Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) A Matter of Perspective (1990) User Reviews

Good episode but perhaps a plot hole.....

[toolkien · 7/10 · 8 June 2007]

Now I'm no trekkie/trekker, and perhaps there is some known reason why this wouldn't be the case, but - In this highly controlled, peaceful future, wouldn't one think that a phaser would have a record of when it was fired? If Riker had fired it at anything/anyone, all one would do is retrieve it and check to see when it was fired, down to the exact stardate. It would correspond pretty much the time the base exploded and Riker was transporting. He'd have a lot to answer for.

Now granted this has to be read into it, but everything else a person does is basically chronicled, people are trackable at any time via the ship's computer, and reachable via their communicators. Yet the simple notion of putting a track on a lethal tool doesn't have one.

Just doesn't fit at all....

Had a chance to be better

[Hughmanity · 7/10 · 5 May 2020]

This was an interesting episode in he said/she said futuristic form. The holodeck usage made it interesting but unfortunately some big plot holes prevented it from being a great episode.

How does Troi not sense any dishonesty in either Riker or the wife? Their testimonies were wildly different including whether there was attempted rape on the part of Riker. They were polar opposite versions yet nobody is lying?

In the end the husband is proven guilty of deceiving the Federation and attempting to kill Riker, but they say nothing about the wife and her role in it?

This could have been a great episode given the topic it was discussing and the courtroom drama, but it feels like they chickened out at the end.

That's what she said.

[thevacinstaller · 6/10 · 17 March 2021]

This episode had the foundation in place to be a great episode but ended up steering itself towards average territory. I felt a severe lack of intrigue in this episode and the attempt to make a commentary on 'perspective' was derailed by the assistants testimony making Riker appear like a swaggering rapist.

I think they should have leaned a bit more into the idea that Apgar was dealing with other sources for financial gain / find a way to establish Apgar as a compelling character and not a man simply compromised by jealously.

I get the idea ---- We all have our personal view of 'truth and perspective' but this episode would have benefited from putting the screws to Riker and truly having the viewer question his story.

This needed some additional spice.

A matter of perspective.

[russem31 · 18 April 2006]

ST:TNG:62 - "A Matter Of Perspective" (Stardate: 43610.4) - this is the 14th episode of the 3rd season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

It's fitting that the beginning of this film begins with Picard and 2 other crew members are in a drawing session based on an object they are looking at, each drawing based on his/her own subjective perspective. The reason is this episode is about how different witnesses to a murder and station explosion see the incident (in the style of Kurosawa's "Rashomon") including Riker (who is now a suspect) - and instead of recalling the incident, we are given visual representation of each witnesses' testimonies via the holodeck.

Basically, this episode brings to "perspective" as to what is the truth - is there an objective truth or is it truly only subjective?

Number One, on the mercy of the court

[Mr-Fusion · 6/10 · 27 October 2016]

Well, they can't all be winners. 'A Matter of Perspective' restages TNG as a mock trial with Commander Riker on the hook for attempted murder. What follows is a series of exhibits, cross-examinations and analysis, and that's about as dull as it sounds. There's an almost lighthearted tone in the episode's opening, having Riker loitering on the bridge (totally in the dog house) while everyone else gets down to business; and I do like the scientific use of the holodeck aside from its usual role in endangering the ship.

The episode's title is pretty succinct: it's all about changes in perspective. But it's not one of the more engaging episodes.

It's been done.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 16 November 2014]

This episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" begins with Riker beaming back to the Enterprise from a visit with Dr. Apgar. However, unexpectedly, as Riker beams to the ship, there is an explosion of some sort and Dr. Apgar is killed. Soon a police official arrives--demanding that Picard hand over Riker for prosecution. It seems that they think he's just murdered Dr. Apgar. What follows is a "Rashomon" style program where three different people give their impressions of what has occurred--followed by the actual chain of events as they occurred. Because the idea has been used many times before, I wouldn't say that this is a particularly good episode but it is reasonably interesting and worth seeing if you are a fan. Otherwise, you could certainly do better, as it's anything but original.

Justice by holodeck

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 5 November 2018]

The futuristic justice system gets a look in this TNG story where Jonathan Frakes is accused of killing a noted alien scientist seconds before a space station they were both on explodes. In fact the explosion occurs as Commander Riker is being transported from it so that is a close run thing.

Through a little bit of negotiation Patrick Stewart has the trial conducted aboard the Enterprise because it has an asset that the planet doesn't have, the holodeck. Several witnesses including Frakes gives an account of the events in deceased's laboratory which has been reconstructed down to the last detail. One of the things revealed is that the widow of the deceased was playing a futuristic version of the old badger game with Riker as the victim.

Stewart does figure it out in a nice game of show and tell for the authorities. An interesting prospect for the future of the criminal justice system.

