Cost of Living
- Episode aired Apr 18, 1992
- TV-PG
- 46m
As undetectable parasites devour the ship, Deanna's mother arrives, taking young Alexander under her wing en route to meeting a man she's blindly agreed to marry.As undetectable parasites devour the ship, Deanna's mother arrives, taking young Alexander under her wing en route to meeting a man she's blindly agreed to marry.As undetectable parasites devour the ship, Deanna's mother arrives, taking young Alexander under her wing en route to meeting a man she's blindly agreed to marry.
- Ensign Gates
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMajel Barrett's husband Gene Roddenberry passed away four months before "Cost of Living" was filmed. When Lwaxana gives a speech about how loneliness is a terrible thing at her age, some fans construed it as autobiographical for the actress.
- GoofsAs Picard and Data discuss the time it would take to reach the Pelores asteroid belt, Data states it would take over five hours at Warp 9, but a few minutes later on the bridge it's stated that it would take a little over three hours at Warp 6.5. Given the logarithmic scale of each level of Warp, the time at 6.5 would have been weeks or months at the very least to reach the asteroid belt.
- Quotes
Capt. Picard: I will not have that woman continuing to use this ship for her convenience simply because her daughter happens to be one of my officers!
Commander William T. Riker: Apparently, Deanna being on board is only part of the reason.
Capt. Picard: The other reason being?
Commander William T. Riker: She thinks the honor of giving away the bride should fall on YOU.
Capt. Picard: [comes to a halt, considering this] Permission for an on-board wedding is granted, Number One. Nothing would please me more than to give away Mrs. Troi.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Toys That Made Us: Star Trek (2018)
- SoundtracksStar Trek: The Next Generation Main Title
Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage
This is an episode that focuses heavily on the guest characters and I think you have to like them and enjoy the humour for it to work.
The story is okay, with a decent amount of irony written into the situation involving Lwxwana, her free spirited nature, and the personality of her potential husband. It does though take number of random turns to get where it needs to go and has a rather uninspired subplot.
Lwxwana and Alexander share plenty of screen time, and these are the scenes likely to be the most enjoyed or disliked. I struggled with most of them, particularly the holodeck sequences which have imagery that would not look out of place in a Stephen King horror scene. Thankfully, Worf just about makes some scenes bearable with some well delivered lines and Deanna Troi has some positive moments. Well done to Michael Dorn and Marina Sirtis.
Majel Barrett makes the best use of material she has, but I don't think it is very well written. She is consistently a great performer within the franchise, but most of the humour associated with this character never works for me.
Brian Bonsall also has weak material and it makes him appear to be an awkward actor, but I don't think he is bad, it's how the character is used that does him a disservice.
The subplot is just a sci-fi tick box exercise in my opinion and I expect to forget it's detail in very short space of time.
Visually it is pretty good, with some good costumes, props, and makeup effects. Even the weird holodeck moments are memorable to look at.
- snoozejonc
- Oct 8, 2021
Details
- Runtime46 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1