The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-12-01 at 7:27am:
  - In one of her personal logs, Unari yearns for a glass of real muskin seed punch, the kind her mother used to make. She doesn't think the replicator does a very good job. Later, Geordi brings her a glass of muskin seed punch in Ten-Forward and Unari acts like it is wonderful. Is Unari just trying to make Geordi feel good or did Geordi get into Guinan's personal supply?
  - This coalescent being is either not very smart or it made a bad mistake. Crusher states that it probably has to change bodies every few days. The episode supports this by saying that the coalesced officer arrived at the relay station several days before the incident with Unari. Supposedly he attacked Unari because he needed the food. But the episode's dialogue indicates that the station assignment lasts for a year. What was the being going to do after it consumed Unari and her dog? The station is out in the middle of nowhere. If the being absorbed the officer before he arrived at the station, why would he go somewhere with such a limited supply of nutrition?
  - Someone made a mistake in the sound effects department. During the last scene between Geordi and Unari, they sit together in Ten-Forward. At one point, the "boop" sound effect for a companel page momentarily interrupts their conversation. Strangely, no one pages Geordi or Unari, and the scene continues as if nothing happened!
• From sarah on 2008-07-20 at 11:45pm:
  was the dog a berger picard (dog breed) ?
• From JRPoole on 2008-09-19 at 3:03pm:
  I agree. This one is "absolutely dull and sad." Geordi can't get a break with the ladies to save his life. What is it about Engineers and women? Scottie had this kind of luck as well.
  
  Apart from that, the saddest thing is that a pretty cool idea gets completely wasted here. I love the idea of the coalescent being, but the way it's executed here is just boring. The plot just sort of plods along and then explodes at the very end with the dog attaching LaForge.
  
  Think for a second how shitty an assignment Aquiel has in the first place. She's stuck on a remote outpost for at least a year with only one other person for company, but she's listening to everybody's communication. It would have driven her crazy even if her new partner hadn't been a homicidal blob of ectoplasm. Now that's something that could have been explored a little better. But, alas, this episode squanders it all. I bump it up a point for at least having an interesting premise, so it's a 2.
• From Jeremy Reffin on 2009-08-03 at 5:20am:
  I'm having problems recreating the murder scene here. Rocha/Blob attacks Uhnari in order to absorb her. Does it succeed a bit (Geordi suggests an initiation of coalescence may have been responsible for her loss of memory) ? Uhnari phasers the blob down to scrap DNA - interfering with the absorption process ?? Uhnari flees to shuttlecraft having interrupted absorption ??? Bits of blob (missed by the phaser meltdown of Rocha ????) then absorb the pooch ????? Or something. Sheesh what a mess.
  
  I know - who cares, get a life.
• From thaibites on 2012-07-05 at 1:53am:
  Hey, at least this chick was real and not some computer generated fantasy.
• From Arianwen on 2013-01-02 at 12:40pm:
  The episode isn't just dull, it's idiotic as well.
  - Uhnari confesses to Geordi that she deleted the logs because she "was afraid that if they found the letter they'd blame [her] for the murder". This directly contradicts her earlier statement: if she had no memory of a murder, then she had no reason to get rid of the evidence! Or memory of having removed the logs at all, for that matter. Did she delete the logs AFTER she came to the Enterprise? If so, what kind of incompetence would allow a bloody murder suspect to teleport off the damn ship?
  - Crusher, Picard, Riker and Worf are all aware of the shape-shifting organism. Not ONE of them thinks of the dog. Riker even has a conversation with Geordi while PETTING it - even the Red Dwarf crew would have noticed!
  Everyone's holding the Stupid ball today. One can only assume the senior staff are still concussed from their previous adventure.
• From Mike on 2017-04-23 at 10:30pm:
  By far the worst episode of Season 6. I agree that Aquiel's story never adds up even after her "memory drain" is explained and her fight with Lieutenant Blobcha. The entire Klingon thing turns out to be a red herring. La Forge spends a big chunk of the episode getting to know this woman only to have it go absolutely nowhere. And, after all of that, his skirmish with the coalescent being is painful to watch.
  
  At least they brought Leah Brahms-the real one-back for some continuity and development of Geordi's character. Aquiel gets an episode named after her, makes quite an impression on the Chief Engineer, and then disappears for good.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-04-15 at 4:36am:
  I'd give it a 2 instead of a 1 because it does have some fairly comical moments
• From JRPoole on 2008-11-17 at 3:40pm:
  My (admittedly now vague) memory of DS9 is that it was the high point of the Trek franchise, so it's been a bit surprising to me in my current run through the series to find that, after the promising pilot, the early part of the first season flounders with some truly unremarkable episodes.
  
  "Dax" is a bad episode and doesn't really even get to accomplish the character development it shoots for because the episode is handled so badly. "The Passenger" is lackluster because we pretty much know that Julian is the one carrying Vantika's consciousess from the very beginning.
  
  Then we get this mess: Annoying, ridiculously over-the-top alien-of-the-week. What amounts to a recylced holodeck-malfunction-puts-crew-in-danger plot, and then there turns out to be no real danger at all. On top of that, none of this really makes any sense. At least there are some comical moments.
  
  Also, what's with Primmin? I have no recollection of him, and I can only assume that he goes away quietly after a few episodes. Was he simply a replacement for O'brien during his short stay away from the station?
• From Bernard on 2009-12-02 at 7:03pm:
  Couldn't bring myself to watch this one again in my current 'revisiting' of the series. So it must be bad.
• From John on 2011-01-06 at 12:58am:
  It cannot be overstated how much I completely hate, Hate, HATE this episode.
  
  The worst show of the entire series. The only good thing you can say about it is that they got it out of the way early.
• From Tallifer on 2011-03-08 at 6:22am:
  This story is similar to "The Celestial Toymaker" from early black & white Doctor Who, and believe it or not, the hoary 60s show did it far better. In the Whovian story, there was a real threat that the characters would be trapped forever as toys of the game-playing Toymaker. The games were equally silly and easy to overcome, but the dialogue and the villain were more convincing.
• From Zaphod on 2011-04-16 at 10:18am:
  I really enjoyed watching the first season of DS9 so far, much better storytelling than any other Star Trek series and more interesting characters than the one dimensional ones TNG had ... except for Ro Laren, love her, a real shame that she didnt want to play the Kira character (but Nana Visitor is awesome too).
  
  And because DS9 was really great to this point I am very offended by this terrible episode.
  I think the biggest problem is that Odos reaction to the game didnt make any sense. If he really feared that these aliens would play with the lives of Sisko and the others why didnt he force them to end this immediately? But no, they played along and gambled for their lives! That's just bloody stupid and even vicious. I cant find words for how much I hate this lazy written bullshit episode!
• From Shani on 2014-01-12 at 12:50pm:
  I watched every episode of ds9 when I was a child. For some reason this is the only episode I can remember clearly. Now that I'm re-watching this episode it does seem a little ridiculous. But I still like it for some reason (probably nostalgia more than anything else).
• From BV on 2015-10-28 at 5:35pm:
  Glad to see I am not alone in being appalled by this episode

No fan commentary yet.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From bernard on 2010-10-16 at 9:05am:
  I agree, interesting episode but somewhat 'flat' and pedestrian.
  
  Not sure I liked the way Avery Brooks played it either, if this episode is supposed to 'deal' with his feelings about his wife then it fails badly. (We still await the rejuvenated Sisko that is due to appear complete with shaven head later on). He fawns after Fenna and then when he realises she is married... nothing. It's like setting up some sort of betrayal and then just dropping it.
  
  Perhaps this could have played better using the Defiant later in the series too. There could have been slightly more tension between Sisko/Seyetik/Seyetik's wife and also Sisko might have felt more responsibility for what happens...
  
  I'm clutching at ideas here, it's a pretty poor episode and that's it really.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-19 at 10:13am:
  This episode represents yet another example of Star Trek's use of the "onesie", the tight, form-fitting, one piece outfit worn by young, attractive females for the purpose of pandering to the male prurient interest.
  
  Not that I am complaining. As an attractive young female, Fenna does not disappoint. It seems obvious to me tha Sisko is not in love with Fenna (at least not yet); he simply has the hots for her. (And who can blame him?)
  
  Other uses of the onesie: Troi after losing the micro-mini outfit she wore in TNG: Adventure at Farpoint, Seven (of course), Kira (although it doesn't really work with Kira, Nana Visitor is not that hot), TNG: Legacy where the main guest character, Ishara Yarr (Tasha's sister) gets an electric blue onesie (with a color coordinated phaser holster!) to show off her smoking' hot bod which is given oodles and gobs of airtime by the camera folks.
  
  The onesie is a reminder that, for all its pretensions, Star Trek is largely for us horny, sexually repressed geeks.
• From John on 2011-12-08 at 5:19am:
  Wouldn't it be a better idea to just consider the nonsense of "TNG: Force of Nature" to be the problem, and not hold it against all future episodes when they blatantly ignore the stupid "warp drive destroys the universe" premise? I mean, If you're gonna give "Force of Nature" a zero rating, why should you consider it a problem when nearly every subsequent episode ignores it? I rather like future episodes not reminding me of such an arbitrary "rule."
  
  Anyway... I found this episode to be pretty boring. Not because it was a romance episode, but because I just wasn't buying the Fenna character. Her calm demeanor seems way too studied to work with Sisko's boisterous/laid-back dual nature.
• From Bronn on 2013-07-02 at 6:38am:
  It's episodes like this that made my friends describe this show as, "Soap Opera in SPACE," back during its run. Sisko is getting over the death of his wife, and he meets a new woman! But a twist! She's Married! But another twist-she's not really Fenna, she's a psycho-productive illusion of Fenna! Oh, how will our crazy cast sort this out?!
  
  I have no issue with a romance plot, and no issue with Sisko dealing with his grief. Those are good human issues to explore. This kind of cheesy plot manipulation, trying to shove both of those down our throats in order to set up a lame, uninteresting twist, is what this show wasn't meant to be about. I adored Cassidy Yates when she showed up later, because she actually made more sense than Sisko falling for the AOTW.
  
  And yeah, I agree with the sentiment that the B-Plot for the week was much more interesting. This would have made a much better episode without the Fenna character.
• From Martin on 2014-03-19 at 4:31am:
  As i understand it, a gigantic, massive thing as a star has only so many ways to "die". None of wich includes becoming something like we see in this episode...looks more like a gigantic dead planet or something, no light emitted of any sort. So i looked it up, turns out there's this theory that tells us that a white dwarf star (what a small-middle sized star becomes after it dies) cools down over the eons and it's supposed to become a "black dwarf star", cristalized, solid and with no light emitted whatsoever.
  Anyway, besides the fact that we couldn't see this type of dead stars and we clarly see it on the viewing screen of the Prometheus, it's quite impressive to me that the writers took so many detail on this sort of thingies...loved it.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2008-10-30 at 7:03pm:
  Ughh. Ferengi are almost always terribly executed on TNG. Ughh. Picard's son turns out not to be. Ughh. How the hell did Bok a) find out about a two-week affair of Picard's from a quarter century ago, b) find the kid, c) manipulate his genes without his knowing about it, and d) know the Enterprise would be near Caymore in the first place. On top of all this, we have an interesting idea for a planet--a colony in collapse following the Cardassian war--and we never even set foot on it.
  
  Science alert: if you change someone's genes, the cells will be different when they reproduce. In a few cell cycles, you'd have a completely different person.
  
  This is terrible. Utterly, utterly, unwatchably terrible. The son is a complete douche, and not in an interesting way. His acting is terrible, he's badly written, and his reaction to being transported unexpectedly is completely unbelievable. The first episode with Bok wasn't that great in the first place, so it's not the best episode to return to here. I can't believe this is one of the pentultimate TNG episodes. I vaguely remembered it from the first run, and I figured it was lost in the middle of the series somewhere, not featured prominently at the end.
• From John Smith on 2011-10-23 at 4:28pm:
  Not a very good episode by any means but it does contain one of my favorite scenes in all of TNG: someone finally telling the ever presumptuous Troi to buzz off. She has never met this person before but she, unsolicited, takes it upon herself to see if he wants to open up her about his whole life. His response was quite appropriate and refreshing in that the always sanctimonious Troi was put in her place.
• From Shani on 2014-12-16 at 9:47am:
  From memory alpha: "Sagan noted that the original premise ("Fugue") was a lot darker than the aired episode. "The idea was that Bok had genetically engineered this kid from birth and advanced his growth and had been giving him memories of Picard abandoning him on the Stargazer. Then Bok was using one of the mind balls to give Picard these vague flashes of false memories, making him think that it was possible he had this sort of fugue-like experience where he basically abandoned his son on the Stargazer and blocked it out of his mind. I don't know if it would have ever worked or not, but it was kind of a really interesting, dark aspect and it gave you a sense of abandonment and trying to recapture this sense of a son he never had. Then it turns out that it's not that at all." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)"
  
  Why did they not make that episode? That would have actually been brilliant and interesting to watch. I can see them trying to argue that it would be too dark for TNG but it would have been brilliant
• From tigertooth on 2017-02-11 at 3:04am:
  The first question Picard would have asked was "Why is Bok warning me about the fact that he's going after my son? Why wouldn't he get my son first?" The warning was the obvious signal that this was Bok's trap. Completely ridiculous that Picard and crew fell for it.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Tony on 2008-09-07 at 1:56am:
  A bad James Bond movie maybe, but when does James bond have to deal with a well intending starship crew that keeps messing up his plans? Although the episode does has it's fair share of faults involving the time travel aspect, it is generally fun to watch, with odd situations and a small element of mystery as to what Gary's intentions are. On the other hand the Enterprises presence was crucial to the story, a spin off series just wouldn't work (though I am curious as to how it would turn out). It's a fun episode, just don't take it too seriously or the fun is lost.
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2010-08-27 at 2:46am:
  I just watched the Blu-Ray upgrade of this episode, and I have to say it's the worst of the "upgrades" I have seen so far. The picture quality looks the same, like they didn't even bother to clean it up. I also thought they would ifnd better stock footage of the rocket, but I guess there's not that much to choose from.
  
  The plot is decent. It has many whimsical moments thrown in even though it's about nuclear war. That's okay though. Overall, I'm never too thrilled when I have to watch this episode again (I watch them in order every few years), but afterward I always think, "that wasn't so bad."
• From Strider on 2012-06-21 at 2:35pm:
  I thought it was a boring episode, too--and what was the point of arming the rocket with a nuclear warhead just so he could disarm it 104 feet from the surface of the planet? Anyway, it was fun to see a young Terri Garr, and Robert Lansing reminded me a lot of Steve McQueen.
• From Mosh on 2012-07-15 at 3:14am:
  There were some weird similarities with Doctor Who in this episode. Gary Seven as a time traveler from another planet, with a very sonic screwdriver-type weapon and a human companion. The cat-lady would set it apart, though. Also, the quality.
• From Alan Feldman on 2012-11-19 at 7:07am:
  Assignment: Earth
  
  I agree with Kethinov completely about how the time travel bit made no sense.
  
  At the end when Kirk has to decide whether to let Mr. Seven use the computer, his reasoning makes no sense. He says to Mr. Seven, "I don't know what your job _is_. You may set those controls so we can't detonate that warhead." It's clear that Spock almost certainly can't detonate it anyway! The only logical course of action is to let Mr. Seven at the computer.
  
  And why are Kirk and Spock suddenly in uniform after Gary saves the day?
  
  Check out the cat girl's top. It's just kind of hanging from her neck. Well, take a careful look. You'll see what I mean.
  
  To Strider: The point of setting the warhead was to scare the major powers to into stopping the orbiting nuclear warhead platform madness. Recall that those running the launch learned the rocket had somehow armed itself. That's the first scare. And you need the explosion to truly scare people. Yeah, it's too risky to be a good idea, but I didn't write the episode.
  
  AEF
• From Francis McMenamin on 2013-01-07 at 6:29pm:
  I think most of the Assignment Earth detractors miss the point. The episode is about paranoia- the crew of the Enterprise go back in time on a research mission to find out why Earth was almost consumed in nuclear conflagration in 1968! The Federation must have had incomplete records and wanting to know more dispatched Kirk & co to clear up the mystery- a need to know more based on paranoia of a sort if you will- further fuelled by Kirk's seriousness about the mission and his discomfort with what the interloper GARY SEVEN was up to and the potential consequences for the timeline. Earth was at a delicate stage in its development and indeed if you follow the Star Trek timeline there was indeed a Third World War sometime in the 21st century according to Spock in another episode. Paranoia abounds in Assignment Earth with a lack of trust between the main protagonists; Kirk and Spock vis-a-vis SEVEN and Roberta Lincoln and SEVEN, Roberta and ISIS. It's a cold war space action adventure/espionage intrigue where conflicting agendas take centre stage. In my opinion it works on that level, is a rattling good adventure with plenty of twists and turns containing great classic Star Trek moments. The fact you are still arguing about it 45 odd years later speaks for itself! JJ Abrams take note!
• From ALAN E FELDMAN on 2017-07-15 at 1:54am:
  ASSIGNMENT: EARTH Post #2.
  
  I think the best part of this episode is the Apollo 4 launch. That's a Saturn V. That gets you to the moon. You don't need such a big rocket to put something in earth orbit. Ridiculous. But we get some excellent clear shots of the launch! Can't find anything better on YouTube.
  
  Again with a big age difference: Terri Garr was about 20 at the time, while Robert Lansing was about 40. Kind of a big spread for a couple. (Their becoming a couple was strongly hinted at at the end.)
  
  The catgirl was wearing what appears to me to be a bib. And what was the point of that temporary transformation of the cat, anyway? Just some random eye candy and filler, I guess.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-06-25 at 6:24pm:
  This is what happens when the writing staff takes LSD before creating the script. This is an absolute off the wall episode that differs from anything that has ever been produced in the Trek universe. Usually, having an off the wall episode brings vitality to a show, but Masks fails on many levels.
  
  It is hard to believe that while the ship is being converted to an alien landscape, that no vital systems would disappear, causing destruction. By the way, where was the rest of the crew in this episode. Did they send everyone to their quarters?
  
  On top of all that, this episode is just boring. The plot develops at a snail's pace as the crew tries to discover what the solution is. It feels like a bad three-hour movie. The dialog between Picard, Worf, Riker, and Troi is drab. There are attempts at humor ("the observation lounge is a swamp"), but nobody is laughing as they watch this episode.
  
