Gizmodo: 30 Years on, TNG's Ghost Sex Episode Remains as Unhinged and Awful as Ever

[Qonundrum]

"Sub Rosa" has Hot Beverly. "Move Along Home" is infinitely funnier if you picture Sisko in a pink tutu.

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I don't they did enough medium or long shots for anyone to use video editing software to nimbly superimpose any ballerina gear, but kudos to at least three of the four actors (which one of the three is Avery Brooks himself) for playing it sincerely and not phoning it in. Then again, depending on the number of retakes required because I saw some stifled corpsing going on, it's no wonder the lot of them didn't phone in the entire scene. (Bonus points to Nana Visitor, as her look of glee when the door opens clearly is shrouding a mental scream of "THANK GOODNESS THAT *THAT* SCENE IS NOW OVER!" (Joking aside, I do appreciate and enjoy this story from DS9's fledgling year.)

To be fair, the same episode with a bigger budget to really sell the surreal nature that the story was to tell. That, or temporarily hire some of the Doctor Who folk from the 1960s because this story also felt like it had a Doctor Who vibe while trying to overcome extreme budgetary reductions. Just with kids that did everything except picking their noses in front of the camera.

...but I digress...

 

[Oddish]

Likewise, "Threshold" gets far less appalling if you just figure Tom dreamed the whole thing. He probably shouldn't have had thirds of Neelix's leola root enchiladas.

 

[Quantum21]

It's not a good episode, but we know they were going for gothic horror in this. Let's not overstate the case though.

 

[Moviefan2k4]

I actually like most of this episode, except for the end where the ghost literally takes over the body of Beverly's dead grandmother. In my opinion, that was too much of an extreme point. But I did like the overall romantic aspects of the story, and how even though she was forced to destroy him, Beverly still felt compassion for the ghost in the end.

 

[lesliecrusher]

I'm still holding out for some deleted scenes/cut scenes that used this ep as literally the perfect opportunity to 1) give some Beverly Crusher backstory and 2) nudge her toward some kind of resolution of what transpired in Attached.

Reading her grandmother's journals or even just going through her things in the house would have been the logical place to give us some answers like, what happened on Arvada III? and how and when did Beverly's parents die? I don't even need a flashback, just give me a conveniently opened photo album or diary page!

And the whole episode set up so well for there to be some kind of meaningful circling back post-Attached. We sort of got a bit of it when Jean-Luc goes after her on Caldos and finds her...erm, in a state, and then almost gets his ass ghost-killed, and she has feelings about that, but like...the end of that episode was a missed opportunity, IMHO.

Instead of Beverly and Troi in Ten Forward, I almost would have preferred that moment of reflection to have been with Jean-Luc. Her line, "I re-read the entries in my grandmother's journals. Whatever else he might have done, he made her very happy." would have given him a natural opportunity to ask her if she's happy.

And maybe it doesn't even go longer than that. Maybe she just gives him a look that lets us know she knows what he's really asking, and she just...I don't know, does some subtle thing. Puts her hand on his, gives him a kiss on the cheek, pats his bald head lol just SOMETHING

 

[ananta]

I'm still holding out for some deleted scenes/cut scenes that used this ep as literally the perfect opportunity to 1) give some Beverly Crusher backstory and 2) nudge her toward some kind of resolution of what transpired in Attached.

Reading her grandmother's journals or even just going through her things in the house would have been the logical place to give us some answers like, what happened on Arvada III? and how and when did Beverly's parents die? I don't even need a flashback, just give me a conveniently opened photo album or diary page!

And the whole episode set up so well for there to be some kind of meaningful circling back post-Attached. We sort of got a bit of it when Jean-Luc goes after her on Caldos and finds her...erm, in a state, and then almost gets his ass ghost-killed, and she has feelings about that, but like...the end of that episode was a missed opportunity, IMHO.

Instead of Beverly and Troi in Ten Forward, I almost would have preferred that moment of reflection to have been with Jean-Luc. Her line, "I re-read the entries in my grandmother's journals. Whatever else he might have done, he made her very happy." would have given him a natural opportunity to ask her if she's happy.

And maybe it doesn't even go longer than that. Maybe she just gives him a look that lets us know she knows what he's really asking, and she just...I don't know, does some subtle thing. Puts her hand on his, gives him a kiss on the cheek, pats his bald head lol just SOMETHING

This is too much like intelligent thought!

I don’t know what the writers were smoking that week but this episode was a sure sign the show needed putting out of its misery. As a kid watching this, I couldn’t even take in just how awful it was. What in the hell were they even thinking? And just WHO gets their sexual thrills out of reading a grandparents’ pornographic journal? Who even WANTS to think about their granny having sex….much less then hooking up with the guy (sorry, the GHOST) who was boning her.

I just…cannot…fathom the thinking behind this one.

 

[Dr Helen Noel]

I actually quite like Sub Rosa for being a Beverly episode and a bit different. The grandmother sex diary is a bit much but let's not kinkshame. Masks and Move Along Home are unwatchable abominations though.