Episode 270: "Eye of the Beholder" 

The crew is stunned by the suicide of Lieutenant Kwan, who jumps into the plasma stream by his work station in Nacelle Control. Troi and Worf investigate, and they are baffled as to why the seemingly well-adjusted crew member would take his own life. The woman he was dating, Ensign Calloway, is equally shocked, as is Lieutenant Nara, Kwan's supervisor, who remarks that Kwan seemed normal the day he took his life. Troi climbs the ladder toward the catwalk from where Kwan jumped, and is suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of panic and fear.
Since Kwan was a partial empath, Beverly wonders if Troi picked up an empathic echo he left behind before his suicide. She urges Troi to be careful when returning to Kwan's station, and Worf consents to accompany her. As the two work together, hidden feelings hint at surfacing, but both resist. Later, they return to Nacelle Control and Troi climbs the ladder, abruptly finding herself in an unfinished version of the same room. She encounters a terrified woman and comes face-to-face with a strange, staring man before realizing Worf is nowhere to be seen.

Still disoriented, Troi sees the woman again, now embracing another man, and joining him in laughing at Troi. She then finds Worf and returns to reality. When Picard hears the room's description, he suggests that Troi saw something from the time of the ship's construction eight years before — a project in which Lieutenant Kwan participated. Troi feels she may have been seeing something through his eyes, and she and Worf research personnel files from the construction project. Troi recognizes the staring man as Lieutenant Walter Pierce, who currently works in Engineering. She and Worf question Pierce, but he claims not to remember working with Lieutenant Kwan back then. Troi senses Pierce has empathic ability, and that he is hiding something. Later, Worf walks Troi back to her quarters, and they give in to their building feelings and kiss passionately.

After spending the night together, Troi and Worf continue their duties. Beverly administers an empathic inhibitor to Troi, and she returns to Nacelle Control, while Worf stays in Sickbay to work with Calloway. Geordi opens the panel on which Kwan was working the day he died, and Troi suddenly sees the faces of Pierce and the terrified woman. Data and Geordi scan the wall behind the panel, and they find portions of a human skeleton, identified as the remains of the woman Troi saw. Since Lieutenant Kwan didn't start work on the U.S.S. Enterprise until six months after the woman's death, Troi realizes she didn't see the event through Kwan's eyes — she saw it through Pierce's. Worf goes to meet Pierce, while Troi returns to her quarters, and is shocked when Pierce arrives at her door.

Pierce tells Troi that Worf went to Calloway's quarters, and Troi rushes over to find Worf and Calloway embracing, then laughing at her. Overcome with jealousy, Troi grabs Worf's phaser and kills him, then runs to Nacelle Control and prepares to jump into the plasma stream. Suddenly, a hand pulls her back, and she turns to see Worf, alive. Troi notices everything is the same as it was when she and Worf first came to the nacelle tube together, and realizes the entire experience since then occurred in her mind. Later, she learns that Pierce and the laughing couple had died in a plasma discharge eight years before. Troi surmises that Pierce caught the other two having an affair, killed them both, activated the plasma stream to obliterate the evidence, then committed suicide. Because Pierce was part empath, both Kwan and Troi picked up the empathic signature he left behind. Fortunately, in Troi's case, tragedy was averted.

Production: 270
Season: 7 Episode: 18
Air Date: 02.28.1994
Stardate: 47622.1
Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes as William Riker
Brent Spiner as Data
LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn as Worf
Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi
Mark Rolston as Walter Pierce
Nancy Harewood as Lt. Nara
Tim Lounibos as Lt. Kwan
Johanna McCloy as Calloway
The Ferengi were originally introduced with the intention of making them the main, recurring adversaries in the series (very much like the Klingons were in the original series). However, audiences found the Ferengi too comical to take seriously as potential foes, and the race was gradually refined into the more (usually unintentionally) comical characters later typified by Quark in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993). The Borg eventually became infamous as TNG's ultimate nemesis.

Click this link to view the complete script in a TXT format

                STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION 
                              
                     "Eye of the Beholder" 
                          #40277-270 
                              
                           Story by 
                         Brannon Braga 
                              
                          Teleplay by 
                        Rene Echevarria 
                              
                          Directed by 
                          Cliff Bole 
THE WRITING CREDITS MAY NOT BE FINAL AND SHOULD NOT BE USED
FOR PUBLICITY OR ADVERTISING PURPOSES WITHOUT FIRST CHECKING
WITH THE TELEVISION LEGAL DEPARTMENT.
Copyright 1993 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights
Reserved. This script is not for publication or
reproduction. No one is authorized to dispose of same. If
lost or destroyed, please notify the Script Department.
                         FINAL DRAFT
      STAR TREK: "Eye of the Beholder" - 12/21/93 - CAST 
                STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION 
                     "Eye of the Beholder" 
                             CAST 
                BEVERLY            CALLOWAY
                DATA               KWAN
                GEORDI             NARA
                PICARD             PIERCE
                RIKER              WOMAN
                TROI               
                WORF   
            
                Non-Speaking       
                  N.D. CREWMEMBERS   
      STAR TREK: "Eye of the Beholder" - 12/20/93 - SETS 
                STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION 
                            "Masks" 
                             SETS 
            INTERIORS                  EXTERIORS
          
            USS ENTERPRISE             USS ENTERPRISE
              BRIDGE
              ENGINEERING
              JEFFERIES TUBE
              NACELLE CONTROL
              READY ROOM
              CORRIDOR
              KWAN'S QUARTERS
              BEVERLY'S OFFICE
              SICKBAY
              TROI'S QUARTERS
              TEN FORWARD
              OBSERVATION LOUNGE
              TURBOLIFT
              CALLOWAY'S QUARTERS
  STAR TREK: "Eye of the Beholder" - 12/09/93 - PRONUNCIATION GUIDE 
                STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION 
                     "Eye of the Beholder" 
                      PRONUNCIATION GUIDE 
                KWAN            Kwon
                NAPEAN          NAY-pee-un
                PSILOSYNINE     sill-oh-SIGH-uh-neen
                SALVATORE       Sal-va-TOR-ee
                YRIDIAN         yir-ID-ee-un        
                TIL'AMIN        TIL-a-min


 

Click this link to view the complete script in a TXT format