  The shameful thing is, the idea behind this episode is fantastic. It probably would have worked if the alien device did not possess Data. I would have rather seen the actual aliens appearing on the ship. The episode does not fail in the art department, however. It seems like they spent a lot of time and money to produce the set pieces.
  
  I would give this episode a 0, but I'll give it a 1 because of its artistic quality.
• From David Murray on 2011-04-01 at 7:48pm:
  I recently aquired the entire series of TNG and decided to watch them all from beginning to end. I was very pleased to discover that there were about 4 episodes that somehow I had never seen on TV before and so it was cool to get to watch "new" episodes of TNG. However, the last of these "new" episodes for me was Masks. I must admit I could barely make it through this episodes. I was cringing constantly at how horrible it was. Not only was it down right dumb, but it was also boring. Take the TOS episode "Spock's Brain" which people say is really bad. Well, it is bad. But despite out dumb it is, it is actually fun to watch. Masks is not entertaining in the least. In fact I'd probably have fallen asleep except for the cringing of bad scenes keeping me awake. I would probably rate this as the worst episode of all time.
• From MJ on 2011-04-26 at 6:10pm:
  I guess I'm one of the few who didn't find this one so bad. Average, yes, but not horrible.
  
  The main problem I have is how long it takes the crew to recognize that Korgano is the moon. Picard should have figured that out almost immediately. Instead, they stretch the problem out beyond believability. This is what makes a potentially solid episode average, in my view.
  
  As for vital ship systems not falling victim to transformation, I suppose it could be explained that this archive is so advanced and sophisticated that it could recognize which aspects of the ship are safe to transform...after all, this thing apparently interfaced with Data and uploaded thousands of personalities into his system. Clearly the technology is beyond that of the Federation in some regards.
  
  It does seem strange that such an advanced culture would be so superstitious as to believe in sun-goddesses and moon-gods. However, it could be that the creators of this archive were actually showcasing their own ancient history, rather than the way their culture was at the time the archive was built.
  
  So I think some loose ends can be tied up here but I agree it's very dull at some points. With Spiner's acting, the set design, and at least a somewhat plausible story, I give it a 5.
• From Bronn on 2011-10-05 at 9:02pm:
  I have to agree with the above commenter. It's by no means a classic episode, and the premise is silly, with a lot of nonsense science. But Spiner and Stewart are excellent actors who really want to make this high-concept (shudder whenever Brennan Braga ever uses that phrase) story work. What I love about Brent Spiner is that he really commits-they ask him to play a series of different mythological personalities that are taking over Data's programming, and he absolutely runs with it. Watching him provides the only moments when this episode is not completely absurd. I'd give it a 4, just based on how much I like Brent Spiner.
• From Arbit on 2012-05-01 at 9:03pm:
  Just awful. Some "highlights":
  
  - Picard getting impatient and deciding to just melt the comet (!??!?)
  - Ancient civilization capable of creating a gigantic space temple many times the size of the enterprise living in fear of a sun god
  - The crew struggling to identify the crescent-shaped companion symbol of the sun symbol (perhaps... they are antlers?)
  - Alien communication device accidentally transmutes spaceship parts into crappy looking concrete blocks and random jungle foliage (I can see it causing power surges and other weird phenomenon, but what sort of communications tech screws up so bad it starts transmuting matter? Maybe I'll try to plug a USB flashdrive into an old PS2 port and see if my computer will transmute my couch into gold bricks)
  - Picard literally talking the sun god to sleep
  - Etc etc
  
  Maybe the worst part about this episode is it was a waste of a totally awesome premise. An ancient 87+ million year old comet/temple, traveling in deep space to nowhere, starts to interfere with the ship's systems, projecting strange runes on readouts and materializing strange totems everywhere! What sort of Cthulian interdimensional horror have the crew uncovered? The crew, belonging to an intergalactic hippie empire, immediately assume it's an ancient repository of information. "Yeah right" you think. "And the creators chucked into deep space where no one had any reasonable chance of finding it? Set course for INSANITY, warp ten billion!!!"
  
  No, it's really just an archive and it accidentally started projecting its boring sun/moon god mythology onto the ship.
• From L on 2013-05-04 at 9:36am:
  A proto-Egyptian/Sumerian civilisation's equivalent of the afterlife; they've somehow recorded the personalities and experiences of key citizens, stuck that record in a starship, inside a comet, and they replay themselves through any available medium once activated, ie, Data and the Enterprise's computer system.
  Interesting and silly at the same time. What was so important about this scenario that a civilisation developed technology that only rational minds could produce, to replay something that only irrational superstition could produce?
  An ironic public service announcement?
  I like the idea of exploring the intersection between myth and high-tech ability, but was not convinced.
  
• From Daniel on 2014-01-25 at 8:01am:
  My biggest complaint about this episode is that Picard - despite his extensive studies of mythology and ancient cultures - could not figure out that the crescent moon symbol he kept seeing was the moon. As many cultures use similar symbols, and he already knew the other symbol was the sun, it was an obvious correlation.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion on 2011-05-08 at 4:51am:
  Silly and over-the-top, but we like that in an old episode of Trek. You also get a possible moral lesson; the episode may be alluding to the Vietnam war, as well as racial tensions of the time. We even see Spock almost go into a racial rage. These kind of moral components in Trek can sometimes be too obvious, but this episode keeps the issues just under the surface.
  
  Regarding the high def release:
  The outside-the-ship shots near the beginning of the episode have been improved quite a bit.
• From Alan Feldman on 2012-09-03 at 6:04am:
  This is a fun episode.
  
  Michael Ansara is great as Kang, no?
  
  Walter Koenig does some great screaming, no?
  
  The scene where the alien entity changes the ship's course to exit the galaxy (starting at 12:12) is great! It starts with Uhura getting all worked up over her trouble making outside contact while telling Kirk about it. Then the boom and the ship starts shaking. I love how Shatner plays this. Look at the fear in his face as he backs away from Sulu. At one point you can even see him swallow. Very well done!
  
  I think the alien special effect was also well done. When it goes down the corridor and goes down into the hole, it looks like it's really at that distance (well, pretty damn close, at worst). It looks pretty good the rest of the time, too.
  
  Right about 21:24, Sulu gives a quick karate chop to a shoulder of one of the Klingons. This knocks him unconscious. Is it really this easy to bring a man down? (Hey, who needs the Vulcan neck pinch when a simple karate chop will do?) This type of thing happens a lot in Star Trek TOS.
  
  At about 35:23, the alien entity shows itself to Kirk, Spock, and Mara. Why? How can an all-powerful entity make a simple blunder like this? Overconfidence, I guess. And what does it take to convince Mara that the alien entity, which is in plain sight, is responsible for all the violence? On top of this, Lt. Johnson enters the scene all agitated by the alien entity, all charged up, ready to kill all the Klingons -- "It's them or us, isn't it?" -- thereby providing a clear example of what's going on. Then Kirk and Spock figure out the whole schmear, explain it clearly with Mara right there, with all of them staring at the entity, and _still_ she doesn't believe.
  
  I love seeing everyone getting so worked up seeking vengeance (losing it, so to speak). Everything is normal and then an individual suddenly gets angry, agitated, and vengeful (or enters the scene this way). It's always a trip when our heroes get out of character, like Spock on spores in "This Side of Paradise", or Chekov in "The Way to Eden".
  
  Intra-ship beaming: "Pinpoint accuracy is required. If the transportee should materialize inside a solid object . . ." says Spock. Well, there never seems to be a problem with materializing with one's feet in the ground, or one hanging in the air, or one's head in the ceiling, or upside-down, etc. Whatever. Just add it to all the other absurdities I mentioned in my comments on another episode (The World is Hollow . . . , I believe).
  
  The actress playing Mara does some great acting when Chekov is upon her.
  
  Did you catch Mara tossing a sword to Kirk? What a great toss and a great catch! Doesn't seem to me to be such an easy thing to do. That's probably why it was done in separate shots.
  
  I like it when Bones, Spock, and a few red-shirts just walk down the corridor (la-dee-dah) and suddenly start sword fighting with a few of the Klingons. Great scene.
  
  The alien's ability to rapidly heal the wounded -- even those with fatal wounds -- is a bit much. But we couldn't have a story, otherwise.
  
  At the end: Boy, what does it take to convince Kang that there's an alien entity keeping them fighting? It's in plain sight and still he pauses. Kirk clearly explains what's going on and he's still not convinced. I think either Kang thinks it's "one of Kirk's tricks" (perhaps a holographic projection) or his heart is hardened -- no, sorry -- his mind is affected by the entity.
  
  It seems to me that there are a few times when the alien is the wrong color.
  
  OK, here's my big question for this episode: The Federates (is there a better term? "Members of the Federation"? "The humans and Spock"?) and the Klingons make peace. The alien entity departs. Then what? Kirk just gives them a ride to the nearest Klingon outpost or planet? What do these sworn enemies do along the way? Have dinner together, play cards and 3D chess, engage in some light chit chat, dance and party with each other?
  
  Imagine being Kang and having to explain this to your superior: "Yeah, an entity made of blurry spinning-pinwheel lights killed 400 of my crew, made us and the Federates all angry, agitated, and vengeful over nothing, turned phasers and other items into swords, sent us racing out of the galaxy at warp 9, . . . ." Yep.
  
  Kirk's speech to the entity is a little too preachy and, well, silly. There has to be a better way to end it.
  
  Side note: The Klingon ships just don't look scary to me. The head of the ship looks like it's wearing a hat. The Romulan ships look much more menacing.
  
  Bonus point: Was the name "Klingon" derived from "cling on"?
  
  AEF
• From Scott Hearon on 2014-04-12 at 2:23am:
  I have several problems with this one, though there was enough to keep me engaged throughout the tale.
  
  Firstly, if the agitating force was composed of pure energy, why did is linger around where the humans or Klingons could see it an surmise its essence? Pretty stupid that, for an otherwise exceptionally powerful entity.
  
  On top of that, the writers played it pretty fast and loose with exactly what this creature could do. It can transform physical objects into whatever will stimulate hatred, but it can't do so when the combatants start to figure things out and act against it? It doesn't really hold up under much scrutiny.
  
  The ending was horrendously awkward. Watching the Enterprise crew and the Klingons forcing themselves to laugh at the antagonist, leading right into the credits was just plain weird and abrupt.
  
  And my god, the amount of bronzer used on the caucasian actors playing the Klingons? Yikes.
  
  And still, there were a few decent things about this episode. As a study of the culture of violence, it does show some thoughtful consideration of the futility of hatred of such a stance. The Klingons exemplify one of the more destructive aspects of the human experience, and this episode does a nice job of using that idea effectively. Unfortunately, this is one of the few positives about this episode.
  
  
• From life coaching jobs mn on 2015-11-05 at 10:14am:
  Kathy Lester, a monetary marketing consultant, mentioned the retreats supply the prospect to
  unplug from expertise and the demands of life while focusing upon spirituality.
• From Chris Long on 2018-08-05 at 2:01am:
  The most stupid episode of all time!
  Good god!
  Really? "You wrecked my ship and therefore I claim yours"? Really?!?!
  Then the beam-up 'treachery'?!? Kirk has to be honorable in this BS? War sucks baby, even an honorable one!
  Pure nonsense through and through and the entire premise is stupid beyond words!!!
  I hate the episode at every turn!!!
  Spock's Brain was far more entertaining and even realistic!!!
  
  Who wrote this crap?
• From Pietro on 2019-07-07 at 3:04pm:
  Kethinov, you're biggest problem with the episode is that it takes them all a long time to figure out that the entity is responsible for the conflict. But, the way that this makes sense is to say that they're under the influence of the entity that makes them lust for violence, and aren't thinking straight. But yes, we don't exactly understand this until 3/4 of the way through, so it's annoying to us as viewers that they don't question it.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From David Chambers on 2009-06-30 at 5:42pm:
  Just an observation; Anyone notice how Harry's accent changes when he's arguing with Janeway. It seems to become (I stand to be corrected) more 'Korean'.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-09-08 at 1:40am:
  I found Harry's decision to remain with Voyager to be reprehensible. He causes Tal, a beautiful alien woman to fall in love with him. Problem is for that species love is a physical bond which requires years to recover from, and carries grave risk if not continued, possibly even death. Despite this, and although Harry is supposedly devoted to Tal, he abandons her to her fate. Obviously, he would have been free to either join her, or have her join him. I would have found either ending much more satisfying. Certainly, Harry's supposed "love" for Tal is shown to be very shallow, given his callous disregard for her welfare.
• From Inga on 2013-12-12 at 8:51pm:
  I really hate those cheesy "one day romance" plots. Those cheap love stories with zero chemistry have become a sort of plot device in Star Trek.
• From thaibites on 2015-01-07 at 10:18am:
  I knew this one would suck because every time there's an outstanding episode like Dark Frontier, the next one is awful.
• From Dstyle on 2015-07-07 at 5:13pm:
  "I'm violating about half a dozen regulations by just being in this room. And what we did earlier... (chuckle) I don't know if Starfleet even has a regulation for that. Except, you know, that regulation I quote to Janeway later in the episode, from the manual that is 3 centimeters thick. I guess maybe Starfleet has a regulation for this after all. Not that anyone reads it or cares about it, though--probably because it's printed on paper for some reason. James Kirk, Will Riker, Tom Paris, Harry Kim. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think? It's like the Mount Rushmore of Interstellar Booty Calls! Yeah, nevermind Tal: I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get in trouble for this at all. Now back in that bed! Let's get all glowy again!"
  
  Okay, ignoring the fact that inter-species sexy time happens ALL THE TIME in Star Trek, I thought this episode was actually pretty great. It was visually stunning, with that amazing opening shot of the ship that pans right into Tal's quarters and the long, single-take shot during Janeway and Kim's argument. And Harry Kim, a character who is usually just a wet mop in a Starfleet uniform, is actually pretty interesting and relatable here. And since this "disease" will take months to get over I look forward to seeing him broken and lovesick for the rest of the season (HAHAHAHA just kidding with that last part obviously: we all know he'll be completely back to normal next episode).
• From Smoking Blonde on 2016-02-03 at 4:53pm:
  She is so pretty. She also says Har weeee which makes me laugh.
• From Martin on 2016-04-18 at 5:45am:
  Nice episode, decent plot, above average filler.
  Still, there's something i've got to tell about this one: When janeway speaks to chakotay about reprimeading harry, she says, and i quote: You're my first officer, he's an ensing! He hasn't earned the right to question my orders, whatever he's personal views. endquote
  
  That does the trick for me right there. That reminder of our own hierarchical system and values, and, IMO, those values are against the hole federation's ideologies and phylosofies.
  
  Anyway, i give this one a 6, just above average.
• From McCoy on 2017-09-21 at 3:11pm:
  Well... One big problem. I can't sympathize with Harry, because he obviously didn't love Tal. I know what I'm saying, trust me. He wasn't forced to break with her, so... That's it. Till now he was just paper figure for me. From now, I despise him.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion on 2011-04-01 at 2:06am:
  I'm always tempted to skip this one because I can't stand westerns, but this episode goes beyond the standard "put crew in earthlike situation." It stays focused on one thing, the upcoming moment of dread for Kirk and the landing crew. They try so many things to avert their fate, but all of them fail, say one. Kind've gripping for a third season TOS episode.
• From Blob on 2012-03-25 at 12:02pm:
  I thought the aliens were suddenly friendly at the end because Kirk refrained from killing his adversaries at OK Carrol. This showed them that human beings are decent.
  I liked the alien's design btw. It was eerie and effective.
• From Andrew Wiltz on 2012-04-06 at 10:27am:
  Another problem with this episode:
  
  In the 1880s reality they were forced into, the cause and effect ties directly into the belief of the victim (Checkov dying because he "believed" the bullet was real, and the rest of them not dying because they "believed" the bullets were unreal)
  
  However, when Scotty tests the tranquilizer on himself, he believed it would work - but it did not. Is this not a contradiction?
• From Alan Feldman on 2013-04-05 at 1:59am:
  "Spectre of the Gun"
  
  Spock says, "History cannot be changed." Say what? As ridiculous as it sounds, history _was_ changed in all their time travel episodes (albeit "restored" in the end). And there weren't buildings with missing walls and our heroes "playing" the Clantons in Star Trek uniforms in Tombstone AZ, and so on. Strikes me as somehow different.
  
  I think it's awesome when Kirk fails miserably to convince various townsfolk that they are not the Clantons.
  
  Chekov "died" because he believed the bullet was real? Please, that's just plain ridiculous.
  
  Kirk says he can't just kill or murder the Earps and Doc Holliday, but in other episodes he killed "humanoids" in self-defense, which is what this would have been.
  
  At the end of the episode when the Earps and Doc Holliday are walking toward our heroes in the corral, they keep appearing in a different order; it changes with every shot!
  
  Notice that the bullet holes behind our heroes aren't really in line with them and the Earps. Well, that's how it looks to me.
  
  AEF, aka betaneptune
  
• From Scott Hearon on 2014-04-11 at 6:27pm:
  Eh. I gave it a 5/10.
  
  This episode, though not having any massive problems, is rife with little ones. Like Kethinov points out, the crew's belligerence about forcing themselves on the aliens is out of character and rather contrary to the spirit of Star Trek. "No" means "no", boys.
  
  The idea of using a Western setting seems little hokey and odd (further justifying my semi-serious theory that many Star Trek episodes' plots were dictated by whatever set pieces were laying around the film studios that day. "Hey! There's a bunch of cowboy stuff left over from yesterday's episode of 'Bonanza'! Let's use that!!").
  
  The exploration of reality is interesting enough, but they seemed to drag out the resolution to a length that defies some logic. The crew, Spock included, very quickly recognized the aliens as "pure telepaths." As such, it seems that at least Spock would have figured out that the things they were seeing and experiencing were illusory. It probably shouldn't have taken Chekhov's "death" and the failure of the gas grenades for him to figure it out.
  
  The recognition of McCoy that humans will always have doubts about reality was a very intelligent touch, and having Spock use the mind meld to assist them was intriguing.
  
  Decent episode, but not one of the better ones I've seen.
• From Chris on 2018-03-23 at 6:01pm:
  I really like this episode though of course, it has its problems!
  
  Your first paragraph pretty much describes EVERY episode of just about EVERY TV show ever put on the air!
  Everything is contrived to make something interesting, and it's not any different than Hitchcock's 'Dial 'M' for Murder' where the protagonist states that every crime book is written so contrived that the hero has to solve things the way they unfold!
  
