Star Trek: The Next Generation
"Realm of Fear"
Air date: 9/28/1992
Written by Brannon Braga
Directed by Cliff Bole
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
Based purely on longevity, Star Trek gets around to a story about everything eventually, and in "Realm of Fear" we get a 24th-century analogue for the fear of air travel. Our resident neurotic, Lt. Reginald Barclay, is in mortal terror of going through the transporter, particularly in this case where the interference is bad and the transport cycle will take longer than usual. But despite the fact that going through the transporter disassembles you "molecule by molecule" and puts you back together again, Geordi nevertheless reassures Barclay that the numbers over the decades (and centuries) are irrefutable: "It really is the safest way to travel."
If you're going to do a transporter-phobia episode, I guess it makes sense to use Reg Barclay. Dwight Schultz is suitably game, perhaps even excessively so, taking his ever-twitchy persona into the realm of fear, panic, and hypochondria. One mildly amusing scene shows him convincing himself he has "transporter psychosis" when he listens to the computer list all of its symptoms while he realizes to his horror that maybe he's experiencing all of them. And how I love that Troi is able to prescribe for his anxiety the treatment of "plexing" — tapping with his finger behind his ear on a bundle of nerves. Whoa — I guess 24th-century medicine has totally evolved beyond the need for pharmaceuticals! (But of course it hasn't evolved past the point where Troi can relieve Barclay of duty simply for being somewhat on-edge. Sigh.)
If you care about the plot of "Realm of Fear," you are likely to be sorely disappointed, as this is a pretty low-octane affair. It features little in the way of compelling procedural TNG problem-solving and instead a lot of meaningless technobabble for technobabble's sake. The mystery surrounding the missing crew of the crippled science vessel is developed with so little urgency that it plays as background noise. The real point here is Barclay's transporter fear.
Naturally, the key to the mystery ties into Barclay's strange experiences while in the transporter beam, thus forcing him to confront his fear while simultaneously solving the mystery of the missing crew members. Unfortunately, the pedestrian plot is not compensated for by a compelling character story or any real psychological drama. It's all just kind of there in front of us, forcing us to shrug. Watchable, sure. But it doesn't leave so much of a minute's lasting impression.
Previous episode: Time's Arrow, Part II
Next episode: Man of the People
49 comments on this review
Sat, May 26, 2012, 10:02pm (UTC -5)
Even in the early episodes of Trek, when they took an idea for a subject, the usually mined the content for character substance or a morality play or at the very least an exercise in visceral science fiction. From here-on-out on TNG, the case would frequently be a rather boring concept attached to a weak and superficial character outing, which perfectly describes this episode. The excuse that the franchise was so "old" as to be reaching for new concepts is a lame one. In DS9, Voyager and Enterprise (with mixed success), seemingly "done" and new concepts were put to very good use for another 11 years after TNG ended.
In other news, welcome back! Thanks for the review nuggets. A shame this season is so rife with crap (a fact which I for one believe is a good reason to understand and forgive the long wait for reviews).
Sun, May 27, 2012, 12:31pm (UTC -5)
@Elliot: You don't like "True Q", "Ship in a Bottle", "Birthright", "Starship Mine", "Lessons", "The Chase", "Rightful Heir", "Second Chances", and "Timescape"?
I remember being pretty excited about the "Descent" cliffhanger too back when it first aired.
Sun, May 27, 2012, 5:40pm (UTC -5)
I'll save individual criticisms of those shows when Jammer publishes their reviews, but suffice it to say, No, I did not.
"Descent" was awful.
Mon, May 28, 2012, 3:02am (UTC -5)
Tell me you haven#'t had some ailment and then goggled the symptons only to find out you have minutes to live.
Overall not an amazing episode but passable.
Mon, May 28, 2012, 3:18am (UTC -5)
"Realm of Fear" I also liked. It's an amusing and somewhat silly episode that doesn't take itself too seriously. Making Barclay the central character helps maintain an air of freshness throughout the hour.
Tue, May 29, 2012, 11:04am (UTC -5)
Let me amend slightly : I enjoy "Ship in a Bottle," but I can't defend it as a good show; I'll say the same about "Lessons." Even if they were good shows however, that's not a stellar season by any means. I should also probably add that, as a sane human, I do not count TNG's 1st season in any assessment of it.
