The critics agree that this episode lives in the bottom ten of all Star Trek episodes, but we
kinda liked seeing
Lincoln and
Surak, even if
Spock concludes that they were
mere sims.
— Michael Main
Conjecture, Captain, rather than explanation: It would seem that we were held in the
power of creatures able to control matter and to rearrange molecules in whatever fashion
was desired, so they were able to create images of Sarak and Lincoln after scanning our
minds and using their fellow creatures as source matter.