“Violations” (5×12)
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This is an icky storyline, basically Star Trek: SVU. The investigation subplot, with Georgi and Data combing through evidence to eliminate possibilities and ultimately zero in on the perpetrator was really effective.
Where the episode is less successful is dealing with the psychological impacts of such an assault. It’s clear that the writers knew they were telling a rape story; the family patriarch even uses that word.
But rape results in lasting trauma, and there’s no evidence that Troi, Riker, or Crusher are struggling at all in the aftermath.
And two of three flashbacks would seem to be particularly impactful: Jev takes a pleasurable memory of Will and Deanna flirting, and then twists it into him forcing himself on Deanna. Even consciously knowing what happened, you think it would create a real crisis of intimacy between Will and Deanna as friends. And for Dr. Crusher, that memory getting forced back to the fore would seem to reopen her grief and loss at her husband’s tragic death.
It’s the kind of thing that would carry forward and have lasting consequences in any of the new Trek shows, even the mostly episodic “Strange New Worlds”. It feels almost irresponsible for a show as strictly episodic as this one to tell this story, since it couldn’t grapple with the aftermath.
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