"In Theory"

[Trekker4747]

The Enterprise was in a (dark matter?) nebula that caused parts of the ship to occasionally become (in Trek's terms) "phased" hull breaches were reported, a crew-member was phased through, and bisected, through the deck. They eventually found a way to track and detect these anomalies in the nebula and used a shuttle (piloted by Picard) to detect the anomalies ahead of the ship and send directions back to the Enteprise which way to turn before colliding with one. (I think the shuttle's smaller profile made it easier for this process than the ship's don't recall why.) Eventually the shuttle nicks one of the anomalies, screwing up its engine, putting into an uncontroles spin, Picard is beamed off the shuttle just before it explodes, the Enterprise gets out of the nebula and lives on to fight another day.

 

[Guy Gardener]

How generic.

I perfer my version, sans all that clap trap.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Enterprise turns to immaterial pudding.

Yeah, pretty forgettable. With the exception of one scene, where a female engineer is found dead after a horrible scream, stuck in the deck floor. I thought that was remarkably disturbing for what is basically a whimsical comedy episode.

Michael Piller did some good stuff for TNG, but his commandment that "the ship *must* be in jeopardy every week" made for some contrived episodes.

 

[Norrin Radd]

I thought the secondary story was actually quite well done in this episode. It was quite chilling and was told with decent FX.

 

[Daneel]

The B-story was kind of forgettable; it reminds me of the complaints of some of the writers that worked on both TNG and DS9: when comparing the two, they spoke of being less than enthused that the Enterprise-D had to "investigate some damn anomaly" every other week. I don't remember exactly where I read that, it was probably Star Trek: The Magazine, or something.

Anyway, I did kind of like the Data/Jenna story. I thought it was an interesting examination of the inherent problems in a character like Data, lovable as he may be, getting involved with someone romantically. It is one of his greatest desires to understand humanity and experience certain aspects of it, but, simply because of his nature as an emotionless android, that just cannot be. Some good pathos there, I think.

 

[Tachyon]

I like when they "investigate some damn anomaly".

The Data/Jenna storyline was alright for me.

 

[JustKate]

^ I am fine with this episode, but I do agree with those who have said Jenna was...well, not creepy, exactly, but not the most well-adjusted person in the world, either. I'm trying to imagine my reaction if one of my friends said, "My old BF is such a jerk - I'm going to have a fling with an entity who will never hurt me, but who is also absolutely incapable of loving me," and while this is really rather difficult to ascertain, what with the total lack of sentient androids in my life, I'm pretty sure I would think the friend was nutso.

 

[DonIago]

Probably just a great example of why you shouldn't date while on the rebound.

 

[The Sneeze Police]

I liked the episode well enough.

People not infrequently project their own needs on other people and see things in others which simply do not exist in that person...not just rebound relationships, either.

At least Jenna recognized her error by the time the episode was up.

 

[greenmystik]

That was one psycho biatch. What the hell was she thinking. Why are women always trying to change a man!!!

 

[Lt.Cmdr.LaForge]

Poor Data though at the end of the episode. She takes off and all he's left with was Spot...

When I watched this episode I found that final scene with spot to be very emotive, then I remembered that Data doesn't really care, as he doesn't feel emotion. So it made it a little less depressing.