Parallels

Worf is one of my favorites, and I usually really enjoy stories where he is the main character. This one, however, was just too disjointed to be enjoyable. I've seen shows with parallel universes before, but not where they kept changing every 10 seconds. What they were doing and saying didn't make sense to me at all, even in a Sci-Fi world. I guess my poor little brain just couldn't handle the complexities. One version of the Enterprise is talking to a hundred different Enterprises, all in different universes? Again, just too convoluted for me. Wesley was back, which is always a bummer, Geordi and Picard are dead, and the Worf/Troi romance? Ugh. That was totally unbelievable and cringy. Overall, not a very good episode.

I have never rated any episode with Worf as the main character this low until now. With any Trek series there comes the temporal episode. These types of episodes are hit or miss; some being great, like "timescape" and some not so great like "Parallels". "Parallels" comes off as insincere and flat. Troi's performance is decent, but the Worf, Troi romance never made since like the Worf, Dax relationship in DS9.

I did like the idea of the bat'leth tournament. Too bad no one ever wrote an episode about that. In the future Star Trek should focus on aspects of the unique cultures it has created. Sometimes the elaborate time warp episodes are too much, and "Parallels" is an example of this.

This is works in the spirit of the story. The only other episode that feels close is the last episode: All Good Things.

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.

Parallels has the character of Worf skipping backwards and forwards between alternative realities after a blow on the head. We get a lot of "road not travelled" stuff such as did he/didn't he win the Batleth tournament, what is his relationship to Counsellor Troi, what colour uniform should he be wearing and why is Wesley Crusher back on the Bridge?

Plenty of people seem to have liked it (although not those writing their reviews here) and Michael Dorn certainly gave a very good performance as a person constantly having to come to terms with a shifting reality but........another quantum temporal rift? Really! If the viewer is reduced to checking out the background actors to find interesting "alternative universe" details such as the only time a Cardassian appears in a Starfleet uniform, then whatever is going on centre-screen has pretty much lost the plot.

The Worf/Troi romance was unpopular with long-time viewers too and, by the end of the season, the writers would have to admit their mistake. In the meantime, Marina Sirtis gave her best effort to bring this new-found relationship to life. I was a bit offended on her behalf that she only got to wear a couple of her oldest and most worn-out costumes for their domestic/romantic scenes. She's a lovely woman an she deserved better from the creative team - especially for the champagne scene.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.

While there is no need to add anything to the reviews already here concerning this episode, I just wanted to focus on the last 2 minutes or so of the show. From the point when Picard asks Worf how the tournament went to the final seconds of the beginning of Worf's and Deanna's nascent romance, replete with some of the most beautiful and haunting 15 seconds of music in the entire series, it is just a crowning jewel on this beloved episode. Amusing, touching, and perfect.