| The Next Generation | |
| 56 | |
| The Price | |
| 43385.6 | |
Deanna Troi is pouting to the computer about how she wants a "real" chocolate sundae. No wonder she has all those curves that Greeks like so much. Hmm, this looks like another character development episode...
A stable wormhole that opens up every 233 minutes has been found, and the owners want to sell it off. Representatives of several major races have been brought on to the Enterprise to barter for the rights, including a human called Devinoni Ral, a "hired gun" representing the Chrysalian people. He immediately takes a fancy to all those Chololate-Hips mentioned above.
After negotiations commence, Ross Perot and some of his Ferengi mates decide that they want into the deal and are beam across. The is no small amount of underhand dealing by them - but this is to be expected.
Ral goes after Troi with all guns blazing and finally gets her in a somewhat compromising position in her sleeping quarters. It looks like Riker is going to be put on the back burner. Then she gives one of those passion killing statements: "Wil Riker and I are just good friends". Groans from the audience. Looks like Riker isn't going to get his end in after all. We learn that Ral is 1/4 Betazoid so he too can sense emotions.
Bev's in a room with a large mirror, and she's bending over in front of it. What! Is she doing a smear in public? Nope. It's aerobics 24th century style. What does that mean - in private and with no music. I can really see that taking off. Deanna joins her and for a while it looks as if their might be a "menage a troi" on the cards, but alas the girls just decide to gossip.
Geordi and Data go out in a shuttle through the wormhole along with a Ferengi crew (in their own shuttle - which also has big ears) to test whether the it does as expected. When they discover they are not where they should be, Geordi panics and dives back. The Ferengi scoff at this and get left behind - 70,000 light years behind. This we are told will take 80 years to cross. I seem to recall that the galaxy is only about 80-90k light years across anyway so these guys are going for a major rim-shot.
After some behind the scenes dealing by Ral, it looks like the Chrysalian's are going to win the deal, but Troi shoots that down after dealing with her own ethical crisis. The Federation now has a chance, but Geordi and Data turn up telling us that the wormhole is unstable and hence virtually worthless, and so the prize passes to Ral. He is left with more than just a little albumen on his face.
