Contagion

Enterprise responds to a distress call from the USS Yamoto inside the neural zone.

This is a solid episode with some strong character moments, but the much lauded suspense and excitement doesn't fully work for me.

The plot is quite detailed and interesting with great world-building and sci-fi concepts. However the suspense driven sequences are lost on me as I never felt for a minute that Enterprise would be in danger or likewise any of the main characters. The resolution is simple, but in today's IT dominated world it works in a humorous way. Who hasn't been given a solution like that by an IT helpline?

I enjoyed the character moments of the episode, as pretty much everyone makes a contribution. Picard leading the away mission is a refreshing change, Dr Pulaski talking about splints was fun, Geordie has some far stronger moments than usual and Data has one quite cinematic scene towards the end.

I was slightly disappointed with the Romulans who were portrayed as one-note baddies, but their impending threat is implied well.

The visuals are decent, with good effects and nice set design. I particularly enjoyed the scene where Geordie runs from engineering to the bridge to deliver an important message.

All acting is good, particularly the regular cast members. This is my favourite LeVar Burton performance so far.

For me it's a 7.5/10 but I round upwards.

Without giving it out, I'll say why. The Romulans are threatening trouble potentially. Picard and his crew rendevouz with the USS Yamato, a ship that's equally first-rate and one of the newest ships on the fleet, basically, the same type of starship as the D, advanced and having numerous weapons systems. Now here's the scene - I won't specify who it is, but the Romulans hold one of the crew hostage, and the Romulan female commander (who's really one of the "bro"-saying bros in this one) says, something along the lines of, "You're going to die WITH US (add "bro" or "sis," and again I don't specify whio and it would have truly been ghetto)." If this had been a Cardassian, they'd be Allied Nordicist Yankee "Friends"-watching "Seinfeld"-hating stuck up types who wouldn't even say that. It's like "You're part of the party, bro." Cardassians are too stuck up. They'd just jeer and throw things at him. The way she says it shuts down the nonsense that Romulans are more hateful of non-Romulans than Cardassians are of non-Cardassians. Dukat had a fetish for Bajoran women, btw. That was not the rule. It's not being ghetto (which the Romulans are, being "bro"-saying Latinos based on the Romans, as opposed to white Cardassians), it's having what us Nuyoricans call "caracter fuerte" (I don't need to translate as that's pretty obvious).

Anyways, we get star cameo heaven from Thalmus Rasulala (who plays captain Donald Varley), of "Cool Breeze," who plays the captain of the Yamato. The scene we see of his logs, and the initial encounter they have with him is somewhat comical as the transmission between Picard and Varley, as the viewscreen keeps getting interrupted. The way it happens plus Varley's calm nation, makes it funny and the interruption happens as though flies are all over. Making this hilarious UPN material right from the UPN handbook (some crude humor as flies are gross). Basically something destroys his ship and its gets frightening. And being they're near the neutral zone, it makes sense to assume the worst - the Romulans are starting the trouble. This is one of their episodes where they're lethal, and not comic relief. Being try-hards like in "The Mind's Eye". Essentially a Romulan Warbird ascends, and Romulan female commander (played by the same English actress who plays the commander in "Face of the Enemy") is furious, mad that the Federation is challenging her plan to claim a planet for Romulus. She prepares to fire at the Enterprise. And the crew are scared of what's gonna happen becuase their shields are not operating. But once the plan goes, there's a brief few seconds where we really see the tone as though the Romulans are downright the threat that the Cardassians are. They are a lethal match. But Romulans are shrouded in mystery. We never explicitly see the Federation fight the Romulans ever, directly (we do see the Romulans attack the D in "The Defector" but that's it). A cloaking device is not indicative of weapons strength (which the Cardassians are far more advanced in, plus the Cardassians are first-rate scientists, and "DS9" really retconned them badly). They do not come off as threatening to the D in this episode, proving the Cardassians are more advanced than the major 3. Now they're not bumbling but they don't. It turns out that the same problem affecting the Enterprise's shields is also affect the Warbird. Teh mechanics of the episode are interesting as Geordi tries to investigate and a very interesting paradox plays out. Without giving it out, basically everything the crew believes has to be done is only worsening the problem. Basically, as a hint, some natural star force is causing the problems on the ship and rewriting the software and hardware of the ship. They're doing it too on the Romulan Warbird. It's a great episode that, in NY, aired on WWOR. See it to believe it!

Now the title is a bit deceptive because this episode primarily focuses on the Ancient Iconanians but The Romulans do there very excellent roles Federation "Bad Guys"

This was another episode where at the end I was clapping because it was Pure Joy to watch like any REALLY Good Star Trek Episode is!

The Enterprise is heading for the neutral zone where the NSC Yamato under Captain Thalmus Rasulala is in some deep trouble with system wide failure going on all over the ship. This is after they've made contact with what they believe was the planet where a long dead civilization the Iconians operated from and traveled the galaxy. Before their eyes the Enterprise crew witnesses the Yamato explode mid space.

We also learn that Jean-Luc Picard's hobby since Academy days is archeology. So the enthusiasm that Patrick Stewart had for this mission is now tempered somewhat.

The Romulans also arrive to see what they can learn from this dead world. All I can say it's not something either one should have to hold over the other.

A nice performance also from Carolyn Seymour as the Romulan captain.

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from its sister ship, the USS Yamato, which is experiencing a significant number of technical problems - one of which proves catastrophic. As Picard wonders if the Enterprise really is plagued by similar technical flaws, a number of unexplained glitches begin appearing across the ship.

A good episode that deals with a race against time to prevent disaster, heightened by the presence of some suspicious Romulans nearby. Not sure about the ending, which felt a bit too convenient for my liking and left far too many unanswered questions for my taste. But otherwise, an enjoyable episode.