Underneath it all, “Skin of Evil” is a pretty straightforward episode. Again, I don’t know if authorial intent can be used to condemn a story that plays well, especially when it’s presaging internet phenomena in the earliest days of the Internet. 

Literally, the late eighties and early nineties were the years that the Internet was transitioning from research/military networks to public, commercial networks.  

And Derek was right about the IRC thing. I don’t know why I thought it was “IIRC” and not “IRC.” Also, the Charles Bronson films I was thinking of were the “Death Wish” series. Marina Sirtis was in the third one. I mentioned “The Executioner” or something which is a book series. The mix-up was because my dad loves both.