Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season Six

As I write this intro, I'm four episodes into season seven. The end is in sight of this here re-watch, and I'm already feeling nostalgic. Watching an episode of TNG every day or every other day has been an agreeable routine, and it saddens me to know the ride is ending soon.

Here are my favorite episodes of season six, least to most. 

26. 

 

A psychic ambassador uses Deanna's mind to influence the outcome of his mission, endangering her life in the process.

Season six is for the most part a pretty strong season. Even this, my least favorite episode, isn't terrible. Marina gives an interesting and wrathful performance, but her character is violated (again) to no great dramatic purpose. The trope of emotionally vacant/ abusive lover (either “he took the best years of my life" or "he left me to wither while totally focused all on his career”) while interesting isn't successfully transposed on the TNG set-up as well as the story needed it to be.

Perhaps it's that the episode feels confused about what it wants to gets across, from the escalating bi-polar-ness of Troi to the ending bits with her and Riker. 

25.

 

Geordi falls for an alien Starfleet officer who is suspected of murder.

A friend writes on this one: "One of the Klingons is played by Reg E. Cathey (Norman from The Wire), which amused me when I noticed it in the credits. But otherwise, it's mostly an excuse for Geordi to be a dipshit, which is a thing that TNG did entirely too frequently.

It's also one of the most glaring examples of a character being an alien for no good reason. Aquiel behaves exactly like a human, except for a lame plot point - itself a lame red herring - involving a psychic crystal love-aid thing. So to accommodate that, she's an alien; and to prove she's an alien, she has dumb knobs on her forehead."

Agreed on both points. 

When I read in the Nemecek Companion that the writers kept taking the script in different directions with each revision it made sense. That's how it feels. What starts off in one version as an ode to the movie Laura ends in another almost re-titled “Murder, My Pet!” Too many cooks in this script-kitchen, and too many details that aren't wielded to any cohesive purpose.

This is the first episode where the term "Mees panels" is used. This is a reference to set decorator Jim Mees, who complained frequently to the writer's room that every script didn't have to have a panel someone (usually Geordi or Data) removed, as then they had to create something to put inside there. i.e. it's not a real ship, so you can't just remove a panel and work on something; the set people have to build something to be behind the panel. Jim's complaints resulted in no fewer removed panels in scripts, alas, but the writers affixed his name to the panels themselves. Enjoy Trek immortality, Jim. Take the seat right next to Matt Jefferies, please.

24.

 

Data deduces that a group of mining tools have become sentient beings 

and fights for their preservation.

A bit of a retread, here, of season three's opener. Not bad, but kind of overdone, as clunky in spots as these exocomps are visually. Are these some homage to Bob from The Black Hole? The writers wanted some un-cuddly object the audience would have trouble instantly anthropomorphizing. I like that goal, but the cute, clunky way the Exocomps bumble about elicits the same sort of sympathy, so I don’t know if it matters much. It lends a sort of "Simple Jack" manipulation to the efforts. Unavoidable perhaps.

Earlier, my Amazon Fire remote wasn’t working correctly, as the battery panel had become practically-imperceptibly unwedged. I only bring it up because before I figured out that this was the issue, I seriously wondered it was just refusing to work because it felt its life was endangered. Had my remote become self-aware? And delusional? i.e. I was in no way asking it to sacrifice itself, simply to point at the TV and work correctly. How would you know the difference? 

23.

 

Barclay must overcome his fear of the transporter to solve a mystery.

This one’s fine but a bit meh. The transporter is often used as a plot device and it's the sort of thing you don't want to outright forbid, as it would eliminate some of the franchise's most memorable episodes. Plus it's an indispensable element of the show, like sirens and Miranda rights for police procedurals. But you don't want people looking too closely at these things; there's a very fine line that any transporter-plot episode must never cross. 

