Hmmm, where to begin for this one...
Well, real life Leah is definitely nothing like that computer simulation, a 9.37% margin for error is a rather wide range.. But how often do theoreticians and designers get out into the real universe to see what happens outside their drawing room? Geordi had a point in flying by the seat of their pants in making impromptu, ad hoc changes to do something useless like save the skins of over a thousand people.
I just need to get this bit over with sooner rather than later: The B-plot with those rude shaped space whale things is rather less inspiring than "Days of Our Lives (With Geordi and Leah)". It's genuinely best to use that, or anything, as a descriptive metaphor since any literal take would diminish the story that much more...
Please forgive me, but Picard's a bit of a dopeydonkeyrump in this one. Did Crusher pump him full of chemicals to make him feel z emotion as a practical joke offscreen? There are some great moments in this story, at least in terms of unintentional comedy.
And guess what? Forgetting how often Picard does proactively interfere in the show up to that point (even that pesky Edo incident nobody wants to remember), the space whale thing is a mammal and babies will soon plop out!
Thankfully only one squips out. So, why are we thankful?
Because Picard utterly loathes it when the newborn sea monkey attaches itself to the ship, says "Ma-Ma!", and somehow manages to suck the energy out of the ship and without the need of any sort of direct-connect dispenser. The look on his face is almost priceless. If it took energy from the crew in the way it was taking chemical, nuclear, or mechanical energy from the ship's external AC outlet or whatever because there was no direct connection they all would have been dead long before LaForge getting a chance to feel shame in finding out Leah was also apparently married... But no worries, they find a naturally occurring source of the energy little Junior needs* - and at half impulse it still took that long to get there, what sort of jetpack has Junior stashed up its slacks to begin with? Space travel as such is-- impossible.
* um, how do they know it's Junior and not Junioretta or even Snuffleuppagus? It doesn't have legs and nobody scanned the thing, much less know a shred of its DNA to begin to make a hypothesis...
And aren't we all lucky that the baby seamonkey's friends don't all team up for turns on the Enterprise as a giant motel/wayside rest/happy meal in space? They did get fatigued from their jaunt out of the raspberry bushes they were all sopping up the breakfast there...
Oi, that's a quintuiple red alert for that moment alone! Colour change, oh noes!!!!!! Is it brighter than a 60 watt LED equivalent bulb? Or they're space chameleons: Quick - get a big tree for it to match up next to and nobody will see them! Or the silicon entity, that'd look really cool. And all disco flashy and stuff! Sorry but I burst out laughing during that scene as well, it's worse than any number of moments from season one...
And why space whales anyway? Why not be exploring a solar system and there's super big solar flares from the trinary star system and they need to find a way really fast to improve shield power or they're all fried? There's just no sense of threat or suspense with the space whales. And much high school humor to be had depending on which way the space whale starts to curve up into.
And now, back to the better plot of the story:
I liked how Leah had her own shields up at the start and coming across aloof and callous and taking everything personally. These were her designs and her engines, of course, so it stands to reason some designers would feel a strong personal attachment. It's also cool she would drop the shields and make friends at the end after all the misunderstandings were cleared up. Platonic or anything else, the proverbial ice breakers are never easy and, at least 85% of the time, Geordi is reasonably in-character but I'll get to one key scene in a moment or two...
But I still don't understand where people say LaForge told the computer to make Leah kinky in any creepy way (he told it to create a personality based on data from certain personnel files that weren't restricted (which reveals rather a lot anyway, it seems! Yet not the fact she was married, which wouldn't necessarily matter while on duty so that tidbit could also have been in the restricted file...), and all that was some time after asking it why the image of Leah appeared to point out a subsystem to him. That computer's the one that has some really novel issues (leftovers from the Bynars?)...
Again, he never asked it to make Leah his personal virtual toy. Just someone who wasn't a robot because he gets enough of that from Data, let me rephrase that-- because he's used to Data's nonemotive droning. All this is on the computer. It's not quite the 1960s TV shows that used computer AI in outlandish ways, for once we see AI respond in a surprisingly subtle way that feels all the more plausible. Yet it's still wrong and wouldn't ever get a clue (CLU?) as to why. Pardon the in-joke Easter Egg callback thing but there's a nice use for it instead of the typical peacocking shows do...
And from there CompuLeahServe later says how she is a part of the engine and when he touches it he touches her... (yeah, that one's not as good...)
