In the episode, Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) takes a Starfleet Academy entrance exam while Adm. Gregory Quinn (Ward Costello) and Lt. Cdr.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) greets his friend Admiral Gregory Quinn (Ward Costello) and his assistant Lt.
For classified reasons, Quinn has ordered Remmick to perform an investigation of the Enterprise and its crew and expects Picard to fully co-operate.
Remmick's inquiry causes tension in the crew, particularly when he questions the trustworthiness of the senior staff based on their personal logs and past actions.
A young cadet, having failed the Starfleet Academy entrance examination, attempts to run away in a shuttlecraft but unbalances the engine, placing him in danger of burning up in the atmosphere.
The investigation is completed, and Remmick informs both Picard and Quinn that there is no sign of wrongdoing, and expresses his interest in joining its crew in the future.
He succeeds in passing several parts of the exam, and helps Mordock (John Putch), a highly talented Benzite and fellow competitor, to solve a difficult test problem so that they may both advance.
Outside the room, he discovers the explosion was fake and this was the psychological test: to see whether he could make a difficult decision in circumstances reminiscent of those that killed his father.
[2] Hannah Louise Shearer conducted an uncredited script re-write and left the details of the conspiracy deliberately open as plans were already underway for a follow-up story.
[2] In a scene cut from the episode, the crew celebrate Wesley's 16th birthday early on the presumption that he would be away on the day, due to joining the Academy.
[2] Guest stars included playwright-screenwriter Robert Schenkkan (who had been a fan of The Original Series) as Remmick; supporting himself contemporaneously as a working film/television actor, he would go on to receive the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Drama (The Kentucky Cycle) and the 2014 Tony Award for Best Play (All the Way).
Writing for Tor.com, Keith DeCandido questioned why the shuttle bay was not guarded, comparing it to a similar situation in The Original Series episode, "The Doomsday Machine".
DeCandido said that the exam made no sense, did not present any genuine suspense for the viewer because it was obvious that Wesley and Picard were not due to leave the series.