Star Trek: The Next Generation — 4x24 — The Mind's Eye

Aired 1991-05-27

SpaceOpera.com rating:7

Average reader rating:5.52

Synopsis

Romulan mind control transforms Geordi into a killer.

Remarkable scenes

Geordi talking to the computer in the shuttle.
Geordi freaking out when he sees the Romulan warbird.
Picard insisting that Worf not be ignored despite his discommendation.
Taibak taking over Geordi's vision.
Kell expressing gratitude to Worf for killing Duras.
The holographic scene where Geordi kills the holographic O'Brien. I love the whole indifference to killing thing.
Troi laying into Geordi about the details of his Risa trip.
The Klingon and Picard cursing at each other in Klingon.
Geordi intentionally spilling his drink on O'Brien.
Geordi investigating himself. Obviously not having a conscious memory of his crime.
Kell giving Geordi Romulan orders.
Data discovering the mind control technique.
Data using the computer to uncover evidence of what really happened to Geordi.
Geordi's scene with Troi at the end.

Review

I'm quite fond of this episode. The way they directed the sudden appearance of the Romulan warbird was great. Off the top of my head, they only ever use this technique one more time, with the appearance of a Borg ship through the window of a shuttle in a Voyager episode. My affinity for the opening scene aside, this episode just struck the "correct" tone with me. It has good contintuity with previous episodes once again regarding Worf's discommendation, it begins a new plot thread involving Sela, a Romulan Tasha Yar lookalike which gets picked up later, and it's a nicely done believable Romulan plot story, which is completely in character all the way around.

9 reader comments

When the episode opens, Geordi flies through space in a shuttle. Geordi asks the computer how long until he reaches his destination. The computer replies three hours. How long would it take for the Enterprise to fly over at warp 7 and drop him off? Why travel three, or six, or nine hours in a subwarp shuttle, when the Enterprise could have you there in a matter of minutes? It is a plot device to separate a character from the Enterprise or force a group of characters to be together for extended time.
by DSOmo | 09/02/2007 at 7:26 pm

I am also quite fond of this episode for the reasons mentioned above. The Manchurian Candidate-esque plot is interesting, and the continuity with past Klingon soap opera episodes is great. My only quibble is that the reset button gets pushed with regards to LaForge's brainwashing aftermath. I find it a tad unbelievable that a Star Fleet officer who was brainwashed into nearly killing a Klingon governor can simply go back to duty after a few counseling sessions. But then again, how many times has Data malfunctioned and nearly killed everyone?
Poor Geordi. He's almost as tragic as Beverly. The only time he has any luck with the ladies is when an evolving alien endows him with artificial confidence. His dream woman shows up and busts him for fantasizing about her on the holodeck. He transforms into an alien species through a process which killed several of his friends. And now he gets brainwashed by the Romulans. Picard goes to Risa, gets laid, and has an adventure. Geordi doesn't even get to set foot on the planet.
by JRPoole | 06/27/2008 at 1:42 am

I wasn't as impressed by this episode. The opening scene was enjoyable, Levar Burton is great. However, I found Geordi's disconnection/clueless routine to be a little frustrating. Why did the Romulans have to subject him to horrors in order to 'brainwash' him? Why can't they just directly feed orders to his brain?
I also didn't enjoy the frequent cuts to the purple/green visor view: once is enough, we know they are watching. I did enjoy Picard's Klingon cursing though! Overall, a below average episode for me. For Geordi, I prefer Booby Trap, Galaxy's Child or Aquiel a lot more.
by Dio | 01/05/2009 at 12:34 am

The Romulans in this episode are scary, cold-blooded, deceptive, intelligent, and dark. It should be used as the bible for designing all Romulans in future TV shows and movies.
And yes, they should always have hair.
by Orion Pimpdaddy | 02/10/2010 at 8:30 pm

The scene where Geordi and Data investigate the phaser rifle horrifies the engineer in me. Does anything about live firing an energy weapon within feet of the warp core seem safe? Not to mention the conspicuous lack of safety barriers or precautions for personnel. I know they try not to build sets unless absolutely necessary, but it still makes me cringe to watch.
by Nick Counts | 02/24/2011 at 4:05 am

This is one of my favorite Star Trek TNG episodes.
by Dave Edsons | 05/08/2012 at 8:20 pm

This episode never did much for me. Since when does just forcing people to see really horrible things for a few days make them forget what happened, kill friends without question, and think they were on a peaceful vacation with exquisitely detailed memories of it? Too much suspension of disbelief required for me.
I'd give this one a 3 or 4. Kethinov gives this one a 7 and The Drumhead a 1? Wow, really have to disagree with those two ratings!
by Mike Chambers | 11/16/2013 at 4:42 am

Yeah, the phaser rifle test fire in main engineering messed with me as well. A shuttle bay would've been a better place to test something like that.
As for Geordi's brainwashing, they just showed the part where the Romulans are demonstrating how they can control what he sees, measure his responses, and send information to his brain. I'm sure they did more than just show LaForge a few terrifying images in order to complete the process. It likely would've taken days to reprogram his brain.
This is probably the best La Forge episode, overall. The plot, his acting, etc. It all comes together well, and is nicely woven in with Worf's arc and an intriguing Klingon-Romulan storyline too.
by Axel | 03/30/2015 at 5:16 am

I'm a sucker for episodes that show Data confidently taking charge and taking command. He's always such a naive Pinocchio figure that I often forget that he's second-in-line behind Riker in the command structure, and the scene where he confidently ordered Worf to detain Geordi was, for some reason, really cool to me.
by Dstyle | 06/14/2015 at 7:33 pm