"Realm of Fear" doesn't quite cross it, but it muddies rather than clarifies the transporter water. Why does the crew in the transporter stream appear like eels? I don't like the flimsy excuse given. Was Scotty an eel all those years he was in the pattern buffer in “Relics”? Mainly, though, if someone can slip into a transporter stream and evade aging or even the need for physical sustenance - sort of a Phantom Zone, minus the population of super-criminals - would it not be used that way by everyone in the future? Why age normally when you could just slip into the pattern buffer every so often and prolong your life, no harm no foul? Indeed, it's a way of ridding your body of toxins. Once you establish a plot "out," you then have to ask why it's not used in any/many other scenarios. 

I say all this like I have to over-explain the concept to you, dear reader, which is ridiculous of course. You know what I'm talking about.

22.

 

Q reveals a secret about a young woman from Kansas who is visiting the Enterprise. She is a Q, and so were her parents.

I never watched The Wonder Years and looking at her imdb never saw many of her films, so I really only know Olivia d’Abo from this episode, or as trivia for my Bond fandom (the cousin of Maryam d'Abo from The Living Daylights.) She has that TOS sort of beauty here in "True Q." Maybe I'm just thinking of Leslie Parrish or that one lady from "The Deadly Years," something about the hair, maybe I don't know. Even in regular close-up she looks like she has that soft-glow around her face and "Ruth" music. Beauty aside, she gives a fine enough performance, and her character has an actual arc. But like most Q episodes, there’s nothing but surface conflict.

Q himself comes across as particularly creepy here. John de Lancie plays his and d'Abo's scenes with the body language of a narcissistic abuser. It lends the episode an unresolved (and icky) subtext; when she leaves with him at the end it felt like the scene in Mystic River where the kid who grows up to be Tim Robbins goes off in the car with the molesters. 

21.

 

The crew encounter a group of Borg acting individually, 

and Data briefly experiences emotions.

The one with Stephen Hawking’s appearance at the beginning.

More to say when we cover pt. 2 next time, but (a) this story has a little in common with Nemesis, doesn't it? Double from the past raises army of familiar/ unfamiliar aliens, Data goes rogue, questions of 'who am I' etc. (b) this is what the third time Data’s gone rogue? Starfleet is a forgiving bunch. (c) Admiral Nechayev is lame. (d) Data’s whole ‘stop!’ stuff is awkward as hell. I’m convinced the whole thing is some kind of erotic auto-asphyxiation confessional from Spiner. Michael Piller’s “We’ve got to give Spiner more interesting things to do” instruction to the writers has turned a dark corner.

And (e) The cliffhanger ending is maximum cheese. What? "The sons of Soong have joined together and together we will destroy the Federation!" Holy moley. At some point, someone - a coalition of someones, maybe - signed off on that, and someones said "This is our finest cliffhanger since 'Best of Both Worlds'" and everyone believed it, somehow.

20.

 

Worf experiences a crisis of faith and travels to a Klingon holy site 

where the mythic figure Kahless returns to lead the Klingon people.

Worf’s time off is impressive. Here Picard tells him the place he wants to go is twelve days away by shuttle. Twelve days there, twelve days back (presumably - hell, it could be more by that time, wherever the Enterprise might be), and permission to stay there as long as it takes to find his spiritual center again. This is the security chief of the flagship of the Federation! Not to mention this episode takes place down the line from the “Birthright” two-parter. How long was he off the ship for that one? And it wasn't that long ago he resigned his commission altogether, only to pick it back up again later. Not a bad gig!

The Enterprise senior staff is having a sizable impact on the Klingon Empire, eh? Picard as arbiter of Gowron’s ascension, Worf’s brother on the Council now, and Worf’s (unplanned) transformation of the Empire into a constitutional monarchy, here, via Kahless. 

Imagine if Kirk had treated Abe Lincoln the way Gowron treats Kahless here. God I'd love to see that. One for the Ur-Kindle. In fact, I'd be very supportive of any hard and fast law that establishes should any deity from the past re-appear, heads of state must wrestle him/her to prove authenticity. Hell I feel that way just about pizza delivery folk, not just deities.

