28 – Where Silence Has Lease

Grade: C

Summary

The Enterprise is on its way to explore an area of the galaxy that has not yet been visited by the Federation. On the way, they find an area of black space that appears and disappears at random.

Commentary

This episode is fairly interesting. It starts off weird, with Riker and Worf on the holodeck, fighting some weird-looking aliens. I’m not sure what that was all about, but later in the episode, Worf points a phaser at Riker, mirroring when he was about to attack him with a battle ax on the holodeck. But I still don’t know why this holodeck scene was necessary.

One reason I don’t like the second season episodes is because of Dr. Pulaski. She’s a very annoying character. In this episode, she walks onto the bridge and starts insulting Commander Data: “it does know how to do these things, doesn’t it?” I wonder what makes her think Data would be a bridge officer at all if the answer to her question was “no.” Anyway, right after that, she says he’s nothing more than a machine. Sheesh.

But one thing that was very nicely done is when the fake Troi and fake Data show up in Picard’s quarters, trying to convince him not to destroy the Enterprise. I must admit I agree with Pulaski here – blowing up the ship so that 30% of the crew won’t die is a bit like curing a patient by killing him. But Picard figures it out quickly enough.

Overall, it’s a nice episode, but not one of my favorites.

Of Note

There was one point near the end of this episode when Wesley Crusher is suddenly not on the bridge. Instead, there is a random “red shirt” in his place at the helm. We all know what that means. I guess the writers didn’t want Wesley to die so they replaced him with someone else.