There were a few “archive accesses you” stories in Star Trek, I don’t think The Nth Degree was too bad either.
Brain and brain. What is brain?* 
I liked “Masks”. Maybe I’m just shallow.
I’ll second (20th?) all of the above. If however you meant what were the characters babbling about this was my take:
The virus/data vault/whatever was created by the people on a planet that was becoming tidal-locked to its sun. The whole thing about the two masks chasing each other was a metaphor for the progression of that planets sun and moon across the sky.
But yeah, shit episode.
There was a bunch of episodes in season 7 where something was “symbolic” of something or other and/or there were “dream” elements.
“Phantasms”: Data has dreams of surly workmen and Deanna as a cake and whatnot.
“Dark Page”: Lwaxana Troi is having coma dreams, with some kind of guard dog symbolizing a mental block.
“Masks”
“Eye of the Beholder”: Deanna has a vivid hallucination about a love triangle and suicide.
“Emergence”: The Enterprise is developing an artificial intelligence, uses holodeck images of gangsters and train conductors to represent… I dunno, some damn thing.
I guess two-bit surrealism is easy to write and cheap to film, and they were saving their money for the last episode. If anything, “Masks” was the most original in the bunch, even if it didn’t make a lick of sense, and Spiner’s nasal-voice is just irritating.
I think Brent Spiner is a great actor. IMO, however, a lot of his later episodes were trying to demonstrate his range and to prove that he’s not just a “robot character”. I figure he had some sort of deal with the writers to give him room to reach out to pad his resume before the season ended.
Yeah, I’m gonna say better than “Sub Rosa,” & I liked some of the trippy visuals once I decided to relax & say, “It’s just a show.”
I’ve been working my way through the entire run again and I’ve been stuck in season 7 for a month now. It just sucks.
I have “Eye of the Beholder” down as the worst at the moment. Worf and Troi, a bunch of surreal bullshit and then it ends.
IMO, “Masks” is, like mentioned above, Brent Spiner ACTING because he is an ACTOR.
I think the nadir of TNG was where all of the crew’s minds get posessed by some brain interface game with 1980s graphics floating in front of their eyes, where the goal is to put a ball in a funnel.
Nah. “The Game” was redeemed by the presence of the lovely Ensign Leffler.
But dragged down by the fact that both Worf and Picard tried a mindless game before Wesley did. Riiight.
And because Wesley, once again, saves the day.
I thought it was fairly amusing that Wesley’s nerdly interest in engaging in tech-talk with an equally geeky ensign (in preference to any other activity) led to the day-saving this time. It’s far more believable than Wesley saving the day by knowing more about brain-scans than a medical doctor and psychologist.
P.S. I’ve always wanted to see the sequel to “The Game” - in which Starfleet realizes that the greatest threat to their security is Riker’s sleeping around.
Starfleet has telepaths. Riker was well-programmed not to actively seek his own command until he got older & a bit fatter, & thus slowed down.
How was Laforge supposed to play that game, keyed as it was to the eyes?
I, heh, explained it in passing in one of my fanfics, with Laforge “wearing a modified version of the game over his VISOR”…
You are not alone. I liked it the first time I watched it on TV, and I’ve liked it on DVD every other time I’ve watched it too.
That’s canon. It was mentioned in the episode that Beverly and Riker had made one specifically for that purpose. I assume to plug up that plot hole, but, seeing what they did to Data, it did make sense. It would’ve been harder to justify that LaForge was out the whole time, and he was chief engineer, and was necessary for the functioning of the ship.
I don’t recall that at all. I remember Riker saying to Laforge early on “I’ve got something you should try…” and the next time Laforge appears he’s not wearing a game but has been fully assimilated.