I remember liking this one a lot when I was a kid and I probably haven't seen it since then. I'm not sure why it never makes it into the rotation on channels that rerun TNG.
Looking back on it now it appears to be more of a snoozer, but a nice snoozer. It begins with more of the love life woes of Geordi. This time he's too shy to talk to a girl and is being coach by, of all people, Worf which is fairly entertaining. It's ultimately filler material that is never elaborated on later. I guess this episode is another kind of "first try" with elements from it being reworked and used in other episodes to come. However, unlike the first two seasons, this one-off episode is more interesting and although the general atmosphere is pretty relaxed for most of the time, it's not a load of childishness or heavy handed philosophical rants. The Enterprise is conducting routine charting when they discover a wreckage with a faint life sign amidst it coming from a planet. Duty bound to check it out they discover the passenger who is barely alive and can't even be transported because he has such vast neural damage that his systems aren't stable enough for transport. Geordi volunteers to act as a neurological link that will stabilize him long enough to be moved. That's pretty cool.
He awakes an amnesiac. Since he can't tell them where he's from they start investigating the ship debris to try and trace his origins. He begins to recover quickly due to strange biological mutations accompanied by fits of luminescence that Dr. Crusher can't explain, try as she might.
This episode takes place over the course of two months as opposed to a couple of days or weeks. The alien is named John Doe... still after 300 years, unknowns are called John or Jane Doe, which is just funny to me. But as John heals he discovers that he has the ability to heal others on the ship. You see the first mention of O'Brien's kayaking hobby. And as his glowing pains continue they try desperately to find out what is wrong with him. The closer they get to what they suspect is his home world, the more he slowly starts to remember, like how he's sure he'd escaped and doesn't want to go back, though he still doesn't know why.
Meanwhile Geordi's temporary neural link with him seems to have boosted his confidence and he appears to get lucky with the girl he's eyeing in this episode. It's anticlimactic though as far as a study of Geordi's character development goes. He's been the strike-out king up to this point and doesn't appear to be predisposed to having fast and loose relationships like Riker, so this should've been something more serious and this Christy should've at least been eluded to again, but like I said, it's just filler material to display the unique properties of the alien. So we just have to assume this also ended in disappointment for poor Geordi. But, contrasted to the first two seasons, it's more smoothly managed and isn't so blatantly obvious that they're just using Geordi's love life as a random space filler since it's indirectly related to the main plot. Therefore, it's not as annoying even though as a Geordi watcher, I can't help but take note of it. They also fill the time with Beverly and John getting to know each other and making a connection, though not romantic.
Meanwhile John Doe is starting to get a little anxious about his persistent glowing and the pain it causes him. He's afraid it will start to hurt those around him so he attempts to steal a shuttle pod and escape. He's headed off by Worf who falls from a high platform after John has another spasm. It's Worf's first broken neck of the series and it's fatal, but John can miraculously heal him as well. While that's going on, a ship is on it's way from their destination point to intercept with the Enterprise. When they make contact you learn that this person is from John's home world Zalkon and that the commander, named Sunad,is quite adamant on capturing and killing him. At first he tells Picard that he's a dangerous criminal, which in the world of Star Trek, is and an automatic tip off to the audience that he is no such thing and that the person doing the accusing is more than likely guilty of criminal behavior of some kind. A tried and true and sometimes tired formula. I only say "tired" this time because it was a slow moving episode, so this pivot point is certainly predictable and it could put a lot of people off of the episode all together.
Sunad is so intent on destroying John that he gasses the Enterprise which starts to suffocate everyone on board. John's healing touch saves Beverly and everyone else and it's at this point that he remembers who he is and why he was escaping his planet. Note that this person has become another type of omnipotent being so there were always others, but clearly he's not a Q. That being said, now that he's back to his senses and clears the ship of the gas, he transports Sunad over to the bridge with a wave of his hand before he has a chance to fire weapons at the Enterprise.
He explains that his people are on the edge of an evolutionary change and that the leaders, like Sunad, were desperately trying to stop it by mislabeling it as a disease, or otherwise hunting down and killing all who showed symptoms of this change. He and others escaped to allow the transformation to occur naturally and find out what it was really all about. He allows the final transfiguration to take place and confirms that he can no longer be harmed and now he will try to get others like him to follow him on this journey of metamorphosis. There's a lot of core lessons about diversity and tolerance and acceptance and the usual Star Trek themes but it's all very generic and not too much like the usual liberal preachiness. He returns Sunad who retreats and says goodbye to everyone and all are amazed that they got to witness the birth of a new life form, so it was.
I think I always liked this episode mainly because of the actor who played John. He was also a main character on All My Children at the time, I think, and I loved the character he played on that so I was enamored with this crossover. But if I have to score it, I think I'll only go with three stars on this one. It's not that it's a bad episode, but it's not one of the better ones either. I'd really like to actually see it again one day though.
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