Despite my best efforts, I was unable to avoid catching the flu bug from my wife and kids and, as a result, was forced to take a sick day earlier this week. I spent most of it sleeping. But, while trying to eat some soup for lunch, decided to watch an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation on Netflix, “Remember Me.”
Since I was sick and knew it wouldn’t take me more than a few minutes to eat lunch, I wasn’t expecting to finish this episode. However, it interested me just enough to keep me watching it from start to finish.
The thing I liked about this episode was the mystery. Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) notices people, starting with her friend and expanding to members of the crew, are disappearing. But, not only does nobody believe her, there is no evidence the people ever existed.
Adding to the mystery is the only apparent cause, an experiment her son Wesley (Wil Wheaton) is conducting, couldn’t possibly have affected the entire ship. This wound up making the episode interesting and, at the same time, a bit creepy because there is no way of knowing who will disappear next and what will ultimately happen.
Unfortunately, the episode does drop the ball a bit by letting the audience in on the secret way too early. I don’t know if it necessarily made the ending predictable since, even in my weakened state, I was able to take a pretty accurate guess at what was really going on. However, I think the episode would have been considerably better if they would have left me guessing until the very end.
Despite that, I did think this episode was worth watching. If nothing else, it was a pretty decent way to spend part of my sick day.
My Grade: A-
