The resolution of this episode was quite unsatisfying because it didn't make sense given the power that the ghostly entities possessed to take over the Enterprise. Having taken over the bodies of Data (Brent Spiner), Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis), and Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney), and using the identities of Starship personnel long thought dead over two hundred years ago, the 'spirit' entities locked down virtually all of the Enterprise's functions, and ultimately demanded that the skeletal remains of the original Starship Essex officers salvaged from a moon of Mab-Bu VI be returned to Earth. But why? When what they really wanted was for the Enterprise to board all the entities trapped on the moon and bring them to a place where they could take over additional host bodies. Picard and crew threw them a monkey wrench by stating they were all prepared to die rather than fulfill that request, since the entities were all the spirits of former criminals, trapped on what was really a penal colony. So, the three alien life forms simply turned tail and agreed to return to their moon prison to be trapped for eternity. The only saving grace for this story was seeing Data, Troi and O'Brien seemingly act out of character, though when you eventually realize it wasn't really them, the tension in the story is shifted to the alien spirits.
Review of Power Play
