From the start of this episode, I suspected that Gene Rodenberry was just throwing another bone to his wife (Majel Barrett) yet again. By the end of the episode, I knew that I was correct. She wore out whatever modicum of charm that she had in the first episode of this series in which she appeared as Deanna's mom Lwaxana Troi. Now, as I'm looking at her IMDb credits, I've noticed that she appears as Lwaxana several more times beyond this show. Help me. It's bizarre that they had two episodes in a row in which the crew is entertaining such irreverent people (the other: "Up the Long Ladder") so close to their first encounter with the Borg. One might suspect that after they were eye-to-eye with humanity's potential apocalypse the show would shift to a slightly graver tone. But it's obviously not the case. I think that this lighter fare is totally out of place, and at least one show in which the crew makes preparations for the most formidable opponent in Trek history was necessary.