Samaritan Snare

DVD, TNG S2 (Samaritan Snare)

Could it be that this episode was written by a Pakled? I only wonder because it all seemed so simplistic and slow. The encounter with the Pakled's could have been a dynamic command experience for Riker where he demonstrates why he keeps getting asked to be a Captain. Or it could have been a chance for Geordi to be a diplomat or a crafty professional. Instead the crew muddle along, getting bullied by this blunt and stupid race that seem mentally challenged yet somehow defeated Romulans, Klingons and anyone else they could steal technology from!

Granted, it was amusing and quite surreal to have such a dim-witted and child-like race that are holding all the trump cards, but it doesn't half make the Enterprise crew look ineffective. Why Deanna didn't think the news about the Pakled's deception and Geordi's danger was worth telling Riker immediately over the combage, but instead had to be delivered to the bridge in person, is unfathomable. It must have been her empathic abilities causing her to panic and rush to the bridge. At least Ensign Gomez came back, tellingly seen with Geordi again. Well, she was assigned to engineering.

The only islands of calm amid all this tomfoolery were the quiet scenes on the shuttle journey Picard and Wesley took together, enabling them to interact more freely. Picard, being worried about the procedure to replace his heart is at his crankiest, but the understanding quiet questioning of Wesley gives him the chance to talk about it. I feel Picard's annoyance that he now owes his life to the incomparably smug Pulaski, but the sudden danger of death was very scripted, forcing Riker to act faster to rescue Geordi. We fix things. Things to make you go. If only this episode had had more fixing, then it might have gone better. In the end it was not powerful and not smart.

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