163 – Parallels

Grade: A

Summary

Worf is returning from a bat’leth competition – he won the championship. It is also his birthday, and he doesn’t like surprise parties. Suddenly, he has a dizzy spell, and then he notices several details that have changed. He later finds out that he is jumping from one alternate reality to another.

Commentary

This is a great episode – it’s definitely one of a very few episodes that I can watch over and over again and never get tired of. In fact, it’s one of my top all time favorites in any Star Trek series. There are of course, many other episodes that are also very good, but this is one of the most enjoyable.

By far, the best part of this episode has to be the storyline. It’s a lot of fun to see how Worf deals with jumping from one reality to another. But I was also pleasantly surprised to see the Worf/Troi romance in some parts. The first scene when Worf is married to Troi is very funny. One thing that makes this episode so much fun to watch is to notice all the subtle details that are suddenly different – uniform colors, the bridge layout, personnel, etc.

One other thing makes this episode great – it takes a principle of quantum physics and makes a great story about it. This is what science fiction is all about, in my opinion. It’s not just about aliens and spaceships and time travel, etc., but it’s also about taking a scientific principle and asking “what if”. In this case the question is “what if Worf was shifting from one reality to another but everyone else stayed the same?”

So anyway, I really like this one.

Of Note

This episode has a lot of fun references – there’s a Cardassian Ensign on the bridge, there are some aggressive Bajorans, Riker as Captain, and even a Lt. Wesley Crusher at the tactical station.

I couldn’t believe how big those slices of birthday cake were. Holy cow. My mother wouldn’t let me eat that much cake in an entire week.

In one scene, Data has blue eyes. It’s never referenced, so I’m not sure it was on purpose, but it happens right after Worf transitions to a different reality.