It's like popping a balloon after the last episode. That's the thing about the second season that makes it so frustrating. But it's not the worst one of the season. It's kind of uneven and silly, but I've always found it amusing and I like to laugh.
It continues in its quest to intertwine character development with action. To have two things going on at once - partly because the individual stories are too small to fill and entire episode, and partly to make a well rounded show. They were slowly getting better at it. The captain is going on a secret journey. Secret to every one but the doctor and we find out about his artificial heart. I never liked it that he was so concerned about his image. Yes, Picard was always ultra dignified and didn't need to be brash to command respect. But this vanity didn't suit him. I don't think it's the kind of thing that would be done on a starship anyway, but leaving without explanation and the fact that Riker was still appearing so clingy was something that I'm glad they got away from.
He's traveling by shuttle craft and since Wesley is due to go to the same star base to take academy exams, they will be riding together which makes Wesley nervous. I'm starting to think that the main reason that people like me are so frustrated by the character of Wesley is because they had to devote a large space of every Wesley episode to dialogue regarding his every little angst. Is it valid? Probably, most of the time, but the constant running to different main characters and asking them what he should do, say, or think seemed whiny and boring. It's just painfully obvious looking back on it all that they had literally nothing for this character other than whatever "after school special" lessons that they could manage to teach within the frame of a science fiction television show instead of trying to further develop the dynamic between him and the Traveler.
Meanwhile you have these guys, the Pakleds This is the primary story and it really is funny most of the time. After the captain leaves the Enterprise answers a distress signal from a race of people who aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. They give the impression of being clinically retarded and they don't know how to fix their ship. This is similar to the people in Symbiosis only it makes more sense in the end.
They can tell that they are too stupid to know how to fix their own ship so Riker opts to send Geordi. I'm glad this episode happened for Worf. This is the first episode where his objections turned out to be justified and it needed to happen badly because he had hitherto been such an unjustly marginalized and stereotyped character. He objects sending the chief engineer over to fix their ship and rightfully so. As it turns out, this bunch is going about space pirating technology that is beyond their capability to understand so that they can feel powerful and gain respect through that power. But it's a little confusing.
If they were really of child-like intelligence which is how they're portrayed, why didn't Troi see right through their deception? Children are bad at shielding their intentions if questioned only a little. Also, they trick the Enterprise into keeping Geordi against his will, but at the end they are easily tricked into thinking that the Enterprise had disabled them with a technology that doesn't even exist (which is part of the humorous aspects that I can't help but like.) So they're somehow smart enough to catch the Enterprise with their pants down but not smart enough to know when they're being fooled as easily as small children. Like I said... just a touch uneven.
Back in the shuttle craft you have some awkward advice giving to the resident teenager, but then we get a special treat... a look into Picard's past and the story of how he was stabbed by a Nausicaan and ended up with his artificial heart. Of course it's surprising to Wesley to think that when Picard wasn't much older than he was that he got into that kind of trouble. And it's surprising to the audience as well. Of course, we all now have the hindsight to see how important this story would become later on in the making of one of the best episodes of the series. It's another example of how a pairing of Picard and Wesley could've made Wesley's character much better, much faster if they'd only thought it through a little better.
Anyway, after writing that Picard is uncomfortable with everyone knowing about his heart, then they twist the episode so that everyone finds out about it. Firstly with Wesley being told by Pulaski to make sure he actually goes. His surgeons are under-qualified to deal with complications so Pulaski is called in. They sure did build her up to be a super doctor... more so than Beverly... I guess it suited her though. I suppose they were trying to add a sense of urgency during the time they were dealing with the Pakleds, but it wasn't necessary. They were disturbing enough on their own without the added need to go save the captain. If it'd just been Wesley that knew before hand it may have been alright, but I almost felt sorry for Picard for having his privacy intruded upon with everyone knowing about it after they'd taken the trouble to show you that he wanted this to be private for whatever reason.. image.. whatever. Uneven.
But likeable and watchable. I can go three and a half stars on this. It was funny enough to overlook the lapses in writing and it had the seed of the all important backstory of Picard's heart.
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