  My nits with this episode are mostly regarding the Melkot's interpretation of what they see in Kirk's thought record from which they derived the scenario. The town, to me, looked exactly like how one might dream a place, and so I was amazed at how good that was done!
  On the other hand, why is 'history' so carved in stone? Especially in Spock's mind?!?
  They are getting their 'history' from Kirk and no one else! He could've imagined fairies dancing around for all they knew!
  
  Again, the show is contrived to play out how it did, and I really liked it!!! Nice guns, man!!!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-02 at 6:42pm:
  - A bridge crew can relieve the captain if they unanimously agree that the captain is acting oddly. Also, a doctor can relieve the captain if the doctor thinks the captain is medically unfit for command. Shouldn't the same thing apply to mission commanders? Picard finds out that Jameson: 1) took double the recommended dosage of an alien drug 2) confesses to a direct violation of the Prime Directive (giving weapons) 3) proposes a raid that Picard thinks is questionable. Yet, Picard acts like he has no other recourse but to obey.
  - the drug is "radically changing the cellular structure of his body and rewriting his DNA." Doesn't it seem likely that the drug would also wipe out the scar tissue in Jameson's body?
  - The transporter pad certainly isn't wheelchair-accessible. Jameson, who is confined to a futuristic wheelchair, is beemed on to the transporter pad. How does he get off the pad?
  - When Picard and Riker leaves the bridge to greet Jameson, look very carefully, Picard contorts his entire face just before he enters the turbolift (an outtake??)
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-09-20 at 6:10pm:
  The Admiral's wife (we never learn her name) had some of the worst acting and most annoying dialog in Star Trek history. The Admiral is plagued with advanced Iverson's disease, a degenerative, incurable and terminal disease that rob it's victim of quality of life before it kills him. The Admiral finds a potential cure that incidental makes him young while saving his life. Is his wife pleased? Not at all. Why? Because she wants to spend more time with husband (while watching him die horribly). It stretches credulity.
• From Inga on 2011-12-21 at 11:12am:
  Jeff, the Admiral's wife's name is Anne. She was called by her name a couple of times in the episode and at the very end, just before he died, the Admiral called her "Annie with the golden hair"
• From John on 2012-03-05 at 4:03am:
  I think maybe what Jeff meant was that we learn her name, but we don't care enough to remember it, because this episode sucks.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-19 at 7:02pm:
  - In this episode, Worf makes the comment about bathing more often to the ambushers. But in "Conspiracy," he says, "swimming is too much like ... bathing." I guess being with humans has changed Worf ;)
  - Riker stuns Yuta twice and then kills her!! I know he warned her twice, but did he have to kill her? The second time he stuns Yuta, she barely manages to get up. Stun her a few more times, or get the guards to grab her, or transport her back to the Enterprise, but don't kill her!
• From thaibites on 2010-12-15 at 12:08am:
  So...Riker spends most of the episode trying to charm little blondie. Then, when she comes to his room and wants to give him pleasure, he stops her and says I want you as an equal!?! Yeah, right... Oprah and Phil Donohue were probably high-fiving each other when they saw that. Sometimes TNG is so unrealistically lame and pro-social, it makes me sick.
• From MJ on 2011-02-23 at 12:06am:
  I think it's generally agreed the ending of this episode was a horrible waste of a potentially good story. I was very interested in the idea of a clan based society setting aside its differences and making peace, but not before some of its members wandered off to become intergalactic nomads. That peaceful society is now trying to incorporate the nomads, who obviously live very different lives. And the intrigue involved in the Acamarian ruler's personal aide secretly seeking a vendetta made for a superb twist.
  
  But in the end, it leads to a scene in which everybody is standing around while Yuta tries to kill Chorgan, and Riker repeatedly stuns and then kills her. I can think of several better endings, and I'm not a paid, professional writer. Have a bunch of people subdue Yuta and take her away. Or, if her death is to be a significant part of the plot, have Chorgan or one of his band of warriors kill Yuta, thus endangering the peace process and ending the episode on a question of whether the Gatherers will ever return to Acamar in light of what's happened. Something...anything...but what actually happened.
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-14 at 4:01am:
  Mostly I thought the episode was entertaining, though not exactly inspired. But the secret revelation at the end was very odd. I was expecting Yuta to have been raised in the tradition of revenge, that would make sense. Where did this weird "genetic modification" thing come from? Somehow, in order to exact an exotic revenge scheme, they have discovered a way to greatly extend lifespan. Forget revenge, wouldn't everyone want that? It is like inventing time travel just to restart the warp engines! And I totally agree with DSOmo that there was no reason for Riker to kill her. Apparently the writers wanted her dead, and no one was going to stop them.
• From Percivale on 2011-09-03 at 3:50am:
  This episode had a vaguely interesting plot but the execution was dismal. I thought the Gatherer characters were obnoxious - no matter what their role was in the story at any given time, I just did not like seeing them on screen.
  
  The chemistry (or lack thereof) between Riker and Yuta was really awkward and unconvincing.
  
  I think 2 is more appropriate.
• From John on 2012-12-05 at 6:23am:
  This episode isn't all that bad. The plot itself is somewhat formulaic, but the dialogue and character development are pretty good, so I give it a 7/10. It's certainly not an eye-roller, like some of the more terrible TNG episodes.
  
  That said, this is another one of those 'world divided' episodes where two groups of people from the same planet are completely different, except that one group no longer lives on the planet.
  
  The 'leaders' of both factions are portrayed quite well -- Nancy Parsons, in particular, does a good job as the Sovereign of the more 'civilized' sect, and Joey Aresco's Brull is interesting and fairly well-developed (for a one hour show).
  
  It's certainly entertaining, at any rate, even if you've seen it before. The dialogue is snappy enough to keep you interested.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-08-04 at 8:19am:
  This watch-through, I found this ep pretty dull. The character of Yuta was wasted. She had potential. Agreed that Yuta's death was abrupt and unnecessary. They probably could have cut a bunch of the Yuta/Riker scenes and had a more satisfying ending. Knowing how it turns out, it's pretty weird watching them interact throughout the episode knowing he ends up killing her!
  
  I like that once Riker saw how ... let's just say, girl got issues, he stopped pursuing her sexually and just hugged her. That was nice. I, too, would be pretty instantly turned off finding out a potential lover was just trying to please me but wasn't actually into it herself. Ick. I do kinda feel sorry for Yuta. She probably does feel powerless to change her destiny. She's clearly not happy.
  
  I will continue to be salty at Trek weapons being able to vaporize a whole person in seconds. The amount of energy that would have to release all at once would practically leave a crater. But here: no remains, no ashes, no smoke, no bright light, no wave of heat, no meat vapor cloud, no nothing. Just poof! 60 or so kilograms of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, calcium, etc, whisked out of existence. This isn't specific to this episode, but it's doubly annoying given how pointless the death was. Grr!
  
  Sometimes this show feels like it holds up decently three decades later; sometimes it feels *very* 80s. The whole getup of the Gatherers felt *very* 80s. Not that that's a bad thing! ;)

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2010-04-05 at 8:28pm:
  I like this episode because it has a traditional robot instead of an android. I also like the cold responses the robot gave: "Non-sequitur," "insufficient response," etc.
  
  The biggest letdown while watching this episode is the whole "Uhura's brain got erased" subplot. How absurd is it to think that Nurse Chapel is going to reteach Uhura EVERYTHING, and she's going to do it just in time for the next episode. How is Uhura going to perform her duties on the bridge if she can't even pronounce the word "blue"? What a joke!
• From Jadzia Guinan Smith on 2010-09-10 at 2:59am:
  Pimpdaddy is right (now there's a statement I never would have imagined myself making)!
  
  It's totally absurd to think Uhura will just be "re-educated" to be a fullly functional starfleet officer. But even if we can make peace with the idea that she'll somehow learn all the job-related functions (she's an astronaut, so she probably started out a with a pretty good brain, right? Stay with me, my fellow retconners)... but how is she supposed to resume her LIFE without any personal memories? What about her family, friends, memories of growing up, etc.? Somebody should look for instances in subsequent episodes where she refers to things she should not be able to recall.
  
  You know, if this were TNG, you can be sure that Dr. Crusher and/or Data would have found a way to "restore" her original brain contents by the end of the episode :-)
• From Alex on 2012-05-24 at 12:08am:
  I thought this was a 7. In the 2nd tier of shows in the second season. Nomad and how its purpose changed is excellent. That main plot was great. Erasing the brain was cool, but the reeducation was unbelieveable even for star date 4,000.
• From warpfactor 10.1 on 2012-09-19 at 10:14pm:
  It seems clear on even the most cursory of inspections that Nomad started life as a patio heater. There are several of these 'units' in the garden of the pub near where I live and I tried to destroy them in the way that Kirk destroyed Nomad but they outwitted me by ignoring me completely. They did however have an off switch on the side.
  Pity about the sub-plot with Uhura which was pointless and had so many holes in it.
• From Jasper on 2013-11-03 at 10:17am:
  This episode does, however, invalidate a recent popular memegif: Scotty was *not* the only redshirt never to be killed. He just got resurrected when he did.
  
  I would imagine, watching it at the time, if you'd noticed the redshirt tendency, his death might have had some impact for the original audience that it doesn't for the watchers today.
• From Chris Long on 2017-11-18 at 10:24pm:
  The biggest problem with Uhura's memory wipe aside from everyone else's complaints was that she was fluent in Swahili. I'm kind of surprised that no one else mentioned this little bit of idiocy.
• From ChristopherA on 2021-01-17 at 5:38am:
  I totally agree with you and everyone else here that Uhura losing her memory is completely ridiculous in terms of continuity. The issue is blatant enough to detract from the quality of the episode, it is just weird that there are no further consequences for this. Still, it is just a continuity error, not a flaw with the internal logic of the episode.
  
  I agree it is really confusing stating that nomad’s attacks have the power of 90 photon torpedoes and then showing the Enterprise surviving hits from them. While the statement is pretty silly and does strain your suspension of disbelief, it isn't impossible to make up an explanation for this. It could be they have 90 times the energy of a photon torpedo without being 90 times as effective as a weapon, in that photon torpedoes are likely specifically designed to expend their energy in the most effective way to penetrate shields and damage a starship, while Nomad may have never fought a starship and may simply be shooting huge bolts that waste most of their energy on empty space. For instance, a speeding car can have 90 times the energy of a bullet without being 90 times as lethal.
  
  You didn't mention the point that is even more weird, which is that the Enterprise survives an attack as powerful as 90 photon torpedoes, then complains when Nomad absorbs the energy from ONE photon torpedo by saying it is impossible to withstand a photon torpedo blast. Huh? I can make up an explanation for this by saying that the Federation knows how to build ships which can “survive” photon torpedoes with only shield damage, but has no idea how to build something that can “absorb” the power of a photon torpedo with no visible effect at all.
  
  If Spock can mind meld with a silicon based lifeform with some sort of weird silicon based brain, it isn't totally impossible that he could mind meld with something that used to be a computer but has now evolved into something new and different. Still, I would agree that in terms of continuity it is rather odd that you can establish telepathic contact with Nomad but not with Data. But since they never explain how telepathic powers are supposed to work, it just ends up being that they work on whatever the writer wants them to work on, but they consistently don't work on any sort of sentient computer built with technology available to the Federation.
  
  I don't agree at all that Nomad is vulnerable when it is inside the Enterprise, the opposite is true, it is our heroes who are more vulnerable. When Nomad is outside this ship the Enterprise can bring to bear enough firepower to sterilize the surface of an entire planet, and it still isn't enough to do anything. Inside the ship all they have are puny hand phasers and a transporter system which we know is easily defended against and has never been shown to simply dismantle starship-level threats. Whereas Nomad is still just as powerful inside the ship as outside and can easily destroy the Enterprise from within at any time. Even if it drops the force field that prevents Spock from establishing a mind meld, this is still a device that can absorb the entire energy of a photon torpedo into nothingness, a hand phaser is not a threat. And even if it is possible that, despite all of Nomad’s ludicrous powers, Kirk could find some weapon that it doesn’t have mysterious defenses against, you can't really fault that he made a command decision not to risk the instant destruction of his ship by continuing to antagonize it with attacks, and took on a different approach which ultimately worked.
  
  While this isn't particularly my favorite episode and has some flaws, I don't think it is a particularly bad episode either, I liked the drama and how they slowly figured out what it was and how to deal with it. It is played out in a hammy and over-the-top way, but that is part of the charm of the original series.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-24 at 4:15am:
  - At the beginning of the show, Wesley is helping Geordi in Engineering. At this time, Picard is talking with Anya. Before beaming aboard, Anya asks what species they are. From events later in the episode, it is obvious why Anya asked this question. Wesley realizes this fact in one of his last conversations with Salia. But how did Wesley know that Anya asked the question of species in the first place? He was in Engineering at the time, and the question itself is seemingly pointless, not the type of thing to be repeated readily.
  - As Picard escorts Anya and Salia to their quarters, Wesley steps off a turbolift, carrying the SCM Model 3, and sees Salia for the time. The numbers on the turbolift doors are "22." What is Wesley doing on deck 22? He already has the SCM, shouldn't he be headed back to Engineering on deck 36?
  - Why is Wesley so offended to learn that Salia could change her shape? I think it would be fun, "Let's try blonde today, maybe a little taller, how about some bigger ...." ;)
  - During the episode "Where No One Has Gone Before," Kozinski states that in the past three hundred years, humanity has charted only 11 percent of the galaxy. Wesley tells Salia that they have charted 19 percent of the galaxy. The Federation has been busy!! (or someone is wrong)
  - When the Enterprise arrives at Daled IV, the atmosphere of the planet interferes with their communications. The Enterprise can't even talk to these people, and they can still transport Salia down? Isn't the transporter usually the first thing to go? It seems reasonable that transporting living beings would be a lot more difficult to accomplish than communication.
• From JRPoole on 2008-01-25 at 5:58pm:
  I gave this episode a 1.
  
  "The Dauphin" offends my sensibilities for a couple of reasons. First, virtually all Wesley-centered episodes (especially the earlier ones) are terrible and this is no exception. I realize that Wesley is an adolescent, but his actions in this episode are ridiculous. He loves this girl? Please. They've known each other for about, what 3 days? Why doesn't Geordi snatch a knot in Wesley's ass for not having his head in the game when they're performing maintence on the engines? Again, I realize Wesley's an adolescent, but he's also a serving ensign on the ship, and he can worry about poontang when the work's done. Isn't that the very kind of thing he's supposed to be learning? It seems he already knows everything there is to know about the Enterprise.
  
  The Wesley episodes always leave me cold because they're a waste of a character. Instead of doing something worthwhile with the character, they churn out shlock. His wide-eyed boy wonder sthick gets old really fast, and this episode is an prime example.
  
  In additon to the problems already mentioned, I submit the following:
  
  --I don't buy the sickbay scene. If these shape-shifter beings are really some sort of "light energy" beings, are they really in danger from a virus?
  
  --Why is the crew incredulous that shape-shifting beings exist? They act like they've got the Loch Ness monster or Sasquatch on their hands, but this has been established before. Iman's character in Star Trek III is a shapeshifter, and there are a few more examples as well.
  
  --The teddy bear incarnation of Anya is incredibly stupid.
  
  --This isn't necessarily a problem, but it's underdeveloped. At one point, Picard (I think it was Picard, anyway) hopes that the Federation can establish "formal relations" with Daled IV. Isn't ferrying their new leader around the galaxy something that should qualify as "formal relations"? How is it that the flagship of the Federation comes to be the personal taxi service of a planet they don't seem to know anything about at all?
  
  --Is it just me, or does the scene between Guinan and Riker just not jive with Guinan's character somehow?
  
  --Worf's final exchange with Anya is painful to watch.
• From rpeh on 2010-08-25 at 11:52am:
  For some reason, I quite like this episode. There's a decent amount of technobabble like "In a moment, the harmonic resonance from the neutrino clouds will become synchronous"(!!!!!). There are basic mistakes - you already mentioned the sound in space, but how about you can see the planet rotating? It would fly apart if it was spinning that fast. There are bad alien costumes.
  
  But... it works. For some reason I don't find Wesley objectionable in this one, and the love story is quite believable. I like the interaction between Anya and Worf. I'm not claiming it's brilliant, but I'll give it a 6.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-09-22 at 11:54pm:
  Some of the worst special effects in the history of Star Trek. Even much of TOS was better than this! The shape shifting scenes were embarrassing.
• From Inga on 2011-12-30 at 10:34pm:
  Salia's true form somehow reminds me of the Companion from the TOS episode "Metamorphosis".
  
  Also, I agree with JRPoole - Worf's final exchange with Anya WAS painful to watch :/
• From One Moon Circles eyes in the dark on 2012-02-27 at 5:40am:
  Falling in love your first time as an adolescent actually does happen when not even knowing each other and it can happen in just 2 days. I can testify to this from personal experience. :) Other than that this episode is just so wrong in so many ways I don't even know where to start. I gave this one a 1. The last episode was a hard one to follow but this one didn't even make an attempt.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-16 at 2:12am:
  Ah, young love. It's true, adolescent experiences of "love" can seem trivial through the mists of time, but for them it's pretty damn powerful. And yes, it's possible to get *very* attached to someone over just a few days! Even at 39, I'm not too jaded to watch the scenes between Wes and Salia and feel a little bit of it myself. I think the two actors did quite well together. I even teared up when Wes came to say goodbye, but I'm a sap and I accept that. Kudos to Geordi for realizing Wes was gonna be useless for a little while and validating to Wes how intense puberty is.
  
  I have a soft spot for this ep for a couple reasons, and NONE of them have anything to do with having a huge crush on Salia, nope! How dare you even suggest that!
  
  - Worf's rather licentious description of Klingon sex.
  "what does the man do?"
  "he reads love poetry. ... he ducks a lot."
  Cracks me up every time.
  
  - Guinan's and Riker's (mock?) flirting. Fantastic. Almost sounds like they're reciting a famous play or something. Guinan: "shut up, kid." Thirsty Guinan, rare form!
  
  - Guinan's insight to Wes at the end. I've always loved it. "Each one feels different" may sound like a basic lesson in love, but it's one worth hearing anyway. Wes won't feel the same way again, and that's OK. Salia will be unique to him in that way.
  
  It's not a great episode, but I don't think it tries to be. For me it's enjoyable for what it is.
  
  Worf: "do not be fooled by her looks. The body is just a shell." Indeed.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Bernard on 2009-12-03 at 10:29am:
  Interesting premise done badly, and I agree that the Kai is just thrown in there as a convenient way of setting up the ongoing bajoran story arc. I'd hardly say misuse of a great character though, she was only in the pilot for about five minutes!
  
