wwcanoer-tech

A good premise with a lot of potential but the last 10 minutes felt bungled.

Backing up, the boy was told that his father was a doctor and didn't believe that this outlaw was his father. There should have been an opportunity for him to show him competently treating an injury, so that the boy would say "maybe he is a doctor." For example, the man with the head wound could have had a more serious wound. Using the cliche "we need to get the bullet out", he could have first decided that removing the bullet was too risky but as the man worsens, he decides that he must remove the bullet, and the boy watches. Or, there could be some injury that the father fixes. Perhaps the boy tries to escape, falls, and dislocates his shoulder, then the father re-sets it. Something to give the boy a reason to think "maybe he is my father".

It was a great idea for Wishbone to be a mountain man to the rescue but then it fell flat. He rescued scout Peter Nolan near the top of the mountain but the suddenly they're back at the bottom of the mountain! What was the point of that?! Perhaps if they had Wishbone say to Nolan "What are you doing up here? There's no way that you can ambush them from here!" Nolan could say "I circled the hill, there's no way in!" Wishbone could respond "They got in! So we can get in! I will find it!" (Doesn't that sound like him?)

The drovers make it to the outlaws' camp and have a good conversation but then it didn't make sense that one of the men shoots their leader. There wasn't a decent basis for that. There should have been some kind of argument that escalated to gunfire but I can't think of anything that makes sense. There was no reason for the man to run away.

Spoiler: The writers seemed to like the idea of the outlaw dying on top of his fake grave but they tortured the story to do it. It didn't sit well for me because it didn't make any sense at all.

The gunfight where the father got wounded didn't make sense. The father not getting treated for his wound didn't make sense. The father following them back to town didn't make sense.

A very unsatisfying ending. Feels like it was rushed.

Did you like it? How would you have ended it?

I can't think of a plausible way for him to be fatally injured, so I would have skipped the "dying on his grave" idea.

To keep the "dying on his grave" idea required a plausible way for him to be injured and not treated.

The only thing that I can think of at the moment is that the gang says "we can't let them go because they can identify us" Then the lead outlaw needs to defend his family.

Discovering a hidden world in peril while its inhabitants have no idea of that they are living in a simulation, that's a good premise.

Early on, Spock and Kirk state that they must tell the people of their situation because to follow the non-interference of the prime directive would mean the end of that world. But then they forget about that for the bulk of the episode, until there is a crisis and Kirk blurts everything out all at once. It's so formulaic and tired.

It would have been far more interesting to watch McKoy learn about the Yonada world and try to gently coax Natira into understanding her situation. This would be filled with ups and downs. McCoy would tell her something and then she would reject it, then McCoy would prove it, until another roadblock.

A good first step would be Spock showing that he can read their language, that he has knowledge of their world, but conflict would arise due to the inconsistencies between the real events and the stories taught by the oracle.

Spock & McCoy could have convinced Natira to secretly go on the hike up the mountain where one can touch the sky. This would require secrecy and deception so as not to alarm the public or the oracle. McCoy would offer to remove Natira's implant but she would refuse and try to negotiate with the oracle but when the oracle causes too much pain then McCoy would remove the implant.

Or, McCoy could have been successful in convincing Natira to read the first pages of the book.

How could the society survive 10,000 years will all medical knowledge hidden from the people? The writers made the people far too docile and naïve. It would be far more interesting for them to be smart and accomplished despite not understanding their situation. They could be excellent at medicine while astronomy is forbidden.

The ending was particularly disappointing. While sick, McCoy pledges to marry and live with a woman but once he's healed then he abandons her! That's low. Far better if we saw McCoy having difficulty fitting in with their culture, or somehow Natira realizes that he will not actually be happy there and we have a sappy scene of him leaving.

Also, pretty much all of Kirk & Spock looking for the computer was slow and boring.

An alien that feeds off of our emotions of hate that must be overcome by quelling our vengeful thoughts is a fine idea for a SciFi episode but this episode fails from the opening scene.

Several reviewers praised the fighting action but this episode opens with the away team taken over by a single backhand slap. And, this was after Kirk was informed that a Klingon ship was detected! It wouldn't take much effort to turn this into a much more compelling opening scene.

Kirk nicely (but predictably) tricks the Klingons during the beam-up and sends them to a recreation area. The lead Klingon, Klang, has accused Kirk of doing something that they did not do, and Klang knows the false accusations made by Chekov. Rather than promptly meeting with Klang to resolve the situation, Kirk spends what feels like forever on the bridge to give time for the ship to taken over by an unknown party. Kirk then runs down to Klang and tells him everything that is going wrong. As other reviewers have mentioned, this is a rather odd strategy.

For me, it would be far more compelling if Kirk promptly met with Klang to hash out their accusations. This would set a much better stage of anger, revenge and confusion as each side insists that the other has committed a horrible aggression. While this tension builds, the ship is vaulted into its new heading, shocking Kirk, who accuses Klang of having saboteurs and then uncharacteristically losing his cool, launches himself across the table to attack Klang. A fight ensues, Kirk stabs a prominent Klingon in the heart, killing him instantly. Then the Enterprise crew barely make it out of the room alive. This gives the Klingons the opportunity to take over the ship. Then we can have a scene where Kirk bursts into the bridge to discover how bad the situation is.

Later, when Kirk has custody of Klang's wife, they would be ambushed by Klingons trying to rescue the wife. This is lead by the Klingon that Kirk killed earlier, shocking both Kirk and the wife. The resurrected Klingon could verbally poke Kirk by saying that his aim must not be very good. Then Kirk can visit sick bay and discover that his crew is also recovering inexplicably fast. Then they all start to understand what is going on.

Speaking of Klang's wife, why is she little more than a cardboard cutout who barely speaks and can't throw a punch?! We already know that the Klingons are a race of fighters. We have seen Ohura fight, so should this Klingon lady.

So many scenes were very hokey, such as when there's a fight on the bridge that magically stops and then they calmly stand around discussion how they are not acting normally. This could be far more dramatic and believable. Often, scenes are structured to give Kirk a soliloquy but that gets tired.

Why are the humans fighting each other whereas the Klingons are working as a cohesive team, often being very calm in the background? We should have seen infighting in both crews so that later Kirk can say to Klang "Have you ever seen your crew fight each other like this?" to which Klang could respond "We are Klingon, we fight, that is normal." This puzzles Kirk, who takes a moment and then says "But do they follow orders?" Klang "Yes, of course they follow orders! I see to it!" KIrk "But today, did they follow your orders today?!" or similar conversation with the result being that Klang says "No, no, not like this. You are correct, this is not normal." and Kirk can probe again. "I am human, you hate me. But right now, you hate your crew. You can't stop thinking that you hate the crew that you love." Or something, some conversation that shows the struggle inside their minds that they must both fight, that they must both struggle to shake their unusually violent thoughts.

Then they struggle to get both their crews to shake those thoughts. This could be an ongoing battle. Perhaps the alien see that they are trying to undermine it and turns off the intercom, so they have to spread the word in person, with interesting challenges along the way. For an alien that can control their minds, their ship and the repair of their bodies, it was completely docile in the final scene when it should be fighting back. It could again shake the ship or place a sword in someone's hand. Or make them think that another person had slighted them.

Even if still done through the intercom, simply telling the crew not to fight is not enough (and is incredibly boring and anticlimactic), they need to eliminate the violence from their minds. Kirk could tell each crew member to face another and think about the best qualities in that person, or to think of their family and fill their hearts and minds with those thoughts of love. Klang would tell his crew to do something that shocks the humans or gives insight into their culture. Probably asking them to think of their favorite warrior hero, or their love for leader of their empire or something. Alternatively, they could ask the crews to praise each other for the humans to praise how well a Klingon fought and vice versa. Ok, this would be hokey, but could have some funny moments.

