First Aired: November 2nd, 1987
Summary
The Enterprise has been assigned to take two rival species who wish the join the Federation to a planet called Parliament so that they can attempt to work out their differences. En route, the ship accidentally picks up an incredibly advanced life form made of pure energy which then works its way through the ship and its bridge crew to attempt to return home that almost leaves Captain Picard stranded in space forever.
Guess Who's Back?
It's the plot relevance of the female characters! Yay! Deanna Troi's hypnosis was crucial for figuring out what was going on, and at least Doctor Crusher got to play an important role in figuring out the life form's intentions (even if she herself wasn't doing an awful lot). Meanwhile, Tasha had her work cut out for her dealing with the Anticans and the Selay's plots to kill each other, and we actually got to see her doing her job on-screen without a single reference to her tragic past or need for someone else to step in!
Fair Treatment
Another nice thing is that although both Worf and Doctor Crusher were hosts for the life form, they did not act differently based on their genders. This certainly seems like a given, but I still recall the events of "The Naked Now" and probably will continue to any time anyone is under any sort of influence on this show.
Death of an Assistant Chief Engineer
Singh, we hardly knew ye! This episode marks the first on-screen death of the series, if I'm not mistaken. This is a race issue rather than a feminist issue, but I found it disconcerting that the first on-screen death was the killing of an Indian character with a thick accent who was basically introduced for the sake of his death. Even now there is a lack of the casual inclusion of People of Color in television shows, especially People of Color who have thick accents. Seeing TNG take a step towards inclusivity just to take two steps back was certainly disappointing.
Detective Data
Unrelated to anything except the episode, Data's sudden interest in Sherlock Holmes was adorable, am I right?
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