  The three regulars are all well within character though and I liked Kira's reaction to Opaka's death, unfortunately because the viewer has not grown to know the Opaka character well enough any emotional impact is lost for me so you cannot share in her grief. It smacked much more of a TNG plot however with the convenient escape at the end. I gave it a 4, mainly for all the interesting moments and good characterisation throughout.
• From John on 2012-03-24 at 8:06pm:
  This episode is pretty bad. Not nearly as bad as 'Move Along Home', but still pretty bad. It has the additional distinction of being the episode which open the doors for Winn's rise to power. This is also a bummer.
  
  However, it does have one redeeming moment: when Kira reads her Cardassian intelligence file and discovers they didn't consider her much of a threat, she flips out, and I laugh every time. Yet another example of Kira taking things way too seriously.
• From Nathan on 2013-10-12 at 9:42am:
  This was a filler episode, and it was pretty awful. I think it might be my least favorite in this season (possibly even worse than move along home).
  
  About the only redeeming quality this episode had was setting up the Kai election at the end with Opaka's demise. Additionally, her end was thankfully brief- I hated every scene with her in it. She was a one dimensional character that spouted meaningless mumbo jumbo. People say she was a character that didn't get the chance to be developed. I say I am glad she didn't get more time and that they got rid of her when they did.
• From tigertooth on 2016-08-08 at 3:03am:
  Mike Ehrmantraut!
  
  I also thought I saw Hack Scudder (John Savage) in there as leader of the Nol-Ennis, but maybe it wasn't him.
  
  Anyway, did they ever follow up on the microbes that keep people from dying? You'd think that would be a major discovery.
• From Abigail on 2019-08-29 at 9:52pm:
  I just rewatched this episode. I didn't hate it as much as anyone else. Sure, it was a rather unfitting end for the Kai, but it's not like she was a hugely developed character prior to the episode. The main thing that bugged me is the way they didn't explore this new nanite technology at all. You'd think they'd be staying there to study it, doing anything they could to recreate it so the people could leave that world. It was weird how they discovered how the people returned to life, realized they'd die if they left the surface, and then were just like, "Oh, well. We'll leave the Kai here and never think about it again!"

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Jason on 2010-01-14 at 3:44am:
  Wow; this episode was abysmal. It is like a spoof of what every bad Star Trek episode is -- spatial anomalies, technobabble, space-based life-forms, stuff that doesn't make sense but is easy to film -- and in the end they just do nothing.
  
  I wish I had that 45 minutes of my life back.
• From Drac on 2010-04-30 at 5:47pm:
  Boring episode , Kes birthday was the only remdeeming part so far i find Kes , The doctor and Neelix the only intresting characters.. i want ds9 back :(
• From Jim on 2010-07-30 at 5:47am:
  The only thing missing was a group hug. And Janeway's head spinning around. Also, doesn't Neelix seem a little creepy when he gets jealous?
• From Andrew on 2017-06-01 at 5:48pm:
  The Bar appears to be a replica of the one Kim found Paris in a couple episodes prior. If Paris frequently runs this program it at least makes sense that Kim knew where to find Paris in Marseilles.
• From Gary on 2018-02-24 at 6:23pm:
  Lucky that none of the bent corridors or rooms opened up to the outside, but that's fine, one can accept the odd "twisting" premise for the sake of fun.
  
  What struck me as even more ridiculous: this episode underscored the "named characters matter, the rest of the crew doesn't" curse that seems more pronounced on Voyager than on other series. What do our heroes do when they encounter other crew? Tell them to go somewhere safe and just wait. Essentially, pat them on the head... "We professionals will take care of it, now stay out of the way, OK?". They have a ship full of experts of various sorts, and the main cast doesn't really know what's going on or have solutions to the problem. How about telling everyone everything you know, and getting as many minds as possible at work? But no, of course they're all useless.
  
  It wouldn't have changed anything in terms of outcome, but would have made Voyager appear like a ship with 140 crew, not 10 crew and 130 passengers.
• From paul vh on 2024-03-08 at 1:57am:
  Bob Picardo has said this is his least favorite episode of the series, for the same reasons talked about in some of these reviews: it's 43 minutes of the crew surprised to find themselves in a different room than the one they intended to go to.
  
  It was painful to watch, so I imagine it was even more painful to act in.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From MJ on 2011-02-25 at 6:18pm:
  A decent two-parter.
  
  First, this Romulan ploy to hide weapons on the Bajoran moon seems a bit forced. I know the Romulans are supposed to be the deceptive chess masters always looking to one-up the Federation with some clever ploy, but it seems out of place here considering the Romulans are already at war with the Dominion. And Kira would be much more believable if she was just a tad bit anguished over this whole situation rather than arrogantly sure of herself through the whole thing. Ever see the movie “Thirteen Days”? In the real world, I’d imagine Kira is losing some sleep over something as significant as the Romulan Empire building up weapons on her homeworld’s moon. Instead, she acts more like Maverick at a game of poker. I don’t buy it.
  
  Sisko’s mission to find the Orb of the Emissary and his false vision was enjoyable. I’m usually not a fan of this Emissary story arc, but this is one of the rare times it was well handled and intriguing. I like the idea of explaining Sisko’s connection to the Prophets by having him be a descendant of them; it grounds the story a bit more and removes some of the supernatural. And I always LOVE when Brock Peters guest stars. He’s a fantastic actor.
  
  The third subplot, where Worf and the DS9 comrades go on a mission to get Jadzia into Sto’Vo’Kor is the best, though. I like the petty bickering between Bashir, O’Brien, and Quark, especially over the mess hall incident. And Worf’s apology is a nicely done scene. Their destruction of the shipyards was a very good action sequence, and made for a fine plot addition.
  
  In the end, the three subplots work well together; I even like the occasional flash to Damar and Weyoun.
• From Lt. Fitz on 2012-07-05 at 5:02pm:
  The whole Trill thing is weird.
  
  It seems a bit unfair that keeping a symbiont alive can entail what seems to me to be the enslavement of a Trill host. She didn't want to host Dax? Then it should have died. I mean, Ezri already had a life. She was in Starfleet, for goodness sake. She obviously wasn't planning to be a host. Now she is stuck with the symbiont. And, why didn’t they just put the symbiont in Stasis until they could find it a willing host?
  
  Also, it has been established that when symbiont and host are put together, they basically become a new person. Shouldn't that new person have to be reconsidered for Starfleet? It's not the same Ezri after all. What if Dax had ended up in a Trill like Joran?
  
  I know. It's a TV show. I'm probably thinking it through too much. :)
  
• From Lt. Fitz on 2012-07-05 at 6:17pm:
  I don't get it. I watched the very first episodes after watching this one, because it seemed to me that the prophets were being very inconsistent. In the first episodes, the prophets don’t know what linear time is. They don’t seem to know what Sisko is. They even conclude that he must be destroyed! He has to argue with them to save himself! Now, late in the series they are written to have reached far across the quadrant to take control of a human woman to produce Sisko himself. Making Sisko what exactly? A human/prophet hybrid? The son of the gods? The savior of the wormhole? To do all this, it seems to me a species needs to have a pretty firm grip on what linear time is. It’s clear that the writers have gone too far with the whole emissary thing. Throughout the series it seemed like they were really pushing to go too far with it, and in this episode, they finally did it.
  
  I now understand why a lot of Trek fans had problems with DS9. It was mostly working for me when I could frame the prophets as a difficult-to-comprehend race of aliens that the Bajorans were mistaking for gods who must have been inadvertently interacting with the Bajorans simply because their planet was in the vicinity of one end of the wormhole. But now, I don’t know what to think. Their nature is so inconsistent and unclearly defined that they have become completely inconceivable to me. When a story includes such opacity, it strikes me as carelessly written. Even the most bizarre circumstances in the previous series could always be explained in general scientific terms within the rules of the Star Trek universe as it had been defined. But in the DS9 universe, literally anything can happen and no explanation is required. DS9 definitely took Star Trek from science fiction to space fantasy, which is a bit of a downer for me since I greatly preferred Star Trek being science fiction. If I wanted space fantasy, I could always turn to Star Wars.
  
  This is not to say that I dislike DS9. I generally like it. But, as I read someone else comment, it’s not really Star Trek. I just wish that it would have remained consistent within its unique universe, but it idn’t.
  
• From Hugo on 2013-02-13 at 7:56am:
  I was a bit disappointed with the events on the Rotarran - I was expecting there to be some point where Bashir and Quark would be useful for the completion of the mission - now they were just passangers. The Chief, on the other hand, got to contribute...
• From James on 2014-06-05 at 11:45pm:
  Seems like someone is sabotaging your rating system. All of seas 7 episodes have an inconsistent amount of zero votes. I really doubt that seas 7 is so hated that the majority of people would give all the episodes a zero. So, for this season I think I'll depend on YOUR ratings for my guide. Someone obviously has a lot of time on their hands. Too bad they are using it to skew the results on, IMHO, the best Star Trek review site on the Web.
• From Axel on 2015-05-11 at 4:46am:
  Maybe it's just me, but the Romulan decision to defend their hospital with torpedoes seems perfectly justified. If I were in their place, I wouldn't trust the defense of a crucial hospital facility to the antiquated ships the Bajoran militias use. Maybe they were a bit too secretive about the whole thing, but it's not exactly an act of war. Kira and the Bajorans come across as unreasonable by demanding outright that the Romulans remove the weapons rather than work something out. I guess you could explain it as the Bajorans having deja vu about an outside power starting a military occupation in their space, but that part of the story didn't really work IMO.
  
  Still not sure what to make of this whole Prophet/Pah-Wraith thing. I agree it gets a little carried away in Season 7, although in this particular episode I think it made for a good plot.
• From McCoy on 2017-03-05 at 2:06pm:
  I really liked return of Ben Russell. Seems like the writers know that their idea of Sisko being Prophet is silly. After all Russell is insane during writing this story:)
  I'm probalby in minority but I regret they didn't kill Jadzia earlier. Never liked her irritating behaviour. In this one episode Ezri is better written, performed and more interesting character than Jadzia in previous six seasons alltogether.
• From ChristopherA on 2021-04-26 at 4:41pm:
  I found the plot on the Rotarran excessively silly. It just seemed rather unrealistic for Quark, in particular, to go on a suicide mission he cannot contribute to, just because he thinks it would vaguely honor Jadzia’s memory. He never really seemed all that obsessively smitten with her before. I could believe Worf, but it just really came across to me as though O’Brian, Bashir, and Quark mainly went along because they knew that the scriptwriters wanted them to go and weren't really going to kill them, so it was worth a little inconvenience in honor of Jadzia. And it was also pretty silly that Quark was allowed on the bridge during combat, where he served no purpose other than as a distraction.
  
  I felt the idea that Sisko was basically descended from one of the Prophets was weird and pointless, it didn't seem to serve any purpose other than to pad the runtime. I don't see how this in any way improves over the more straightforward assumption that he is an ordinary man, and the Prophets picked Sisko to be the Emissary purely because they can see outside of linear time and knew he was going to be the right man in the right place at the right time for their purposes.
  
  Aside from this, though, I did kind of enjoy how Sisko took some time off to visit the restaurant and go on a holy quest, the episode did have a sort of grandiose feel to it.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Jaap on 2010-11-15 at 7:54pm:
  Why do doorbells on Empok Nor have a Starfleet tone?
• From Omcn on 2012-01-09 at 10:19am:
  
  While it is true that this ep. did not fit in a whole lot to the overall storyline of the series (other then a look at what Mr crazy man has been up to since he killed off the last dax). I saw this episode as a social commentary on the dangers of many of the negative aspects of organized religion. Viewing it from that perspective I thoroughly enjoyed it.
• From Psycroptic on 2012-07-18 at 2:27am:
  I agree with Omcn, definitely not the best episode, but it had a good message.
• From Harrison on 2012-08-28 at 11:42am:
  I thought it one of the better episodes of the closing season, with particularly strong performances. It was a lucid and memorable commentary on injustice and manipulation.
  
  Empok Nor is displayed at a slightly evil tilt simply to distinguish it at a glance from DS9.
• From L on 2013-08-17 at 12:07am:
  The Bajorans are credulous superstitious peasants. How did they ever qualify for membership to the Federation?
  
  This episode was probably a pretty accurate portrayal of the dynamics within a cult.
  Loved the mural of Dukat.
• From Alex on 2021-03-22 at 9:33pm:
  Why is it a "problem" every time that Empok Nor is shown at an angle? It's a scenic technique... to signify something that's perhaps odd, irregular, out of "order", broken. In Empok Nor's case, it's an odd/dark counterpart to DS9. So, it's shown at a different angle, it fell out of the normal loop, it's the "wrong" station.
  
  My 'problem' actually is how Dukat is wearing a snake/alligator skin like coat. Isn't it like... if humans were wearing ape skin coats? Cardassians are reptilian...

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2008-11-18 at 9:30pm:
  Do we have to see Odo herding animals three times? The first time it was funny, but not the second or third.
  
  The conversations with the ball player were so boring!
• From Jake on 2012-05-22 at 2:46pm:
  although I agree that this was a lame episode I always thought that the alien species were the prophets trying for the first time to figure out the the way corporeal existence. Sisko even gets the baseball at the end that play a role in several important future episodes.

No fan commentary yet.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Mitchell O on 2020-04-12 at 11:50am:
  I get the desire to keep these newer stories consistent with canon, but I for one am glad they’ve made visual updates for these new stories.
  
  Yes, Discovery and the original Enterprise featured in Season 2 look wildly more futuristic than the 60s TOS series, but I think it’s unfair to expect anything but. Visual effects have come an unbelievably long way in 50 years (!!!), and I think many of the things they’ve done to stay true to the original is a great compromise.
  
  The shots of the Enterprise bridge in the Season 2 finale are stunning, and have just the right amount of the 60s design elements mixed with modern day set dress and visual effects.
• From Axel on 2024-03-12 at 1:20pm:
  I agree that the part about the 14 Federation members threatening to pull out if the Federation absorbed all the Romulan refugees was a nice twist to the backstory. It would make sense, after decades of deceitful and duplicitous behavior by the Romulans and some Federation members in particular may have had nasty histories with the them. Hardline Starfleet opposition to peace with the Klingons set the stage for the plot of Star Trek VI. On the other hand, Romulan aid in the war against the Dominion may have earned the Romulans some good will from a lot of other Federation members, so it would no doubt have cleaved the Federation either way.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-06-22 at 4:32pm:
  I agree with the problem about the Jem'Hadar's rapid growth. Bashir tells us that his cells have an extremely high metabolic rate. All that means is that his body processes almost 100% of the food it intakes and his cells divide accordingly. Metabolism should mean nothing if the body is not taking in any food. If his body was somehow altered to still maintain the high metabolic rate even when no food was consumed, he would simply die. His cells would start to break down his body's own proteins and muscle tissue in the absence of food. The only way to achieve growth like this Jem'Hadar has would be to have him on an I.V. of pure sugar water 24/7. And even then, the rate at which he grows is simply absurd. To go from an infant to a young boy in a matter of days is like watering a plant once and it blooming in two seconds. It's just absurd growth that defies the laws of nature.
  
  That's just a Biology major's point of view. I can certainly suspend my disbelief so the Dominion can be cooler! :)
• From JRPoole on 2009-01-14 at 12:21am:
  I have similar problems to the ones listed here, but they don't take away from the episode too much in the end. This is a bit of a rehash of "I, Hugh" from TNG, but it's well done, and we needed to more about the Jem Ha'dar.
• From MJ on 2011-02-08 at 6:06pm:
  Two episodes in a row that have hints of TNG in them, eh? First DS9: Second Skin (also known as TNG: Face of the Enemy) and now DS9: The Abandoned, also known as TNG: I, Borg. The writers must have been watching a TNG marathon back in October '94!
  
  I'm just ribbing, of course. There were quite a few TNG episodes (especially in Season One) with hints of TOS in them.
  
  In my review I'm kind of incorporating DS9: Chimera from Season Seven, in case anybody reads this and would prefer a spoiler alert.
  
  In both episodes, Odo fails to convince a Dominion race to accept the people around him as he has done. This Jem'Hadar (and Laas the Changeling) not only fail to share Odo's tolerance for the DS9 humanoids, they actually scorn him for the life he has chosen. I like both of these episodes, in this case because it doesn't have the "happily ever after" ending where the Jem'Hadar learns to love the Federation and settles down to a peaceful life. Also, as in DS9: Chimera, the people on DS9 do not warm up to this Dominion life form; instead, they are terrified of him, and want nothing to do with him.
  
  What this does is add dimension to the Odo character. In both episodes, Odo is really the only one who sympathizes with the visiting alien. Also, in both episodes, we actually see Odo is willing to leave his life on DS9 for them. In Chimera, it's to find the rest of the Hundred and link with them. Here, it's to reform a Jem'Hadar and prevent him from rejoining the ranks of the others. These episodes show that Odo is not firmly in the Federation camp. He has grown to love Kira and admire several of the humanoids, but he is not so invested in his life on DS9 that he doesn't consider leaving if a suitable alternative presents itself. DS9 almost loses Odo several times, and it shows how torn Odo must feel, and how isolated. He seems desperate for someone else from the Dominion to choose, and therefore, perhaps, to validate, the same life he has chosen. Not only is he isolated and torn, he is unsure. He is in a state of disorder, the ultimately unacceptable feeling for a Changeling.
  
  On another note, how mad must Admiral Nechayev be after this episode? First, Picard helps a young Borg become healthy and then leave, and now Sisko does the same for a Jem'Hadar. After this, I'm sure Nechayev made a new rule that any abandoned kids from Federation enemies are to be turned over to her pronto!
  
  The subplot had potential but didn't really take up enough screen time to get interesting. It was really overshadowed by the much more fascinating issue of having a Jem'Hadar on board. Still, Jake would seem to have a thing for Bajoran women!
• From zex on 2011-09-07 at 2:43pm:
  I actually thought this was quite a poor episode, largely because the Jem'Hadar "child" was portrayed unconvincingly. I think if that role could've been written, cast and performed a lot better.
  
  There were other problems too... The idea of a rapidly developing humanoid could've been interesting... But this was never really explored. Instead the boy's mind just somehow matured "without external stimulus," which makes about zero sense, advanced genetic engineering or no advanced genetic engineering.
  
  Another missed opportunity was the weird cloaking capability they seem to have. It would've been interesting to get into that.
  
