Thoughts: It's The Picture of Dorian Gray, but in space! I didn't particularly care for that novel when I had to read it in high school, and this episode is no better. Throw in another assault on Troi, and this makes for a patently bad episode of TNG.

Thoughts: Okay, let's be honest: the premise is asinine. The transporter somehow turns grown adults into children. It shrinks their bones, muscles, tendons, major organs, and skin... but not their uniforms of course, because THAT would be silly. Well, it doesn't just shrink them – they aren't just “smaller adults” – they are children. They have somehow been de-aged AND shrunk. If they were just de-aged, they'd still have the same mass... but 40% of their mass just disappears in the transporter beam. Why does Picard have hair? If his hair follicles have de-aged and are capable of growth again, fine, but when did the hair have time to grow? Oh but wait, their brains are unaltered. Adult brain, kid body. Sure. How the transporter managed to rematerialize these four people into living beings and not smoldering heaps of dead flesh is nothing short of a miracle. Oh, and on top of all that, the Enterprise is hijacked by a cadre of mindless Ferengi? Give me a break! That space battle scene was a joke. The Birds of Prey fire repeatedly on the Enterprise, and the Enterprise gets off one phaser blast because the rest of the action on the bridge is status reports, casualty reports, damage reports, talk talk talk... maybe if you FIRED MORE WEAPONS this wouldn't have happened!

Despite everything I just said, still, somehow, this episode manages to eke out a half-decent story. I don't hate watching it.

Thoughts: I just want to mention that the prefix “exo-” means “outside” or “external”. In the context of Star Trek, “exo-” is often used to describe their space travels and the things they encounter there, as in, things that are “outside” or “external” to Earth. As such, it's often humorous to just replace the “exo-” prefix with the word “space”. In this case, “exocomp” is basically short for “space computer”.

Thoughts: Part II is where the excellence of this story really lies. The scenes between Picard and Gul Madred are the star of the show, depicting a truly Orwellian nightmare. Madred casually brings his young daughter in to see the tortured Picard, using him as an example of how humans are lesser than Cardassians, saying that they don't love their children as Cardassians do.

And of course, insisting that there are five lights when there are only four, and torturing Picard when he refuses to say there are five – this is a direct reference to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which a citizen is asked how many fingers are being held up and is expected to say “five” when there are in fact only four.

As for Edward Jellico... does he simply have a different leadership style than Picard while undertaking a crucial mission, feeling an urgent duty to press his crew to prepare the Enterprise for war, or is he also just a huge jerk? If there is any doubt in your mind about Jellico being a jerk, look no further than his conversation with Picard at about 18 minutes into the first episode. Jellico looks at Picard, his peer and fellow captain, dead in the eye and says that he'll probably be killed or captured on his mission. Jellico then reminds Picard that he's no longer in command of the Enterprise and invites him to piss off. This is fantastically rude, and Picard just takes it on the chin.

Thoughts: Picard bends the fourth wall at the end of this story, saying “But who knows? Our reality may be very much like theirs. All this might just be an elaborate simulation running inside a little device sitting on someone's table.” Indeed, the Star Trek universe could be considered an elaborate simulation, created and run any time someone plays the DVDs or streams the content to their device.

Thoughts: This two-parter is a strange mashup of stories. It was originally meant only to be a single episode about Worf's journey, but when it was expanded into two episodes, the Data story was added... but the Data story only exists in Part I, leaving Part II to be exclusively about Worf. Oddly enough, it was Data's story that turned out to be more compelling, so it's a bit of a disappointment that there was no follow-up in the second episode.

Thoughts: There's a nice little detail worth noting. In the opening teaser, Picard visits his ready room before leaving the ship. In it, his fish and fish tank are absent. It's nice to know that they didn't forget the fish before sweeping the ship!

Thoughts: I really enjoy the interaction between Picard and Daren and how their relationship is closely tied to their music, and of course it is delightful to hear the theme from “The Inner Light” again. It's simply a shame that Star Trek, at this time, was so locked into episodic storytelling – everything has to be introduced and wrapped up in the same hour. This story would have been so much more meaningful if Nella Daren had become a semi-regular character, allowing us to watch her relationship with Picard grow over several episodes instead of just one. And that, of course, would have made it all the more impactful when Picard faces his hard “lesson” about pursuing a relationship with one of his crew. As it stands, it does feel a little silly that Daren is brand new to the ship but is already performing concerts and just happens to be put in a situation where she's expected to attend briefings with the senior staff, all to just have her written off the show by the time the end credits roll.

Thoughts: Just like the previous episode, this is another story that would have been so much better if it had been stretched across several episodes instead of being introduced and wrapped up within the same hour. As it stands, it's very strange that Professor Galen had been doing this research for so long, and only after he tries to recruit Picard does every major species in the quadrant happen to suddenly join in the chase.

Thoughts: I like this story, and I like the way it's told, with Dr. Crusher looking back on events that have already happened and which led to her being relieved of duty.

Nitpickery: This exchange is stupid:
To summarize, Data says “something unexpected happened”, Reyga says that there can't be anything “unexpected” because he explored all possible outcomes, and then La Forge says “then maybe something unexpected happened”. I feel like Geordi wasn't listening to the conversation and just chimed in anyway. It's also worth questioning why Picard just left Dr. Crusher to her own devices. If there was any suspicion that a murder was committed, one would think that Picard would assign his chief of security to investigate. Furthermore, Picard seems downright disappointed in Dr. Crusher for performing an autopsy against the family's wishes, while just earlier this season in TNG 6x03: Man of the People, Picard summarily overrides a family's wishes and orders Crusher to perform an autopsy as soon as suspicion is established.

Thoughts: This just feels like a below-average story, to me. They probably should have combined this story with TNG 6x16 & 6x17: Birthright instead – especially since some of the story was taken from that original script but cut for time – and then they could have made the Data-learns-how-to-dream story its own episode.

Thoughts: You know, I'm sure I'm in the double-digits of watch-throughs of TNG, but it's only now that I'm starting to really notice set and prop reuse. The set used for the research station in this episode is the same as the Yosemite set from TNG 6x02: Realm of Fear, the Jenolan set from TNG 6x04: Relics, and the particle fountain station in TNG 6x09: The Quality of Life. Some of the workstations in the set were also seen in TNG 6x09: The Quality of Life (with domes on top instead of flat displays), they were used as replicators in TNG 4x11: Data's Day, and probably several other places that I didn't notice. Also, do you think the two Rikers ever made out? That's what we'd all do if we discovered a duplicate of ourselves, right?