The Old Tried and True Multiple View of an Event

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 16 August 2014]

This is a reasonable good episode. Poor Riker, trying to take the high ground, finds himself accused of murder. Unfortunately, for him, the scene of the crime has been obliterated, so all the evidence is hearsay. Sadly, the planet which has charged Riker allows this suspect evidence to take someone to trial. The whole thing centers around a surprise visit to a scientist who has been working on some pretty impressive stuff. He is a crotchety guy who has a wife who is obviously unhappy. In Riker's version, she comes on to him after showing him his bedroom and as he pushes her away, the husband comes in. It is certainly embarrassing for all parties. Riker realizes there is no easy solution but agrees the next morning to return to the Enterprise with a report on his findings. The scientist has promised a complaint to Star Fleet. As Will is about to beam up, the space station explodes and kills the researcher. All must be waded through and sorted out. A pretrial investigation convenes on the holodeck. I have to tell you the whole thing seemed far fetched and difficult to follow. it also concluded rather abruptly.

Very interesting Episode with the great Mark Margolis as Crook

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 20 November 2011]

Mark Margolis continues his Parade of Criminal Portrayals in this very well written and produced Ep of Star Trek: The Next Generation. With Gina Hecht (Manua) and Craig (Kragg) Nelson.

This Ep deals with the way each of us perceives "Truth" - And the very disparate ways we all see the same events.

If two people see an event occur, and questioned about it separately, we would see that the result would be just the same as has happened in this Ep. Each person would insist that the events transpired in the way they perceived it. It takes a rare person, perhaps an Empath like Troi, to be able to put themselves truly in another person's place. Sometimes this happens in real life, but here, we are shown a set of events that change drastically depending on who is telling the tale.

After seeing this, I began to sincerely doubt if anyone can really convey a set of circumstances to another person without tainting it toward their benefit.

For instance, after watching this recently and watching "Mrs. Apgar's" testimony... I concluded that she actually believed her fantasy of the way things had occurred. In her mind, she had the perfect marriage to the perfect husband. But in reality she was probably aware of what illicit things her husband was doing. Sometimes when a person is confronted with something like that, a spouse involved in illegal dealings, they just don't want to believe it. So this was her way of coping with that. But also Riker, and we know how he is with women, probably did not really push aside her advances as thoroughly as his own testimony suggested. In this case we can believe the testimony of "Dr. Apgar" (through his assistant Tanya), that they were both equally involved in cheating on him. Because that is what he saw. Of course his own testimony was tainted by his own delusions, he believed that he punched Riker. Or at least this is what he told his assistant, perhaps this was simply a boast, and his attack on Riker was simply a swing and a miss, as Riker saw. But when you really look at Mrs. Apgar's testimony, it is totally unrealistic, and completely fabricated. But we know that sometimes a person can make themselves believe that something happened in a particular way even though it did not. I didn't want to say the word "delusion", but that pretty much describes her, and her husbands testimony. This would be the only way that Troi would be able to feel that Mrs. Apgar truly believed her own testimony: because she fabricated it.

This episode begins with the Teaser of Picard and two others painting a nude woman, to a Ron Jones score that is haunting and Beautiful, music which is played out in Variations throughout the Ep, depending on who is narrating the events which occurred on the Space Station. The Teaser has Data explaining the differences in the way Picard and the two other artists perceived and painted the Nude woman.

And so Riker paints his picture of events, as does Manua and Tanya (Juliana Donald) - And the Musical Theme changes according to each of these narrations.

The Holodeck is used as a Gimmick, not only does the Holodeck serve to bring the Depositions to "life" - It also serves another, physical purpose, which as a Spoiler I will let you the reader of my humble review mull over.

On the subject of Plot holes, I'll simply say, and if Riker had fired a phaser during Transport, the Transporter WOULD have given Colm Meany-O'Brien an opportunity to shut it off. Also, O'Brien could have been used as a Witness, to show that indeed, Riker was NOT holding a Phaser as he materialized on the Transporter Pad. As we all saw, Riker was not holding a Phaser at all. The Pacing of the scenes regarding the explosion and Riker's successful beam-out, was handled in such a way as we never gave it a second thought, it was a superb piece of (mis)direction on the part of Cliff Bole.

This was a 3rd Season Ep, planted firmly in the center of TNG's best Season and right in the middle of the series run - An Episode Co-Produced by the team of Hans Beimler and Richard Manning - Who always worked together in the early 90's and were responsible for some great Saturday AM Cartoons as well and ST:TNG - Everything they co-produced glowed with their magic touch - and this Ep is one of the best Eps produced during that season of Trek.

