261. LiaisonsFORMULA: Allegiance + Lonely Among Us + Khan's Happy Ceti Alpha V Adventures
WHY WE LIKE IT: Worf is da funny!
WHY WE DON'T: "Love me!!!"
REVIEW: It's hard to sell aliens that don't understand a particular emotional concept sometimes. The Iyaarans apparently don't understand pleasure, antagonism and love, but I guess they're good imitators, basing their "performances" on found writings. But then Voval seems a bit antagonistic on the shuttle, doesn't he? And do they have no concept of pleasure because they don't have good food? You'd think they'd have only rudimentary taste buds if they had NO concept of that kind of pleasure AT ALL.
Silly premise, but it's a comedy episode, so it's passable. And the comedy does work. Worf is especially good here, commenting on how his fancy uniform looks like a dress, and taking all the crap his antagonistic ambassador can sling. An uncomfortable Worf is a hilarious Worf. The Troi scenes are less interesting, does it's nice to see her love of chocolate being tested, it's still repetitive and shallow. Data's small talk subroutine makes a cameo.
The bulk of the episode, however, is a creepy romance between shipwrecked Picard and Anna. Creepy because she's a mad stalker of a woman, who exactly the type to shatter your legs so that she can taking care of you longer. Well, what the Iyaarans didn't learn about love from Picard, they certainly learned about determination. He's resistant to it all. That may be a good thing because when you get down to it, Anna is really Voval. What I like here is that there's no mention of Picard actually having kissed a dude there, which hints at the evolved society of the 24th century without making it an "issue". Now, imagine this story with Kirk instead.
LESSON: According to the coda, humans take a "balanced approach, never too much, never too little". Oh really?!
REWATCHABILITY - Low: The Worf comedy bits are amusing, but the rest is nonsense. Too vapid for any kind of recommendation.
Comments
And don't get me started on "what is a crime?" A culture that doesn't have crime would be so fantastically different to ours as to be unrecognisable.
Basically, they should have made these guys look WAY more alien. If you're going to show a proper alien culture you can't have them as bumpy forehead in jumpsuits aliens.