19.

 

Picard becomes involved with a woman who is serving on the Enterprise, but he must send her on a dangerous mission.

Where does Lt. Cmmdr. Darren fall on Picard’s list of girlfriends? It’s easily the one with whom we see him the most smitten. She’s a good character, and Wendy Hughes (later of Homicide) is perfectly agreeable. But I like her more than I like anything she and the Captain really get up to here, or their chemistry. The musical duets are nice, don’t get me wrong, but there’s not much in the way of plot development. Picard's a little too head over heels. The reason they break up is kind of lame, as are some of the more emo moments (anytime "my music" spoken by either of them) at the end. Maybe had they had her stick around for a few episodes, it’d have had more impact.

Wendy Hughes has an interesting accent that comes through at times. Her wiki says she's Australian. I didn't place it as Australian, just knew it wasn't American.

18.

 

Riker finds himself prisoner in an alien mental institution 

which resembles scenes from Beverly's play.

I don't enjoy this one as much as I did the first few times I saw it. Still, its twists are fun. I love the bits where Riker isn't sure if the folks he's seeing from the Enterprise are real or not, as when Beverly visits him, or when Worf's manhandling him ("Silence!") 

More with the senior staff’s extracurricular theater productions. Beverly in particular seems to have this whole other career, improbably, as a theater director/ producer/ dancer. It's one of the more egregious cases of a show not being able to turn off the "actor'ness of the cast. This is the chief medical officer of a starship, FFS; I'll never get over this. Find me a hospital where the senior surgeons are constantly engaged in a Gilbert and Sullivan revival, and you've found a hospital about to be sued into oblivion for malpractice.

That said, I was amused at how the episode could credibly be summed up as “Actors think it’s always about them.”

“You project your own delusions upon what really happened.” Give me my diary back, Star Trek!

17. and 16.

 

Captain Jellico is assigned command of the Enterprise while Picard is sent on a covert mission into Cardassian territory. Picard, having been captured, is tortured by a sadistic Cardassian interrogator.

I'm surprised this lands as high as it does in my countdown, as I've always thought (and this rewatch more or less confirmed was still the case) this two-parter is a bit overwrought. Frankly, Stewart’s performance - pretty much universally lauded - is too much for me. I wouldn't say he overreaches, just that everyone  in the main cast (not necessarily the guest stars, all of whom - from David Warner and Ronny Cox down to John Durbin as Gul Lemec) dialed up the drama past levels the set-up justified.  I’m happy that Stewart joins the honorable Trek pantheon of pretending to writhe in pain, though I quite honestly prefer the Shatner/ Koenig approach to this. Would I enjoy a mash-up of "PAIN!" acting from the Trek cast(s)? You bet I would. Please, junior high-ers of the world, someone discover this blog and take these assignments on.

The rationale of the mission never really makes sense. It's too obvious of a trap/ set-up; there's just no call for these three Enterprise people to be volunteered for it and then some kind of intensive-commando training to precede it. (Did anyone think of who would run Beverly's plays, for example? No one even mentions it!) Hell they could've beamed in an Exocomp for this mission (if they'd given it a chance to volunteer first of course). As I was watching I kept trying to remember if there was another twist at the end where Jellico and Yemechev set Picard up or for what reason. But nope. That it’s a ruse from the Cardassian side doesn’t cover the clumsiness.

Moreover does the title make sense for the story we get? It seems a fit only for the Riker/ Jellico conflict, hardly the beating heart of the two-parter.

So why is it up here at #16/17 and not further down the trough? Beats me. I had originally written something like "it expanded the franchise" and "the franchise needed something like this" etc. I kept trying to make those sentiments work, but each time I remembered some previous instance, either from earlier in TNG or from TOS (or TWOK).  Still: it's good stuff. Picard's "There are four lights" business has become somewhat iconic. I hope the message (speak the truth of your senses, not the narrative that comes with punishment for wrong answers) gets through to some of those who bandy it about on social media.

