Sfdebris.net

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/t166.php

Not a bad outing by any stretch, but one that definitely one where both stories feel a bit undercooked thanks to the split focus, and events don't really feel like they have much weight. The crew confronting their questionable Captain is done better here than Lonely Among Us, but given what a trash fire that episode was, its not exaclty a compliment.

I think ''Bolians with hair'' probably falls under Early Instalment Weirdness. Her skin colour is wrong too. And her cadet uniform is just the DS9 uniform, which looks nothing like the uniform Wesley or Nog would wear.

Maybe in-universe, pattern baldness works in reverse, with the unlucky ones getting a lush full head of hair lol

Edit: Ex Astris Scientia has an article on this. Apparently we have seen very few female Bolians throughout the show's run but of those they are all bald so that counts out the ''females have hair'' theory.

4 is about right as it's basically fine, and average TNG is just a bit better than that.

OMG it's here, after 3.5 years, it's here!

I'm surprised Chuck knocks this one down for focusing almost solely on the intellectual problem, at the expense of any urgency or emotion. I think he's right about that criticism, but that also describes, like, 90% of TNG.

As for Tholians with hair: maybe most of them just shave their heads. Imagine an alien seeing someone with a beard for the first time: "Wait, you grow hair on your faces, too?"

Picard in the Locked Room was 99% more interesting than the Impicardster.

Because there's an actual mystery there while we KNOW that the Impicardster is a fake.

I also see no problem with a Bolian with hair. Maybe she's a hybrid, maybe some Bolians have hair, or maybe it's a wig.

I'd personally put it at a 5 - typical TNG, intriguing mystery, memorable moments, but nothing too good. I revisit the episode frequently as nice background noise.

I liked the part where Imposter! Picard talked to Troi and she immediately sensed deception and falseness emanating from him with her empathic powers, told him what he wanted to hear and quickly alerted Riker that there was something very wrong with the Captain and he might even be a fake. Really showed her value to the crew and made the episode more intelligent.

/sarcasm

I assumed the Bolian cadet was wearing a wig to fit in at the academy

I think this episode needed to pick one plot or the other and flesh it out properly.

Dopplecard is not that interesting to me, as I am neither invested in him as a character or in suspense about the threat he posed. DS9 showed you could do something similar to great effect by not telling us it or the imposter that they are fake. Or we could have had a much more plausible dilemma for the crew by having Dopplecard engage in menacing but still professional behavior which hinted at larger consequences and questionable loyalties.

The escape plot could have been tense, interesting, and full of danger and mystery. Anything could have been behind the next door. and we could have actually explored conflicting views and approaches to conflict. The movie Cube basically is this premise done in feature length.

if we needed to have both plots, we could have had a two parter. part one ends in the crew mutinying against Dopplecard, only to discover he is a fake. Part two is the escape, with occasional cutaways to a crew trying to find the captain.