RASCALS I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a serious show or not. Certainly the writers don't seem to have put a lot of work into it. Starting at the bottom, the entire tension of the episode was fundamentally undermined by the wretchedness of the battle scene. Are we expected to believe: 1) That the Klingons have "surplus" starships that renegade Ferengi can just go to buy (at their local K-Marts as blue light specials, maybe)? 2) That such ships would be able to overwhelm the Federation flagship in a matter of minutes? 3) That Riker is such an awful captain and the officers and crew so incompetent that in a pitched battle they are unable to get off more than one phaser shot at their assailants? (I mean, I know TNG's philosophy is "all talk, no action", but this is ridiculous!) 4) That the interior defenses of the Enterprise are so inferior that they can't ward off the Ferengi invaders, or at least put up a good fight? 5) That the Ferengi would for some reason keep the children on the ship, rather than sending them down to the planet? They could be as easily executed there, after all! This scene was outright painful, and it made so much of the episode seem so pointless. Admittedly, the ploys of Picard and company to retake the ship was rather enjoyable (though I question the wisdom of using Alexander to help them!), but it lost its teeth for much the same reason that "Brothers" was a weaker episode due to the awfully constructed hijacking sequence. Supposedly, though, the main focus of the episode was the transformation of Picard, Ro, Keiko and Guinan into children. This would have had a lot more power if it hadn't been preceded long before by Classic Star Trek's "The Deadly Years" and TNG's own "Unnatural Selection", both of which were much better episodes. And I think that the reason that both were better episodes is that there is something fundamentally scarier about aging than about getting younger. While there was a certin amount of tension regarding the characters' sudden youthfulness (mainly generated by Keiko's dilemma, and Picard's concern about his career), there was a strong positive side to it as well. Guinan seemed to genuinely enjoy the experience, and after talking to Troi, Picard seemed to have found a positive side to it as well. So, while it was an interesting diversion, it wasn't as powerful as I think it was intended to be. The greatest joy of that side of the episode was the young actress playing Guinan, who was really quite good. Actually, most of the young actors were competent at portraying their characters One peculiarity in the story was the speed with which O'Brien's and Keiko's child has grown. She (I think it's a she) was born almost exactly a year ago ("Disaster" was the fifth episode of season five, and this is the seventh episode of season six), but she clearly looked much older here. This would tend to lend credence to the theory that one stardate = one earth day (more or less), and thus that one season of TNG is roughly three years long. Of course, this leads us to wonder why Wesley Crusher isn't in his thirties by now, why Alexander isn't 15, and why none of the Enterprise's officers have been promoted. (It also tends to contradict the "We knew they were coming for a year" statement in "The Best Of Both Worlds" Part I.) Oh, and it seems that Starfleet has now discovered a cheap, easy way to return people to their youth. Wouldn't this be highly marketable? Now humanity could theoretically live for centuries or longer. (Even Doctor McCoy, despite his hatred of transporters, might find it a useful innovation. To say nothing of Mr. Scott!) I bet that this is never mentioned again, though. "Rascals" was a lightweight episode with some entertaining parts, but on the whole it was shoddily constructed and executed, even by TNG standards. You'd think we were still back in the writers' strike-decimated second season! Grade: D+ SEASON SIX AT A GLANCE: Time's Arrow II: B- Realm Of Fear: C Man Of The People: C Relics: B+ Schisms: B- True Q: D- Rascals: D+ --- Total Points: 14 2/3 Season Average: 2.095 (C) (Fall of 0.127 from last episode)