But I'll agree that the first 10 minutes where Geordi acts all nervous actually gets creepy when he wants to show her his fungilli )
*mic drop*
Good grief, LaForge's last line there was incredibly creepy since, for a moment, I thought the show ditched its integration of soap opera in favor of Chucky horror. No, not Chuck-E-Cheez, which is scary enough to begin with**, I mean the cornball movie series "Child's Play" with that evil doll. The one with the same color red hair that Peggy Bundy had. Anyway, what's truly embarrassing is that Chucky got more than poor ol' Geordi ever had, and even had a movie about it ("Bride of Chucky"). I mean, that is sad.
** and especially in that ball chamber loaded with little kids who lack bladder control
A generous 6/10, I should think - much potential existed but the execution is less than the sum of its parts, and while I can accept that in the 24th century both got over it quickly and became friends (and married in another timeline), the pet blob in space was a bucket of ice water far colder than Leah was presented in the episode.
As for "Clues", it's a great story if you don't watch too frequently because it's more a visceral experience than an eppy requiring one to remember the events. The cool twist is that Data informs Picard that he was the one to order total secrecy, the episode deftly covers Picard's guesswork really well. Saccharine ending aside, it's a nice episode but one viewing every 5 years or so should be enough to forget most of what's happened in order to see it again for the very first time correctly.
It's interesting that only Data and LaForge could tinker with the master chronometer. A Chief Engineer, sure - restrictions to some protocols are logical. But Data? May as well let Troi have it too so the automatic 17:00 replicator's dispensing of the chocolate sundae where she loves spooning the fudge around the rim more often. Which reminds me, "The Game" is up next because that one's always been an enjoyable episode that has the feel of a season 1 episode if done in the Piller era and the results are far more engaging than many season 1 episodes if done in season 1...
And every time 90s Trek has a food scene, I am glued to the set. Troi's explaining some rather delicious looking ice cream, Seven's cheesecake as she serves it to some random life form who hopefully doesn't have fatal lactose intolerance, Sisko and anything with creole or fish... 
they could even sell a blu-ray compilation of all those scenes set to auto-repeat...
But worst of all, nobody can make up their minds if they're referring to "chronometer" or "clock". Yuck, twentiethcenturyisms...
8/10, on the provision it's watched infrequently and after one forgets all the details. Sadly there's no Spock around to do that forget-it neck pinch because this episode's script is legitimately novel and innovative.
Well, real life Leah is definitely nothing like that computer simulation, a 9.37% margin for error is a rather wide range.. But how often do theoreticians and designers get out into the real universe to see what happens outside their drawing room? Geordi had a point in flying by the seat of their pants in making impromptu, ad hoc changes to do something useless like save the skins of over a thousand people.
I just need to get this bit over with sooner rather than later: The B-plot with those rude shaped space whale things is rather less inspiring than "Days of Our Lives (With Geordi and Leah)". It's genuinely best to use that, or anything, as a descriptive metaphor since any literal take would diminish the story that much more...
Please forgive me, but Picard's a bit of a dopeydonkeyrump in this one. Did Crusher pump him full of chemicals to make him feel z emotion as a practical joke offscreen? There are some great moments in this story, at least in terms of unintentional comedy.
And guess what? Forgetting how often Picard does proactively interfere in the show up to that point (even that pesky Edo incident nobody wants to remember), the space whale thing is a mammal and babies will soon plop out!
Thankfully only one squips out. So, why are we thankful?
Because Picard utterly loathes it when the newborn sea monkey attaches itself to the ship, says "Ma-Ma!", and somehow manages to suck the energy out of the ship and without the need of any sort of direct-connect dispenser. The look on his face is almost priceless. If it took energy from the crew in the way it was taking chemical, nuclear, or mechanical energy from the ship's external AC outlet or whatever because there was no direct connection they all would have been dead long before LaForge getting a chance to feel shame in finding out Leah was also apparently married... But no worries, they find a naturally occurring source of the energy little Junior needs* - and at half impulse it still took that long to get there, what sort of jetpack has Junior stashed up its slacks to begin with? Space travel as such is-- impossible.
* um, how do they know it's Junior and not Junioretta or even Snuffleuppagus? It doesn't have legs and nobody scanned the thing, much less know a shred of its DNA to begin to make a hypothesis...
And aren't we all lucky that the baby seamonkey's friends don't all team up for turns on the Enterprise as a giant motel/wayside rest/happy meal in space? They did get fatigued from their jaunt out of the raspberry bushes they were all sopping up the breakfast there...
