“Conundrum” (5×14)
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The premise of the episode, with the entire crew of the Enterprise suffering from amnesia, is an engine to explore who these people are innately and how they approach problems with limited information.
Mostly, the episode respects the intelligence and capabilities of its characters. They tackle their situation pretty systematically, steadily adjusting as more information becomes available to them. The red flags that the audience picks up on are also picked up on by the characters.
The one question is why “MacDuff”, who went to such effort to take over the ship and manipulate its personnel and records, didn’t make himself captain instead of first officer. Worf refused to participate in a mutiny because Picard had won his respect earlier in the episode. But he might not have refused the order if he thought “MacDuff” was the rightful captain. I think a line of technobabble about it being too difficult to switch over the command codes from Picard or something was necessary to smooth over that plot hole.
It was fun to see a young Liz Vassey pop up as a member of the crew being treated for a holodeck injury at the time everybody’s memories were taken away, and as a result having to spend the episode in a bathing suit with no context clues to help her figure out more.
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