Star Trek The Next Generation: Every Season One Episode Ranked From Worst To Best
21. Haven
Love her or hate her, here comes Lwaxana Troi!
This episode introduces Lwaxana for the first time, along with her valet Mr. Homm. The episode was produced early in production, before the episode The Last Outpost, which means that this was the first appearance by Armin Shimmerman in Star Trek as well, as he plays the face on the gift box that speaks.
The episode centres around an arranged marriage for Troi, though really serves as an exploration of the feelings that Riker and Troi feel for each other. It is also one of the two times that Riker is referred to as Bill, rather than Will.
It also serves as an exploration for Troi's somewhat unique accent. Lwaxana claims that Troi got her accent from her father and that every time she speaks, she reminds her mother of him. Troi seems to imply that Lwaxana doesn't want to be reminded as she claims Mr. Homm's predecessor tried to rid her of it, on her mother's orders. However, in the seventh season episode Dark Page, Troi's father appears and has a normal American accent.
Unfortunately, there's no one else to blame for that.
The episode features a sub-plot involving the last remaining survivors of a deadly biological weapon, simply trying to survive. It has the feeling of two entirely different scripts that were stuck together when neither one could fill the required time. The Tarellian ship though is a beautiful design - one of the strong positives to the episode.