Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 166: Sub Rosa [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

While many episodes of the series rarely focused on ship's physician, Dr. Beverly Crusher, this one does and, unfortunately, it's rather tame with little that is commendable. At the end of my initial viewing, I couldn't help but wonder the mindset behind this installment. Repeat viewings have not altered this puzzlement.

Dr. Crusher travels to Caldos IV (all planets in Star Trek have Roman numerals - don't forget it! Caldos was such a popular name, they had at least 4 planets! We have trillions of stars, but each star gets its own name! Why not planets?!) to attend the funeral of her maternal grandmother, Felisa Howard. We learn that Beverly's mother died when she was only a little girl and she was raised by her grandmother, so they were very close.

The colony on Caldos IV started out as a terraforming project with the sole intent of mimicing the Scottish Highlands, so bagpipes are played at the funeral and Mrs. Howard's house is a modest & traditional stone and hay country home. As the mourners leave the gravesite, Beveryly notices a dashing young man (Duncan Regehr) who tosses a camellia (Felisia's favorite flower) onto her casket and as he walks away, he looks over his shoulder and gives a heartbroken, yet seductive look to Beverly.

Beverly enters the house to gather sentimental belongings of her grandmother and she tries to tie up the loose ends in her grandmother's affairs. She catches the caretaker, Ned Quint (Shay Duffin), attempting to throw out an old brass candle holder that has been in Beverly's family for generations, and perhaps one of her most treasured family possessions. Quint claims the candle is a source of bad luck, but Beverly kicks him out of the house and is quite brusque with him.

The Enterprise stays in orbit longer than planned, to fix an unidentified power fluctuation in the weather control net on the planet, which affords Beverly more time to stay on the planet and sleep in her grandmother's house. Beverly finds her grandmother's journals and discovers that she had a young lover named Ronin for years. She falls asleep after reading the journal, having what appears to be an erotic dream, only to be awakened by a man's sultry voice. When she wakens suddenly, no one is there.

The next day, she visits the grave of her grandmother to find it covered with camellias. Continued problems w/ the weather net cause storms to break out, so she runs back to the house, to find the house filled with camellias... and once again she hears the voice of the man who woke her from her special dream. He reveals that his name is Ronin, a ghost of sorts that has loved the Howard women for 8 centuries. He begins to touch her, but she tells him to stop and he retreats.

Geordi & Data discover that Quint is behind the problems with the weather net - as he's caught, he screams a warning, "he'll kill us all!" and is suddenly killed by a plasma discharge. Beverly's tricorder scans reveal that the plasma is not what killed him.

Normally one to investigate further, she is instead drawn back to Ronin and his wiles. He tells her that lighting the family candle will keep him in corporeal (touchable) form. On the Enterprise, she lights the candle and Ronin appears to her. She resigns her post on the Enterprise and decides to become a healer on Caldos IV like her grandmother. Apparently, loving a ghost that got jiggy with her grandmother isn't creeping her out like it should be.

Data discovers energy from the cemetery similar to what killed the caretaker, Quint. Picard goes down to investigate and Ronin blasts him with his green plasma kung fu grip.

Torn between her unquenchable desire for Ronin and her loyalty to Picard, she has an epiphany as to what Ronin really is.

An interesting story, but far from the best that The Next Generation has to offer. We do see some sides of Beverly we don't normally get to see - and for character development, it's a good episode - but easily forgettable.

Crusher is prepared to throw in her career for the sake of her new lover, Ronin - the family ghost who has loved the women of her family since the seventeenth century. But why isn't she telling her friends what's going on? And what is the connection with the problems with Caldos II's weather control system?
Gothic romance meets Star Trek? This might have been a good idea in theory, but it didn't come off. The writing is bad and the acting is over the top. The reasons for Crusher's strange behaviour are never really made clear. The faux Scottish setting is twee. And so what if Ronin made Crusher's female ancestors very, very happy? He was a lying creep who fed on them for centuries!
I would go so far as to call this episode unwatchable.