Tue, May 29, 2012, 11:19am (UTC -5)
Are you forgetting fistful of datas? timescape? the wonderful ship in a bottle? and many more....
The only thing I'll say is that after Birthright Part 1 {another great one unlike anything we had seen prior-fresh} the good episodes were few and far between. And that was aggrivating. Personally I like a ssn to end strong {see ds 9ssn 2}. But the first half of the ssn was just so packed with creativity. Even 2nd half episodes I didnt care for like the chase attempted to do something diff. and explain the likeness of humanoid races....
Mon, Jun 4, 2012, 2:16pm (UTC -5)
And to Jammer--could "plexing" simply be Deanna's placebo for Reg to distract him? That's what I always thought.
Mon, Jun 4, 2012, 2:23pm (UTC -5)
I wish the plexing were a placebo--that would have been a lot more fun, but we see D'eanna plexing herself (doesn't that sound PG13?) in "Timescape."
I'll say for this episode that if it were anyone except Barclay, it would be unwatchable. While I'm not as big a fan of it as others, "Nth Degree" was an infinitely better use of him and his neuroses and also featured and ending which "proved him right." This episode seems to exist to give us a 1st person perspective on transporting.
Mon, Jun 4, 2012, 4:37pm (UTC -5)
Oh barf. Thought there might be a plausible explanation for that idiocy.
Nth Degree is indeed a much better Barclay outing--I just meant that I don't mind this one since I like him (and the others) so much.
Sun, Jun 10, 2012, 5:19pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Jun 25, 2012, 12:32pm (UTC -5)
The episode relies too much on technobabble as a substitute for actual storytelling (duh), and it is rather unbelievable that Barclay could have hid this completely debilitation phobia until now. It's a shame, because I do think Barclay is a good character to explore mental health issues (in space!) and he is allowed character flaws which the main cast are not at this point. If I squint at the outlines, I do like Barclay's arc in the episode, even if it is both superficial and hard to believe.
Sun, Jul 22, 2012, 3:49am (UTC -5)
As said by an earlier poster, I like these people (especially Reg) and I enjoyed spending the time with them. TNG's quieter episodes can still be truly enjoyable simply because of the characters.
Some people might think the "twist" or the resolution at the end of the episode is weak but I think it's got a touch of Twilight Zone to it and that's a good thing.
My Trek friends and I really like the moment Reg scurries out of Troi's office while plexing and nearly runs in to a crew member walking down the hall. "In through the nose, out through the mouth. Thanks again!" (nearly hits crew member) "Awwwgh." LOL.
Mon, Aug 20, 2012, 4:04pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Sep 7, 2012, 10:05pm (UTC -5)
2) I'm going to defend plexing. I've know those who suffer from anxiety, and there are tapping techniques that offer relief in ways that can't possibly be placebo.
Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 11:41am (UTC -5)
This episode was just a hot mess. And Barkley's presence drags any episode down.
Tue, Feb 5, 2013, 8:15pm (UTC -5)
Only Star Trek TNG would care about the fate of microbes.
Sun, Jun 16, 2013, 9:45am (UTC -5)
I did enjoy the hypochondria scenes though, and Miles' pet tarantula, but that was about it.
Fri, Jul 26, 2013, 4:31pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Aug 15, 2013, 9:36am (UTC -5)
I like the Barclay/O'Brien scenes, too.
Anyway the episode is telegraphed, drowning in technobabble, slow-paced, etc., etc., etc. So, yeah, 2 stars -- but I still like parts of it, more than in other 2 star shows, perhaps.
Wed, Aug 28, 2013, 3:34pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Feb 20, 2014, 12:23pm (UTC -5)
Mon, May 12, 2014, 3:36pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Oct 9, 2014, 12:59pm (UTC -5)
Hell, I don't care how safe transporting in the 24th Century would be, there HAS to be plenty people around the Alpha Quadrant with neuroses about it.
