THE LOSS Okay, so they made an attempt to deal with an interesting science fictional idea, and do a little characterization/character development at the same time. That's laudable. But did they have to botch it quite THIS badly? I mean, I know the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but this is a bit much! To start with, we have the script/acting. The opening sequence between Troi and the woman she was counseling was amazingly dull, completely predictable and devoid of all emotional impact. The reason for this is that the script was abominable, and the acting was worse. Whoever they had playing the patient has to be one of the worst actors I've seen on TNG. She's right down there with the kid in "The Bonding". And then we have Troi's completely unsympathetic bawling over the loss of her abilities. This woman is a STARFLEET OFFICER fer crine out loud! One would think the academy would have trained her for eventualities like this, or at least have given her the strength of self to deal with it with a bit of dignity! But no, she's unable to do anything but moan to anyone. The scene where she cries on Riker's shoulder was the only Troi scene in the whole episode I felt worked well, but it only worked well on its own. When taken with the rest of the episode, it loses its power. If she hadn't been whining for the previous half an hour I might have felt a little sympathy for her. Sorry, I had none. And I CERTAINLY couldn't swallow her sudden regaining of control to help solve the problem of the Flatlanders. The phrase "deus ex machina" seems to take a beating on this group. It certainly applies here IMHO. Oh, yeah. And we end up with Troi regaining her powers and all is rosy. We're supposed to accept that she went through all that trauma and came out unscathed. Yeah, right. And then there's the issue of the aforementioned Flatlanders (the two dimensional beings, that is). Upon seeing the diagram of the ship trapped by the beings, my first reaction was "Why not just separate the ship and use the free section to tractor out the trapped section?" Naw, that's too easy. But they could have at least tried it. I have a hard time believing that the Flatlanders, which can clearly INFLUENCE things in three dimensions (Troi's abilities, for instance), can't perceive things in three dimensions. The science here was more than a bit weak. Oh, and the "cosmic string". Correct me if I'm wrong, but this thing is supposed to have the gravity of a black hole, yes? Then why are we able to see it? As anyone who's ever learned anything substantial about black holes before should know, not even light can escape one's pull, and if light can't escape, then you can't see it. That's one reason Disney's movie THE BLACK HOLE was so absurd. (THE RED HOLE?) But the episode gets good marks on one point: The partly successful attempt at theme (which is almost always ignored in TNG). That is, drawing the comparison between the two dimensional creatures and the "flatness" Troi perceives the world as having when she's lost her powers. Bad acting, weak script, poor execution of ideas. Pretty much a waste of an hour, I'd say. Grade: D- SEASON FOUR TO DATE: The Best Of Both Worlds Part Two: C- Family: A- Brothers: B Suddenly Human: C Remember Me: A+ Legacy: D+ Reunion: A- Future Imperfect: D- Final Mission: B The Loss: D- --- Total: 24 Average: 2.4 = C+ (Fall of 0.193 from previous episode)