The final season of Star Trek, the Next Generation gave us some splendid episodes and also a fair share of stinkers. Everyone knew by this stage that they would not be renewed and attempts were made to wrap up various story lines before they said their final goodbyes. There is still a great deal to be enjoyed.
Well, this wasn't as bad on re-viewing as I had anticipated. I'm afraid what had lodged in my mind was the "Enterprise computer gains higher intelligence and gives birth to a collection of bendy-straws" storyline. Apparently, the well known SFX company Industrial Light and Magic are credited with this particular creation. Hardly their finest hour.
The rest of the episode looked good. This was assisted, no doubt, by the opportunity to use sets which had already been constructed by the studio for other productions: the luxurious train carriage and the New York street scenes added visual impact and would otherwise have been beyond the budget of a weekly television series. Mingling aspects from various holodeck programmes added a surrealistic component as well as some enjoyable costume cliches but having Counsellor Troi attempt to psychoanalyse the ship's computer in order to get it back under control was a step too far.
Well known film actor David Huddleston and Trek regular Thomas Kopache both managed to keep a straight face as they contributed their considerable skills to this melange of nonsense and Sir Patrick demonstrated great professionalism as he conducted an apparently serious discussion about the computer's benign intentions and understandable wish to reproduce.
This was another episode where the writers decided to bolt on a bit of Shakespeare by having Data perform a scene from the Tempest. Brent Spiner's exaggerated, self-reflecting parody as the sage Prospero was unworthy of some of the finest verse ever written. This particular play has a fantasy element all of its own and was the inspiration for the classic Science Fiction film Forbidden Planet. There are some excellent adaptations out there for anyone who might be interested in seeing it performed without the unnecessary mockery.
Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.