158 – Phantasms

Grade: B

Summary

Commander Data has his first nightmare, in which he sees all kinds of strange imagery. Eventually, his dreams start to infiltrate his waking moments, and he stabs Counselor Troi in one of the turbolifts.

Commentary

This is a pretty good episode – and one that I enjoy watching from time to time. The script is probably the best part of this episode, and I remember many lines from it even years after having seen it originally.

There are a few really great moments in this episode that I love to see. First, when Data asks Worf to care for his cat. This scene is hilarious. Coincidentally, about 5 months after this episode aired, Spot gave birth to kittens in “Genesis.” But in this episode, Spot is a male cat.

Michael Dorn has a small role in this episode, but he does a really great job in his comedic role. It’s also funny to see Geordi deal with the affections of Ensign Tyler. It’s funny because Geordi always has bad luck with women, and yet here’s one who is really interested in him, despite the fact that he’s not at all attracted to her.

But it’s not all great. I think Marina Sirtis overacts a bit in her role. The storyline is a bit contrived, and it seems to take a really long time for the crew to find out what’s going on and how to fix the problem. The scene on the holodeck with Geordi and Picard seems a bit unnecessary – especially because Data solves the mystery and Geordi and Picard just take up space and ask questions. But overall, it’s an episode that I enjoy watching from time to time. Not one of the very best, but still pretty good.

Of Note

This episode features a holodeck version of Dr. Sigmund Freud. He has a pretty funny scene when Data is trying to find out what the symbols in his dreams could possibly mean.