‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Retro Recap – ‘Dark Page’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

There are a great many things that go into creating a flawless final season for a television series. For instance, the final season needs to feel epic and powerful in nature. So, the audience feels as though the series is going to go out with a bang. Not to mention, the series finale, should be nothing short of incredible. Because the audience wants their final ride with the show to be as incredible and as memorable as possible, and a great finale helps with that. But above all… loose plot threads and long-standing questions should be wrapped up and answered. Because closure is the key to feeling good about the end of a story that one has invested their time in, and while that seems like a simple list, it’s quite amazing how few shows check off all those boxes.
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Because incredible care must go into making those things happen and that isn’t always possible, and for proof… look at the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Because season seven only checked two of those three boxes, since it featured some off kilter and bad episodes, removing the epic nature of its start. All because movies were in development and the whole production lost some of its focus, and that is wild, since this is about as iconic a series as it gets and that hammers home how tough it is to make a perfect ending to a magnificent story. But it is important to celebrate what TNG got right, and since we aren’t at the finale yet… we can definitely discuss how the series did an amazing job of wrapping up some loose threads and answering some big questions, that had been hanging about over the past seven years. 

For its next episode, ‘Dark Page’, is a story that answered some burning questions about Counselor Deanna Troi’s family life. Specifically, her mother and why she was so overbearing and demanding of her daughter over the course of the series, and it accomplished that particular feat… by putting Lwaxana through some serious stress. Because while she was aboard the Enterprise as part of a diplomatic mission, she fell ill. In large part because she was working hard to make this mission a success, but also because… something deeper was at play here. For the Cairn, the species she was working with to bring into the Federation, tapped into some primal memories for her and forced her to face them and that put her into a supremely deep coma. 

One that only Deanna could help with since only she had the capacity to do so. But at first it seemed as though failure was the going to be the outcome for Deanna. For her mother’s mind was just a jumble of memories, the kind that didn’t explain why she was suddenly so sick. But with Captain Picard’s help… she was able to discover that a sister that Deanna knew nothing about… died in an accident when she was an infant. Something Lwaxana worked hard to overcome. But those wounds run deep for a parent and being near a child that reminded her of her lost baby while being pushed to her physical limits… proved too much to bear and broke her emotionally and telepathically. And it was up to Deanna to get her mother to face her pain and relinquish fault so she could continue to live her life and find peace at last over this. 

Which… made it clear that Lwaxana’s behavior has always been related to trying to have that family unit she never had in her youth. Since she lost a child and a husband and trying to constantly marry was meant to fill that, and being protective of Deanna and demanding she marry, came out of trauma and fear and that was… a powerful way to answer some burning questions regarding this character and this relationship and this also… moved us. Because this story featured some powerful moments and incredible acting from both Marina Sirtis and Majel Barrett, and it wrapped up a long-standing plot thread/character arc as well. Since it did give Deanna and her mother closure, and it brought their relationship as it stood in the show… to its end. For this was the final time Majel Barrett would play Lwaxana Troi in The Next Generation, and well, in the end, this episode really does deserve a round of applause. For addressing some realistic concepts and for giving an iconic guest star a proper and classy send off. Until next time.

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