TNG Ep. 45: Manhunt

I was very pleased with myself when I guessed that Troi's mother was about to show up. Nothing else makes her stand up and take the Lord's name in vain quite like that!

Summary:

The Enterprise transports fish-aliens to a conference. To their surprise, they also have to transport Troi's mother. The biggest problem with this fact is that Troi's mother is undergoing a type of menopause where her sexual drive has skyrocketed, and she's chosen Picard as her first target. Picard spends considerable efforts thwarting her, and she finally gives up, but not after thinking for a moment that Riker, of all people, might marry her instead. About to transport to the conference, she reveals that the fish-aliens, who have been in a comatose state until then, are actually assassins. Worf takes them away and every one gets to leave with their skin intact.

My mother pointed out that Wesley wasn't much in the previous episode where we see Troi's mother because of the naked wedding idea. Surprise, but he's not much in this one, either, besides making a few jokes about fish-aliens.

Speaking of which, Worf was absolutely hilarious in this episode. I love how he thinks the fish-aliens are handsome, whereas all the humans think that they look like, well, fish. He doesn't have much better to do besides admire the catatonic fish people, since it's his job to guard them - at least until the end, where Ms. Troi finally does something useful and announces that they're assassins. A good thing, to, since otherwise she was mostly a pain in the butt to the crew.

The only thing I didn't like about this episode was the Dix Hill stuff. It makes sense that Picard would go to his regular fall-back for entertainment, but at the point where he's nearly been "shot" twice, I expected him to turn the dang program off and pick something else. Has he no imagination? I know he's stuffy, but jeez. He could have asked for a beautiful woman in a bar, minus the impending encounter with an illusion who wants to shoot him.

Not that I didn't find everything else amusing. The whole point of the episode was to be amusing, and they pulled it off much better than that very early episode in season one where Picard binds himself with an energy being. In this episode you can actually tell that they're joking around. Actress Majel certainly helps, since she pulls off the characters so very well. It gave the writers a chance to make fun of Data, and it gave Riker a chance to make fun of Picard. Hilarity all around! And no one got assassinated. I call that a win.