Star Trek: The Next Generation Rewatch: "Emergence"

If you want any more evidence that TNG had (you’ll pardon the expression) run out of steam, both in the writers room and in front of the camera, you need look no further than this dreary episode that has all the energy of a dead fish. Where early TNG would have had at least some awkward moralizing about the possibilities of a new life form, and middle TNG would’ve had some incisive philosophical and ethical quandaries, latter TNG can barely be arsed to make a fuss about the fact that the ship created a friggin’ lifeform! Aside from the occasional furrowed eyebrow at some of the holodeck combinations (like an Orient Express passenger repeatedly hitting the guy in armor with a gold chalice), nobody seems to be overly affected by this rather major thing that the ship is doing on its own.