15.

 

Deanna is involuntarily recruited to assist in the transport of 

Romulan defectors across the border.

I’m undoubtedly rating this one too high. It’s not a bad episode, but I liked it a lot more this time around than ever before, so there's a surprise factor, probably, bumping it up.

I like how they just drop us right in the thick of it pre-credits. I got stuck on an idea I wish they had done, though. Troi seems to lose herself in the role a little bit, which reminded me of those experiments where they made some students prison guards and the others prisoners and the prison guards ended up getting violent. It’s all handled subtly enough. But I’d loved to have seen a little feedback between escalations from N'vek, cautioning her of going too far and Troi admitting she doesn’t know what’s coming over her, she’s just losing herself in the character. And then by episode’s end she has a secret file on everyone and is shooting people for being traitors, etc. Maybe not that far, but it would've been amusing to play it that way..

Still no sign or word of these Remans! Man did the Romulans keep them under wraps or what?

14. and 13.

 

Worf is told on Deep Space Nine that his father is alive and is being held prisoner by the Romulans. Meanwhile an engineering experiment accidentally results in Data's first dream. Worf, now a prisoner, tries to teach the Klingon refugees the ways of the warrior.

Data’s sub-conscious / all that stuff is more interesting to me than the other plot. It’s an interesting way to break up the two-parter, though; I approve.

The Klingon/ Romulan camp thing makes Worf come off as a reactionary of sorts in some of his statements, eh? Particularly his palpable reaction upon learning Ba'el is bi-racial. Or bi-special. Or "hybrids" as Worf calls them here: better than "space-halvsies," I guess. (Maybe not, actually, that sounds kind of awesome.) Klingons are allowed to be more retrograde in their attitudes than humans in Trek drama; the contrast is to help the audience confront its own biases, etc. For my money Worf comes across someone whose ideas are tested but who ultimately makes the right choices. He advocates no violence or subversion and makes no race-purity speeches. It's all true to character. He learns and grows a bit here. Everyone leaves happy.

The story plays out only slightly differently from any old sealed-off-society-meets-long-haired-outsider stories do.

12.

 

The Enterprise is caught in temporal stasis and on the brink 

of destruction by a Romulan Warbird.

This episode is whence the “moving from topic to topic / quite hypnotic” Picard Song bit. (Sidenote: there are some words I'm trying to use less. "Whence" is one of them. I don't see why "whence" has to be in every blog I write. Yet there it is again.)

Some fun moments here at the beginning before the plot kicks off among Data (especially his confusion), Troi, Geordi and the Captain. It’s a great idea for an episode and a compelling enough mystery. The only things that detract for me are: (1) I didn’t really like Picard’s breakdown or the smiley-face in the warp mist. There were better ways to get the spacetime-Bends across. And (2) It’s all a bit retread-y of “The Next Phase,” which was also the penultimate episode of season 4 was it not? 

Directed by Adam Nimoy. Speaking of, did you know he and Terry Farrell got married? Somehow I did not, or had learned and forgotten. His memoir on growing up as his father's son and sudden sobriety and time as a television director is definitely worth reading. I've still yet to see the documentary he made on his father, got to fix that.

11.

 

Data's mind is connected to the ship's computer which creates 

unforeseen effects on the holodeck.

Nothing deep here, just a fun holodeck-gone-wrong western pastiche. All the gags (Picard’s constantly getting interrupted at the beginning, the gradual all-Data cast for the holo-episode, leading up to the sight gag at the end, Spiner’s yokel drawl, etc.) land pretty well.
Stewart’s direction – a first for the actor on TNG, I think – deserves a kudos. The episode manages to look and feel both like a Western and TNG simultaneously, something the actor prepared himself for by watching a dozen westerns prior to the shoot.