"It is the truth as each of us remembers it."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 19 December 2023]

I'm not convinced as to the conclusion of this episode. After all was said and done with the handful of holodeck simulations, I thought there was still reason for Chief Inspector Krag (Craig Richard Nelson) to claim that the evidence to prove Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) innocent of murder was manufactured by the Enterprise's equipment to produce the desired result to exonerate him. Between them, Commander Data (Brent Spiner) and Commander LaForge (LeVar Burton) could have easily created a scenario in which Riker came out looking like a bystander to the machinations of Dr. Nel Apgar (Mark Margolis) and his wife Manua (Gina Hecht). Granted, you had the issue with the radiation emissions aboard the Enterprise that couldn't be accounted for, until it was shown to be a by-product of the Krieger wave converter Apgar was working on. But come on, a .0014 second lapse between Riker's beaming aboard the Enterprise and the firing of the deadly emission that blew up the space station is just too miniscule to account for anything in my book. For what its worth though, the Federation was no longer on the hook for all that extra dicosilium Apgar wanted for his Krieger device.

What Really Happened in That Lab?

[Samuel-Shovel · 4/10 · 16 October 2019]

In "A Matter of Perspective" Riker is accused of murdering a scientist whose wife he was possibly involved in a romantic tryst. Before extraditing Riker to the planet for trial, Picard requests an inquest on the holodeck, where the computer programs the scene of the crime. We watch every witness' own take on the events that transpired. But whose telling the truth of what happened?

Using the holodeck for this purpose sounded interesting off the bat but I quickly realized it's basically pointless. It's like watching a recreation on a real crime show. It doesn't add anything to the testimonies that you can't read off of a transcript. If anything, it adds an emotional aspect to it when you watch holodeck Riker sexually assault Manual. But these kind of visceral emotions have no place in a trial.

Speaking of that scene, we get no conclusion to that little thread. That's odd isn't it? Troi says they're both telling the truth but that doesn't make any sense. Nor is it explained away by memory loss or anything of that nature. Did Riker assault this woman? It's odd that Picard wouldn't want this issue settled. I wouldn't want any doubt to be left in my mind about my first officer.

But this episode is pretty slow besides all of this. We watch the same scenes get reenacted multiple times with small tweaks to them. It's fairly boring watch Riker watch himself on the holodeck. The most interesting tidbit to me was how the holodeck accidentally recreated the scientist's experiment and almost blew the Enterprise sky high.

One of the season's duller episodes.

One of the all Time best episode !

[nicofreezer · 9/10 · 21 October 2021]

I was on the edge of my seat the whole épisode, Amazing story , I really love the fact that we saw different version different point of view on what happen. A great Idea and plot, smart writting , Amazing solution in the end. Im not going for 10/10 but it was very close, just lacking a bit of emotional to be a Masterpiece, but it is one of the very best episode pf thé first 60 ep , My rating 9.25/10.

Review 2022

[iamirwar · 5/10 · 22 August 2022]

Watery soup. Let me start out by saying that I do have fond memories of watching TNG when it first aired but this is the first time I have ever watched each and every episode in the chronological order they were first broadcast. I have to say that so far, I have found most of the stories relating to season three to be somewhat tedious. Sure, there have been highlights here and there, but again and again I find the stories tend to tread old familiar ground. And so it is with this episode. A member of the crew on trial episode with so many twists and turns that I honestly lost interest about 10 minutes in though I forced myself to stay to the end. There are definitely much better episodes of TNG out there. Even in season three there are better episodes, and I can imagine that when I finally complete my survey that this one may feature within the 'Worst Episodes' category.

A trial of Riker

[mpbarry · 9/10 · 11 May 2021]

A story of a trial that at first seems of dubious integrity and value is elevated by the trial's final moments and conclusions.

Another Dud

[zombiemockingbird · 1/10 · 1 April 2023]

Talk about long, drawn out and boring. All three stories of what happened were different, one of which was heresay. As Krag said, it was allowed according to their law. Shouldn't this trial have been somewhere neutral? Seems a little unjust to only follow the laws of the accuser. And once again Troi has proved that she is completely worthless. What good is she, when people are obviously lying, but she can't tell they're lying. Wasn't that why she was there? Thank God for Geordi, managing to figure out the truth. But when they show the truth, it's like oh, my bad, and a half-hearted apology. No mention of the fact that Apgar's wife and assistant told completely false stories, both of them claiming unequivocally that Riker killed Apgar. Apparently, their laws have nothing against perjury either. Another poorly written story.

More terrible writing

[Wes54 · 1/10 · 13 July 2019]

1) The phaser was fired after the transporter was activated, which proves that Will could not have fired. 2) They could have easily examined whether Will's phaser was fired, but didn't. 3) Will claimed he made arrangements to stay overnight on the planet, but they didn't check. 4) The Krieger waves could not be duplicated on the holodeck. 5) Troi didn't sense any deception when it was obvious that there was. 6) Apger's testimony (as given through his assistant) conflicted wildly from his wife's. This casts doubt on both their testomonies. 7) Geordi (who was also on the station) gave no testimony. 8) They just could not think of any way to use the holodeck that didn't threaten the ship.

