Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Man of the People (1992) User Reviews

It's okay if not taken too seriously

[snoozejonc · 5/10 · 1 November 2021]

Enterprise transports an ambassador to deal with two warring factions.

This is a mostly weak episode that has some redeeming aspects that save it from total disaster.

The basic premise within the story is a great idea taken from 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', but is unfortunately buried in a series of Star Trek clichés and plot contrivances. If you are not already sick of watching episodes where the Enterprise is caught between a fairly annoying negotiator and a mission to restore peace somewhere, you might be by the end of this one. Plus, if you are tired of crew members behaving out of character or going through physical transformations only to be fixed by the magic reset button 'Man of the People' has it all.

Now for some positivity. When Deanna Troi starts to behave out of character, she does so in a number of entertaining scenes. Easily my favourite is her counselling session with Ensign Janeway which is a well written escape from the structure of her usual character. Also fun, albeit exploitative towards Marina Sirtis, is Troi's brief, yet aggressive pursuit of sexual gratification. As ever when Troi goes through dark moments, Will Riker inevitably gets involved and his character is used to good effect.

Sirtis puts her heart into the performance and I think she does a great job of appearing both alluring and unhinged. She said she was going for the 'Mrs Robinson' approach to the role and I think she pulled it off.

Chip Lucia plays a relatively forgettable villain of the week, but to be fair to him the material is not the best. There is a lot of opportunity to explore the dual nature of seemingly benevolent high profile public figures, but it is largely missed due to poorly developed aspects of his negotiation role.

Thankfully, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, and Gates McFadden make best of their screen time and generally fill the episode with solid performances.

Visually it is a mixed bag. Sirtis lights up the screen in a number of well placed costumes, my favourite (strangely) being the Mok'bara gi. The makeup effects are not the best and are quite distracting.

This is a difficult episode to rate. It feels mostly bad and deserving of a very low rating due to a distinct lack of imagination, presumably caused by a rushed script. However, I think the few good scenes, performances, and the presence of some unintentionally funny moments (that I will not spoil), raise its entertainment value.

Something strange is happening to Troi

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 25 July 2015]

As this episode opens The Enterprise rescues Ambassador Ves Alkar and his elderly mother when the ship they were travelling on was attacked. His mother seems a little strange; as soon as she arrives she starts screaming at Counsellor Troi, warning her to stay away from her son! The ambassador was travelling to an important peace conference so the Enterprise is given the task of delivering him. Before they can get there the old woman dies and the Ambassador asks Troi to join him in the funeral rites for his mother. As she does something strange happens and afterwards she starts acting strangely; she is attracted to him but her advances are rebuffed; she then takes a crewman to her room and later claws Riker! Her behaviour mirrors that of the Ambassador's mother and both Riker and Dr Crusher wonder if she has caught whatever killed the old woman… unfortunately the Ambassador says his species beliefs forbid an autopsy. As time passes Troi's behaviour gets more extreme and she shows signs of aging… if she is to be saved Dr Crusher will have to find the cause but by now the Ambassador is engaged in the peace talks, which he refuses to return from.

This is a decent enough episode and it was nice to see Marina Sirtis's character, Troi, taking centre stage. The effects of her condition gave her the opportunity to act out of character. The aging effects were pretty good although her 'de-aging' at the end was far too fast to be believable; no doubt at the time this was made the effect was pretty cool but now it seems dated and unnecessary. Charles Lucia does a good job as the Ambassador; playing him in a way that doesn't make it too obvious that he is a villain despite his good intentions. Overall a solid enough episode but not a classic.

Deanna Troi goes rogue

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 26 November 2018]

More of those monsters from the Id are in this TNG episode as the Enterprise picks up Federation Ambassador Charles Lucia for a mediation job on another planet. Accompanying him on the trip is an aged woman identified as his mother.

But she dies as the trip gets started. She's old and haggard and has a warning to Deanna Troi about getting to close to her son.

