Cheap Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 90: Galaxy's Child (Video) (Larry Shaw, David Carson, Gabrielle Beaumont, Timothy Bond, Kim Manners, LeVar Burton, Richard Compton, Jonathan West, Marvin V. Rush, Michael Vejar) Price

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Customer Reviews of Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 90: Galaxy's Child

The Enterprise becomes a nursing mother to a space baby
As a general rule of thumb, when an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation tries to do some variation on an episode of the original series, such as "The Naked Now" (Episode 3), it is a bad sign; but when the series extends off of its own episodes, as is the case with "Galaxy's Child," it is a good sign, a very good sign indeed. In "Booby Hatch" (Episode 54) La Forge became enamored of Dr. Leah Brahms when he worked with a holographic recreation of her while doing creative problem solving. The Enterprise's Chief Engineer had been having more than his fair share of women problems and he hit it off very well with the computer's version of Brahms. Now the real version is coming aboard the Enterprise and La Forge can hardly contain himself: he just knows that he and Leah will be good friends. However, when Dr. Brahms arrives she immediately accuses him of messing up her engines. No matter what La Forge tries it does not work with this woman, who would need to be beamed outside the ship to even begin warming up to the guy. Just when you think things could not get any worse between these two, Brahms discovers the holodeck version of herself that La Forge created and assumes he has been using her as recreation (remember Barclay's "Goddess of Empathy" from "Hollow Pursuits"?).

Meanwhile, the Enterprise discovers a new form of life, a sort of space whale that lives in space and eats by extracting energy directly from stars. When the creature attacks the Enterprise, Picard orders a low-intensity phaser burst and is horrified when the mild response kills the creature. Data discovers there are new energy readings from the creature. Concluding the creature was pregnant, the crew uses the phasers to do an emergency Caesarian and release the baby, which then attaches itself to the ship and begins nursing on the Enterprise's energy. Now the question becomes how to wean the baby before it destabilizes the ship's power supply. Fortunately the person who designed the warp engines just happens to be on board, where she is about to proceed with the dismantling of the Chief Engineer without even using any tools.

This is a painful episode to watch as Geordi gets shot down by the woman of his holodeck dreams. This pain is somewhat reflected in the other plot line when Picard realizes his actions are responsible for the death of this wondrous space creature. "Galaxy's Child" runs against the traditional romantic impulse that compels us to want the characters to live happily every after, which is certainly a turn for a more realistic depiction of what life is like to be sure. Everyone can relate to getting carried away with your feelings for someone who has virtually no clue that you even exist and who has a life of their own that you have failed to take into account. This is one of the best "romance" episodes on the series.

The sillyest episode I ever saw.
The alien creatures in this show look like Tube worms in space, and as useual, Picard acts like a wimp.