An alien energy beam strikes the Enterprise, causing the entire crew to lose their memories. They soon discover they're on a mission to destroy the central command station of the Lysians, with whom the Federation has been embroiled in a long war (according to the ship's records). As the crew struggles with their lost identities and their misgivings about this assignment, an undercover agent in their midst tries to keep them in the dark.
It's getting repetitive to say this, but this episode came from a pitch made in the previous season. In fact, several "amnesia" episodes had been suggested during season four, but the idea that got traction was a story of soldiers conscripted to fight a war by having their memories erased. While show runner Michael Piller didn't think the finished episode quite delivered on the moral implications of that premise, the entire writing staff was still pleased with the result.
Joe Menosky, the writer who finally cracked the story behind "Darmok," was behind the final draft here -- though his efforts on this occasion went uncredited on screen. But he deserves recognition for avoiding a big landmine in this story. This could have been like "Violations" a few episodes before, in that the audience grows impatient waiting for the characters to catch up -- in this case, to recover their memories and expose the treacherous alien MacDuff. But the emphasis here is less on how this happened to the characters than on their new interactions.
Robbed of their memories, each character reverts to the core of who he or she is. Worf is militant and takes command, and he stands as always opposite from Picard's instinct for diplomacy. Data still wants to find a way to "belong," though rather than imagining himself with human emotions, he speculates about being part of an entire society of artificial life forms. Geordi is still a problem solver. Troi is still a calming influence on those around her.
And Riker is still a horndog. The Ro-Riker-Troi love triangle presented here is unquestionably the highlight of the episode. It's set up with an early conflict between Riker and Ro to remind us where they normally stand in each other's eyes. But then, with their memories erased, Ro immediately pursues a physical relationship with him. And Riker's not the sort of man to resist. Somewhat hilariously, even when confronted with actual written proof that he and Troi have been close (and, for all he knows, that they might still be), he practically shoves the counselor out to the door to hook up with Ro. Of course, it all pays off wonderfully in the final scene of the episode, where neither Ro nor Troi seems to have an ounce of jealousy or bitterness over what has happened; they're united in the goal of making Riker profoundly uncomfortable.
One flaw that Menosky can't quite shore up here is the remarkably powerful, implausibly specific nature of the alien amnesia technology. He tries to hang a bell on it by having Riker mention it to Picard after their memories have been recovered. But the question of how a race with limited weapons capabilities could master this other kind of technology is only part of the issue. Like the mind-altering device featured in "The Game," you have to wonder how these aliens can erase the memories of multiple alien races (and Data!), perfectly removing all personal memories while leaving their skills intact. But hey... you just have to go with it, and fortunately the episode delivers enough to satisfy if you do.
Other observations:
- Actually, the most implausible thing in the episode is right at the beginning, when Troi beats Data at a game of chess. Mind you, I'm not mocking Troi here. Rather, I'm noting that there are computer programs in existence today that actual grandmasters of chess can rarely defeat.
- The "Samarian sunset" drink that Data prepares is just a fun little idea -- a drink that changes colors when you tap the glass.
- Trekkers with a mind for trivial details get a veritable feast in the scene where the crew finally gets a look at their personnel files. We see birth dates, cities of origin, middle initials, parents' names, and more -- and all of it crystal clear in the Blu-ray remastering of the episode. There are even nods to continuity, with notices in the files of both Data's daughter and Troi's son.
- In another callback to a previous episode, the short phrase Riker plays on his trombone comes from the song he played in "11001001."
- After making a good showing for himself in "Violations," Worf is back to getting beaten up by stronger aliens. MacDuff knocks him halfway across the bridge.
- Not that there weren't other flaws in MacDuff's plan, but a fairly big one seems to be: why didn't he just position himself as the captain of the Enterprise rather than the first officer? It surely would have given him a greater chance to get the crew to do as he wanted.
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