Rather than telling the alien to get lost, which is the wrong emotion, they need to show it appreciation for bringing the Klingons and humans together, encourage it to feel their love. I would have it wither and die, overcome by love, rather than simply exiting the ship.

I was surprised that so many reviewers liked this episode a lot. What do you think?

As Star Trek viewers, we readily accept a lot of plot holes and the impossible, such as:

• An alien can control our minds and we can do that to each other.

• Always beam people back to the ship before you truly understand what killed people on the planet.

• The Enterprise is diverted but nobody notices even though only a handful of the 400 crew are controlled by the children.

• Ignore that phasers could stun children, because if they did that, the story would collapse.

But major critical plot points need to be explained. How do Kirk and Spock not succumb to the children's mind control? There's a weak explanation by the alien Gorgon that Kirk is too good. Huh? He's better than the children, or Uhura? Doesn't make any sense. Far better if Kirk could discover a way to fight the mind control. The children start by controlling people behind their backs, so, because Kirk, as commander, typically looks directly at people and confronts them, when you place your attention on the child, they cannot get into your mind. Only if you look away and ignore them can they implant their thoughts. This would be very natural for Kirk to discover. He's looking away, talking to Spock, then feels weird, turns around to see the child arm pumping, realizes what is happening and stares down the child, who must retreat.

I expect that most of us winced when the two crew members were beamed into space because we all thought "really? They can't tell where they are sending people?" If that were true, how do people not materialize half-buried in the ground or ten feet in the air? It would have been enough for them to discover that there's no planet. Simply "I can't. We're too far away from those coordinates." to which Kirk is surprised.

The ending was very weak. It was interesting that Kirk summons Gorgon but through that entire scene the children never try to exert their control. Gorgon says that he forbids viewing of the video but there's no struggle and then Gorgon stays silent during the viewing.

If the writers has nicely developed a relationship between the lead boy and Kirk, then in this scene, when the boy tries to disrupt the viewing, then Kirk would have a reference to appeal to the boy that he must see this video, so the leader stops resisting, so Gorgon appeals to a younger more controllable child, who tries to act but the older girls stop him and says "I want to see it too." This sews the seeds of Gorgon not being able to control the children.

The focus should then be on the children fighting back against Gorgon and showing that he cannot control them anymore. Supported by Kirk but not all resting on Kirk.

I don't understand where Gorgon resides and what has happened to him now that the kids have rejected him. He was stuck alone on the planted and needed humans to bring a vessel. Was he carried inside the children or he boarded separately when the ship was close enough? Does he need the children to survive? Or is he still in the ship, just waiting for new crewmembers or the next starbase where he can find new soldiers?

It could have been that he resides in the children, but not only one, he's distributed between them, so rather than the silly song, to summon him, the children hold hands in a ring. Then Kirk would need to convince the children to summon him. Then to kill Gorgon, Kirk would have to coach each child to reject Gorgon, perhaps that each focuses on the image of their parent and by focusing the mind they leave no room for Gorgon, or by feeling love, that love repels Gorgon. Anything with some logical basis. One by one the children release his hold and we see him diminish. Until we see a small or faint Gorgon appealing the last child to think about something they hate so that Gorgon can stay in him, but then the children together hug that child, flooding him with love and killing Gorgon.

Obviously also impossible but I think more logical and compelling.

I'm watching the series in order. Some hits, a lot of misses. I hope that there's a few good ones in this season.

Oh my, what a ridiculous episode!

Better situation: The planet passes through a asteroid belt once per year. During this meteor season there are many bright flashes in the sky, bangs from exploding meteors and storms caused by the gravity, magnetism or made-up force from large asteroids that pass too close. Normally, the Medicine Man operates the obelisk deflector to keep the planet safe but since he died before telling his successor how to operate the obelisk, this year there have been many unusually bad storms, some that have caused damage, and they are getting worse (because they passing further into the asteroid belt), so the villagers are scared that there will be more destruction. The Federation detects the planet-killer and sets out to save the planet. After eliminating this threat, they teach the villagers the lost art of how to operate the obelisk, ensuring their ongoing survival.

So much is wrong with this episode:

If it was critical that you do something within 30 minutes to save a planet, would you first go down to sightsee?! That made no sense. It's interesting to strand Kirk on a planet but this premise is horrible.

Kirk disappears and they simply leave? Why don't they beam down a search party while the Enterprise chases the asteroid? They can even leave a shuttle in orbit to support the team.

Why did Kirk lose his memory?! Accidentally pressing buttons that sent an electric bolt near his head? In my low resolution video, the lines of electricity don't even reach his head. Better if they enveloped his head but far more believable if we simply saw him clearly hit is head very hard on something. Especially since memory-altering aspect of the obelisk isn't used later, simply a trap for Spock to avoid.

Kirk then responds way too slowly to the drowning victim. He continued to act slow and groggy but this should have been deeply ingrained training that caused him to immediately react. They bring in the boy, the medicine man confirms that he is not breathing, then Kirk should immediately jumps in and starts rescue breathing. Afterwards, he would be slow to wonder "How did I know to do that? It was second nature, an automatic response."

Even a Kirk who's lost his memory would not accept the title of medicine man if he did not feel worthy of the title. He should not have said "it's a simple procedure" because that showed that he knows that he does not deserve the title. It would have been far more appropriate for Kirk to be bewildered at the skill that he did not know he had, and therefore able to believe that he truly is a magic medicine man.

When the previous medicine man says that he will prove that Kirk is not a God, rather than ignoring the statement, Kirk should have said something like "I do not claim to be a God but how do you explain how I knew how to save the boy? There is special knowledge inside me. Plus, the tribe has spoken, they have chosen me, you must accept that." Doesn't that sound more like Kirk, than simply walking away from a threat?

More interesting than the pathetic love story, the medicine man could have challenged Kirk to other medicinal tasks. Kirk would not know how to use the herbs and such but then during the 39 days there should have been emergencies for Kirk to handle. We could see him stop bleeding or splint a broken leg, but stumble at the remedy for a cold. Something interesting, a success and then a failure, something to provide ongoing suspense as to whether Kirk will be tossed out of his role.

Momentum. Star Trek always disregards momentum. There is no critical "deflection point"! You don't deflect a asteroid with a short high energy burst, you apply a low force for a long time to gently move it without the risk of breaking it.

When the Enterprise failed, they should have spent 39 days pushing on that asteroid with their impulse power.

There's no reason for Spock to believe that the obelisk can stop an approaching asteroid. Only we know about the myth of stopping the dark skies and even the dark skies are not the asteroid because they said that they have had more dark skies recently. (Unless you add more passing asteroids.)

Spock determines that the obelisk is an asteroid deflector system but up to this point they have not stated that there are any other asteroids that could endanger the planet, so why have such a system and how do they know that it failed? How did the Federation detect this impending collision? If they saw this, why did they not see other asteroids that mysteriously changed direction?

If the asteroid is close and moving directly at you then trying to stop it's forward momentum is a huge task, you need to move it off course when it is further away and you are at a significant angle to its path. So, incredible that the system could have worked for an asteroid that is so close.

The natives are angry that Kirk can't enter the obelisk to stop the dark skies storm but the storm very quickly passes! It's obviously not due to the approaching asteroid. Also, the angry villagers quickly disappear and are never seen again.

Why does a storm cause the earth to shake or how does and earthquake cause a storm?

There should have been many asteroids because the planet is passing through or near a asteroid belt. Most are near misses in which the gravity, magnetism, radiation or made-up force from the asteroid causes these storms and earthquakes. Then it would make sense that the medicine man can use the obelisk to deflect the asteroids that come too close. There would be a meteor season each year where many small ones light the sky and could have had nice special effects shots. The medicine man's father died within the last year, so they are scared because they have not had to face this season without someone who could open the obelisk, so the dark skies have been worse and more frequent than usual.

