Season 3, Episode 16
Original air date: March 12, 1990
Star date: 43657.0

Mission summary

Data summons Wesley, La Forge, and Troi to his lab for some Really Big News. After a drumroll, he unveils… a thing! They’re not really sure what it is–it seems to be a Soong-type android in beta–until it calls Data “father” and Data explains that this is his child, Lal.

The trio are stunned as Lal greets them. Data explains that he discovered some new kind of tech to tech his own positronic brain. Right now it looks a bit robo-Maria from Metropolis, but this lets his child customize its character. His three friends are excited by this development, but when the news reaches Picard it creates a miniature shitstorm. He’s furious that Data would so lightly take it upon himself to create a new life, completely unsupervised. But Data rightly points out that he has as much a right to reproduce as anyone else onboard, if not more so:

PICARD: Data, you are seeking to achieve what only your own creator has been able to achieve. To make another functioning, sentient, android. To make another Data.
DATA: That is why I must attempt this, sir. I have observed that in most species, there is a primal instinct to perpetuate themselves. Until now, I have been the last of my kind. If I were to be damaged or destroyed, I would be lost forever. But if I am successful with the creation of Lal, my continuance is assured. I understand the risk, sir. and I am prepared to accept the responsibility.

Troi is on his side, too, and tries to talk Picard out of his petty narrowmindedness and point out with utmost sensitivity that he’s never been a father, which serves more to remind us that she’s been a mother and now we’re all upset again because why did that ever happen. Lal, meanwhile, has sorted through her Barbie playhouse and decided on the human female outfit. It’s a girl!

As with all new babies onscreen, we get a montage of her growing up: learning to swallow, catching a ball, smelling things, recognizing terrible taste in art… She develops rapidly and Data takes pleasure (or at least, whatever the android equivalent is) in experiencing these things with her, made new again through her eyes. She slowly begins to become sentient, questioning her world and her purpose in it (to which Data artfully responds that their function “is to contribute in a positive way to the world in which we live”). He also decides to send her to school, so that she can better emulate human reactions and more easily integrate with the rest of the crew.

Her first day of school, like most children’s, isn’t much fun. Lal’s classmates tease and laugh at her, and she recognizes, even if she does not understand, her isolation:

LAL: Why would they wish to be unkind?
DATA: Because you are different. Differences sometimes scare people. I have learned that some of them use humor to hide their fear.
LAL: I do not want to be different.

Data goes to the only other visible parent onboard, Dr. Crusher, for advice. Her kid was a freak, too, so she understands! She suggests that Data relate his own difficulties assimilating, to show her that she is not alone and that he is there for her. He will, but in the meantime, he sends her to Guinan to observe people on Ten Forward. She offers herself as a waitress in exchange, and stuns everyone by saying “I’ve”–a contraction. She has exceeded Data’s programming! So precocious, she’s definitely destined for the gifted and talented program. Lal gets started as a bartender and, wanting to imitate what she sees, winds up kissing Riker when he sets foot in the bar.

The laughs are short-lived, however, because Picard urgently needs to talk to Data about Starfleet’s “interest” in Lal. Admiral Haftel, douchehat of the week, thinks that Lal is better off being studied in a lab–without Data’s influence. He’s rendezvoused with the Enterprise and if he doesn’t like Lal’s “progress” is empowered to take her back to a science station (and away from her father). Haftel interviews Picard, then Data, and then finally Lal, who he tries to persuade to come back with him of her own will. But she thinks he’s he’s an ass:

HAFTEL: Yes. Don’t misunderstand me, I have great respect for your father.
LAL: You do not speak with respect.
HAFTEL: She seems very adversarial.
LAL: I’m merely stating a fact, Admiral.

Damn right.  Picard asks her what SHE wants to do, and she says she wants to stay aboard the Enterprise. Haftel dismisses her, but Lal leaves the ready room in disarray. She heads for Troi’s quarters, where she’s in obvious distress at the idea of being separated from Data. She can feel the fear. That’s… not right.

Haftel, on the other hand, has made up his mind. He asks, and then finally commands Data to hand her over to Starfleet. Data refuses absolutely and threatens to resign his commission, and Picard stands by him with a line ready about refusing to just follow orders. But before a real fight can erupt Troi calls them all to the lab to help Lal, who is suffering some kind of malfunction. Data discovers that the emotional awareness has caused (or is perhaps a symptom of) a cascade failure–a terminal malfunction. Though he and Haftel, who feels suuuuuper guilty about this, try everything they can to keep her going, she is dying.

