Originally aired: November 2nd 1987
We begin with a diplomatic mission to try to get two races sharing a solar system to make peace with each other and join the Federation. And while the aliens are still humanoid - and obviously just actors in masks, at least they're humanoid snake people and not just more normal people with a bit of funny make up. The snake aliens are assholes complaining and making demands the moment they come aboard. The crew seems to think neither race are all that suitable for Federation membership.
Before long the ship finds yet another weird floating energy cloud weird thing. The galaxy must be full of this kind of weird shit. The crew don't seem to be able to make any sense of the weird energy cloud and go in for a closer look. Worf gets zapped by an energy discharge from the sensor controls when they do this and I have to ask myself - given how often consoles explode or discharge energy on this ship, has anyone in the Federation ever heard of Health & Safety? Worf seems to become very aggressive and violent after the incident and is taken to sickbay. Given his repeated snarling on the bridge I wonder how they could tell he was acting abnormally.
So it's no surprise to me when the energy discharge passes into Doctor Crusher. It seems to affect her less as she seems to act normally around Troi enough to avoid raising her suspicions. Picard acts like a proper Captain and pushes the Enterprise onward to it's mission rather than investigate the energy cloud as Data wants to. Crusher starts to act odder and heads to the bridge where she is supposed to use the computer to help work out what's wrong with Worf. For once a crew member spots she's up to something and Data asks her why she's accessing helm control but it;s too late. God, the crew of this ship is a little naive - they always realise too late when someone is possessed by an alien.
The energy passes out of her into the computer and she has no idea why she's on the bridge. And now it's too late and the entity is in the computer, from the science stations to the engine room to the transporter. Whoops! Some of the recurring crew members that we'll never see again after Season 1 - Singh, Argyle - are asked to look into the malfunctions before the ship reaches it's destination. I'm already bored waiting for the plot to get going. In the meantime the alien delegates are just itching for an excuse to start killing each other. And the ship drops out of warp and loses communication with the rest of the galaxy. Guess they're in trouble now! Riker thinks the Ferengi must have bribed one of the diplomats to sabotage the ship. How cute! They're still acting like the Ferengi are a credible threat.
While talking about the mystery of the sabotage, Picard and Riker talks about Private Investigators and Sherlock Holmes, and inadvertently kick start Data's obsession with the fictional detective. How awesome would it have been if they'd been talking about Batman instead? :) Down in Engineering, Wesley is coming up with ideas to fix the ship that Singh is eager to steal and take credit for so he bundles Wes off to class. But no matter how smart he is he still hasn't realised that people are being possessed.
And now I finally remember why we never see Singh again - the energy zaps him and kills him for no real reason other than to make the threat more serious and immediate. And he wasn't even wearing a red shirt. There's a lot more that's not really worth commenting but the crew think the engine's fixed and start to head off again. The crew start to interrogate the aliens to see if they have alibis for the murder of Singh. The doctor starts to put two and two together about memory blackouts. God, people - this episode is dull. There's no hint yet what the hell the energy thingy is or what it wants and the characters are taking forever to work it out and I'm BORED. When it is this one going to pick up the pace? Troi offers to hypnotise the doctor and Work to help them recover memories.
Data livens things up by channelling Holmes - even to go so far as to smoke a pipe. He puts on quite a how as he deduces (incorrectly) why the aliens are responsible for the death. But Brent Spiner is given a chance to flex his acting muscles and it's refreshing to see it after a few episodes of the emotionless Data. The hypnotism reveals both crew members were possessed - which the audience has known for 20 minutes now. Jesus - show us something we don't already know. And the crew finally agree that as unlikely as it sounds something is possessing the crew and that no-one amongst the aliens or crew is guilty.
The ship continues to malfunction and the energy jumps into the captain. This time Geordi sees it happen, but Picard convinces him it's all okay. Though that doesn't carry very far when the ship starts playing along with Picard's commands and suddenly works when he says it will. He orders the ship to reverse it's course and go back the way it came. He justifies it by saying he needs to take another look at the energy cloud. He points out that a starship captain shouldn't have to explain every order - you'd never know it going by the amount of questions these guys get.
Okay - skipping ahead past more boring bits. Hey! It's O Brien! He gets a scene trying to keep the aliens happy when they cross paths looking for a crew member to explain the course change. While he tries to stop the aliens killing each other, the bridge officers discuss their options for handling Picard. They're thinking of relieving him of his command but can't unless they have medical evidence of incapacity. They take steps to prove he's incapable, and they approach him. He puts them on the spot and demands a decent explanation from them for the tests and turns their own arguments back on them.
And now the aliens are loose on the ship hunting each other. This diplomatic mission is doomed I tell you. Doomed. Crusher comes back with exam results on herself and the senior officers proving they are all fit for duty. But she gives up all pretense and asks him flat out if he's still the captain. The 'captain' admits that Jean-Luc is in there, and he and the alien are going on an adventure. And we get the long overdue exposition dump about how they accidentally picked up an energy being who's been working to get them to take it home to the energy cloud. And that the death of Singh was an accident.
And Picard is going to beam out into the energy cloud and go floating around the universe exploring together. But the crew don't want to go along with it so he zaps the lot of them with lightning and legs it to the transporter and beams out. After he's been out there over an hour, Riker decides it's time to leave before Troi detects Picard floating out there on his own - having been split from the alien energy thing. They manage to scoop Picard up in the ship's circuitry the way that they caught the original entity, and the letter P appears on the helm. They use the transporter to re-integrate the captain into his body since that pattern is still in the transporter. They get him back, but he doesn't remember anything that happened to him as a free floating energy being.
The aliens are still killing each other around the ship so Picard hands command off to Riker and goes to sickbay to relax. And what a waste of time that episode was. Jesus. A not-half-bad sci-fi idea with a piss poor execution. Other shows over the next decade will explore the idea of mixing human conciousness with energy beings in far more interesting stories and maybe those wouldn't be quite so goof if this story hadn't been here to try and fail first. But this was still pretty poor.
Next up: Justice. A Wesley heavy episode that's not particularly good. May whatever God can find it have mercy on my soul.
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