Sub Rosa

I thoroughly hated "Sub Rosa" and feel it's among the most embarrassing and stupid episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation". My wife didn't hate it quite as much as me, but she thought the show was indeed inferior.

Beverly Crusher goes home to a colony where she grew up in order to attend her grandmother's funeral. Here, you learn she's of Scottish descent--which is odd as it was never mentioned before or after. It all seemed very contrived as soon she was caught up in what was a Gothic Scottish romance combined with a paranormal story. While this combination MIGHT work, putting it in outer space and on this series was awfully bad. What follows is a ghost-like story along with LOTS of heaving bosoms and perplexing romance. All in all, it was just god- awful and Gates McFadden didn't do much to help this story.

UPDATE: By the way, it isn't just me who hated this episode. At the 50th anniversary Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, this was voted as one of the 10 worst of all episodes from every Trek franchise! That is some ignoble designation!

At first this episode comes off as a romance novel with mysterious candles, ghosts, a gothic yet picturesque Scottish setting, and an exploration of sex from a female perspective. This last element is the most interesting, the rest is actually rather stupid and more 3/10 territory, especially a rather tacky resurrection sequence. The first thirty minutes or so will have you thinking "there is no plot here", and that is sort of true, apart from an 800 year old "ghost" trying to seduce Beverly Crusher, nothing actually happens apart from some whacky weather. The romance elements are rather predictable in all honesty and the idea of combining the genre with space opera is really a matter of personal taste, which might be why so many people find this thing plain awful. What salvages the episode is its treatment of female sexuality, utilizing Crusher and to a lesser extent her conversations with Troi. Although I found myself at times laughing at the episode rather than with it, this isn't a terrible episode. B-.

I've heard plenty about 'Sub Rosa', most of it negative; but there's still the possibility of something being so-bad-it's-good, right? Sadly, that doesn't really apply here . . .

It all starts off well enough with a solemn eulogy, eventually blossoming into a trashy romance novel. Throw in the brainwashing angle, and it just gets worse. Maybe it played differently pre-"Twilight", but that's out of my hands.

You have to credit Gates McFadden for making the best of it. How often does a Beverly episode come along - and here it is, complete with green vapor sex scene. It has a decent closing scene makes some of this worth while, but will I ever revisit this episode in the future? Probably not.

4/10

There seems to be a lot of dissatisfaction with this episode. I'm not really sure why. The whole series was an examination of characters, only here the plot intersects the usual character driven story format that was Star Trek The Next Generation.

That is to say old school Star Trek was a plot driven "police in space" show, whereas Star Trek The Next Generation looked at character interaction for a variety of reasons. Here the good doctor is again made the subject of examining someone who experiences the world differently, only this time it's a plot device to move the story forward.

The plot is more than just a romance, and adds real jeopardy to ship and characters. Not to keep parroting myself here, but old school Star Trek went after a lot of bad guys who had psychiatric issues that caused problems. We get some of that here with Dr. Crusher interacting with a character that others don't know about, question, or can't otherwise experience like the ship's doctor.

Regrettably the story starts to falls into psychological examination as is the supermajority of this TV series which slows the story. But, it's not simply a Harlequin romance novel in space as a lot of the reviews would suggest. The episode deals with a character who has strong emotions for someone that other people question. Said relationship poses a threat to the ship.

Personally, to me, it's just another character driven episode with some plot elements that stray from the usual background story fodder where the plot usually exists in this show.

I had it on in the background when it first aired, and watching it again after thirty years I shrug my shoulders at it. To me it's on par with all of the other episodes in the series, perhaps a bit better than a lot of other episodes. The subplot essentially becomes that basis for the larger plot, with perhaps a dash of the Emperor from Return of the Jedi with the anaphasic energy thing.

There is a moral dilemma here that the good Doctor has to face, and in this respect she confronts herself and helps save the day. To me, in this regard, it's a slightly better episode, but again falls into the basic character driven format that is this episode. I think what has some people put off by this episode is that it has "mushy stuff"; romance. Personally, given all of the romances Kirk and Spock had with non-starship personnel, I don't see the problem, and this comes from someone who is not a fan of the show. But to each his own.

Whether or not they meant it, Anne Rice did this story about Lasher, who became a spirit in 12th century Scotland and attached himself to a woman, then her daughter, then her daughter...etc. He brought them gifts, wealth, protection and also lots of trouble and heartache. He also knew how they liked to be touched and could only take form briefly, with effort. He loved each one of them, too. The similarities are too much for me to believe that book didn't influence this episode.