A Star Trek: The Next Generation Actor Has Come To Love One Of The Show's Worst Episodes

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The "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Sub Rosa," from the show's seventh season, is often considered one of its worst, as we here at /Film declared in our list of TNG's worst episodes. "Sub Rosa" is a strange Harlequin romance story about an ancient ghost named Ronin (Duncan Regehr) who, until recently, served as the live-in lover to the 100-year-old grandmother of Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden). When grandma dies, Dr. Crusher inherits a magical candle that, when lit, can bodily summon Ronin. Dr. Crusher and Ronin begin a romance of their own, with Ronin imploring that Dr. Crusher leave her job on the USS Enterprise.

Ronin is an excellent lover, we learn, although his ghostly lovemaking style involves turning into a green cloud of smoke and surrounding Beverly's body. There are several scenes of Dr. Crusher writhing and moaning in sexual ecstasy while semi-obscured by a cheesy-looking mist effect. There's also a scene later in the episode where Data (Brent Spiner) and Geordi (LeVar Burton) go grave-robbing (!).

Remember all those times that "Star Trek" aimed to be scientifically salient and mildly realistic? Yeah, there's none of that here. "Sub Rosa" is just full-on magical hocus-pocus. The only sci-fi explanation they give is that Ronin was something called an "anaphasic alien" who used the magical candle as his "plasma-based energy receptacle." Even to Trekkies, that doesn't make sense. 

Patrick Stewart reportedly hated this episode, but McFadden now finds the episode hilarious, albeit in a bad, campy way. During a recent telethon (covered by TrekMovie), McFadden talked to fellow "Star Trek" actress Tawny Newsome about "Sub Rosa" to express her continued incredulity with the episode. Newsome, who played Beckett Mariner on "Star Trek: Lower Decks," startlingly argued that "Sub Rosa" is good, actually, mostly because of McFadden's committed performance.

Gates McFadden likes Sub Rosa, but only as something to be laughed at

It was so rare that Dr. Crusher was the central character of a given episode, so it's a pity that one of them had to be something as goofy and awful as "Sub Rosa." In talking to Tawny Newsome, Gates McFadden recalls how she thought it was stupid from day one. More than anything, she remembers having to writhe and moan, emulating sexual climax for a green cloud in one of the most uncomfortable "Star Trek" scenes ever. As she said:

"When I saw the 'Sub Rosa' script, I was like, 'You are kidding me.' Patrick hated it. He was like 'This is absurd.' [...] And when you read it, there are so many completely absurd things in it. And it's more like a little ... a Gothic, I don't know horror or something. But yeah, now I embrace it because I think it is hilarious. I mean, I just, I've learned to love the green-eyed orgasm that Crusher has, you know? I mean, that doesn't happen every day, a green-eyed orgasm."

To be sure, that happens to most of us, tops, once or twice a month. Newsome, however, noted that "Sub Rosa" is more than just Harlequin camp. Newsome admired how committed Gates McFadden was to the part, even if it was absurd. For Newsome, McFadden sold it, as she said: 

"[Y]ou are acting the hell out of that one. Like, Crusher doesn't know that she's in something funny or campy or absurd, like, [...] you are acting like it is Shakespeare, and I think that's what makes it a classic." 

Not many would agree that "Sub Rosa" is a "classic," per se, but Newsome's point is taken. McFadden is committed to the role, and doesn't wink at the camera or half-ass any of her scenes. Those green-eyed orgasms are 100% professional. 

So is Sub Rosa good?

It should be noted that we here at /Film aren't the only ones to rank "Sub Rosa" as one of the show's worst episodes. CNET once reported on a fan poll, back in 2016, that listed "Sub Rosa" as the sixth worst episode in the entire "Star Trek" franchise. That was before any of the Paramount+-era "Star Trek" shows began, however, so that ranking might have changed in the ensuing decade. Syfy noted that same year that, yes, "Sub Rosa" is widely hated, but that it also should be revisited. Maybe there's more to it than we think. 

But it's really hard to get past the outright magic of the series. "Star Trek," of course, wasn't above magical conceits, and even had a semi-regular trickster god character, Q (John de Lancie), who could simply manipulate reality to his will. Also, we can all openly acknowledge that Trek's faster-than-light travel is impossible, that holodecks couldn't possibly exist, and that — here in the mid 2020s — a future of peace, love, and understanding seems increasingly impossible. But at the very least, "Star Trek" was always based in real-world science, and a general sense of diplomatic optimism. Without those things, a "Star Trek" episode may as well be any other sci-fi series. "Sub Rosa," with its handsome sex ghosts and magical candles and grave-robbing, is just absurd. 

But then, "Star Trek" has also always had a little room for camp. Who could forget, for instance, "The Way To Eden," the original series episode where a cult of hippies takes over the Enterprise? Or "A Piece of the Action," wherein the crew of the Enterprise find a planet modeled after 1930s gangsters? Maybe it's okay that "Sub Rosa" is a little silly.