Still Lucia is a charming guy and Marina Sirtis is drawn to him. But a very strange thing happens. I'm sure Marina Sirtis must have loved this episode giving her a chance to show a different view of Deanna Troi. First she turns into a raging nymphomaniac and then starts to age.

I can't do better than what another viewer said in that this was a TNG adaption of Dorian Grey with Marina Sirtis serving as a living painting for Lucia's Id type feelings.

Seeing a different Marina Sirtis makes this episode worthwhile viewing.

Dorian Grey

[russem31 · 28 April 2006]

ST:TNG:129 - "Man Of The People" (Stardate: 46071.6) - this is the 3rd episode of the 6th season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In what I dub the "Dorian Grey" episode, here we see the Enterprise come to the rescue of a ship called Dorian, which was attacked while transporting the Lumerian Ambassador Ramid Ves Alkar to peace talks. When his elderly "mother" dies, Counselor Troi consoles him by performing the "funeral rights".

In the process, Counslor Troi starts becoming very wicked and aging quickly. It turns out his negative emotions are empathically transferred to Troi thereby allowing him to remain serene and calm.

Can the Enterprise find a way to save Troi in another great 6th season episode? Note: Great use of suspense music by Dennis McCarthy. Patti Yasutake makes another appearance as Nurse Alyssa Ogawa.

Trivia: we see Worf's martial arts class again. We also see Troi doing crew evaluation reports with Riker. Also, Troi mentions "Imzadi" again to Riker.

What a jerk!

[thevacinstaller · 6/10 · 15 April 2021]

I am firmly a Beverly Crusher / Ro Laren man but Deanna Troi comes out swinging in this episode in an amazing nightie and glorious curly hair.

I think this episode was designed as an allegory to represent women staying with toxic men and the consequences that result from it? Is that correct? Maybe I am reaching with that interpretation.

Troi is the TNG punching bag and in this episode she is reduced to a energy thrall for the Ambassador and for some reason she really wants to get it on with crew members. Maybe to make the Ambassador jealous? Maybe so we can see Troi's bangin' body in a silk nightie?

It's an interesting idea for an episode but I end up just feeling bummed out that this Ambassador has enslaved a bunch of women and used them as energy sources. There's no real dilemma or conflict in this episode ---- This guy needs to die.

This episode is definitely not a fun time but I appreciate the attempt.

This guy has issues!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 26 November 2014]

When the show begins, Ambassador Alkar and his supposed mother are beamed aboard the Enterprise, as the ship is transporting him on some peace mission. However, his mother seems emotionally imbalanced and she soon dies. Oddly, soon Troi stars behaving irrationally--much like the dead mother. And, soon she begins aging very, very rapidly. Could Alkar have something to do with this change and what can be done to stop it?

This is an okay episode and clearly was inspired by Oscar Wilde's "Portrait of Dorian Gray" but with a very different sort of twist. However, it's not different enough to especially consider it a very good episode. Not terrible, mind you, just not among the better shows of season 6.

One of the Worse Episodes

[Foxbarking · 4/10 · 23 June 2013]

There is little to like about this episode other than how it ends and it is one of the most prototypical 'filler' episode.

This episode introduces Ambassador Alkar, a peace negotiator with a unique ability. He has the power to take all of his negative emotions and channel them through people with telepathic abilities. This channeling of emotions passes the negativity onto his victims, whom he so callously refers to as 'receptacles,' making them unpleasant, aging them rapidly and killing them. He justifies the entire process by claiming that the death of a receptacle is a small price for establishing peace between cultures.

While on the Enterprise, Alkar's receptacle, who he tells the crew is his mother, dies. He establishes a link with Troi, who immediately begins acting very angry. It takes only a couple days for Troi to age almost to her death. When Picard confronts Alkar, he is met with extreme egotism and false justification.

The only thing good that happens is at the end of the episode. Alkar is quite possibly one of the most vile characters ever on Star Trek. The only thing worse than his ability is the way he justifies it and still demands protection from Picard. When Dr. Crusher reverses what he does, there are very few moments in Star Trek as satisfying as when Alkar ages and dies within a minute as Worf watches. The only thing that hurts the viewer is that Worf is way to honorable to laugh at Alkar in Nelson Muntz style as he dies.

