O where to begin? Cost of Living is an utter trainwreck of an episode. While the acting is barely tolerable, the premise, the story, the execution of that story … they are all unconscionably awful. About all that saves this episode is its central theme of the conflict between reconciling the need for rules with the need to live life to its fullest. But the episode is so awkward, so cringeworthy, that its message is buried in a mud bath of contrivance and sheer stupidity.

There are three storylines in this episode, and none of them are note worthy. Within the 44 minutes of screen time, we have to contend with a space bacteria, Worf’s conflicts with Alexander, and Lwaxana’s marriage. The space-bacteria story is might be the easiest to digest. But then again, we get to see the bacteria’s excrement as it digests portions of the Enterprise‘s metals. There may have been an opportunity to use Worf and Alexander’s spats finally get this father-son story arc on track. But then again, Lwaxana meddles with everything so it, too, resembles excrement. And the story of Lwaxana’s marriage is excrement, pure and simple.

No wonder this episode stinks.

The most notable scenes from the episode (or is that the scenes with the most notoriety?) are those on the Holodeck’s simulation of the Parallax colony — a pseudo-hedonistic society where every one does what every wants to do. Perhaps it was intended to be a quirky, surrealistic allegory for an aspect of human psychology, but its presentation is simply laughable, and not in a good way.

For starters, we get some silly-looking beach ball bubble head that’s supposed to be a sentry for the colony, only permitting those with “joyful” hearts. But as Worf demonstrates, in one of the episode’s most amusing scenes, the bubble can be burst with a well-placed swat. Then we get a flame sculptor, a juggler of “worlds,” a yellow philosopher with a beer belly (yes, I said yellow, as in “Simpsons” yellow), and a mostly-naked dancer. Any purpose these characters may have been meant to serve is lost because they are simply too silly to be taken seriously.

Of course, we’re there because Lwaxana has pushed her way in the middle of a conflict between Worf and Alexander. Deanna had been attempting to mediate the two, but I guess Lwaxana had to one-up her daughter by interfering. Granted, Deanna giving parental advice is like me giving Patrick Stewart acting advice, but still … why does Lwaxana have to butt in? Yes, she’s trying to demonstrate how life is meant to be lived to its fullest, but neither she, nor the episode really, acknowledge the inherent shortsightedness of living life purely for instant gratification. And no, the juggler eating his “worlds” is not enough of an example of this.

To make matters even worse, Lwaxana has made the mistake of deciding to marry someone she has never met. Deciding to marry someone she (for all intents and purposes) met “online” isn’t the mistake. Rather, it’s that she’s rushed into it without actually bothering to get to know her intended spouse. They exchange profiles and that’s it. The two are so completely opposite that even a simple conversation would have revealed the obvious.

And it all leads to Lwaxana, once again, expressing how lonely she is. That character revelation was handled exceptionally well in Half a Life. Not so here. Instead, we get this silly marriage in which Lwaxana shows up late, and naked, to her own wedding, just to piss off the guy who did nothing other than commit the same mistake she did.

And the final scene, with Worf in the mud bath?

Moronic.

And that just about sums up Cost of Living. The idea of the conflict between rules and desires is an interesting one. And it deserved a sincere, thoughtful episode. And not this pile of … mud.

Topics: Lwaxana Troi
Filed under: TNG Reviews