Ménage à Troi

"Ménage à Troi"
Star Trek: The Next Generation episode
Riker, Lwaxana Troi and Deanna Troi are held captive.
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 24
Directed by	Robert Legato
Written by	Fred Bronson Susan Sackett
Featured music	Ron Jones
Production code	172
Original air date	June 10, 1990
Guest stars
Majel Barrett - Lwaxana Troi Frank Corsentino - Damon Tog Ethan Phillips - Farek Peter Slutsker - Nibor Rudolph Willrich - Reittan Grax Carel Struycken - Mr. Homn
Episode chronology
← Previous "Sarek" Next → "Transfigurations"
List of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes

"Ménage à Troi" is the 72nd episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. The 24th episode of the third season.

Plot

At a reception aboard the Enterprise following a trade conference on Betazed, Counselor Troi argues with her mother, Lwaxana Troi, about her insistence that Deanna get married and raise a family. At the same party, Lwaxana is approached by the Ferengi Daimon Tog of the ship Krayton, who is interested in Lwaxana in a sexual way, but also explains he would like Lwaxana to use her telepathy to help him make business. Lwaxana rejects him flatly and later remarks that she would rather eat Orion wing-slugs than date Tog.

Afterwards, at the urging of Captain Picard, Riker and Deanna decide to take a quick shore leave on Betazed, while the Enterprise heads out on a routine mission studying a nebula. Lwaxana tracks down her daughter and Riker, with intent to encourage romance between the couple. She is just getting started when Daimon Tog arrives stating that he has come for Lwaxana. When he is again rebuffed by Lwaxana, Tog has himself and the others transported aboard the Krayton, leaving a confused Mr. Homn to wonder where his employer had gone.

The three awaken in a cell aboard the Krayton. Tog then has Deanna and Lwaxana beamed into the lab of Farek, a Ferengi doctor who hopes to study Lwaxana's telepathy using mind probes. In the process of transporting them he leaves the women's clothing behind, saying that women are not worthy enough to wear clothes. Lwaxana pretends to be interested in Tog, and gains Deanna's return to the cell with Riker by agreeing to discuss with Tog a proposal to use her telepathic abilities in trade negotiations.

Riker entices a Ferengi guard into a chess game, and once outside the cell quickly overcomes him. Once freed, Deanna and Riker attempt to send a message to the Enterprise and learn that the ship's communication system is secured by access code. As Lwaxana seduces Tog by rubbing his ears, she receives a telepathic message from Deanna asking her to try to get Tog's access code.

Lwaxana has nearly gotten Tog to tell her the code when Farek walks in and catches her in the act. Farek threatens to humiliate Tog by revealing his incompetence to the Ferengi, but offers to forget the incident if Lwaxana is turned over to him for experimentation, despite the fact that the proposed tests may be lethal.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise leaves the nebula, which has been interfering with communications, and learn from Betazed officials that Riker and the Trois have been kidnapped. Returning to Betazed, the Enterprise crew discovers flowers indigenous to a Ferengi planet at the spot where Deanna and Riker were last seen. Picard orders a frequency scan to see if Riker has somehow sent a message, but are unable to pick up anything discernible. In fact, Riker has tapped into the system on the Krayton that suppresses Cochrane distortion from the ship's warp field, and modulated it to generate a signal using unsuppressed distortion... into a pattern he hopes the Enterprise crew will recognize.

In the midst of the search, Wesley is in final preparation to depart to Earth for his second attempt to pass the Starfleet Academy entrance exam. Just as he is about to leave, Wes realizes that the modulated interference itself may be the signal, and he rushes back to the Bridge, missing his transport back to Earth. Decoding the signal, Wesley finds Riker has provided the heading of the Krayton, and the Enterprise heads out in pursuit.

In the meantime, Deanna is experiencing great pain as she senses the mind probes being used on Lwaxana. Riker, having finished setting up the modulation of the Cochrane distortion, arms himself, and bursts into Farek's lab to free Lwaxana, but a standoff ensues when Tog enters with a phaser. Just then the Enterprise arrives, and Lwaxana buys the release of Troi and Riker by agreeing to stay with Tog, and serve him both as a lover and a business partner. After Riker and Deanna are returned to the Enterprise, Picard begins to play the role of a jealous lover - telling Tog that if he can't have Lwaxana no-one will and threatening to destroy Tog's vessel and all those on board. Fearing for his life Daimon Tog hurriedly returns Lwaxana and leaves the area post haste. So convinced is Lwaxana of Picard's "love" for her that she takes her place on his lap in the command chair causing Picard to quickly tell Wesley to "set course for Betazed," almost whispering "warp nine."

Wesley is told that he will be allowed to reapply for entrance to Starfleet Academy in one year, and Picard gives him a field promotion to full Ensign in light of his contributions to the ship and crew.

Notes

• The title is a pun on the French phrase ménage à trois.
• Tog reveals his ship's access code begins with "Kei Yuri." They are known in Japanese anime as the Dirty Pair for always causing much collateral damage in their cases.

References

• Star Trek The Next Generation DVD set, volume 3, disc 6, selection 4.

External links

• Ménage à Troi at the Internet Movie Database
• "Ménage à Troi" at TV.com
• Ménage à Troi at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Ménage à Troi at StarTrek.com
• Ménage à Troi rewatch by Keith R.A. DeCandido