Geordi is enroute via shuttle to Risa for an engineering conference, a trip he is a few hours away from completing. (We'll ignore that this is a trip the Enterprise could make in seconds considering the sub-compact shuttlepod he is in is limited to sub-light speeds.) While passing the time listening to music and playing games with the computer the shuttle is intercepted by a Romulan Warbird and Geordi beamed aboard.
The shuttle is taken by a Romulan impostor for Geordi who'll pose as Geordi on Risa to verify his presence there, meanwhile the Romulans confiscate Geordi's VISOR and use their equipment to interface with the nodes on Geordi's temples. They're able to project whatever image they want into Geordi's mind which he cannot ignore and they use this to psychologically condition Geordi to their whims. As the conditioning progresses they begin sending instructions to Geordi using visual messages in the VISOR's presentation of Geordi's vision, essentially sending messages to his subconscious which he is compelled to act on by his conditioning.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise is hosting a Klingon ambassador in order to settle a dispute a Klingon colony is having near the Federation border, claiming the Federation is supplying weapons to rebel colonists, supposedly supporting the planet's defection from the Klingon Empire. The ambassador and the Enterprise crew work to show the Federation's innocence in what must be a misunderstanding, though the colony's governor is skeptical.
Geordi returns to the ship, saying he had enjoyed his stay on Risa and even has stories to tell about his time there and he quickly joins in on the investigation.
They discover that a supposed Starfleet phaser-rifle found with the rebels is really a replica powered by Romulan power technology. The planet's governor seems willing to accept that there's a Romulan ploy here until he intercepts a shipment of weaponry beamed from the Enterprise and poses to begin a war with the Federation, which is held off for the moment as the investigation continues.
It's eventually revealed that the Klingon ambassador was behind the abduction and brain-washing of Geordi and the plan is for Geordi to assassinate the Klingon governor which would damage the Federation/Klingon alliance which would greatly benefit the Romulans.
Data is able to have Geordi stopped just before he's able to assassinate the Klingon governor and he presents the evidence that someone on the ship must have the transmitter that's been sending signals to Geordi's VISOR, this opens up the Klingon ambassador who is unwilling to be searched there for the transmitter. The governor agrees saying he'll conduct his own search back on the planet. The ambassador requests asylum which Picard is happy to provide, once the ambassador is absolved of the charges.
Geordi is now faced with the struggles of recovering from his conditioning and false memories with the aid of Counselor Troi.
In a previous thread someone had said that this season seems to be about continuity and story arcs which is quite true. Many episodes this season have dealt with previous story lines, previous characters, revisiting the effects of some episodes and this episode is no different as it plays some role in showing the Romulan's interference with Klingon politics. Sharp-eared viewers will note the sound of Tasha Yar/Sela as the voice of unseen female Romulan overseeing Geordi's conditioning. The plot also links strongly to the impending Klingon Civil War as perpetrated by the Romulans and event name-drops Worf's dis-commendation and killing of Duras.
Unfortuantely the effects of Geordi's brainwashing goes ignored beyond the final scene of the episode. Sure, it's suggested Geordi will likely have many sessions with Troi to recover and it's firmly established Geordi wasn't acting on his own volition but by the conditioning he received by the Romulans but it seems odd that none of this ever really touched again and Geordi is back in full duty next week. Yeah, it's the double-edged sword of wanting something close to story arcs but also wanting the show to be episodic.
We could probably question how it is the Romulans were able to so easily interface with Geordi's VISOR mounts given that we know it's a technology Romulans do not possess (the Romulan officer in "The Enemy" acted surprised over Geordi being "allowed to live" and even wondered how the device worked. So clearly it's not something Romulans have,) and are dealing with a species they likely have very little medical knowledge of, in particular with how to program the brain to their whims.
We see and are told the Enterprise crew is using forensics to discover who used the transporter that delivered the weapons to the planet's surface (as the transporter logs had been erased.) It's odd that it's never brought up that the very oldest of forensic techniques isn't mentioned or employed.
Fingerprints.
It's also odd that apparently the best place to test the mock Starfleet weapon is apparently right in the main corridor in Engineering, a space where people are likely always working and there's sensitive equipment around. Certainly there's a range or forensics lab on the ship to conduct this experiment?
Nitpicking aside, it's an interesting episode that does sort of nicely touch on past plot points as well as starting to lay the foundation for the season finale (including using Denise Crosby's voice-over for the over-seeing Romulan officer on the Romulan ship.)
But it's also not an episode I've a lot to say on. There's some good ideas here on brainwashing/psychological conditioning but it'd take another episode to really deal with that by covering the after-effects of it. Instead it's swept under the rug. It'd have been very, very interesting if TNG was done a vastly more serialized way like pretty much all modern-day (and even then present-day) TV dramas are done rather than this episodic format.
As Troi says, what happened to Geordi is something he'd struggle with for a long time, even if he accepts his actions as not being his own and part of the "programming" he received by the Romulans.
Interesting episode, but not much to say beyond that.
Next week, Data in a relationship. Joy.
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