Silicon Avatar is a poorly contrived and unevenly executed episode that revolves around a tenuous continuity reference back to season one’s Datalore. There are some decent moments but, for the most part, the episode is average at best.

The premise of the episode centers on the Crystalline Entity first encountered in Datalore. As we learned in Datalore, the Entity is a sentient being that “feeds” by absorbing all the life on a planet. Silicon Avatar begins on a lush planet, in the process of being colonized. And so when the Entity arrives, we know the danger it poses. With the Enterprise is some distance away from the fledging colony, but on the planet surface with the colonists are Data, Dr. Crusher, and Riker, who is smitten with love for one of the colonists.

During the attack, Riker’s love interest and the elderly man she was trying to assist are killed. The rest of the survivors seek shelter in some caves, which contain some unusual properties. Because of the cave’s unusual properties, the survivors are protected from the attack and the Enterprise soon arrives to rescue them. With everyone safely on-board, the Enterprise brings on board an expert on the Entity, one Dr. Marr, and sets off to track it down.

The effect of all this is to project the idea that someone thought it might be “cool” to bring back the Crystalline Entity and then construct a story around a second encounter with it. And while I agree that the notion of returning to previous episodes to provide a measure of continuity is a good idea, the concept for Silicon Avatar just doesn’t work very well.

For starters, Dr. Marr is an Ahab figure — sort of. It just so happens that her son was a member of the Omicron Theta colony. And so she has dedicated her life to studying it. But it is more than just dedication. It is obsession. And revenge. And her character plays out as bizarrely psychotic, rather than projecting any semblance of sympathy to her plight. And, too, the episode fails to capture the essence of the tragic, obsessive life of revenge that we saw in Moby Dick. And so the parallel is more of a distraction than a source of interest. And rather than a success, the story fails.

Add to all of this Dr. Marr’s fixation on Data. At first she is completely prejudiced against him. Then, she dotes on him after realize that Data is programmed with her son’s journals and memories. The scene in which Data recounts one of her son’s journal entries was probably intended to be touching. But it was creepy and awkward, instead.

What credit the episode receives comes from Data’s performance (strong, as usual) as well as its uncharacteristic end. Just as the Enterprise is beginning to establish an actual communication with the Entity, Dr. Marr sets up a pulsating beam that resonates the crystalline structure to the point of shattering and destroying the Entity. Dr. Marr’s crew is forfeit. And the potential scientific gain has been lost forever. The lesson is clear: revenge ends with a loss for all.

If only the character of Dr. Marr had been more compelling, the ending would have been all the more compelling as well.

Oh, and Riker had yet another moment of emotions getting the better of him. This time there was at least some reason for it. But Riker’s character seems to be regressing.

Silicon Avatar gets credit for its focus on continuity. But its overall story and character depictions just seem disingenuous. I can see fans enjoying the references to Datalore, but on the whole the episode is forgettable.

Topics: Crystalline Entity
Filed under: TNG Reviews