Rubbish from start to finish.

Lies I Tell You Lies

[GoldenGooner04 · 1/10 · 6 January 2022]

So the wife lied and said Riker tried to rape her, was proved she lied. And not a word was said about it ?

Worst episode of the series so far.

Dire, Poor, Stupid.

Ridiculous...so many plot holes, how did this get made?

[txriverotter · 2/10 · 18 August 2021]

Someone else here listed a point by point, numbered list of what's wrong with this episode, and it's wholly covered so I won't go over that again.

Suffice it to say, why was Troi even there? She didn't sense deception from the wife or assistant? Then why didn't they explain why that would be? Could they cover their emotions? Thoughts?

We're left wondering about those two wildly false testimonies. Thank goodness Picard didn't let them haul Riker away! Who knows what would have happened to the man based on the wife and assistant's baloney nonsense.

This is a bad episode. I love Star Trek, but some episodes you have to wonder, just what WERE the writers smoking that week?!

So-so 'courtroom' episode.

[gd-parry · 5/10 · 22 April 2023]

Never been a fan of the sitting around watching playbacks of what did or didn't happen episodes. Saw it in TOS (The Menagerie being a key one) and feels like the influence of Roddenberry was still clear here. (I know DS9 did one with Jadzia being accused of Curzon's alleged crimes - but it did get away from the stock format).

It's also the prosecutor and somehow also arresting officer who expects leniency from Picard to do whatever he wants but unwilling to return the sentiment. It was probably set as a filler (with the big budget season finale to cover), but it was difficult to feel anything for the supposed victim or Riker's supposed motivation.

A Senior Trekker writes.....................

[celineduchain · 5/10 · 11 January 2022]

New uniforms, new credit sequence and Doctor Crusher returned to us but was Season 3 of The Next Generation really as good as we remember? Some of that enthusiasm may have have been generated by relief that the series had not been cancelled but the 1990's also heralded an era of considerably more stability behind the scenes. Senior Trekker will continue to score every episode with a 5.

This episode has its supporters and its detractors. It rather depends where you sit with the courtroom drama format, which has the dual benefit of saving money for more spectacular shows while also expecting the regular cast to step up with their A Game. Personally, not having watched too many American court/lawyer series myself, I find the fake legalese irritating and anomalous in a futuristic environment. Sometimes the storyline and the performances can rise above a hackneyed format but, at other times, we just have to accept that some occasional slowing of the pace is necessary to keep the show on the road.

Here, though, the repetition is kept to a minimum and different versions of critical events are skilfully retold, leaving the viewer in genuine doubt until the final denouement. Well, not doubt about Riker would being acquitted, of course, but doubt as to who actually did what and how the story was going to end.

The technobabble in this episode is downright incomprehensible. There may have been a real scientist as advisor; David Kreiger, after whom the mysterious rays were eventually named, but he would probably prefer to leave this particular escapade off of his resume. Guest actors Mark Margolis and Juliana Donald, as the ill-fated couple on the science station, gave creditable performances, the latter returning to Star Trek on a couple of further occasions.

The most ridiculous court system in the milky way.

[amusinghandle · 5/10 · 31 January 2024]

Oh man.

What ass backwards society has a justice system like this?

All the engagement in this episode is completely deflated with the knowledge that Riker is 100 percent innocent of these charges and proven so with the ridiculous (but amusing) depiction of him as a leering opportunist.

Find a way to write the episode so that the viewer possibly questions Riker's story and thus make the episode compelling.

Normally, I am completely buying Geordi Laforge technobabble but my mind violently resisted the explanation for how the holodeck re-creation can be convert the waves.

With this justice system ---- evidence that you create is somehow treated as FACT. As the episode ending I had my hand out at the TV saying, "But... But... That's jean luc's manufactured interpretation of the facts...." I guess truth is decided based on whoever provides the best performance? I'm hiring some A-list performers if I ever get in trouble with the law on this planet.

Well, so much for the tradition of court room star trek episodes being absolute bangers.

Unsatisfying...

[robertm-85323 · 4/10 · 29 April 2024]

Riker is brought up on charges and the testimonies are sometimes so opposite that someone is obviously lying or stretching the truth to breaking point.

Why I say this is unsatisfying is that's never pointed out in the end. Shouldn't the liars be beaten with 50 lashes? If their lie would have resulted in a death, should they be put to death too?

The whole guilty until proven innocent is the way it works in the US currently, even though that's not supposed to be the case.

I just think his assistant and widow should have some sort of brutal punishment for their lies. That part needed a bit more screen time.