Spiner is the perfect ensemble actor for any acting troupe. Not quite a leading man due to some innate je-ne-sais-quois but certainly talented to be that or any role asked of him. Like Stewart, a gift to any actor in a scene with him.

10. 

 

Picard tries to solve an ancient genetic mystery uncovered by his 

archaeological mentor and faces stiff competition. 

The central premise of this episode bugs many fans: somehow seeding basic DNA on planets billions of years ago can result in the simultaneous evolution of humanoids. It's not a premise unique to this episode by any means - everything from Marvel Comics to the Alien franchise has dabbled with it. And sure, given all the sheer chance involved in our own species' evolution, including the unlikely development of humans into the form we're in, or just the development of life on Earth at all, makes it a little far-fetched. I like it because it kind of sidesteps that issue and lends a veneer of plausibility to the basically-far-fetched-altogether Trek concept, as well as how it's another bridge back to TOS. (Namely, the Preservers, mentioned in "The Paradise Syndrome.")

"It was our hope that you would have to come together in fellowship and companionship to hear this message. And if you can see and hear me, our hope has been fulfilled. 

You are a monument, not to our greatness, but to our existence. 

That was our wish, that you too would know life, and would keep alive our memory. 

There is something of us in each of you, and so, something of you in each other. 

Remember us."

The standard Trek reminder that we're better than our present selves in the future, even if we don't realize it yet. Give us time, I guess. Fingers crossed. (Wish there was a transporter pattern buffer to hang out in for awhile until the world catches up, but hey.)

That said, I love the Klingon’s reaction(s) to the message above. ("That's it?!") It's a nice counterpoint to the Romulan's thoughtful call over to Picard that ends the episode. I like the message of it all perhaps a little better than the execution, but I also appreciate the honoring-his-mentor factor. (Actually, now that I write all this out: this all echoes s4's "Remember Me," does it not?) Nice guest turn from Linda Thorson as well. Too bad the other Avengers sidekicks never made Trek appearances.

9.

 

Dr. Crusher risks her career to solve the murder of Ferengi scientist 

Dr. Reyga and vindicate his research.

Here’s another that really jumped out to me as prototypical Trek upon this research. It’s perhaps got its heart too much on its sleeve, but its heart is right where Trek's should be. And it’s a nice little subversion on rather standard Perry Mason type tropes, with the who-done-it twist a uniquely Trek one. (i.e. the alien can simulate death allowing for an invasive and one would imagine comprehensive twenty-fourth-century autopsy, normally something that would incontrovertibly eliminate a whodunit suspect.)

Although I’m pretty sure the same twist is in a few EC stories, probably a few other comics, too. Just can't think of an example to give you. So! Let's move on.

Anyway, good Beverly showcase, and even Nurse Ogawa gets a chance to shine. I like Ogawa; it's too bad they never spun her off into a Trek Medical Show. House in space. Trek: Ogawa. 

8.

 

Thieves attempt to steal trilithium from the Enterprise during a Baryon sweep at the Remmler Array and Picard alone must thwart them.

i.e. the Die Hard episode. Not my favorite title. It makes me think of Enemy Mine. That’s likely not a problem for most people, though; that film casts a long shadow in my life. And I don't think I've even watched it since the 80s.

Picard’s saying “saddle” should’ve been some turned into some kind of dance-remix a la the Information Society. All of Data’s small talk stuff is great. His partner in that scene is David Spielberg (no relation to the director) veteran of a thousand roles (and RIP).

The body count is impressively high in this one.

7.

 

Several members of the crew are abducted and experimented on while they sleep, including Riker, Worf, La Forge and Data, and become sleep deprived.

The alien abduction angle (rather popular concept in the early 90s culture) in Trek? A splendid idea. Some effectively creepy stuff in this one. Though not to my kids, apparently. They were all watching this with me once the clicking and lizard-face and scissor-hands started, but they didn’t bat an eye on any of it. They may even have mocked my warnings on the scary part(s) coming up.