DATA: Lal? I am unable to correct the system failure.
LAL: I know.
DATA: We must say goodbye now.
LAL: I feel.
DATA: What do you feel, Lal?
LAL: I love you, Father.
DATA: I wish I could feel it with you.
LAL: I will feel it for both of us. Thank you for my life. Flirting. Laughter. Painting. Family. Female. Human.

He deactivates her, but transfers her memories over to his programming so that she will live on.

Analysis

I’m not usually the schmaltzy type. If someone described this episode to me and I hadn’t seen it I would probably roll my eyes or sigh. But I absolutely cannot be cynical about it because it is just so beautiful. Every time Lal says goodbye and tells Data “thank you for my life,” I can’t help but cry, as I am flooded with the memories of all those afternoons reading The Giving Tree with my mother and feeling, even then, that connection and love, and all of its pain and confusion. It’s absolutely the most moving, poignant, and bittersweet episode of the series.

Having a child is a natural and reasonable desire on Data’s part. Children are a huge part of being human (or even humanoid), and it makes sense that at a certain point in his development Data would want to experience that as well. But with Data, creating a child allows him to learn about himself in new and interesting ways. Not only does he get to experience things for the first time all over again (which is a lovely scene and a lovely little voiceover), but what Lal learns with his brain will help him grow, adapt, and develop, too. She quickly exceeds his programming, and the direction she and her development take is absolutely crucial to his own self-exploration. This new data–ahem–can provide the answer to where he came from and why he is the person he is. If they have the same brain, will they have the same personality? The same interests? I don’t think we knew until now that Data is truly a unique person, formed as much by his experiences as his programming. It especially makes me wonder what Data would have been like if he had grown up with Soong, or even with another Data. He had to navigate the world alone.

Until they “answered” this with the stupid godawful emotion chip, this episode also represented to me exactly why Data had to be limited the way he was. I had always assumed that he was denied emotions because he could never survive with them–they’re irrational and just not reconcilable with his programming. Were he to have them, his life would be cut short just as quickly as Lal’s. As such, I liked to imagine that it was in a way Soong’s own fatherly gesture, to spare him not only deactivation but the pain and sadness of that existence. Thanks, TNG, for dashing my hopes with that awful movie I guess I’ll have to see again.

In any case, Lal challenges a second crucial and compelling idea: the Federation’s much-venerated autonomy principles. Why does Picard think that Data should have cleared this with him? Does he truly have all the rights of a sentient being, including the ability to continue his own existence? And I think it’s important to show that Picard’s first victory in “Measure of a Man” is meaningless unless the Federation is really willing to stand by it and enforce it against those who would take those rights away. Rights don’t mean much if others don’t respect them, which was highlighted expertly when Lal told Admiral Haftel that no matter what he said, he did not speak with respect about her father. It rightly points to the fact that Data is always and forever going to have to fight back against oppression and assert his freedoms against others who would take them, and that’s the cost of doing business with humanity.

The only part of this episode I cringe at is when Data and Beverly have their heart-to-heart, and she says that she helped Wesley get through puberty by telling her how lonely and miserable she was as a teenager, and thus They Bonded. Yeah, right! Parents never understand…

Now excuse me while I go re-read my Shel Silverstein and call my mom.

Torie’s Rating: Warp 6 (on a scale of 1-6)

Thread Alert: I actually like Lal’s little peasant dress, so I’m going to pick on Picard, who apparently sleeps posed like a painter’s model and wears his robe to bed. Unless it’s just a shirt with a really deep V-cut? Either way, the best part is that he answers the videophone looking like that. Don’t change for anyone, Picard.

Best Line: PICARD: Data, I would like to have been consulted.
DATA: I have not observed anyone else on board consulting you about their procreation, Captain.

Trivia/Other Notes: This was Jonathan Frake’s first directing effort. To prepare, he spent over 300 hours editing, dubbing, taking seminars, and reading textbooks. A pretty good first effort, if I do say so myself.

“The Offspring” began as a spec script by emerging writer René Echevarria. He was hired as a writer, and will go on to pen 17 more TNG episodes and 23 DS9 ones.

A former research consultant says that Whoopi Goldberg changed one of the lines on-set. She was supposed to be telling Lal about when “a man and a woman are in love,” and changed it to a gender-neutral version. They were going to throw in a same-sex couple into the background, too, but one call to production nixed the whole scene. The future, ladies and gentlemen!

Hallie Todd, who plays Lal, has an interesting Trek connection: she’s the stepdaughter of Guy Raymond, who was the human bartender in “The Trouble with Tribbles.” She is notable for two long-running series: the 1980s Showtime hit Brothers, and as the mom on Disney’s Lizzie McGuire.

Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 15 – “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”

Next episode: Season 3, Episode 17 – “Sins of the Father.”