The Enterprise Women Have to Be More Careful About Hooking Up With Diplomats

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 7 September 2014]

Troi meets a handsome ambassador accompanied by what appears to be his mother. The mother is aggressive and vitriolic toward Deanna. When she dies, Troi participates in what is termed a funeral ritual, but in the process a sort of id impulse is transferred into her brain. She begins to act like a harlot, enticing men and becoming possessive of the ambassador. She is also beginning to age rapidly. It turns out that this guy has the ability to send his baser instincts to another person so that when he negotiates he is free of those negative things. The fact that the host dies doesn't seem to matter to him. He is manipulative and though good at negotiations, immoral. Picard tries to intervene, but there is a significant summit between to warring factions (isn't there always?) and he sees this as more important. Deanna lies, dying on an operating table, grey hair and wrinkles taking over. Interesting episode.

Again....

[ay6 · 5/10 · 27 June 2021]

Yet again, Troi is violated. The episode is fine, I guess. I'm just so tired of Troi being perpetually violated in so many episodes. I'm guessing this is yet more Rick Berman toxicity.

Best Troi Episode

[THines01 · 7/10 · 13 May 2021]

I liked this better than any other Troi-centric episode.

She does not cry, and is used in an unusual manner.

Although some of the makeup is badly applied, it can be forgiven.

The story is a little shallow, and the security team is weak in order to support the weak story. All-in-all, I stayed engaged with the entire episode.

Troi, the last iteration

[gilbertayres · 3/10 · 6 October 2018]

This is one of the worst. Troi becomes infested by, not the spirit of a dead woman, but something else entirely. I won't spoil it but what it is makes her extremely sexualized and she becomes horrid to everyone. As the episode goes on it becomes more stupid and yet oddly logically, the connections to Dorian Grey are apt. To a large extent, this episode isn't worth it.

A 24th century "Dorian Gray"

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 20 November 2014]

Chip Lucia is "Alkar", a Man of the People, an ambassador who seems just as apt as Howie Seago was in "loud as a whisper"..

But where the ambassador from "loud as a whisper" was a good and honest person who just happened to have a disability, Alkar is a cheater.

Alkar has his mother with him, who instantly and constantly accuses Counselor Troi of trying to hit on Alkar- which is partially true, she appeared to be attracted to him. And he to her, but after his mother dies suddenly, with arms outstretched in a hideous reach, he appears to tone down his interest.

He appears to be a concerned negotiator, and a good person. But then Counselor Troi starts undergoing some interesting changes. All we know is that she participated in some kind of funeral meditation with Alkar: which involved the use of two stones which were contained in an ironically coffin-shaped box.

This is interesting variation of "Dorian Gray"- whereas in that original story, the painting was the one that aged, in this rendition it is his "receptacle" that ages while he remains young and apparently free from stress.

Of course the enterprise crew can't figure out what the blazes is going on, but Dr. Crusher eventually pieces it together and discovers something about Alkar's mother that he was hiding.

This was a most interesting episode, and I can forgive the solution, where Troi De-Ages almost as quickly as she had aged- I don't think aging can be undone as easily as shown here, it would have been more correct for the healing to take several days. It did d make for some great special effects, though. The irony here was when Alkar had the tables turned on him, he ended up exactly as his "mother" had, with the same hideous grasping reach, arms outstretched as if demanding or pleading for something. Almost like a fish gasping for water, it was hideous and appropriate for Alkar.

Alkar seemed to have a unique ability, similar to Counselor Troi's, but in his case it was used to remove his undesired bad emotions from himself. Which would have been acceptable if he had a safe way of getting rid of those, but I would imagine that any form of self improvement that has a cost of trivializing or causing harm to another person, is not much of a self-improvement.

Look for Chip Lucia in the Voyager episode "Alliances", where he plays a similar character.

