The investigation reveals information during the episode’s downtime, so luckily, it doesn’t feel like a break in the pace. Seven is off duty and Capt. Shaw is injured. The show carefully took them off the books, making their investigation feel organically disconnected from the action.
The third plot thread is classic Trek, through and through. Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) has noticed that the gravity well has been draining the Titan’s power at curiously regular intervals, and that the intervals are getting closer together. It’s taking in matter and expelling energy. Is the gravity well … alive? Indeed, the gravity well may just be a new, enormous, space-faring life form that Dr. Crusher posits may be metamorphosing or preparing to give birth. The crew eventually use their grit and a few innovative energy-gathering techniques to “surf” their way out of the living gravity well. The idea of accidentally flying into a massive living being is a comfortingly nostalgic plot point that comes straight from the better “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episodes. Even in a crisis, there can be quiet moments of awe and beauty.
I could have done without Dr. Crusher whispering “to seek out new life,” however. Oh yes, and the Shrike was disabled while the Titan escaped, so there can now be a merciful organic movement to the next part of the story.
And a few tantalizing mysteries remain, too. The Changelings, for instance, have not been explained, nor why Vadic was secretly answering to one. Nor do we yet know what the Changelings stole from the Daystrom Institute.
But, golly, the show has stayed riveting.
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