ST:TNG Season Five, Episode Fifteen "Power Play"

ST: TNG Season Five, Episode Fifteen "Power Play"
Production Order: 15
Air Order: 15
Stardate: 45571.2
Original Air Date: February 24, 1992

I've been getting a lot of alerts lately about people following my Tumblr, which is wild because I quit posting to it years ago when they started that big kerfuffle about censorship. I've also been hearing that it's closer to old Tumblr these days, so I added some more posts. You can follow it if you want. My name there is stayinalivejim and my pic is that same pic of me and my cat Imzadi.

Or don't follow it. Whatever. I'm not your moms.

Picard's Log 45571.2: "So we're orbiting this unexplored moon of Mab-bu VI, and the moon is Class M, but uninhabited. I have no idea what the planet is actually like, because it'll never be mentioned again, but we are picking up some super-weak distress signals, so we're gonna check it out."

On the bridge, the crew is struggling to figure out what kind of distress signal it is, because it sounds weird.

"Maybe it's because there's shit-tons of interference from the atmosphere," Worf suggests.

Data says he thinks he might remember it from the Academy, so he checks the Googles. "Yeah, it's from a Daedalus-class ship."

Picard and Riker both make Math Lady Meme Face, because that's a ship that hasn't been in use for almost 200 years.

More Googling reveals that the USS Essex, captained by Bryce Shumar, went missing in this area about 200 years ago. The signal they're hearing matches the one that the Essex would have used.

"Bit late," Riker remarks.

"Yeah, that's ghost ship stuff," shrugs Picard. "Let's take off."

But Troi has entered the bridge, and while Picard is telling Riker to alert Starfleet that they found out where the Essex disappeared to, Troi interjects that she feels someone is on the surface, alive.

WHAAAAAAA....??????

Dramatic music! Opening credits break!

Ro is unnerved. I am unnerved. That is an unnerving thing to say.

Riker's Log, supplemental: "The interference of the storms on the moon is too much to beam people out, so we're taking a shuttle down to see if we can find those people Troi is on about."

This is supes weird, even without the storm interference thing. Remember when a shuttle crashed on an uninhabited planet, and Kirk & Co found Zefram Cochrane, a dude who went missing in his old age and should have been dead for 150 years, but was alive and well and about 35 years old? Or when Riker, Data, and Worf investigate some weird human remains on an inhospitable planet, only to find the corpse of a 21st century astronaut who had been living in a fake casino for decades? Or when the E got stuck in a battle field full of radiation, because Picard found a 1000 year old Promellian battle cruiser and was itching to check it out? Ghost ships in Star Trek are Bad News Bears.

So where are we going? Once more, unto the breach, to look at a ghost ship. In a flimsy-ass shuttle pod.

Troi is absolutely wishing that she'd taken that Dramamine

The trio battles it out with the storm for a few minutes, but they lose thrusters and impulse power, and let the bridge crew know that the shuttle is going down. Riker never did pinpoint that distress signal.

On the bridge, Worf says he can guess at their location on the surface, but the signal is bouncing around because of the interference.

"I've got it," announces Ro at the helm. "I followed them in."

I like this. You know that Ro is not just some trouble-maker who struggles to fit in. She does her job, and she's good at it. Otherwise, Picard would not keep her around. Plus, she gives enough of a shit about her coworkers to have taken extra (typically unnecessary) steps to ensure she could find them again.

On the surface, the back hatch of the crashed shuttle is blown, and our intrepid heroes climb out. Riker's arm is broken, but they're otherwise okay.

Riker attempts to use his comm badge to call the ship, but Data surmises that the interference (really getting tired of typing that word) is blocking communication. They take stock: the surface of the moon is no good for growing things, which makes Riker doubt that anyone is living there; and Data reports that all of the equipment on the shuttle is damaged. There's a storm rolling in that I can only describe as "sparkly."

Data notes that there are "high EM bursts" in this storm, and for Riker, this seals the deal - no life forms here. But Troi says she's certain that they're not only here, but coming in with the storm.

Dramatic music!

Down in the transporter room, La Forge is telling Picard over the comms that there's no way they can get a lock on the away team with those EM bursts. Can't fly a shuttle in, can't beam them out.

"I can do it with a pattern enhancer," O'Brien offers. "I can beam down with it, set it up, and it should boost the patterns enough to get us all back."

"It's like a 50/50 chance that he'll basically be vaporized," La Forge says.

