Eye of the Beholder

*** (3 stars out of 5)

Lt. Dan Kwan becomes suddenly, uncharacteristically miserable and throws himself into the nacelle plasma stream. Why would he do it? Did he look ahead in the script?

Troi and Worf investigate the tragic suicide, and is usually the case in these matters, things get steamy!

I knew some girls back then who LOVED the idea of 'Beauty and the Beast' on the Enterprise. I WAS NOT amused. Then (as now) I was convinced there was a right guy for Troi (Mr. Riker) and a wrong guy (Mr. Worf). I'm all for Betazoid jungle fever, but years of set up with Will seemed for naught when Troi suddenly gets her some Klingon Nookie. Granted it's marginally safer than Wookie Nookie, but Worf's not exactly Troi's speed, is he?

Then again, maybe she's started "the phase" early. No, not the mid-life increase in Betazoid sex drive. The 'Twilight' phase.

Troi's visions lead her to creepy Walter Pierce, and Geordi finds a skellington! It's poor Marla Finn, missing since the Enterprise was built.

Worf, who once regarded mating with a deep sense of duty, now casts his eye on some cheap tart in blue... and it's NOT Troi!

When Deanna catches Worf and Ensign Tart in each other's arms, they just laugh at her.  Enraged, Troi grabs up a phaser and shoots Worf dead. She races to the nacelle... but before she can throw herself in, Worf wakes her up. That's right, it was all in Troi's imagination!

Pierce had a Betazoid grandmother, you see, and thus he left some ghost imprint behind when he killed Finn, her boy-toy and himself. An imprint that (until it killed Dan) no one empathic had ever noticed before... in eight years. Likely story.  Sorry, I sometimes forget to type "wildly un" before I type "likely".

"Eye of the Beholder" Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not an imaginary... oh wait.