170 – Eye of the Beholder

Grade: C+

Summary

A young lieutenant serving on the Enterprise commits suicide by jumping into a plasma stream in the engine room. During the investigation of his death, Counselor Troi finds out he was at least partially empathic. Meanwhile, she and Worf start a romantic relationship.

Commentary

I watched this episode a bit out of order. The last episode I saw before this one was I, Borg, which was about 47 episodes earlier. This one came on TV the other day, so I thought I’d watch it, even though it would have been way out of order. In doing this, I noticed several things that I may not have if I had watched it more gradually. For one thing, I was really surprised at how different Counselor Troi suddenly looked. I really noticed a difference around her mouth. Lt Worf looks a whole lot better in this episode than he does in the first 4 or 5 seasons.

I didn’t really buy the relationship between Worf and Troi. It seemed the only reason Worf and Troi were becoming involved with each other was because it was required in the script. It just seemed fake. But I really liked the scene between Worf and Riker in Ten Forward. On the other hand, I’m really getting tired of the episodes when Riker puts the moves on yet another female. It was old years before this episode.

The storyline somehow seemed much more predictable this time than in other episodes. I don’t know exactly why that is. It just looked formulaic to me – as if everyone was going through the motions. And that’s probably the biggest reason why I rate this episode a bit low. Marina Sirtis’ acting skills don’t seem to have improved much. But maybe it’s just that her character is so poorly-written.

Last thing – I hated how this episode ended. I don’t want to ruin the surprise for you, so don’t read any more if you don’t want to hear about the ending. Essentially, it’s a variation of the “it was all a dream” ending. Terrible.

So overall, it’s certainly not my favorite episode.

Of Note

We get a chance to look inside the warp nacelles in this episode. I’m not sure if this is the only time we see them in this series, but if you’ve ever wondered what goes on inside them, now you know.