Where Silence Has Lease

DVD, TNG S2 (Where Silence Has Lease)

Stories where a starship gets stuck, be it in space or in a hole, are rarely that entertaining. We watch the crew scrabble around, gradually solving the puzzle, until they find a way out, learn the right way to alter the intermix ratio of the warp engines, or whatever last minute writer's device is used to get us out and back to normal. At least this story does something a bit different - okay, so the idea of a powerful entity playing with the crew as an experiment is hardly original, but it's the way they face death without qualms, and the belief Picard has that death is only the beginning of a new stage of life, beyond what we understand is very close to Christian teaching, which was a pleasant surprise.

The episode has an eventful, but irrelevant teaser about Riker accompanying Worf on one of his daily exercises. It's well shot, atmospheric, although you guess it's on the Holodeck because they aren't carrying phasers, and we've just seen the Enterprise speeding through space. But it's an illuminating sequence that gives us a glimpse of the real Worf that is quite rare to see at this point. It's not clear why Picard would be worried about the escapade, but maybe that was to inject some tension so that we'd assume it's a serious mission. It does flag up the episode's problem of being too slow in places, with that first scene where Picard wanders pensively about the bridge.

The odd events of the main plot do draw the attention and keep you watching, even if the sudden appearance of the Romulan ship is obviously a plant. It's no surprise that we don't get an Away Team to visit that ship, but instead go aboard a ship of the Enterprise's class. Empty vessels, no matter how familiar are always a good choice for drama, in my opinion, and the multiple bridges give us interesting visuals, even if Worf seems to go a bit crazy, a bit quickly - maybe he should have calmed down before the mission instead of getting all battle-crazed just before it!

The creature Nagilum looks suitably alien, and the whole thing feels very much in the vein of the Original Series episodes. But... I'm not sure it quite hits the mark, it's entertaining, but not as accomplished as the last episode, even if the Enterprise does look real nice all lit up in the darkness of Nagilum's 'hole'. At least O'Brien gets a bit more to do!

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