This episode where Beverly Crusher gets it on with some kind of ghostly being is the strangest episode I have ever watched, not just of a Star Trek the Next Generation episode but of any TV show period!

Out of every episode of the long run of Star Trek: The Next Generation I have only disliked a few episodes and I have to say that Sub Rosa is the episode that I dislike the most, my #1 least favorite episode followed by Samaritan Snare at #2 and Justice at #3. Beverly Crusher is one of my favorite characters but there are much better episodes that focus on her. I think this is the worst episode of the series but of course that is just a matter of personal opinion!

"Sub Rosa" did not air in 1987, but in early 1994 during the last season of TNG. It was not directed by R. Wiemer, but by series cast regular Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr. Riker). This episode could be better described as a gothic horror/suspense/romance. It was set on Dr. Beverly Crusher's homeworld of Caldos. One of the main characters was a mysterious energy-being/ghost who'd been a part of the 'Howard' family legacy for centuries unbeknownst to Beverly. He'd seduced all of the Howard women and it wasn't hard to understand how, he was a real cutie! It was quite an emotionally moving episode, eery and romantic while at the same time exciting. It's a refreshing departure from the usual TNG approach to storytelling.

This episode is the only one I can recall in which a "haunting" like phenomenon is used in the storyline. After attending her grandmothers funeral, Dr. Crusher begins having visits from the spirit of her late granny's lover.

She is soon influenced to resign from Starfleet and move into what is now her cottage and live with her new "lover".

It is a perfect mixing of science fiction and intellectual horror. Others should learn from this

Great, very moving episode. This one shakes the quiet, sensitive, reserved Beverly to the core! The scenery of Caldos is so lovely and very typical of Northern Europe, which is fitting since Beverly is Scottish and has that northern appearance to match. The ceremony to bury Bev's beloved grandmother is touching and it's plain to see that Beverly's mourning is deep; she still has the tears in her eyes as she utters Felisa's eulogy.

I also loved the scene where Beverly is talking to Deanna Troi about how much she misses her Nana; very sweet and very moving.

We also caught glimpses into Beverly's unconventional, somewhat wacky family; her mother died when she was little; her parents never married, so she never saw her father; she mostly grew up with her grandmother, whom she loved very much.

Storms set in when Beverly spots a handsome young man who gives her an odd feeling. She finds herself attracted to Ronin, as he introduces himself and is nearly initiated into a dangerous, addictive "love affair."

Sensitive Bev is also very aroused by reading certain entries in Felisa's journal and finds out that her grandma also had an "affair" with this so-called "ghost."

It's also an odd episode since Ronin takes over Bev for a while. It also draws out Beverly's high sensitivity since although she appears to be "happy" and in "love," she also develops dark cirles under her eyes, her usually husky, quiet voice becomes thin, rather ragged, and strained, and her usually neat appearance becomes disheveled.

Deanna and Jean Luc are especially concerned about this change in Beverly and when she makes unexpected move of leaving the ship and deciding to stay on Caldos, Jean Luc knows that such rash, impulsive behavior is not typical of the usually cautious, level-headed Beverly.

The climax is especially good when Beverly realizes how dangerous Ronin is and her emotional pain is captured well here when she must destroy Ronin. Love how she contacts the ship and tells Will Riker to desengage the energy force that's partially feeding Ronin, then fires at Ronin, vanishing him, then sinks down on a gravestone in tears.

One thing I love about ST:TNG is that the women are very resourceful and usually rescue themselves rather than waiting from a man to rescue them like too many other TV shows do. It's refreshing and great to see Beverly, despite being an emotional wreck and in tears, rescuing herself from Ronin rather than one of the men do it for her. Good resolution.

Liked the ending with Beverly talking to Deanna; she's a very articulate, intelligent woman and I liked how she was able to clearly analyze her feelings and thoughts about the whole Ronin deal and her somewhat crazy family.

A wonderful episode of ST:TNG. Better than the shoot 'em up episodes, this one deals with matters of the heart via a good ole' ghost story. Beverly almost succumbs to her family's phantom, only to be saved my Jean-Luc in the nick of time. Has some interesting angst between the doctor and captain!