The Enterprise traces an attack on a Federation science outpost back to Acamar III. There, Picard discovers responsibility for the attack lies with the Gatherers, a thieving band of renegades who split off from Acamarian society a hundred years ago. The captain decides to bring an end to the raids by healing the split between the two groups.
Marouk, Acamar’s leader, agrees to offer amnesty to the renegades; Brull, the first Gatherer chief they encounter, admits a yen for peace himself.
Unknown to all, Yuta, the chef-taster to Marouk, is actually an assasin who’s been cellularly altered to live for centuries. Her only purpose in life is to kill off members of the Lornack clan who massacred her own Tralesta clan.
Riker is attracted to Yuta but puzzled by her sadness over her inability to love. Thanks to Data and Dr. Crusher’s research, he discovers that she murdered a Lornack among Brull’s pack, and another one fifty-three years ago, among countless others.
Brull leads Picard and Marouk to his chief, Chorgan, and final talks commence, though stormily. Just in time, Riker learns that Chorgan is the last Lornack and dramatically saves him from Yuta by downing her with three phaser shots.
The talks succeed, and the two groups of Acamarians are reconciled, but peace is the last thing Riker feels.
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Veteran actress Nancy Parsons welcomed the chance to play a matriarchal monarch after becoming famous to millions of moviegoers as Coach Ballbreaker in the Porky series, while Lisa Wilcox counts among her credits a three-month stint on General Hospital. She also survived encounters with Freddy Krueger in parts 4 and 5 of “A Nightmare on Elm Street”. Mallon, the nonspeaking blond Gatherer whom Brull puts in charge after he leaves, was played by Sirtis’s boyfriend, Michael Lamper; the two were married in June 1992.
The fusion reactor seen here is the same one used in “Who Watches the Watchers”, but it’s been re-dressed with more stick-on panels and labels. It is established in this episode that Data is indeed stronger than Worf.
Story by Shari Goodhartz, T. Michael Gray and Pamela Gray
GUEST CAST
Keiko O’Brien: Rosalind Chao
Jev: Ben Lemon
Tarmin: David Sage
Dr. Martin: Rick Fitts
Inad: Eve Brenner
Lieutenant Commander Jack Crusher: Doug Wert
Crewman Davis: Craig Benton
Computer Voice: Majel Barrett
The Enterprise takes aboard three Ullians, members of a race of telepathic historians who do their research by probing their subjects’ long-forgotten memories. Their leader, Tarmin, is surprised by the crew’s reluctance to be probed, while his son Jev is embarrassed by his father’s continued attempts to gain the crew’s permission. That evening Troi has a flashback to a romantic encounter with Riker ­ but Jev replaces Riker in her memories. As she struggles against him, she lapses into a coma.
The same thing happens to Riker, who remembers a shipboard disaster that cost a crew member’s life, and then to Beverly, who is forced to recall the time years ago when Picard took her to see her late husband’s body.
Picard is increasingly suspicious of the Ullians, but they protest their innocence. Troi finally comes to and readily agrees to be mind-probed by Jev about the night she slipped into a coma. This time it is Tarmin who takes Riker’s place in her dreams.
The elder Ullian is taken into custody, but when Jev visits Troi, the flashback returns and she realizes he’s the real mental rapist. The timely appearance by Worf and Data saves her. Researching a history of similar comas on other worlds, they had discovered Jev was the only Ullian present when all the incidents took place.
Tarmin apologizes for his son, saying he’d thought his once-violent race had put memory rape behind it.
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This story began as the second outline TNG bought from Shari Goodhartz; the first was “Night Terrors”. This script evolved through numerous drafts, each of which approached the rape metaphor differently. Jeri Taylor and Pamela Gray, an intern, came up with the atypical science fiction angle of mental rather than physical assault.
“We had been doing so many political shows that the success of this one reminded us that maybe we could do more with the mental side of SF, exploring the bizarre possibilities of psychological dramas,” Taylor said.
Lots of memory flashbacks were generated for every major character before those of Troi, Riker, and Beverly were chosen. One alluded to Ro’s yet-unexplained trouble on Garon II, mentioned in “Ensign Ro”, while another involving Geordi’s childhood brush with fire was so popular that Joe Menosky picked it up to use in the previous episode, “Hero Worship”. Goodhartz’s first treatment had featured Miles O’Brien as victim.
Director Robert Wiemer sought and received permission from Rick Berman to use a number of different camera tricks to set apart the bizarre memory scenes implanted by Jev, then used conservative camera work in the “reality” scenes to heighten the contrast between the two. The tricks included the use of wide-angle lenses during Beverly’s flashback; at one point both Gates McFadden and Patrick Stewart are sitting on the moving dolly (rolling camera crane), generating an eerie floating effect.
After several mentions and one false start (“Where No One Has Gone Before”), the time of Jack Crusher’s death is finally established here, albeit vaguely. Actor Doug Wert makes a brief reappearance here in a casket, after having been seen earlier in “Family”.
The Riker-Troi flashbacks caused a stir of their own, Jeri Taylor remembered, from fans who were disappointed that later episodes did not continue the rekindled intimacy between the two. The fans had obviously missed the point that these scenes were flashbacks. In this sequence, though, we do learn that it was Troi who decided to cool their relationship for the sake of professionalism when they learned that they had both been assigned to the Enterprise.
Other trivia: Keiko’s grandmother was named Obachan, and Geordi got his first pet ­ the Circassian cat mentioned in “Galaxy’s Child” ­ at age eight.
