I find powerful the same parts you do, the problem is they came in and fucked it all up with a cheesy heavyhanded alien metaphor. Ultimately it took away the real emotion and just left me with disappointment.

I feel like you may just be remembering the COMPLAINTS and accusations about the racism suggested by Geordi's love life, but it's certainly possible!

Ha! You don't know the MEANING of late to the party!

I agree with your sentiment but not your take on the episode. In fact, I had to laugh at it, because I shared your initial pleasure at "a quiet hour of reflection on loss and how to respond to it". Despite my instinctive cringe at the inevitable weak child actor, the gravity of the situation made it real as soon as…

And yet, that was actually his most convincing scene, when the adults were talking over his head…

Why IS this freakin kid still staying alone in his quarters? Didn't mom have any friends who can stay with him? Didn't HE have any friends he can stay with? Is an empty room on the Enterprise really so safe and nurturing that it's the best place to leave a grieving child?

And just because she can actually, you know, do her job well and put her abilities to good use, doesn't make her perfect. She can break down a problem and recommend a solution, but she can't snap her fingers and fix somebody's head. She can talk but she can't always make someone listen. I loved Sirtis acting with Dorn…

"Come on Geordi, touch my booby cleavers like you touch my engines!" "Oh yeah, I'll tou-wait, did you say booby *cleavage*?" "…Yep!"

I believe Voyager is more of a scouting and exploration ship, but at any rate, "Farpoint" implies putting families on starships is a very new thing, and "Caretaker" implies they gave up on that idea, so I'm gonna call it a fluke of Enterprise-D's particular decade of Starfleet life.

Worth it for 7 always using her full name. For some reason that just cracks me up every time. I'm a simple man.

Emperor Jim's posts have all disappeared! I enjoyed him from DS9 reviews. So sad.

Mom was intentionally creepy I'm sure. Kid added quite the UNintentional dose of creepiness.

Apparently it was right after Riker "impresses" Q by asking to beam over to the alien/ship. No explanation of where it came from.

I think the issue here is that during a crisis (especially one involving power drains) is not the time to be indulging in your fantasies while conveniently omitting those details from the Captain - clearly Geordi, at least, feels like it's something he'd rather not mention. But whatever, he got the job done.

Zack seems to make too much of holodeck self-awareness. I've peeked into the future at his DS9 reviews and the reaction to Vic Fontaine is hilarious. The line between simulating the responses a real person would give and actually being a real person is a blurry one, but one the computer threw together quickly based on…

I got the sense, based on her earlier comments, that she was actually speaking as Leah there, so every time Geordi worked on the engines she designed, she was connected to him in spirit. But you could definitely read it either way.

That's not true, he could learn it but then forget it. Klingons have thick skulls, there's not much room for memory in there.

I loved the little bulging eyes look he gave Jeremy at the end of this one. The one that says "good job", and also "I'm so excited I'm doing Klingon shit I have a bit of an erection".

I think of the Magic card Booby Trap. Original Tempest edition, 1997, rare. Deals 10 damage to the opponent when s/he draws the wrong card! That's half your life!

I don't remember anything else in that animals calendar I had when I was 8, but I remember the blue-footed booby.