“Skin of Evil” is episode twenty-three of season one of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Enterprise is heading to rendezvous with shuttlecraft 13, on which Counselor Troi is returning from a conference. Engineering is doing preventative maintenance on the dilithium crystals, so they currently only have impulse. Worf reports no vessels in the vicinity, then asks Tasha how prepared she is for the martial arts competition. She’d like some help practicing from him in the holodeck later. According to Worf, she’s favourite in the ship’s pool. He may have bet on her; Worf considers Tasha a sure thing.
Geordi reports they are still an hour and ten minutes from the rendezvous when Worf states they are getting an emergency transmission from the shuttle, audio only. Lt. Prieto reports they have a system failure and he doesn’t know where he is. The captain contacts engineering and Lt. Cmdr. Leland T. Lynch – yes, that’s how he responds – answers. Lynch says it will be 20 minutes until they have warp, maybe more. Captain Picard wants it faster. The shuttle is now dangerously close to a planet; according to Data, it is uninhabited but little is known about it. Engineering is working fast and Troi says the shuttle is out of control.
The Enterprise loses contact with the shuttle, which is assumed to have crash-landed on the planet. Lynch skips just about every step and tells the captain they have minimum warp. Picard orders warp 8. Yes, he heard what Lynch said, but that’s an order. Data has got no emergency signal from the shuttle. There are no signs of life and no vegetation on the planet and a minimum atmosphere. Worf has located the shuttle but it’s buried under debris and he’s having problems detecting lifesigns. There are some, but he can’t tell how many, and they can’t beam them up because the sensors are not fully penetrating the debris. Which is unusual. Riker leads Data and Tasha on an away team; Dr Crusher will meet them in the transporter room.
There’s a pool of black tar blocking the way to the shuttle when they beam down. Tasha suggests they go around it. The pool moves to block their path. Data cannot tell what it is, only what it isn’t Lots of insufficient information. He can’t rule out it being a lifeform and the pool speaks, congratulating the ‘tin man’ and forms into a roughly humanoid figure.
Picard does not believe the proximity of the creature to the crash to be a coincidence. The creature calls itself Armus and wants to know why they are here. Rescuing their injured crewmen is not a good enough reason. Nor does it agree that preserving life is important. Tasha tries passing anyway and it blasts her away. The creature proves resistant to their phasors. Dr Crusher checks Tasha and says she’s dead. The away team are beamed back and Tasha is taken to sickbay. Tasha is still dead and all attempts at resuscitation fail. That’s probably the most senseless and pointless death of a major character on Star Trek; worthy of a redshirt but nothing else.
On the planet, Armus covers the shuttle and starts gloating at Troi about her friends deserting her and that they won’t come back, as well as killing Tasha. Troi felt her die. Does Troi want to know why Armus did it? It would be a meaningless answer, as it was an act for no reason. That was the reason; Armus did it because it wanted to, because it amused him. Troi corrects Armus; he thought it would amuse him but it did not. Arguing with an empath is not working out so well.
Captain Picard breaks up the senior staff squabbling about Tasha’s death. Their feelings have to wait until the shuttle crew is back. Worf is acting chief of security. The shuttle is behind forcefields and they are powerless to transport the crew unless Armus allows them. Armus could have killed the others too. This time, Picard wants Geordi to go with them; he may be able to sense something. Worf feels he would best serve remaining on the ship at the tactical station.
Troi wants to talk with the away team, but Armus won’t let her. Because it makes them worried. She notices that he is surprised that they came back. Because the others did not. Armus can’t hide his emptiness from Troi. She asks who hurt him, who left him alone and rejected and so angry. Armus doesn’t want to share.
On the ship, they are trying to work out how to get through Armus’s forcefields. Captain Picard ends up beaming down to speak to Armus. Armus wants them to entertain him with his sadistic games, and he takes every chance to try and make them suffer, but they give him no joy and, at one point, Picard delivers a fairly savage verbal beatdown on the creature that utterly crushes him.
This episode was filmed before the previous episode, “Symbiosis”, which meant the preceding episode was Denise Crosby‘s last episode. Close to the end of that episode, as Picard and Crusher are leaving a cargo bay, at the very back of the short, just before the doors close, she waves at the camera in her last shot.