Woof. Those odds suck.

"I can do the thing," says O'Brien confidently. He hops on the transporter pad with a pack that looks like a fancy tripod.

Picard is uncertain, but Worf says that the storm that's rolling in will make things harder, and the captain tells the chief that it's up to him.

With some nods, La Forge beams O'Brien to the surface.

He materializes next to a broken shuttle nacelle.

The others wave him over.

Sassy O'Brien: "Nice spot for a picnic, sir."

He hands out the pattern enhancer rod-things, and instructs them how to set them up in a triangle shape. They need to hurry up, because you know, storm. Also, apparently, he feeds Molly lunch, and she's too young to understand that if her dad gets trapped on an inhospitable planet, he can't do the thing, and she will be sad.

O'Brien sets up one of these metal traffic cones, which is hit by a bolt of lightning. All four are thrown backward into the pattern buffer tringle, and briefly knocked out.

While they're unconscious, our away team, plus one, is approached by roving balls of light, which seem to check them out. The balls then meld into the chests of Troi, O'Brien, and Data. Another ball checks out Riker, then decides against the... melding thing with him, and it flies away.

Just so we're clear, there are four lights here

Riker recovers, gets up, and activates the pattern enhancer. They all beam off the surface.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Troi comes to in sick bay. She sits up and screams before being comforted by Crusher. Everyone is there, and fine. Riker's arm has been fixed, and he goes right back on duty, because of course he does. He even brags to Picard that this is not his first broken bone.

Bro, this is not America. You get free health care from Starfleet. You can sit out the rest of your shift after that stupid moon gave you a concussion.

But no. They're all going right back onto duty. They start talking about how Troi feels like there was life in and around that storm, and as they get into the turbolift, Riker asks Data if they can reconfigure the scanners to cut through the storm, and Data answers back with science talk, but there's a second or so of Mid-90's Modem Booting Up noise in the middle of his sentence. He apologizes like he had a frog in his throat, and says he will look into it to make sure he's fine.

When they hit the bridge, Troi asks Picard for a meeting in the ready room, and Riker tells Ro to put them into a synchronous orbit. 

Data takes his place at Ops. "I think we should start our lifeform search at the southern polar region."

"That makes no sense," says Riker. "That's like starting our search from scratch. Better to start where we crashed."

Data argues that they have no idea where the Essex is, but Riker just restates that he wants to start at their crash site, and go from there. Our android friend acquiesces. 

In the ready room, Troi explains that she was hearing voices calling to her in a telepathic manner on the moon's surface, and much like Data, suggests that they go to the southern polar region to look for the Essex.

But out on the bridge, Ro asks Riker if he changed her heading.

"No?" he asks in confusion.

She also says she's been locked out of helm functions.

"Weird. Can you see what's going on, Data?" Riker touches Data's shoulder, but Data hauls off and smacks him one.

And when an android lands a punch, you land several feet away.

Riker calls for security to the bridge. Worf instantly has a phaser in hand, and tries to shoot Data, but he's tackled from behind by O'Brien. Ro now has a phaser, and tries to take down O'Brien, but he manages to take her out with a phaser first.

Like last episode, none of these people (except Worf, for whom open carry makes sense) seems to be carrying a weapon, yet they all instantly have phasers in hand. Which leads me back to the conclusion that there are little compartments on the bridge for phasers, tucked away out of sight, but which the bridge crew can access quickly if need be. Otherwise, these people are just... manifesting weaponry.

And much like Kirk, anytime our heroes get into a fire- or fist-fight, they win. Unless they need to lose for story purposes. Which needs to happen here.

Riker recovers just long enough to call out to Majel to transfer all bridge functions and commands to Engineering, before O'Brien stuns him with a phaser. Ops goes dead. A severely pissed-off Data watches his console go down, then bangs on it angrily.

This action scene has gotten too loud to not be noticed in the ready room, and Picard asks "What the shit...?" while walking toward the door.

And speaking of Kirk's fighting style, Troi takes him down with that two-handed chop-punch thing to the back. 

Lol, blurry fight scene screencaptures are the best

Troi exits the ready room, and stalks onto the bridge, demanding to know what happened.

"He wouldn't go to the south pole," Data snaps, as he and Troi and O'Brien get into the lift to go to Engineering.

Troi admonishes Data, saying she had almost convinced Picard to take them there.

What's at the south pole, y'all? You looking for anti-Santa, or something?

