Yay! TNG’s first self destruct sequence.[^1]
This episode takes a while to get going, but the ‘slice of life’ thing is quite entertaining, and helps to draw the characters out.
But once it gets going it really is fantastic. We haven’t really seen Riker and Picard working together like this before, and it’s great. The aliens are quite silly, but the plot works in spite of this.
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that the real problem of Season One is the writing. When the writing is on, the cast make it work. But mostly the writers have been producing bad material, which no one can do anything with.
120 down, 617 to go.
[^1]: Seriously, does anything in real life have self destruct mechanisms?