They urgently need to get into the obelisk yet only 2 people beam down and then concern themselves with first aid. Why do they need to revive Kirk? Spock should have beamed down with the harp to play the music that might open it. Scotty and an engineering team could be analyzing and trying to open it or drill through. Of course, having two things happening at once is atypical of Star Trek but Spock's focus should have been on opening the obelisk while McCoy treated Kirk and his wife. We should have seen Spock trying different notes and chords that appear on the obelisk.

The obelisk opened when Kirk used his communicator. Why did it not open when Spock used his?! This was my first real surprise.

They later explain that it was specific words that opened the obelisk. It would have been more interesting if Kirk repeated his words and Scotty answered but it didn't work. Then they realize that it was Uhura who answered Kirk's call and it is she who must remember her words and it is they that open the obelisk. Could even make it more interesting by having some other background sound when Kirk called. Sometimes Uhura sings. Or could be some alarm or something that just happens to go off at that time.

Urgent crisis but Kirk stops for a long time to kiss his wife and redundantly tells McCoy to take care of her.

Why doesn't McCoy beam Kirk's wife up to the ship?! Unbelievable that McCoy can't treat internal injuries caused by rocks. Maybe if her head was spit open and her brain damaged or her neck broken. But not even a drop of blood. Magical stones that they threw at her.

Very weak scene inside the obelisk.

Final sappy scene where Kirk's wife says that she knew that he would save them, but she didn't even understand the real danger.

Spock operates the "failing" deflector and then magically everything is ok. In reality, they need to train the medicine man how to open and operate the deflector because that is what failed, not the deflector. This could be interesting.

The memory lightning was not explained. Another ending could be that they are able to use that with the Medicine Man and implants memories that tell him how to use the deflector. But they now train multiple people so that they are not vulnerable if one dies.

Finally, I can't understand how Caucasian actors would be cast for Native American roles. How did this not feel ridiculous to everyone?! Maybe, very occasionally, for a lead role you need an experienced actor for something but even the tiniest roles are Caucasians. Glad that those days are (mostly) over.

"What does history say happened on this day/week?"

That was my very first thought and I was confused throughout the episode. Kirk and Spock accomplish very little throughout the episode and then at the end say "Ah-ha, it ended just the way that it was supposed to." That didn't jive with their actions just moments earlier when they were undecided whether to allow Seven to use the controls or not.

There was no reason for any indecision. If they did nothing, then there would be a disaster, once Spock could not stop the disaster, there was no drawback to allowing Seven to use the controls because it couldn't be worse. The can also ask the girl what he was doing and learn more from Seven, but there's little meaningful conversation.

It would have made more sense if Kirk new that there would be a failed launch that would lead to an agreement to ban nuclear warheads in space. That would be the reason that they arrived on this date, to learn how each of the countries reacted to the threat. In fact, the reason for the malfunction and the reason for the detonation were unknown to the NASA, so that could be the reason that they are there, to learn what happened.

Seven's arrival would threaten that. They would not know if he was there to fix the problem or to cause the problem. Seven would not want to tell them anything for fear of ruining the plans.

It's curious that Seven arrives at the last minute when there's been no report from their agents for 3 days. For such a critical assignment he should have been there within 24 hours of missed communication.

The gadgets used by Seven are interesting but that multifunction pen is a bit much. They didn't do much with the cat. I expect that everyone believed that it was more than a cat but it didn't do anything relevant except for distracting the guard. Probably more interesting if we saw it do more to aid Seven. It could open doors, press buttons, slide a weapon across the table, untie a knot, bite the chord of the phone to stop the phone call, or more.

This is yet another Star Trek episode with great potential but the plot hasn't been thoroughly thought through. It could have been much better.

I haven't thought of a good plot that sustains the tension between Kirk and Seven, so probably better for that tension to be resolved earlier and then they must work together to accomplish the task that was disrupted by the deaths of the agents. There could then be more cute interaction and competition between them, like between Spock and McCoy.

Seven would have explained that the first agents were to install a control panel that would divert the missile and detonate it at 100 miles, but that panel was destroyed in the accident, so they needed another solution.

Having a computer magically detonate the warhead is lazy. The writers could have made this a real challenge. They could brainstorm the options. Should the Enterprise destroy it with a phaser? Every country has eyes on this missile yet history doesn't record any lasers, so that is not the right solution. How can they blow up the missile without being detected? Can they deflect a satellite into the path of the missile? Again, history does not record that. Can they use a shuttle but somehow stay hidden from the watching eyes? Can they beam an explosive onto the missile or in the path of the missile? Maybe they can beam that shape-shifting cat onto or into the missile as a snake (or insect) that slithers into the right place and makes the necessary adjustments. Whatever the solution is, it would require Seven and the Kirk to work together.

Anything would be better than that pathetic ending of "I knew that it would happen."

I, like many reviewers, simply cannot accept that the US flag and founding documents magically appear on another planet.

In comparison, as SciFi viewers, we readily accept that a transmissible virus can cause all of the water to leave our bodies, leaving us as only a pile of crystals. It's completely ridiculous and not even plausible, but it's the type of nonsense that we're happy to accept. I didn't see any reviewers complaining about it.

Clearly, the objective of the writers was to make a statement about how the US ideals are great and can save the world. To accomplish this, did they need to literally use the US founding documents, or could they have found a culture with very similar documents that espouse the same ideals that Kirk could slyly interpret as meaning that the two races should be one and thus end the war?

The other option was to explain how the US documents got there. Although it's a tired plot, they could have found evidence of an old US spaceship that crashed or landed there. Or explain that after Voyager, the US sent out exploratory craft that carried much more information about Earth and the US.

Lots of other problems with the episode. I don't recall why the two groups were even fighting originally. These people are hundreds of years old and have been fighting for centuries, so they must be evenly matched, so phasers should not be necessary to hold off the Yangs.

It's a good premise that the Klingons are arming one group and the Kirk must decide what to do about it but the execution was extremely poor.

The writers presumably wanted to illustrate a proxy war but the situation that they created didn't reflect that. The armed group was simply raiding the other for fun and materials. They were only a gang of thugs. There was no power struggle for a limited resource and there was no benefit for the Klingons except as a recreational pet project but that idea wasn't developed. We only briefly see one Klingon. [Today, we know that Klingons love to fight, so we could have seen the Klingon asking the villagers to tell their war stories and getting great satisfaction and vicariously living through them. However, today we know that honor is important, so slaughtering the pacifists who will not fight would not provide any good stories. Even that falls flat.]

Kirk quickly decides that the only way to resolve the situation is to arm the pacifists. Ridiculous! Kirk didn't attempt any other resolution!

Kirk found that many of the tools and materials used by the armed villagers could not have been made by them. Therefore, they were not self-sufficient! So the primary solution is to remove all of their materials and stop the Klingons from giving them more. How to stop the Klingons is, of course, a daunting task, but one that must be attempted before deciding to arm the pacifists, changing their entire way of life and condemning the planet to a perpetual war.

I'm not sure how the Enterprise can actually hide from the Klingons but the writers clearly wanted to take out the ability for the ship to beam people here and there, but then they didn't give Kirk a good plot.

Clearly, the better solution would be for Kirk to talk to the village leaders, explain that the Klingons are using them as pawns, and that if he arms the pacifists, then everyone will suffer. If the writers want the result to be the Enterprise arming the pacifists, then that effort would have to fail but to not attempt it, in favor of the silly plot of the power-hungry woman, was a poor choice.

Why did the woman not use the phaser? That made no sense to me. We see her fumble with it, but there's only two buttons. Press them! This made the climatic scene fall flat.

Another option was for her to steal the phaser much earlier, use it, and then have the villagers report back to the Klingons about this new weapon that made people vanish. Then the Klingons must escalate...

