[6.1/10] Compare “The Host” to “Half a Life”, its immediate predecessor. Both episodes feature couples falling in love in a short period of time. Both feature the pair breaking down over an unknown cultural practice that shocks one member of the couple. Both feature a tender reconciliation with the familiar character letting go of their guest star beau. They ought to feel similar.
But they don’t, because “Half a Life”, however quick its coupling, features a believable relationship between grown adults, and “The Host” plays like a couple of thirty-year-olds acting like smitten teenagers. So much of this episode is founded on the tangles and overpowering feeling of romantic connection between two people, but the realization scans as what a fourteen-year-old thinks love is like, rather than the genuine article.
It all but entirely sinks this outing for The Next Generation. Beverly grows infatuated with Odan, a visiting ambassador aboard the Enterprise to mediate a dispute between two alien worlds. The pair have a passionate romance and their veritable puppy love is going well until Odan’s hurt in a shuttle attack. He reveals that he’s a “joined being.” The real “him” is a symbiont within him. And Beverly has to grapple with the reveal that she’s in love with a giant tadpole.
That’s right! It’s the debut of the Trill! Odan doesn’t bear much resemblance to the Trill as we come to know them later in the franchise (no spots, big forehead bumps, and an aversion to transporters that are all whisked out of continuity), but the basic idea is there. As Deep Space 9 in particular would show us, there’s plenty of hay to be made from the concept of a being whose personality and identity depends, at least in part, on the space worm inside of them rather than the face we see.
This idea comes to the fore when Riker volunteers to be the temporary host for the symbiont until a proper Trill host can rendezvous with the Enterprise. Suddenly, someone who looks like a longtime colleague who’s like a brother to Crusher is calling her Dr. Beverly like her former paramour and expecting the two of them to pick up their relationship where they left off. The good doctor is understandably taken aback by this, and has to reckon with whether what attracted her to Odan was superficial or whether it’s something deeper about who he was regardless of what shell he’s inside at a given moment.
You can do a lot with that! It’s not surprising that Trans Trekkies latched onto the Trill. Much the same way Beverly’s son did in season 1’s otherwise execrable “The Dauphin”, she trouble accepting that the person she loves has a different, more complicated identity than she originally thought. Odan, on the other hand, tries to explain that he’s still the same person. His love for her is undiminished. And whatever’s on the outside, the things that made them fall in love are still the same. There’s room to grouse about the ending, but that’s a cool and prescient idea to explore.
The catch is that this “love” is so childish and overblown that it completely degrades everything TNG tries to do with that idea. In dialogue, Beverly writes off the idea that her bond with Odan is just infatuation, but we never really see anything deeper from them. There's no sense of the pair of confidantes or people who fit together in a particularly seamless way. We just see them making out and trying to find private time away from Data and flirting with one another. There’s nothing wrong with any of these things, but they’re not the basis for the sort of deep, abiding love necessary to support Beverley’s complicated feelings here once the show reveals Odan’s true nature.
Plus, god help me, the score here sandbags the entire endeavor. Every speech about love, every moment Beverly and Odan share together, is suffused with gooey strings and even a pan flute to try to sell the unearned emotions of these moments. They’re cheesy as hell, and given the paucity of good romance in the episode, feel misaligned with the level of passion the episode’s actually able to generate. Ultimately, you can’t compensate for weak chemistry, but scoring a mild dose of puppy love like it’s the greatest love story of all time just highlights the weakness of what the show’s put on display.
“The Host” fares a little better when it’s not strapped to this dud of a romance. Odan struggles to protect Riker’s body while stretching it just another to resolve the dispute between the contentious planets of the week. His determination matched with debilitation creates tension between the need to avert a war and preserve one man’s health and well-being. Likewise, Odan must convince the negotiating delegates that, despite occupying Riker’s body, he’s the same man who the delegates view as a good faith negotiator, giving him an opportunity to prove his bona fides whatever skin he’s in.
But time and again, the episode turns back to Beverly’s inability to reconcile her feelings for Odan with her tentativeness over him inhabiting a different body (her friend and colleague’s no less). There’s some wonky conversations about disclosure, some uncomfortable moments where Odan seemingly won’t take no for an answer, and a couple painfully bad scenes of desperate longing. Eventually, though, “Dr. Beverly”’s affections win out, and she and Odan have a passionate smooch despite the Trill’s new corporeal digs.
And yet, when the new host arrives, it’s a woman, and that’s too much for Beverly. The show plays it off in dialogue, as Dr. Crusher admitting her failings and an inability to cope with this sort of change. There’s something real and human about that, even if it too feels a little uncomfortable. But the scene where she sees Odan’s new body doesn’t read that way. Maybe we can’t expect too much from network television in 1991.