As soon as they exit, Riker gets up off the floor and re-enables the bridge command. Picard enters the bridge, and Riker tells him that Troi, Data, and O'Brien tried to commandeer the ship. Worf also gets up, and locks the turbolift.

Now the unlikely trio in the turbolift is extra pissed, because they're trapped. But no worries, because Miles is an Engineer. He starts the lift again.

We bounce back and forth, with Worf putting security measures into place, and them bypassing it, and Worf gets the lift shut down again. Eventually, Worf and two Golds rush to where the lift has stopped on deck 13, but when the doors open, they find just the trio's comm badges. Oops. They got off on ten.

The trio is stalking crew quarter corridors, and is stymied by a security force field. No help from O'Brien here: he isn't able to engineer their way out.

"Hold my phaser," says Data. He goes to the nearest comm panel, breaks it open, and then just shorts the fucker.

"In case of hostile takeover, break glass."

The bridge crew realize that the trio are probably headed for Ten Forward, and direct Worf and the others to go there.

In Ten Forward, Keiko O'Brien is trying to soothe her crying baby. Her husband walks in with two coworkers and yells at everyone to get on the floor. All three have phasers, and when Keiko tries to ask her husband what's happening, he yells at her to get on the floor again.

People start getting down.

The security Golds run in.

There's a fire-fight between them, Data, and O'Brien. Troi just fucking shoots everyone. 

Security golds: check.

Civilians: check.

Everybody gets phasered.

They manage to take down the security Golds, and Picard calls Worf, asking if Worf can hear him.

Worf struggles to sit up on his elbows, but does so at phaserpoint.

"Yes, bridge," snarls Troi. "He can hear you."

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Picard's Log, supplemental: "So, um... Data, Troi, and Chief O'Brien tried to take over the ship, but have now taken hostages in Ten Forward."

The bridge attempts to shut out the trio from the computer access in Ten Forward, but is frustrated to find that this has been preempted: O'Brien already has control of those panels, and has locked the bridge out. A transporter tech has attempted to beam them out, but O'Brien has already locked them out of that as well.

Based on who is allowed to yell at whom:

Troi is the top of the food chain here.

Then Data.

O'Brien is at the bottom.

They're all assholes, but they have a hierarchy.

The transporter tech calls the bridge to say that O'Brien has taken the transporter system offline and put it in diagnostic mode. Which is pretty smart of O'Brien, because that system will be down for hours now. 

This is the second episode in a row that they've used diagnostic cycles as Disable the Ship story devices, and honestly, I'm not mad at it. I like when mundane shit like that is utilized for storytelling.

Ro tells Picard that there are 17 people in Ten Forward, but that's all she's got, because they just shut down internal scanners, too.

Picard pages Crusher to the bridge.

We continue to go back and forth here.

Data and O'Brien have isolated Ten Forward with force fields, and taken everyone's comm badges.

Riker suggests that they flood Ten Forward with some kind of knockout gas, but La Forge points out that it won't affect Data, and that any plan they have has to include taking down all three at once.

Crusher shows up on the bridge, and Picard asks her to check the transporter logs to see if return patterns show anything different than the originals.

Finally, Picard calls Ten Forward to ask if they can talk and avoid violence.

The trio does not answer Picard.

Instead, Troi muses on the fact that normally, she would be upstairs, advising the captain to gain their trust.

Data decides to pick a fight. "Come for me, bitch!" he says to Worf.

Worf basically shrugs.

Troi tells Data to knock it the fuck off, because honestly, what purpose would that serve?

Picard calls Ten Forward again, asking if anyone down there needs medical attention.

"We can talk about that once you move the ship to the southern polar region," Troi snarls back.

Picard confers with Riker that moving the ship may buy them some time; they agree but Picard tells the helm to move like molasses.

At this time, Crusher tells Picard that her transporter log exam has turned up mostly normal, but with added synapse activity attached to Troi, Data, and O'Brien.

"Maybe extra life forms, hitching a ride on our people?" she suggests.

"Why not me?" asks Riker.

"You were injured," says Crusher. "Maybe pain made you immune to whatever those are."

"We could give 'em a plasma shock?" says Ro. "Like, it hurts, but doesn't cause physical damage."

She and La Forge come up with a complicated, time-sensitive plan, wherein they'll crawl through the ceiling of Ten Forward, wait until all three are standing near one another, drop the force fields, and then shock them. It should overload Data's neural net, making it effective for all three.

