"It is a cellular peptide cake, with mint frosting." Man, I loved this episode as a kid and honestly I love it just as much today. It isn't one of those episodes that makes you question what it means to be human, or the meaning of life, or anything like that, but it is a great ride never the less. Despite fairly limited special effects Data's dream sequences are both otherworldly and a bit disturbing. Also the scene where Data reaches into the turbolift and then stabs Troi is genuinely disturbing. Even though he was doing so because she was infected by an alien parasite it seems like maybe Data should stop his dream experiments for a while.
The episode begins Data walking the corridors of the Enterprise and encountering a group of workmen who appear to have hammered through a bulkhead and are attempting to destroy a warp plasma conduit. Data tells the men to stop and then emits a high pitched sound which enrages them. They tear him limb from limb and even remove his head at which point Data wakes up from his dream. On the bridge Picard is getting ready to head to a super boring admirals banquet he has been avoiding for years. Geordi has just installed a new warp core and they are going to test it on the way. While making final preparations in engineering Geordi is also listening to Data talking on and on about his dream. Geordi calls to the bridge to let them know he is done, but when the ship prepares for warp it loses power completely instead of exceeding the speed of light.
In his quarters Data is meanwhile watching Spot sleep. Troi comes in to check on him since La Forge told her Data was bothered by his dreams. She suggests he try it again. The dream begins with Worf eating a piece of blue cake with a combadge. Data asks what kind of cake to which Worf replies with the amazing line at the beginning of this review. Data moves on to watching Dr. Crusher drinking some sort of fluid from Rikers head and the whole time there is the sound of an old fashioned phone ringing. He then sees the workers from earlier and makes the high pitched sound again, but they stop him and hand him a knife. He sees that the cake is Councillor Troi and she begs him not to hurt her, but he cuts a slice of cake from her right shoulder. Data is then startled by Troi, La Forge and Worf in his quarters, he has overslept. Data decides the best solution is to talk to Sigmund Freud on the holodeck, but it doesn't seem to help much.
Data starts losing it a bit and sees a mouth of Geordi's neck. We then see a nervous Troi getting onto the turbolift, but Data sticks his hand through the door at the last second and stops it. He then stabs her in her right shoulder until Riker and Worf stop him. Data is confined to quarters and Beverley gets to work on Troi's shoulder, but after treating the stab wound there is still a strange rash. She discovers an invisible parasite on the site of the wound and also finds them on many other crew. The strange part is they are all in locations linked to the strange feeding it Data's dreams, and what are they feeding on? Cellular peptides. They decide the only solution is to run Data's dreams on the holodeck because there is no way THAT could go wrong. They find themselves in the same dream with the cake and Riker getting his peptides drunk by Crusher, but this time Picard figures out the ringing is coming from a phone in Data's chest. It is Freud who tells them they have to fight the things. They then see the workers again smashing a plasma conduit and Data emits the sound. Data then wakes up and says he knows what to do, he emits a pulse from his brain at a specific frequency that kills the creatures and Geordi figures out they came from the new warp core. He is able to fix it, but Picard will just have to miss the admirals conference.
Review: A strange and enjoyable episode. The surrealness of the dreams in this episode is one of my all time favorite portrayals of dreams in media.
8 out of 10
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