The Next Generation 2x2 "Where Silence Has Lease"

rating: *

Memory Alpha summary

via IO9; oh, don't be so surprised;
you're wearing a red shirt, aren't you?

"Where Silence Has Lease" is one of those episodes that has such a thoroughly convoluted title, that's practically all you need to know about it, one of the rare instances outside of the original series and Deep Space Nine where they were trying to be all poetic about it...and failed miserably.

As for the episode itself, it's about as remarkable as its title, a general excursion with one of Star Trek's favorite tropes, an alien being who has no idea what it's like to be human, and so sets about trying to figure that out.  Except the whole episode is more or less the crew being screwed around with in exactly the way Q would do it, without Q, and by the end such a poor replacement that you can't help but feel ripped off.  And that's how most fans tend to think about the episode, and as such it's thoroughly a member of the first-and-second season club of Next Generation.  It's not terrible (except the underwhelming way the alien in question is eventually presented visually), and in fact has a few character moments that try to be insightful (one of Riker's funniest moments occurs here, in which he overenthusiastically confirms that he wants to end the ship's self-destruct sequence; Worf, meanwhile, has far less convincing material more or less thrown his way, as in with the majority of his material from this point in the series), and so I offer a tepid recommendation.  Just know that this is hardly the series at its best.

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

Colm Meaney

Diana Muldaur