"Cool," says Picard. "Then once the energy things leave our people, we have to find a way to catch and contain them. Crusher, you're in charge of that part. Figure it out."

Ooh! I know! I can contribute!

You just do this:

Now that they have a plan to trap Gozer & Friends, Picard calls Ten Forward again.

"Hey, how many wounded?'

"Five," says Troi. She forces Worf to tell Picard about the injured people. "I'm not releasing anyone, though."

"Okay, look," says Picard, "those people need medical attention, so if you let them out, I'll take their place."

Troi and Co. do a little huddle, then agree.

On the bridge, Riker objects to this trade, but Picard points out that, with the trio in charge, he's a hostage no matter where he is on the ship. They all are. This way, he can find out who they are, and what they want.

He pages a medical team to Ten Forward, and hops in a lift. "If Ro and La Forge's plan doesn't work, then we'll have to try something else. Pay attention, I may be able to get it done a different way."

The next scene is a bit creepy. Molly is crying again, while Keiko tries to soothe her. Hotheaded Data rushes up with a phaser and yells at her to shut it up.

"I'm trying to calm her," says Keiko, who is also trying to remain calm, and also not doing a great job. She isn't frightened, though. She's pissed af. "She's scared. Why don't you let us go?"

O'Brien comes up to her. "I know you. I know who you are, and I know what that is."

He also clearly has no fucks to give for Molly, other than telling Keiko to shut her up.

It feels like Star Trek is trying to invoke That Scene from M*A*S*H. You know the one.

The trio drops the force fields around Ten Forward, and Picard enters with a medical team. They rip his comm badge off.

"Hello, Picard," says Troi. "I am Captain Bryce Shumar, from the Essex."

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Troi-Shumar introduces Picard to her first mate, Commander Steven Mullen (Data), and her security officer, Lt Morgan Kelly (O'Brien). She (he? let's stick with she here) tells Picard that they've survived for the last 200 years as spirits of some kind, and that they need his help.

"Is Troi alive?" he asks uncertainly.

"Um, yeah," says Troi-Shumar, as though insulted. "I'm not interested in harming her, or anyone else. But while I'm inhabiting her, I also have access to all of her knowledge of you, so don't get clever."

Okay, interesting. Here we have two episodes in a row that deal with different identity crises (missing vs overridden by ghost... things), and in both cases, just the identity was altered. They still have full range of knowledge of the host bodies. It kind of makes me wonder how this episode might have gone differently if they didn't have that information.

"Sooo, this help you need...?" he asks.

"Our consciousness has been trapped on this moon for 200 years," she says. "We need to get the hell out of here."

This is beyond Picard's paygrade. "Um, how did it happen?"

Troi walks away. "Dunno. We were caught in an electromagnetic storm, just like your shuttle, and our bridge was struck by lightning. It ripped the ship apart, and our consciousness was absorbed into the storm."

The medical team takes the injured people away, and Picard asks why she wasn't just straight-forward with this info, instead of taking a bunch of people hostage.

"Because Troi knows Picard, and knows that he doesn't believe in ghosts. You don't believe my story now, either."

He asks Troi-Shumar about some ship designation and command information, and she lists off the info he wants. He's looking for a blue checkmark.

"Look, I'll give you the help you want, but you need to stop with the hostage situation."

"Not gonna happen," she replies. "That requires trust, and neither of us trusts the other."

Data-Mullen grows impatient. "He's manipulating you," he insists. "He's going to try to delay helping us until they can be rescued by someone else."

Props to Brent Spiner here. He plays a convincing slimeball.

"Yeah, probably," she answers. "But Picard won't risk more violence, so it's just easier for him to go along with what we want, and help us."

"What do you want, bottom-line?" Picard asks.

"To end this Highlander shit," replies Troi-Shumar. "To not be trapped here in some non-corporeal form. We wanna be able to walk through that fucking archway at the end of The Good Place."

Girl, same.

Ro and La Forge are Die Hard-ing their way through some kind of access tunnel above the ceiling of Ten Forward, dragging  a machine thing that looks like a big blender.

Sassy Ro Moment: "Finally. I never want to see this part of the Enterprise again."

Sassy La Forge response: "I hear you - this is what starship designers call easy access."
Not gonna lie: that grating looks like murder on the knees.

Also, I know they're not dealing with a cheap cardboard drop-ceiling, but it seems like they should be lowering their voices.

