Plot Synopsis: Enterprise crew members report that they go to sleep but wake up exhausted; a mysterious subspace pocket forms inside a cargo bay.
Plot A and B Analysis: The teaser gives us only very slight foreshadowing: Riker is exhausted, the ship is charting a globular cluster that Geordi wants to speed up by enhancing the sensors with the warp engine, and it contains one of the most famous Data scenes ever: his Ode to Spot! Plot A is about the aliens, there is no plot B. Riker’s sleep problems continue, and other oddities follow: Worf almost attacks the barber, Geordi gets tired and has a completely unknown bacterial infection which affects him using his VISOR, even Data loses time. Cargo bay four gets a magic glowing panel, and the cause seems to be coming from very deep in subspace. Turns out there are aliens there abducting crew members to experiment on, so they can figure out how to survive in our universe. A plan is concocted, Riker escapes with an ensign, our graviton pulse beats their pulse, and the episode ends. The pacing isn’t bad, and it is creepy in parts, but the ending is only partly satisfactory.
Favorite Scenes: A few stand out. The best scene starts in the 22nd minute, with crew members attempting to understand their mutual dream-like experiences. Everyone heads to the holodeck, and they reconstruct a very unsettling experience they’ve all had. The teaser has one of Data’s great moments, with his Ode to Spot. Just an excerpt:
Data: Felis Catus, is your taxonomic nomenclature
An endothermic quadruped
carnivorous by nature?
Your visual, olfactory and auditory senses
Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses.
I find myself intrigued by your sub-vocal oscillations
A singular development of cat communications
That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection
For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection…
Use of Cast/Characters: Picard does very little other than be the captain. Riker is pretty central here as the primary way we understand the experiences crew members are having, and we do get to follow him into the subspace domain. Data is the only one to get actual character development, with his foray into various forms of poetry. Worf has an idea the crew doesn’t immediately shoot down! His homing device is key to saving the day. Troi advances the plot by getting everyone together. Geordi is really the guy that starts the plot in the first place, by modifying the sensors. Beverly does some doctor stuff, but doesn’t significantly contribute. There are no real guest actors this episode.
Blu Ray Version:. This episode is grainy in parts, especially in the teaser and at the end. At 17:39 when we see the Conn, that there are ordinary 20th century screws holding it in place. Doesn’t seem right to me. I looked it up, and the screws were masked in the original broadcast version. No idea why they would reveal them for HD?? Also, if you own the Blu Ray you can watch the promo for it. If you do, you’ll see it completely gives away the plot and mystery of the episode.
Nitpicks: In the captain’s final log, he states that “all Enterprise crew members are safe and accounted for.” No they’re not, Lieutenant Hagler died! He has ceased to be! He is an ex-lieutenant! I’m not sure it was intentional, but look at 42:20 when Riker picks up ensign Rager. His phaser falls out of his holster, yet when he appears in the cargo bay he has it back. Also, while we think that the aliens first learned of us because of Geordi’s sensor modifications, Riker had been experiencing exhaustion for at least a day or two before Geordi even implemented it. Sloppy writing if you ask me. Finally, Schisms is not a great title. It’s just not.
Overall Impression: This has always struck me as a spooky episode, in the vein of Night Terrors, a Halloween-type episode. I think this partially worked, but when we finally get to see where Riker goes, the aliens just look like a bunch of fish. There’s certainly some tension but this episode could have definitely been better. I would have liked to learned a bit more about those guys, perhaps by having a more extended scene in the alien subspace realm. I’m also not a big fan of ‘our techno-beam defeated your techno-beam’, and that’s how we win. You see this in DS9 and especially Voyager, and it’s not satisfying. I rate this episode 3 out of 5 stars, due to a couple of memorable scenes and some tension and mystery.
Behind the Scenes/Trivia: This is the last appearance of the barber Mot, though Picard will later impersonate him. Picard’s aunt Adele is mentioned a few times through TNG, which I actually remember: back in Ensign Ro, then Cause and Effect. Ode to Spot does appear one more time, in A Fistful of Datas. For those who don’t know what a schism is, it means a formal division within a church, or a separation into two factions. I invite you to somehow find a way to apply it to this episode.
Missable/Unmissable? It’s decent, but missable. The next episode is about the same.