10 Times Star Trek Stole From Itself

This third season episode of Deep Space Nine reunites Lwaxana Troi with Odo, in what became a surprisingly tender double act. She is suffering from a type of fever that means she projects her amorous feelings onto other inhabitants of the station, leading to several scenes of pure chaos. While the episode is a lot of fun, it is in fact a comedic version of The Next Generation episode Sarek.

The earlier episode is a far more serious take on this idea. The elder Vulcan man is beginning to lose control of his emotions, transferring them to the crew of the Enterprise. The fight in Ten Forward is the most famous scene from this show.

In Deep Space Nine, while the idea is fun, the execution is a little thin. Sarek's episode had an emotional core that made the audience truly care for the trouble that he was going through. Lwaxana is effectively going through a combination of heat and menopause, which is played for laughs, robbing the story of any core.

This is another example of where Star Trek really should have just left well enough alone!