Ro removes some grates, and drills down, and puts the blender-looking thing over the hole to scan Ten Forward. She can see Picard and Troi-Shumar, but notes that Troi, Data, and O'Brien all have to be standing in the circle on the monitor for the beam-thing to work.

La Forge calls Crusher on the bridge to find out if she's figured out how to do the containment field, and now he's whispering. Like the access tunnel they're in was perfectly sound-proof until Ro drilled a tiny hole in the floor. Whatever.

Anyway, through science-talk, Crusher tells him that she thinks that if they flood Ten Forward with the same kind of ion particles as that storm on the moon, it can trap the ghost... things once they shock the ghost-things out of their people. It... sounds more elegant and plausible the way Crusher explained it.

Troi-Shumar breaks away from Picard to talk to Data-Mullen, and Picard moves over to talk to Worf. They talk quietly about possession stories from both the Klingon and Terran cultures, but Picard is still skeptical. They don't act like Starfleet officers. Worf wonders if the ghost-for-200-years situation has changed them to act this way. 

Data-Mullen is all hyped up on agro-juice. Before he talked to Troi-Shumar, he told O'Brien-Kelly to watch Worf. This guy has a real problem with our resident Klingon. Now, he stalks over and separates Picard and Worf.

Meanwhile, O'Brien-Kelly has decided to be creepy toward Keiko again, using memories that he's harvesting from Miles' brain.

"I gave you that bracelet," he says, picking up Keiko's wrist. "In McKinley Park. I put it in your pocket, and you were surprised."

He seems to be marveling at the weird sensation of being given access to someone else's life in a really intimate way, but he's got a really threatening aura at the same time.

Keiko is unnerved, and rips her hand away. It doesn't help that he's got a phaser aimed at her. Is Miles fighting with Kelly internally? He suddenly grabs her face like he's going to kiss her aggressively, and she fights and screams and cries.

"Leave her tf alone," says Troi-Shumar.

Does... does this guy lack impulse control? Feels like it, the way Troi-Shumar barked at him.

"We're approaching the southern region," says Picard. "I need to give the bridge crew our next instructions. What do you need us to do now?"

"Go to the south pole. When our ship broke up in the atmosphere, the bridge landed there. Beam up our skeletons, and take them back to Earth for burial," says Troi-Shumar.

"No probs," replies Picard. "You gonna let my people go first?"

"Noop."

"Come on," urges Picard. "Be cool. We'll take you home. If you're Starfleet, you don't need to act like this."

Troi-Shumar digs in her heels.

And so does Picard. "Fine. Let the hostages go, or I won't cooperate."

"Really?" asks Data-Mullen. "How about if we start killing people? Will you cooperate then?" He grabs Worf and jams the phaser under the Klingon's chin.
He really, really fucking hates Worf.

Now O'Brien-Kelly chooses a hostage, and quelle surprise! he selects Keiko, who hands her baby off to another hostage.

"Choose one to die, or I kill them both!" barks Data-Mullen.

Shit, Shumar. Reign in your boys.

But, oh hey. When Data-Mullen backs away, they line up in the circle.

For some dumbass reason, they aren't all ready to go. Ro tells La Forge that they're all in the circle, but La Forge says it'll take 7 seconds to drop the force field, then he calls Crusher to flood Ten Forward with the ion-things. In the time it takes to turn off one thing and turn on two others, Data-Mullen has stepped outside of the circle, so the blender-scanner-circle-thing only zaps Troi and O'Brien. They hit the deck, and the floaty balls of light exit their bodies.

Data-Mullen is pissed, and steps to Picard. "Call that shit off!" And he uses Data-strength to wrap his hand around Picard's throat and lift him off the ground.

Picard rasps out, "Bridge, call off the plan."

The ion and zappy blender are turned off, and the floaty balls of light settle back into Troi and O'Brien.

Troi stalks over and asks Picard if he's going to cooperate now.

He squeaks out a yes, and Data-Mullen puts him down.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Riker's Log, supplemental: "Moved the ship to the south pole, but we're not seeing the wreck of the Essex anywhere."

Riker calls Ten Forward. "Hey, we're looking for your ship, but not finding anything where you say it is."

"We're gonna send you the exact coordinates of our remains," Troi-Shumer replies. 

Data-Mullen types in coordinates that get sent to the bridge from the little console in Ten Forward that I swear was not there in previous episodes.

