I don't think this episode got very good reviews but I always enjoyed it. It was one of my favorite uses of the holodeck and it was a nice little whodunit murder mystery. It added versatility to the show stories.
The teaser scene at the beginning featured another lost hobby of Picard's. He never tries painting again, but it's there to explain that everybody sees the same things differently. And it's a funny, lighthearted way to start the otherwise tense episode with Data giving an honest assessment of the Captain's painting abilities much to his chagrin.
It's not the first murder mystery ever in Star Trek. Wolf In The Fold from TOS was another one that had poor Scotty accused of murdering women ala Jack the Ripper. This episode is a Roddenberry classic style that has been improved upon. Geordi and Riker are returning from the Tanuga IV space station after delivering a needed resource to a scientist, Dr. Apgar, working on creating Krieger waves. It's a potential new power source for the Federation and the doctor claims he's not successfully produced them yet. He's annoyed by the Enterprise's presence. Geordi comes back first looking uncomfortable and when Riker calls for his own transportation he sounds agitated. After a slight delay in getting him back and evidence of a power drain, he arrives to find out the the space station exploded as he was being beamed out. It's a great hook because we could tell from the way Geordi and Riker were behaving that something else was up even though it all seemed a terrible accident. Naturally they want to investigate, but they don't get much of a chance to before a Tanugan official comes aboard to arrest Riker.
Dr. Apgar's wife and assistant claim that Riker killed him and although I think it's kind of cheesy that they made a big deal of the fact that the Tanugan justice system assumes guilt until innocence is proven, it still sets the stage for Picard's diplomacy. He suggests recreating everyone's testimonies on the holodeck before deciding whether or not to release Riker to Tanugan custody.
What follows is a wonderful he-said/she-said crime of passion or so it would seem. Riker's version paints himself as being very serious and all business as the doctor's wife is making strong advances towards him. The wife's testimony paints herself as the model, chaste wife while Riker is a complete masher who very nearly rapes her. You know that Riker isn't the stuffed shirt he makes himself out to be, but you also know it's not his style to forcefully pursue women and that women are more often than not attracted to him. It's one thing to hear the accusations in dialogue in a courtroom drama, but what makes it fun is seeing it played out on the holodeck. I always like it when the holodeck is used as a tool like this.
In all the versions presented there are similar scenes that play out in different ways depending on whose perspective it's being told from, hence the title. In both cases the doctor finds them in a compromising situation and is moved to violence which provides an explanation of the tension from the beginning scenes and of course is a valid motivation for murder.
The assistant's deposition isn't as damning as the wife's but it does indicate that a final confrontation between Apgar and Riker was to take place while they were alone on the station. In speculation the Tanugan investigator, Krag, makes his own simulation that explains the power drain that was experienced as Riker was beamed out. He proposes that the source of the drain was Riker firing his phaser at Dr. Apgar. Further more the energy spikes on their graph that recorded all moments of the event were consistent with phaser fire and they can't think of what else could've done it. It all looks very bad for Riker even though the characters and audience can never really doubt that he is innocent.
Meanwhile, Geordi and Wesley are baffled by radiation outbursts on the ship that are melting bulkheads and causing a lot of damage. Wesley is used in an ancillary role in this episode and is just part of the engineering team. It's comforting and familiar to have him there, but it's also just a sad representation of how redundant his character was since they couldn't think of anything else for him to do.
They solve the mystery though. it employs some more of that questionable holodeck science, but it's a little more plausible than the holodeck characters coming to life since it's explained that the reactor in the space station was mostly lights and mirrors. He determines that the holodeck recreation of the reactor is causing the radiation outbursts since it's simulating the Krieger waves that Dr. Apgar had managed to produced after all. He had hidden that fact because he wanted to use them for his own personal gain. Captain Picard figures that the doctor knew that Will was suspicious of him and puts together his own speculative simulation that pieces bits of other testimonies together to prove this point and demonstrates Dr. Apgar firing a phaser at Will as he's beaming out. The shot ricochets off the transporter beam and bounces back into the generator to cause the explosion. The simulation is timed with the next predicted occurrence of a Krieger wave in order to make the simulation destroy itself, proving the theory to be correct.
Once that's done the Tanugan investigator has seen enough to present reasonable doubt and leaves the ship. Kind of an abrupt ending. A little on the simple side, I admit, for an investigation of this magnitude, but it was still very satisfying to watch and having Geordi swooping in to save the day was an excellent touch.
It probably doesn't deserve four stars because of the seedy holodeck science and the loosness of what laws and investigations should be, but I like it. I like murder mysteries and this one blends that with science fiction, so I'll be giving it four stars anyway.
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