I fell that almost any alternative plot would have been better than what we saw in this episode.

A terrible concept poorly executed.

The writers wanted to show the Captain obsessed, so he must take risks that others do not understand, but it felt very weak that he would chase this creature rather than complete their mission to pick up and deliver critical medical supplies because the creature did not pose a significant risk. But the most ridiculous part was that the doctor and Spock both state that he was right to chase the creature.

It's nearly impossible for there to be only one sentient creature because it will have evolved from something. The chances that a single event created a sentient creature is zero. Perhaps one could say that it's come from another dimension and can't get back but that's not mentioned.

And if there was only one, the idea that it would be hunted and killed goes against all the Star Trek stands for!

Out of nowhere, other than Kirk's perception of the creature saying "home", Spock says that it is going home to spawn and will create thousands more. This doesn't make any sense.

Everything about the creature's behavior doesn't make sense.

Why did the creature go to this planet? The Enterprise stopped there to evaluate it its mineral resources. If the creature was preparing to spawn, it would be going somewhere that it could eat a lot. So, they should have deduced that it was eating something on the planet but then found humans to be an easier or tastier version. It would be nearly impossible that it only feeds on humans. For example, we could have seen a briefing before the away mission that stated to be alert for a certain dangerous animal that is plentiful but when they got there, there were no animals, or only dead animals. Then it would attack the crew as if it were any other animal. But then the Captain wouldn't have the desired illogical obsession because the creature would have been a true planetary threat.

Why did the creature leave the planet? If it wanted to hunt the humans on the ship, then it would have simply done that at the first planet.

When the creature was defeated by the crew that chased it and tried to harm it with phasers, photon torpedoes and radiation and then proceeded to chase it again, then why would it run home?! The idea that the Enterprise randomly encountered it when it was urgently needing to spawn is ridiculous. Plus, it continued trying to feed on this planet, which again appears devoid of all animal life, so why would it live there? Why would it even need to go to a planet to spawn? More logical if it went to some star or astronomical energy source rich in something that it needed. Maybe some dense oxygen source, which is why it needed hemoglobin.

It made sense that Kirk is overly harsh on the officer who made the same mistake that he did 11 years ago, but doesn't make sense that he is later absolved because the mistake would not have made a difference. It would have been far far stronger if the Captain had admitted that he was overly harsh because he had made the same mistake but as Spock had explained, it's part of our nature that is very difficult to overcome, so he will not hold it against the officer. Of course, can still say that both feel better that their mistake did not cost any lives.

The sole Klingon character was very weak and muted. The Klingon warrior attitude could have easily aligned with the Capellans and created a much deeper synergy between them that later falls apart when the Capellans discover that the Klingon does not respect them or otherwise offends their view of right and wrong. (Of course, back then the Klingon culture was not fully developed but the idea of a warrior race was there and could have been explored here.)

It was ridiculous for the red shirt to draw his phaser when he saw the Klingon because the away team knew that the Klingons were interested in securing mining rights and could easily appear here. The point of the killing was to show the quick lethality of the Capellans. It would have been more enlightening to see this killing erupt from a disagreement between themselves.

When the Capellans ask for the away team's weapons, they hand over both their weapons and communicators, which was illogical. Would have been more natural, and been more interesting, for the Capellans to show insight by saying: "Those devices too." "but those are only communicators." "Yes, they communicate with your ship. It is a weapon too."

The Capellans do stop Kirk from contacting the Enterprise but it was a clunky conversation. Kirk's long pause deciding whether to hand over the weapons also made no sense. Before they beamed down, he stated how important it was not to appear aggressive.

Most of the episode is bland and not memorable.

The climatic fight scene was rather ridiculous. I don't know the standard of the day by my recollection is that the Batman series fights were better choreographed than this.

It would have been far better if the Capellans and away team purposefully worked together to defeat the Klingon. For example, when the Kingon's treachery is revealed, he moves to a position that is hidden/protected from the away team. Several Capellans try to attack the Klingon but each is vaporized, so Kirk signals to the Capellan leader that he must lure the Klingon into the firing line of Kirk & Spock. So the leader steps into the open and goads the Klingon into stepping out to face him. (Today, this could easily be done by calling the Klingon a coward and calling him to a hand-to-hand fight.) When the Klingon steps out, Kirk wounds the Klingon and then the leader finishes off the Klingon, perhaps also being fatally wounded himself but not dying before Kirk reaches him and the Capellans reaches out to clasp his hand and praise Kirk with words or just facial expression.

Alternatively, the Capellans are pinned down and Kirk goads the Klingon into facing him, giving the opportunity for the Capellans to kill the Klingon. This show of bravery wins the hearts of the Capellans.

Having the Capellans defeat the Klingon on their own did not set the stage for comradery between them and the Federation. (Plus the leader just standing there waiting to be shot was silly.)

Showing the Capellans how to make a bow and arrow would be violating the prime directive by potentially changing a key aspect of their culture. Therefore, rather than only Kirk's comment of it being a surprise, he should have commanded that they destroy the bows after they have been used. We never saw the expressions of surprise or fear from the Capellans.

The Capellan leader spared the old wife after she had betrayed them by stating that the away team was dead. This didn't make much sense. It would have made more sense for him to be angry at her deception and her to argue that they are good people. Only after the Klingon's treachery is revealed should the Capellan leader turn to her and say that she was right to protect them and then spare her life.

Even the reveal of the Klingon's treachery was weak and could have been better played by someone discovering that the man who carried the Klingon disruptor was stabbed to death. The leader would suspect the Klingon of the killing, and signal his guards to detain or search the Klingon, at which point the Klingon steps back, pulls out the disruptor and kills a Capellan or two. The Klingon can then give a speech about the Capellans thinking that they are strong but that they are actually weak. And explain that the Klingons will take control of this planet by force.

Also, what's with the security team beaming down at the end with phasers drawn? This added nothing. The fight should have been resolved before they appeared. There could have been a smart dialogue with Enterprise calling Kirk after everything is settled, with a very worried voice asking if they are ok but then told that everything is fine, with Kirk perhaps saying "I think that we've made some good friends here." and the Capellan woman smiling or nodding in concurrence.

This story had a good setup but became slow and muddled, with a dud ending.

There's much potential in the idea of powerful aliens exploring human experiences and reactions. Having one alien go a bit crazy and dominate the other is good, but the execution was very poor.

The man can completely change the setting as easily as the woman and the man holds the device that is the key to their power, so how can he be controlled by the woman? I was expecting her necklace to be the key, that Kirk would need to be cunning in order to take it from her and destroy it.

There could have been a much more interesting battle between the aliens. It would have been much better if the woman showed better skill at manipulating the situation. The man would try to create an escape route, such as creating a door or set of stairs but as Kirk reaches the door, the the woman creates a wall of flames on the other side, the man creates a downpour to extinguish the flames but the woman creates an umbrella to stop the rain. Every time that the man tries something, the woman defeats him, even pre-empting his moves and then exclaiming that she can read his mind so well or that he is so predictable that she can easily outmaneuver him.

We could see the man create a cage around the woman and she enlarges to a beast that breaks through it and laughs at him, that she can defeat anything he throws at her. He then creates a stronger cage with small holes and she becomes as a mouse or a snake to slither through the small hole, but her necklace never changes size and falls off her mouse/snake body, so Kirk lunges at her and grabs the necklace, or stomps on it, destroying it, and winning the day.

She could have defeated him by changing him into a bird in a cage, which we only discover at the end is his natural form.

Almost anything would be better than the large cat growling at them from behind an open door for what felts like an eternity.

Revealing the aliens to be feeble bird-like creatures on a barren planet who quickly wither and die made no sense. They came to and live on this planet. They must have some life there, not just waiting for a random ship to visit to entertain them. Simply making the planet forested would allow it to make sense. And then the aliens could keep on living there.