What we can expect, however, is a decent love story. There’s some pathos when Odan bids her would-be love goodbye in the final scene. But for the most part, it’s a tragic-ish end to a romantic pairing unworthy of the passion and devotion the show wants to imbue it with. It’s a shame that the rare Dr. Crusher focus episode reduces her to a schoolgirl crush and cliched “gal time” exchanges, rather than letting her have a mature, adult relationship and realizing the potential of the intriguing ideas at the center of “The Host”. The only saving grace is that TNG would welcome these notions into the Star Trek universe, paving the way for other, better episodes to take them and run with them, with much more convincing relationships and acceptance in the process.
This leaves all sorts of unanswered questions. Of course, the Trill introduced here is quite different from the ones we will come to know later and that can be explained away by all sorts of behind-the-scenes reasons, but within this very plain episode there are issues.
Riker takes on Odan as a human host (stretching believability to the extremes) so what happens to him? Does Riker just disappear? His personality doesn't seem to exist once he's got the symbiote inside him, so where is he? Does he have any influence over the Trill? Does he remember anything once it's taken out of him? DID WILL AND BEVERLY HAVE SEX?!
The ending has of course gone down in history as causing something of a stir among viewing audiences given the implied homosexuality. The only thing that shocks me is that Star Trek hasn't addressed this until this point and made it as commonplace as the many other social barriers it cut through. The scene is handled somewhat awkwardly, as if the writers were scared to speak plainly. Sure it was 1991, but the original series managed to laugh in the face of racism in the 1960s at the height of America's civil rights. It's telling and upsetting that fans were upset by any hint of it when you'd expect them to all be open minded and accepting, given that's the whole point of the show.
The episodes main failing, though, is that it doesn't feel romantic or genuine at all. The best scene in the episode for me actually turns out to be with Troi of all people, as she speaks fondly of her memories of her father. Quite beautiful.
How confusing for Beverley. This was, I think, the first inclusion of a Trill character. An interesting species, given a great story that was well acted; mannerisms carrying across 3 host bodies.
Damn doctor can’t keep her hands to herself for a measly 18hr till the new boyfriend body arrives? Stupid.
Also. Crusher is okay with banging her leech if it’s in her buddy Riker’s body. But leech moves to woman’s body and suddenly no banging desired? Freakin ay.
An “alien” with feelings s
I usually the Beverly centric episodes, but this one is kinda not my thing. I guess it's the human frailing, but I'm happy with that. I'd never be able to even touch someone the day Bev did to Will, given there "brotherly-sisterly" relationship.
Ignoring the obvious Riker awkwardness and questions of what happens to the host self prior to joining with the symbiont (doesn't seem like much joining if the previous self is relegated to backseat observation)... ignoring all that, there's Star Trek being inclusive and progressive again. One of the main reasons I love this franchise.
"Perhaps, someday, our ability to love won't be so limited." - Dr. Beverly Crusher (1991)
A decent episode, some Dr. Crusher stuff can be a bit hit/miss and this feels rather in line with the middle of the pack. Unfortunately the romance isn't as convincing despite the fun lead into the awkwardness of the the Dr. Crusher/Riker stuff. It feels largely half-baked mainly because the show insists on telling us rather than showing us how much the two love each other. Again it feels like a victim of TNG's firm attention to the standalone episode structure, as this show could have used more time to develop the characters' relationships than just what we had with them here.
Like Half a Life before it it tries to tackle the problems that come with romances between species and again, like Half a Life before it it's not the best executed episode of Trek ever. The episode raises questions as to how the Trill society functions - where do they get all their hosts from? and Dr. Crusher not being ready to accept Odan's new transformation into a woman feels much more like a step backwards rather than a step forwards for the character.
We did at least get the Trills' introduction though, which leads into Jadzia Dax showing up in Deep Space Nine as one of the franchise's best characters.
Shout by FinFanBlockedParentSpoilers2020-01-20T15:42:47Z
Aside from the introduction of the then very much different Trill this is a rather forgettable episode. And this comes from a Beverly fan who usually likes when she has screen time.
At the time the Trill were just another species amongst many and a means to deliver a story. Beverly falls in love with one without knowing what he really is. By the way, he reminded me a lot of Riva from season two. Putting the symbiont into Riker after an accident and later into a female Trill should supposedly raise questions about what it is we really love in a person. Maybe create even a little shock moment. While I find the question itself interesting it all just doesn't work. The romance here is just to soap-opera cheesy (which it always is), the dialogue so cringy, you can't help but role eyes. Odan's task of negotiating a peace between two opposing factions becomes completely insignificant.
Since pretty much nothing from the Trill, but the sheer concept, will carry over this is one episode that could be skipped.