Star Trek: The Next Generation — 7x07 — Dark Page

Aired 1993-11-01

SpaceOpera.com rating:4

Average reader rating:3.87

Synopsis

Lwaxana has a psychic breakdown.

Remarkable scenes

Lwaxana talking Picard to death.
Lwaxana calling Worf "wolf" again.
Lwaxana telling Worf and Riker that their brains aren't sophisticated enough.
Maques telling Troi about how her mother told him about her "need" for a husband.
I like Troi's comments about how Lwaxana for some reason isn't wearing elaborate clothing.
Data using his experiences dreaming to assist Troi decipher what's going on with Lwaxana.

Review

This is a very interesting episode at first; I love the aliens who are so telepathic they have no need for verbal words, but must relearn how to speak in order to join the Federation. Another detail I liked was that they literally couldn't speak and needed a special device to amplify their weakened vocal chords. The episode very quickly ceases to be about the aliens, but about the personal demons Lwaxana was dealing with. This takes all of the intrigue away from the episode in my opinion. An exploration of Troi's lost sister is certainly worthy of story, but it was slapped on top of a for once interesting alien of the week, which voided plenty of important story time they could have received. I would have really enjoyed seeing these guys join the Federation instead of watching a chick flick emotional bonding between Troi and Lwaxana. The two stories should have been separated and made into two episodes. They conflict with one another badly here.

9 reader comments

I consider this episode to be the sequel to Shades of Grey. If I was going to try to get a friend to watch Trek, I would hide this episode's disc under my couch.
Once again, we are watching a dream sequence, which is exactly what the previous episode was about. It is rare for me to become bored while watching TNG, but this one did it. I really had to strain to pay attention. The story unravels too slowly. It all leads up to a hidden secret at the end, but once you know that, there's no reason to watch it again. I give it a rare 1.
by Orion Pimpdaddy | 06/14/2006 at 12:09 am

A young Kirsten Dunst (from the Spiderman movies) plays Hedril in this episode.
by Brian Sumpter | 01/02/2008 at 10:55 pm

I agree with Orion, I just wasn't interested in this one. I gave it a 2, one point for getting to see the arboretum and one for having Kirsten Dunst in it :)
by Dio | 01/18/2009 at 10:55 pm

The scenes where the alien is creating the link between Troi and Lwaxana are hilarious. So many stares and camera zooms… and they do this exact sequence twice!
And the scene where the wolf lazily lopes after Troi is also laugh-worthy. I can see why it would be hard to shoot a scene where a wolf looks like it's actually chasing Troi down a hallway, but that means that they should have used something other than a wolf for that scene. Really, why a wolf? Was it a reference to the fact that a dog was indirectly involved in the daughter's death?
It was also funny that Troi's childhood home looked so much like personal quarters on the Enterprise. Not a huge deal - there's only so much money to spend on building new sets, I'm sure - but odd.
It was quite clear that they were stretching for time on this episode. Maybe they should have added a subplot -- like the aliens being confused by interacting with Data since they can't read his mind. Perhaps tie it in somehow with the fact that Data, like Lwaxana, once lost a young daughter.
Finally, I hate to say it since everybody (myself included) loves Majel Barrett, but the climactic scene just didn't come off that great. Barrett is great at playing imperious Lwaxana, but her "grief-stricken" didn't come off so well.
by tigertooth | 01/10/2011 at 5:31 pm

I liked the aliens at the beginning as well, but overall, I thought this episode was really terrible. The last few scenes where Lwaxana "dreams" about meeting the dead daughter were just embarrassingly bad. They made me cringe.
by Arta | 11/28/2011 at 8:40 pm

This episode made feel sexist for wondering if it was written by a woman. It was. Please tell me women wrote some episodes that weren't just mushy emotional psuedo-psychoanalysis.
At least Lwaxana wasn't as irritating as she usually is. For a supposed telepathic ambassador, she is remarkably oblivious to the discomfort she invokes in those around her. Good for comic effect, but not series logic.
by L | 04/27/2013 at 9:09 am

Am i the only Trekky who hates the character Lwaxana Troi? Talk about providing the wife a free paycheck, Majel should have stuck to her regular character as the voice of the computer surely that was enough regular revenue, thank the Gods of mice and men that she spent the majority of this episode in a coma.
The character Lwaxana is for me the worst character in all of the Trekiverse, if i had to choose to spend an evening with Lwaxana or Barclay i'd choose Barclay every time, don't get me started on how much i hate Barclay.
by Rob UK | 02/26/2015 at 12:10 am

I think this review really hits it on the nose. The episode really does run out of steam once it becomes clear that Lwaxana is suffering from events in her past. And while the idea of Troi's lost sister seems like it ought to have potential, this story feels drawn out and unsatisfying.
by Christopher Alexander | 04/08/2019 at 5:03 am

Hmmm, given that this is Lwaxana episode, its not one I ever really re-watched and had largely forgotten.
However, I just watched it now and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it and how emotional I found the ending. I became a father 2 years ago and I can totally relate to how the grief of losing a child could be unbearable. I think it was actually quite well done and Sirtis's acting was top drawer.
Still, the alien of the week had a really creepy grin and a laughably intense stare!
by JD | 01/12/2021 at 12:17 pm