Where Silence Has Lease

The first part of the episode is a stupid attempt at misdirection. Picard is worried about... a Holodeck simulation? What? The simulation itself has dreadful fight choreography even by the low, low standards of Star Trek personal combat.

The second part is yet another all-powerful being testing the Enterprise. The first season already had 4 episodes dealing with this, and they were all bad as well. The main problem with all of them is that there is no tension. By putting the Enterprise against an overwhelming force you know the only conclusion can be a succesful escape, because the only other option is utter destruction. The supreme beings involved also are overly interested in "us" and always end up respecting "us".

The nadir of the episode is that Wesley is suddenly replaced by a black redshirt. It would only have been a surprise if he had survived.

The whole setup for this episode is quite good. We have a mysterious void in space where the Enterprise finds itself buried. Since there is nothing on the sensors, there is no escaping it. Add to this, the illusions of a Romulan battle cruiser that actually fires on the ship and a federation starship which has no crew. It is obvious something is toying with the crew. Soon a sort of cat-like face appears on the screen. It is the chosen representation of an alien force that sees the Enterprise as a mere curiosity. It has no respect or concern for the crew. It even kills a bridge officer to watch him die. It is hard to enjoy an episode when the forces working against the crew are so unfathomable that there is no strategy to counteract them. The best Picard can do is to destroy the ship. He and Riker initiate the destruct sequence. The crew gets twenty minutes to get its affairs in order. The entity continues to toy with them. I guess saying enough is enough is the last resort for Picard. Still, the universe is so complex and the villains are around every corner (are there corners?). This episode is clever and dramatic and does keep our attention. Perhaps that's all we can ask for.

I watch these over n over and worf gets dumber every time! He says hes familiar with the Yamato,no its the same dam ship! Not to mention he pretty much always gets his ass kicked..

The Second Season of Star Trek the Next Generation has often been downplayed due to multiple production and writing staff problems, and several major cast changes. Although of mixed quality, it does contain some outstanding and brilliant episodes, and Senior Trekker is extremely grateful to all those people who worked so hard under difficult circumstances to keep it on our screens.

This episode was pretty weak and would have been very unlikely to have attracted many new viewers with its wordy script and total lack of atmosphere. In fact, I think I read somewhere that the catlike Nagilum creature was created by projecting an upside down face onto green-painted glass. Sounds like they were as short of cash as they were of ideas.

Diana Muldaur replaced Gates McFadden as the Doctor in this series but her role was posted as Special Guest Star throughout the season, suggesting that no one was quite sure whether she would stay. This fine actress had worked with Gene Roddenberry several times before and held him in great regard but it would not be an exaggeration to say that her time on TNG was a very unhappy one.

Primarily a theatrical actor, her style did not fit in so well with the rest of the cast who were still smarting from the involuntary and precipitous removal of the "Dancing Doctor". We will never know what went on behind the scenes before Dr Crusher returned for the 3rd season but it is most unfortunate that it left Dr Pulaski with so much hostility towards the series that she would never return in any further guest roles.

After twice appearing in the original series, this was the THIRD Doctor she had portrayed for Star Trek and she did make a very convincing medic.

(Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5)

In all of the incarnations of Star Trek, the crew of the Enterprise run into species that can instantaneously conjure up complete facsimiles of Earth/Federation existence, and do so for unfathomable reasons.

In general, these entities want to test humanoids, for their worthiness, and humanoids are "curious" because they have indomitable wills, which, apparently, are unique to earth humans.

This is just another example of the superior species test of humans/Vulcans/Klingons. We don't learn much new from this one.

1. Humans still don't pick up any new technology tips, after all of these exposures. 2. You would think they would look for an alliance with one of these super duper species. 3. As usual, the Captain, whether it is Kirk, or Picard, earns the grudging respect of the superior alien. 4. We learn the superior race's ethics are questionable and our conventional morality is probably superior. Go us. 5. Star ship captains are the most interesting subjects for superior beings.