Voyager 1x13 "Cathexis"

rating: **

the story: Chakotay's disembodied mind helps the crew thwart a takeover.

what it's all about: The alien possession trope is, well, a well-established trope in the franchise, so there's really not much to be said about that.  It's one of those odd sci-fi plots thrown into the first season to try and satisfy general viewers, which only infuriated fans joining the emerging serialization bandwagon, and fans who just didn't want another Star Trek.

Fans of Voyager, can rejoice to a tiny extent, because "Cathexis" is an excuse to explore the crew a little, with the odd central premise of being a Chakotay episode without Chakotay, which is a unique franchise experience (Deep Space Nine's "Who Mourns for Morn?" is the only other example that comes to mind, but that one's a different story entirely, as the title character famously never spoke).  So there's more of his Native American elements, which for some viewers always felt forced, but then, why have a Native American if there's nothing particularly Native American about him?  This was one of the most unique celebrations of diversity in the whole franchise (where Deep Space Nine did pretty much nothing to indicate Bashir's ethnic background, which in hindsight was a huge, huge missed opportunity), so anytime there was a spotlight on it, I say, all's the better.  And of course like Chakotay in general it was most likely to happen in the first two seasons.

Also of note is Janeway's "holo-novel" based loosely on Jane Eyre, which makes its debut here.  Holo-novels were intended to be a signature element of the series, but Janeway's didn't turn out to be one of them.  Instead, it was Tom Paris who came up with all the memorable ones, including the one he helped develop with Tuvok ("Worst Case Scenario") and the one he based on vintage sci-fi serials ("Bride of Chaotica!"), the latter of which is...surely one of Voyager's great ironies...

Finally, the most grim aspect of the episode is actually the appearance of Lieutenant Durst, who in "Faces" one episode later finds a whole new definition of facelift.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A classic trope revisited.
• series - Not much of true relevance here.
• character - Chakotay without Chakotay! 
• essential - How much better would this have been if it'd taken place before "State of Flux" and actually featured Chakotay, being guided by Seska?

notable guest-stars:
Brian Markinson (Durst)
Carolyn Seymour

The Next Generation 6x14 "Face of the Enemy"

rating: ****

the story: Troi is conscripted by Romulan agents to help dissidents escape.

similar to: "Second Skin" (Deep Space Nine)

my thoughts: This is, arguably, the best Troi episode of the series, a culmination of the "Chain of Command" and earlier efforts to have the character taken seriously as something other than the empathic counselor as originally conceived.

This is one of those episodes where a main character temporarily becomes a member of an alien species.  Most of the time it's voluntary (such as when Picard and Data are disguised as Romulans in "Unification," incidentally the start of the story continued in "Face of the Enemy") or through some quirk-of-the-week (exemplified by "The Inner Light").  Every once and a while, it's done for different impact entirely (Deep Space Nine's "Second Skin" is another good example), such as when Troi wakes up as a Romulan, and is forced to adjust on the fly as she learns what's really going on.

The Romulans were always such a hard species to feature in the franchise.  Inherently taciturn, like their Vulcan cousins, they were also decidedly more calculating, which cast them as enemies of the Federation and thus frequent opponents of crews in Starfleet uniforms.  Since this is an inherently difficult position to represent, it's not surprising that of all the major Star Trek aliens, Romulans alone have never been represented in an ongoing or even recurring basis (other than the relatively minor Tomalak). 

"Face of the Enemy" makes the novel solution of turning a main character into a Romulan, and thus we're given our one direct look into how a Romulan crew functions.  Like the Klingons, turmoil reigns, which is no surprise.  Like a preview of the Deep Space Nine Cardassians, paranoia is the order of the day as the Romulan CIA, the Tal Shiar, makes Troi's mission exceedingly difficult, although she proves up to the task thanks to the selfless support of her Romulan counterpart.

