A lot of people slam this episode as the hands-down, all-time worst of the series. I definitely will not go that far, but it is, for sure, an unsalvageable waste that should never have been made. It’s a lame clip show that scarcely even pretends to any merits of its own, and the fact that so many of its “clips” are from atrocious first-season episodes doesn’t do it any favors, either. But its badness stems mainly from the fact that its entertainment value is roughly equivalent to that of staring at a blank screen for forty-five minutes, rather than from the kind of embarrassingly cheesy, insultingly dumb, and/or offensively ill-conceived garbage that distinguishes the very worst episodes of the show. Actually, even that may be a bit harsh (the part about staring at a blank screen, I mean—not the trashing of other, worse episodes); up to the point when Riker loses consciousness, Pulaski begins stimulating his neurons, and the “clip show” element takes over, this episode is actually reasonably watchable, if undeniably a trifle uninspired. Riker’s studied (but nevertheless infectious) cheerfulness is charming, all the characters behave likably and (mostly) intelligently, and for half a moment, it almost looks as though a plot might be about to develop. Only when it becomes clear that “Riker on the medical bed re-living memories” is the plot (such as it is) does the episode definitively drop into the one-star category. On top of the unrelenting lameness of this “plot,” Marina Sirtis’s inability to be convincing and non-melodramatic when she tries to act anguished and distressed, and the fundamental boringness of Pulaski as a character too much of the time, both take their toll. Alas, this was a dismal and unfortunate way for the second season to end.
Posted inTNG Reviews: Season 2 ⭑
Shades of Gray (⭑)
I agree with your overall take on the show. To criticize the beginning of the show, I think it was foolish and dangerous of Geordi to head down to the planet just because he knew exactly where the attack happened. They pretty much had the coordinates from having beamed up, and any further instruction could’ve been given remotely I think. Especially since there was a far more believable reason for Geordi to go, that is, he has better visual acuity, which indeed became useful during the subsequent scene. I also thought it was somewhat silly that the doctor didn’t disconnect Rikers leg as soon as they saw it was infectious and spreading. I assume if they are able to then cure the leg, it wouldn’t be beyond their technology to reconnect it, and even if it were, a prosthetic is better than death.
As to whom is to blame, I put most of the blame on the producers who apparently weren’t willing to fund a proper episode. This happens in other series where the writers have to do one of these clip episodes to make ends meet. If they did this in order to afford “peak performance,“ then so be it.
One other nitpick, I don’t believe the memory of fighting Klag would have been very negative. He actually mentally prepared for that very situation before he came on board, succeeded in the fight, and subsequently befriended Klag. If anything, I think he would’ve looked back fondly on that memory.
One other thing, they could’ve avoided the whole amputation possibility if they had had the plant sting him in the lower back, infecting his lower spine. That could have still given them the time they needed it for the plot to unfold as it went up his back, but no feasible way of stopping the infection through amputation.
The Menagerie in the original series Is a much better example of one of these funding induced clip shows which provided its own interesting plot. Not that they carried it off perfectly by any means, but much better.
Aside from it being an obvious attempt to produce an episode on a tight budget, it feels like it was made in a time that people didn’t realize that TNG would eventually be regarded as a classic by people who were phoning it in, big time.