“Yesterday’s Enterprise”

Season 3, Episode 15
Original air date: February 19, 1990
Star date: 43625.2

Mission summary

The Enterprise-D runs across an anomaly that may or may not be there. While they try to sort through their confusing, contradictory sensor readings, something emerges… As another ship crosses the threshold, everything and everyone shifts on the Enterprise-D: Their uniforms now have high collars, belts with phasers, and black cuffs. Nothing gets by Guinan; in the suddenly bustling Ten Forward, the wise and cryptic bartender notes, “This isn’t right. It’s changed.” The mystery deepens: On the now thematically darker Bridge, Worf has been replaced at tactical by an old face, Lt. Tasha Yar, who reports that the other vessel is a Federation starship, registry NCC-1701… C: U.S.S. Enterprise.

Picard’s “military log” for “combat date” 43625.2, in which he refers to the Enterprise-D as a battleship, helps paint an even bleaker picture of the situation. Their records indicate that their predecessor disappeared–presumed destroyed–22 years earlier near a Klingon outpost, Narendra III, which suggests the Enterprise-C has traveled through a temporal rift to its future. A distress signal fills in some of the details: They were attacked by Romulans. Riker leads an away team to the crippled ship to recover its crew, render assistance, and get it battle ready.

Guinan makes a rare appearance on the Bridge and tells the captain that things aren’t “right.” She remembers things differently; there should be children on the ship, and its mission is meant to be peaceful, not waging a war against the Klingons. “That ship from the past is not supposed to be here,” she says. “It’s got to go back.” Picard is incredulous; if this information had come from anyone but Guinan, he would have discounted it entirely.

Dr. Crusher patches up Captain Rachel Garrett and her crew from the Enterprise-C. Picard finally admits to Garrett that she’s now in the future, and she explains that they were attempting to help the Klingon outpost, which was under attack by four Romulan warbirds. Picard gives her some bad news:

The Narendra Three outpost was destroyed. It is regrettable that you did not succeed. A Federation starship rescuing a Klingon outpost might have averted twenty years of war.

Why, things might have turned out so differently! While Yar liaisons with a senior officer from the Enterprise-C (nudge nudge, wink wink), Lt. Richard Castillo, Picard begins entertaining the notion that they should send them back to put right what once went wrong. Data confirms that it is possible–and that it would be a suicide mission. The captain tries to get more information from Guinan.

GUINAN: There is no more. I wish there were. I wish I could prove it. But I can’t.
PICARD: Then I can’t ask them to go back.
GUINAN: You’ve got to.
PICARD: Guinan, they will die moments after they return. How can I ask them to sacrifice themselves based solely on your intuition?
GUINAN: I don’t know. But I do know that this is a mistake. Every fiber in my being says this is a mistake. I can’t explain it to myself so I can’t explain it to you. I only know that I’m right.
PICARD: Who is to say that this history is any less proper than the other?
GUINAN: I suppose I am.
PICARD: Not good enough, damn it. Not good enough. I will not ask them to die.
GUINAN: Forty billion people have already died. This war’s not supposed to be happening. You’ve got to send those people back to correct this.
PICARD: And what is to guarantee that if they go back they will succeed? Every instinct tells me this is wrong, it is dangerous, it is futile.
GUINAN: We’ve known each other a long time. You have never known me to impose myself on anyone or take a stance based on trivial or whimsical perceptions. This time line must not be allowed to continue. Now, I’ve told you what you must do. You have only your trust in me to help you decide to do it.

Picard calls a meeting, but he’s already made up his mind: He’s listening to Guinan. It turns out the Federation is on the verge of losing the war, and this is their last, best hope for peace–by preventing the war from happening in the first place.

Garrett’s game, but she’s soon killed in a surprise attack by the Klingons, leaving Castillo in command to carry out their final mission. Yar sends him off with a passionate kiss, then seeks out Guinan to question her about the odd looks she’s been giving her. Yar pressures her to share her fate in the alternate timeline; all Guinan knows is that she was killed stupidly.

To avoid this unappealing fate, Yar convinces Picard to let her transfer to the Enterprise-C, helping to even the balance of Garrett’s loss and give herself a meaningful death she can, uh, live with.

Klingon ships attack as the Enterprise-C limps back toward the temporal rift. Enterprise-D takes a heavy beating while holding them off. The Galaxy-class battleship begins falling apart under the superior assault: shields are failing, a warp core breach is imminent, and the Bridge is burning. Commander Riker is killed in an explosion. Picard leaps into action to take down as many Klingons as he can before the ship is lost, and Enterprise-C crosses back into the rift…

And things change back to normal. In the restored timeline, the anomalous sensor reading vanish as abruptly as they appeared. The Enterprise crew prepares to resume a course to Archer IV, none the wiser that anything strange ever happened. Guinan calls the Bridge to check up on stuff, and reassured that reality is as it should be, she asks Geordi to tell her about Tasha Yar.

