6.21 — “Frame of Mind”
Plot: Riker’s performance in a play about an inmate of an insane asylum may have led to him genuinely losing his mind. Or is his service on the Enterprise the delusion? What is the secret of Ward #47 of the Tilonus Institute for Mental Disorders?
Thoughts: And now, something different! I guess you would call the genre of this episode either horror or psychological thriller. Jonathan Frakes carries the action with what I believe is his best performance of the series so far. I congratulate him.
It’s hard to credit that the author of the teleplay, Brannon Braga, is the same writer responsible for the execrable “Aquiel” earlier in the season. This is genuinely creepy. I love all the misdirects and use of special effects. It all holds up in the end, too!
This is a worthy addition to the pantheon of Star Trek episodes set in asylums for the criminally insane, which include TOS 1.9, “Dagger of the Mind,” and TOS 3.14, “Whom Gods Destroy.” I guess the final cure for insanity that was discovered at the end of “Whom Gods Destroy” didn’t take? They also note in that episode that involuntary commitment for mental illness had become vanishingly rare in the 23rd century, which is why there are less than 10 patients in the asylum.
On a technical level, innovations in light and design make this episode exciting and timeless. I felt like it could be an episode of the new Star Trek series currently being developed by CBS.
4.5 out of 5 cuts on the cheek.
Leave a Reply