We'll Always Have Paris

DVD, TNG S1 (We'll Always Have Paris)

It's a tough life for a counsellor, after all no one likes to be told they're wrong, or in need of advice, or have their flaws brought to light, so it's only Deanna's tact that gets her through. Her position is made more difficult in some ways by being friends with these people, and on the level with them.

Crusher's feelings for example, are strongly hinted at in this story, with her seeming slightly jealous of this past connection arriving on board. Throughout the season it's been intimated that she and Picard were friends through her husband, and it seems like only a matter of time before they realise a mutually beneficial arrangement. Yet this obvious couple never transpired, perhaps due to Beverly leaving the series (albeit for one season), so losing the impetus the writers seemed to be gaining. Plus it's always difficult to tie up the Captain like that. Would have been for the best I think, and should have happened in the tenth film.

The directing is noticeably well done, with the clever effects giving the episode an identity, but it's the sensitive music that helps to keep the audience in the right place, never straying too far into heavy sci-fi, nor soap opera, for a well-judged story and a look into Picard's past. Dr. Manheim was a suitably mad-seeming scientist perhaps inspired by Lazarus, an original series character also caught between dimensions. He seemed to be in that classic vein, but to be different he never was mad, with the focus on his wife and Picard. Data gets to do his acrobatics against automatic AI defences, just as in 'Home Soil'. A good Picard episode with comfortable story and a bit of character.

***