Analysis

I’m sure no one is surprised to learn that this is one of my favorite episodes of TNG, and that hasn’t changed in the slightest. This is simply among the best episodes ever done, and it seems that many other fans and production staff agree with me; it’s made a number of “best of” lists, and most notably was featured in the viewer’s choice marathon that coincided with the final episode in 1994.

Okay, I’ll admit that there’s a lot of hand-holding in the script, as they painstakingly connect the dots so viewers would know what the heck was going on. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve seen it so many times before, or because I’m such a nerd about parallel universes, but I had no trouble following along–almost to the point of impatience. But hey, this was a pretty bold story, one that was quite literally darker than most we’d seen up to that point. I should be annoyed that Guinan’s strange intuition is never really explained in the series continuity, ever, or that we never find out what past she and Picard share. And to be honest, when I first saw TNG, I had never heard of the whole “magical negro” trope…

But I tell you, this episode is exciting, not least because it fills in some of the time between Kirk’s era and the TNG years, with the introduction of the Enterprise-C. (It hits some of the same buttons for me that “Babylon Squared” on Babylon 5 does, my favorite episode of the first season in which the Babylon 4 station reappears due to a temporal anomaly…) And I love this vessel, a beautiful melding of the best features of the Constitution-class and Galaxy-class designs. “Yesterday’s Enterprise” also has high stakes, gruesome deaths, and it looks and sounds more cinematic than anything on the show previously. I’m also a sucker for stories in which one ship or one person makes a huge impact for others–even in failure; we always root for the Enterprise to survive, but the idea that one crew’s sacrifice could still be a victory of sorts is gratifying.

The episode title even hearkens back to some of the original series-style episode titles, and this was the closest TNG ever got to giving us a “mirror universe” episode. There is so much attention to detail, with many subtle and not-so-subtle changes to the sets, costumes, sounds, even makeup to illustrate the differences in the timeline; it’s easy to miss some of them. (In fact, even the production crew missed one. The Nitpicker’s Guide by Phil Farrand first made me aware that Geordi’s uniform in the last scene still has black cuffs from the alternate timeline, and now I can’t unsee it!) It feels like a lot of work and money went into redesigning the Bridge for a one-off appearance, but I think it pays off.

If anything, all this loving attention might highlight the fact that perhaps more things should be different. Picard scoffs at the idea of children on Enterprise, but there’s one sitting right there on his bridge: Wesley Crusher, in uniform for the first time with the full rank of Ensign. I guess they promote people young during the war, or they made an exception for Dr. Crusher. But part of the charm is extrapolating what else might be different in this timeline. I was at first surprised that Picard would still be as just and moral as the captain we know, weighing the lives of the Enterprise-C’s crew. But then I realized the timeline had changed only 22 years before, when he was already an adult with his values in place. So really, Wesley should have been different, since he grew up knowing only war.

This episode also gives us our first woman captain, of the Starfleet flagship no less, though she isn’t long for the world. And it was unexpectedly great to see Tasha again, Denise Crosby’s best acting to date. And it’s pretty amazing that Guinan basically preserves the timeline, right?

Eugene’s Rating: Warp 6 (on a scale of 1-6)

Thread Alert: I’ve always liked the red Starfleet uniform jackets introduced in Star Trek II and used for the rest of the original series films. It’s neat when they turn up on TNG, mostly in time travel episodes to the recent past, but somehow the missing turtleneck really throws the whole look off. I recall reading (or maybe one of the commenters here mentioned?) that those collars were supplied by only one source and were impossible to replace. Otherwise, I really like the alternate, militaristic TNG uniforms used throughout, with their higher collars, Sam Browne belts, and black cuffs.

Best Line: Picard: “Let’s make sure that history never forgets… the name… Enterprise.”

Trivia/Other Notes: The origin of this episode lies in two separate scripts, one from Ganino in which a past Enterprise returns with no alteration to the timeline, and one where a Vulcan science team messing with Harlan Ellison’s™ Guardian of Forever accidentally kills their philosophical leader Surak, and Ambassador Sarek must travel back in time to replace him. (Now that sounds a bit like “Babylon Squared” and “War Without End,” doesn’t it?) Either way, Tasha Yar would have returned to face a better death.

