd gotten any shots off at him. We see a hint of this later when he grabs the last mobster's gun. But all three of them would have been short work for him. (We get to see a bit more of his fighting abilities later this season in "Home Soil".)
  
  I'm also annoyed that they didn't try a) manually wrenching open the doors, or b) cutting power to the holodeck. They could at least have added some treknobabble saying why they couldn't do those. Lazy writing!
  
  "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. A Newtonian truism which you have obviously neglected." Fantastic line. Lawrence Tierney was pretty cool as Redblock. He had a lot of great lines.
  
  Answering Dstyle above, I think the holodeck has multiple exits. You'll notice there was an exit both in Hill's private office and outside the entrance to his lobby. The crew was working outside the other one.
  
  Data getting into character was pretty funny. He may not experience emotions, but he sure does express them when he's in character!
• From the obummer on 2021-07-12 at 8:53am:
  I found it fairly annoying how cavalier they treated the history buffs life, the guy who got shot. I mean he is there on the floor taking his last breaths and they take their sweet time even after the doors are open.
  They make some jokes, have Data first beat up the mobster hologram all while the guy is bleeding out and only then slowly carry (!) him to sickbay. And the Doc doesn't even bother to go with him LOL

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-03 at 6:40pm:
  Remmick: "You don't like me, do you?" Worf: "Is it required, sir?"
  
  - When the shuttle begins heading toward the planet, the bridge crew runs through the options. Yar says he is out of transporter range. People are beaming up and down from the planet. Doesn't it seem reasonable that the Enterprise could beam someone out of a shuttle that sits between it and the planet?
  - After giving his report to Admiral Quinn, Remmick walks to the door - actually he almost runs into it - and then turns. The door doesn't open. For the next few moments, Remmick stands with his back very close to the door. Then, before he even begins to turn, the door opens and Remmick leaves. How did the door know exactly when to open?
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-09 at 5:40pm:
  - The entire scene with Jake and the shuttle seemed very forced. The shuttle leaves, then two seconds later, it is beyond tractor and transporter range, even though both it and the Enterprise are next to the planet. That is hard enough to believe by itself. But the Enterprise can move, and is faster than a shuttle, so how can they be so helpless?
  - Wesley's "Do you want this to become violent?" comment was part of the test. He knew he was supposed to act rude towards that species of alien, so that is what he was doing. If he was a bit overboard in his attempts to act discourteous, that fits well with his character of being enthusiastic but young and unpolished.
  - Remmick's paranoid questioning was interesting in that he seemed just as irrational to me as to the crew during the episode, but at the end I could see how it might make sense to "be the bad cop" given what he was ordered to do. However his misbehavior during the shuttle incident was not so easily forgiven; is a good Starfleet officer really going to obstruct the crew during a life-or-death situation?
• From 0mcn on 2012-01-30 at 6:47am:
  
  No else said it so I will. Finally an alien that looks like an alien. No wonder they were nominated for best makeup. Not only that but part of his costume is a device that helps him breathe (or does something for him) so yes this makes me happy. :)
• From a2a on 2012-02-08 at 9:09am:
  I thought this episode was excellent. Some major and minor points: 1) Remmick was a great character, especially in light of the episode's resolution and his final attitude towards the enterprise 2) The "invisible" segue's between the interrogations was a nice touch 3) The inside of the academy enrollment process made for a compelling side-plot 4) The unannounced tests were interesting 5) There was an almost kafka-esque scene with Wesley in a dram room with a single chair, supposedly undergoing some mysterious examination he knows nothing about... and for a little while nothing else happening. Just him, the chair, an empty room, and undefined anxieties. 6) The music was excellently dramatic throughout (including during the aforementioned scene).
  
  Problem number 1: Mullet.
  
  Jake's mullet.
  
  Mullets will apparently be back in style in the distant future. This is not very likely (and not really a proper problem either).
  
  Good episode.
• From Quando on 2014-10-01 at 1:13am:
  This approach to administering the Starfleet Academy entrance exam is idiotic. There are four people taking the exam at this particular starbase, and they have decided in advance that they will accept exactly one candidate - the highest score of the four - regardless of how well or how poorly any of the candidates end up doing. Talk about grading on a curve! What if two of them are geniuses, but one of them scores higher by a single point? Tough luck for the second place genius; it's off to the dilithium mines for you. Likewise, what if all four of them are idiots? Will they go ahead and take the smartest of the four idiots? Why are these four candidates not being compared against all of the other candidates who are applying to Starfleet Academy? This method is like Harvard saying it will admit exactly one candidate each from Galveston, Tampa, Billings, Chicago, etc. I also think it is ridiculous that not only is there only one Starfleet Academy on the whole earth, there is only one in the whole galaxy! So you have highly qualified candidates (probably millions) from the populations of dozens of Federation worlds all competing for one of only a few hundred slots in the next Starfleet Academy freshman class in San Francisco? Given all that, I have a sneaking suspicion that Mordok was deemed the "winner" here because of affirmative action (in a choice between the first ever Benzite in Starfleet and just another white human male, who do you think they are going to take?). I guess it's a good thing that Wesley can just try again at the next starbase and hope for weaker competition.