TNG does VR!!! This is one I had entirely removed from my memory, and I wish I could say it was for no reason. I must have been a little distracted early on because this episode focuses around two lost ships and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to figure out that maybe they were related. In the end I think they are actually not supposed to be related meaning that the crisis with Geordi's mom disappearing actually doesn't get resolved at all. I never got why he thought maybe she had crashed into the planet below the other ship and in the end it turns out she clearly didn't. Also, why did ship number one (the USS Raman) dip so far into the atmosphere of the planet in the first place? I guess they did and somehow picked up energy aliens, but given how much damage they taken when Geordi takes the ship that low again it doesn't really make sense. Any was the creature supposed to be able to read his mind through the probe thing? So many questions!
The episode opens when La Forge walking around without his visor on. He is working to solve an engineering crisis of some sort and we see that it is apparently some sort of VR thing since the real him is hooked up in Data's cybernetics lab. He goes into a Jefferey's tube with a fire in it and is able to put out the fire. The opening is already raising questions, is this a test or is there an actual fire? If it is a test is he actually operating the probe or is it on the holodeck or something. Presumably it is on the actual ship to really give it a test so did they start this damaging fire just so he could put it out? I am going to be asking a lot more than I tell this episode. Back to the story, the probe/interface passes the test and they proceed to investigate the wreckage of the USS Raman that, "trapped in the atmosphere," of some planet which makes no sense. It can't orbit in an atmosphere so it is flying in which case it is really wreckage?
Picard gets a call from an admiral telling him that the USS Hera has been lost and that searches aren't turning anything up. This is a crisis because Geordi's mom served as captain of that ship. His family seems totally uninterested in searching for her but he won't give up. They arrive near the USS Raman and Riker offers to operate the probe since Geordi is under so much stress, but La Forge insists he can do it. The virtual him in the form of the probe starts exploring the ship and somehow he burns his hands which is actually never explained. After some work he goes back only this time his mother is there. She tells him her ship is trapped on the surface and somehow she is sending her image up which doesn't actually make sense but Geordi buys it.
For some reason Picard refuses to let him go back to look for his mom but Data helps him do it anyway. He finds her again and she tells him he needs to bring the Raman closer to the surface to contact her ship. He does but starts losing signal to the probe so he has to convince Data to push the safety limits. It works but he can't find any sign of the Hera. It turns out she is an alien who needed to get lower in the atmosphere. She leaves and he almost dies before they can disconnect the probe. Picard is angry and puts it in his permanent record, but he feels he got to say goodbye to his mom even though it wasn't her.
Review: In case you can't tell I found this one kinda lame. I don't mind being left to wonder stuff, but it really seems like some of the characters should have had problems with a lot of it too.
3 out of 10
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