Plot Synopsis: Riker thinks he is losing his mind when reality keeps shifting between an alien hospital and the Enterprise, where he is rehearsing a play.
Plot A and B Analysis: The long teaser does a great job of setting up the episode: Riker is rehearsing for the lead in a play where his character may or may not be insane, and has a brief encounter with someone he doesn’t recognize. Plot A is about Riker, there is no plot B. The Enterprise is on its way to a planet whose government has just collapsed and is in anarchy. A Federation research team was on the planet and is in hiding, Riker goes down by himself to find and rescue them. Riker performs the play, then suddenly finds himself in the actual psych ward from his play. The rest of the episode plays out with Riker switching between the psych ward and the ship, in classic and compelling mind-bending fashion until the ending is revealed.
Favorite Scenes: This is a tough one. The entire episode is of a piece, I’m not sure I can separate it out. However, everything from the 35th minute on is utter excellence.
Use of Cast/Characters: This is a Riker episode, pure and simple. In addition to the bravura performance Frakes gives here–maybe his best in the series–we learn his first year at Starfleet Academy was tough, that he felt at odds with everyone, as if the world was against him. Picard, Deanna, Beverly, Worf, and Data all have very little to do in this episode. LeVar Burton gets the least (just one line) and it was probably only in the script so he could get paid. I’m not sure what’s going on with Marina’s makeup, it is noticeably heavier than usual. There are a few guest stars, and they all do good jobs.
Blu Ray Version: From this point forward one of the primary resources I rely on for this particular item has not yet written for this episode. As they complete them I will fill this section in more fully. This episode does have a commentary on Blu Ray, with the director and directory of photography. Wish it was Frakes!
Nitpicks: Multi-infarct dementia is just vascular dementia, which is similar to Alzheimer’s. It’s not an appropriate diagnosis, when he clearly would have paranoid schizophrenia. We never learn what happened to the research team Riker was there to rescue? This is the second episode of Riker being kidnapped, the first was back in Schisms. He was also kept hostage on an alien world and confined to a bed back in First Contact as well. Dang that guy gets captured a lot! Then there’s Future Imperfect, where his whole perception of reality gets messed with, similar to this episode. There’s a little too much that’s familiar about his circumstances here.
Overall Impression: This is one of the best episodes in a season full of great episodes. Other than the last two minutes the entire episode takes place in Riker’s mind! This is the his best episode IMO, and Frakes’ best performance. This is a dark episode no question, which TNG only rarely goes, and it pays off. It’s easy to get drawn into Riker’s plight, and how he resists his apparent rescue and later fires a phaser at his own chest is just great stuff. It’s wonderful how we are incrementally seeded information of what actually happened during the episode itself, but only on re-watching can we sort it out! I have no problems rating this 5 out of 5 stars.
Behind the Scenes/Trivia: Please notice the first two minutes of the teaser is all one shot, a technically impressive achievement. Frakes has said his favorite episodes to act in were this episode, along with parts 1 and 2 of Best of Both Worlds. Brannon Braga came up with the idea of this episode partly because he loved the film Repulsion and partly because he thought Riker’s character was being underused. Susanna Thompson plays the crazy girl with the spoon, and the producers must like her. She played the Borg Queen in several Voyager episodes, and was also in another TNG and DS9 episode as well. David Selburg plays Syrus here, but was also the historian Whalen way back in The Big Goodbye, and was the Caretaker in the Voyager pilot.
Missable/Unmissable? This is an unmissable episode, it’s just terrific. The next one is a big step down.