I do think the grabbing the microbes = saving the other ship's crew was a little odd. And I also wouldn't have thought that you'd see or feel anything while being transported, except that one instant your on the Enterprise and the next you're somewhere else. Unless we're supposed to believe that your conscious mind can somehow perceive things even when all your body's matter has been disassembled and converted into a data stream?
Tue, Oct 28, 2014, 6:28am (UTC -5)
Fri, Dec 5, 2014, 7:18pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Apr 5, 2015, 9:15pm (UTC -5)
Wed, May 6, 2015, 10:57am (UTC -5)
The transporter plot was filled with so much junk science, it was embarrassing. Your atoms are scrambled, yet your eyes can see and your brain can register visual input? I think the writer was the one who was afflicted with transporter psychosis. I like Barclay and find him amusing in small doses, but this episode was a 1 star for me.
Thu, Jun 18, 2015, 2:06am (UTC -5)
There's memorable images, and a nice, smooth band of tension throughout. Remember when TV had a train of thought?
Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 9:02am (UTC -5)
Fri, Sep 4, 2015, 9:14am (UTC -5)
What was the point of this episode? To do a science fiction version of the fear of airplane travel? If that's all it was then I'd probably just say it's average and more on, giving a third episode in a row a 5 score. But I don't think that was the main intention. I think the main goal was to make Barclay look like an idiot. So, he starts seeing his arm glow blue after something funky happens during transport and what is his response? To go to Sickbay, like a rational person? NO. It's to convince himself, with the help of the computer, that he's just hallucinating due to a rare psychological condition. Brilliant! Then, what's his response when he thinks he has a mental problem? To go to Troi for help, again like a rational person would? NO. He decides to just ignore the problem, hope it goes away and actively resist help from Troi when it's offered. Fucking brilliant! Look, I get that Barclay is supposed to be a little neurotic and generally phobic (that's why I like him), but this is just ridiculous. Dude, if your arm is freaking glowing, go see a damn doctor!
Then there's the fact that the resolution almost comes out of left field. There is so little energy and urgency to this plot that I almost forgot about the four missing crew members who turn out to be the entities in the transporter stream. The fact that four missing people are deliberately mentioned early in the episode didn't help either. There's one reference to them and then we're off to spend the rest of the episode on Barclay's stupidity. When Barclay re-materialized with one of them in tow, it took me a while to remember that they were name-dropped earlier. And, Barclay sure seemed to come to the conclusion that the worm-things are really people rather suddenly, didn't he (not to mention that it's never explained why they look like that instead of like people).
But, I am going to be generous to "Realm of Fear" for one scene - the scene of Picard talking to an admiral in the Ready Room. It's a rather unnecessary scene for this anemic story, but I like the fact that it name drops the Cardassians as antagonists for the Federation and Ferengi. DS9 would premier a little less than half-way through this season of TNG and it's nice to see them doing what they can, even in this small way, to set up the Cardassian threat for that show. It's a nice little bit of world-building to throw into the mix. It's so small that it would probably go by unnoticed at the time, but looking back you can see how your subconscious was subtly being prepared for something else. Nicely done!
4/10
Fri, Oct 2, 2015, 2:02pm (UTC -5)
2 stars.
Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 4:35pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Sep 5, 2016, 11:24pm (UTC -5)
I did want to comment though that this episode can be a lense through which retrospectively we see the warning signs related to Brannon Braga (the writer of this episode). The lack of respect for physics, or for human drama (turns the chance for meaningful examination of mental health in the future to a joke with that "plexing" thing- I remember Braga out of all the writers being the most vocal complaining about having to write lines for Counsular Troi, a "psychologist!" Oh, no! Looks like maybe you might have to do some research for this character, Braga, since you are obviously very ignorant on the subject of psychology and mental health. But since as we know Braga is not exactly one to do needed research we just get that plexing nonsense.
Other patterns that are complained about in Voyager and Enterpise begin to be noticeable here too, and since Braga was such a driving force behind those shows it is an interest angle to consider his writing from.
