Content Warning: The following discusses rape and sexual assault.

Season five happens to feature one of my least favorite episodes in TNG. While “Violations” is not quite as cringe-worthy as “Code of Honor,” it remains an episode that takes on a serious issue and falls flat. Plot-wise, “Violations” shapes up to be a “whodunnit,” but the script does nothing to conceal the perpetrator. There’s no surprise reveal in the episode, so what could have been an interesting mystery ends up being a plodding exercise in watching the crew of the Enterprise figure out what the viewer already knows. Captain Picard, as he so often does, recites the moral at the end, and it sort of ties into the whole episode and also doesn’t at the same time. Even worse, the episode leaves open at least one really troubling question.

The story opens with the Enterprise ferrying three Ullians to Kaldra IV, yet another thoroughly unimportant planet. The Ullians are telepaths who specialize in resurrecting memories and indeed are collecting memories for a kind of museum, though how they intend to archive memories is left up to the viewer’s imagination. Tarmin demonstrates the process with Keiko, opening up her memory of the cup her grandmother used to wash her calligraphy brushes. Later, at an official supper—complete with candles—Tarmin and Jev bicker, prompting Jev to leave the table and Troi to follow him. The next morning, Troi is found in a coma. Suspicion immediately and predictably falls on the Ullians. Dr. Crusher and the rest of the crew race to ascertain the cause of Troi’s condition, which resembles Iresine Syndrome, but before she can solve the riddle, Commander Riker and Dr. Crusher both succumb to the same ailment. Data and LaForge, through some sleuthing, discover that unexplained and incorrectly explained comas have followed everywhere the Ullians have traveled on their “mental archaeology” expedition. Troi awakens, and Jev helps her to remember that Tarmin invaded her memory, so Captain Picard orders Tarmin to quarters and turns the ship around to deliver him to the Ullian authorities. However, when Jev visits Troi for unexplained reasons, he cannot help himself but to reveal his own culpability by violating Troi again. Troi gets the chance to flex her combat muscles and does a fair job, but Worf ultimately knocks Jev for a loop when he and the security team barge into Troi’s quarters. Tarmin and Inad apologize for Jev’s crimes, and Picard spouts some words about the inherent violence in man’s soul.

If the foregoing seems a little too straightforward, rest assured that my summary is still more subtle than the episode in question. From the cold open’s close-up on Jev’s face accompanied by vaguely threatening music to the fact that Jev appears in each of the memory sequences experienced by Troi, Riker, and Crusher, the episode leaves no doubt that Jev is the culprit. For Riker and Crusher, these sequences are fairly straightforward. Riker remembers ordering the containment door closed during a containment breach. Evidently, that decision cost an Ensign Keller her life as she was caught on the wrong side of the door. An unnamed officer, who eventually morphs into Jev, accuses Riker of killing Keller. Dr. Crusher remembers Picard taking her to see her husband’s body after the mission that claimed his life. Jev inserts himself in her memory, taking Captain Picard’s place. Both of these memory sequences are sequences that have some grounding in reality. Riker’s decision is just the sort of thing that happens on a starship, and from “Encounter at Farpoint,” we know that Picard notified Dr. Crusher of Jack’s death.

I’ve left Troi’s memory for last because in light of the other two memory sequences, its implication is one that needed more development in the episode than it got. Troi remembers playing Poker with Riker in her quarters, and after the game concludes, Riker seems to force himself on her. Of course, we see that Jev, as he does in the other two sequences, inserts himself in the memory as Riker. However, in both of the other two memory sequences, Jev merely inserts himself into an existing memory. He adds nothing. As a result, the episode opens up the question of just what happened after that poker game; the argument can certainly be made that Jev manipulated Troi’s memory to suit his own less than savory desires. However, I don’t know that the episode as it unfolds really supports that read, and frankly, considering that we’re discussing Riker, I would have preferred there to be some clarification on that point.

The other issue I have with the episode is that Jev’s feint—inserting an image of his father in Troi’s memory—renders me uncomfortable. TNG does not treat Troi particularly well, but I dislike that the episode employs this gambit. Proving that Troi’s memory of her “rape” can be altered smacks a bit too much of unfortunate stereotypes, in particular the unreliability of women’s memories and testimony. I don’t think that the episode intends to go in that direction, but it’s another aspect of the story that doesn’t sit well with me. Your mileage may vary, however.

The episode seems to promise that it will reflect on the nature of memory. We experience the retrieval of Keiko’s memory, and that sequence gives Rosalind Chao a real chance to shine. Data and LaForge ruminate on the fleeting of nature of memory just before the fateful supper with the Ullians, and even the nature of the episode’s conflict hints at the malleability of memory. Unfortunately, the episode falls short of exploring any of the more interesting aspects of the story in favor of playing the rape card. Picard offers us the moral of the episode when he explains that we are all capable of violence and must therefore be vigilant, but the moral itself does not fit with the rest of the story, especially as it seems to imply that we’re all capable of rape, considering that Tarmin explicitly terms Jev’s actions to be mental rape. That said, an exploration of memory and how our memories define our realities and experiences would have made for fantastic viewing, but that’s not the episode we got. Instead, we get awkward rape metaphors and creepy aliens, which makes for pretty disappointing viewing.

Rating: A cup and a half of cold Earl Grey Tea

Stray Thoughts From the Couch:

1. I do like all of the details in Dr. Crusher’s memory sequence. Picard wears the original unitard version of the uniform, has hair, and seems to have been injured in the away mission that claimed Jack Crusher’s life. It’s a nice touch.
2. Star Trek struggles with what casual clothes will look like hundreds of years from now, and that’s the only explanation I can provide for Riker’s terrible blouse in Troi’s memory. If I recall correctly (ha!), that blouse shows up in other episodes, so at least the costume department owns that awfulness.
3. LaForge’s charming discussion with Data on the nature of memory at the beginning of the episode promises so much. Every time I watch it, it just makes me regret what this episode could have been.