'Schisms' starts off with a poetry reading from Data where he shares a charming verse about his cat that evokes eye-rolls and yawns from the erudite Enterprise crew, but then enters the realm of mystery when Riker and other crew members are having problems with sleep (reminiscent of 'Night Terrors'), questions begin to arise.
Some problems with Jordy's visor, Data's internal chronometer, a weird glowing plasma conduit in cargo bay 4 plus a lot of jargon about tetryon particles, and, most importantly, some similar complaints to Troi of odd reactions to ordinary objects, lead to a possibly sinister mystery.
An effective scene occurs in the holodeck (using a perspective of the room I had never seen) where some of the affected crew (Riker, Worf, Jordy and Kaminer) transform an ordinary conference table into a spooky-looking torture device. While it is odd how vague general commands to the computer result in some very specific additions to the table (aforementioned Kaminer asks for a double-jointed swing-arm a meter long, and a detailed electronic device appears). As a result, they conclude that they have all been there before.
Eventually, they gather enough clues (Will Riker's arm had been severed and reattached, for one) to realize that crew members are being kidnapped having horrible things done to their bodies!
This is a very good episode. My only real gripe is the conclusion. When the episode reached resolution, I was disappointed by the whole experience. I understand budgetary limitations, but I believe some clever editing and lighting and a maybe a completely different approach to the scene would have been more satisfying. Nevertheless, this is a solid episode that would definitely fall into the 'creepy' category.
Some problems with Jordy's visor, Data's internal chronometer, a weird glowing plasma conduit in cargo bay 4 plus a lot of jargon about tetryon particles, and, most importantly, some similar complaints to Troi of odd reactions to ordinary objects, lead to a possibly sinister mystery.
An effective scene occurs in the holodeck (using a perspective of the room I had never seen) where some of the affected crew (Riker, Worf, Jordy and Kaminer) transform an ordinary conference table into a spooky-looking torture device. While it is odd how vague general commands to the computer result in some very specific additions to the table (aforementioned Kaminer asks for a double-jointed swing-arm a meter long, and a detailed electronic device appears). As a result, they conclude that they have all been there before.
Eventually, they gather enough clues (Will Riker's arm had been severed and reattached, for one) to realize that crew members are being kidnapped having horrible things done to their bodies!
This is a very good episode. My only real gripe is the conclusion. When the episode reached resolution, I was disappointed by the whole experience. I understand budgetary limitations, but I believe some clever editing and lighting and a maybe a completely different approach to the scene would have been more satisfying. Nevertheless, this is a solid episode that would definitely fall into the 'creepy' category.