The Enterprise follows a distress signal to a deserted moon. The signal turns out to be from a 200-year-old starship, the USS Essex; and although the surface is so unpleasant that no one's likely to be alive, Troi feels the presence of something alive down there. Since transporters can't cut through the electromagnetic storms on the surface, Riker, Troi and Data take a shuttle down. The shuttle crashes, however, leaving all shaken and Riker with a broken arm. As Troi senses the life-forms coming toward them with a storm front, O'Brien boosts the transporter enough to beam down with a pattern enhancer; but while there, all are struck down by lightning, and all but Riker are entered by strange energy. Once they're back aboard, Beverly makes short work of their injuries and returns them to duty.

Data, however, strongly suggests that they assume an orbit around the southern polar region; when Riker demurs, he programs it in anyway. When discovered, he, O'Brien and Troi attempt to take control of the bridge. Riker manages to transfer controls to Engineering, however, locking the three out, and they leave in a turbolift. As those remaining on the bridge (Picard, Riker, Ro and Worf) attempt to stop them, the three make their way to Ten-Forward, where they take the entire group inside hostage (including O'Brien's wife Keiko, and their child). Worf arrives with a security team, but the team is made short work of, and they become prisoners as well.

As the threesome quickly cement their position by isolating Ten-Forward from the rest of the ship, Picard puts Beverly to work on possibly finding out what happened to them on the moon below. Troi demands a polar orbit (threatening the hostages' safety if balked), and Picard agrees, but ordering the helm to do so as slowly as possible. Beverly quickly discovers traces of extra synaptic activity in the threesome's brainscans, and theorizes there's a second entity controlling each of them. Riker was somehow immune; she theorizes that the pain from his arm was the cause, and further suggests that causing them pain will force them to leave. She works on a way to contain them, while Geordi and Ro leave for the deck above Ten-Forward to set up a scanner and a plasma inverter for the rescue attempt.

To insure the prompt medical treatment of the injured hostages, Picard takes their place, assuring Riker that he will attempt to offer them another rescue opportunity if Geordi and Ro fail. "Troi" introduces herself to Picard-as the captain of the USS Essex. According to her, the bridge was struck by lightning just as the ship was ripped apart in the atmosphere, and it somehow trapped them in permanent "spirit" form. Picard quizzes her on details, and she passes with flying colors, but Picard remains privately skeptical.

Geordi and Ro arrive above Ten-Forward and begin calibrating the inverter, as Bev applies the finishing touches to a containment field. As Data's possessor shows increasing sadism, O'Brien's terrorizes Keiko. Finally, as the ship reaches the polar region, Troi orders Picard to beam up their bodies and return them to Earth. Picard refuses to cooperate without the release of the hostages, and Data threatens to make Picard choose between killing Worf and killing Keiko. As he does so, however, all three are within range of the inverter, and Ro fires. The shot is a second too late, however, as Data leaves the circle, and while the other two writhe in pain, he puts a stranglehold on Picard and forces the Enterprise to abort the attempt.

The storms' interference near the Essex is so great that transporters will not function at the present time; Picard suggests O'Brien work with them, and offers all three safe passage to cargo bay 4 if they release the hostages. After ensuring that the transporter cannot be used against them, they agree, but take one hostage apiece for safety: Picard, Worf, and Keiko. As O'Brien prepares to beam up the "bodies", however, Picard coaxes the truth from Troi: they're not from the Essex, they are three out of hundreds of convicted prisoners, set adrift there five centuries ago as punishment. Riker, however, having taken the hint from Picard's choice of location, orders the containment field used just as the other entities beam up. Picard, seizing the opportunity, convinces Troi that her only options are to give up, or to die when the bay hatch is blown minutes later. Angrily, Troi agrees, and the three officers are freed, as all the prisoners are beamed back to the moon.

Highlight Listing:

"Power Play" - Inhabited by alien spirits, Data and Troi overthrow the Bridge of the Enterprise.

Advertising Headline:

MUTINY ON THE BRIDGE! Inhabited by aliens, Troi and Data seize the Enterprise!

TV log listing:

Picard must stop a possessed Troi on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

Technical design, graphic design, interactive features, HTML & CGI programming by Andrew Tong. || All materials Copyright © 1987-1995 by their respective authors. || Document created: January 28, 1995 || Last Modified: November 09, 2010