How could the man be killed in the fantasy but yet still be alive as the bird? Why did removing their power to create fantasy kill them?

The idea that we meet aliens who were once our gods is awesome! Unfortunately, the the character of Apollo and his culture are not developed beyond a child that needs attention.

If you met someone who claimed to be Apollo, what would you do? Wouldn't you ask questions to determine if his account match your written history? Ask how he reached Earth. Explore what he has done for the last 5000 years. So many possible questions but barely any are asked.

The female historian quickly falls in love with a handsome man and a beautiful dress. That's very weak and cliché. Far better if she became attracted to him because he told great stories about his time on Earth that fascinated her.

Destroying his power source was a boring solution. How did Apollo travel to and rule Earth if his power was tied to this planet? Surely there should have been a spaceship providing the power. Why didn't he find other worlds who would worship him?

I like that in the original series, it is far more common to have Kirk out-think his opponent rather than the technical solutions that dominate later series. Here, he finds a weakness and exploits it by toying with Apollo's emotions. It was ok but felt weak.

An unfulfilling episode.

Things the writers forgot:

• The Enterprise can identify life signs, so they would have detected the commodore and where he is.

• The Enterprise has already used photon torpedoes in season 1 episode Arena.

Since a key plot point rests on McCoy not being able to relieve the Commodore, we should have seen the Commodore recover from his breakdown because otherwise he should have been nowhere near the bridge. That the McCoy did not relieve him of duty because of the fear of not being able to defend the decision was very weak. Made him look pathetic. (Later, a key plot point has Kirk & Spock happy to break the rules and be judged later.) Plus, since the doctor has the authority to relieve someone, he also has the authority to demand a physical or psych evaluation (often seen in later episodes). Far better if he recovered and the doctor says "He passed the tests. I can't relieve him just because I disagree with him."

When the Enterprise was so close to being swallowed, it should have been firing into the beast with phasers and photon torpedoes. Tried again to beam onto it. As well as taking readings to learn more about it.

The Commodore's shuttle flight into the beast starts good as he says that "There's no way blast through the hull of that machine, so I am going to take this thing down it's throat." But that alone makes no sense because the machine was happy to eat the entire enterprise so a shuttle alone will do nothing. He needed to be carrying explosives or cause the shuttle to explode but all he did was fly into it as a silly suicide mission. The conversation was about "throwing your life away" with a weak response by the commodore instead of a determined "I have to try. We can't lose another ship." Perhaps he could have stolen a flask of antimatter and opened it, causing him and the shuttle to explode. (Of course, this should not work because when the machine eats a ship it will at some point rupture the antimatter systems, but it would be a logical attempt.)

They could have added some action by needing to coax the beast to attack the broken ship instead of the Enterprise. The beast is chasing the Enterprise, so it could lead the beast to the to the broken ship and then power down, letting momentum carry it away while the broken ship powers up as much as possible, so that the beast turns to the broken ship.

The idea of a unknown son in danger is good and provides good scenes for Picard but it needs more refinement to increase the tension and make it plausible.

If DaiMon Bok wants to kill Picard's son, why warn Picard? Perhaps because Bok hasn't been able to locate the son. Searching for and then running to grab that son does the job that Bok perhaps wasn't able to do. This obvious risk is not even mentioned before the Enterprise dashes off to rescue him. It should be mentioned as a risk.

There is a moderately interesting puzzle as to how Bok is contacting them. It is incredibly foolish for Bok to use a secret transport method to talk to Picard when normal communication would do. Repeating any covert action increases the chance of discovery, so us it sparingly. Bok's objective is to cause Picard fear and pain, so far more effective would be to transport threats. Have a jug of juice and ornate glasses appear in both the captain's and son's room. Spike them with a sedative. Picard sees the jug as out of place and immediately calls to his son, who does not answer, they rush to his room and find him unconscious. Bok then calls them a needles Picard about how it felt when he thought his son might die and then boasts about being able to reach out and kill him at any time.

Alternatively, since Picard is a history buff, Bok could transport historical objects used for killing or punishment. Since Picard is French, leave the blade of a guillotine on his desk and show how vulnerable the son is by appearing in the son's room and locking him into a guillotine that is missing the blade. Surely that would drive up the tension far more effectively.

Ideally, it would be a series of threats that gradually increase. The enterprise detects the transport method but cannot detect the source because it is only used to beam objects to the enterprise. Later, when Bok beams the son off the Enterprise, then they can follow it to locate the destination and send Picard there.

The standoff on Bok's ship was disappointing. In any real world, since it takes time for a transported person to appear, they would stun any intruder on sight. Bok would tie up the unconscious Picard and wait for him to awake, gleeful that Picard is there to watch his son's death. Then Picard, from a position of weakness, can expertly talk his way out of a no-win situation, convincing Bok's accomplices to subdue Bok. (ex. He's not a DaiMon, the Ferengi authorities have been notified and are on their way to bring Bok back to prison, the Enterprise now knows how to track this ship and will arrive within 10 minutes, there is no escape, etc.)

Why have the revelation that he is not Picard's biological son? That's not needed to deflate Bok. If the writers want to run with that, then there should be foreshadowing. During Beverly's medical exam, she could discover an implant, broken bone, a scar, or something that the son didn't know that he had, and he could recant a story of some weekend when he blacked out and lost track of time (the time needed to change his DNA). After Picard's hair joke, he could say that his hair has already started to recede and that it started after that blackout incident (perhaps not explicitly but both being stated as "one year ago." Bread crumbs for attentive viewers to follow.

If a true son, then Bok could be headed to a Federation prison where he cannot bribe the guards. Or otherwise explain how Bok will not be able to repeat the attempt.

Other annoyances: How can the transporter get an adequate lock on a person that the sensors cannot fully identify? Doesn't make sense, so skip it. Also, skip the "He's in danger just when we arrived." What a miraculous coincidence. Laughable. Just find him and transport him.

Why is there a Federation planet that lacks food?

Given the objective of Wesley joining the traveler's realm, how would you transition from the normal Wesley to Wesley who can step out of time?

Surely you would have Wesley transition into a more thoughtful and insightful mature person and not the incongruent arrogant jackass that we see in this episode. It's correct to show that he no longer fits in with Star Fleet Academy but rather than a rebellious boy skipping classes, we should see a man lost in thought, lost in exploring things outside of his studies, somehow thinking beyond the level of the classes. He could be frustrated with a narrow-minded professor. Perhaps show disdain for the management or leadership training.

A logical scene would be a meeting with Picard, who talks about how wonderful his academy days were, how challenging the last year was, or how incredible his first post-grad assignment was. Then we would see Wesley's internal struggle. The pressure that he feels to please Picard and his lack of interest in it. This inadvertent pressure should also come from his mother, who asks the standard "What do you want to do after graduation?" or similar questions but Wesley does not want to answer with the truth. It would be most logical to see Wesley tell the truth to Data, and Data being confused as to why he is unhappy at the academy.

Foreshadowing would fit well with this story arc. Wesley could be fascinated by the village's culture and become immersed in self-study for many hours when he realizes that he must be late for dinner with his mother, but he arrives early and is confused, because he did hours of work but was only gone an hour.

I was relieved that Wesley didn't come to the rescue with the solution to the village's problem because that is what I expected.

However, I was disappointed with the progression of the main plot as well. The village has three choices: move, get approval to stay, or stay and fight (either the Federation, the Cardasians or both). Picard should be exploring all possible solutions long before the final scene but Cardasians must be firmly against the ultimate solution, until events (and Picard) change their mind.

The Prytt are so technologically advanced that they can detect and intercept an alien transport beam, implant devices to read thoughts, and erect a shield around their territory... but they can't track two prisoners who left a jacket on their path and made a bonfire in the open at night. Implausible.

