Coming after one of the best episodes yet, this one is plain old stupid. Kind of a shame.
An episode with two plot lines that are both not strong enough to support an episode on their own. Two mediocre plots combined won't make this a good episode. I suspect that auch episodes are unavoidable when you are tasked with producing 25 episodes per year.
This was pretty bad but again the story Picard tells Wesley will become important later
I always considered this to be more of a filler episode who's real value lies in the background info about Picard. The Pakleds are funny in a way but didn't provide much of a challenge ultimately. Even on watching it for the first time it seemed unlikely that something might happen to either Picard or LaForge. Of course that is quite often the case if you put principal characters in dangerous situations so it depends on the writing. Which isn't the best. But since not every episode can be a "10" it's fine.
Personally I struggle with this episode because it again showed me why I didn't like Dr. Pulaski. But that made Picards reaction towards her so much better.
An afterthought: At the beginning when the Enterprise recieved the distress call they were concerned about putting distance between them and the Captain. Why ? They didn't know about the procedure and Riker should have been more than capable to deal with the matter at hand.
Would have liked to see Sonya Gomez as a more recurring character as she seemed to fit in very well
Shout by SimonBlockedParentSpoilers2015-08-29T22:06:55Z
Crimson Shield - good plot LOL. Interesting back story to Picard; love the recovery time to major surgery too, a mere 4hrs!!