TNG Flashback: Identity Crisis

"Identity Crisis" is another Star Trek: The Next Generation episode based on a fan-submitted script. This one was reportedly saved from the slush pile and heavily rewritten before making it to production. But I don't think they truly fixed all the problems.

Five years ago, when Geordi LaForge was serving about the U.S.S. Victory, he and four other crewmembers explored the planet Tarchannen III. Now, the other members of that team have been breaking protocol to return to the planet... only to vanish without a trace. Along with his former teammate, Susanna Leijten, LaForge must solve the old mystery before they too disappear.

The original story pitch for this episode put two guest stars at the center of the crisis. They were rapidly transforming into aliens, and it was up to the Enterprise crew to help them. The staff writers rightly realized that a regular character ought to be at the heart of the story to help the audience invest, but their rewrite didn't go far enough. The problem is twofold.

First, the bulk of the story involves Leijten's rapid transformation. She's a character we don't know, and our only connection to her is through Geordi. An early staff draft of the script reportedly put the two in a romance, before everyone reasonably concluded that after a twice-failed romance with Leah Brahms, Geordi needed a break in that department. Leitjen was then conceived to be "like a sister" to Geordi, a relationship made explicit in dialogue. Why not make it Geordi's actual sister? Sure, people can have good friends, but if you're trying to sell an audience on a brand new relationship, why not raise the stakes on it as much as possible?

Second, the back half of the story involves Geordi's transformation and how Leijten, after being cured herself, helps talk Geordi back from the brink. By this point, Geordi has gone full alien, so the scene is a one-sided conversation -- and we don't really know the person on that side. Again, a true sibling relationship between the two could have made it more relatable. Or better still, if it's going to be a "good friend" that talks Geordi back, why not have it be someone who we've seen act as Geordi's friend: Data! How great a moment would it have been, watching the emotionless android trying to appeal to an emotional connection?

But too much focus on the guest star is only one of the problems of this episode. Another big one is pacing. The episode starts with a promising bang, almost immediately telling us that Geordi is in danger of disappearing. But then there's an ultimately meaningless subplot involving a decaying shuttlecraft, a painfully slow exploration of the planet surface, technobabbly investigations by both Geordi and Dr. Crusher, and an even more technobabbly search for Geordi once he himself goes missing.

The script is full of unanswered questions. Why is it this parasite lies completely dormant for five years before suddenly doing its thing in a matter of days? When Geordi's hands begin to shake, he still has enough sense of self to continue his investigation; why then does he not immediately report his symptoms to Dr. Crusher as she specifically requested? The moment Geordi mutates enough to become invisible to the ship's sensors, why does the computer not report his disappearance, as it was specifically asked to monitor Geordi at all times?

There are some interesting elements of this episode, but they don't really help you engage in the story so much as they impress you technically. There's an impressive feat of continuity in the visual recording (and subsequent holodeck recreation) of the five-year-old mission; Geordi's back in red and wearing his original model VISOR, everyone is dressed in season one uniforms and even armed with season one phasers. There's also the fantastic ultraviolet makeup used to depict the alien creatures, complete with creepy contact lenses, and earning the series an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup for a Series. Also creepy is the amorphous shape Geordi conjures on the holodeck when he asks the computer to extrapolate the source of a mysterious shadow.

The last moment may be a taste of a more horrific incarnation this episode might have taken. In yet another early draft, no character was being transformed into an alien at all. Instead, the planet was populated with a host of invisible aliens adapted from all sorts of other species, an external horror rather than a psychological one. (Budget concerns probably killed that idea.)

Other observations:

• Actually, I have a few more questions (of a more nitpicky nature): When Geordi pauses his holodeck simulation, why do the wildlife noises persist? And when Worf arrives with a team on the holodeck and begins a search for Geordi, wouldn't the sensible thing be to turn off the program to make the search easier?

• There are a few unusual guest stars in this episode. A former Miss Universe appears as an ensign, while Los Angeles radio DJs of the time, Mark and Brian, are the other two aliens scurrying along with Geordi near the end of the episode.

This episode really isn't "bad." But perhaps worse, I think it's just dull. It can't overcome its misplaced focus on the guest star and its exceedingly slow pace. I give it a D+.