The Kes claim to have had no diplomatic contact with the Prytt for a century yet they quickly reveal that they have a secret operative in the Prytt prison and later that they control an entire town. Yet they have grand tales of wildly inaccurate conspiracy. This is incongruent. If they had those spies in place, they would know the truth without need of conspiracy theories.

So, why did the writers decide to have spies at all? Picard & Beverly are resourceful enough to escape on their own and find their own way to the border. Then everything would flow much better and make more sense.

The tricorder added nothing to their journey. It could have been done without but takes a little more creativity because they needed to find something to guide them, or, in the opening scene of breakfast with Beverly, they could have Picard say "Look at this map/globe. The Prytt occupy this small area, divided from the Kes by this mountain range. Then Picard could see the mountains and know which direction they must head. They would find various plausible obstacles instead of gas recorded on a tricorder. They could also act like fugitives.

As a Sci-Fi viewer, I readily accept brain implants but not non-sensical self-contradictory plots.

How about this ending? Picard and Beverly find a gap in the field where two trees had grown or fallen into the forcefield in such a way that there was a small gap between the trunks. Beverly squeezes though but the security forces hit the tree with a phaser, knocking it down and thus removing the gap, stranding Picard. The Enterprise, who has been scanning the border, detects Beverly and immediately beams her up, having her arrive on the transporter platform, immediately collapse, writhing in pain, Warf says that he will beam her to sick bay when she screams "No, send me back!" (Or, Enterprise beams down an away party and one of them moves beside Beverly and immediately orders beam up, when Beverly and Picard shout "No!" They either cancel the beam up or beam her up and then back down again.)

Then they can have their state mate meeting with the two leaders to release Picard and remove the implants from both. This should include an offer of negotiations to get the two sides talking, because that is the high road that the Federation should take.

The writers attempted to inject humor with the ever-increasing security equipment that the Kes leader brought onboard but fell flat because it made no sense and was based on an easily recognizable toy. They could have constructed a Faraday cage to prevent any communication or they could have created a forcefield around the room that they turn on for any conversation. Something plausible but could still be made ridiculous. How about a nod to Get Smart with a "cone of silence". I bet that more of the audience would get a laugh out of that, at least the ones who are old enough to know Get Smart. :)

As Qanqor stated in his or her review, "The Plot Makes No Sense."

S/he asks "If the dog is the creature, then what is the blob?" I would say that's the creatures "poop", the leftover remains of the consumed officer that were left behind when it transitioned to the dog. But, then why does it retain the ability to shape-shift and why did it take some energy beam to do it?

I didn't mind that Geordie is attracted to Aquiel but it was ludicrous for him, as an investigating officer, to simply be alone in her quarters, let alone have a bonding session with her! Geordie should never investigate anything ever again because he doesn't have any restraint. It would be much more interesting to see him struggle with keeping a distance.

I assume that everyone thought "It's the dog!" when they saw Geordie on the bed with the dog. That was one thing that made sense. (But is unbelievable that none of the crew would consider that possibility.) But why did it turn into this growing lump of slime?! That made no sense. If it has to revert to that form then it's not going to be very successful finding food/hosts because any that see it will be scared away,

How would a creature take over a new body? What's plausible? We want something that starts but that Geordie can recognize and get away from.

The slime in the lab only needed to touch Dr. Crusher for a moment to completely replicate her hand.

So, as Geordie pets the dog, we could see it start to change. We could see a paw turn into a hand and grab Geordie's leg, shocking him. Or, more creepy, would could see it's face start to morph into Geordie's. Or, because Aquiel talked about memories being suck out, he could be talking to the dog, telling it a story, when he stops, forgetting what he was trying to say, and then "my mind has gone blank. ... Woah" and then he steps back to see the physical changes in the dog. Geordie tries to run, the dog jumps onto him, knocking him down, and when Geordie tries to crawl away, we see that the dog has a human hand holding him back, but the uniform rips and Geordie reaches the phaser...

Wouldn't that be more interesting than "I see a blob in the mirror, turn around, and shoot it"? I bet that you can come up with something even better. Why can't the writers?

A good mystery provides clues for the audience to guess the villain before it is revealed. Early on, why not have some foreshadowing of the dog not reacting to Aquiel the way that it normally does? Doesn't shake hands, doesn't like its favorite food or something. Best would be a behavioral change, that the dog is more aggressive, just like the eaten officer was much more aggressive on the station than his Star Fleet record indicates.

Some more aspects that did not make sense:

• Aquiel deleting logs after she gets to the Enterprise. Few Star Fleet officers would be that stupid and it is completely unnecessary to advance the plot. Finding the bad report would be enough for motive.

• "Aquiel is not on the Enterprise." But she was on the Enterprise, even though I don't know why both the dog and Aquiel couldn't be alien creatures. Maybe it divides. Would be cool if, after she meets Geordie that last time, we see her temporarily morph in some way. If she was white, while she shakes his hand goodbye, we could see it turn brown to match Geordie and then revert when she lets go. (Also, why doesn't the computer notify security when a member of the crew disappears?! Always annoys me.)

• Why have the Klingon delete records, which makes no sense except for ones that would document his arrival. Since he copied data, he could have dropped one data disk or forgot one in the computer (whatever he copies it to). Or, the last computer log would be connection to an unknown device, or a device known to be Klingon. When interrogating the Klingon, they could examine his device and it's identification number would match the last log entry.

• Or, better, the Klingon is having an affair with Aquiel. The other officer is mad that the Klingon visits the station. When he discovers them gone, he then deletes every record that mentions his arrival, even the logs where Aquiel talks about him, but he misses one where he was not mentioned explicitly, where Aquiel only hints to her sister that she's seeing a new man, a very strong man, whom she only sees every 7 days (whatever the Klingon's period was) but doesn't fully explain. Then more of the elements of the story could be weaved together.

Moriarty is a wonderful character played perfectly by Daniel Davis. A joy to watch. If only every character could be that compelling.

Countess Barthalomew was also played well by Stephanie Beacham.

A fun episode that had a good pace throughout and some unexpected twists to keep it interesting.

P. S. I just saw that Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett) is the voice of the computer! TNG will feel very different if I envision her character whenever the computer speaks.

We see the covert team training at negotiating a tunnel course within a tight time frame but when they reach the planet they do nothing remotely similar. They move slowly and reach obstacles that are nothing like their training. Plus, most annoying, was the 5 year old level of their conversation where they have to explain to the audience everything that they are doing. The dialog was horrendous. Beverly shaking off being crushed by rocks as if they were Styrofoam was ridiculous. An accident should have a plausible consequence.

Far more logical would be for us to see them appear in the cave, confirm that it looks like their map, run through the tunnels exactly the same as their training and THEN run into a problem, such as a cave-in that blocks their planned route. They then must go around it, so they they state that they will have to take the cliff route. Because a 500 m cliff and cavern doesn't magically appear within a year. And magically lead to the same place. In fact most logical would be having to go down 500m and then back up to get back to join where they want to be. It is possible to write plausible scripts and dialog.

Some reviewers complain that it is implausible that Picard, Warf & Beverly would lead this covert team, but it's Star Trek, of course the main characters are going to be performing the key roles, so most of the audience will accept this.

It was more problematic that the Federation's flagship would arrive without its well-known captain to negotiate such a serious matter. They didn't have a viable cover story for why he was missing.

Having a well-known human and Klingon walk into a crowded public place to book covert passage into Kardassian space was ridiculous. It would have made far more sense to see another Federation team perform that role in the bar and then see the team boarding the Ferengi ship, with its captain surprised that the passengers where not who he expected. But different actors would have cost more money.