Oi, that's a quintuiple red alert for that moment alone! Colour change, oh noes!!!!!! Is it brighter than a 60 watt LED equivalent bulb? Or they're space chameleons: Quick - get a big tree for it to match up next to and nobody will see them! Or the silicon entity, that'd look really cool. And all disco flashy and stuff! Sorry but I burst out laughing during that scene as well, it's worse than any number of moments from season one...
And why space whales anyway? Why not be exploring a solar system and there's super big solar flares from the trinary star system and they need to find a way really fast to improve shield power or they're all fried? There's just no sense of threat or suspense with the space whales. And much high school humor to be had depending on which way the space whale starts to curve up into.
And now, back to the better plot of the story:
I liked how Leah had her own shields up at the start and coming across aloof and callous and taking everything personally. These were her designs and her engines, of course, so it stands to reason some designers would feel a strong personal attachment. It's also cool she would drop the shields and make friends at the end after all the misunderstandings were cleared up. Platonic or anything else, the proverbial ice breakers are never easy and, at least 85% of the time, Geordi is reasonably in-character but I'll get to one key scene in a moment or two...
But I still don't understand where people say LaForge told the computer to make Leah kinky in any creepy way (he told it to create a personality based on data from certain personnel files that weren't restricted (which reveals rather a lot anyway, it seems! Yet not the fact she was married, which wouldn't necessarily matter while on duty so that tidbit could also have been in the restricted file...), and all that was some time after asking it why the image of Leah appeared to point out a subsystem to him. That computer's the one that has some really novel issues (leftovers from the Bynars?)...
Again, he never asked it to make Leah his personal virtual toy. Just someone who wasn't a robot because he gets enough of that from Data, let me rephrase that-- because he's used to Data's nonemotive droning. All this is on the computer. It's not quite the 1960s TV shows that used computer AI in outlandish ways, for once we see AI respond in a surprisingly subtle way that feels all the more plausible. Yet it's still wrong and wouldn't ever get a clue (CLU?) as to why. Pardon the in-joke Easter Egg callback thing but there's a nice use for it instead of the typical peacocking shows do...
And from there CompuLeahServe later says how she is a part of the engine and when he touches it he touches her... (yeah, that one's not as good...)
But I'll agree that the first 10 minutes where Geordi acts all nervous actually gets creepy when he wants to show her his fungilli )
*mic drop*
Good grief, LaForge's last line there was incredibly creepy since, for a moment, I thought the show ditched its integration of soap opera in favor of Chucky horror. No, not Chuck-E-Cheez, which is scary enough to begin with**, I mean the cornball movie series "Child's Play" with that evil doll. The one with the same color red hair that Peggy Bundy had. Anyway, what's truly embarrassing is that Chucky got more than poor ol' Geordi ever had, and even had a movie about it ("Bride of Chucky"). I mean, that is sad.
** and especially in that ball chamber loaded with little kids who lack bladder control
A generous 6/10, I should think - much potential existed but the execution is less than the sum of its parts, and while I can accept that in the 24th century both got over it quickly and became friends (and married in another timeline), the pet blob in space was a bucket of ice water far colder than Leah was presented in the episode.
As for "Clues", it's a great story if you don't watch too frequently because it's more a visceral experience than an eppy requiring one to remember the events. The cool twist is that Data informs Picard that he was the one to order total secrecy, the episode deftly covers Picard's guesswork really well. Saccharine ending aside, it's a nice episode but one viewing every 5 years or so should be enough to forget most of what's happened in order to see it again for the very first time correctly.
It's interesting that only Data and LaForge could tinker with the master chronometer. A Chief Engineer, sure - restrictions to some protocols are logical. But Data? May as well let Troi have it too so the automatic 17:00 replicator's dispensing of the chocolate sundae where she loves spooning the fudge around the rim more often. Which reminds me, "The Game" is up next because that one's always been an enjoyable episode that has the feel of a season 1 episode if done in the Piller era and the results are far more engaging than many season 1 episodes if done in season 1...
And every time 90s Trek has a food scene, I am glued to the set. Troi's explaining some rather delicious looking ice cream, Seven's cheesecake as she serves it to some random life form who hopefully doesn't have fatal lactose intolerance, Sisko and anything with creole or fish... they could even sell a blu-ray compilation of all those scenes set to auto-repeat...But worst of all, nobody can make up their minds if they're referring to "chronometer" or "clock". Yuck, twentiethcenturyisms...
8/10, on the provision it's watched infrequently and after one forgets all the details. Sadly there's no Spock around to do that forget-it neck pinch because this episode's script is legitimately novel and innovative.