But at this point thankfully Braga still had people above him to veto ideas that got too off the wall (thank god for Michael Piler) and keep him focused (the guy can actually make good episodes when he works under Piler's authority and his episodes benefit for Piler's re-writes, and when he has talented colleagues like Ronald Moore to bounce ideas around with (like how Moore had the idea in Frame of Mind to have the episode be oriented around a play) . So in other words Braga was a guy who never have should have became an executive producer on Star Trek. He does have some good, high concept ideas, but he needs the support of equal ranked peers and the editing of a boss like MP to be at his best. Unfortunately one of his talents was being good at kissing Rick Berman's ass and being a good company man, so he got promoted way before he could handle it and go look at Voyager for evidence of the resulting harm.
Final note on this episode, for me anyway it's still watchable and decent episode to me despite the flaws in the writing and that's a testament to TNG's standards of quality
Tue, Sep 6, 2016, 12:20am (UTC -5)
Solid analysis. I concur.
Thu, Dec 1, 2016, 11:34pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Jul 14, 2017, 10:56pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Sep 4, 2017, 8:50pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Oct 10, 2017, 4:34pm (UTC -5)
Troi was also terrible in this episode -- she can really just relieve Barclay of duty? But then Barclay still gets O'Brien to transport him and he calls all the senior staff for a meeting? I think this downplays Troi's importance and role -- which is not a bad thing, for me. I also found myself tapping myself behind the ear while watching...
So were the crew from the other ship turned into those fat worm-like creatures in the transporter field and Barclay had to overcome his fear and grab onto one of them to save the crew? If that's all it comes down to, it's pretty lame. The whole plot is overly simplistic. This isn't a good example of TNG problem solving logically and sensibly. Heavy on technobabble and entirely reliant on one person's trusting his instincts in an instant.
Barely 1.5 stars for "Realm of Fear" -- while it is good to shine the light on a crew member's unusual issues, this episode exaggerates it such that the normal person can't take it seriously. TNG has treated this kind of topic much better in prior episodes. I didn't find it compelling at all to see Barclay going through all the self-diagnosis etc. TNG S6 not off to a stellar start.
Mon, Nov 20, 2017, 7:49pm (UTC -5)
Pretty good idea and Brannon didvgreat job nailing the mannerisms and characterization of someone suffering from a phobia and generalized anxiety. He really nailed the details from Barclay freaking out as moment of transport nearing to The embarrassment he has for flaking out when the rest of the away team managed to beam like no big deal to suffering internally and mind mulling all sorts of worst case scenarios. That all was realistic and well done
I also Liked Riker’s act of kindness telling Barclay that he was glad Barclay joined them.
I also thought fresh to finally see what it is like to transport from the transportee’s point of view.
The mystery was intriguing as to what Barclay saw on beam, the reaction from the dead crewman and Barclays glowing arm. BUT the payoff was really really underwhelming and not very satisfying. The whole “the Yosemite crew looked like monster worms was due to distorted spatial relationship” I didn’t buy and felt similar to it was all a Dream.
If the payoff had been better—cause it is the weakest part of a solid episode of have given it 3 or 3.5 stars
Fri, Mar 16, 2018, 11:53pm (UTC -5)
Anyway, I finally had to say something because of conversation between Reg and Geordi.
Reg: Commander, has anything strange ever happened to you during transport?
La Forge: Like what?
Reg: I don't know. Anything out of the ordinary.
Geordi: No, not really.
Well, except for the time he and Ro Laren went out of phase with the rest of the universe a couple episodes back. Other than that, smooth sailing I guess.
Sat, Dec 1, 2018, 11:35am (UTC -5)
And this episode probably gave him the most speaking time until he joined DS9; he got to keep repeating the same technobabble steps in the transporting process, 3 times. Boring...
Wed, Feb 6, 2019, 3:01pm (UTC -5)
Oh no don't worry.
The missing crewmembers idea and out of phase slug like aliens all feature in 'The Vanished' a scenario for Fasa's Star Trek rpg written in 1983-oops!
Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 7:58pm (UTC -5)
I remember the slug things in the transporter. Yes there is a lot of technobabble here and I lost the plot a bit at the end when the slugs turned out to be people.
But it is a good premise and it is good to show that basic human disorders don't go away too easily when shame is involved and prevents a person from seeking help.
I am in Reg's corner in general. It is also good to show the life of a manager (Geordie) who must put aside his impatience and assumptions and reach out. I have been a manager and it is a thankless job often.