  Instead of anything really intriguing, we get some lame, lazily choreographed fight scene in a holosuite.
  
  The "enzyme addiction" thing is kind of interesting, but doesn't really make too much sense. I could see how genetically engineering a species to be dependent on a unique substance could be useful, but not so much in the way it's portrayed here. How would making your well-honed killing machine irritable, anxious, and with an elevated heart beat help you control it? Wouldn't that just make it desperate, angry, and even more violent than usual? That's just about what we see here when "the child" starts going into withdrawal. Really doesn't make much sense.
  
  Here's another thing that doesn't make sense: DS9 security can't apprehend a lone Jem'Hadar without killing him? I understand that Sisko was under pressure from Odo and his own conscience, but that conflict and its resolution just wasn't portrayed very well. He comes out with a team, his phaser ready, then suddenly does an about face and agrees with Odo that they have to let him go in order to avoid bloodshed. Isn't that what the stun settings are for? Again, I get that he probably didn't really want to apprehend the guy, but that part wasn't really conveyed very well on screen.
  
  So, this wasn't much of an episode, IMHO. Mostly because the Jem'Hadar child just wasn't a very convincing or sympathetic character. That topped by some problems with the plot.

No fan commentary yet.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From TashaFan on 2008-09-13 at 6:25pm:
  You ask how can there be so many superior aliens while the Federation appears to dominate so much space. I think the superior lifeforms largely ignore us. For example, we think of ourselves as vastly superior to ants. To the ants, it may seem that they dominate everywhere. Only when the ants become an annoyance do we go out and poison them. They see our houses and may try to get some food and as long as we don't notice they are left alone. But once we see them marching across the kitchen out come the baits and the anthill gets poison poured down it. And of course our kids might burn a few ants with a magnifying glass now and then. Just like the occasional Trelayne toying with the Enterprise crew. In the meantime, there are still millions of ants living everywhere that we live. Do they dominate the space? Do we?

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Azduel on 2010-03-31 at 1:45am:
  This episode is definitely exciting and entertaining. It's great because it gives a bit of a break from the intensity of the Dominion war, and also because it develops an "out of uniform" look into the characters. However I hate to nitpick, but there are a few elements to this episode I found annoying. Firstly, why is Bashir so bad? He should be better than any of the Vulcans, as he is genetically engineered for coordination etc. Second, why is Worf so terrible? Worf presumably spends all of his downtime in the holosuite improving his prowess as a warrior. Surely a lifetime of physical training should produce someone who can hit a ball with a bat, he should be able to knock it out of the park every time!
• From rpeh on 2010-08-04 at 3:28pm:
  I'm not a big fan of baseball - it's just rounders played while wearing pyjamas - but this was pretty fun to watch even so, and it's good to see the writers not falling into the trap of having the Niners win.
  
  One lovely touch was Quarks signature on the ball at the end, with a little pair of ears on the Q.
• From MJ on 2011-01-29 at 12:39pm:
  Overall, a great episode. Parts of it were painfully embarrassing to watch, but most of it was hilarious. I think I cracked up after every single one of Odo’s calls (Ball Three! Steeeerrrrrike Two! Yooouuu’re outta here!) Auberjonois did a great job putting so much gusto into it...Odo approaches every task wanting to get all the little details right, and this time it made for some nice comic relief to see him imitate an Earth umpire. And Worf’s “death to the opposition” and “find him and kill him” were classic. Somehow I think rugby would be more to a Klingon’s liking than baseball.
  
  This episode also showed the Federation isn’t really a big happy family. Even species within the Federation sometimes look down on each other, which I think is more realistic than pretending they all get along just fine and dandy. They may share a desire for peace and exploration, but think about it: no matter what country you go to in the world today, people in different regions of that country tend to look down on other regions. Star Trek is just carrying this to the galactic level, and it makes perfect sense.
• From Damien Bradley on 2013-03-02 at 6:48am:
  I almost skipped this episode when it became clear it was going to be a holodeck/holosuite filler episode. But then I came here and skimmed your review, and how could I skip an episode you rated a 10? Anyway, I sure am glad I watched it. It kept me laughing well into the next day. I could almost predict by the time the game was underway that they were going to get creamed, but my hunch was right that somehow Sisko would call it a victory anyway. I love how much Odo got into his role, and you could see he took pride in being impartial, but you could also see the smile on his face when he ejected the Vulcan captain from the game. The exchange in the bar toward the end was priceless.
  
  Worf: "Death to the opposition!"
• From Keith on 2013-08-27 at 12:13am:
  Enjoyed this episode but it falls into a trap many series fall into in that the main characters are the only people who exist. Captain Sisko commands a space station and a star ship he has to have more competent crewmen than Nog for instance. And Quark is not a member of his crew. I understand that the series is about the lead actors but if Sisko wanted to win (which he did before he learned the heart warming lesson of camaraderie) he would have put together a much better team.
• From mandeponium on 2014-01-02 at 8:01pm:
  A baseball episode was inevitable and I'm just glad it was as good as it was. This is the kind of episode that works best late in a series and would not have had the same punch if they had done it in season 2 or 3.
• From Armsauce on 2017-06-30 at 1:22am:
  Why was Solok allowed in the holosuite unannounced?
• From Jason on 2020-11-25 at 6:27am:
  "This episode is one of many which confirms the idea that Starfleet largely segregates their facilities and starships by race. Evidence: all Vulcan crew starship T'Kumbra."
  
  I always figured that, for the most part, the Federation recruits its armies by having individual members recruit them. In the American Civil War, military units were organized by, and came from, member states -- both for the Union and the Confederacy. Hence, the 3rd New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment, or the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Members of a unit were primarily from the state that organized them. Although there was no rule against joining another state's regiment, it was of course easiest to join one's own. The United States Army also had their own Federal regiments, not organized by a single state.
  
  In StarFleet, then, some ships and wings might be organized by individual members, like the Vulcans. Some might be organized by Humans. And yet another set of the top-line ships might be run by the Federation directly.
  
  Particularly in a giant war like the Dominion War, I could see how individual units from member states would be brought into the main force during the conflict. It is not clear, however, whether, for instance, the USS Enterprise NCC1701 was a Federal ship or an Earth/Hew-mahnn ship, nor with Deep Space Nine.
• From ChristopherA on 2021-04-23 at 3:25pm:
  It annoyed me that the episode couldn't quite seem to make up its mind on the nature of the baseball game. The episode clearly seemed to be saying that Sisko was being unreasonable and over competitive when he dropped Rom from the team, as if it were a team building exercise or other casual game where everyone regardless of skill level participates. But in every other way the episode shows it is a fully competitive baseball game play strictly according to the rules, which would include definite rules on the size of the team. And he even mentioned having tryouts. Which would mean that if he had allowed Rom to be on the team, then one of the players who actually made it onto the final team would have to be rejected from the team instead. Which means that what all the other players on the team really wanted was for Sisko to play favoriates and unfairly permit an incompetent player onto the team just because they like him, and reject a more competent player who actually qualified for the position.
  
  This problem could easily have been solved by minor story adjustments, such as by establishing that Sisko replaced Rom by strongarming someone onto the team who didn't even want to play.
  
  Aside from this, though, I did actually enjoy the nature of the rivalry between Sisko and Solok, and how Sisko was able to overcome his demons and find victory in defeat at the end.
  
• From floreign on 2022-09-15 at 7:00am:
  This to me is the absolute nadir of the show. I still have nightmares about how bad it was, many years after having watched it first. I tried it again once, and didn't get any better; I am skipping it every time since. But again, I am not a baseball fan.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Matt on 2008-03-19 at 11:14pm:
  This episode is a tribute to the musical "Brigadoon". Which might help to explain the way Dax acts. Much of the main plot points are similar. Also, like the original play, it kinda sucks.
• From JRPoole on 2009-01-14 at 2:33am:
  The A plot love story is one of the most embarrassingly bad moments in all of Trek, and that's saying something. The dialogue is lame,and Jadzia's decision is ridiculous and way out of character, as is Sisko's reaction, though Avery Brooks acts it well.
  
  The B plot is uproariously funny, if a bit cheap. It's the only thing this episode has going for it, so I gave it a 1 just for that.
• From djb on 2009-05-01 at 6:31am:
  I agree, Dax's behavior in this episode is way out of character. After 7 lifetimes, anyone is going to be smart enough not to confuse infatuation with love. All Jadzia and her new boyfriend have is infatuation; they know practically nothing about each other, what to speak of them being different species. And she's ready to leave everything and everyone she knows behind on a whim? Silly.
  
  I like it when different plots in a single episode somehow tie together or are related; unfortunately plot A and plot B had nothing to do with each other, even though plot b was indeed rather humorous.
• From rpeh on 2010-07-29 at 9:38am:
  This episode is so crammed with technobabble it's almost leaking at the seams. Intersecting dimensions, singularities in the quantum matrix.... give me strength! It didn't help that I kept thinking of Deral as the bible-thumping Vice-Presidential candidate from the West Wing.
  
  The B-plot is funny, though, and the end scene just priceless!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JRPoole on 2009-02-25 at 8:03pm:
  Well, if you'd told me that this episode began with a 30s model truck floating in space and that Ameila Earhart was a character, I may have been tempted to skip it. It's always annoyed me that American history is scattered all across the galaxy in Star Trek. That said, this was about as good an episode as could be given the premise, and it actually ends up being decent.
  
  My problem is with the Universal Translator. By now we've all just sort of accepted that the UT exists and explains how we can communicate with alien races. We've pretty much given up on trying to explain it or even worrying about it unless it's part of the plot (a la "Darmok" or DS9's "Sanctuary"). So why do they have to go and confuse the whole thing again. How is it possible that the Japanese character hears Japanese while the others hear English? And how does the UT know to broadcast in all those different languages? And finally, how does it work. It wasn't necessary to mention it hear, and mentioning it without explaining it just complicates things.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-22 at 5:20pm:
  I read with interest our webmaster's article on why he doesn't review Stargate (because there is no plausible reason why all alien life forms speak English). While I relate to this sentiment, and agree that it is a failing in the Stargate universe, the use of the UT in Star Trek is so lame and so contrived as to be tantamount to a simple admission that there is nothing behind it at all. For one thing: what is the UT? Is it a computer program as some episodes suggest ala DS9: Sancuary? Or is it a portable, mobile device, as would be obviously required when the Star Fleet folks are out of communicator range? Examples of this are so common as to be too numerous to count. Picard on the surface with the alien captain in TNG: Darmok. Jiordi trapped on the surface of a moon with a Romulan in TNG: First Contact. I could go on like this for a looooong time.
  
  And how does the UT magically make everyone's mouth movements match up with what they hear? Holgrsphic projectors? A data feed directly into the brain?
  
  In the end the problems of the UT are so huge that we must simply throw up our hands in despair and admit that it is the thinnest of threads, and ultimately it is all about budget. Given that creating a synthetic language is a rather expensive undertaking, compromises must be made. (Witness the amount of time and energy which went into creating the language of the Navi in the Sci Fi film Avatar.)
  
  I am not sure that Star Trek is significantly superior to Stargate in this respect, to be honest.
• From Kethinov on 2011-10-22 at 6:10pm:
  The difference between Stargate and virtually every other science fiction show is that Stargate doesn't even try to offer an explanation, and by doing so they make it nearly impossible for fans to rationalize it on their own.
  
  In Star Trek, the universal translator is the canonical explanation and while episodes like this may complicate the process of explaining how it works, the UT is not beyond rationalization.
  
  I've always assumed there are different kinds of UTs with different levels of sophistication that were employed at different time periods and that by Voyager's time period it was a piece of technology which had been miniaturized to the point of being embedded as a microchip in every Federation citizen. DS9: Little Green Men provides strong evidence of this.
  
  For that to work, we have to assume that most non-Federation aliens also possess a similar technology and that vast advances in linguistics have occurred to create a sort of universal language pattern matcher, which would enable both the translation capability as well as a mechanism by which two alien UTs can communicate with one another.
  
  The UT would thus then work on a principle of all languages (except oddball ones like the Darmok aliens) following predictable rules that advanced linguistics has cracked. And when two characters equipped with microchip UTs talk to each other, they merely speak in their own languages and the UT in their brains translates for them in real time.
  
  Without a doubt this all implies an incredibly overwrought piece of technology that the show glosses over with far too much carelessness, but still not to the degree that Stargate does. Likewise Star Trek is no stranger to overwrought items of technology fraught with difficult to rationalize technical problems. Another big offender would be the transporter.
  
  Nevertheless, despite these quirks, Star Trek manages to somehow stay largely consistent and plausible. As does Stargate for the matter, all except for Stargate's failure to even try to deal with the language problem.
• From TheAnt on 2013-10-09 at 6:36am:
  Kethinov points out the first problems of this episode in the 'problems' paragraph.
  Only adding that any remaining water in the cooling system - if any still left, would be frozen solid.
  
  The SOS message is received on the AM radio in the pickup truck, which in turn is in a cargo hold of Voyager, and that outside the planetary system of origin. (Some light years at least.)
  
  Kim states that 'we do not monitor this frequency since it only travel at the speed of light.
  Any change of 'Frequency' will not make any radio signal go faster than light - which make this another technobabble blooper.
  
  Even so this is for starters, the small landing pads of Voyager would not be able to keep the starship upright on the surface we see, not rock even less loose sand.
  Ever seen construction workers raise a large crane? They use plates of steel under each supporting pad!
  
  And then the radio of the aircraft sending AM radio to a large distance in space. AM radio were used since it bounced on the ionosphere, and so could be picked up even beyond the line of sight.
  So most of such a signal will NOT penetrate to space, in short it would be weak indeed.
  
  So in the very first minutes this episode fails on all counts on being consistent and plausible.
  
  My vote? A one.
• From Shani on 2015-01-10 at 4:50am:
  I'm kind of annoyed the Janeway could tell the Japanese soldier was human just by looking at. There are so many species that look human even I'm the delta quadrant.
• From Amelia Obumhardt on 2022-02-04 at 8:10pm:
  But not many japanese aliens I think :D
  
  Anyway, I was shocked at Kims lack of historic knowledge. Ok... maybe he never heard of Miss Erhardt, but mixing up a Ford gasoline car for a hovercar?? That would be akin to one of us mixing up an early sailing ship with a WW2 Bismark type of battleship, come on...what do they teach at the academy in history?
• From Mitchell O on 2023-08-25 at 11:22am:
  Really love the soundtrack at the end of this episode, another delightful piece.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Bernard on 2009-12-03 at 10:28pm:
  Two moments of sheer genius in this episode, otherwise it is atrocious.
  
  The first is Nog's practical joke involving the bucket...
  
  The second is the knife fight involving Bashir, O'Brien and the bajoran! Watch it again, it's like something from Naked Gun!
  
  What I love about the relationship between Bashir and O'Brien at this point in the series is that they are written to be idiots. O'Brien is outrageously rude to Bashir in this episode whilst Bashir is so self important up to this point. That's where DS9 is such an improvement on TNG, the characters are flawed and therefore seem more real and you can relate to them.
• From John on 2011-12-06 at 2:26pm:
  One question kept nagging at me the whole time I was watching this episode: How can the Bajorans possibly have a 10,000-year-old, warp-capable civilization when their people are this stupid?
  
  Sadly, we will see numerous other instances of stupid, easily-led Bajorans throughout the series, so this aspect of the show never really improves.
• From Abigail on 2019-08-29 at 10:27pm:
  This one was pretty absurd. The idea of inventing a monster to fight every so often - which only one person knows is not actually a real monster - in order to bring people together is .... questionable. If nothing else, surely the townspeople would figure out it was all a hoax at some point??

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-06-08 at 4:21am:
  I will definitely agree that seeing Obrien phase Alixus would have been wondefully satisfying. However, as annoying as this episode was, I rather liked the ending. Having those two children stand there at the end was like a final statement against the lunacy of the 'community'.
  
  Never trust governments that sacrifice the rights of the individual for the good of the whole.
• From EKH on 2007-04-30 at 2:29pm:
  "No EM activity down here."
  Umm, hello? How do explain the simple fact that you can still see, then, Mr. O'Brien?
• From curt on 2010-05-12 at 2:12pm:
  The people on the planet were former starfleet members right?(Atleast I think so) If so i find it odd that they would be quick to result to torture. Even if there leader tells them to.
• From Ry-Fi on 2011-01-27 at 9:46am:
  Problem? Why did the Orinoco have to lasso the Rio Grande out of warp? Hasn't Trek established ages ago that their starships are remote controllable, provided one knows the ship-specific security command code? I was expecting Kira and Dax to simply remote to it and tell it to drop to impulse.
  
  Naturally I'd just assume that each of the runabouts could remote any of the others, cause well, why the hell not, for obvious tactical and safety reasons! My assumption must be wrong, otherwise this is a glaring moment of writer's oversight...
• From Bernard on 2011-03-14 at 8:54pm:
  Hmm...
  
  What to say about this one!
  
  Very ordinary. The part where Sisko goes and locks himself back in the box is played out to be a really important moment of the episode... but all it achieves is to make him look stupid.
  
  The characters on the planet are fairly well fleshed our though, shame the plot never really got the most out of them.
• From Zaphod on 2011-04-20 at 10:36am:
  Um...
  So for 10 years she exploited us like laboratory rats for her own little social experiment?
  Well, I'm okay with it, no hard feelings, let's keep that "community", I like it...
  
  I'm speechless, didn't expect that ending, that was really really really bad, mind-boggling, abysmal, WOW!
  
• From Bronn on 2011-10-22 at 5:32pm:
  Zaphod's got the right of this. I have no freaking idea how "Whispers," a beautifully executed episode with an exciting premise, rates a 4, while this episode, with a freaking terrible premise and an ending that defies any rationalization, rates a 5.
  
  This is probably my least favorite episode of DS9 ever. I'm insulted that they attempted to write this character off as sympathetic. For one, Star Trek is a horrible venue for a "Technology is Evil," Aesop, when technology has solved ALL of Earth's problems. Clean, safe, renewable energy, along with groundbreaking medicine and the ability to easily feed every starving person everywhere. Yeah, damned technology.
  
