Eye of the Beholder

A good murder mystery always makes for a good story, and The Next Generation departs from both its own usual format and old school Kirk and Spock Trek.

Where there aren't a whole lot of fire fights nor fist fights, nor "the ship can't take it..." moments, and where there's the usual nonsense of character interaction coming to the fore (Worf and Dianna), the plot actually comes to the fore and takes precedent, as opposed to the subplots taking center stage in previous episodes to offer exposition on character interaction.

Having said that the show continues to offer soft music with an emphasis on synthesizer, horns and violin, and the usual soft lighting to give an "ease of viewing" feel in spite of the menace. And there's the Worf-Troi interaction which ... had it been in the context of the plot would have helped some, but instead is in the context of The Next Generation looking at interpersonal relations. Oh well.

Regrettably the episode ends with a "we got him off screen" moment preceded by a sort of confrontation between the characters involved. So, regrettably the plot ends with a whimper instead of a bang. As per previous reviews ... designed for a broader and younger audience.

Make of that what you will.

This is a so-so offering. It involves a suicide by a man who had shown no suicidal tendencies. This brings in the expertise of Deanna Troi, who uses her empathic powers to try to feel the events leading up to the taking of life. In the process, she witnesses what appears to be a rape/murder and she seems to see this from the rapist's perspective. Worf is paired with Deanna and during this time a romantic relationship develops between them. It seems that something happened at the time the Enterprise was being constructed. The problem with the episode is that there are some issues with what is real and how the characters ultimately react to those implications. Deanna has a more substantial part here and does a decent job with it.

A young ensign walks into a plasma stream and soon after it seems the ship itself is sending messages. The most obvious recipient is the ship's best telepath Counselor Troi and they get wierder and wierder for her.

It all has to do with when the Enterprise was being first constructed and a long suppressed incident from that period. Some truths that were buried were revealed though poor Marina Sirtis really goes through it. Being a telepath can have its drawbacks.

In the meantime Troi and Worf begin a romantic relationship and Michael Dorn helps Sirtis over the rough spots in this telepathic crisis.

Plot was a bit confusing here though.

Counsellor Troi experiences visions associated with the death of another crew member.

This is a mostly good episode with a fair story and decent performances, but some aspects feel slightly ropey and a bit pointless.

Although it's not told in a very compelling way to me personally, the mystery is good and has an interesting sci-fi concept. When the reveal comes it is mostly by technobabble but feels like a well thought-out idea.

The downsides are the dramatic hysteria, which Marina Sirtis and the other cast do very well, considering how laughably over the top certain scenes are written. Plus the romance, which feels pointless when you know the eventual outcome for the characters. Michael Dorn is also good.

I like the art direction and set design. The numerous scenes set in engineering are very well done.

When the show begins, one of the crewmembers walks into a reactor and deliberately vaporizes himself despite Commander Riker trying to stop him. Counselor Troi tries to piece together why all this happened and soon finds herself pulled into the same things that caused this other empathic crewman to kill himself. So is she next?

The only element of this episode I particularly enjoyed was the new relationship between Troi and Worf. However, like Worf's glimpse into the possibility of such a relationship in an earlier episode (one with MANY different realities), this one turns out to be unreal. Will the pair later become a pair?

Otherwise, I disliked the show because the ending seemed to come out of no where with lots of bizarre elements which make the viewer say 'what?!'. Like the Voltaire song, the "USS Make S&#@ up", the answer seemed contrived and explained with a long bit of exposition.