I guess the ships computer needed a conclusion episode as well? To be fair I suspect this is just a normal episode that somehow managed to sneak into the nostalgia parade that has been the last few episodes. It is also the final holodeck gone awry episode so I guess it is appropriate that they managed to sneak one more in before the series ended. I appreciate that they gave Data the job of being the audience questioning the safety of Picard's plan to just let the ship do its thing. I guess my only real complaint is it would have been nice to get a good Geordi or Riker conclusion episode instead of this cheesy scifi story, but Trek has in fact always been about cheesy scifi so I am not exactly shocked.
We begin with Data rehearsing a scene from the Tempest for Picard who is clearly bored. However Picard explains that the problem isn't Data's performance, but rather the light level on the holodeck. Data raises the lights a bit but before he can continue the two of them are almost run over by the Orient Express which makes an unscheduled appearance. Picard is treated for a minor injury while Data starts looking into what went wrong on the holodeck. On the bridge they are startled to see the ship suddenly jump to warp 7 on its own and then stop a few minutes later. After looking into it Geordi figures out that the ship somehow detected a dangerous surge of theta flux around them that would have destroyed the ship in seconds if they hadn't gotten out of the way, but the sensors aren't connected to the engines... (Even if they aren't on the engines if they detected such a dangerous thing why didn't they at least raise some sort of alarm...)
When Data and Geordi go into a Jefferies tube to check the involve system they find a strange node protected by a forcefield that is connecting various unrelated systems directly together. Further examination reveals such nodes across the ship centered on the holodeck. Riker leads Data and Worf onto the holodeck to investigate and they find a strange scene playing out with several programs running at once centered on the Orient Express program. Various characters are assembling a puzzle and when an engineer rushes in he is shot by a gangster who takes a brick from his body. Before kicking them off the train the conductor tells them they are headed towards Keystone City. In a meeting in the observation lounge Data explains that he believes the ship is forming its own neural net as a form of emergent intelligence and Picard agrees to let it happen. They return to the holodeck, this time with Troi and the train stops at Keystone city. The gangster gets off and proceeds to insert his brick into a wall. Data meanwhile tries to turn off the holodeck by force and the ship almost shakes itself apart to stop him.
In a cargo bay a strange object appears and Geordi figures out it is the lifeform that is emerging. It isn't doing well though and needs vertion particles to survive. That is when they figure out that the ship is headed to a source of these particles. Data, Worf and Troi go back to the holodeck and this time offer to help. Worf gets the engines going at full speed by shoveling coal into the boiler. The white dwarf star they were headed for doesn't have enough of the particles though and the ship sets off at warp nine for the next nearest source. But it is pushing so hard they are going to lose life support before they arrive. Geordi comes up with a plan to shoot a photon torpedo into a nebula to make vertion particles and Data manages to convince the train conductor to let him steer the ship/train to the new destination. They arrive and the plan works. The lifeform flies out of the ship and disappears into space leaving them once again in charge of their own ship.
Review: Maybe this qualified as super deep scifi in the 90's, but these days it falls a little flat. Not actually a terrible episode and one of the better holodeck mystery stories.
6 out of 10
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