131 – Schisms

Grade: C

Summary

Commander Riker has been having trouble sleeping at night. In fact, he can’t stay awake at Mr. Data’s poetry recital. It soon becomes obvious that more officers besides Riker have been suffering from the same symptoms.

Commentary

This episode is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some pretty good parts, and some really flat parts. The acting is actually fairly lame, and the character development is practically non-existent. In addition, the storyline is not terribly memorable, and it’s not really one that I would want to see again for a while. It’s definitely not among my favorite TNG episodes.

One reason I don’t really like it that much is because of all the useless techno-babble that is in it. Just a couple of episodes ago, I complained about the same thing in Realm of Fear. But Schisms is even worse with even more technical jargon thrown in. I think I’m a fairly intelligent person, and I don’t mind some technical terms creeping into the show. But Schisms is really over the top with the lingo. It’s difficult to just sit back and enjoy the show.

But on the other hand, I can’t think of a better piece of writing than Data’s poetry recital. It was hilarious – and perfectly in-line with Data’s character. It was very easy to believe he is a robot – both because of the words he used and the way in which he delivered his poems.

Also, I thought the scene on the Holodeck when Counselor Troi helped the Enterprise officers create the room they’ve all been in before was very chilling and very effective. It could have been a bit better, though, if there hadn’t been such a big jump between the wooden table and the metal one.

So overall, it’s OK. A solid C, since the good and the bad balance each other out.

Of Note

It’s interesting that Dr. Crusher diagnoses Riker’s condition as a lack of REM sleep. This is the same issue everyone dealt with in a previous episode.