The Host is an episode works — but only up to a point. From there the story becomes inexplicable in its direction and concept. And, ultimately, it sabotages what could have been a solid, yet highly unusual, episode.

The story revolves around Dr. Crusher falling in love with an Ambassador, by the name of Odan, who is enroute to mediate two factions on the brink of war. Unlike Riva, from Loud as a Whisper, Odan is an engaging, charming and plausible character. With just one problem. The Odan we see is merely a host body for an alien species called the Trill — a symbiont that looks rather like a large iridescent slug.

Of course, Dr. Crusher (affectionately called Dr. Beverly by Odan and, therefore, by me for the rest of this review) is completely unaware of Odan’s true nature. Thus she is, quite completely, swept off her feet by the passionate romance she and Odan share. The romance itself is enjoyable to watch. Dr. Beverly, as usual, gives a subtle, yet very compelling performance. And Odan’s performance is convincing, as well. It’s easy to believe that these two people are deeply in love with one another — it is far more plausible than the romance we saw between Troi and Devinoni Ral in The Price. And watching them attempt to see each other as much as possible, while trying to keep their interactions private, provides some rather humorous sequences — particularly when you throw in Data’s naive attempts to work with the couple to prepare for the mission.

The whole thing comes crashing down to earth after an attack on Odan’s shuttle leaves him critically injured. In sick bay, Dr. Beverly learns about Odan’s true nature — a revelation that is, as one would imagine, incredibly shocking to her. The whole thing plays out as creepy and disturbing — in a good way. And yet, Dr. Beverly never lets the revelation keep her from doing her job. In fact, as she tends to Odan her it is clear that her feelings remain strongly intact.

As it turns out, Odan’s host is unable to survive and she must remove the Trill from the body while a new host is sent from the home planet. There is a problem, however. The Trill can only survive for a couple of hours without a host, and the new host is almost 40 hours away. Add in the imminent outbreak of war and the tensions have been skillfully heightened by the episode.

Enter Will Riker. He volunteers to play host to Odan — to save the Trill’s life and to complete the mission. Dr. Beverly performs the procedure and when Riker awakens, he is the embodiment of Odan. The sequences that follow concerning the negotiations for peace are all handled quite well. Riker’s body begins to reject the Trill and so Odan-as-Riker must fight rapidly deteriorating health in order to succeed. And they do — with the help of Dr. Beverly’s ministrations. What makes it all the more believable is Odan’s sincere concern for Riker’s physical health. Unfortunately, this is just a subplot and the main plot causes the plausibility of the episode to completely fail.

Odan-as-Riker’s feelings toward Dr. Beverly remain entirely unchanged. And he is sincere in wanting to reconnect with Dr. Beverly, to explain what has happened and to, hopefully, find some way to continue the relationship. The plausibility works all the way through Odan’s explanation of why he never told Dr. Beverly about his condition: “Did you ever tell me that you were a single entity? No, because that is just who you are. This is simply who I am, so it never occurred to me to tell you.” The explanation is believable. As is Dr. Beverly’s reactions of confusion and disappointment and hurt.

But Odan doesn’t stop there with his efforts. He continues to pursue Dr. Beverly, despite being temporarily trapped in Riker’s body. And so Dr. Beverly is forced to confront a dilemma: does she accept Odan, regardless of his host body? Or does she reject the legitimate feelings of love she had developed? She sees Riker as a friend, almost a brother, even. And yet, her feelings for the personality, the person, of Odan are very real. And here is where the episode takes a hard right turn into inexplicability. Troi actually tells Dr. Beverly to give in to her feelings and accept Odan-as-Riker. Dr. Beverly ends up doing so. And the two share a heavily implied moment of intimacy.

Huh?

The urgency of these sequences would have made sense if Odan-as-Riker was going to be a more permanent arrangement. But apparently, everyone, from Troi, to Dr. Beverly, to Odan, has sudden forgotten that the dilemma of Odan-as-Riker is temporary — barely more than a day and a half, no less! It is thoroughly preposterous for these characters to be acting as if this is a dilemma that has to be solved right now — not when Odan is going to be experiencing yet another change of hosts within just over a day. Could they have not waited? Why didn’t this obvious, and rather significant fact, enter into anyone’s thoughts?

And to go a step further: What about Riker himself? He volunteered to place host to Odan, to save Odan’s life and to complete the mission. But he didn’t volunteer to be used as an instrument of Odan’s and Dr. Beverly’s lust and love. He never gave consent. Not that Riker would, necessarily, complain, but had the gender roles been reversed — had the host been Dr. Beverly and had Riker been the one in love — what would people say about the circumstances of Riker using Dr. Beverly’s body? It opens the door to incredibly complex, and very serious, moral, ethical and even legal questions. And one cannot claim that Odan only saw Riker as another host — just as he perceived his original host — because Odan makes explicit references to the health of Riker’s body. This is, simply, one of the most boneheaded and dangerous decisions the series ever makes.

And then they make another unforgivable mistake. Predictably, Odan’s new host is female. Presenting a whole slew of new questions. And yet, the episode completely abandons those questions. Dr. Beverly outright rejects the female host, not because she is female, but because Dr. Beverly “cannot keep up” with the host changes — even though Dr. Beverly knew all along (ever since the accident) that this change was going to happen, that Odan-as-Riker was temporary. The episode completely (and quite cowardly) ignores the very real, and legitimate, reason why Dr. Beverly would reject a female Odan: Dr. Beverly simply is not attracted to females. That isn’t a politically incorrect circumstance. It shouldn’t have been avoided.

And then Odan-as-female (I’ll just call her O-Donna) unemotionally, and without argument, accepts Dr. Beverly’s decision. This, following scene-after-scene of Odan-as-Riker pursuing Dr. Beverly, pledging utter love and devotion and commitment to making things work. It is a thoroughly insincere ending — which is, I suppose, appropriate considering the direction the episode ended up taking.

The Host starts off as an acceptable, if unusual, episode. And then it completely falls apart. It opens far too many questions. Creates way too many problems. And it all could have been avoided.

Filed under: TNG Reviews