Star Trek the Next Generation Episode Review: "Eye of the Beholder"

I had an opportunity to watch this episode while I was home for lunch earlier today. It was the first time I had actually seen this particular episode and, because of that, didn't know what to expect from it. But, as it turns out, it was actually quite good.

As I've said before, I'm a big fan of mysteries. And, the thing I liked about this episode is there wasn't just one mystery, there were actually three of them.

The original one, of course, was Lt. Kwan's suicide, which appeared to have no rhyme or reason to it. There were no indications of him showing signs of depression or even premeditating it, something that added quite a bit of suspicion about the reasons behind it from the start.

Then, when they discover evidence of a homicide from 8 years earlier, while the ship was being constructed, the mystery only grew. Not only was there a question about who was killed and had their remains hidden, there was also a question about how that death related to Lt. Kwan's death. The latter question was particularly intriguing because there was no evidence that connected him to the earlier incident.

I also considered the surprise Troi/Worf hook up as one of the mysteries from this episode. This was something I really wasn't expecting because it was never mentioned in any episodes that followed it. As a result, I wasn't sure if they hooked up and later realized it was a mistake or if it was something one of them was imagining. And, of course, if it was the latter, it also made me wonder if maybe it was something one of them actually wanted to have happen in real life.

In either case, their budding relationship in this episode turned out to be much more interesting than I expected, mostly because of Worf's indifference and Troi's growing jealousy afterwards. I wasn't sure how that was going to affect their ability to investigate or if it, in itself, was a major clue that would help them solve the mystery.

This was a surprisingly good episode that had some great mysteries that needed to be solved. I'm glad I had an opportunity to finally sit down and watch it.

My Grade: A