TNG: Skin of Evil

            Now this is an episode with some problems. First of all the main story is straight out of some of the schlockier TOS episodes with a powerful villain who only wants to torture them and then get them to take it off the rock it is stuck on. That plus saying good by to Tasha Yar which would have meant more in the writers had bothered to give her any good character moments prior to this episode. That isn't quite fair, but I can certainly understand why she wanted off the show, they weren't going to focus on her at all. I actually really liked the moment in the beginning if the episode where she flirts with Worf. If anyone was going to be able to be in a relationship with season one Worf it is her. 
            The episode opens with the Enterprise on its way to rendezvous with a shuttle carrying counselor Troi. But something goes wrong and because the writers don't understand angular momentum as soon as her craft loses power it starts falling towards a planet. Chief Engineer of the week number four has the dilithium crystals physically out of the core to play with or something so they can't go to warp and Troi crashes. They finally get to the planet and beam an away team down. They find an oil monster thing that kills Tasha and they all leave. The doctor can't zap her back to life and Troi is still trapped in the shuttle on the surface. She does manage to talk to the thing and learns it was left here is is pissed.
            They beam back down and the monster proceeds to try and torture them. It sucks in commander Riker and tries to get Data to shoot them. Picard isn't having it and manages to get it to agree to let the rest of them go and just deal with him. It tells him it wants off the planet and Picard says he will talk after he sees Troi. It beam him in (can it beam itself???) and he learns it is weaker when it is angry. He gets beamed out again and makes it mad and they all leave. There is a funeral and holographic Tasha Yar says good bye to everyone.

            Review: The good bye speech was actually pretty touching, but the rest of the episode didn't hold up very well. I would imagine that one of the main cast deciding to bail part way through the first season didn't give fans much confidence. In retrospect Lt. Yar being replaced by Worf as head of security and the endless series of new chief engineers being replaced by Geordi feels almost planned. First season would certainly have been better if it happened earlier. 

4 out of 10