The Next Phase is a rather enjoyable episode — if you manage to completely suspend disbelief. Otherwise, the implausibility of its premise will become too distracting to enjoy the acting, the pacing and the humor.

After the Enterprise has responded to the distress call of an experimental Romulan vessel, LaForge and Ensign Ro are seemingly killed in a transporter accident. There’s no time to mourn, however, because the Romulan vessel is moments away from blowing up, so the Enterpise crew set aside their shock and dismay in order to attend to the task at hand. They save the Romulan ship by jettisoning the engine core and then begin the task of repairing it for a return home.

But of course, Ro and LaForge are not dead. The problem, however, is that no one on the ship can see them. And, too, they are able to pass through bulkheads, tables, and even other crew members. Ro seems to think they are ghosts, in accordance with an archaic Bajoran legend. But LaForge, ever the pragmatist, believes there must be a scientific explanation for their predicament.

And as it turns out, LaForge is correct. He and Ro were caught up in a wacky Romulan experiment to cloak their ship by making it out of “phase” with the rest of the matter in the universe. But here’s the big problem: If LaForge and Ro are out of phase, and regular matter passes through them (or they through regular matter), why don’t they sink through the floors like they do the walls? Would gravity even have an effect on them? And what about breathing? LaForge says, when all is said and done, that they hadn’t eaten. So how did they breath?

There are just too many questions left open to believe the writers really thought through the concept. The thing is, though, if you can manage to suspend your disbelief a little more than usual, the episode is entertaining enough where the questions do not completely derail it.

For starters, there is the whole aspect of Data planning the funeral for his friend, LaForge. Planning a funeral is fun, you say? Well, yes — considering that the characters are, in fact, still alive, not to mention Data’s final solution. Trust me, it’s quite amusing.

Then you get Ro and Riker. Riker plans to say something about Ro at the funeral, but of course, he won’t say what that something actually is. Ro ends up blasting a Romulan disruptor between his eyes (harmlessly, of course). Good stuff.

The Next Phase is a fun, entertaining episode … if you can just get past the fact that it’s hopelessly contradictory and implausible.

Topics: Ensign Ro, Romulans
Filed under: TNG Reviews