The way that they relieved the captain was also implausible. Why act like he is permanently relieved when the whole crew will see that he's using the holodeck to plan for a specific mission? If they wanted to pretend that, then he should have immediately left on another ship and trained there. (But too expensive.)

It was initially interesting to see how the new captain takes charge of the ship but it quickly went downhill. He gives an order to go to 4 shifts, Riker concludes that it's not feasible but instead of directly informing him, it comes up in a conversation at the ceremony? That's pathetic.

It is common practice that a new commander will make many changes for no reason other than to assert his authority and get people accustomed to following his commands. Some of his commands didn't make a lot of sense, especially changing from three to four shifts because that's a lot of upheaval in a critical time period.

Of course the writers wanted a fight scene, but even a junior Kardassian, would have been able to setup a plan to capture the three of them without any risk. Just turn on a force field to contain them. It wasn't plausible that the Kardassians would simply let Worf and Crusher leave, but they weren't important to the plot anymore.

Once again, an interesting premise and some good points but not nearly as engaging as it should be,

It was a great premise that's let down but the writing.

It was hilarious to see the four crew appear on the transporter pad as children but this scene is both inconsistent and illogical. As Sci-Fi viewers, we'll readily accept that a transporter malfunction can turn us into children but the changes need to be consistent. It would have been so simple to place the child actors in the adult costumes but instead they made inconsistent costumes. Keiko and Guinan's and Picard's only had slightly long sleeves and pants whereas Ro's were way oversized. There's no reason for that incongruence, so many viewers will be annoyed.

In contrast, many viewers know that Picard has an artificial heart and will recognize that it would be too big for a child but most will readily ignore that for the sake of a good story.

The writers could have had all oversized clothes and made a joke of it, and could even have young Picard to have chest pains or trouble taking a full breath because of his oversized heat.

There was no reason to clutter the opening scene with the distress call. It didn't add anything. It would be more interesting if that call came in just before or while young Picard was first visiting the bridge and the confusion as to whether Riker or Picard was in charge of responding.

It was odd that young Picard stepped to each of the stations on the bridge to give his orders. I haven't seen Picard do that before. I didn't feel that the actor played a young Picard very convincingly but that's certainly a difficult task for a teen.

We all laugh at how easy it is to take over the Enterprise and accept that it's necessary for interesting plots, but, again, make it plausible. For example, have the two Klingon ships both focused on hitting the shield generators, lose the aft shields and then have reports of people disappearing because they're being beamed down to the planet. Then, lose the forward shields, Data says "we're now losing many people from the saucer section ..." and then he's beamed away (ideally mid sentence), the Ferengi beam onto the bridge, Warf raises his phaser and is beamed away before he can shoot. That would make far more sense than capable warrior Warf missing a 5 meter shot! It would flow.

It annoyed me that young Picard retained his 4 pips because as soon as he realized what was happening he should have removed them, so that the Ferengi didn't realize his importance. In fact, he and Ro shouldn't even have their uniforms once relieved of duty.

It's disappointing that we didn't see Ro discover childhood and contemplate doing it again so that she could experience the things that she missed during her childhood. Rather than the contrived jumping on the bed with Guinan, she could have found joy playing with the children, doing something that she never had the chance to do when she was growing up during a civil war. I suppose that we did get a moment of that with the crayons at the end but would have been more profound if introduced earlier. For example, if a child had asked her to draw and she initially said "no", but then did draw with the child, have fun, and then reprise that at the end as a discovery of the joy that she missed.

If they were in civilian clothes, then the other children would not know who they are and invite them into their world. This could happen at a chance encounter in the hallway when a child says "I haven't met you before, would you like to join me doing ..."

Mile's challenges relating to an apparent teenager Keiko was very good. There could have been much more exploration of the issues involved in a teen with an adult mind and experience.

I haven't watched the fan-made episodes of Start Trek but now perhaps I should go see how fans do it. I'm curious, if the fans were given the same premise as an existing episode, how would they do it differently?

It was a good episode, but it could have been more.

Exploring how an androgynous society would function is interesting. As is correlating their treatment of people who identify as male or female to the way that our society treats anyone who does not fit the heterosexual norm.

Unfortunately the implementation was dismal. Riker was not believable in this role. Most glaring was his ridiculous talk with Troi that didn't match with the relationship that we saw onscreen. We have seen Riker become infatuated with many women and talk much more intimately with them than we do with Soren and he's never before talked about any of these women with Troi. Rather than showing us how enamored Riker was with Soren, the writers simply have Riker state it. It would be far more natural if we saw them in much more natural conversation and showing signs of connection. If, while working with Geordie, Riker turns to him and says "Soren is a remarkable woman, I mean person, I mean ..." and proceed to describe how remarkable he feels.

Riker's conversation with Picard didn't feel congruent with his character, nor the ease with which Picard let him possibly violate the Prime Directive.

But the real disappointment is the episode's conclusion: "Conversion therapy works!" Really, is that what you want to leave us with?

This ending wasn't even congruent with the rest of the story. Soren says that she saw a schoolmate tell the school that he was happy but she didn't believe it. She says that she knows many people like her. So, she should know many people who have been caught and forced through therapy. If it truly works that well, then she wouldn't be that fearful.

Perhaps Soren was to be played in the last scene as a robot who had been brainwashed and lost her personality and identity (thus showing how terrible the treatment was) but although there was a little of that, it didn't come across that well to me.

If you were to seriously injure Warf, how would you do it?

I bet that absolutely nobody would have a barrel fall on him! Boring. Plus, from the camera view behind the barrel, I thought that we were looking though the eyes of an intruder.

Exploring Warf's reaction to losing the use of his legs is an excellent idea worth exploring. Combining it with medical ethics by introducing a reckless doctor is good, but the execution is dismal.

The writers needed an event to show the visiting doctor taking an unreasonable risk. Good. Understandable. So, they have the Enterprise rescue hundreds of injured people who only appear for the 5 minutes needed to show the doctor's ethical faults, and then are never mentioned again. Bizarre!

Then, all that happens is that Dr. Crusher bans her from practicing on the Enterprise? We don't see Dr. Crusher inform Picard. We don't see Picard express his disgust at her action. Instead, we see Picard nonchalantly say "So, you banned her from practicing on the Enterprise" as if he heard a gossip that she broke a glass in Ten Forward. It made no sense, especially for a major plot point.

To show her flaw, the writers only needed 2 patients, one to occupy Dr. Crusher and one for the visiting doctor. So easy! Simply have an accident. One patient goes direct to sick bay where the visiting doctor treats her. Dr. Crusher and the other medical staff stay at the accident scene treating a more critical patient who can't yet be moved. When Dr. Crusher returns to sick bay, she's surprised to discover the dead crew member and shocked at the treatment given. This would make the drama of the decision to let her operate again to be a vibrant scene with much emotion, rather than not even being mentioned.

It was not surprising that the Warf's operation turned critical but what happened made no sense at all. They state that Warf has died. This likely shocks most the audience but I bet that half of them expect him to be revived but wonder how they can revive him when all life support has been turned off. I thought that his son, Alexander, would hit his father in anger, or otherwise do something dramatic that would stir Warf's soul and revive him, but all Alexander did was cry.

We then see Warf take a breath and Dr. Crusher turn the monitors back on and remark that he must have a back-up function for his brain. Say what?! He wasn't breathing for a considerable time. Unless he has an oxygen storage system, that's not plausible. Why wouldn't the writers follow the current standard practice of keeping a person on life support until the family can gather, say their goodbyes, and then turn off the machines to let him die. Then everything would be plausible! Warf would be breathing but the monitors show him as brain dead. Alexander comes in and gets angry at his father for having such a risky operation and then Warf reacts to Alexander's presence. It would flow so much better.

An episode with good potential that fell flat.

