THE NTH DEGREE AAAARRRGGGGHHH!!!!! If there was EVER a Star Trek whose ending made me want to throw something VERY big and VERY heavy at the TV set, "The Nth Degree" had it. Not only do we get another "benevolent omnipotent aliens" ending (complete with moronic gibberings and bright smiles from the alien floating head), not only do we get Barclay returned to normal by magic (basically), not only do they not mentioned the implications of having the aliens "on their side" (why not set up a permanent "bridge" between the two planets? The aliens almost certainly have the technology. And speaking of technology, wouldn't the computer now have a record of how to build a neural scanning device like Barclay used? THAT would be a nice asset for Federation technology...), but the ending scene in Ten Forward SUCKED ROYALLY! Bad dialogue, bad acting (from Dwight Schultz, of all people!), an abhorrent sense of timing as to when to bring down the final curtain, and the boring old chess cliche. Yawn. About the only good thing I CAN say for the final scene was that at least they recognized the need for some denoument, even if they did botch it all the way around. (Well, okay, I did like the "poor little Barclay" exchange, but it went downhill from there.) But other than that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln? Well... overall, it was mostly a very good episode. Dwight Schultz was the usual delight to behold. The opening scene was marvelous (even if it did have me cringing at the rather predictible muffs by Barclay - Schultz handled the routine rather nicely, I thought). The confrontation between Barclay and Troi there was actually handled rather nicely. I especially liked Barclay's self-doubt that he's actually improving (doubt I'm sure we all have at times). Fundamentally, the concept of the plot was sound. The one flaw, I think, was thinking that making Barclay - whose main fascination as a character is his reclusiveness - a strong, forceful character would be interesting. BZZZT! When he was stuttering out his insights in Sickbay just after his return from the shuttle, THAT was interesting. It was as if he had things to say that he just couldn't keep himself from saying. Barclay asking Deanna Troi out is NOT interesting. Barclay's attitude in taking over the ship was NOT interesting (IMHO he should have been stuttering all the while... "I HAVE to do this, Captain. Trust me, you'll see. You'll be grateful!"). Dull, dull, dull. Standard "take over the ship" procedure. Keeping Barclay meek and mild during it would have been far more effective, I think. Otherwise, I did like the majority of the story. Tension was high, some interesting theories were kicked about, the story refused to turn into "A Geordi story" as "Hollow Pursuits" virtually was. One little point I noticed (which may or may not have been intentional) was that in "Hollow Pursuits", Barclay was living out his fantasies in the holodeck. In "The Nth Degree", he was living out (and virtually controlling) reality in the holodeck. Nice contrast, IMHO. Finally, I have to say that I was approaching this episode with an innate sense of dread, because I knew that it would almost de facto erase what I liked best about "Hollow Pursuits": The question of whether or not that whole episode took place on the holodeck or not. It seems clear from this episode that "Hollow Pursuits" was not a fantasy of Barclay's. Although it did occur to me (maybe this has been mentioned before and I missed it) that the final scene in "Pursuits" was not Barclay saying goodbye to the crew, though he couldn't say it to them directly, but that it was Barclay saying goodbye to the holodeck. On the whole, I liked the episode well enough to give it a B+... UNTIL the ending, which dropped it a whole letter grade. Yep, I hated it that much. I said it once, I'll say it again: AAARRRGGHHH!!! Grade: C+ SEASON FOUR AT A GLANCE: The Best Of Both Worlds Part Two: C- Family: A- Brothers: B Suddenly Human: C Remember Me: A+ Legacy: D+ Reunion: B Future Imperfect: D- Final Mission: B The Loss: D- Data's Day: B- The Wounded: C- Devil's Due: C- Clues: B First Contact: C+ Galaxy's Child: F Night Terrors: B Identity Crisis: B+ The Nth Degree: C+ --- Total Points: 43 1/3 Season Average: 2.281 = C+ (Rise of 0.003 from previous episode)