Sub Rosa

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.

This episode should have just been called, Beverly needs to get laid. Horrible episode from an otherwise great show.

Okay. I admit: after reading most of the very negative reviews, I'd planned on skipping this one (This is my first run through the series). The one element that changed my mind was the fact that Jonathan Frakes directed. As far as I can remember, I've enjoyed every one of his directorial episodes.

Then there were the occasional glowing reviews. So I sighed, and decided to give it a try.

A great episode? I wouldn't say so; and yet......the script, the direction, the performances were all so enjoyable. Perhaps it feels to be such a lightweight episode, that many viewers were turned off to its story; but what a nicely done ghost story (if you will), and yes, told with a light touch.

I sure am glad I overcame my resistance and saw this charming episode for the first time!

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

Every so often a series will have an episode that is not up to the standards we expect. This episode proves that 'TNG' is also hit by the clunker syndrome.

In this episode we have Doctor Crusher attending her grandmother's funeral where she finds out that her 90+ year old granny had a 30 something lover. But is seems that the lover is a ghost that haunts the family and now Beverly is next in line. And supposedly the ghost has the sexual prowess to convince Beverly to resign her commission and start a new life on the Scottish planet. And all his power comes from a candle that Beverly was warned about at the beginning of the episode.

It will be easy to blame this episode on Gates McFadden but the fault should be squarely on the writers. They tried to make this a sexual episode that would appeal to women thus bringing them into the fold of the series. But what they ended up with is a cheap dollar love story that did little to cause any interest.