I will say that one way that the bridge crew really shines is in their ability to put aside annoyance and keep an open mind and remain objective. That takes some practice and leads to better solutions. They did it in this episode despite Reg hiding his observations until the middle of the night.
Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 10:00am (UTC -5)
Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 9:51pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Feb 25, 2020, 6:59pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 11:10pm (UTC -5)
Another thing that bothered me is that there are actual best practices to reduce phobias that involve tackling the problem piece by piece. There really wasn't a need for Betazoid pseudoscience. Then again, it's Star Trek. Someone could pull a muscle and the solution would be to reionize the DNA substrate manifold to rebalance the deuterium carboid sternofiben.
Fri, Apr 3, 2020, 8:03am (UTC -5)
1.) The very first thing that tipped me off to this was actually one of the final things to happen in the episode - when Lt. Barclay grabs one and then tells the others something to the effect "the crew members are in there - you have to grab on and REALLY HOLD ON!" My first thought was 'oh no - he didn't warn them they look like giant microbes! What if it frightens them!' (Wouldn't that frighten anyone, especially if they are expecting to see a person as opposed to an attacking monster?)... but no-one else hesitates and no-one else mentions this being an issue. All three rescuers lock on to their respective humans as if they saw them that way.
2.) Another thing that tipped me off was looking back over the episode in hindsight - where did we pick up the idea about microbes to begin with? It was mentioned by Dr. Crusher who was speculating on what Lt. Barclay might have been seeing. At this point in the episode we don't even know if what Barclay is seeing is real or not and neither does the crew (as an aside, I like how the entire crew is obviously annoyed at being woken in the middle of the night for this anxiety-fueled meeting called by Barclay, but instead of getting angry and/or writing him off, they all decide to take him seriously and help him out with extra work and responsibilities investigating - they know how he gets when he Web MD's himself but no-one judges him harshly for it).
3.) Not long after this, Dr. Crusher discovers ACTUAL alien microbes in his arm - and I think as a result, we all began to make the connection between her earlier speculation that MAYBE he's "seeing" the microbes in the matter stream and microbes that are actually literally physically in his arm - but there's never any hard connection between the two. I think it's natural that we just sort of "bridge the gap" and assume it must all be the same thing because that would make the most sense, right? Even if we don't have hard proof that is what it is.
So, something this got me wondering about: how well can people "see" inside a matter stream? Notwithstanding the previous discussion on how ridiculous it is anyone can see with demateralised eyes (maybe we only "see" the bits before and after materalisation, rather than the entire process?), the vision cannot be as clear as it was on TV, right? That has to be some made-for-TV magick, right? What if Barclay was looking at the missing crew members the entire time but because his vision was so disoriented by the de/re-materalisation process and the overlaying matter stream - coupled with his intense fear of developing psychosis - he never really saw what he was looking at clearly? Remember, the first time he couldn't see clearly what the "thing" was at all - with each transport it became more and more clear to him.
With the first transport (away from the Enterprise), he sees nothing at all. He's more worried about never re-materalising than anything else, because this is, presumably, his very first transport ever in his entire life. Now, knowing he obviously survived because he's still here - his fear changes. Now, with his second transport (back to the Enterprise), he sees something during the de-materalisation process - it's so faint we can't see it, and we see even Barclay squints at it like he's not sure too. It reminded me of when you get those "floaters" in your eye; you know, those little squiggly lines that can sometimes block some of your vision but then you try to look directly at them and they fade away? Anyways, after being de-materalised and seeing that, Barclay has a new fear and it manifests during the re-materalisation process. Now that he has de-materalised away from the Yosemite and he is re-materalising on the Enterprise, he sees that same squiggle more clearly, and it touches his arm. At this point, it is still out of focus (we won't see the "mouth" like opening until his third transport later on in the episode). At this point what he is seeing is more clear than it was initially but less clear than it would be finally. At this point it touches his arm and he becomes infected with the microbes Dr. Crusher will later discover.
