The Price

I'm shocked about the negative comments this one gets. It's one of my favorites.

Here, there are negotiations over the ownership of the first stable wormhole known to exist, and Troi begins a tumultuous relationship with a handsome opposing negotiator. This allows some development of Troi's character and also shows how her relationship with Riker has evolved since the first season.

In ways, this episode foreshadows Deep Space Nine. Not only is there a stable wormhole, but the Ferengi here are more comical than evil (granted, they are still evil, not at all purely comical as in DS9). There are other comical parts here too, like Troi's argument with the ship's computer in the opening scene.

The worst thing: The ridiculous workout outfits that Troi and Dr. Crusher wear.

Another nice episode of this season. Don't understand the criticism.

The plot is all about Deanna's romance with the guest character. She immediately falls in love with him as he can hide emotions and turns out to be a mystery for her. Soon it will be explained though.

This reveal much of Deanna's personality and ethics, also her improved relationship with Riker. The guest turn out to be just a manipulative and egocentric predator with no values at all, who is rejected by Deanna as she understand his true colors.

Anyway, this episode also introduces ideas later explored in Star Trek universe (Deep Space Nine) and has an interesting aproach on wormholes.

The only negative stuff is the ridiculous gym outfits and the annoying ferengi attitude towards the whole conflict.

This is pure vileness. A guy "oozes" his way into the life of Deanna Troi. How did she even let this walking slime enter her room, let alone her life. He is disgusting.

I would say this episode just ruins her strong character. "Oh you have big blue eyes... therefore I will sleep with you!" I do not think any thought went into this episode at all. It is a disgrace.

If there is anything in the episode, it is totally ruined by this tacky "character". I use the word "character" loosely. He is more like a cartoon caricature.. It basically just revolves around smut. It is like a bad porn movie with no actual sex scenes.

The scene involving Riker is pretty pointless. The fact that Troi even considered this guy palatable is amusing at best. Vomit bags at the ready for this episode.

Enterprise hosts an event to negotiate access rights to a wormhole leading to the Gamma Quadrant.

This is a mostly good episode with some poorly written romantic scenes but more than a few redeeming qualities.

The plot is interesting from a sci-fi and nerdy perspective with regards to the implications of the wormhole, particularly if you are interested in the premise of shows like Deep Space Nine and Voyager. It also works as moral take on an empath's ability to read emotions.

Unfortunately central to the plot is a fairly weak romance involving Deanna Troi and a guest character. These type of one-episode-wonders never work for me because I can never take them seriously. Romances on screen only get my interest if the love develops out of something meaningful the characters go through together or if they have spectacularly good chemistry. This is not one of those stories and, like most Star Trek romances, she's in love because she just is.

The best aspect of it is how it turns out for Troi in relation to the wormhole plot which gives her some strong character building moments and a good contribution to something important in the episode.

Riker has some decent scenes. One in particular where he is somewhat taunted by someone and then responds with a fantastically written and delivered piece of dialogue. It is probably the highlight of the episode and nearly made me say "well done" to a fictional character.

The visuals are okay with some great makeup and costuming for the alien effects of the Ferengi and others. One sequence of dialogue is very abruptly and noticeably cut mid discussion. The less said about Troi and Dr Crusher's aerobics session whilst they discuss men the better.

Performances are solid with good work from the main cast, particularly Marina Sirtis and briefly Jonathan Frakes. Matt McCoy looks the part of a classic slime-bag with his baby face, dark hair and blue eyes and to be fair he acts it well.

New uniforms, new credit sequence and Doctor Crusher returned to us but was Season 3 of The Next Generation really as good as we remember? Some of that enthusiasm may have have been generated by relief that the series had not been cancelled but the 1990's also heralded an era of considerably more stability behind the scenes. Senior Trekker will continue to score every episode with a 5.

One of my favourites, of course. Senior Trekker is such a sucker for Babel-type episodes where we get to see a whole variety of alien races and customs, showcasing the prizewinning work of the make-up and costume departments. It seems almost inconceivable nowadays that these creative teams would have to produce the entire look of the episode in a matter of days, often working on more than one storyline at a time. That we can call to mind so many of their creations: the Barzans, the Ferengi, the Caldonians after such a long time has passed is just downright miraculous. However, it has to have been the guest actors who really brought them to life. Given how long some of those scenes must have taken to set up and how much gunk they were carrying around on their foreheads, its amazing how the individual performances stand out.

Elizabeth Hoffman, who played premier Bavhani is currently enjoying her retirement at age 94 Castulo Guerra, as Seth Mendoza, still has a very busy career Kevin Hall, the 6' 9'' actor who played Leyor died tragically young, while our two Ferengi, Scott Thompson and Dan Shor, are no doubt still looking for their chairs.

Troi's romantic storyline was probably the weakest part of the episode, despite the fact that it gave Marina Sirtis some comedic opportunities and the chance to have a sexy, well oiled foot massage. Apparently, the intimate scenes gathered quite a few complaints which is ironic because fans could have seen a great deal more of her had they chosen to look out a copy of Michael Winner's film The Wicked Lady. Her co-star Matt McCoy, as Devinoni Ral, was so oleaginous that most women's "creep alert" would have firing loud and clear before they got anywhere near the bedroom. This makes Counsellor Troi's infatuation even more of a surprise. Her holier than thou attitude when he explains his mildly-underhand negotiations at the end, definitely hints at morning after regrets.