Anyway, it's a fun mystery. This is the one with Data’s poetry, if you only know it from that, though I don't know precisely whom I'm leaving such remarks for. It's possible there's someone out there who remembers an alien abduction TNG episode and the Data's poetry episode and doesn't realize it's the same episode, I guess. TNG was pretty popular, even among normies. It beat World Series games and Monday Night Football fairly often. So hey, on the off chance some casual TNG watcher from back in the day is reading this and has been bugged for years with his/her inability to work imdb, Memory Alpha, wikipedia, or talk to other Trek people, I got you covered.

6.

 

Riker encounters a duplicate of himself, Thomas Riker, created by a transporter malfunction. Thomas vies for Deanna's affections.

Okay, so I've always enjoyed this one - who can resist the set-up? Not me - but this time around I have to say I was fairly moved. Beyond my normal vulnerability to Trek heartstrings, even. It's not the deepest forty-odd minutes of television, but they cover a lot of emotional ground. Both the Riker/Riker conflict and the Thomas Riker/ Troi conflict. The scene where Thomas mentions how he'd stare out into space and try to feel hard enough where maybe Troi could sense him - and the visible effect this has on Troi - really got me. It's the sort of thing you might imagine yourself doing if you were in Thomas' position, but the fact that Troi's an empath lends it an extra pathos. Because, like, how could he know it wouldn't work? That sense of hope must have been its own special madness to keep at bay. 

I also confess I love the original idea (that Berman vetoed, with one eye on the feature films to come and brand recognition) of Will Riker dying and the show continuing with Lieutenant Riker. But TV wasn’t set up for that type of thing in the early 90s. Maybe it would have come across as Beerfest-y, I don’t know. Berman was probably right.

I’ve not seen the DS9 sequel. One of these days. Give it time; I'm sure he'll be killed on Picard or Discovery for no sensible reason.

5.

The Enterprise crew follow Data to San Francisco of the 1890s to find a way to prevent aliens from interfering with 19th century Earth. 

TNG’s best two-parter for my money. There are a few loose threads left dangling – still, as of this writing – with Guinan, but there always are with Guinan. All the rest of it is tied up nicely and is great fun to boot. 

I always say "I'll say more next time" when I split a two-parter over two posts, and then I usually go ahead and say more than I meant to in the first post. That happened here. I'm not sure what more I have to say on this one except it's all quite fun, and Mark Twain's turn aboard the Enterprise-D makes me happy.

Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat from X-Files, Trek three-peater (ie cast in TNG, DS9, and VOY) and Jan from The Office's real-world Dad) enjoyed playing Mark Twain so much that he toured with it as a one-man show for many years. I wouldn't change a thing about that, but it's too bad given all the other Trek/Cheers connections they couldn't have cast Woody Boyd.

4.

 

A transporter malfunction turns Picard, Keiko, Ro and Guinan into children 

who become the ship's only hope when the adult crew is forced 

to perform dangerous labor by Ferengi pirates.

I love this one, always have. Cute story, cute performances from the kids, and I like the kid playing Picard (David Birkin). The young lady (Isis Jones) playing young Guinan played young Whoopi in Sister Act, which is kind of cute.

Not much to say on this one. Is it realistic the Ferengi took over the Enterprise? Not for a moment. But as Jeri Taylor said, would anyone believe four kids taking the ship back from the Cardassians?

Here's another one where my girls watched with me. I'm loving sharing Trek with them, but man, the questions. Just pay attention, they'll answer that in the next scene! At least I didn't have to explain torture, nudity, or lizard-men here as I did when they watched some of "Chain of Command." (They call the Ferengi buttheads and then giggle. Naturally.) They loved young-Picard’s fake tantrum and all the Ro/ Guinan stuff. 

