This episode has two, entirely separate, story lines; on the Enterprise Lt. Commander Troi finds Beverly on duty on the bridge and starts to wonder about applying for promotion to Commander herself. This won't be easy; not only are the exams rigorous they are also administered by Riker
it might not be easy to be judged by a friend. Meanwhile Data is on a relatively primitive planet to retrieve radioactive parts from a crashed probe. Something has gone wrong though and he finds himself in a local village having lost his memory. Having no notion of beings from other worlds the locals quickly decide that he must be an 'Ice Man' as he comes from the north. He is befriended by Garvin and his daughter Gia, who gives him the name 'Jayden'. He pays his way with the radioactive metal fragments he was carrying and soon people start getting ill. He retains enough knowledge to research a cure but his task is made harder by a group of frightened natives who think he is the direct cause of their illness.
Of the two stories shown in this episode Data's is by far the more interesting; having him lose his memory in the way he did created an interesting situation as it meant his ignorance about the metal he was carrying is understandable but still had the scientific reasoning to find the cure. The community he visited was fairly typical of the series; a small community that is fairly friendly but also blames the outsider as soon as things go wrong. Brent Spiner does a fine job portraying Data; while he is noticeably not his normal self he is only subtly different in the way he behaves he still works logically through the problem and doesn't ignore the possibility that he may be the cause. Troi's story seems more of a time filler but it isn't without merit; there are some enjoyable scenes between Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes, as Troi's tests are supervised by Riker. The ending of this story was a little disappointing; Troi gains promotion when she realises that command may involve ordering people to certain death it would have been more interesting if she had declined to promotion when she realised this it would be nice to have a main character acknowledge that there are somethings they can't do rather than learning they can do whatever is required. Overall though a pretty good episode.
Of the two stories shown in this episode Data's is by far the more interesting; having him lose his memory in the way he did created an interesting situation as it meant his ignorance about the metal he was carrying is understandable but still had the scientific reasoning to find the cure. The community he visited was fairly typical of the series; a small community that is fairly friendly but also blames the outsider as soon as things go wrong. Brent Spiner does a fine job portraying Data; while he is noticeably not his normal self he is only subtly different in the way he behaves he still works logically through the problem and doesn't ignore the possibility that he may be the cause. Troi's story seems more of a time filler but it isn't without merit; there are some enjoyable scenes between Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes, as Troi's tests are supervised by Riker. The ending of this story was a little disappointing; Troi gains promotion when she realises that command may involve ordering people to certain death it would have been more interesting if she had declined to promotion when she realised this it would be nice to have a main character acknowledge that there are somethings they can't do rather than learning they can do whatever is required. Overall though a pretty good episode.