The episode was rushed into production to meet Denise Crosby’s and Whoopi Goldberg’s schedules, requiring the script to be written in a few days over the Thanksgiving holiday by four writers. Michael Piller did a final polish, but went uncredited because of Writer’s Guild regulations.

If the budget and time had allowed, Wesley would have been decapitated onscreen and Data would have been electrocuted. Now there’s an alternate timeline I’d like to visit.

Christopher McDonald (Castillo) had auditioned for the role of Commander Riker. He was also raised in Romulus, New York.

Tricia O’Neil (Garrett) returned to Star Trek as a Klingon in the sixth season of TNG and a Cardassian on DS9.

The consequences of this episode are seen in the two-part episode “Redemption,” in which Denise Crosby returns to play Yar’s daughter, Sela.

The discovery of planet Archer IV is seen on Enterprise (“Strange New World”). The planet is named after Captain Jonathan Archer, the first captain of a starship named Enterprise.

Roberto Orci cites this episode as the main inspiration for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, though that film abandons the concept of a single alterable timeline.

Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 14 – “A Matter of Perspective.”

Next episode: Season 3, Episode 16 – “The Offspring.”

Season 3, Episode 14
Original air date: February 12, 1990
Star date: 43610.4

Mission summary

Data interrupts Picard’s art class to tell him that they’ve arrived at Tenuga IV and also that Picard couldn’t paint his way out of a Rothko. It seems Riker and La Forge conducted a survey of Dr. Apgar’s work on Krieger waves, which they hope will become a new energy source. La Forge says in so many words that Riker surveyed someone just a little too intimately and is in a rush to return. But as he beams back, Dr. Apgar’s science station explodes, and Riker barely makes it home intact.

But his luck isn’t meant to last, because an Inspector Krag beams aboard and arrests Riker… for murder.

Picard demands an explanation and Krag explains that he has two witnesses who will testify that Riker threatened Dr. Apgar’s life. Worse, in the Tanugan system he’d be guilty until proven innocent, and without a shred of exonerating evidence, it looks like Riker would be on permanent shore leave. Picard tries to avoid this fate, but he cannot refuse extradition altogether. Rather, he suggests using the holodeck to re-create the deposition testimony of the witnesses–including Riker–to piece together what really happened. Even better, it has “only” an 8.7% margin of error, which should be totally statistically insignificant when deciding guilt.

On the holodeck, Picard, Krag, Riker, and Counselor Troi sit at a table to watch the show. The first steamy holo-novel we get is Riker’s. Upon beaming down to the science station, Dr. Apgar and his lovely wife Manua greet Riker and La Forge. Apgar looks particularly tense and upset at their arrival three months ahead of schedule, but Riker assures them that it was merely more convenient this way. Manua can’t take her eyes off that beard, though, and invites Riker and her husband for a champagne toast, then insists that Riker stay on the station despite already arranging planet-side accommodations. She then shows Riker to his room, closes the door, and propositions him. Of course her husband enters just as she’s undressing and he and Riker get into a rather lame man-fight. The next morning, Dr. Apgar vows to file a complaint against Riker, but is very concerned that doing so will threaten Riker’s report on the Krieger wave project and affect Dr. Apgar’s request for more dicosilium. Riker says their personal dispute–which he’d be happy to clear up–won’t affect his report. He contacts the Enterprise and beams away.

But Krag thinks that Riker’s version leaves out the part where he fires a phaser at the core and kills Dr. Apgar. Riker denies it, but Krag can prove there there was an energy drain at the moment of transport, and that a very focused beam of radiation hit the core from precisely Riker’s spot. Hmmm…

We now get to watch this happen two more times! The next version is Manua’s, in which she is the demure hostess and Riker is the lascivious otherworlder who not only undresses her with his eyes pretty much every second he’s on the surface, but invites himself to stay the night then tries to rape her when she shows him her room. Oh, and he threatens to kill Dr. Apgar. Last, we get Tayna, Dr. Apgar’s assistant, who gives us Dr. Apgar’s story as filtered through her. Picard objects that this is inadmissible hearsay, but Krag reminds him that they have to play by Tanugan rules and on their planet there are no civil rights. Ultimately, Tayna’s story makes Dr. Apgar look a little better but closely mirrors Manua’s version of events.

At a recess, Picard and Troi start to sweat. Though they “know” Riker is innocent, they can’t prove it, and he’s doomed. But while they’ve been watching the Lifetime movie-of-the-week, La Forge and Data have been doing an actual investigation. Mysterious bursts of radiation have been hitting the Enterprise at regular intervals, and they determine that it’s from Dr. Apgar’s surface-based energy generator in combination with the all-too-realistic holodeck. They also say they know who killed Dr. Apgar.

