TNG S04E23

In this installment:
(viewed July 11th, 2013)

Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S04E23 - "The Host"

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"The Host"

• Making out in a turbolift seems...shockingly unprofessional.
• Ambassador Odan is the first Trill seen in Star Trek, although he (or rather the exterior of the host's body, at least) looks nothing like the Trill we'll come to know and love (or loathe) on DS9.
• "Picard to Ambassador Odan..."
  
  "...get off my Kool-Aid, motherf**ker."
• A holodeck or a barbershop is one thing, but a spa?  On the Federation flagship?
  
  Booooooo...
• "Captain, you know her better than I.  Do you have an idea how...committed she is to remaining in Starfleet?"
  
  Uh, yeah.  Pretty committed, I think.
• "Captain, they are loading their phaser banks."
  
  Loading them?
• The ship that attacks the Type 7 shuttlecraft carrying Commander Riker and Ambassador Odan is yet another redress of the Merchantman-class freighter from Star Trek III.
• It's heavily implied in this episode that transporting a joined Trill could harm or even kill the symbiont.  I don't recall if they ever explain why, but this is clearly not an issue by the time of DS9.
• The relative ease with which the Odan symbiont is inserted into Riker's body is also contrary about how difficult the joining process is portrayed later on, even for other Trill.
• The joining is also depicted as more of a takeover of the host by the symbiont than the merger that's depicted in later series.  This could be written off as a result of the host body being both unprepared and a non-Trill, but more likely it's the result of this being a very early incarnation of the Trill backstory.
• The conversation between Dr. Crusher and Counselor Troi in Ten Forward about the nature love?  That is just like...some weak-ass dialog.  Seriously some of the most mealy-mouthed and awful in Trek history.
• Dude, no means no.  Stop being such a creeper.
• Don't awkward hug the Captain.  WHY IS EVERYONE SO STUPID IN THIS EPISODE?!?
• IT'S A LADY!
• Aside from the valuable (if clumsy) message about loving the person rather than their outward appearance, this episode is Grade A awful.  One of my least favorites in the season.