What's more likely? That we are literally "seeing" with the naked eye microbes entering Barclay's arm, or that one of the crew members reached out to a fellow human, desperate to escape from this purgatory, and unwittingly transferred the microbes from themselves to Barclay by contact? Remember, Barclay never sees the "thing" clearly, though it does have a skin-like colour and the approximate shape of an arm. What if the person reached out and we just couldn't see their body in the background because of the matter stream? Like a person reaching through an obscuring fog, for example? It's natural that Barclay or the crew would never speculate on this, because a person surviving in a buffer that long is unheard of, and everyone is still thinking of the crew as "missing" rather than "present" right there under their noses. We wouldn't see anyone surviving in a buffer long-term like that until Commander Riker's copy and old Chief Scotty from TOS pops up in later episodes. At this point it is unheard of.
It is only after Lt. Barclay asks Alexa to google up Web MD.com for him does he start suspecting he may have transporter psychosis - which as unlikely as it is, is still more likely than the missing crew surviving in the buffer all this time (as normally people can only last a minute or two in it at most), because at least you have cases of psychosis - there are no cases (to my knowledge) of people surviving in a buffer long-term at this point in the Star Trek universe. So now Barclay has had the experience, built it up in his mind, got the computer to confirm it for him, let it fester further in his mind, to the point that he WANTS to take a third trip just to see now, frightened as he is.
In a hilarious scene, he "orders" Chief O'Brien to transport him (despite having earlier been relived of duty), O'Brien doesn't really buy it but goes along with it and this is when we finally see the "mouth" like shadow on the "microbe." When Barclay is in full anxiety mode. By now, we should know something is off (though I admit I didn't until I looked back in hindsight) because microbes don't have mouths. They cannot bite. The way microscopic organisms consume is not the way we consume. But really, think about it for a second - an arm you cannot see but a blurry shape of, plus the fact you've been told this is a microbe on top of your already out-of-control anxiety - could a human arm blurred in a thick fog not look like a giant worm coming to get you? Especially if you are already frightened and you only get a glimpse of it for a few seconds? Remember O'Brien told the others they would get a "bumpy ride" of 4-5 seconds - but by the time Barclay showed up he got the normal ride of 1-3 seconds, take that time frame minus what he couldn't see without eyes between being de- and re-materalised, and he only gets a glance at this "thing." Could a glance at an arm coming out of a fog not look scary? Fingers like teeth, shadow of the palm like a gaping mouth? Can you even have a shadow in a matter stream?
Think about it... why would he grab on to this scary monster trying to get him, when before he recoiled? He only grabs on later, during his FOURTH transport when O'Brien said they would have to suspend him in the stream for FORTY-FIVE SECONDS to rid his body of the microbes. 45 seconds is a long time compared to the mere 1 or 2 he had before... don't believe me? Try holding your breath for 45 seconds and you'll see it feels like forever. Is it possible he was forced to look at this "microbe" thing for so long that he realised he was actually seeing an arm and just instinctively reached out? Afterall, it must have looked VERY different once he got a moment to really look at it as opposed to just glancing at it out of fear.
I can't think of why else he wouldn't've warned the rest of the crew when they also went in to rescue the others, other than that he realised there was no monster at all, it was just his fear distorting his perception. Like the tree branch that scratches your bedroom window at night during every Halloween flick ever. It looks and sounds and feels scary only when you ARE scared. But then mom comes in and turns on the bedroom like and suddenly that tree isn't so scary anymore.
That's the only way I know to take this episode. And that because we saw it from Barclay's perspective, we became just as "frightened" in a way (as in, we saw it the way he saw it, rather than it actually was). I could be wrong, but the episode doesn't make much sense to me otherwise. To me, it has to be either that, or the "monsters" were just merely allegorical for Braga's fear of flying, as it has been said this episode was based on. But Star Trek doesn't do a lot of overt allegory like that, and usually there are some kind of physical explanation for most episodes in general.
All in all, I completely forgot the crew members were even missing until they were grabbed at the end of the episode. Normally I would say that's not very good writing, but in this case they were just merely the B plot and Barclay was the A plot (when normally you'd expect it to be the reverse) - which I don't mind because I actually like Barclay as a character for the most part. Barclay episodes are always fun even if they all are filled with glaring plot holes and wide leaps of logic :)
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