Picard takes this new “evidence” to Krag and Riker, and pieces together his own theory of the crime from the various deposition testimonies. In all three versions, Dr. Apgar is very worried about the presence of the Federation. Picard theorizes that Dr. Apgar, realizing the Federation wouldn’t be nearly as lucrative an ally as their enemies interested in a powerful radiation weapon, has shifted his research to a new goal. Worried that Riker is on to him (and bitter at him for skeezing himself at his wife), it was Dr. Apgar who killed Riker. He had the energy core emit a beam at Riker as he beamed out, hoping to make it look like a transporter malfunction, but instead the magic beam reflected back and caused an overload of the reactor.

Krag drops the charges, because obviously this is the only possible way it could have happened.

Analysis

If you’re considering watching this, watch Clue instead. Or Rashomon. It’s not even that much longer.

I have a real soft spot for whodunits, which may be why I have so few nice things to say about this episode. The mystery sucks. I have read dime-store paperbacks more tense, sexy, and shocking that this one. Hell, “Wolf in the Fold” is Oscar-worthy in comparison. Once again, we absolutely know that Riker is not going to be taken to jail or executed and thus could not possibly be guilty. In fact, even though he’s the defense, we get his story first, and we know that it’s going to be the one closest to life. As a result, the mystery feels completely flat. There is no question of who did it (given that the two other characters are the nervous scientist and his devoted wife, the answer is obviously going to be “no one”), only a question of how it’s done–whose answer is utterly meaningless. It’s a long, dreary story that we have to watch three times that adds nothing to what we know of Riker. Good job, guys.

I’m also seriously troubled that in Manua’s version of events, Riker isn’t just smarmy or pushy–I can believe that–but he tries to rape her. It a) immediately lets us know that this version of events is bogus because it just crossed a line Riker never would have crossed; and b) instantly turns the viewer against her, because only a monster would falsely claim rape, whether she “believed” it or not. It’s just so obviously too far, and feeds the harmful fiction that women who claim rape are merely bitter at being rejected (or embarrassed at being sexual aggressors).

The only thing I genuinely like about this episode is the creative use of the holodeck. I like the idea of putting in real people, the way that La Forge did with Leah Brahms, and telling their stories visually. It’s also a dream come true for criminal prosecutors and defenders because it’s an easy way to manipulate or prejudice a jury. But it doesn’t make sense that the holodeck can create another dangerous situation aboard the ship (why does the ship have to be in danger all the time anyway?). I also wouldn’t risk MY neck on an 8.7% margin of error, but hey, that’s just me.

Oh, and why is Troi in this episode? No reason.

Ultimately, my favorite thing about this episode is the idea that a painting class requires a live, nude model to paint on-the-fly 1) surrealist; 2) cubist; or 3) constructivist pieces. Or is it the idea of anyone filling out a Starfleet Visit Complaint Form? What would that even look like?

Dear Interstellar Being,

We are so sorry that your Starfleet visit was anything other than excellent. We know how disappointing it can be to get an Officer who does not live up to your expectations. To improve our services, please let us know what aspect of the Officer requires improvement:

◊ Adherence to the prime directive
◊ Professionalism/ courtesy/ deference
◊ Unable to resolve your issue
◊ I do not remember signing up to receive a Starfleet officer

We hope that you will continue to seek contact with the Federation in the future. If you have requested removal from our Federation, please allow 7-10 business days.

Signed,
The Federation Customer Service Board

Torie’s Rating: Warp 2 (on a scale of 1-6)

Thread Alert: As if being a grad student weren’t bad enough, poor Tayna has to inhabit a carapace.

On the plus side, I completely love Inspector Krag’s sleek suit.

Best Line: None. Seriously zero.

Trivia/Other Notes: Data must have hurt Picard’s feelings because we never see him painting again.

Krieger waves were named after scientific consultant David Krieger, who was surprised to hear his name in the episode when it aired.

Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 13 – “Deja Q.”

Next episode: Season 3, Episode 15 – “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”

“Déjà Q”

Season 3, Episode 13
Original air date: February 5, 1990
Star date: 43539.1

Mission summary

Enterprise is rendering assistance to Bre’el IV, which is about to say “goodnight, moon”— an asteroidal body on a decaying orbit will slam into the planet in twenty-nine hours unless they can devise a way to shove it back where it belongs. It’s just too damn big for the tractor beams to nudge it, which La Forge eloquently compares to “an ant pushing a tricycle.” To further complicate the situation, they’re paid an unexpected visit by an old adversary: Q literally drops in on the Bridge, in the buff. He smirks and greets them with, “Red alert.”

