Violations is an embarrassment for TNG. It’s writing, directing, production, acting and even its music are atrocious. And its premise is a very poor choice for episodic television.

The episode is about a race of “telepathic historians” called the Ulians. They are these people with distractingly freaky eczema above their ears who are, well, telepathic — but only when they close their eyes, place their two forefingers at the sides of their heads (maybe the eczema has some super sci-fi properties) and scrunch up their faces to make it look like they are concentrating really, really hard. They use their powers to “excavate” memories from within their vict — er subjects.

There is a family of them. Older parents and a middle-aged son. The father likes putting down his son. The son likes taking out his aggressions on helpless victims by way of a telepathic rape. It seems he gets some measure of power from this. And his victims are left in a coma.

Troi is the first victim and we get to see her in all her “MAKE IT STOP [face_cry]” glory. Again. As if TNG *really* needed another “Troi is in, like, mega-telepathic pain” scene. And yet, here it is. Apparently Jev (that’s the insecure son’s name) thought she was cute enough (or maybe threat enough) to attack and leave as a vegetable.

Riker investigates. He pisses off Jev. And so Jev “rapes” him, too. Dr. Crusher investigates, figures out something is fishy. And so Jev “rapes” her, too. And then Picard is stupid enough not to know, for certain, that these Ulians are not behind the sudden, unexplained comas of three officers?

And really, what is the point of confining three telepaths to their quarters?

The rape scenes themselves are just plain awful. They use pointless camera angles, haze, voice effects and repetition to make them seem unreal, or perhaps other-worldly. And the music is a pure cacophony of cliché. Maybe all of this was supposed to heighten the tension. It didn’t. The result is pure embarrassment. Jev’s sudden, and hardly suspenseful, appearances in these sequences elicit mocking laughter, rather than revulsion or outrage.

Violations wanted, in the worst way (literally), to be taken seriously. The concepts of rape, of violation, for personal power are as profound as they are sensitive. And, ultimately, that is the biggest indictment of this episode. Rape, in any form, is horrific enough. But instead of treating the subject matter with a degree of sensitivity, even of respect, Violations is a clumsy, incompetent attempt at turning the idea into a quasi-pulp horror story.

Which means that Picard’s little speech at the end, about the seeds of evil within us all, is hollow and insincere. Picard is right, of course. And it is an absolutely valid, and important, concept. But tacking on the speech at the end of such drivel, is painfully pretentious.

Violations is easily one of the worst episodes in the series. Difficult to watch. Distracting. Misguided. Pathetic.

Filed under: TNG Reviews