My episode reviews continue apace! Well it’s not quite to my “two reviews per month” standard, but who am I kidding I haven’t met that in a long time. With Covid folks in my profession are pretty busy, add in a 5-yr old, a 2-yr old and 7-month old and you get the picture.
Frame of Mind is stellar from start to finish. In this Riker-centric episode, Number One is rehearsing for a play in which he portrays someone who may or may not be insane, in a psychiatric hospital. He goes on to perform the play, however right in the middle of it he finds himself in the actual psych hospital, and is the actual patient! Sufficeth to say there’s more to the story, and in a nice twist we realize that other than the last two minutes the entire episode takes place in his mind! Great watching.
Frakes has this episode along with the Best of Both Worlds two-parter was his favorite episode to act in. You may not know that Susanna Thompson, who plays the crazy girl with the spoon, will go on to play the Borg Queen multiple times in Voyager. We also see the actor who will later play the Caretaker in that same series. If you want to know more, check out my full review.
Suspicions is a pretty big step down. Doctor Crusher is hosting a Ferengi scientist who claims to have invented a metaphasic shield, which would allow a starship to enter the corona of a star. Things go haywire during the prototype demonstration, then the guy ends up dead. Suicide? Beverly doesn’t think so, amd thus TNG tries their hands at a mystery yet again. They fail again, in this rather weak episode.
As I’ve previously noted, for some reason the writers had trouble coming up with viable ideas for good scripts toward the end of this season, and this one went through rewrite after rewrite. Whoopi Goldberg is present as Guinan in her last ever appearance on the show! Check out my full review if you’d like to know more.
Alright, that wraps up another two episodes and we really are getting close to wrapping up this season. It surprises me how long I’ve been working on season six, but I really have been doing my best. In my next post I’ll have reviewed Rightful Heir and Second Chances.