The Enterprise visits the planet Betazed for a diplomatic conference, where Deanna Troi reunites with her mother Lwaxana, and takes shore leave on her homeworld with Commander Riker. But a lustful Ferengi named Tog, who became smitten with Lwaxana during the conference, abducts all three of them with dreams of possessing Lwaxana and forcing her to use her telepathy to aid his negotiations. It's up to Riker and Deanna to send a message from the Ferengi ship, signaling the Enterprise for rescue.
Majel Barrett isn't necessarily a bad performer. But I think maybe the reason the writers chafed at using her on the show was that her character, Lwaxana Troi, was so one-note and abrasive. Perhaps because of the writers' distaste for the character, the idea for this episode actually came from outside the staff. But, continuing the "please the boss" theme, it was contributed by Roddenberry's assistant, Susan Sackett -- making her first commercial writing sale. Gene Roddenberry himself did a rewrite draft on the episode, something he was not in the habit of doing by this point in the life of the show.
Still, despite this confidence-eroding origin, there are moments of comedy within the episode that do play well -- Lwaxana referring to her DaiMon suitor as "Demon Tog"; Deanna's description of the famous "Sacred Chalice of Rixx"; the kiss between Tog and Lwaxana, and Deanna's reaction to it. But the overall comedic tone tries a bit too hard in other places, and composer Ron Jones seems to have to oversell it to compensate, with head-tilting "wah-wah" music throughout.
To Star Trek fans, there are a pair of familiar faces in this episode. Frank Corsentino, who plays DaiMon Tog, also played Bok in "The Battle." And the Ferengi Dr. Farek is played by Ethan Phillips, who would go on to play main character Neelix on Star Trek: Voyager. Following "Captain's Holiday," the Ferengi are again being used here for outright comedy, though the technique still isn't as polished as it would be on Deep Space Nine. There are other changes to the race too: suddenly, Betazoids are no longer able to read their minds (though Deanna could do so in earlier episodes); the thick, dark stripes on their uniforms have now been replaced by very shiny and sparkly green.
The "B plot" of the episode involves Wesley once again taking Starfleet entrance exams, and again has him winding up not going off to the Academy. This time, only he is able to decipher Riker's covert message for help, and he misses his "flight out" doing so. However, Picard decides that it's time to promote him to full ensign all the same. So he gets to wear a real red uniform from this episode on (as he wore once previously in the alternate reality of "Yesterday's Enterprise").
Wesley's promotion was a big moment for Gene Roddenberry, in part because the character was created as his surrogate and Wesley bears his middle name. To mark the occasion, Roddenberry held a ceremony on the set in which he awarded Wil Wheaton the second lieutenant bars he actually earned in the Army Air Corps. General Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was touring the set that day, and took part in the ceremony.
Other observations:
- Earlier, I mentioned the episode "Captain's Holiday," in which Riker seems to lead the push to get Picard to take shore leave. The (brief) turnabout comes in this episode, as Picard takes a much more direct route in pushing Riker to do the same.
- I also mentioned Ron Jones' score, which tries to push the comedy. Listen carefully, and you may notice that the music sounds a bit thinner than normal in this episode. Planning ahead for the larger orchestra he'd want for the season finale, Jones opted to conserve his budget here with a smaller one.
- This is the episode which gave us the Ferengi concept of oo-mox. It's likely an example of Gene Roddenberry trying to push overtly sexual content onto the show. Another example is recounted on the Blu-ray documentaries by writer Ronald Moore -- apparently, Roddenberry's draft of the script included this bit of scene description: "Mrs. Troi reaches into the picnic basket and brings out an oskoid, which is a long cylindrical piece of fruit with veins going down the side, and offers it to Riker to take a bite." Ummmm... yeah.
- In the final act of the episode, Picard must pretend to fight to "win" Lwaxana back from DaiMon Tog. It's a fantastic performance by Patrick Stewart, who brilliantly depicts Picard's initial awkwardness before finding his footing with quotes from his beloved Shakespeare. This scene is where the internet got the always profane, but often hilarious "Annoyed Picard" meme (whose image is at the top of this post).
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