  And Alixus deserved to be tried for murder. Yeah, trap people on a planet without their consent, force them to suffer and die from snakebites and harsh conditions because SHE rejects modern medicine-that sounds like a heinous crime to me. But the ending makes it seem like we should agree with the crap she's peddling. This episode was a ridiculous mess. DS9 can do so much better, and they know it. What bugs me the most is Ira Steven Behr wondering how she failed to be sympathetic. Yeah, shoving Sisko in a box because O'Brien "hurt the community," through his "selfishly wasted time," trying to contact the runabout so that he could get some medical assistance for the dying girl. How snobbishly selfish of him to agree to the rules of a society where he was stranded in two days ago, and for hoping that he might someday see his child again.
  
  It's insulting that the writers and producers wanted her to be likable.
• From Drac on 2013-02-02 at 1:32am:
  I totally agree with the review. I would personally make up whatever to get them off the planet, because 10 y of brainwashing clearly affecting their judgment. They don't even have enough people.
• From Domi on 2014-08-17 at 5:32am:
  I didn't think they could make a more unlikable character than Haneek from Sanctuary but they did it. I wanted to smother Alixus with a pillow until she suffocated.
• From Axel on 2015-06-23 at 5:07am:
  I share the desire to have seen Alixus on the business end of Miles' phaser. She certainly had a hold on these people Branch Davidian style. And it was also disappointing to see the ending where her unwitting pawns basically accept their role in her little social experiment.
  
  I do agree with Pete Miller that the very ending scene was nice, and I think it redeems the episode a bit. Sure, the writers give Alixus a chance to get on her soapbox and preach her nonsense, but in the end, the community's children are already questioning things. Who knows, maybe down the road they escape that planet while the rest of the community finds themselves suddenly under Dominion occupation :)
  
• From ChristopherA on 2020-07-19 at 9:31pm:
  The episode was generally interesting but I found Sisko excessively passive. They made very clear that the leader was a charismatic evil cult leader with a mesmerizing hold over the colony, and Sisko just doesn’t do much about it. They desperately needed Kirk or Picard to come give some dramatic speeches telling off the colonists for following that psycho, both in the middle (instead of just passively going into the box) and at the end (instead of just abandoning the brainwashed colonists).

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Damien Bradley on 2013-03-03 at 1:41am:
  I liked this episode quite a bit, except for one scene: the music scene. I'm sorry, but no matter how genetically enhanced your brain is, you don't sound like that after a near lifetime of not speaking, let alone not having your voice trained. That scene was painful.
  
  Aside from that, it was some great character development (even so late in the series) for Bashir. I feel bad for him. Aside from his short-lived relationship with Leeta, he's been pretty lonely, and now he finally meets a woman like him, whom he can really relate to! Too bad she has no experience with relationships, and yes, he did move awfully fast and make a whole lot of assumptions about what their relationship would look like! Rather presumptuous. But understandable, given his character and given how lonely he's been.
  
  The episode reminded me of the movie "Awakenings," where several catatonic patients are given a treatment that temporarily allowed them to function and interact. I was afraid that this episode would end the same way, with Sarina returning to her original state. I thought that her not returning to her original state, but not staying on the station, was a good middle ground. The moment when Bashir is talking to her while she was pretending to be unresponsive, and then her responding to his "do you love me" with "I don't know!" was quite touching.
  
  One little note: maybe this episode was produced before the scientific consensus was that the universe will actually expand forever rather than collapse inward on itself. Or maybe in 400 years there will be new evidence for the "Big Crunch?" Or, maybe Jack is onto something the rest of us aren't? Funny either way.
• From Selador on 2013-09-22 at 4:17am:
  Oh wow. This episode has 10 written all over it. Just superb. So many beautiful scenes and the overall story was immense. I think I might like this even more than In the Pale Moonlight.
• From Dr. Philip Channard on 2015-06-10 at 12:07pm:
  Sarina reminded me of Tiffany from Hellraiser.
• From lumzi23 on 2017-01-22 at 11:09pm:
  Gotta disagree with Damien. The music scene is one of my favorite scene in all of DS9 (or even in all of ANYTHING!) It was amazing.
• From Scott Nolan on 2018-10-23 at 12:41pm:
  Sarina is played by columnist and frequent “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” panelist Faith Salie.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From John on 2007-02-25 at 6:38am:
  I believe this episode is a stab at organized religion (most likely Christianity). Example: People blindly following the "will of Landru." Gene Roddenberry was an unapologetic atheist. This episode would be consistent with his core religious beliefs.
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2007-12-10 at 4:18pm:
  Problems:
  - At the beginning, when Sulu and the other crewmember are standing against the wall waiting to be beamed up, you can clearly see a reflection of one of the hooded lawgivers waiting to enter the scene.
  
  - The episode never explains why there is a festival.
• From David in California on 2008-02-20 at 6:06pm:
  Wow, I've never been so put off by the difference between my own reaction to an episode as compared to that of others. I thought this one was terrific!
  
  I disagree that the only interesting part was the revelation that Landru was a computer. That was, as you say, somewhat standard. Moreover, the script is aware of this and works to ensure that it doesn't come off as the main point. Spock and Kirk both indicate several times that they suspect it's the case, and when Landru is revealed the exchange of looks between them and Kirk saying "of course" in an unsurprised way just to drive this home. Then they quickly dispatches the computer through simple logical appeal to its prime directive.
  
  Rather, I believe the focus of the episode is supposed to be around the reactions of the various people on the planet and the effects on them.
  
  The Festival is one such effect, and I think it's understood that the only way Landru can keep suppressed passions from boiling over is the occasional scheduled release of the anarchy. Personally, I find this notion dubious philosophically and psychologically, but it's surely a common enough idea to be grasped without explicit explanation?
  
  Also, we see the effect of some resisting and forming the "underground", the emotional reactions to the Festival and their enforced participation and on family members, how they hold onto a messianic myth about returning Archons, how they react to the introduction of the "outsiders", how they react with fear to the growing revelations about Landru, and so on.
  
  Now, I'm not saying any of the above is astoundingly original or anything, only to point out that the reveal of Landru as a machine isn't really the point, and that the episode is more concerned with the reactions of the human characters and is handled well, IMO.
  
  As to the theme against so-called "organized religion" (should we prefer disorganized religion?) even as an atheist myself I don't see why the reaction of a believer would be that this is somehow wrong or grossly polemic in some offensive way. I know religious folk who would acknowledge that there are "bad" aspects to a certain *manner* of holding religious belief--the blind conformity to unexplained traditions, the willful resistance of thinking and understanding and fear of inquiry, etc.
  
  So, overall as I'm watching the new CGI enhanced TOS and catching those few that I'd not seen while growing up, I was delighted to come across this one for the first time and disagree with both the review and the prior reader comment.
• From Deggsy on 2012-02-22 at 12:12pm:
  Hi, love the review website, always up for commentary on Trek :-)
  
  As for this episode, as far as I am aware, the plent and its people were already here, and the Archon came along, got caught up in Landru and his cronies, and were absorbed into the society. The locals' descendants then built up the myth about "Archons" someday returning.
  
• From Ryan on 2012-06-20 at 11:13pm:
  I think you may have missed a major part of the plot which may be contributing to your low rating of the episode. As one of the posters above me noted there were definitely people on the planet long before the "Archons" arrived. Landru lived 6k years ago. So the Archons didnt revert to a random 19th century age, thats just where the people of this planet had progressed to so far.
• From ChristopherA on 2012-07-11 at 11:58am:
  It feels like someone wrote a solid science fiction story, then it was rewritten and edited into a disorganized mess. Practically nothing about the society is explained to us, we just get led from one scene to another. The pity is that most of the individual scenes could have been good had they been part of a better connected story. You can imagine what they might be trying to achieve (with the festival, for instance), but it just doesn't come together in the final product.
  - The way in which Kirk defeats Landru is especially unconvincing, even for Star Trek. Proper form for destroying computers in Star Trek is to use the computer's own logic to prove it has violated its own directives. But all he really does here is to assert without proof that the computer's stagnant society is bad rather than good. Why would the computer just take Kirk's word on this and destroy itself?
  
• From Alan Feldman on 2013-03-08 at 3:50am:
  RETURN OF THE ARCHONS
  
  This episode takes bizarre to a whole new level.
  
  Re the Festival: When do the cleaning crews arrive? And with all the rock-throwing you'd think some ambulances and repair crews would be in order. I'm guessing this must be an annual thing. A society couldn't survive if it happened much more often. And at some point in this episode the Festival is completely forgotten.
  
  I like the way Bilar speaks. I also like the voices of the Lawgivers. Their hoods and robes look cool, too.
  
  All of the inhabitants we see are zombies except for a few. It is understandable that the members of the underground aren't, as they are immune to "absorption", and are therefore not of the Body. But why is Hacom not a zombie? And why doesn't he notice the difference? Actually, before Festival, Bilar and Tula aren't _totally_ zombied out, but they're not normal, either.
  
  Yeah, it's frustrating with Kirk constantly asking about Landru and not getting much of an answer.
  
  Landru looks pretty cool and spooky.
  
  The scene with Kirk defying the lawgivers is just plain goofy. Tamar is killed by a sparkler tube. After brief defiance by Kirk, the Lawgivers consult. Then the talking one clarifies. Kirk defies them again and simply grabs the tube (even though he wasn't close enough in the preceding shots). As a result, the Lawgivers turn 90 degrees as our talking Lawgiver says, "It is Landru." Hacom turns and says, "Landru", and just leaves. Why? Where does he go? Then Reger leads everyone out while the Lawgivers are "communing". Say what?
  
  Of all three times Kirk talks a computer to death, this is by far the worst. Spock's brief lines during this scene don't really help. Kirk and Spock tell computer Landru that the Body is dying. Well, the Body is bizarre and lame, but not dying. Seems stable to me, aside from the occasional "Festival". After a brief display of hubris, computer Landru becomes increasingly incoherent, erratic, confused, and panicked. These are elements of a "mere machine"? I like it when computer Landru says, "Help me! Help me! Help me! Help me! Help me!" as it destroys itself. Where did sci-fi writers of that era get the idea that computers are packed with explosives and can be talked into suicide?
  
  There are reasons the Landru society was sick, but not most of the ones Kirk came up with. And instead of celebrating anything positive that the newly freed inhabitants might have done they go for domestic quarrels and knock-down-drag-outs, which is defined at webster.com as "marked by extreme violence or bitterness and by the showing of no mercy". This is a good thing? I think freedom and creativity should be celebrated instead, which is something Spock should have pointed out. The problem wasn't that the society was too peaceful (again, forgetting the Festival); it was that it was lame, boring, devoid of freedom, and apparently stagnant.
  
  AEF, a.k.a. betaneptune
• From Rick on 2013-05-01 at 5:09am:
  I think I finally featured out the festival. I think its Landru take on human mating. Seriously.
  
  There are a couple references to this. One of the old guys says that Kirk is young so he should be out there. That one is pretty weak, but the main one is that in every scene there is a man picking up a woman, throwing her over his shoulder and running off the screen. Cant believe I didnt see that before but its there. They couldnt come out and just call it an orgy so they went with this festival thing.
• From kevin on 2017-02-09 at 5:58pm:
  Very under rated, but still flawed. The ending alone of talking the computer to destroy itself was horrible. Many other points seemed obvious to me,such as the Festival. I believe they mean it only happened rarely, as they mention Kirk and crew travelling a long way to participate in it, and as mentioned above was most likely an orgy or sorts, and violence to get out pent up anger.
  
  The planets people had been there for over 6000 years, so the main review missed that. The archons were simply assimilated into their 19th century society.
  
  A great idea, but not well executed in some key ways.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-05-28 at 3:21am:
  When Dr. Crusher wanted to talk to Worf about his memory block. His response, "I still don't remember having one." :)
  
  - The entity controlled Picard orders a course change of "9-2-5 mark 3-7." No wonder the crew is suspicious!! The episode "Datalore" states that headings have a maximum of 360 for each number.
  - I have a problem with the "transporter retaining Picard's physical pattern in the transporter buffers" idea. Data reconstructs Picard using that pattern. In essence, the transporter has duplicated Picard. With this theory, when someone dies on an away team, the crew could just use the transporter to duplicate the person (just as they were before beaming out)
• From Bernard on 2008-01-10 at 9:32pm:
  The fact that I still like this episode shows it can stand repeat viewings well (for me anyway)
  
  I love Patrick Stewart in this episode, and the meetings held by the rest of the crew to discuss the possibility of removing picard from command are great.
  
  Unfortunately thesse details do not save the episode from being average.
  
  Oh, and nice appearance by o'brien in this episode (who still doesn't have a name yet)
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-23 at 11:44pm:
  I thought it was clever that the mysterious malfunctions were caused by an alien entity trying to communicate a desire to get home and not knowing how to do it. I was confused about why Picard beamed into space, though; they talked as though he wanted to become an energy being, but all I saw was the alien mind-controlling him.
  
  Responding to DSOmo: While the transporters retain the pattern of Picard, they need the "energy essence" of the real Picard in order to recreate him. They state that the process won't work unless energy-Picard has found his way into the transporter circuits so he can be re-integrated with his body. (Maybe it works like reuniting Spock's katra with his body in Star Trek III).
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2011-07-13 at 1:52am:
  Not bad at all. I think I'd give it a 7.
  
  Things I liked:
  -The idea of a controllable asteroid
  -McCoy having a new perspective on life
  -Spock and Kirk breaking into a sacred temple without much concern (it was funny somehow)
  -The old man who had the guts to climb the mountain
  -Kirk and Spock discussing the prime directive before interfering. At least they considered the ramifications
  -The science in the episode didn't have too many problems
  
  Things I didn't like:
  -Putting control devices on people in Trek is way overdone
  -Curing a disease within the last minute, that's overdone too
  -How Spock was able to predict the asteroid's collision just by being read the coordinates. I know he's smart, but c'mon, at least use the computer to double check.
  -I tend to dose off when I watch this episode. The scenes between Mccoy and the woman are very calm (I wouldn't say boring) and the music is very soft
  
  Other thoughts I had:
  -I sure hope Spock shared the "cure" to Mccoy's disease with Starfleet, since I imagine the same disease is killing millions of people each year. Actually, he needs to have a conference call with every doctor in the quadrant at once. "I have the cure!"
  -The updated Blu-Ray edition has some nice shots of the missiles (at the beginning) and of the asteroid. I think some of the special effects within the "chamber" were also cleaned up
  -Does every species in the galaxy have the same code of conduct when it comes to hospitality? Just about everyone Kirk and Spock meet offers food and drink at some point. I do realize it's an easy way to set up a dialogue scene and to introduce the characters.
• From Alan Feldman on 2012-02-11 at 2:55pm:
  Only one barrage of missiles? And a small one, at that. Pretty lame defense. And it simply draws attention to the source. As far as I can tell, the Enterprise was minding its own business, so why attract "trouble"?
  
  I cringed every time Natira said "the people."
  
  At the end when Kirk and Spock find Natira on the floor in the Oracle Room and then proceed to get the book, why doesn't the Oracle just zap them again? Instead you get a short duration of medium-strength wind (inside a closed room!) and heating elements turned up full blast. Aside from that, Mr. Oracle suddnely becomes quiet and impotent for no apparent reason. And after Spock turns off the toaster coils, wouldn't it take a while for the room to cool down?
  
  Perhaps this story is to show what happens, or what it's like, when all you have is dogma, when you're not allowed to ask questions, and so forth. There'd be endless ignorance and no science. Galileo vs. The Church comes to mind.
  
  Why the dogma? Perhaps to maintain control and keep order.
  
  Note when Natira says, "Is truth not truth for all?" Interesting that the Oracle comes up with the idea of multiple truths: "their truth" and Yonada's truth, instead of just saying that our heroes are wrong. (Perhaps Mr. Oracle is just being polite!)
  
  McCoy: "Press the three lower planets on the left-hand side." Obviously this is Yonada's version of Ctrl+Alt+Del.
  
  As far as main characters dying for credibility's sake, I'd rather see them again next week (JMHO). Although I did like the idea of McCoy changing his life, we need him back next week. The show would suffer immensely without him.
  
  Furtermore, credibility in Star Trek is already stretched way beyond reason: gravity everywhere, all the time, in heavily damaged ships, in ships playing dead, on asteroids, inside asteroids, people falling over when the ship "tilts"; ignorance of the existence of inertia (Newton's First Law), as in the crew not being splattered against the wall during the incredible accelerations of the ship (I imagine that the artificial-gravity machine somehow takes care of that, even though it has trouble with "tilting" during an attack), and needing engine power just to keep going at a steady speed (there's no friction in space!), "drifting," "stopping" (okay, stopped relative to the galaxy); faster-than-light travel; multiple earths; an "energy barrier" at the edge of the galaxy that one somehow can't just go above or below; psychic power, "mind transfer," entities made of "pure energy"; etc. So what's adding on just one more? As much as I cringe at all the bad science, I love the show. Even the bad episodes have their moments. And never forget the fun aspect of the show.
• From Strider on 2012-06-27 at 3:24pm:
  Just a quick correction to Mr. Feldman--your example of Galileo "vs" the Church is a commonly misunderstood one and doesn't really apply to this situation. I don't want to argue about it on here, but you can read more here: http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-galileo-controversy.
  
  I like this episode. I'm always pleased with the ones that have relationships, rather than action, at their core, and this one had some good moments.
  
  --Chapel arguing with McCoy at the beginning. --McCoy telling Kirk about his illness.
  --Kirk unsure how to treat McCoy once he found out about the illness.
  --Spock asking, "May I ask precisely what is troubling the doctor?"
  --Kirk telling Spock about the illness. Spock's grave "Yes, I know of it, Captain," with the raised eyebrow.
  --Jim's eyes downcast as he says seriously, "Then you know that nothing can be done."
  --Spock resting a hand on McCoy's shoulder as he came out of unconsciousness. McCoy's look, not at Spock, but at Jim, and Jim admitting, "Spock knows."
  --Love the little old guy. When McCoy says about the "energy powder," "Tastes like an ancient herb derivative," I thought that the powder would contain the cure--which of course was coming.
  --McCoy asking, "Is that too much to ask?"... that he live out his last year with some happiness. And really, is it?
  
  There were definitely problems, as there always are. My biggest one is that McCoy and Natira are married, but they just decide to go their separate ways at the end. It's nice, though, that Kirk arranges for them to have some time together. But a wife, for heaven's sake, isn't the same thing as one of Kirk's alien girls. Do we ever hear about her again?
  
  
• From Alan Feldman on 2012-09-05 at 12:58am:
  Strider wrote on 2012-06-27 at 8:24am:
  "Just a quick correction to Mr. Feldman--your example of Galileo "vs" the Church is a commonly misunderstood one and doesn't really apply to this situation. I don't want to argue about it on here, but you can read more here: http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-galileo-controversy."
  
