“That’s a superconducting magnet, isn’t it?!” You wouldn’t think so to look at it, but that is one of the sweetest and most exuberant “meet cute” lines you’ll ever hear. It isn’t even a “meet cute” it’s more like just a “meet.” Young Salia, played by the curious Jaime Hubbard, just walks over to Wesley Crusher and into our hearts. She is a perfect geek’s dream. Attractive but demure, a total techie nerd, but always smiling. I can’t tell if Jaime Hubbard is one of the world’s best actors or the worst. All I know is that her performance here is incredibly unique and fresh — exactly what is needed to wake young Wes out of his interest in warp drive mechanics and into interstellar dating. Jaime Hubbard’s career slipped out into a wormhole after her TNG appearance. I’m curious to know why, as she definitely had something going for her. That instant, though, turning her head, smiling, then bouncing over to poke “That’s a superconducting magnet, isn’t it?” is, I’m not fooling, one of the most remarkable pieces of acting and directing I’ve ever seen. The line is so idiotic — how do you play it? You can go for “sexy” but then you become a mock-Mae West. If you throw the line away, it loses its enticing essence. It would be near impossible to just play it straight — who could pull if off? That’s what they do here and it leaps right out of the TV screen and grabs you by the throat.
