In the twenty-first episode of the sixth season of The Next Generation, THIS WAS AN EXPERIENCE. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
Trigger Warning: For discussion of mental illness, ableism, nonconsensual medical procedures, gaslighting
Holy shit. I still think “Remember Me” is a much better version of this same episode, but THIS WAS SO MESSED UP. This is one of those stories where the entire episode is devoted to a single concept and a singular experience, and the main character who deals with it must “break out” of said disaster. I mean, I’m also avoiding the obvious: this episode invokes a trope that we’ve all seen in sci-fi and fantasy TV shows a million times over. Whether this was the first significant use of it or not, it still is one of my least favorite tropes ever.
And yet, I didn’t hate “Frame of Mind.” It still peddles in the same exploitation of mental illness and disability that you always see in stories like this, namely since it uses physical stereotypes and absurd dialogue in order to take shortcuts. Honestly, that’s part of the reason tropes – both good and bad – are used as heavily as they are. A writer can convey a lot with a trope without having to devote much time to it. We can understand that Riker is struggling with his sanity by watching his facial expressions, even if that’s not actually how people with mental illness struggle with the same thing. Usually, in episodes like “Frame of Mind,” there’s a lot of terrible imagery utilized to convey this very concept. The character often wakes up in an asylum or in a hospital, and the writers do truly awful worldbuilding in order to say, “Look! Look! This person might be losing their mind! Isn’t this messed up?”
Except there’s also usually no care made for people who are actually affected by the very things writers borrow from for inspiration. Now, I don’t think this episode is exempt from that, but there are so many things here that made this experience completely unlike what I expected. I think that the main reason for this is that “Frame of Mind” is wholly about Riker’s fight against gaslighting. We are dropped into this, and we witness what it is like to have your perception of reality challenged and manipulated.
In short? It’s horrifying. There are layers of delusions, hallucinations, and manipulations happening here, and it’s not until the big confrontation at the end that Riker (or the audience!) is able to put it all together. Prior to that? THIS IS RIDICULOUS. It’s painful to watch, it’s a mind-bending mystery, and it’s a chance for Jonathan Frakes to show off his skills. (Though I still laugh at that scene where he tries to throttle the guard while screaming, “NOOOOOO!” You can spit the scenery out, sir.) It’s an all-encompassing nightmare, and the show designs it to feel that way because we can’t figure out how it’s happening. Obviously, Riker’s entire life is not a delusion. His life on the Enterprise was real, and so were all his friends and experiences. Plus, the show is hardly going to commit to a plot twist like that, you know? We are aware going into this episode that there will be a resolution provided to us within forty minutes.
And yet? I couldn’t see what it was. I couldn’t understand how this was happening. Clearly, someone was trying to convince Riker that his life was a lie, but why? Through what mechanism? What could they possibly gain from this? As I tried to figure out the means by which this was occurring, the writers threw one curveball after another. I expected Riker to stay in the cell for the remainder of the episode after the first time he flashed there, and I was shocked by the fact that “Frame of Mind” kept switching between two worlds. In hindsight, I now see why that’s so brilliant: It made me want to figure out which world was the “real” one, and that meant I looked at the whole thing wrong. About halfway through, the two “worlds” began to bleed together, which made none of it make any sense. Were his Enterprise friends somehow breaking through the delusion created by Syrus and Suna, or was that his imagination, too?
Really, it wasn’t until Dr. Crusher appeared in the common room that I got the first real hint as to what was happening. At best, I think that her scene here was the first introduction of something real and tangible. Even if the entire sequence – and the subsequent rescue by Data and Worf – was part of a hallucination, I feel like Dr. Crusher somehow broke through it temporarily, putting the thought into Riker’s head that what he was experiencing was not reality. Admittedly, I don’t actually have any information to support that, haha. If we view the final scene as Riker’s first real moment of breaking through the delusion, then that means no one had any access to him until the end.
Which is still pretty cool because that means HIS OWN MIND helped him escape. Indeed, that was the reason he was able to survive anyway, so…kudos to him? I think that perhaps if I examine this anymore, it’ll fall apart, so let me just say that this was a wild ride. It’s got some issues with the presentation, but it’s certainly a strong episode.
The video for “Frame of Mind” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
Mark Links Stuff
– I am now on Patreon!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME.
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