  And Mr. Strider, you can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair.
  
  AEF
• From Alan Feldman on 2013-01-27 at 5:53pm:
  More on "For the World Is Hollow . . ."
  
  At the beginning of the show, Natira and some guards apprehend our heroes on the surface of the asteroid. How can they not know from this that their world is not limited to what's inside the asteroid? And again when two of the guards leave Kirk, Spock, and McCoy on the surface? At one point Kirk says to Natira, "You are living inside a hollow ball." She was on the surface outside the hollow ball at the beginning of the episode! She needs to be told this?
  
  How did they round up "their best people" and put them on this disguised space ship without their knowing what's happening? Did they zap them with dumb-down rays? That could be how they got them to accept the instruments of obedience, too, and thereby the Oracle dude. And all this was done by the lesser people? (Okay, maybe it was done by their second-best people.)
  
  When Spock points out that letting the Yonadans know they are on a space ship would violate the Prime Directive, Kirk points out the obvious that it's better than allowing their destruction and that of the 3 billion inhabitants of Darren 5. On the other hand, only Natira needed to be told, but they'd have to put the Oracle dude back in charge. But "the people" would find out in the end anyway.
  
  A similar problem happened in TNG in the episode "Homeward", but with the captain favoring the extinction of a people in order not to violate the Prime Directive, possibly even with a religious-like, unquestionable belief. Regardless, I don't see the logic in allowing an entire civilization (and in the case of this TOS episode, a second totally unrelated civilization!) to be wiped out for sake of the Prime Directive. Extinction interferes with the normal and healthy development of the alien civilizations. While extinction is normal, it's certainly not healthy! Kirk got it right.
  
  AEF
• From Simon on 2013-02-04 at 11:00am:
  To answer the point raised in another post, the landing party do not land on the outside of the asteroid, they beam down to a point inside the asteroid (this is stated in the dialogue). From that point the inner surface of the hollow asteroid looks just like the sky. Presumably it's some kind of giant display screen - later on Natira says she can see the sun and the stars, presumably these are images displayed on the screen/sky. This is also the reason why it is possible to touch the sky if you climb a high enough mountain.
• From Alan Feldman on 2013-04-06 at 9:36pm:
  "The World Is Hollow . . . post 3"
  
  Reply to Simon's post regarding landing on the asteroid
  
  Thanks for your response, but I checked it out and still think they landed on the surface.
  
  SPOCK: Asteroid has an outer shell, which is hollow. It surrounds an independent inner core, which has a breathable atmosphere. Sensors read no life forms.
  
  My interpretation of this is that the surface is the outer shell. Either way there must be two breathable "atmospheres", and Spock is referring to the inner of the two.
  
  (Dead flat soil, rocky outcrops, orange sky.)
  MCCOY: You'd swear you were on the surface of a planet.
  SPOCK: One fails to see the logic in making a ship look like a planet.
  
  This sounds to me like they're on the surface of the asteroid.
  
  After being captured, our heroes are led underground. What is the point of this if they were already inside the asteroid? There'd be two artificial skies and two artificial suns. Seems ridiculous to me.
  
  [A side note: Since the inside of the outer shell (in my interpretation) is the Yonadan sky, our heroes descend through the tube buildings right through it! That must be at the top of the mountain no one is allowed to climb. The whole thing is just plain ridiculous.]
  
  Add to this there bring near-Earth-strength gravity on the surface of the asteroid (in my interpretation), asteroids being too small to have appreciable gravity, and near-Earth-strength gravity inside the asteroid, in a arbitrary direction, no less (although the latter is a matter of course in Star Trek). Add to that the fact that asteroids are not massive enough to hold onto an atmosphere, and it's all just plain ridiculous.
  
  Bottom line: Either of our interpretations leads to a ridiculous asteroidal environment.
  
  AEF, aka betaneptune
• From Vandervecken on 2014-01-10 at 7:21pm:
  Am I missing something? How does Spock know what the Fabrini language looks like if the Fabrini world was destroyed by a nova approximately 10,000 years ago?
• From Rick on 2015-03-18 at 6:22pm:
  At Alan Feldman:
  
  Simon is right, you are mistaken. The people live underground. There is not a "second sky" inside the second hollow shell. Spock or someone else mentions that they began to live underground on their planet before they launched the asteroid ship. So it makes sense that they would still live "underground" on the asteroid ship for either continuity of lifestyle or to keep up the ruse.
• From Alan Feldman on 2015-05-03 at 11:33pm:
  At Rick:
  
  Yes, they live underground. How does that conflict with what I said?
  
  OK, so they live underground. At the beginning of the episode they come out of those tube things. Are the tube things underground, too? If so, how? So how does that work with the sky?
  
  As best as I can tell, the tube-things are not underground, and when Natiria and company emerge from them and fight with our heroes we see a sky. Then they go underground and see what certainly must be a different sky!
  
  Recap: When they land on the asteroid they are under a sky. They are captured and led underground. And even though we don't see it, I assume there is an underground sky. You're now telling me that these are one and the same sky? How?
  
  No one is right on this because the whole thing is ridiculous and screwy to begin with.
  
  The only sensible point of the episode seems to be how bad things happen when you're not allowed to question things and are forced to accept dogma.
• From Rick on 2015-08-14 at 4:51am:
  Feldman,
  
  I don't know how to explain it to you if you don't already get it, but there are not two skies. There is one sky. They beam down to the surface with the sky above them. Then they go "underground" (from the perspective of the asteroid people). There is I sky in that underground area. Rewatch it, you are missing something, it all makes sense.
• From Rick on 2017-02-16 at 3:41am:
  To Kethinov: the episode states pretty clearly that the civilization reduced themselves to this because their star was about to nova. I imagine that the civilization survived elsewhere through colonies and by integrating into other civilizations, but it is certainly reasonable that the remaining people on the planet constructed this ship/asteroid in order to maintain their underground lifestyle and overall way of life. That also explains the secretive nature, along with the fact that maybe they thought it was easier for a civilization to handle a 10000 year trip under the lie they created.
  
  Per usual, good sir, you grasp at straws to tear down TOS episodes. I really dont think you understand the pacing and plotting of older television. I understand your reverence for the serialization of television, but a lot of us like Gunsmoke, Bonanza, TOS, and Law&Order more than the serialized shows. Doesnt make you or us right or wrong, but I think it is a little disingenuous to present your side as objectively correct so often.
  
  As for the pacing, it is entirely about what you are used to and what you prefer. That is in a vacuum of course, as individual episodes from any era can be too slow or too fast, but since you continually say that TOS episodes are too slow without ever saying a single one was paced too fast (I dont believe), that clearly shows a bias.
  
  Long live classic television!
• From Chris on 2018-08-05 at 2:51am:
  Of course, it has ALL the traditional problems of Star Trek!
  Who cares in this case? At least... to me anyways...
  I liked the tenderness of Natrira and McCoy, and his 'vulnerability'?
  My biggest problem is the timelines... This ship had been cruising for 10,000 years!!! Humanity has only been 'intelligent' for 5K, tops from this time period!!!
  So how would humans know about a society cruising through space after leaving a star that was known to have gone supernova 10k yrs prior?
  I understand that they have FTL abilities, and thus, time!
  ... but throw me a bone here!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-09-05 at 6:36am:
  - When Dr. Marr comes on board, Riker escorts her to a turbolift. When they reach it, Riker touches a control panel on the exterior doors and they wait for the turbolift to arrive. I believe this is the first time this happens in this series. For four years, no one has had to wait for a turbolift to arrive.
  - In this episode, the Enterprise must use a pulsed graviton beam to investigate the "possibility of communication" with the crystal entity. In "Datalore," Yar opened a communications channel, and Lore simply spoke to the entity and it responded.
  - At one point, Data and Dr. Marr head for a turbolift. Once in the turbolift, Dr. Marr asks for the bridge. When they reach their destination, the doors pop open and they walk out. The shot shows a section of hallway through the open doors of the turbolift. Didn't Dr. Marr say "bridge"? None of the turbolift entrances on the bridge has a section of hallway like the one shown.
  - When Dr. Marr locks the graviton stream into a continuous mode, both Data and Geordi claim they can't stop her program. Why not just cut the power to the graviton emitters?
• From djb on 2008-03-23 at 8:54pm:
  - The episode opens with Riker hitting on a woman-- by now hardly a rare sight. But what I like about this one was the twist that the woman gets killed within moments. This is sad, but it kind of makes Riker's seduction attempts seem childish and trivial in retrospect. I like, though, how Riker wants to include a personal message to her her parents.
  
  - In response to our trusty resident fault-finder DSOmo, we definitely have seen people wait for the turbolift before, BUT, never have I seen someone have to push a button to summon it. Also, while they seem to exit the turbolift in a hallway, the next scene shows them on the bridge.
  
  - I liked this episode's continuity with other episodes, but I was slightly disappointed that we didn't see Lore. I kind of assumed that if we see the Crystalline Entity, we'd see Lore too, but I suppose that's a foolish assumption.
  
  - I love Dr. Marr's spectrum of emotion, especially her 180-degree attitude towards Data. First she distrusts him, then accepts him, then starts treating him as if he were her son! The progression from fascinated scientist to bereaved mother is also quite well done.
  
  -"Avatar" comes from the Sanskrit "Avatara", meaning literally "descent of a deity in incarnate form". It has come to mean embodiment, incarnation, or personification. Here, clearly, the title refers to Marr's son being "incarnated," so to speak, in Data, who is composed of, among other things, silicon. Interesting title...
• From JRPoole on 2008-07-06 at 6:03am:
  This one is a real stinker for me. While I share the disgust with just killing the thing, I also buy Marr's and Riker's justification. The news Data gives Dr. Marr at the end of the episode seems overly cruel and pointless as well.
• From KStrock on 2009-07-22 at 1:54pm:
  I really love Picard in this episode. It's great consistency with the character's respect for all forms of life.
• From Tallifer on 2011-02-21 at 10:46pm:
  I could not fathom the reaction of Picard et alia to Mar's destruction of the Crystalline Entity: yes, it would have been nicer to learn more and even communicate, but it had murdered thousands of human beings: its death was deserved and necessary in the end.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-02 at 6:56pm:
  Sorry to be disagreeable, but I found Ellen Geer's performance terrible. It left me cringing at times.
• From Will on 2011-10-29 at 1:08am:
  Nothing about the review suggests a rating of 3. Could you explain that part further?
• From Kethinov on 2011-10-30 at 1:53am:
  Will,
  
  In the review I mention finding the episode distasteful due to the plot's callous treatment of the crystalline entity. I felt like its murder was unnecessary and cheap storytelling. However, I do understand your desire for a more substantive analysis. Longer, more detailed reviews are coming. Revamped reviews are slowly trickling in, starting with TOS. Have a look at TOS seasons 1 and 2 to see what the new review format will be.
• From Jason on 2014-05-18 at 5:38am:
  Problem: while in the cave conversing with data Dr. Marr's tricorder is upside down.
• From QuasiGiani on 2018-04-26 at 12:13pm:
  Murder. Vengful, spiteful murder. Marr murdered the being just as channels of hope for co-existence began.
  
  The crystal cannot be said to have murdered a single thing; but Marr surely murdered it.
  
  Marr certainly needed it _pointed_ out to her that what _she_ had done was entirely _pointless_. It was not cruel to try and give her the understanding that understanding is the way and vengeance is not.
  
  Excellent episode. Message conveyed.
• From Obampresidentialine entity on 2021-08-06 at 12:01pm:
  Hmm not sure about this one, this is not a whale eating plankton, let us not forget that this lifeform conspired with Lore to consume sentient beings.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Popescu on 2010-08-22 at 2:45pm:
  Completely agree about Keiko and O'Brien's problems.
  
  About the telepathic influence affecting only the senior staff... At the party there were other personnel who were kissing and/or hugging in the background... Were they also senior officers? If they were, shouldn't we know something about them?
  
  With all the bunch of characters in DS9, it's quite hard in an episode like this to focus on more non-essential ones, maybe just showing them in the background is enough. Also, Bareil is not an senior officer, neither is Jake or Quark :)
  
  I don't think this is a problem... The episode just focuses on the most important characters, many of them being part of the senior staff.
• From Ry-Fi on 2011-02-06 at 6:08am:
  Great episode. I LOVE the directing/cinematography of this one! Way to go, Avery Brooks! There are so many long, moving shots, and the DS9 set is really shown off far better than in any other episode that's come before. This one must've been a hoot to make, and I'm sure somewhat challenging for the actors.
  
  As always, Majel Barrett is a pleasure to see (I love that woman, and her portrayal of Lwaxana is divine).
  
  Finally, this episode really adds credence to the fact that Keiko O'Brien can be a real bitch. Her way of talking with Miles and resolving issues sure rubs me the wrong way. I'm not entirely fond of her, and sure don't understand what Miles sees in her. Their relationship does come across as fairly realistic - it's just too bad it doesn't seem like a great one...
• From Gul Ranek on 2012-12-23 at 9:58pm:
  I guess this is DS9's version of The Naked Time/The Naked Now, although a bit more fun. When I read the recap, I thought it was going to be a disaster, but turned out not to be all that bad. The only problem for me is the almost-cartoonish scene when Bareil punched Sisko who responded by blocking his subsequent punches like Neo in the Matrix, after which Dax knocked Bareil out. As for the question why only the senior staff was affected, I guess it could be argued that Lwaxana had her outbursts only when she was present around them.
  
  P.S. How come you stopped doing the filler count halfway through the second season? This episode, for example, could be marked as the starting point for the Kira/Odo romance.
• From Kethinov on 2012-12-24 at 3:27am:
  I'm currently doing a DS9 rewatch and slowly altering my reviews to tweak things and add the filler quotients. You'll see more added in the coming months. I expect the project to be completed by June.
• From tigertooth on 2016-09-27 at 4:15am:
  Respectfully, I disagree completely with Gul Ranek. The "fight" between Sisko and Bareil was my favorite part! It was indeed slapstick, but it also makes sense: Bareil could never go toe-to-toe with Sisko. And it's a silly episode, so they should have gotten silly in the final scene. If anything, the problem is there wasn't *more* ridiculousness.
  
  Does anybody have a gif of Sisko's reaction to Bareil's punches?
• From C on 2017-04-19 at 2:19am:
  Avery Brooks' acting when Dax is seducing Sikso is so perfectly genuine. I enjoy this one overall.
• From Gaius Gracchus on 2021-08-16 at 9:04pm:
  A fun romp in the vein of The Naked Time/The Naked Now. Works better than the TNG variant because it comes along after the characters and relationships are established.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-11-29 at 10:13am:
  I could have done without O'Brien being a jealous jerk to his wife... again. They really get lazy with O'Brien sometimes. They just make him suffer and/or super moody. I was completely with Keiko in this one (as I usually am). It was touching he was willing to resign for her, though perhaps a bit over-the-top. At least he came around. (And apparently he's a pretty good lay.)
  
  I would have been more sold if the "love vibes" affected different people differently, depending on their self-awareness and maturity. One redeeming aspect of The Naked Now was that some of the more "serious" officers were more in control than the others.
  
  I feel Dax has been sloppily written recently. She falls in love with a stranger in Meridian and is ready to throw her life away for him. Then two episodes later she's under this amorous influence toward Sisko seemingly without any self-awareness or sense that something is amiss. But normally she should be one of the most self-aware and self-controlled people on the station, what with eight lifetimes' worth of memories. It also seems Bareil, who is supposedly a contemplative holy dude, completely loses himself. I did like how Kira and Bashir, though they couldn't stop making out, kept saying they needed to stop, but couldn't stop!
  
  Agreed with the commenter above who said the bit with Sisko deflecting Bareil's blows was their favorite scene. Mine too. Bariel is not a fighting man! Sisko didn't even get mad, he just got exasperated.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From dr theopolis on 2007-02-04 at 5:11pm:
  I have to agree that the concept of blind faith is very annoying. Some people just aren't scientific and will feel more comfortable with spiritual explanations. I can handle that. However what really annoys me about this episode is that the guide seemed out to prove a point at Kes's expence. She said that the ritual was meaningless yet the toxin was crucial to the solution. So what does she know? Frankly, I think the science vs religion concept could have been written into a better story. The ending was pretty weak.
• From JRPoole on 2009-05-30 at 1:46pm:
  Ditto Eric's review.
  
  This feels anti-Trek to me, and one of the things I like least about Voyager is that it pushes this sort of new age-y pseudo religious philosophy more than any other Trek series. Still, this could have been a cool concept with a more interesting story. The montages of Janeway's quest are terrible, the alien of the week isn't very interesting, and the whole thing just isn't very interesting.
  
  On a side note, there must be some link between having ridges on the bridge of your nose and beleiving in vague spiritual nonsense. These people and their "spirits" are a lot like the Bajorans and their prophets.
• From L on 2013-12-19 at 12:42am:
  2 1/2 seasons into voyager and I'm still incredibly underwhelmed. Bland.
  
  There's been minor annoyances but this one is the first to really piss me off, with its ridiculous propaganda of glorifying pseudo-mystical nonsense and demonising rational thought or wanting straight answers to simple questions.
  
  That 'spiritual' guide flat out mis-led and lied to Janeway. Janweway's purpose was very clear, she wasn't searching for their misguided version of enlightenment, she was on an urgent mission, and she was given the run-around just so they could feel superior while laying all the responsibility on Janeway.
  She should have slapped that smug cow.
  
  This was just anti-intellectualism, and it's crap like pushing this new-age so-called 'spirituality' that has probably been a factor in us arriving at the internet dark-ages of anti-science ignorance we find ourselves in now.
  
  I'm very annoyed with you Star Trek.
  
