155 – Interface

Grade: C-

Summary

Geordi LaForge receives news that the USS Hera, the ship led by Captain LaForge (his mother) is missing. He believes she is still alive and he plans to rescue her using a virtual reality interface program.

Commentary

I thought I had seen every single Star Trek episode that had ever been on television. But as I have watched these in order recently, I have noticed just a few of them from which I can’t remember any details at all – dialogue, scenes, special effects, or bits of detail of any kind. Usually, these episodes are the weakest of the series, and Interface is certainly one of the weak ones.

I don’t want to be too harsh on this episode. Levar Burton plays his role very well in this episode, and there are some other good performances to speak of. But in general, the storyline is just not that interesting, and it dragged a lot. There were some decent scenes, like when Riker talks about when his mother died and how he finally learned to deal with it. There are also plenty of good scenes with Commander Data, where he has to deal with his loyalty to Geordi, and the facts.

But one thing really bothered me about this episode. LaForge was the only one who thought his mother was still alive, and he tried everything he knew to rescue her. Star Trek has had many episodes like this where one person believes one thing is true while everyone else “knows” better. But unlike every other episode that has this kind of storyline, in Interface it turns out the lone officer is completely wrong. Data was right about the exocomps being alive, despite everyone else’s doubts. Wesley Crusher was right that Lore was not Data, even though all the adults thought he was nuts. Dr Crusher was right about the metaphasic shielding. Captain Picard was right about the time shifting thing in “All Good Things.” Guinan was right about the timeline being all messed up in “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” And the list goes on and on. And yet when Geordi gets his big moment like that, it turns out he’s wrong. But the entire episode is written so that the viewer sides with Geordi, who is the only person besides the viewer to see his mother’s figure. So the episode threw me for a loop there, and it turns out it was a real let-down. Why would I care if these alien life forms can return to the level of the atmosphere where they can survive? If the question is saving these random aliens or saving LaForge’s mother, I’m certainly on the side of saving his mother instead. And yet we never hear about her again. And I’m supposed to like this episode? No, I don’t think so. Skip this one.

Of Note

Madge Sinclair plays Geordi’s mother, Captain LaForge of the USS Hera. She also played the Captain of the USS Saratoga in the 1986 Star Trek film, the Voyage Home.