Helping smooth the story is the fact that two familiar guest-stars are supporting Marina Sirtis: Scott MacDonald, who was a go-to guy for Star Trek aliens, either as a good or bad guy (he really did do both, whether in Deep Space Nine's "Captive Pursuit" or the chief Xindi villain in Enterprise's third season) and Carolyn Seymour.  Both contribute their distinctive voices to give life to the frequently enigmatic Romulan species.

While it was hardly unusual for Star Trek to find a sympathetic Romulan (from the original appearance in "Balance of Terror" to Next Generation's best Romulan episode, "The Defector;" both Romulans and Klingons were inspired by the Cold War's Soviet Union, and in their unique ways it shows), "Face of the Enemy" presents a truly unique opportunity, which it nails. 

It doesn't hurt that Marina Sirtis absolutely, as she did earlier in the season with "A Fistful of Datas," rises to the occasion.  Anyone who wants to figure out how she managed her breakout performance in Star Trek: First Contact ought to look no further to see how it happened.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Scott MacDonald
Carolyn Seymour

The Next Generation 4x15 "First Contact"

rating: *

the story: Riker finds himself compromised on an alien world that has yet to find out they're not alone in the universe.

similar to: "The Communicator" (Enterprise), "Who Watches the Watchers" (Next Generation)

my thoughts: This is an episode that feels like it breaks new ground, but then you realize, the series itself had just done most of this episode already only a season earlier ("Who Watches the Watchers") with proto-Romulans instead of...whoever the alien race is this time. 

Yes, the approach is different, but the gist the same: alien species finds out Starfleet exists and puts our crew in a hairy situation.  Here you might consider it a Riker episode, but I'm hesitant to give "First Contact" too much credit.  It really could have featured anyone, and as a Riker episode, it's about as generic as you can get, in that he has a quasi-romance that's so convoluted and impossible (even for him!) that it's just not worth considering in that way.  Riker in peril, in short, is really it amounts to, and again, it could have been anyone.

It's a Prime Directive episode first and foremost, an exploration of something that's about as basic a Star Trek trope as you can get, so I'll recommend it for that basis alone.  Enterprise later goes a little deeper with the same basic premise ("The Communicator"), with the advantage of being able to add something to the mythos.

It's not a bad episode, it's just, in the grand scheme, not as memorable as you might originally think.  Enjoy it for what it is, but there are better episodes out there.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Bebe Neuwirth
Michael Ensign

The Next Generation 2x11 "Contagion"

rating: **

Memory Alpha summary

via Den of Geek
"You see here by my demonstration
that everything about this episode
is completely harmless."

"Contagion" is Next Generation doing an original series episode, the crew trying to figure out what went wrong with another ship and hoping the same won't happen to them.  In fact, the franchise later adapted the model so that the problem was a little more direct, and so this is a general trope you'll find throughout Star Trek.  And this is otherwise not a particularly notable example.

There's also an ancient civilization leaving its technology laying around to create havoc, another franchise trope.  And the thing about this one is that it's revisited, much more on-point, in the Deep Space Nine episode "To the Death."  So there's that going for it.  Sort of.

The most memorable moment of the episode, and this is very telling about how generic and mostly forgettable "Contagion" otherwise is because I would never have been able to place the scene without a reminder of its context, is when La Forge takes a wild ride in the turbolift, getting his VISOR knocked off in the process, and literally gets shot onto the bridge at the end of it.

This is also a Romulan episode.  But otherwise, except to note this, you can forget all about that, because there's really no point.  The series ends up doing a bunch of good and noteworthy Romulan episodes.  This is not one of them.

What more do you need to know?  Oh, and it also contradicts what happens to Data just a few episodes earlier in "The Schizoid Man," although this is probably the only element "Contagion" can boast about.  Here the android deals with a corruption of his system a lot more logically.  

That's pretty much it.  The whole thing is an experience in the series desperately trying to find its voice, something you'd expect from the first season.  But essentially, Next Generation had two first seasons.  Or depending how much you value the third season, three of them...

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:
Diana Muldaur
Colm Meaney