I’ll say this for this episode: the first time that I watched it after not having seen it in many years, it managed to pleasantly surprise me a bit. Maybe it was the fact that I watched it right after having watched “Samaritan Snare” and “Up the Long Ladder” (shudder), or maybe my expectations for an episode that features Lwaxana Troi and is titled “Manhunt” were just really, really low—but I recall going in expecting an abysmal episode, and finding one that, while deeply flawed, was surprisingly entertaining in places, and merely bad (rather than outright terrible) the rest of the time. That assessment still stands.
Lwaxana Troi is an irritating character; there’s no getting around it. Her attitudes about men are no funnier or more palatable than a man’s similar attitudes about women would be, and the fact that we are presented with the same basic schtick in her second appearance as we were when she was first introduced back in “Haven” (the same “someone has to carry her surprisingly heavy bag” joke, the same continually clueless and full-of-herself ongoing monologue, the same very implausible claims about the lewd thoughts that Picard supposedly has about her, etc.) doesn’t help matters, either. But on the other hand, Picard’s antics as he tries to stall and/or avoid her are genuinely funny—and by being more ambiguous this time about whether or not her assertions that Picard is having lewd thoughts about her are actually true, the episode alienates viewers who want to respect Picard as a character a bit less than “Haven” does. The scenes with Data telling his “anecdotes” during the romantic dinner are priceless, and some fun is had in the holodeck scenes as well (though it’s odd how Data perks up and wants to get involved at the first mention of Dixon Hill, but then isn’t given much to say or do when he gets there). Overall, Picard’s second foray into the world of Dixon Hill is integrated into the episode much more skillfully than his first one, in “The Big Goodbye,” was—and although Lwaxana’s stupidity in not realizing that she is romancing a fictional character is not believable, she’s such an unlikable boob that you almost don’t mind that the show is treating her this way.
As for the subplot about the fish people: not terrible, but pretty odd and pointless. Given that they turn out to be terrorists who are intent on blowing up a diplomatic conference, their fairly minimal presence in the episode and the way in which the reveal of their motives is casually tossed in (more or less for laughs?) at the end are both head-scratchers…but there we are. I will say, though, that I don’t really buy Wesley’s shades of prejudice based on how “weird-looking” the delegates are, nor his admission that he reacted similarly to Worf at one time; this is a kid who’s been around and seen a lot, and who usually shows himself to have a very open mind and accepting demeanor, and as such, this just doesn’t ring true.