Riker cuts comms to Ten Forward, and asks La Forge, who is working Ops, if he sees anything. 

"Nope," says La Forge. "Just an ion storm."

Riker says he doesn't want to just blindly beam up whatever's at those coordinates without knowing what might be there, but La Forge says there's no way that transporters will work in these storms anyway. 

Riker calls Ten Forward again, and tells them that there's no way the transporters will work with this interference.

O'Brien-Kelly bursts out that they're lying.

"We gotta be able to use the transporters," says a worried-looking Data-Mullen to Troi-Shumer.

Picard pipes up from across the room. "Yeah, we've been having issues with the transporters since we got here. That's why we used the shuttle instead of beaming down. And then O'Brien had to go down there and boost the signal manually. He's the guy who knows the most about the transporters."

O'Brien-Kelly tells Troi-Shumer that he can't operate the transporters from Ten Forward. He needs a transporter pad. Picard offers to guarantee safe passage for O'Brien-Kelly to a transporter pad in a cargo bay. They dismiss this idea based on the fact that they do not want to be separated.

"I could take you all," Picard offers. "Look, I'm offering based on the idea that you can't take all of the hostages, and that's my biggest concern, keeping people safe."

"We're screwed if we leave Ten Forward," argues Data-Mullen. "That's outside of the force field, and they could beam us back to the surface."

O'Brien-Kelly thinks he can fix it, and comms Riker. "Send us the control of the transporter to Ten Forward."

"I can't do that unless you release control of the computer," Riker responds.

O'Brien-Kelly thinks Riker is lying, and Picard offers to talk to Riker.

"Heeeeyyyy, Number One. I think I found a way to end this hostage situation. We're going to guarantee safe passage of... our guests to cargo bay 4."

Riker recognizes that this is the clue that Picard was talking about earlier, and agrees.

O'Brien-Kelly confirms that he can get into the transporter controls now. But then he calls the bridge angrily. "I SAID ALL OF THEM! INCLUDING SHUTTLECRAFT TRANSPORTERS!"

Upstairs on the bridge, Ro hits the railing. "Well, fuck."

"You tried," Riker says in a consoling way.

He calls Ten Forward back to confirm that they've transferred all controls to O'Brien-Kelly.

 O'Brien-Kelly tells the others that he's setting up access codes that only they will have, so no one else can transport them off the ship.

Data-Mullen mentions that the crew still has access to phasers, so it's back to taking hostages again. He says "the Klingon!" so fast that I'm starting to think that this is a set up for a rom-com about how much they hated each other at first, but now they're starring in some feel-good Hallmark Christmas movie where they run the cutest little B&B in upstate Vermont.

O'Brien of course goes straight for Keiko, and she asks quietly if she can leave Molly behind in Ten Forward. She might be wearing him down, because he gestures at her to hand the baby off to the same woman as before, but his face says, "yeah, I guess so."

The six make their way through the corridors to the cargo bay, passing security Golds that were posted up along the route, just in case.

They reach the cargo bay, and Picard is done playing. While O'Brien-Kelly and Data-Mullen set up the transporter, he asks Troi-Shumar how exactly they're going to free their consciousness from the planet.

"It'll just happen as we get further away from the moon," she says impatiently.

"How do you know?" he asks. "You basing that on science? Honestly, who are you?"

Up on the bridge, Crusher and La Forge are plotting out their previous zapping plan, but altered to work with the transporters.

"This gonna work?" asks Ro.

"Maybe, maybe not," Riker admits. "Thing is, Picard picked cargo bay 4 on purpose. If things go south, we have to blow the doors."

Nobody likes this plan, but their choices are limited, so Ro readies herself to possibly murder her crewmates and captain.

Troi-Shumar finally gives up the ghost (so to speak), once O'Brien-Kelly beams up a column of glitter with wind.

"Yeah, okay, you were right," she says. "We're convicted prisoners from the star system Ux-Mal, separated from our bodies 500 years ago, and our spirits trapped on this prison-moon. We tried to escape on the Essex, but the ship couldn't break free of the storms. We couldn't just ask for your help outright, because there's no way you'd agree to facilitate a jailbreak of hundreds of prisoners. We're beaming up our friends, and we're gonna take over your bodies and use them to go home."

Up on the bridge, Crusher confirms that whatever soup is in the transporter beam contains hundreds of... something. The same something that our fake Starfleet ghosts are made of. She floods the cargo bay with her "containment field," indicated here by a dimming of the lights in the cargo bay.

