Plot Synopsis: A young girl who just moved to the Enterprise begins playing with an imaginary friend, but the new playmate begins affecting ship operations as the crew explore a unique nebula.
Plot A and B Analysis: The exceedingly long teaser sets us up for 45 minutes of drivel. Deanna is counseling Clara, a young girl with an imaginary friend, and reassuring her dad it’s normal to have one at her age. The Enterprise enters a nebula and yet again a space-borne entity enters the ship, taking the form of Clara’s ‘friend.’ Plot A is about the friend, Isabella, the stunted plot B is about the problems with the ship. Plot A is off and running, with Isabella immediately taking control of the friendship. Meanwhile the ship hits some kind of drag resistance that the sensors can’t detect but the shields do. Isabella is obviously connected, and she does increasingly annoying and manipulative things, while the crew find out they may be in trouble, caught in a web of plasma strands like a fly in a web. Right before the Enterprise is destroyed by a bunch of alien jerks, Picard talks Isabella into sparing them in one of his weakest speeches ever. The plot is slow and uneven, tending to focus on things that aren’t all that interesting, and the resolution is completely unsatisfying.
Favorite Scenes: There is a good line of Geordi’s that I think is true: “Children are a lot stronger than you think. As long as they know you love them, they can handle just about anything life throws at them.” Nothing else.
Use of Cast/Characters: Picard, Riker, Data, Worf and Beverly don’t have much to do. That’s not a great sign. Geordi gets a bit more character development, as we learn his father was an exozoologist, his mother a command officer. Guinan is in this episode briefly, and gets about the same, talking with Clara about her own childhood imaginary friend–a razorbeast–and having a brief conversation with Deanna. Deanna is pretty active in this episode, and does some psychologically valid things, but this episode isn’t centered on her. Noley Thornton plays Clara and actually does a good job for a child actress, I think she’s talented for a kid–her scene in the arboretum in the 29th minute is pretty authentic. Shay Astar is Isabella and does a less good job. Watch her one expression for the entire episode, then be generous and blame the director. Brian Bonsall is back as Alexander in a scene where his clay gets smashed. Aw.
Blu Ray Version: Take a closer look at 11:58, as Picard leaves the observation lounge. Right as he leaves he starts making some faces that are pretty much all Patrick! You even get a glimpse of Frakes starting to smile, both probably thinking they were off camera.
Nitpicks: Riker orders the shields up at 2:50. How could Isabella penetrate the shields (at 2:58), but the other lifeforms couldn’t? Aren’t they the same aliens? It’s easily fixable too, just have her get on board before they raise shields. Guinan offers to make a drink with extra bubbles for Clara, but the drink has no bubbles at all. If I was a kid I’d feel ripped off! Not a big fan of the close-up of Isabella’s red devil-eyes, just looks bad. Finally, do we really have to be threatened with the Enterprise‘s destruction? It just seems forced to legitimize a threat. Aliens worked on a kid back in The Bonding, and they didn’t try and wipe out the ship when they didn’t get their way.
Overall Impression: In my view the best thing about this episode are some beautiful shots of the Enterprise in the red nebula. Otherwise it’s a boring, forgettable and unsatisfying episode. The regular cast are mostly ignored, and this episode consists of following the boring kid and her annoying not-so-imaginary friend around. Things aren’t actually interesting until the last 10 minutes, but it ends in a very underwhelming fashion. Even the name of the nebula is boring. I rate this episode 1.5 out of 5 stars. If you think that’s a bit harsh, please tell me why in the comments.
Behind the Scenes/Trivia: Episodes involving energy aliens coming on the ship have been occurring since the first season: Lonely Among Us, The Child, The Bonding, Power Play, and Cost of Living. This one is tied for the weakest. This is one of only three episodes in which we see the arboretum, the other two being Data’s Day and Dark Page. You will see Noley, who plays Clara, in the DS9 Episode Shadowplay. Brannon Braga, who ended up being responsible for most of the script called this episode his most satisfying episode in season 5. What?! What’s worse, he chose to develop this story instead of doing a Q episode this season. What?!?
Missable/Unmissable? This is a forgettable episode that I wish hadn’t happened, definitely missable. The next episode is a big step up.