Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 22: Skin Of Evil [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This episode takes place on a planet, where an evil skin (an oil slick) has been left by a vacated race...they 'shed' there negative qualities..forming this 'skin of evil' and left it behind. So. Well. Hmmm. Mediocre episode...and to be honest, I always felt Denise Crosby overacted anyway...her expression I felt was not subtle enough for STNG, too over-the-top. So, I don't entirely dislike the episode. Nothing personal Denise.

"Skin of Evil" is basically about a rescue attempt of two Enterprise crewmen on Vagra II (counselor troi and a mostly ignored, unimportant crewman whose name is never really mentioned) which results in a really senseless tragedy. An evil alien force named Armus kills Yar and torments the crew while they attempt to rescue Troi and the other crewman. I found the plot really average, and the special effects left a lot to be desired.

The only reason I bought this episode because my favorite character was Tasha Yar, and I collect ST:TNG episodes myself. If you are looking for a memorable, exciting episode, and you don't particularly care about Tasha Yar, then don't buy it. I don't think you'd like it.

However, the ending on this episode is its saving grace; it is really touching and great, and even I had to shed a few tears. At least they gave Tasha the proper send off! It's too bad that Yar dies senselessly in this episode and is soon forgotten by the crew.

Some of the plot has more than its fair share of holes in it, but you can see a substantial amount of character development between this and the first episode.

Troi is returning via shuttle from a conference, ready to rendevous with the Enterprise. The Enterprise, the flagship of the Federation fleet, only has one batch of Dilithium crystals, so when they're being aligned, it's tough cookies if you need to go to warp. No back up crystals - very interesting.

Troi's shuttle experiences a systems failure and plummets to the surface on an unihabited planet, Vagra 2. Who names these planets? Vagra is such a good name that you need a Vagra 1 AND a Vagra 2?

Once the crystals are realigned, the Enterprise goes on a rescue mission. They beam to the crash site, only to have a thick oil slick in their path. As they try to walk around it, the oil slick follows them. No readings show up on their instruments, but it's obvious that there is an intelligence there.

An ancient race of titans found a way to extract evil from their society (kinda like popping a pimple) and when all the members of the race had collected all their evil goo together, it made Armus - the oil slick... aka - the "skin of evil."

They abandoned him on the planet - a being that is immortal and cannot die, a being utterly lonely, very powerful (he is able kill with a thought, transport an object from one place to another and he is empathic like Troi), and eager to leave the loneliness of his planet.

Armus claims that his behavior is not merely evil - but that rather he IS evil - the embodiment of evil.

In an act of boredom, he kills Lt. Tasha Yar, regretting later that she did not suffer because her death did not amuse him like he thought it would. Her memorial service is sweet and touching, and elements of this scene show up in future episodes... and Tasha does make a reappearance in a future time-travelling episode.

The goal is to get Troi and her shuttle pilot off the surface, but Armus continues to envelop the shuttle and they are unable to get a lock on the occupants. What's ironic is that Armus can beam (or at least teleport) Picard in and out of the shuttle, but he apparently can't beam Troi or Ben (the injured pilot) out, nor enter it himself. Yes, there are holes-a-plenty in this episode.

Continued dialogue with Armus reveals the nature of his lonliness and desire to leave. His voice is ominous and his flippant attitude toward life is creepy.

Not a great episode by a long shot, but a pivotal one for those who watch a lot of the episodes - this one has important elements for a number of future episodes that refer back to it. Most worthy are character development leaps for Riker and Crusher.

The Early Demise of Tasha Yar

In a very poignant episode; Tasha meets her tragic end. Armus, the oil slick alien arbitrarily kills Tasha. He seems to made of the remaining biological skin from a people who no longer need bodies to sustain life. Following this so far??.....

Remember the living beams of light in the original series? The Organians? Well, folks it looks like when these folks evolved into life forms composed of light....Armus was the skin that was left over.........Yuck!

If you can suspend your belief in reality in this crazy sci-fi concept this episode is better than most. Tasha leaves a holographic last message for the crew that will bring tears to the eyes. If you can sit through the giant oil slick from space; you'll enjoy this one.

I think the writers made a big mistake with this one. Although I liked the character Tasha Yar a lot and didn't think she should have left, if they did have to kill her off, surely there are better ways than death by a giant oil slick?

Instead of her being killed honourably in the line of duty, her death seemed meaningless and took a back seat to other events in this episode, such as Troi being trapped in the shuttle, and Picard's negotiation with the creature, Armus, itself.

I've only forgiven The Powers That Be because this was the first time a really major character got killed off (Except for Spock who supposedly died in Wrath of Kahn and then under went an amazing resurrection in Search for Spock). But then, Jadzia Dax's death wasn't handled much better.