Somehow, Troi-whoever knows exactly what this means.

She jams a phaser under Picard's chin and tells him that they're all going to die.

Which Picard finds mildly amusing, seeing as how they're just taken all of her friends hostage.

"We still have your friends' bodies," sneers Not O'Brien. "And we could still kill you."

"I'm cool with that," shrugs Picard.

"Yeah, I'd die for my kid," adds Keiko.

And Not Data seems to have overlooked that Klingons are the Good To Go Whenever species of the Alpha Quadrant.

Not Troi realizes that she's playing a losing hand, and advises Picard to stay the fuck out of their neighborhood, before the tiny balls of energy leave the bodies of Troi, O'Brien, and Data and join the energy soup in the transporter beam. Worf sends them back to hell.

That's a phaser, but it looks like they're giving an on-scene interview

Picard's Log 45572.1: "Crusher took a look at our three friends, and determined that they are fine, and that there will be no lasting effects."

Picard exits sick bay with Troi, Data, and Worf, and he asks Troi what it was like to be stuck with an alien entity inhabiting her body.

"Hmmm, like I was there and aware, but someone else was controlling my body and speaking with my voice. Super weird."

Data apologizes to Worf for whatever his own alien had done, and Worf tells him that it's fine.

Data: "Your restraint was most remarkable."

Sassy Worf Moment: "You have no idea."

Back in sick bay, Crusher tells O'Brien that he's fine, and that he and his wife should go home and rest.

He asks Keiko how she's doing, and she says that she is also fine, and glad that he's normal.

He tells her that if he could have killed the thing inside of him, he would have.

"I know," she smiles, holding Molly. "We both do."

And the camera zooms in on Molly, who seems to be in good spirits, despite the fact that her fucking dad was supposed to feed her hours ago.

Lol, good job, babies playing Molly. Extra teething biscuits for you.

*******

So this is one of those episodes that I often forget about, but mostly because it's similar enough to season seven's "Interface" that my brain conflates the two. (Spoilers: Starfleet ship trapped on an inhospitable planet, and "ghosts.") When I start to watch this episode, I always ask, "Is this the one with La Forge's mom?"

No, it is not.

It is kind of wild that they scheduled two episodes in a row that dealt with amnesia/body take-overs in a row, but maybe they figured that these two episodes were different enough. We've now reached the point where episodes are being produced and aired roughly in order, so I don't think it was accidental that they ended up in this sequence. I might also be drawing red lines where they don't belong.

I have a few takeaways here:

The first is that Keiko gets over being threatened by her husband really, really quickly. He threatened their kid, too.

"But Lady Archon," one argues, "twas not Miles. Twas a body snatcher."

That's true. But it looked like him. It sounded like him. It had all of his memories. And while many people around her could have told her that her husband was under someone else's control, it would have been so easy for Keiko to reject that. All she has to go on is someone else's word, and maybe Crusher's transporter bioscans.

I know that they needed her to be fine and accepting to wrap up the episode and prove that All Was Well again, I doubt she would have been okay with it right away. What's my logic here? Dreams. (No, no, stay with me.) When you're dreaming, and someone you know not only makes an appearance, but treats you like shit, you wake up loathing that person. You know it was a dream, and that that person has not actually wronged you, but your brain says otherwise. You wake up angry, and remain angry, until you are actually able to calm your spicy brain. In reality, I feel like this would have ended with Keiko in Troi's office a few times, before she could fully trust her husband around herself and her kid. (Seeing the fallout of a shitty situation is not done often, but I genuinely applaud Star Trek for going there: "The Mind's Eye" from season 4 ends with La Forge in the counselor's office, and "Family," which shows Picard dealing with the aftermath of the Locutus situation were both reality interrupting sci-fi to let the viewers know that hey, the human brain is pretty delicate, and we aren't as stoic as we like to pretend.)

