I was happy they brought Barclay back. It was a technically weak, but very entertaining episode and Barclay has a lot to do with it.
It had one of the longest opening scenes of any episode. They commit to Beverly Crusher's hobby of being a play write and a theater director. Beverly and Barclay are acting out a scene from the play Cyrano de Bergerac in front of a small audience of senior staff members. Barclay is still very insecure and his acting is terrible, for all of Crusher's help. Data, who has studied acting several times at this point in opening scenes is very conscious of Barclay's bad performance and can't understand why everyone applauds generously at the end of the scene. It's comical and it also serves to grow Barclay's character. Instead of spending all of his time in holodeck fantasies, he's away from that and interacting with his friends and crew mates. His self esteem is still very low, but the progression makes sense. The writers were trying to find a way to work Barclay back in, but didn't want him to remain in a permanent mind frame as he was in his last appearance.
Afterwards, the Enterprise arrives at a large subspace telescope called the Argus Array which is in critical condition. The trouble is being caused by a probe and Geordi is sent out in a shuttle to scan it. He takes Barclay with him. This shows that Geordi is still "taking him under his wing" as per his last appearance, reminding us that Barclay is actually good at his job even though he's a social misfit. The probe emits a bright flash and knocks Barclay unconscious.
Geordi is reckoned to have been spared because of his visor and no harm seems to have been done to Barclay either, but he then confidently advises the doctor on how to better run some medical scans. She doesn't take it seriously at first and shoos him off. The probe then begins to follow the Enterprise. They can't outrun it and they can't shoot at it if it's too close, but Barclay surprisingly saves the day by cooking up a way to make it work. He doesn't clear it with Geordi first because there's little time, but Geordi is more amazed than upset.
So they go back to fix the telescope and it looks like it'll be a long drawn out process. The let Barclay in on the staff meeting since he was able to dispatch the probe and it turns into another moment to shine for him. He turns what was looking like a three to seven week project into a couple of days worth of work. And nobody can deny that his calculations are correct. He continues to have success in his personal life as well. He nails his next rehearsal of Cyrano, leaving Crusher breathless, and invites Troi on a date with all of the confidence and charm of a regular ladies' man. She doesn't answer him directly, but you can see that her normal wall of caution has been broken down by the vast change in his character. They start to suspect that the probe had an effect on him after all and when he's reexamined in sick bay it's discovered that he is developing an advanced and almost superhuman intelligence. But it's not anything to be alarmed about at this point and everyone feels like it's a win-win situation for all.
And then a wonderful fake out... Barclay is late for work the next day because he's in the holodeck. Geordi goes expecting him to have reverted to his old fantasies and instead finds him correcting Albert Einstein on a theory. His attitude is much changed and he's now very pompous and bored with his regular duties on the Enterprise since they no longer present a challenge to him. So now he's out of control in the completely opposite direction from his last episode. Like I said this is the entertaining part of it. The rest of the science fiction elements start to weaken a little at this point. The array's reactors are beginning to overload and although Barclay can stay ahead of the game with what needs to be done, they simply don't have what is necessary to stop the reaction.
He hurries to the holodeck to create a new scanning interface that is linked to the human neural system so that the computer would be able to work faster. He instructs the holodeck on how to build it and becomes a part of the Enterprise computer system. At the critical point where they think the reactors will explode, they are suddenly normalized and Barclay, now speaking for the computer decides also to take control of the Enterprise as well. And this is why I didn't put this episode in my top five holodeck moments because it seems unlikely that a holodeck creation of any kind would be able to take over the ship. Just because this creation isn't in human form like Moriarty doesn't make it different. But I have no animus towards this. It's fun to watch.
He is now inextricably linked with the computer and any attempt to remove him will kill him. Geordi attempts to bypass him manually and he tries to explain to both Geordi and Troi that he now feels he has a higher mission and is planning to take the Enterprise to places its never dreamed of before. There are a lot of influences in this episode. 2001 is alluded to as Barclay tells Geordi that he can't allow him to try to take back command of the Enterprise.
Force doesn't work and he then takes the Enterprise into a distortion that he created to hurdle them 30,000 light years away to the center of the galaxy.
Instead of finding a malevolent entity as in another influential movie, Star Trek V, they find a conscious that manifests as an apparition on the bridge. This is the only part of the episode that I truly don't like because it's the sort of thing that would be present in the first couple of seasons. A floating head. I understand that the episode was winding down and they wanted to be more exotic since they'd traveled so far and wanted something different than communication with a person on a planet, but it kind of made things silly after all the work put into Barclay's strange evolution. Suddenly Barclay appears on the bridge and explains that the Cytherians to whom they are speaking reintegrated him and that they are peaceful explorers as well only instead of going out of their solar system, they bring others to them. The probe was unable to summon any of the Federation technology, but it was able to find a vessel in Barclay, much like another influence - the movie Explorers in which aliens psychically draw a group of kids to their solar system, giving them the information necessary to make the journey.
The episode ends with Barclay in Ten Forward with Geordi and Troi. He remembers doing everything he just can't remember how now. His supernatural intelligence is gone now and he's back to his old self and although he's glad to be alive, he has reason to lament the loss of that gift that the probe gave him. But Troi decides to hold him to the date he'd arranged for a walk in the Arboretum which sends him back into a nervous stutter. As they're walking away he notices a chess game going on and politely asks to make a move that would cause checkmate in just a few short moves. Troi is impressed, not knowing he played chess. He's just as surprised because he doesn't so perhaps he's left with a flavor of that intelligence after all and that makes it a happy ending.
Like I said this episode had some weak points. The shaky holodeck science was one, although it wasn't as obvious or overpowering to the story. The floating head definitely isn't my favorite thing but it was charming enough to get a pass and leave me with no serious complaints. I think using the Barclay character to carry out the plot was a wise move and I'm not sure it would've worked as well with any of the main characters. Three and a half stars.
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