Liaisons

Holy smoke is she terrible. Perhaps she's trying to be a dippy hippy character? Or perhaps she's just a bad actress.

While "Liasons" is a pretty good episode, I should also point out that the problems that the Enterprise crew have with the Ilarians are EASY to figure out...and it makes no sense that it takes everyone so long to figure out what's happening! This is a serious weakness in an otherwise decent plot.

When the Ilarian ambassadors enter the ship, one of the ambassadors requests that Worf escort him around instead of Riker. The other is escorted by Troi and he spends most of the show eating EVERYTHING that is edible. Later, Picard is stranded on a planet and is discovered by a screwy lady who is HIGHLY reminiscent of Kathy Batesin "Misery". What do these three things have in common? See the show.

As I said, the idea in of the Ilarians is novel and interesting. I just wished it had been handled a tad differently--making it all a bit less obvious.

The final season of Star Trek, the Next Generation gave us some splendid episodes and also a fair share of stinkers. Everyone knew by this stage that they would not be renewed and attempts were made to wrap up various story lines before they said their final goodbyes. There is still a great deal to be enjoyed.

As I've already stated many times, there is no accounting for taste. I REALLY LIKE THIS EPISODE. Not so much for the flummery taking place aboard ship but for the highly atmospheric mystery that embroils Captain Picard when the shuttle taking him on a diplomatic exchange mission crashes on a remote planet.

Veteran director Cliff Bole has ramped up the tension between Patrick Stewart and Canadian guest actress Barbara Williams to the extent that I really felt their uncomfortable disconnect. Skilful lighting gave the shelter built inside a crashed spacecraft an authentic look and the weather effects were convincing enough. Of course, all of this requires a considerable suspension of disbelief, especially when looking back from a era of much more advanced special effects, but I thought that these two theatrical actors were more than able to bring the script to life. Yes, I know that the final scene between them took place against a painted backdrop and that many viewers had long since worked out what was going on with the necklace but for me this episode generated the atmosphere of a classic SciFi. Story.

Guest actors Paul Eiding, Ricky D'Shon Collins and Michael Harris make an enjoyable trio of ambassadors, stretching the hospitality of the Enterprise Crew to the limits. Marina Sirtis and Michael Dorn both get splendid comic turns as their long-suffering hosts but it is Cmdr Worf's barely suppressed rage that steals every scene.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.

Enterprise hosts three ambassadors.

For me this is quite a flat episode as it has a predictable story that is not the most interesting.

There are no scenes that are particularly badly made, I just struggle to engage with the plot and characters when they are depicted as failing to see what is being done to them in this type of situation. That being said the 'Misery' tribute is relatively fun and Picard makes an interesting observation at the end.

Performances are good and so are the production values, but it is mostly lost on me and I find myself at times willing it to finish. This is probably a matter of personal taste, so others may like it.

The Federation is about to open diplomatic relations with the Ilarians and three emissaries come over to the Enterprise and each take an Enterprise crew member to work on an aspect of human emotions that they don't have.

Deanna Troi gets an eager to please Ilarian who falls in love with the human concept of desserts with meals. Marina Sirtis just keeps feeding him sweets of all kinds.

Worf gets an obnoxious twit of an emissary and let's baiting a bear is less hazardous to your health than baiting a Klingon.

And Captain Picard gets to fly with a third on a shuttlecraft that is forced down and he is held by a strange woman who's warm for his form. That one is truly revealing.

Interesting storym especially the Worf part.