Frame of Mind

Riker is preparing for two roles: a dangerous covert mission to a troubled planet, and the lead in a shipboard play about a man confined to a mental institution. After the opening performance, he finds himself in an actual alien asylum, where the staff insist he is a patient and that his life on the Enterprise is a delusion. Riker lurches between the asylum, the ship and the stage, and each reality cracks apart around him. Increasingly unsure of his own sanity, he discovers a strange device implanted in his head. Firing a phaser, he shatters the layers of illusion one by one and finally wakes on an operating table. The truth emerges: he was captured during the covert mission, and his captors were using the implant to break his mind and extract Federation secrets. Back home, a shaken Riker returns to the ship and pulls down the theatre set.