Although we are done with STNG and are now in the Delta Quadrant with Voyager, that doesn’t mean you can’t go back and catch up on the episodes you missed. You can find the rest here!
A wedding, a rebellious child and a space parasite. What could go wrong? Originally airing on April 20, 1992, this is The Cost of Living.
The Episode:
Stardate 45733.6 Cost of Living
Lwaxana Troi comes aboard to hold her wedding ceremony and bonds with Alexander. Meanwhile, the ship begins to experience strange unexplained breakdowns.
The Breakdown:
Story A: How Lwaxana Got Her inertia Back
After destroying a rogue asteroid a strange dust settles on the ship. As the ship continues on Worf is dealing with a misbehaving son and Lwaxana shows up, much to Deanna’s surprise, announcing her upcoming wedding. Much to Worf’s dismay, Lwaxana bonds with his son and disrupts much of his work with his sons discipline issues.
Lwaxana takes Alexander to the holodeck, without permission, and this causes him to be late to meet with Deanna Troi. They discover him missing and soon find them in the holodeck enjoying a mud bath in a strange fantasy setting.
As it turns out, Lwaxana is using Alexander as a distraction from her wedding. She is not happy about the arrangement but feels that, should she not go through with it, she will not ever get a chance to be married again. Despite her insistence that Alexander should be free and happy, she is not following her own advice in the matter and that is bothering her horribly. It appears that she met her husband-to-be via a compatibility program, basically Space Tinder, and she finds herself not pleased with him in person.Through the course of the episode she finds her youth through her time with Alexander and, ultimately decides that if her new Fiance doesn’t want her as she is then he can’t have her at all. She ends the episode still single and looking to live life to the fullest.
Story B: Space Parasite
The space dust has invaded the ship and is essentially eating parts of the ship, causing malfunctions throughout. Geordi and Data rush to find the solution to the issue before the ship is placed in further danger. They find the creature and flush it out using, nitrium, it’s favorite food.
Is this a ‘Good’ Episode:
This is very much a fluff episode and, while Lwaxana has a tendency to be annoying in many of her appearances, she really shines in this one. This is basically the story of how Lwaxana finds herself again and it uses the show setting to push that story forward.
The secondary story about the parasite is a good threat but not enough to carry the entire episode itself. Everyone does a marvelous job in this one, there is just not much in the name of substance, but I guess you are bound to run into one of these a few times with how many episodes these season have.
Is it good? eh, it was fun.
Gleanings and Cool Bits:
We learn about a space parasite that eats Nitrium.
We get to see Worf actually relax in a mud bath.
I have nothing else, this was a wash of an episode. let’s move on shall we?
Thanks for reading the Retro TV Review, I look forward to discussing the rest of the series with you, one episode at a time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday! Next Review: The Perfect Mate
If you would like to read more reviews I have a weekly series called Key Movies Of My Life that comes out every Thursday and for more retro TV goodness check out the rest of the Retro TV Reviews here.
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Late To The Game 4/11/2020 (Originally published 10/3/2018)
Apparently the blew their budget and went with the ‘Long Earlobe Aliens’ in this episode.
Special Thanks to Memory Alpha as they are one of the best sources for details on Star Trek information available. Although I have a pretty deep knowledge on the subject, they have proven invaluable as a regular resource.
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