TNG: Dark Page

         I have mixed feelings about this episode. It is a sweet story and Lwaxana isn't bad in it, but it is also the second episode in row that literally dives into the subconscious of a character (or metaconscious if you are Betazoid) and this one is no Phantasms. It is also a mystery episode that I remembered the solution to which made it a lot less entertaining than it might have been. It has a subplot about psychic aliens learning to talk which goes no where and can't even really be called a B story since it ends about a quarter of the way in. 
         The episode opens with Lwaxana Troi at a reception for her efforts to teach a race of telepaths to use verbal communication to help with their entry into the Federation. He star pupil is a girl named Hedril. She is of course going on and on to the captain, but also seems to occationally be feeling bad and holds her head uncomfortably. The leader of the telepaths meets with Deanna and straight up tells her that Lwaxana has told him that she is single and that they should probably get married since he is too. Deanna is outraged, but later meets with him again and realizes it was a genuine misunderstanding on his part. He also tells her that Lwaxana has a dark part of her mind that she keeps from him which Deanna interprets to be privacy. 
         Later in Ten Forward Lwaxana barges in and yells at Riker for talking to Deanna and has to be taken away by her daughter. She goes to sickbay and Beverley discovers Lwaxana's brain has been totally drained of the chemicals used for telepathy and she must refrain for using it the rest of the trip. Deanna tries to take her place, but Lwaxana can't help jumping in and collapses into a coma. For some reason Deanna decides she needs to use the other telepaths to dive into her mothers mind to find the source of the problem. She finds a lot of confusion and defensiveness and a lot of the girl Hedril. She also starts reading her mothers diaries, but it takes Picard to notice that there are seven years missing from the diary starting about six years before Deanna was born. Eventually she figures out that her mother lost a daughter and in her mothers mind they have a nice moment together and it saves Lwaxana's life. 

         Review: I honestly found this episode pretty dull. I know it is all about the characters, but it is all about my least favorite characters on the show. Not a train wreck, but not one I would watch again. 

4 out of 10