The Dauphin

Enterprise transports an important passenger and Wesley becomes romantically involved with her.

I found this to be one of the weakest entries in the second series mainly due to the lack of chemistry in the romance and the terrible visuals. It does have some saving graces that make it just about watchable, such as Guinan's contribution to the final scene and the unintentional humour generated by some of the effects and physical performances.

The story is a fairly uninspired teenage romance doomed to failure with some reasonable themes around parental attachment and protectiveness. I did not care for the relationship at all, as it is one of those typically bad 'they're in love because they are' type situations. Romances rarely work on episodic television as there is only 45 minutes to get you invested and the ingredients to make it work are not possible in such as short space of time unless its particularly cleverly written and well acted. For me a screen couple either have to go through something meaningful together from which the love develops or the actors need sizzling chemistry from the moment they share the screen. Neither of this happens in 'The Dauphin'.

As a romance, it is nowhere near as bad as it is an attempt at a creature concept. The visuals are truly horrible, with costumes and camp physical performance that would look bad in the original series. In addition to this the general visuals are awkward and poorly choreographed. The fight scenes, the entry of the security team and Wesley's first sight of his love interest are but a few examples of unintended comedy.

The less said about the scenes where Wesley seeks romantic advice from the crew members the better as most of it is pretty cringe-worthy, particularly Riker who comes across as creepy as ever when trying to be amorous.

Performances are generally decent. Will Wheaton is solid, but is no romantic lead and likewise Jamie Hubbard. Paddi Edwards does well with some quite poor material, as does Michael Dorn. The standout performer is easily Caryn Johnson as Guinan in two scenes, but mostly so in the final sequence where she is effortlessly natural.

I'm going to lean positive on this one and go with a 7/10. There's coming of age stuff going on that would have worked well for me in 1991 when I was roughly the same age as Wesley, but of course now it all seems a bit creaky...but I'd be an old miser to take the show to task TOO hard on that. Obviously it's a bumpy landing back to earth after last week, but that was an extraordinary episode.

Negatives are all fairly obvious. It's a bit nondescript. The teenage crush thing is a bit frivolous and it does dominate most of the episode, so maybe I'm high on something to give a 7 but I liked a lot of the surrounding stuff.

A decent episode, the teen angst worked well enough, but for me the highlight was how Guinan and Riker sold their flirting showcase to Wesley. Just a short clip, but it was really starting to sizzle!

Thinking back knowing what will happen to Wesley, does anyone ever wonder if he stopped by on his journeys to visit Salia?

I'm sure many found this charming. For me, it was just so so. If it weren't for the implications of the young woman's presence, it wouldn't be all that gratifying. The Enterprise acts as envoy to take a teenaged girl (or so we think) along with her guardian to hopefully settle hostilities on a couple warring planets. Wesley Crusher sees her and it's lights out. Suddenly, his work begins to suffer and he seeks advice on how to woo her. The funniest is Worf who explains Klingon mating rituals. Wesley is flabbergasted. Meanwhile, the guardian tells Picard to keep Wesley away from the young woman. She has big fish to fry and doesn't need distractions. This character is a shape-shifter and is able to take on the presence of an enormous creature or a silly looking bear-like thing. The young woman has the same powers and so any dalliance with Wesley is compromised. There is a touching scene where he shows her some of the holodeck projections from other celestial locales and they have a nice moment together. We still know where this is going. A pleasant episode and a bit of development for Wesley's character. Worth seeing, certainly.

The Dauphin is a Wesley-focused episode but it's quit nice. There are some fun, goofy monsters. The aliens are really alien. And there are a bunch of solid interactions between characters. Sure, the episode has someone talking to a giant teddy bear, but it all works - even the teeny-bopping melodrama isn't too painful.