Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 115: Power Play [VHS]

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The fifth season of STNG provided the cast with ample opportunities to show off their acting ability. In "Power Play" the Enterprise picks up a weak distress signal coming from a supposedly uninhabited moon. The signal is apparently from the USS Essex, a ship that disappeared over 200 years earlier. When Troi insists she senses life on the moon's surface, Picard has to investigate. However, there are intense magnetic storms on the moon, which force him to send down the away team of Riker, Troi and Data in a shuttlecraft. When the shuttle loses power on the way down, O'Brien risks a transporter trip to the moon's surface to set up pattern enhancers to get the away team back. However, right before the group transporters, little points of light enter the bodies of Data, Troi and O'Brien (Riker has a broken arm). Back aboard the Enterprise, the three try to take over the ship. When they fail to take over the bridge (the best scene in the episode), the trio end up taking hostages in Ten-Forward. Picard trades himself for the hostages who have been injured and in formed by Troi that "she" is Bryce Shumar, the captain of the Essex and demands the Enterprise search the southern pole of the moon for their remains so that their consciousnesses can rest.

"Power Play" is an odd choice of an episode to follow "Conundrum" in the STNG series, since the previous episode had a beam from an alien probe stripping the entire crew of their identities. Apparently Data, Troi and O'Brien have to go through the whole thing again the following week (it is the two times in a row that Data's positronic brain gets hijacked that bothers me the most). I also find it ironic that Marina Sirtis gets better scenes as Troi being possessed than she does when Deanna is in complete control of her mental faculties. With all that her brain gets put through on this series, you have to hope she is getting some counseling of her own. Ultimately, "Power Play" is an average episode for this series; we can trace the "beings without bodies have possessed key members and are not telling the whole truth about who they are and what they want" back to the original Star Trek series. We are also getting close to the point where Captain Picard needs to stop being so understanding and so compassionate. Where is Q when we need him?

It must be a sci-fi staple that aliens just love to possess us weak-minded earthlings. No less than five episodes of the 60's "Lost in Space" had a similar theme. Even the original Trek toyed with the idea itself - one of the most memorable episodes being the last, "Turnabout Intruder".

Obviously, it was time for ST: NG to have its shot at it and this one is a doozy. Three crew members (Troi, Data, and O'Brien) have their psyche shared by aliens intending on freeing thousands of their kinsmen (with the assistance of the Enterprise, of course).

While the credibility of the plot is stretched somewhat, the installment does allow Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, and Colm Meaney some time to chew the scenery. Many episode were devoted to "Data"; thus, "Deana" and "Miles" were highlighted, although not as their usual good-as-gold Federation officers.