The USS Enterprise is sent to help out another ship monitoring a collapsing star. When they arrive, the crew is dead, and things get stranger from there. Life support had been cut, people end up jettisoned out of an airlock, and people are found having showered clothed. Geordi brings back the responsible virus and the crew starts acting out of character.

If this sounds familiar, it should. It’s based on “The Naked Time” from the original series. (Riker references it in looking over the original Enterprise’s records.) Many subsequent episodes were knock-offs of the original series, but I think this was the best. Granted, it is early in the show, but it gives a sense of continuity. It’s also very well done, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

This is an important episode on many levels. First off, if you’ve seen subsequent episodes, you may have seen Data refer to an intimate encounter with Tasha Yar. This is the episode that he’s talking about. He and she have an intimate encounter, after which Data becomes affected by the virus.

I’ve always wondered about this episode because Data gets to show a very “emotional” side. Also, we see how easy it is to take over the ship; Wesley takes over the ship via engineering, much like in the original series. Granted, Wesley is known for his intelligence, but how could you trust a ship that’s so easy to take over?

In the end, Wesley and Beverly Crusher save the day with some help from Data. I’m interested in renting it again because it’s been so long. I’ll probably pick up on a lot of major discontinuities. (I’m sure a lot of other people already have.)

In the end, I’d recommend seeing this because it’s such a well-done episode. I can see all the comments about how I go from discontinuities to a well-done episode, but you have to consider what the series was back then. It’s the third episode and the series was still finding itself. To compare the first and seventh seasons isn’t really fair. It really is just a great episode.



Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older