“Phantasms” is episode six of season seven of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Data is walking through the corridors of the Enterprise. Something looks odd. He stops to chat the Geordi about the new warp core and Geordi shouts it will be a lot of fun as Data leaves. Data hears a ringing like a phone and finds three men who look like old-time miners knocking a hole in the bulkhead. He asks them to stop, then produces a strange sound. They attack, ripping off an arm, a leg and his head. Data wakes.
The Enterprise is leaving a starbase after the installation of a new warp core and are going to test its capabilities. A troubled Captain Picard comes on the bridge. Riker asks what’s wrong. A message from Starfleet Command. Bad news? You could say that. The captain has been invited to the annual admirals’ banquet. He’s managed to avoid it for the last six years and can’t think of anything more tedious. And he’s pretty much used his excuses up.
Data speals to Geordi about the dream. He’s had many dreams since discovering the program in “Birthright, Part I” and never had one with such strange and disturbing imagery. Geordi thinks dwelling on the nightmare is perfectly normal. An ensign calls his name and arrives, gushing over him. When she leaves, Data comments on her. It seems the ensign has a crush on Geordi. It isn’t reciprocated and it’s getting uncomfortable. Data offers to speak to her on Geordi’s behalf. Geordi declines.
The captain contacts Geordi for a status report. Geordi says they’re ready to bring the new core online and says they have warp power at the captain’s discretion. The captain orders the Enterprise set off. And nothing much happens. He contacts Geordi to ask why his ship isn’t moving. Geordi thinks it’s fixed. They try again. This time power goes down across the ship. Data takes the engines offline and power comes back up. Geordi needs at least a couple of hours.
Data is in his quarters when Troi arrives. He talks about watching Spot sleep and his dreams. Data is reluctant to initiate another dream sequence as the nightmares are unsettling. Troi tells him not to be afraid of the imagery of dreams. It’s the unconscious, if Data has one, trying to express itself through the dream state. Data decides to try again, and initiates a dream when Troi leaves.
Data is in Ten Forward. Worf removes a commbadge from a slice of cake and starts eating. Worf says the cake is delicious. Given what Worf has called delicious in the past, not a great sign. Data asks what it is. Cellular peptide cake. With mint frosting. The ringing is heard again. Dr Crusher and Riker are at the bar. She is drinking from a straw in his head. The three miners are surrounding something. The strange noise that annoys them starts again when Data opens his mouth. He closes it again. Data is handed a cake knife. The cake is Troi’s torso, a sponge cake despite what Worf said. Despite Troi begging him not to, Data starts to cut.
He wakes to find Troi, Worf and Geordi standing over him. They’re been trying to wake him for the last five minutes. Data was late to his shift. Worf says he must have overslept. Data says that isn’t possible. Something is wrong.
Geordi checks Data over and doesn’t find anything wrong. It’s possible this is an intended design of the sleep program, to better replicate the human experience. Geordi asks what the dream was about. Data would prefer to study the images further before discussing them. Geordi thinks they must have been strange. Data heads to see a holographic Sigmund Freud. He is not helpful.
The test of the new warp core is not going so well. The Enterprise isn’t going at all. Admiral Nakamura is checking up to see if Captain Picard will make the dinner. Clearly, he doesn’t believe the Enterprise has genuine problems. Then Data’s dreams start hitting him during the day and get disturbing. And dangerous to others.