Q has apparently been stripped of his powers as well as his clothes; he tries to convince them that he’s been banished from the Q Continuum and trapped in human form, but strangely enough, no one believes him. Picard surmises that Q is behind the moon’s inexplicable behavior and that this is all another trick to test them. Just to be safe, he tosses the frustrated Q into the brig. While he rests there, the ship is scanned by intense Berthold radiation, and the probe takes a particular interest in Q.

Determined to prove his worth to Picard, Q offers his services to help them figure out how to save Bre’el IV; though he lacks his omnipotent powers, he’s still a super genius, after all. Picard assigns Data the thankless task of chaperoning their doubtful guest, and the two of them compare notes on what it means to be human. Data says, “You have achieved in disgrace what I have always aspired to be,” and expresses his curiosity over what it would be like to experience emotion.

In Engineering, Q does inadvertently inspire a solution to La Forge, who theorizes that the ship could push the moon with the tractor beam if they can decrease its mass enough by extending their warp field around it. Meanwhile, Q wrestles with the realities of mortality and a corporeal existence: first he injures his back, then he gets hungry. The latter forces an interaction with a delighted Guinan who cheerfully proves he’s telling the truth about being human by sticking a fork in him. Q is nearly finished off when an alien race of ionized gases, the Calamarain, attack him in Ten Forward. Data holds onto him as they try to whisk him off and suffers serious damage.

Q’s help may not be worth keeping him around; now that he’s mortal, some of the other beings he has annoyed in the past are out for revenge. Picard surmises that Q chose to be exiled to Enterprise because he knew they would protect him. With the Calamarain waiting around for another attempt to kill him, and preventing the ship from lassoing the moon with a warp field, Picard really doesn’t have time to deal with Q.

But Q was unexpectedly touched by Data’s willingness to sacrifice himself and can’t bear to live on as a human, so he steals a shuttlecraft to lure off the Calamarain and meet his end. Enterprise tries to save him, but another Q prevents their efforts; after realizing that Q1 was committing a selfless act, Q2 has decided to restore his powers, on probation.

Jubilant and omnipotent once more, Q returns to Enterprise to lavish them with cigars, music, and women. As a going away present, he allows Data to briefly experience a true emotion: a spontaneous, uncontrolled fit of laughter. He also delivers a timely deus ex machina by hanging the moon back in the sky. Picard seems perturbed by the thought that “perhaps there’s a residue of humanity in Q after all.” Q delivers a final message, along with a burning cigar: “Don’t bet on it.”

Analysis

I have the nagging feeling that I’ve seen this one before… “Déjà Q” was always one of my favorite episodes, and it’s still highly enjoyable. Though this firmly establishes itself as a comedic episode, typical of most Q episodes, it also deals with some weighty issues: the matter of moving a ginormous, heavy moon, anyway. (Coincidentally, I also just re-watched the film Deep Impact for the first time since it was released, in which no one suggested changing the gravitational constant of the universe to alter the course of the asteroid.)

The “serious” question of what it means to be human is mostly played for laughs, with the only gravitas coming from Data’s lament that he lacks emotions. I would have enjoyed the setup of the android showing Q what it was like to be human more if it hadn’t been directly stated in dialogue, but then we know this show doesn’t excel at subtlety. Still, they had some unexpectedly endearing interactions, and Q’s “gift” to Data is actually a very nice gesture—unlike his other gifts. Half the fun is watching Picard’s utter exasperation, Riker’s annoyance, and especially Dr. Crusher’s undisguised contempt for Q throughout the episode. (Another neat touch: Q reminds us again that Dr. Crusher was away at Starfleet and has recently returned to Enterprise.)

So some of the gags fell a little flat for me this time around, especially the last bit with the cigar and the cheesy face in the smoke, but overall this episode continues to be quotable, with many of my favorite lines from the series—which work especially well when uttered by John de Lancie. Seeing Corbin Bernsen’s performance as another Q only highlights just how talented de Lancie is, though he of course originated the role and had a bit more practice with it. I was always intrigued by Guinan’s interactions with Q and the suggestion that there’s a lot more to her and that they’ve crossed paths before, but unfortunately this was never explored.

The only other unresolved issue from this episode is what altered the moon’s orbit in the first place? Q suggested that it was a passing black hole, which seems as feasible as anything else, but I wonder if the Q Continuum has engineered this whole situation to test Q, which has an element of poetic justice to it.

Eugene’s Rating: Warp 4 (on a scale of 1-6)

Thread Alert: For once, the show seems to be trying to make the ugliest costume possible, but even so, Q’s green and gray jumpsuit is not the worst thing we’ve seen in the series. Still, I like the idea that the crew intentionally came up with something humiliating for him to wear because they dislike him so much, and perhaps in payback for his insistence on cheapening Starfleet uniforms by casually wearing them. It’s kind of amusing that the first thing he does when he gets his powers back is use them for a wardrobe change.