That's be honest here

[GoldenGooner04 · 6/10 · 17 March 2022]

Marina Sirtis is a rather average actress, so as it's her turn yet again for the "me episode" as she can't act, we look at her beauty and using her body and that scene where she shows her bobbies in that pink thin dress, that is all they have, mind you i am not complaining about them but come on, One of the worst episodes ever, they used to moan about the skirts the women wore in TOS, but this is 100 times worse.

The Ick Level is Strong on This Episode

[zombiemockingbird · 1/10 · 13 April 2023]

Why does everything happen to Troi? I guess the actual premise of the story was kind of interesting; someone channeling their negative emotions, thoughts, urges, into a 'receptacle' so they don't impede his abilities to negotiate peace. Problem is, he's using women as his receptacle, against their will, and it eventually kills them. From the way Troi behaved, like some maniacal sex deviant, all of Ambassador Alkar's negativity was sexual urges. So, the whole story boils down to watching Troi seduce everyone, age about 10 years every hour or so, and as she gets older turn into a jealous, mean, screaming harpy. Cringeworthy to the max. It was extremely satisfying watching Alkar die at the end; unfortunately, it didn't happen soon enough.

"I won't let her have you. I'll stop you!"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 14 March 2024]

It seems as if Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) meets with trouble each time she becomes the focus of an episode. It happened in the fourth season story 'The Loss', when she lost her empathic powers and could no longer sense what other crew members were feeling. Considering herself disabled, she dramatically offered to resign her position, not even giving herself a chance to find out if her condition was temporary, as suggested by Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden). This time, she's put into a sort of trance when Lumerian Ambassador Ves Alkar (Charles Lucia) has her focus on a meditation stone to honor the death of his purported mother, Sev Maylor (Susan French). Purported, because what Alkar really did was use the Counselor as a 'receptacle' for his unwanted dark emotions so he could pursue peace negotiations between alien races from Rekag and Seronia, unencumbered by negativity and pessimism. In addition to Troi taking on the unfavorable characteristics of Alkar's 'mother', she also began aging at a considerable rate, challenging the makeup crew to make her look like a respectable version of an older person. A first look at the older Troi was actually quite shocking, and combined with the negative emotions that came with the transition, she became one nasty person. Understandably, and quite expectedly, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) would forcefully challenge the Lumerian ambassador to restore the Counselor's personality, but when he refused, the Captain allowed Dr. Crusher to perform an autopsy on Sev Maylor in violation of Lumerian custom to see if there was some common link to cause Troi's aberration. It turns out that the meditation stone was Alkar's modus operandi whenever he need to enter sensitive negotiations, the victim be damned in pursuit of his self defined noble goals. His 'mother' was just such another victim, and not related to him at all. Upon making the connection to the neurotransmitter residue in both Counselor Troi and Sev Maylor, Dr. Crusher applied a hyperspray of cordrazine to reverse the aging and alienating effects of Alkar's stone, creating a huge reversal of fortune for the ambassador. Apparently, the script writers left the fate of the hostile Rekaginas and Seronians to work it out for themselves.

Weird Values / Gross Premise

[Samuel-Shovel · 2/10 · 2 June 2020]

In "Man of the People" a diplomat charged with ending a civil war on a planet on an important Federation trade route uses Troi's body as a waste receptacle for all of his distracting, hateful, lustful, and violent emotions so that he can focus on the duty at hand. This causes Troi to age rapidly, exhibit mood swings, and start to wither away before the crew's eyes. Picard & Co. must figure out a way to reverse these affects before it is too late.

I can kind of see where they were going with this one with the Dorian Gray analog but there are too many issues here in the script. I know that they had to scramble just to get this thing finished so I guess I can forgive them for that... But the focus on Troi's lustful antics is pretty gross. There's nothing wrong with having sexual urges, yet the script shames Troi for her behavior. I hate it. They could have easily focused on her anger or her less-than-great advice she's giving as counselor; instead they just use her character as a sexual object. It's awful. It really shows the values of some of these sci-fi writers...

