A Fistful of Data is next. As much as it's largely the bottom o' my list for being overwhelming and underwritten, it at least
didn't do what otherwise-better stories did in terms of using cheap gimmicks to get the main cast offscreen in time for a "time to show how formidable the nasty is by killing someone" routine. Even having Wesley say he had to go double check on his homework or an experiment (which he did in other stories) wasn't overdone yet and still would have been better, even if it was. Okay, for this eppy, a more established, less subtle-yet-more-relied-on gimmick of "holodeck malfunctions, again" was used, again, and was like the 10th story at this point to use the trope. I'd rather have another exciting episode of Wes saying "the dog ate my homework".
When all else fails, try to one-up "Contagion" and say your incompatible subroutines got busy in the same processor core. My processor has 16 cores by the way and I have to put those censor bars over them every time they get busy. How many cores do you have?
The other defense to put this ep over "Silence" is that at least this one has a better teaser.
Conspiracy - 0
Peak Performance - 1
The Best of Both Worlds, Part I - 0
Yesterday's Enterprise - 0
The Drumhead - 0
Redemption, Part I - 0
Power Play - 0
A Fistful of Datas - 1
Chain of Command, Part II - 1
The Pegasus - 0
Phantasms - 2
