THE GAME


I think the moral of this episode is, "If you only have Wesley save the ship
once a season, and have him only sort of save it, but have Data do the dirty
work, and you don't have Wesley act too much like a kid, and you watch the
episode with six other suitably bizarre Trek fans, then it's actually pretty
entertaining."  :-)

Actually, this episode had several solid things to offer, for a straight
adventure story.  Most notably, the shot of Data walking out of the lighted 
turbolift into the darkened Bridge, with that expression of deadly purpose on 
his face was chilling.  The music (amazingly enough) was not bad just then, 
either (though it was oddly mixed into the background of the soundtrack when 
it should have been being played up).

Another interesting point was:  What was it like for Data to go through
Starfleet academy?  What did he think of it, and what did his classmates think
of him?  There might be potential here for a future story.

Wesley's girlfriend was just a little too cute to take seriously (what did she
inject into those cheeks?).  A bit of miscasting there, I think.  However, I
thought she had one of the more realistic personalities of the various guest
stars on the show.  Or maybe I can just relate to her because I'm compulsive
as well. :-)

I bet several people screamed bloody murder about the return of Wesley
Crusher.  Frankly, his presence didn't bother me in the least.

The episode had a few plot problems, though.  The one foremost in my mind is:  
How did they capture Geordi with the game?  He can't see, his optical nerves
aren't connected to his eyes, and he doesn't visualize things in the same
way that other people do.  I also wonder how they managed to nail Picard with
it.  I can't see him trying out the game.

Plus, there was plenty of stuff to "gak!" at, mostly having to do with the
covert (and overt) sexual imagery put up on the screen.  Riker-on-Risa was
pretty much meaningless, and went on WAY too long.  (It's a bad sign when I'm
finding the people I'm watching the show with so much more interesting than
the show that I can completely ignore it for several minutes and not miss a
thing.)  The "reward" the game provided was pretty amusing, but not much more.
I'm not sure we had to be shown Troi's chocolate-lust QUITE that vividly.  In
short, the episode reached the "enough is too much" stage with the images
pretty quickly.

The chase sequence was both entertaining and cleverly done.  One plus here was
that the crew didn't stand around going, "Huh? What's he doing?" but reacted
quickly when they learned a new part of Wesley's tactical maneuvering and
initiated some tricks of their own.

(Does anyone find it intriguing that the access ways on the Ent-D, as seen here
and in "Disaster" and "Galaxy's Child", are SMALLER than those in the Ent-A,
as seen in Star Trek V?)

Miscellany roundup:  Acting: Average.  Music: Below average (no surprise here) 
except for that marvelous entrance by Data.  SFX: Eh.  The graphics for the 
game were underwhelming, as was the thing's basic concept.  Constructing some 
more interesting "frosting" for the episode (as was done with the monster in
"Darmok") would have spiced things up a little.

I think that hits most of the major points.  On the whole, this was an 
engaging, if flawed, episode.  But, for the most part, the plot held together 
and the good outweighed the bad.  Maybe TNG ought to stick with adventure yarns
for a while.  Then again, maybe not. :-)

Grade: B-

SEASON FIVE AT A GLANCE:
Redemption II: B-
Darmok: A+
Ensign Ro: C
Silicon Avatar: C-
Disaster: B-
The Game: B-
---
Total Points: 16
Season Average: 2.667  ( B- )
(No change from previous episode.)
(Note retroactive adjustment to grade for "Disaster".)