Truly terrible

[ebeckstr-1 · 3/10 · 2 February 2023]

I love this show, saw the whole thing first run and have watched it repeatedly since. Nonetheless, this is one of the worst episodes of any series I've ever seen. As others have noted, we again have a plot in which Troi is violated. But even setting aside the misogynistic aspects of this episode it is poorly written, lacks internal logic, and has an eye-rolling by the numbers climactic run to the finish. And if you're willing to set aside all those issues, it's still just a dumb episode. IMDb is insisting I add another hundred and three characters but I have nothing more to add. 16 to go......

REVIEW 2022

[iamirwar · 5/10 · 23 September 2022]

Rekag-Seronia, a transport ship has been attacked. The Enterprise is on its way to sort things out. It's noticeable in this early scenes that we don't see any action. Whatever's going on out there, we only have Data's word for it. Ambassador Ves Alkar has brought his mother with him, but she's not happy.

This story is clearly going to revolve around Deanna Troi and her love-kins feeling for the Ambassador.

There is no question that Deanna (Marina Sirtis) is lovely. She's from London you know. I haven't seen her in her teil-dress for a while. I cannot remember ever seeing her in anything else, although I am aware that she did appear in a number of shows on both sides of the pond.

Sadly, I have fazed out of this story. The only interesting scene was Troi chewing out Ensign Janeway. Troi's observations here were actually very much on-point. Straighten up and fly right, that's what she's saying.

There are elements of this story that have already been visited before on TNG... the warring factions, rapid aging, the mind control and peace talks. What happened to Deanna?

Pictures of Dorian Grey, perhaps?

We've pulled into the pits...

This Episodes Clue: Margaret Marshall - (Answer's to all episode clues will appear in the reviews of season seven, episode 25: All Good Things, Part One.)

Marina Sirtis finally gets to act!

[Wes54 · 3/10 · 25 June 2019]

Unfortunately, most of it is that of a sex-starved nimpho.

Will Riker, Deanna's Imzadi (Soul mate), ignores her cries for help, and runs away like a frightened kid.

It's up to Beverly to figure out what's going on, but she has to beg Picard to let her do anything. Even then, Beverly has to kill Deanna to save her life.

I don't understand why a flood of negative emotions made Troi want to have sex all the time.

Nor do I understand why the Enterprise crew was content to let Ambassador Alkor die, as if that was enough to keep millions of his people from preying on the entire galaxy.

A Senior Trekker writes....................

[celineduchain · 5/10 · 20 February 2022]

The Golden Age of Star Trek: we had the 6th Season of The Next Generation and the 1st Season of Deep Space Nice on our televisions, Generations on view in our cinemas and First Contact due out soon. This season of TNG contains some excellent stand-alone episodes and several spectacular two-parters, with only the occasional make-weight. Despite the length of time it had already been on the air, it still represents some of the highest standard of television Science Fiction ever broadcast.

This is a very good Science Fiction story if you can get over the idea that Counsellor Troi is going to get her mind taken over AGAIN. This time she gets to play a sexually aggressive harridan who insults her patients and then begins to age rapidly. Apparently, it's all because she agreed to perform a weird ceremony with a guest alien who then used her as a receptacle for all his "negativeness" so that he could concentrate on his mission to bring about world peace. Stay with me here.

The alien mediator, Jarth, who sports a light tattoo instead of the usual latex forehead, was played by Rick Scarry, who made a very convincing villain in that he sincerely believed he was doing great deeds on a planetary scale and couldn't comprehend Picard's squeamishness over the occasional bit of collateral damage. The woman that he introduced as his mother (actually his previous girlfriend/receptacle) was played by 80 year old screen veteran Susan French. She gave us such intense suspicious-minded venom in her brief scenes that she perfectly foreshadowed Counsellor Troi's ultimate fate.

Blink and you'll miss him but Admiral Simons was played by George Wallace, Commander Cody of 1952's Radar Men From the Moon; confirming him as a legendary television Science Fiction hero who predated the Kirk and Spock era by more than a decade.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.