The one nice bit about this episode is Tasha's goodbye speech at the end, which was really sweet and touching, and brought a breath of fresh air into an otherwise poor episode. Other than that, it was an awful send off for a good character. 'Yesterday's Enterprise' was a much better attempt.

I only got this episode because I'm a collecter, and I'm a fan of the character Tasha Yar. If you are neither, then I suggest you don't waste your money.

Most of season 1 is pretty painful to watch but this episode takes the cake.
Tasha Yar gets killed by an oil slick. A very bizarre way to end a character. An oil slick flings Yar in the air and she dies.
The dialog between the oil slick monster and the crew is hilarious though. The oil guy's dialog is very childish and stupid.
Beverly wants to see Troi and the oil slick guy says "okay you can see her" Beverly walks towards the ship to see her and the the oil slick guy says "wait, I change my mind".
Another scene he is talking to Captain Picard and he mentions a few times how he (oil guy) wants him and his crew to entertain him and when Picard finally gives in and says I will entertain you if you let me see Troi. He (oil guy) says "you can't entertain me". LOL
This episode was ridiculous and stupid even for 1988 standards.
Only good thing is Tasha died. I never liked her and was glad she was gone after one season.

Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) exits Star Trek: The Next Generation in "Skin of Evil" and you cannot help but wonder why the writers did not give her a better send-off. Surely, the character deserved a better fate than being done in by a giant ink blot.

The Enterprise-D attempts to rescue the crew of a crashed shuttle on planet Vagra II. Their efforts are impeded by a living mass of black goo named Armus (Mart McChesney). Armus torments the away team sent to the planet and swiftly kills Yar when she attempts to make her way to the shuttle. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) subsequently beams down to the planet himself to try and resolve the standoff. He discovers that Armus can be overcome by directing taunts back toward him. Picard does so and the away team and the occupants of the shuttle escape back to the Enterprise-D. The crew then sadly assembles on the ship's holodeck to listen to a farewell message Yar had previously recorded.

"Skin of Evil" is no "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982). Yar is not dispatched in a spectacular and memorable manner. In fact, her death is exact polar opposite - feeble and forgettable. Making matters worse is that the bulk of the episode is painful to watch. The games played by Armus on the away team are childish and the dialogue spoken between the adversaries is stiff and groan-inducing. The one saving grace is the farewell message delivered by Yar to her fellow crewmates. Her parting words are touching and full of emotion. Yet, "Skin of Evil" is still a clunker when taken as a whole. It is interesting that the series itself acknowledged the trivial manner in which Yar perished in later seasons when she would be incorporated back in the series. That instance of retroactive continuity helps to somewhat ease the painful memories of this episode.

Nice video but too much commercials in the beginning. Somehow I missed this episode and now completed my collection with this one. I'm not going to say anything about the content except it is a certified ST stuff. It sure is worth watching.

This episode is memorable only for the demise of Tasha Yar and the holodeck scene where she says goodbye to her friends. A shuttle-containing counselor Troi crashes on Varga 2 and the Enterprise rushes to assist. When the landing party arrives on the surface, they are confronted by a mobile oil slick called Armus. He prevents them from reaching the shuttle containing Troi and the pilot and in a fit of pique, kills Tasha. Phaser fire is ineffective against him, so the landing party is powerless.
Armus begins speaking to Troi, so using her empathic ability; she is able to learn something about him. Picard beams down to the surface in an attempt to negotiate with Armus, but he does little more than play childish pranks on them. Fortunately, the Enterprise crew discovers that when Armus is angry, the force field that he has created is weakened. Therefore, they frustrate him to the extent that all he can do is scream with rage, which lowers the strength of the field to the point where the landing party can beam off the surface.
I consider Armus to be one of the most poorly thought out aliens to appear in TNG. He has no redeeming qualities, apparently he is the evil essence that a species culled from their being and then abandoned on the planet. While the idea of an evil life force does have many interesting possibilities, in this case, it is not well implemented. The idea that a being powerful enough to resist concentrated phaser fire and possessing intelligence would simply stand and scream with rage is difficult to believe.
The final scene is a very emotional one, where a pre-recorded holographic image of Tasha says goodbye to her friends on the Enterprise. At the end, Data expresses puzzlement over the funeral, noting that all of his thoughts are about himself and not Tasha. He asks Picard if he perhaps has missed the point of the funeral, to which Picard replies that no, he has in fact gotten it. However, this is not enough to save the episode, and I rank it in the bottom ten percent of the series.

The villain in this episode, Armus, isn't really that much of a threat. And he's really annoying too. Tasha Yar dies so quickly, we almost don't believe it happened. Counselor Troi and Expendable Crewman #28b are trapped in a shuttlecraft surrounded by a large walking chocolate syrup monster. This guy can force people to do things for his own amusement, but fails to be amused by the Enterprise crew. Picard never even breaks a sweat in defeating Armus. This is a significant episode only because of Yar's death. The rest is just the usual muck from the first season.