Just giving you the how-it-hit-the-seven-and-under-crowd report.

3.

 

The Enterprise investigates a vessel that crashed on the surface of a Dyson sphere 75 years ago. A pattern is found in the transporter buffer which turns out to be Montgomery Scott. 

Everything about this episode works. A nicer send off to Scotty, here, than any other TOS character. How’d that happen? (I’m not including Chekov’s unofficial one from Phase II, though that's a good one, too.) It might even be James Doohan's best performance all around. The scenes he shares with both Geordi and Picard all rock. 

It's a tad frustrating to learn nothing about whomever built the Dyson (or whatever the builders themselves called it - obviously not a Dyson) Sphere, but one must allow for these things, I suppose. Can't be a trail of breadcrumbs for everything they encounter. Big galaxy, lots of mysteries out there. (One wonders why Starfleet doesn't ever utilize the Time Police to figure out a few of them. I sure would.)

There's a moment at the end of this one where every Trekkie probably paused the show to call or email someone "They just transported without dropping shields!" Just a goof, apparently; everyone involved has mea culpa'd elsewhere and often. Can't catch 'em all.

2.

 

An accident kills Picard. He finds an afterlife with Q analyzing his past choices.

Bryant Burnette - who knows a thing or two about Trek and blogs about it at Where No Blog Has Gone Before - pointed out to me once that without this episode, "All Good Things..." doesn't work. Very true, this. "Tapestry" is the toss that won't land until the overhead smash of the series finale. So to speak - I mean, it lands perfectly fine all in this one episode, I just mean thematically for the whole series. It would've still had the symmetry with "Encounter" for Q to be in the finale, but Q was just silly godchild-genie fodder prior to this. Here, he shows, as Picard points out to Will at the end, actual compassion, and his Q-ness is integral to a compelling plot.

Granted it's a plot we've all seen play out on dozens of shows. You could call this the show's It's A Wonderful Life episode, and people would know exactly what you mean. Some shows are better suited for this sort of thing than others; TNG (and Patrick Stewart in particular) is definitely well-suited for it. 

Picard's a little hard on his alternate astrophysicist self, isn't he? "That man is bereft of passion and imagination. That is not who I am." Harsh, sir! The irony is were this astrophysicist on his staff he'd undoubtedly treat him with dignity and inspire him to be more than he knew he was capable of, but apparently the idea of actually being him makes the Captain say hurtful things.

1.

 

Barclay accidentally awakens Professor Moriarty on the holodeck who uses the powers at his disposal to coerce the crew into finding a way to allow him to leave the holodeck.

Does Barclay accidentally awaken Professor Moriarty or was Moriarty lying in wait for his opportunity to strike? 

I've made no secret over the years of my love for this episode. It's one of twenty or so TNG episodes that seems to get bumped up the list every time I watch it rather than bumped down. This process - holding up under questioning - is very important to me, and things that repeatedly do so over long stretches of time delight me. 

Things I love about this episode:

- Everything Moriarty (Daniel Davis) does or says and the way he does or says them.

- The surreal scene in Engineering where Data deduces how Moriarty "left" the holodeck.

- The Countess (Stephanie Beacham) and Moriarty's relationship.

- The nested-universes of the story as a chess game between Data and Moriarty, fulfilling the computer's challenge from back in "Elementary, Dear Data" for an opponent that can but not necessarily does beat Data.

- This idea that two computer programs could be out there exploring an entire virtual universe, fully stocked, one would imagine, with no reason to suspect anything other than the reality of their surroundings. The ultimate benevolent holo-sim.

- That shot of Moriarty and the Countess leaving the Enterprise and into the infinite, and the cut to Barclay et al closing the lid on it. 

- Everything else.

~

And now for some leftover screencaps.

Still lame.

"Wrong again, Albert."

Nichelle Nichols and Dr. Mae Jemison visit the set.

See you next time, Trekkerinos.