ENSIGN RO This was one of those "not exactly good, but not exactly bad either" episodes. It had much the same "feel" as season four's "The Wounded", right down to the inclusion of the Cardassians. A pedestrian story, routine execution, one- dimensional characters, and average acting. Nothing here to jump up-and-down about, but nothing to get inflamed over, either. Well, nearly. I never was quite able to grasp why the Admiral had decided to assist the Cardassians in their plot. Was he being blackmailed? Bribed? Was he just corrupt? Did I miss a major plot point? Hm. Ro herself is a supremely average character. Just the sort of character one would expect to find in Marvel Comics these days: A lot of internal anger, but basically a caring person who needs some coercion from Our Heroes to bring out that side of her. We get to see bits of her sordid past (her description of her father's torture also raises memories of "The Wounded", specifically, O'Brien's reminiscences about the Cardassians), and the story for her ends on an upbeat note. No surprises here. (What exactly was she court-martialed for, anyway? She had apparently made an error in judgment or something on an awayteam mission which ended up with eight dead, but I didn't detect anything that she actually did which would prompt someone as laid-back as Geordi LaForge to believe that she was unworthy to wear a Starfleet uniform. Since when are errors in judgment grounds for court- martial in Starfleet? c.f. TOS "The Cage". Hm, again.) The plot was nothing special; very simple plot-and-counter-plot stuff (with only about two counter-plots in it). The Bajoran predicament smacked more than a little than that of today's Palestinians, though it could arguably be analogous to that of the Jews of fifty years ago, as well. Or maybe they had something completely different in mind when they wrote it. It sure seems to be drawn loosely from SOME 20th century phenomenon, however. Guinan seemed to be going through the motions as well, though this episode did intriguingly pin down part of her personality: Communicating to someone by doing the opposite of what they want to do (or have done for them). The scenes with her were probably the best ones of the episode, because Goldberg is so good at portraying the character. Bajoran leader Orta's disfigurement seemed purely gratuitous and essentially worthless, dramatically. For that matter, so did Picard's gesture of having the final conversation with Kennelly publicly rather than privately. There were a few good SFX shots, though I found the Cardassian and Bajoran ship designs to be rather lacking in imagination. Oh, well. The music was par-for-the-TNG-course (i.e., unremarkable). On the whole, there isn't much to say about the episode. It held my attention, but not much more. I have a hard time thinking of the last TNG episode that seemed so _routine_. (By the way, is Ro supposed to become a regular from now on? Maybe she'll be the homosexual character that's been rumored to be slated for this season?) Grade: C SEASON FIVE AT A GLANCE: Redemption II: B- Darmok: A+ Ensign Ro: C --- Total Points: 9 Season Average: 3.000 ( B ) (Fall of .500 from previous episode.)