Template:Realworld Geordi uses a virtual reality probe to explore a wrecked ship inside a gas giant, but he's preoccupied by the disappearance of his mother's ship.
Background information
Cast and characters
- LeVar Burton and guest stars Ben Vereen and Madge Sinclair all appeared in the 1977 television miniseries Roots. Vereen played Burton's character's grandson and Sinclair the wife of his character as an older man, played by John Amos.
Reception
- Taylor commented, "We've had the family of everybody else on board. Every other character has had their family dealt with except Geordi and probably the main reason for doing [this episode] was there was an order to finally flesh out his character more than it had been, and to show that he didn't spring isolated from Zeus' forehead." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)
- Visual effects supervisor Ronald B. Moore was disappointed that the elaborate probe miniature was only seen once. The episode instead uses the convention of Geordi in place of the probe. Director Robert Wiemer explained that it would have been "emotionally unrewarding" to film the probe with 'Silva' while cutting to Geordi for reaction shots. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)
- Naren Shankar questioned whether the story's premise was futuristic enough. "To me, it's not real interesting from a gee-whiz standpoint of technology, because we weren't looking at technology four hundred years in the future. I think it's more like forty years into the future. It's almost an overdone type of theme these days. The technology seems out of proportion to the other technologies that we use on the Enterprise." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)
- Science adviser André Bormanis noted, "There are prototypes of that kind of thing already, although tying it straight to the brain will take much longer." (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)
Video and DVD releases
- UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 78, April 1994.
- As part of the TNG Season 7 DVD collection.
Links and references
Starring
Also starring
- LeVar Burton as Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge
- Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf
- Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher
- Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
- Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data
- Wil Wheaton as Ensign Weasly Crusher
Guest stars
- And
Uncredited co-stars
- Lena Banks as operations division ensign
- Michael Braveheart as Martinez
- Carl David Burks as Russell
- Joyce Robinson as Gates
- Unknown performers as Seven USS Raman crewmembers
Stand-ins
- David Keith Anderson - stand-in for LeVar Burton
- Carl David Burks - stand-in for Brent Spiner
- Michael Echols - stand-in for Michael Dorn
- Nora Leonhardt - stand-in for Marina Sirtis
- Lorine Mendell - stand-in for Gates McFadden
- Richard Sarstedt - stand-in for Jonathan Frakes
- Dennis Tracy - stand-in for Patrick Stewart
References
47; ammonia; black cluster; Breen; cerebral cortex; chlorine; counselor's office; courier; Deep Space 3; Doosodarians; Excelsior, USS; Ferengi; fire; gas giant; God; Hera, USS; interface probe; interface suit; inverse warp cascade; Jefferies tube; La Forge, Ariana; lacuna; low stationary orbit; magnetic storage bay; Marijne VII; Marijne VII subspace being; methane; A Midsummer Night's Dream; nervous system; neural shock; neural synapse; Noble, USS; palio; permanent record; poetry; potassium chloride; psychosomatic response, Raman, USS; Riker, Betty; Riker, Kyle; roller coaster; Starfleet Academy; subspace deformation; subspace funnel; tractor beam; trionic initiator; troposphere; VISOR; Vulcan (planet); Vulcan; warp bubble; warp coil; warp field; warp funnel
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Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 |
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