I’ve finished my reviews of Gambit, Part II and Phantasms. The second part of Gambit isn’t really an improvement over part I, but it isn’t any worse, and Phantasms thank goodness is an episode that generally works very well.
Part II of this mediocre entry opens up with Picard and Riker continuing to play head games with Baran while a dynamic between Data and Worf is explored, as Worf adjusts to his role as first officer. There’s a surprise as the Romulan turns out to be a Vulcan, and a few double crosses later the Vulcan gets the weapon she wants but it can be overcome rather easily.
If you look closely at the etching on the Stone of Gol, some hair was put on the god of death so it wouldn’t look too much like Patrick Stewart. Something else you wouldn’t know unless you were an NBA fan back in the day is the Klingon in this episode is James Worthy! Check out my full review to find out some other tidbits if you like.
Phantasms returns to something that was introduced back in Birthright: Data’s dreams. The Enterprise is getting a new warp core and Data has dreams–really nightmares–about workers dismantling the ship. Data’s dreams get worse and we are treated to home disturbing scenes: Data cutting into Deanna’s body, which is a cake, Beverly sucking on a straw connected to Riker’s head, leading up to a scene where Data actually stabs Deanna! Fortunately his dreams are telling him about a real threat to the crew, some parasites they are able to kill by Data shrieking at them, lol.
One irony is that in this episode Data says he has no mother, but he will in fact meet her a little further on in the season! There aren’t a lot of behind-the-scenes info for this one, though I will share that while Spot is referred to as male, ‘he’ somehow becomes a ‘she’ in Genesis later on. You may not recall that this episode came out just a couple of days before Halloween–I’d say it qualifies as a Halloween-type episode! Check out my review for my full take on this episode.
Next time I’ll review Dark Page and Attached, two total duds for episodes. Ugh. Still, I’ll get to them as quickly as I can.