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An effective riff on the old "what's real and what's not" shell game, "Frame of Mind" is probably as close as
Star Trek, in any incarnation, ever got to the paranoid mind-bending reality shifts of a Philip K. Dick novel. The opening seems to show Riker trapped in a mental hospital, but the melodramatic lines and Jonathan Frakes's hammy overacting (intentional, it turns out, and quite amusing) cue us that something is not right. Sure enough, he's only rehearsing the role of an incarcerated madman, his part in a play being directed by Beverly. But walking the decks, he has the distinct feeling he's being watched, and he keeps running into an alien lieutenant he's never seen before. There's no time to worry about it, however, since he must prepare for his new mission, an undercover mission to the warring planet Tilonus IV.
Though he's somewhat jumpy and fatigued (probably too much immersion in his role, Troi suggests), Riker goes on with Beverly's show; but rising from his bow, Riker finds he's no longer on a set of a mental asylum, but in the Tilonus IV Institute for Mental Disorders. From then on Riker shifts back and forth between the Enterprise and the hospital, gradually losing his grip on which, if either, is merely delusion. This cleverly constructed story appears initially to be an easy one to suss out, but odd little details and unexpected twists keep you on your toes. And the production design is quite striking, from the subtly Caligari-esque hallways of the Institute to the lovely and inspired special effect near the end when the various visions tormenting Riker one by one shatter and fly apart. --Bruce Reid
From the Back Cover
While Riker (Jonathan Frakes) prepares to play the starring role in a play on board the
Enterprise, he is also put in charge of an undercover mission to Tilonus IV. During rehearsals he experiences paranoid sensations which Troi (Marina Sirtis) brushes off as a side effect of his getting into character - that of a mental patient trapped in an asylum.
But during his first performance, the set disappears and Riker finds himself imprisoned in a Tilonus mental ward, accused of murder. Convinced that he is losing his mind, he submits to a dangerous neurosomatic technique while under the care of an alien physician. With Riker trapped in this fragile frame of mind, a rescue attempt may be futile.
