Emergence

As we approach the final episodes of season seven it is obvious that the writers are having a difficult time bring new plots into the scripts. In this offering we have another story of a developing life form. But the writers reach deep down on this story and the new life form is the Enterprise itself.

It all begins on the holodeck when a program malfunctions and begins running more than one program. Then the Enterprise begins operating on its on accord as if the ship is thinking for itself. And as with all these types of programs it will be up to the crew to help with a possible emerging life form.

This was a rehashed story that has been used many times in the series. But what saved this show from becoming another repeat plot was the way the episode used the holodeck program characters to tie the story together with the main plot. It was a new way to bring an old story-line to life. As we approach the end of the series this episode proved that you can do new things with old plots. Which should have been used on many of the episodes in weak season seven.

The latter half of Season 7 had a number of low brow episodes and this is one of them.

Weak premise, weak delivery, rubbish effects and overall just very poor. Felt like we'd stepped back onto season 2. Don't think it helped that it felt like everyone was shoehorned into the script to make sure they had their allotted screen time.

The holodeck goes a bit mad and the crew try to find out why.

This episode contains some good ideas, but they are not realised in a particularly interesting way.

The plot has a good concept at heart but the narrative for me was literally sleep inducing. I found myself waking up in the middle of the night, needing something to help me go back and it worked.

If we just had the imagery to figure out what was going on it might have worked, but going from one technobabble explanation to the next was hard work to stay 'engaged'. (Teehee!)

Everyone felt like they were going through the motions to me.

While this is certainly interesting, it's another episode where one needs to strain one's sense of order. What exactly is the enemy and what is it doing. Apparently, the ship's computer has become sentient and is trying to gain control of its being. This leads to a hodgepodge of stuff going on on the holodeck. There are a group of characters that seem to be part of a dream the ship is having. Whatever is going on appears to be a metaphor for correcting the problem. The ship isn't a true adversary; it is trying to find its way. Data and the gang must figure out what is going on. There is a kind of display that keeps repeating itself all around the ship that may be the clue to its intentions. As is often the case, things make sense to everyone but the audience. There are parallels her between Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and Prospero the wizard. I admit, though, that I never quite got it.

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.

Well, this wasn't as bad on re-viewing as I had anticipated. I'm afraid what had lodged in my mind was the "Enterprise computer gains higher intelligence and gives birth to a collection of bendy-straws" storyline. Apparently, the well known SFX company Industrial Light and Magic are credited with this particular creation. Hardly their finest hour.

The rest of the episode looked good. This was assisted, no doubt, by the opportunity to use sets which had already been constructed by the studio for other productions: the luxurious train carriage and the New York street scenes added visual impact and would otherwise have been beyond the budget of a weekly television series. Mingling aspects from various holodeck programmes added a surrealistic component as well as some enjoyable costume cliches but having Counsellor Troi attempt to psychoanalyse the ship's computer in order to get it back under control was a step too far.

Well known film actor David Huddleston and Trek regular Thomas Kopache both managed to keep a straight face as they contributed their considerable skills to this melange of nonsense and Sir Patrick demonstrated great professionalism as he conducted an apparently serious discussion about the computer's benign intentions and understandable wish to reproduce.

This was another episode where the writers decided to bolt on a bit of Shakespeare by having Data perform a scene from the Tempest. Brent Spiner's exaggerated, self-reflecting parody as the sage Prospero was unworthy of some of the finest verse ever written. This particular play has a fantasy element all of its own and was the inspiration for the classic Science Fiction film Forbidden Planet. There are some excellent adaptations out there for anyone who might be interested in seeing it performed without the unnecessary mockery.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.