Masks

Somehow, an Aztec-like culture invades the enterprise. They start by transporting artifacts and then use Data as a conduit to express their purposes. Why go through this whole complex procedure. Why not just do their will. Data begins to exhibit multiple personalities and Picard carries on discourse with him in an attempt to figure out what is going on. At least the Captain has been shown to be a true student of archaeology, a cosmic interpreter of mythology, an intergalactic Joseph Campbell. This gives him some sort of credibility. However, the whole thing bogs down when the creature/creatures become true forces. The solution is so simplistic. The conclusion is the worst of any episode I've seen. Watch at your own risk, although Brent Spiner is quite wonderful with his use of voices and his physicality. His Commander Data is one of the most entertaining and creative characters in all of science fiction.

This had to be one of the murkiest episodes in the history of TNG. A sign maybe that the originality was wearing thin. I'm not quite sure what was going on here other than Brent Spiner was being inhabited by a lot of personalities.

The Enterprise discovers a rogue comet in their path. But when they burn off the space debris accumulated over 87 million years by Data's reckoning it's discovered to be some kind of archive of a long dead civilization. The personalities of which start inhabiting Data.

Not only that but the ship starts being transformed into that civilization that died so long ago. A great find for amateur archaeologist Patrick Stewart, but Captain Picard always knows his first duty is to his ship and crew.

I have to confess I got lost during the telling of this rather murky tale. Not one of the better TNG's of the last or any other season.

Just guessing but I assume that most people that review this episode are fans of series and would rate higher than an independent reviewer. But if we can be honest about this particular episode, then this show was lacking in so many ways. And after watching the episode on two occasions, this was more about the many acting abilities of Brent Spiner than an entertaining view by the public.

When the Enterprise investigates a passing comet they find inside a mysterious religion facility deep inside the comet. Somehow the passing facility invades the Enterprise's computers plus Data's computer mind making the facility able to communicate with the crew by means of several strange characters that are projected through Data's computer brain. While the Enterprise is being transformed into a ancient alien city, Data's computer mind will hold the key to how Captain Picard can communicate with the forces that are holding the Enterprise.

Brent Spiner did his best at playing several characters but it was not enough to make the story interesting. In fact it was distracting seeing Data change into so many characters in which some had no relevance to the on-going problem the crew was facing.

Thinking I may have missed some important information during my first view, I watch the episode for a second time. Much to my chagrin the second viewing was worse than the first. Nothing had been missed. This was an uninteresting and confusing story that had little action and even less sense. Even being a fan of the series, this was one of the poorest offerings in the entire collection.

I noticed the low rating before watching it, and therefore was primed to skip to the next episode, but it held my interest all the way through.

Highlights for me were Brent Spiner's various characters; he is definitely the best actor in this series and I enjoyed watching him dip into his repertoire of faces and voices. Also, the conversation about symbols used by ancient civilizations I found interesting.

I understand that this isn't enough for a lot of people, and I don't imagine I'll ever watch it again. If you're not a big Data fan you might want to give it a miss.

The basic idea of this episode is really very interesting, but the conclusion/solution is never fully fleshed out and the motivation of the "villain" such as it is, is never logically presented. In the beginning we get some really interesting ideas, like the signs and one of them meaning death, but the solution isn't so much simple as too easy. The biggest problem with this episode is that it really could have been more interesting, an alien civilization is dumping artefacts everywhere. Why? We never find out! Apparently Data is taken over by well over a thousand personalities, why? We never find out! How is Picard able to so easily trick whatever force is behind all of this? We never find out! Too many questions, no real answers.