As long as you have 8 bucks, it doesn't matter who you are

The other thing that I want to talk about is the Ro/Riker relationship. It's already established that they don't get along because Ro is a bit of a shit-stirrer, and that's not how Riker rolls. (Like, he's okay with certain kinds of shit-stirring, but her brand does not mesh well with hers.) Every now and again, we get to see times where they get along. Ro doesn't hate her crewmates. She gets along with quite a few of them, actually. And she gives a shit about their safety. I like when we're shown instances of Ro going about her regular ship's duties, and when it's obvious she's trying really hard. She swears when she isn't able to zap the alien body-snatchers in Ten Forward, and when is upset when her trick to turn over control of all but the shuttle transporters goes awry. And Riker consoles her. "You tried, you did your best." This is what makes him a good manager: she failed, but he recognizes that it wasn't from something she did, and now she feels bad. We see a lot of them being hostile to one another, but it isn't like that all of the time, or he'd write her up; or she'd request a transfer to another ship. She challenges him, but it isn't anything that he can't handle. When she does something in an unusual way that works, he's quick to compliment her instincts. This is a nice balance. They'll never be BFFs, but they can work together to get the job done.

Overall, I don't find this episode terrible. It's not one of my favorites, and I often forget that it exists, but I don't find it annoying or especially implausible.

Fun Facts:

- "Power Play" was a working title for the TOS episode "This Side of Paradise."

- Brannon Braga explained that the earlier scripts were a bottle show, taking place mostly in Ten Forward, and Michael Piller told him not to be afraid of writing seven or eight pages of dialogue between Troi and Picard. He agreed, but found the suggestion overkill. When he turned in those 7-8 pages, Piller told him that it was too much. Well, no shit.

- The shuttlecraft Campbell was named after sci-fi writer John W Campbell.

- Director David Livingston recalled that he fun part of this episode was using existing characters, and creating new personalities for them. Though they are never given formal names, the crew gave the unknown being characters nicknames: Troi was Slash, Data was Buzz, and O'Brien was Slugger.

- Brent Spiner enjoyed doing different characters to Data, but the challenge here was playing a character who is a jerk, but not too similar to Lore.

- Director Livingston talked about the difficulties of shooting the inhospitable planet scenes: atmosphere, wind and lightning are all difficult on their own, let alone together. And the floor was sandy, so Marina Sirtis kept having to get back in the make-up chair, because her make-up was getting "sandblasted off."

- For the scene on the planet where Data, Riker, O'Brien, and Troi get thrown across the set, Marina Sirtis was the only actor who opted to play the stunt herself. It did not pay off: she broke her coccyx. And her not using the stunt double didn't make a difference, as you see so little of her that it wouldn't have mattered. Sirtis: "It could have been Worf in Troi's costume, and we wouldn't have known the difference."

- A photoshoot for trading cards was also done during the filming of this episode.

- Molly is played by the Tadeski twins. These babies also played Molly in "Disaster," the episode where Baby O'Brien is born. In some parts of this episode, a fake baby was used.

- The broken nacelle from the Campbell shuttle will be used again in DS9.

- This is the first appearance of the pattern enhancers.

- This is the second episode where Deanna Troi's body is taken over by a non-corporeal entity. The first time is in "Clues." She must be starting to feel like an Airbnb.

- Brannon Braga felt that this episode was a really great action episode, with fights and phasers.

-Michael Piller felt that this episode was well-directed, but didn't get as "dark and broody" as he wanted it to. He liked the performances by Brent, Marina, and Colm, but thought the script was lacking.

- This episode was nominated for a sound editing Emmy.

Red deaths: 0
To date: 1
Gold deaths: 0
To date: 0

Blue deaths: 0
To date: 0
Unnamed color crew deaths: 0
To date: 0

Sassy La Forge Moments: 1

To date: 2

Sassy Ro Moments: 1

To date: 3

Sassy Worf Moments: 1
To date: 1

Sassy Riker Moments: 0
To date: 1

Sassy Picard Moments: 0
To date:  

Sassy NPC Moments: 0
To date:
Sassy Data Moments: 0
To date:
Sassy O'Brien Moments: 1
To date: 1

Sassy Keiko Moments: 0

To Date: 3
Sassy Crusher Moments: 0
To date: 0
Sassy Troi Moments: 0
To date: 3
Sassy Guinan Moments: 0

To Date: 1

Sassy Guest Star Moments: 0

To date: 3

Number of times that it is mentioned that Data is an android: 1
To date: 35

Number of times that Troi reacts to someone else's feelings: 0
To date: 8

Number of times that Geordi "looks at something" with his VISOR: 0
To date: 2
Number of times when Data gives too much info and has to be told to shut up: 0
To date: 1
Picard Maneuvers: 2
To date: 10
Tea, Earl Grey: 0
To date: 6

Mentions of the number 47: 0

To date: 2

10/10 toe cleaning. No notes.