Well, that's the world's most unhelpful trailer. But at least it explains the majority of the subplot so I don't have to.
Yes, there's another engineering disaster afoot on the Enterprise, and in all honesty, it's not a really good story and there's a ton of techno-babble in place to try to hide the fact that the problem was easily decipherable. They'd done too many stories like this in the first two seasons. So it's turned into a backdrop to the to the main story which revolves around a neurotic engineer. (Speaking of a layman's interest in psychology... lol.) And who better to play a total brain case than "Howlin' Mad" Murdoch from A-Team? This is another one of those episodes that comes down to the individual audience members' tastes. It does what it sets out to do: it makes you squirm with discomfort and
compassionate relief to see him solve the problem at the end since he'd
been having such a hard time of it throughout the hour. Lt. Barclay is an insecure character with serious social anxiety and possible schizotypal personality disorder. This episode gives a very realistic look at how a lot of people would actually use a holodeck - living out a variety of inappropriate fantasies. It begins in his fantasy world where he acts out his delusions of grandeur and charm. Once the audience is let in on the fact that it's just a Holodeck program, you can see that he's actually kind of a loser. Trek fans were upset with this one at the time because they thought this was how people saw them, but although people didn't let their geek flags fly as openly back then as they do now, that's not what this was about and I always knew it because I, unfortunately, can identify with Barclay. I think a lot of people can too because several people may go through phases like this in their life when dealing with insecurity in general.
He spends so much time on the holodeck that he neglects duties and under performs in his job and came to the Enterprise by way of transfer which Picard suspects may have been like pushing the problem onto someone else. He orders Geordi to take charge of him personally. Geordi tells him to get counseling but even the first session you see is another holodeck fantasy. Of course, they couldn't be as honest about what a person like this would be doing in his fantasies with the different people in his life. That kind of honesty didn't come until Quark's "Holosuites" were made available to both casts. But you get a pretty good idea as it shifts into a more literal fantasy setting where the different officers he interacts with fulfill different needs and desires within him.
Meanwhile strange things are happening on the ship...glasses melting, cargo containers melting... operations shutting down like warp drive and transporters. And nobody can figure out how it's connected somehow, even Wesley.
Geordi makes Barclay part of his senior staff meetings to try and give him confidence since he is actually a brilliant engineer. In this case when Wesley corrects him you can tell it's not a "Wesley the Wonderboy" moment, but rather that this poor guy is so nervous in groups that he can't think straight even with something he's good at. I can't even start to tell you how familiar all this is to me personally, which is one reason why I'm drawn to this episode, I guess. I only thought they went too far when they had Picard mistakenly call him "Broccoli" after having ordered everyone to stop calling him that behind his back. It was decent enough joke for situation, but it reminded me too much of the immaturity of the first season and it's not a slip up that would happen to Picard.
But he continues to be a slacker and they finally get fed up and go looking for him in the Holodeck. Even if you don't like the episode you can't help but feel bad for Barclay as he's finally caught and humiliated to have his fantasy life on display. Debate all you want about what's healthy and moral or not in a person's thought process, but nobody would want this to happen to them no matter what things they fantasize about. And you have to admit Riker and Troi's reactions to seeing their own counterparts are priceless... one of the best scene's in the episode.
They don't forget about Geordi's moment of holodeck fantasy with Dr. Brahms in the dialogue devoted to reasoning with Barclay and there's a lot of back and forth on how to help a person overcome all of these anxieties. I personally think it's only moderately helpful for someone who really has these issues and perhaps the writers thought the same thing since Barclay was originally supposed to be sent to a hospital for treatment at the end.
But, of course, he has to solve the problem since this episode is about him so that's not really a fitting ending. In the end they just have him bravely turning off his fantasy programs with the intent of learning to cope with reality. It's a little more true to life in my opinion. Most people with anxiety disorders have to struggle through on their own since therapy is either unaffordable or simply something they're not comfortable with. It also made Barclay a strong character who became a reoccurring character that I always enjoyed. Like I said when I made that post on what parts of the human personality all the different characters represent, everyone has a little Barclay in them representing insecurities and fears.
Three and a half stars. The engineering stuff was lackluster, but Barclay turned out to be an endearing character that I liked.
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