A fun, but kind of sad one-off episode that doesn't really relate to anything else. A little mystery to solve featuring Riker. Funny how Riker-focused episodes seemed to always have a little mystery. But it worked.
It starts out at Commander Riker's birthday party. The set up here is about getting older. It's fun. Riker flubs a song he's playing on his trombone. He then gets called to the bridge to be sent on an away team to a planet they're getting strange subspace frequency blips from. It's close to the Neutral Zone and there's some suspicion of a secret Romulan base there. So, at first this episode would seem to be going in the direction of The Enemy. Except this time they're not in any danger of encountering Romulans. All is quiet and they beam down to the surface of the planet to look around. It's dark and desolate and then suddenly there's a build up of methane gas that knocks everyone out. And although we see the transporter person trying to get everyone out, this is the last we see of the away team until Riker wakes up in sick bay.
Instead of having more tensions with Romulans the show takes a 180 degree turn. When Riker wakes up, Beverly, who is wearing her hair a little different and looks kind of tired, calls him Captain and when he sees his reflection in a panel he's shocked to see that he's even older than he was a few minutes ago at his birthday party. This is supposed to be because of a disease that he caught on the planet they were exploring by the Neutral Zone that he recovered from, but could at any time cause amnesia back to the point of its contraction. He is informed that 16 years have passed and that he's been the captain of the Enterprise for 9 of them. I mean, poor Riker and everything, but this is the fun part of the episode. They aged everyone up and changed the uniform designs and Data gets a red one since he's the first officer now. They even demonstrate a little forward thinking by having a Ferengi ensign sitting at the helm... something that seemed like a great joke at the time, but after the Ferengi were perfected in DS9, they did indeed send Quark's nephew, Nog, to Starfleet. Geordi's visor is gone to indicate an improvement of technology, however there seems to be ongoing problems with an oddly unresponsive computer. But that's not the sort of thing that would bother a person whose just lost 16 years.
Then our attention is drawn back to Romulans again when a Warbird decloaks. Riker naturally goes to red alert but is told that it's all expected. When communications are opened he sees Admiral Picard on board with Troi who has the rank of Commander now. It's the first time she ever wears a proper uniform in the show, by the way. He's told that there are now peace negotiations with the Romulans and that Riker was pivotal in making this happen. (So he grew up to be a diplomat like Picard, which is kind of cute, lol) They beam over to briefly catch up and everyone agrees that this bout of amnesia is very bad timing under the circumstances. I thought Picard looked great with a goatee.
It's Deanna that takes him to his quarters finally and introduces him to his son which is a huge shock, but not enough to jog his memory. His mother apparently died already and Riker sets in awkwardly to deal with this new plot twist in his life. The boy, named Jean-Luc is very smart and responsible and already being informed of his dad's condition is helpful and not freaked out at all by the fact that he can't remember him. Who could ask anything more from a child?
He picks up the trombone and tries to play the song he was playing at his birthday party and flubs it in the same place. It seems strange that he hadn't learned it in 16 years, or that he would forget if he had learned it because of the amnesia. But Jean Luc is supportive anyway. A model child. He wants to know more about the boy's mother obviously but can't access personal files because of the computer and it's starting to get very annoying. But he's called away to the bridge. It's at that point that we first see the Romulan Ambassador is Tomalak, which is comically different. But it's not long after this that Riker is called away again after young Jean Luc has broken a bone playing the elusive Parrises Squares. At this point you start feeling sorry for Riker because he can't remember anything about starting a family and he really wants to be a great dad for this kid since he had so much trouble with his own father.
Finally, Jean Luc is able to help him get access to some home movies and at first they seem genuine enough, although he still can't remember any of it happening. But,then when he discovers that more is wrong with this entire set up than just some computer issues. And it's actually a pretty great Riker moment.
It's oddly satisfying to see him call out the mistakes by essentially turning on all of his friends. Badgering Geordi, Worf, and Data. Telling Picard to shut up. It's pretty epic, actually. The reason he figured it out is that the woman chosen to be the boy's mother in this fantasy was Riker's perfect fantasy woman from the holodeck in the episode 11001001 from the first season; she was never real. That's the only part of the show that seemed weak to me. I know Riker's mostly shallow and very Kirk-like when it comes to women, but to say that this CG woman was so impressive to him that she still enchants his memory to the point that she would be used in a family simulation is a bit far fetched.
But a simulation it is and finally things start to make more sense... or do they? The scene changes to Tomalak admitting that they'd probed his memory and put him in that simulated situation in order to get information from him which is certainly something the Romulans would do. They were close to the Neutral Zone after all. But the psychology of the simulation makes sense too. They put him in a world where his natural ambition was fulfilled - captain of the Enterprise. Where he's accomplished a stunning diplomatic feat, emulating the man he admires most and also names his child after him. A child that was not made with Deanna because they'd moved into an area of friendship only. None of this was out of the realm of belieaveablity. But there's still a lot of beleiveability problems for Riker, like how such a detailed simulation couldn't take into account the fast math complications and things like that. Tomalak can't answer satisfactorily. He's taken to a prison cell where he meets a boy named Ethan who was the model for his son in the simulation. He is apparently a prisoner there too, but Riker's never heard of the research station his parents supposedly worked at. No matter - they must escape. And Ethan has the perfect way out of course. And now Riker is starting to see how all of the scenarios in the past few hours have always revolved around this boy. The discovering of his child, the child is hurt and needs attention, the child is a prisoner and needs attention. But the child is also resourceful and can center the positive attention on himself in one "adventure" after another.
There are too many obvious distractions and holes in the plots of these adventures and he finally puts a stop to it by calling the boy's bluff. The child ends the simulation and Riker finds himself back on the planet from the beginning. Everyone is gone, but there's not any poisonous gas anymore. It's just him and the boy who still looks like Ethan or Jean-Luc.
He transforms into his true form and explains that his parents left him there to save his life and had given him the holographic technology to help him survive. But he is alone on the planet and that's why he lured them there... for company. And that fits in with the psychology of the fantasies created by the child. This is a smart episode. And it's kind of a mind bending episode too. I almost wish it could've gone on longer with more false fantasies, but this is probably enough. I've always found it intriguing that he turned into a stereotypical, generic alien that humans have been drawing pictures of since the 50's. It's not the last time it happens. Just a fascinating thing.
Riker discovers he can contact the Enterprise now and takes the alien boy back with him so that he'll never have to be alone again. I think it's just assumed that they take him back to people of his own kind once they find out where they are located. So there's a sweet sadness at the end.
On the whole it's a well rounded episode. It had a good plot balanced with humorous situations, creative exploration of the aesthetics, a touch of mystery, a tragic subplot, and a complete ending that requires no follow up. It's technically almost perfect. I choose to give 4 stars instead of 5 only because of it's stand-alone status. It's a classic Star Trek story.
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