• From McCoy on 2017-08-08 at 5:16pm:
  10/10
  You people may not like faith in general, but you've made a religion from science. How is blind faith in science better than any religion? Oh, I see... Because you have tricorders:)
  Great episode. Without a little bit of spiritualism and mystery world is boring and terrible. You really want to live in Q Continuum? Where everybody knows everything? God, it's hell:)
• From Ensign Obummer on 2022-02-14 at 9:11am:
  How? It is better because (unlike spirits and superstition) science reliably works, it is not blind.
  Also, why are spirits always such trolls? The play silly games with Janeway while Kes' life hangs by a thread.
  Not to mention leaving that death trap around for tourists to wander in.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-07-09 at 12:27am:
  - From the time Troi senses trouble to the moment Dr. Crusher declares Aster dead, only about thirty seconds have passed. There are no resuscitation attempts and no efforts to get Aster stabilized. Was Aster not worth the effort?
  - It's no wonder that the energy beings think Jeremy won't be cared for. Shortly after Picard tells him about his mother's death, we watch Jeremy in his quarters. He is there alone, watching old movies of his mom. This concept of Jeremy being alone continues throughout the episode. Does this seem right? This kid has lost his only surviving parent, and everyone stays away. He is only twelve. Shouldn't someone be staying close by to help him through this time?
  - Who shot the old home movies Jeremy watches? It couldn't be his father. If it was, Jeremy hasn't aged in five years.
  - At the end of the episode, Worf says a Klingon phrase. Jeremy asks what it means, and Worf explains. Then Jeremy repeats the complete phrase! Jeremy must be quite a linguist. Do you really think a twelve-year-old boy could repeat that phrase after hearing it only once?
• From CAlexander on 2011-04-28 at 12:20pm:
  The idea of showing what happens when a crewmember dies is interesting. And I like Picard's discussion with the entity at the very end. Otherwise, this episode is adequate but not particularly inspired.
• From Rydeen on 2011-08-20 at 8:40pm:
  I really liked this episode, it was quite touching. I gave it a seven, I really liked that the alien lifeform didn't turn out to be malicious, just very different. On the other hand, I think I will never get to like engergy lifeforms and their "powers", they're just so contrived.
  One thing that puzzles me is that Geordi mentioned that the explosives were just recently put there "to be found". But there's no follow up to this whatsoever and it goes unexplained. So why do it in the first place? That seems like really shoddy writing.
  
  I'd also like to address DSOmo's points:
  1. It's not that she "wasn't worth the effort", it's just that her injuries were to severe and they had to proclaim her dead. Not a flaw at all.
  2. You have to give children some space in such a situation. I'm sure he wasn't alone all the time, but it would also be a mistake to have someone there all the time. Not a flaw either.
  3. Well, that's a little movie mistake really. Though you could reason that it was a friend of the family, an uncle, etc. However, in the end, it was a movie mistake ;)
• From AnalogyShark on 2011-09-20 at 6:43pm:
  In response to Rydeen's comment about the explosives being dug up, I took that as the energy lifeforms dug them out of the ground and disarmed them. They didn't want any more harm to come from the old war, and were probably upset that the mines had harmed someone. As to why the waited, energy lifeforms probably don't fear explosive devices, so it hadn't occurred to them to disarm them till they saw the enterprise crew harmed by them.
• From Inga on 2012-01-14 at 1:12pm:
  When Geordi increased the power of the shield and the contact with the energy being was lost for the fist time, why didn't Picard order to leave the planet right away? Didn't he think the energy being would make another attempt to reach them?
• From Alex on 2020-08-22 at 8:52am:
  There is one small problem, it's just cosmetic. When they scan the planet upon detecting an energy signature (~18:30 mark), you can see it is very obviously Mars and its Valles Marineris.
  
  https://sun9-58.userapi.com/gJHnwSvwi2AK3DlHHw-8XorTtGALKBbPmXN3Bw/tI5y3j3eF1w.jpg
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mars_Valles_Marineris.jpeg
  
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-28 at 10:10pm:
  "Maybe if we felt any loss as keenly as we felt the death of one close to us, human history would be a lot less bloody." I love how Data's questions prompt humans into self-reflection.
  
  The episode was a little bit of a slog until the confrontation between Picard and the energy being. That whole scene was quite moving. One thing I love about Star Trek is that, even though it's part sci-fi space adventures, it's also human drama. This scene served as character development for several of the show's leads, and would not have been as powerful if we had not already learned a good deal about Worf, Picard, and both Crushers. This (second-to) last scene almost makes up for the weird pacing of the rest of the episode. Unfortunately, a la Trek, we never hear from Jeremy again, even though he's supposedly now in Worf's family. It's possible the kid actor didn't want to come back, or had other work. I was quite impressed with his acting in this episode.
  
  I like that Troi had something solid to do in this episode. It occurred to me watching Troi's and Picard's conversations this episode that I like their relationship. They're both introverts, or so it seems to me. Picard trusts Troi in a way he doesn't trust anyone else. She understands his inward and contemplative nature much more than the others do.
  
  Why were Troi and Worf meeting in the computer core?
  
  Data emotion-spotting: "I do not sense the same feelings of absence that I associate with Lieutenant Yar." You're learning, Data!
  
  I also caught what Alex above did. Valles Marineris is unmistakable.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From wes on 2012-01-14 at 5:04pm:
  Tuvok's rank insignia begins the episode as Lieutenant, which is wrong since he was never courtmartialed. Later, his rank is back to Lt. Commander. Then later still, it is back to Lieutenant. What's with this?
• From Jadzia Guinan Smith on 2015-05-23 at 6:44am:
  "energy life form of the week" -- enough said! I was re-watching season one; I wished I skipped this one. Wasted hour of my life.
  

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• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-06-14 at 12:09am:
  I consider this episode to be the sequel to Shades of Grey. If I was going to try to get a friend to watch Trek, I would hide this episode's disc under my couch.
  
  Once again, we are watching a dream sequence, which is exactly what the previous episode was about. It is rare for me to become bored while watching TNG, but this one did it. I really had to strain to pay attention. The story unravels too slowly. It all leads up to a hidden secret at the end, but once you know that, there's no reason to watch it again. I give it a rare 1.
  
  
• From Brian on 2008-01-02 at 10:55pm:
  A young Kirsten Dunst (from the Spiderman movies) plays Hedril in this episode.
• From Dio on 2009-01-18 at 10:55pm:
  I agree with Orion, I just wasn't interested in this one. I gave it a 2, one point for getting to see the arboretum and one for having Kirsten Dunst in it :)
• From tigertooth on 2011-01-10 at 5:31pm:
  The scenes where the alien is creating the link between Troi and Lwaxana are hilarious. So many stares and camera zooms... and they do this exact sequence twice!
  
  And the scene where the wolf lazily lopes after Troi is also laugh-worthy. I can see why it would be hard to shoot a scene where a wolf looks like it's actually chasing Troi down a hallway, but that means that they should have used something other than a wolf for that scene. Really, why a wolf? Was it a reference to the fact that a dog was indirectly involved in the daughter's death?
  
  It was also funny that Troi's childhood home looked so much like personal quarters on the Enterprise. Not a huge deal - there's only so much money to spend on building new sets, I'm sure - but odd.
  
  It was quite clear that they were stretching for time on this episode. Maybe they should have added a subplot -- like the aliens being confused by interacting with Data since they can't read his mind. Perhaps tie it in somehow with the fact that Data, like Lwaxana, once lost a young daughter.
  
  Finally, I hate to say it since everybody (myself included) loves Majel Barrett, but the climactic scene just didn't come off that great. Barrett is great at playing imperious Lwaxana, but her "grief-stricken" didn't come off so well.
• From Arta on 2011-11-28 at 8:40pm:
  I liked the aliens at the beginning as well, but overall, I thought this episode was really terrible. The last few scenes where Lwaxana "dreams" about meeting the dead daughter were just embarrassingly bad. They made me cringe.
• From L on 2013-04-27 at 9:09am:
  This episode made feel sexist for wondering if it was written by a woman. It was.
  Please tell me women wrote some episodes that weren't just mushy emotional psuedo-psychoanalysis.
  
  At least Lwaxana wasn't as irritating as she usually is. For a supposed telepathic ambassador, she is remarkably oblivious to the discomfort she invokes in those around her. Good for comic effect, but not series logic.
• From Rob UK on 2015-02-26 at 12:10am:
  Am i the only Trekky who hates the character Lwaxana Troi? Talk about providing the wife a free paycheck, Majel should have stuck to her regular character as the voice of the computer surely that was enough regular revenue, thank the Gods of mice and men that she spent the majority of this episode in a coma.
  
  The character Lwaxana is for me the worst character in all of the Trekiverse, if i had to choose to spend an evening with Lwaxana or Barclay i'd choose Barclay every time, don't get me started on how much i hate Barclay.
• From CAlexander on 2019-04-08 at 5:03am:
  I think this review really hits it on the nose. The episode really does run out of steam once it becomes clear that Lwaxana is suffering from events in her past. And while the idea of Troi's lost sister seems like it ought to have potential, this story feels drawn out and unsatisfying.
• From JD on 2021-01-12 at 12:17pm:
  Hmmm, given that this is Lwaxana episode, its not one I ever really re-watched and had largely forgotten.
  
  However, I just watched it now and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it and how emotional I found the ending. I became a father 2 years ago and I can totally relate to how the grief of losing a child could be unbearable. I think it was actually quite well done and Sirtis's acting was top drawer.
  
  Still, the alien of the week had a really creepy grin and a laughably intense stare!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Jeff on 2009-06-05 at 4:53am:
  I was a little confused by this episode. Obviously, Seven's parents couldn't have gotten this deep into the Delta Quadrant on their own. Did the Borg capture the shuttle in the Alpha Quadrant somewhere and then after getting to the Delta Quadrant using transwarp, drop it off at that planet?
• From Alec on 2009-08-26 at 8:10am:
  The flight path the B'omar would like Voyager to follow is shown only in two dimensions. One would believe both races would have methods of displaying courses in three dimensions with how much space travel they do.
• From Vincent on 2011-10-04 at 5:26am:
  Are you sure Seven's shuttle changes? I thought for sure that the second shuttle type was piloted by Tom Paris, and that the differences in the shuttles was for the audience's benefit.
• From Peter on 2012-04-07 at 1:00am:
  A good story considering the continuity of 7o9 psychology. Strange enough, the alien race (of the week) was special and had some resilience to Borg assimilation, because they were technologically advanced. How they did that exactly was not explained. Thus, I think some waste of good ideas in the plot. However, 7o9 had to develop herself a bit further. It is a bit annoying that she has to wear this tight suit all the time, which is distracting to much. So to say, she is presented with a body too sexy: her big breasts are nice and very attractive, but honestly, too much for the rest of the story! Otherwise 7o9 has a lot of other potential for serious topics, action, even humour.
• From L on 2013-12-27 at 2:26am:
  One hopes the Federation has a version of 'Everybody Poops' so Seven of Nine can be sufficiently informed of the natural consequences of putting a newly-working digestive system into operation.
  
  They made a big deal out of her being seemingly so mystified by the basics and even needing to be taught how to swallow, no doubt for the cheap 'so this is what it's like to be a human' and 'cuteness' effect, but taken to its logical conclusion, less cute and kind of icky.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From rpeh on 2010-07-14 at 8:59pm:
  "Beam us up, Mr. Scott", said by Spock is the closest to "Beam me up, Scottie" to which Trek ever comes.
• From jeffenator98 on 2013-05-17 at 7:49pm:
  God awful. 2/10
• From Scott Hearon on 2014-04-11 at 10:54am:
  I gave this one a 5/10. There were some interesting elements to the plot, but far too many nuisances.
  
  As Kethinov points out, McCoy was made out to be an utter moron. This is one of several episodes I've seen where the screenwriter clearly just wanted an excuse to have McCoy argue with Spock, even at the expense of McCoy's intelligence. They took it absurdly far in this one.
  
  I had EXACTLY the same thought about the musical notation. I don't care how intelligent Spock is - without some sort of baseline "key" or Rosetta Stone, there is absolutely no way that he could have discerned what kind of language he was looking at.
  
  Also, how exactly did the natives know that their "machine" had stopped working? And their violent stoning of "Kurok" and his woman was a laughably odd change in attitude.
  
  The general plot was, however, a decent one. Having Kirk become amnesiac and go native was interesting, even if the native culture wasn't exactly very novel. And I do like the span of time that's covered, as it gives the story arc time to settle in and for major changes to occur organically within a single episode.
  
  At this point, I think that Scotty has become my favorite character, along with Spock.
• From jd_juggler on 2015-03-28 at 2:35pm:
  Pretty amazing coincidence that the "password" to open the obelisk just happened to be "Kirk to Enterprise". And what possible purpose could there have been for the builders of the obelisk to have included that "amnesia" button that could be triggered by an unwary occupant? Lastly, about the enterprise: an asteroid hurtling through space is not going to be traveling anywhere near the speed of light. The enterprise crew must have screwed up pretty badly to reduce the engines to such a state that it couldn't travel faster than an asteroid for several weeks. And why couldn't Scotty restore the warp drive engines in all that time? He's never failed to do before or since, and there were LOTS of episodes in which the engines were burnt out. For that matter, how DID he repair the warp drive after finally returning to the planet and rescuing Kirk? Oh, and what a coincidence that the enterprise could travel EXACTLY as fast as the asteroid, without gaining or losing ground, over several weeks.
• From McCoy on 2016-11-13 at 5:28pm:
  Horrible episode. For me it was one of the worst TOS stories ever. And more about McCoy's incompetence - why he didn't save the girl's life? Remember the movie - his pills made new kidney grow! And here he just gave up and did nothing. I woud expect more of future medicine...

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-08-05 at 4:57am:
  - Dr. Crusher's skills must be improving. In this episode, Jono stabs Picard with a knife, and in a very short time, Picard seems to be fine. Crusher says the blade glanced off the sternum (a bone in the center of the chest.) In "Who Watches the Watchers," a Mintakan shoots Picard in the shoulder with an arrow, and even after Dr. Crusher fixes him up, Picard wears a sling to support his arm.
  - At the end of the episode, the transporter chief must have read the script to know when to transport Jono back to the Talarian ship. After Picard escorts Jono to the transporter room, Jono steps up on the platform and Picard says good-bye. Then they both pause for almost four seconds. (If I were the transporter chief, I would have hit the button at this point.) Thankfully, the transporter chief doesn't, because Jono wanted to have one final, tender moment with Picard. After this, Jono gets back on the platform, waits less than three seconds, and the chief transports him to Endar's ship. (In case you are wondering, no one says "Energize.")
• From djb on 2008-01-31 at 1:14am:
  I have a hard time believing that the Captain's quarters are left unlocked, especially when he's sleeping! Jono just waltzes in there and stabs him, and no one says a word about how he got in there in the first place. You'd think there would be at least a minimum amount of security on his door!
• From JRPoole on 2008-04-29 at 12:20am:
  Actually, Jono had moved into Picard's quarters.
• From Axel on 2018-08-16 at 12:50am:
  Ah, you said it. Jono's grandmother is going to be *pissed*. Maybe. Or maybe she'll understand. We never get the chance to find out. All we know is that, clearly, she was under the impression that he'd be returning to her and his grandfather. So now they have to digest the fact that he's staying with the Talarians, that he chose to do so, and that in light of what happened, they'll probably never see him. Kind of a large sticking point to an otherwise interesting episode. I suppose Picard could make their break with Jono cleaner by saying in his report, "when I told the boy that he'd be returning to his human grandparents, to you, he stabbed me in the chest and I almost died. Sorry, Admiral...I, uh, I did this for your own protection."
  
  But as you say, it's the obvious moral choice. So I think the grandmother's only role was to give the viewer a small bit of doubt that returning the boy to Endar is the right thing to do. When the episode ends, and the decision is reached, she's quietly forgotten. Maybe I'm making a bigger deal of this than need be, but I it lowers my rating of the episode from a 7 to about a 5.

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• From Fenix on 2011-01-30 at 9:51pm:
  Just wanted to point out that Captain Sisko's acting at the end of this episode was spot on. Imagine -- to read the beginning of a work that he had, in The Visitor, only heard of shortly before witnessing Jake's death as an old man. There are complex emotions in Sisko as he tells Jake that he is sure Jake will get back to writing, emotions that are very well portrayed.
• From L on 2013-05-28 at 7:43am:
  An 'alien-energy-vampire' metaphor exploring the relationship between creativity and drug use, wrapped in the generally taboo subject of the sexual dynamics between an older woman and a younger lover. Interesting territory for Star Trek to be exploring, but not ultimately that interesting as an episode.
• From Zorak on 2016-05-19 at 4:30pm:
  Personally, I can't get enough of the Odo/Lwaxana dynamic. I think they're great together. She seems to bring out the best in Odo. I really couldn't stand her in TNG, but in DS9 she is fantastic.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Gilos on 2013-07-05 at 5:46pm:
  Watching two people bicker at each other for over 30 minutes is terribly unpleasant... I don't understand why the writers thought this would make a good episode. The baby reptile was cute but the mother costume was horrendously cheesy, especially the immovable jaw. This was a stinker and IMHO Kethinov was awfully generous in his review.
• From Mitchell O on 2023-08-28 at 3:54am:
  It only occurred to me when rewatching this episode that the Jem'Hadar fighters at the start might be a continuity error.
  
  In the fourth season episode "Message in a Bottle", the Doctor is unaware of the Dominion, and up till this point there is never a mention of them in Voyager (as best I can recall).
  
  Seems like the footage was handy and they slipped it in hoping no one would notice!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Yonagonaf on 2016-04-30 at 8:24pm:
  The two-headed red dragon reminds Yonagonaf of the cover of the first "Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set".
  
  Yonagonaf used to play "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons".
  
  Yonagonaf used to watch “Dungeons & Dragons” on television on Saturday mornings.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From rpeh on 2010-08-02 at 10:06pm:
  Dreadful episode.
  
  Having built up the tension of the Dominion war then taken a quick break to let Worf and Dax get married as they had always promised, one expects a return to action. Instead... we get a banal episode in the awful mirror series that takes the story nowhere and just acts as a method to assist sleep after a late night Trek-thon.
  
  I'd like to know if *anybody* was surprised by the plot "twist". He's from the mirror universe! Of *course* he's going to be evil!
• From Rob UK on 2023-12-06 at 12:56pm:
  This gets my vote for worst DS9 episode, definitely puts it in contention for worst Star Trek episode too, right up there with Move Along Home, i'm sure we all remember that one
  
  Allamaraine, count to four, Allamaraine, then three more, Allamaraine, if you can see, Allamaraine, you'll come with me.
  
  But this episode is bad for totally different reasons, it is as if Disney bought it for a single episode with the intent of destroying the mirror verse storyline and then gave it back.

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• From pjotrwolf on 2017-04-02 at 9:32pm:
  There is not so much difference between the magic of the megas and the "omnipotence" of Q or other beings of the Q continuum. The Squire of Gothos does similar sorcery. I wonder why their powers and conjuring tricks are not questioned for rational explanations.
• From Hugo on 2020-09-02 at 4:53pm:
  Isn't it a bit similar to the TNG pilot? A omnipotent being holding humanity at trial... ?