Enterprise transports a passenger and 'cargo' to a peace ceremony.
This is reasonably good character based episode that has some problems but just about works thanks to a number of strong performances.
The plot has good and bad points. I think it works as a character study of both Captain Picard and the guest character Kamala. However, the premise is similar to the original series episode 'Elaan of Troyus' and the Ferengi involvement is poorly written.
Star Trek one off romances never usually work for me, but I found this one slightly better than most due to the performances of Patrick Stewart and in particular Famke Janssen. They do as much as they possibly can in the short time given to this story to convince us that Picard might actually love this character. As ever though, I can never truly accept any burgeoning relationship involving a main character and ultimately want it to fail so it does not affect the status quo.
That being said, Kamala's and Picard's situation works well to drive the plot in an interesting direction. If you want to examine it deeply in the context of gender roles you could perceive problems with Kamala's depiction. A contemporary show probably would have written a male empathic metamorph with female starship Captain (or possibly use non-binary characters) just to avert accusations of sexism, but Kamala is written (and Janssen cast) with a 1990s heterosexual male audience in mind. Importantly though, the writing does at least acknowledge her situation is tragic and regardless of her personality reflecting Picard's notion of female desirability, she is presented with certain amount of freedom to choose her own path.
Visually it works well in the scenes between Picard and Kamala. I like the use of mirrors in some shots, the framing of the two in various scenes, the lighting, set design, makeup, and costuming.
As I mentioned briefly earlier it's the Ferengi scenes that really spoil it with their plot contrivances and the generally annoying characterisations.
Most performances are great, particularly Janssen and Stewart.
