Silicon Avatar

Season 5, Episode 4, Aired
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Episode Summary

Stardate: 45122.3 ''''Picard attempts communications with the Crystalline Entity - a life form responsible for hundreds of deaths throughout the Alpha Quadrant. However, a scientist on board the Enterprise to advise them has plans of her own.
7.7
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Fan Episode Reviews (2)

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  • An away team of Riker, Data, & Dr. Crusher are surveying land on a Federation colony located on Melona IV. They are interrupted by a massive crystal like being. Riker is familiar with the being. It is the Crystalline Entity.moreless

    8.9
    "Great"
    By Pink_Floyd_AL, Jun 06, 2011 Report Abuse
    An away team of Riker, Data, & Dr. Crusher are surveying land on a Federation colony located on Melona IV. They are interrupted by a massive crystal like being. Riker is familiar with the being. It is the Crystalline Entity. The Crystalline Entity begins attacking the planet trying to consume all life. The colonists find a cave to hide in. The colonists are close to breathing their last breath when Lt Worf shows up. The colonists leave the cave and find the world is barren. A scientist known as Kila Marr wants to destroy the Crystalline Entity.moreless

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  • A somewhat ho-hum story with a powerful, intense conclusion.

    7.5
    "Good"
    By pharoahsdance, Jun 06, 2011 Report Abuse
    I think the actress playing Dr. Marr kills this story, or maybe lackluster writing. Or maybe the problem is that we don't know Marr - it's her first and only appearance on the show - and can't connect to her. I'm grasping at straws, because this episode has some serious potential.

    Moby Dick wasn't about a large whale, and "Silicon Avatar" isn't about a large man-eating mineral. It's about a person so consumed by desire for revenge that they go insane. The bitterness is at first directed at Data, but quickly takes a surprising turn.

    The worth of this episode is in Data's final "confrontation" of Dr. Marr. It's a brutal, uncharacteristic-of-TNG conclusion, delivered in Data's unemotional, calm voice.

    One final comment - I thought Picard's calm, unemotional response to the moral implications of the crystalline entity's killing of humans ("sperm whale... cuttlefish") was somewhat odd, perhaps an oblique criticism of the Captain. He'd prove to be a hypocrite on "I Borg".moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

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    • When Data and Dr. Marr leave Engineering and enter the turbolift together, Dr. Marr orders the turbolift to the bridge. But when they get off, they can be seen walking into a section of corridor that doesn't exist on the bridge. Edit
    • In the teaser, Riker asks Data what their best chance for cover is. Data's reply is "...subterranean caverns..." Since caves are, de facto, underground, Data has committed a pleonasm, which is a logical verbal redundancy, something his precise speech programming should not allow. Edit
    • When Data and Dr. Kila Marr are examining the caves on the planet, Dr. Marr is holding her tricorder upside down all the time. Edit

  • Notes

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    • Susan Diol memorably played Dr. Denara Pel on Star Trek: Voyager, the woman the Doctor rescued from the 'phage' and fell in love in with. Edit
    • The cave set used here is a recycle of that used in "Final Mission." Edit

  • Quotes

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    • Riker: How do you know these metals will protect us. Data: I am not entirely certain they will, sir. Riker: I was afraid you were going to say something like that. Edit
    • Picard: Doctor, the sperm whale on Earth devours millions of cuttlefish as it roams the oceans. it is not evil...it is feeding. The same may be true of the Entity. Edit
    • (discussing Dr. Kyla Marr's dead son - Data has his memories) Dr. Kyla Marr: A girlfriend? Oh, I never knew about that. Of course, the last person he would tell was his mother. What was she like? Data: He enjoyed her kindness, her gentleness, her physical attributes. Edit

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