As Sci-Fi viewers, we readily accept that a being can exist as point of light and then enter and take over a person's body. But other events can jar us out of the mood, such as O'Brien taking a 50/50 chance of death to transport a pattern enhancer. I expect that most people thought "Say what?! Why doesn't he just send down the equipment?! Surely every away team member knows how to use it."

I wish that they would write an episode and then have someone else review it for these glaring problems and then adjust it.

The writers clearly wanted O'Brien to be inhabited (so that we have the interaction with Keiko) but there's no logical reason for him to be on the planet, so instead, have the being inhabit Riker. O'Brien is in the transporter room when they beam up but someone else is at the controls, so that O'Brien greets them. Riker is unsteady on his feet, or needs help standing up, so O'Brien grabs his arm, which causes excruciating pain so the being jumps from Riker to O'Brien, without being seen by anyone. (Need to adjust some other things, but this would flow "naturally" and still have the plot point that pain will displace them.)

It's incredibly unlikely that a being that could inhabit a human could also inhabit an android. I suspect that many people questioned that but having Data as a villain provide excellent interactions, so most of us will accept that as part of the Sci-Fi.

The inhabited people retain a strong technical knowledge of the ship, know how to speak in the manner of their host, their roles on the bridge, and Troi remembers Picard, but O'Brien doesn't remember Keiko?! They wanted the cringey interaction but it didn't make sense. I think that the episode would be better without it. Also an unbelievable ending that Keiko is so quickly all smiles. That experience would haunt anyone.

When interrogating the leader (Troi), Picard let her off easy because she only quoted statistics easily learnt from only the crash site. It would have been more natural for him to ask questions that would require deeper knowledge or learn from misdirection.

The beings can take over any controls form 10 Forward but the bridge can't isolate the controls in the cargo bay? It's a weirdly designed ship, but we mostly accept that, even when we laugh at how silly it is. Why are the aliens taking over 10 forward instead of the battle bridge? Perhaps that would probably move the plot too quickly.

The crew could have prepared a simpler trap in the cargo bay, some anesthazine gas for the humans and phasers (from gas mask wearing people hidden in the cargo bay) for Data, but then we wouldn't have that nice conversation with Picard.

Unsure why blowing the cargo bay doors would help. These being are now just energy, they could leave the suffocating bodies and re-enter the ship, as we see energy beings do all the time in Star Trek.

How many people thought that the aliens gave up too easily and how did they enter the force field to join the others?

Why not an ending where Geordie regains control of the transporter, transports the prisoners back down and the hostages out of the cargo bay, so the aliens scream in frustration. The aliens are forced out of their bodies, and exit the ship into space, then Enterprise floors it to get away from them. Leaving a mystery as to what will happen to these aliens floating in space. Will they be able to travel the galaxy and find a planet or to find another ship to take over? Perhaps too dark for Star Trek. :)

The Eugenics Wars on Earth occurred in 1992-1996 because the Augments, created in the 1950s and by 1992, lead by Khan Noonien Singh, had taken over a quarter of the Earth. After that, genetic engineering was banned.

That's ancient history for TNG in 2364-2370 but strange that this history is not mentioned.

The core theme in this episode is the effect that the Enterprise crew will have on the society but it is barely explored. The character Martin Benbeck repeated issues warning but with no substance and they are readily dismissed by the leader.

They are so concerned about "contamination" that they might choose to die rather than be "contaminated" by outsiders but they discussion no alternatives to immediately beaming down an away team. The obvious solution is to first have a meeting over the view screen, as is done all the time. Best if the planet has no view screen, so the Enterprise beams one down, and everyone on the planet is amazed at this machine appearing out of thin air.

The outcome of this virtual meeting is that a team must beam down to the surface. Then, discussions and romance then naturally develops between the people who work together.

To limit contamination, the teams would have been told not to discuss their societies but, with a little thought, the differences could become apparent through their actions. The simplest is an Enterprise member who starts whistling while he works. The planet's tech would say "oh, I can't do that, I don't have the genes for music." which naturally shocks the Enterprise tech who encourages the person to try. They could also fall into talking about themselves, with the planet tech asking "Why were you chosen to be a tech" and the tech replies "I wanted to be a pilot, but my vision was not good enough." Another could say "well, actually, I'm a medical assistant but I'm being trained to help engineering as well" Lots of little interactions that could be more interesting and impactful than the Troi romance.

We could see villagers with telescopes looking at the Enterprise in orbit and quietly discussing what like would be like up there.

That would be far better than the idea that the team would beam down into a city square and Troi would hang out on a planet hyper-concerned about contamination is ridiculous and even worse that she violates her ethics. Far more natural for an engineering team member to step too far and cause a problem because they are not as experienced with such a restriction.

The plot needed a reason for the female scientist, Hanna Bates, to visit the Enterprise and find a solution that relied on Geordie's blindness. Unfortunately, the writers repeat the same tired mistake about moving an object. Instead of applying a large force for a short time, they could apply a small force for a long time. They also need to apply an equal and opposite force, otherwise the Enterprise will be moved instead of the fragment. The writers clearly favor simple short action scenes rather than more complex episode-long actions.

Of course, they did not even consider if the changed trajectory would now impact a larger inhabited planet.

The concept of a telepath invading a person's mind and being equivalent to rape is a good one. It should not have been actual images of rape or even sex.

I could have gone something like this: The villain has a good one-on-one conversation with Troi, but when it gets too personal, Troi is uncomfortable and leaves. It needs to be specific, such as describing a memorable date with Riker, but stopping when they enter the bedroom. We then see the villain talking to his father about his intriguing conversation with Troi, perhaps remarking that human dating rituals are very peculiar. Later, Troi then has a dream about that event but it continues into the bedroom. It should not be rape, but something should feel "off". For example, when she runs her hand through Riker's hair, it is long blonde hair, which freaks her out and she passes out. Both the villain and his father have the same long blonde hair (or maybe they both have ridges on their hands and that freaks out Troi when she clasps Riker's hands), so we don't know, which one invaded her thoughts.

We then see both the villain and his father have a conversation with Beverly about something that intrigues both of them, but Beverly gets uncomfortable and ends the conversation. Again, Beverly has a dream that replays the end of that scene and continues beyond where Beverly wanted to stop. Something clues us in to the fact that the other character is one of the aliens but it is again we can't tell which one.

Picard and Riker then talk to the aliens. The villain can see that Riker is very agitated, asking tough questions but is tempered by Picard, who says "Ok, we will discuss this." We see Picard meet with Riker and agree with his plan to contact their alien home world (or something). The villain is concerned and wants to know what was said, so he invades Riker's mind to learn what was said in the meeting, but we see the villain's father take the place of Picard and argue against Riker's plan, but before Riker collapses, we see the alien mother or father walk in on the villain and disrupt the session, so Riker is confused and groggy but doesn't pass out. He remembers seeing the father's face, so he comes on even stronger to accuse the father, who tries do defend himself, but is placed in the brig. The audience knows that he is wrongly accused but how will they prove it?

Soon after, Geordie provides the evidence that the other events could only have been caused by the son. So now we have a dilemma. Could both the father and son be doing this? The son on the other worlds and the father on Enterprise? Is it possible for the aliens to implant thoughts, a false image? When they acknowledge that yes, they can implant thoughts, their entire body of work is questioned. The villain, as much as he is frustrated by his father, does not want to see all of his father's work ruined, so he confesses. Can we believe the confession or is he protecting his father? They then look at the times that these events happened and prove that it could only be the son.

So, it is possible to show the mental violation without showing sexual rape or having the audience wonder if Riker actually raped Troi, or whether that was only the villain. And the audience doesn't need to know too early who the true villain is.

Another possibility is to have a series of more subtle, minor invasions that the characters can talk about "I had dreamt about x but it felt weird, different, but I can't explain how." this builds to them passing out.