Plot Synopsis: A long-lost ship is found on a planet where ferocious storms prevented detection for over 200 years. Alien entities take over the minds of Data, Deanna Troi, and Miles O’Brien, which quickly evolves into a hostage crisis.
Plot A and B Analysis: The teaser is brief. The Enterprise picks up a weak distress call from a moon, which Data identifies as coming from a Daedalus-class ship, the Essex. That class of starship hasn’t been in service for 175 years. Picard and Riker are about to leave, it’s just an old distress beacon, when Deanna says she senses someone alive on the moon. Plot A is about the power play of the aliens, there is no plot B. A shuttle is sent because the storms on the planet are too insane for transporters, and the shuttle itself crashes resulting in a broken arm for Riker. O’Brien finds a way to beam himself down and sets up a way to transport through the storm, but before he can everyone gets zapped with electricity and we see some weird lights enter the bodies of everyone but Riker before they get beamed out. In the 11th minute things kick into high gear as Data, O’Brien and Deanna attack the bridge crew and almost take over the ship, but end up trapped in Ten Forward and take hostages. Picard offers to take the place of the injured crew members and learns from “Troi” that the spirits of Christmas Past–I mean the Essex–have possessed his officers and more are trapped on the planet. They want the Enterprise to beam up their bones from the moon for transport back to Earth to rest, and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. The rest of the episode is a test of wits between the Enterprise crew and the “spirits.” This episode is tightly-plotted, full of plot twists and is a fast-paced 45 minutes that is good from beginning to end.
Favorite Scenes: The scene where the trio try to commandeer the bridge and then take control of Ten Forward is terrific to watch, I love it. Most of the scenes in Ten Forward are great also, as that’s where a lot of the action takes place. It’s a bit of a shock when Picard volunteers to be a hostage and he tells Riker he’ll provide an opportunity to beat the bad guys and to “watch for it.” I love it. The plot to drive the entities out of the crew’s bodies, and how it fails, is good and the final scene in the cargo bay is good also. I remember not knowing what to think about these “spirits” until Picard says he doesn’t believe them at all, to Worf. This episode is full of good scenes as far as I’m concerned.
Use of Cast/Characters: This is really Marina’s episode, even though it’s an ensemble episode as well. Deanna kicks all kinds of ass: she attacks Picard, phaser stuns half a dozen people, and masterminds everything. Marina gives a flat-out awesome performance, making me wish plots involving her being this strong had happened from the first season. This and Face of the Enemy are her two best episodes, IMO. What’s ironic is that the Enterprise would never have attempted to investigate if Deanna hadn’t convinced them to in the first place! Picard is pretty awesome here also: putting himself in harm’s way, getting the wounded out, finding a way to get rid of the rest of the hostages and providing an opportunity for Riker to get rid of them all if he has to. Riker, Ro, Geordi and Beverly all work together to minimize the aliens’ access and control, attempt to neutralize them, and later provide Picard with a way not to get himself killed. Worf gets his butt kicked a couple of times in this episode. Coming right on the heels of his drubbing last episode it doesn’t make him look good at all. We do see some character growth though, as the Worf from season one would have just attacked Data if provoked, where this one shows restraint. Brent Spiner is great as a combative, evil guy that doesn’t remind us of Lore. Colm Meaney does a similar great job, though he shows us less of a change than Brent or Marina.
Blu Ray Version: Several of the effects were punched up a bit or recreated, such as the clouds we see in the 3rd and 4th minutes, the aliens in the 7th, the pattern enhancers in the 8th, and the plasma shock in the 33rd. You used to be able to see make-up stains from Brent pounding on his Ops console, but this has been largely removed. Evidently 1 minute 41 seconds of footage could not be found so they had to upconvert it from SD. The sections are from 19:40-19:51 and 21:19-23:44. It was hard for me to tell the difference.
Nitpicks: The sequence when Riker, Data and Deanna are in the shuttlepod in the fourth minute is a little cheesy, just in terms of the camera work. As an adult it’s obvious they were on a hydraulic platform and moving the camera, and the camera guy finally does a 360 loop in which nobody even moves. I really doubt that was an actual lightning bolt that hit them in the 8th minute, or they’d likely all be dead. Maybe some attack from the entities? Could one of those entities really take over Data’s body at all? He’s not organic like the others. Where did Ro get her phaser? I don’t think I’ve ever seen an officer at Conn wearing one. Even though it was cool that Deanna attacked Picard, it looked a little weak.
Overall Impression: Finally Deanna Troi gets a really good episode! And the events of the episode are all her fault! I love seeing how the Marina, Brent and Colm act like they are convicts, the whole episode. It rewards rewatching. It’s a nice experience to not have any idea what will happen next, and writing the aliens as smart as they were makes it really enjoyable. This is exceptionally well-directed, with strong performances throughout; it’s just a good action show. Another rare change of pace from all the serious drama of season 5. This may be the best ensemble episode of the entire season as well. I’m happy to rate this episode a very strong 4 out of 5 stars.
Behind the Scenes/Trivia: We learn that the crew of the Enterprise values Picard’s life above all others, according to Troi. I guess she would know, having had long exposure to the emotions and thoughts of the crew. The best ever close-up of Marina’s dark contact lenses are seen here; she wore these for the entire series. The red-headed security officer we see in the 13th minute ought to look familiar to fans of Babylon 5 (of which I am one). It’s Patricia Tallman, who portrayed Lyta Alexander on that show. Evidently the cast had such fun making this episode that they gave Marina, Brent and Colm new nicknames for this episode: “Slash” “Buzz” and “Slugger” respectively! Also, notice the almost never-seen seat belts worn by the crew on the shuttlepod. In this episode O’Brien gets possessed, but if you wanted to see Keiko get possessed just go to the DS9 episode The Assignment. Marina tells a well-known story about performing her own stunt in this episode, when the three of them get knocked on their backs on the moon. Click here for the shot she refers to.
Action, the storm comes in and I fall over. As I had been taught to do at drama school, I rolled onto my side, because there are no important bits on your sides. And I got up and I was fine. The director came up and said, you’re the only one doing your own stunt, could you just fall straight back so we can see your face? My brain stopped and I said sure! So I did it in take two and I just fell straight back, and was laying there immobilized, because I’d hurt my back [she injured her coccyx–Napoleon Dynamite would understand]. The capper to the story is that when I actually saw the episode, it never came in for a close-up! So it was all for nothing.
Missable/Unmissable? Unmissable, this is a great episode. The next one is a slow-paced step down.