Best Line: Lots of great one liners, especially between Q and Worf, but my favorite this time is one I hadn’t truly appreciated before. Q: “I’m not good in groups. It’s difficult working in a group when you’re omnipotent.”

Trivia/Other Notes: The original premise was much more predictable: Q is actually pretending that he has lost his powers, hoping to make himself look like a hero while the Federation and the Klingons are on the brink of war. Yawn. Roddenberry suggested that they take the more straightforward approach and play out the scenario of a powerless god for reals.

John de Lancie was actually completely naked when filming his grand entrance on the Bridge.

This is the first time we see another member of the Q Continuum, who is also simply called Q.

The Berthold rays of the Calamarain’s probe were first referenced in the original series episode “This Side of Paradise.”

This episode was nominated for two Emmy Awards, for editing and special effects.

Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 12 – “The High Ground.”

Next episode: Season 3, Episode 14 – “A Matter of Perspective.”

Season 3, Episode 12
Original air date: January 29, 1990
Star date: 43510.7

Mission summary

The Enterprise has decided to give some medical supplies to Ireland Rutia IV, but it turns out terrorists have been bombing places so shore leave got canceled. Bummer. Dr. Crusher, Worf, and Data are sipping some tea in a cafe (for…work?) when a bomb goes off injuring civilians. Worf says they have to get out of there, but Crusher starts bandaging the wounded and refuses to beam back to the ship until the local medics arrive. Suddenly one of the Ansata–the space IRA–appears out of nowhere, kills a policeman, and abducts Crusher to the void from whence he came.

Crusher is taken to their leader–a man named Finn–but she gives him the silent treatment.

Meanwhile, Picard meets with Devos, the police chief, about getting his chief medical officer back. She doesn’t have anything nice to say about the Ansata. Nothing useful, either:

PICARD: And what exactly is Ansata policy with regard to hostages?
DEVOS: I doubt they have one. They don’t usually take hostages. These are not people we’re dealing with here. They’re animals. Fanatics who kill without remorse or conscience. Who think nothing of murdering innocent people.
PICARD: But they could just as easily have shot her where she stood.
DEVOS: Don’t ask me to explain them. I can’t.

Writing! By professionals!

Devos half-heartedly requests some arms to quell the rebellion, but Picard cites the Prime Directive and she doesn’t seem surprised. She does, however, hand over a confiscated…thing…that may be responsible for the Ansata’s miraculous transport ability. Picard trades Riker for it, proving himself a shrewd businessman.

Meanwhile, Finn has made some inroads with Crusher who finally asks him what she’s doing there. He says he wanted her medical expertise, and berates the Federation for “allying” themselves with the Rutia, which Crusher of course denies. She invokes Wesley to try and garner sympathy (has that ever worked?), but is quickly put to work with some stolen Federation medical supplies to treat a bunch of dying rebels. They’ve suffered some kind of irreparable DNA damage. Finn reveals that it’s the work of the “inverter,” their magic transporter, which is actually a dimensional shifter that destroys humanoid tissue. He’s dying, too, but to Crusher’s horror he embraces his role as a martyr. On a more positive note, he draws pretty pictures! But in order to see them you have to hear his conspiracy theories about George Washington, America’s First Terrorist, so it’s ultimately a net loss for the viewer.

Riker and Devos are on the hunt for any leads to the Ansata hideout. First, they interrogate various people who were present at the bombing that are sympathetic to the Ansata cause, including the waiter at the restaurant. Maybe he’s just bitter that a currency-less society is responsible for bad tips, but he’s definitely one of Finn’s men. Riker tells him to report back that the Federation is willing to negotiate for Crusher’s release. It turns out Wesley is the only one actually  making progress on this front, though, because he figures out what the inverter Devos had passed along can do and works with Geordi and Data to trace the emissions and pinpoint the location of their hideouts.

Unfortunately, the waiter not only tells Finn about the possible exchange but mentions the mass arrests and police brutality. Because he might actually have a point in any other show, this one discredits him by making him decide the obvious next step is to blow up the Enterprise while listening to Dashboard Confessional because then, finally, “someone will listen.” Sorry, emo kid, but they won’t.

Using the inverters, various of Finn’s followers zap to the Enterprise, killing random personnel and planting a bomb on the warp core. Geordi manages to pry it off and have it beamed into space, but Finn still makes off with the captain. Picard refuses to cooperate but Finn only needs him as a pawn to get the Federation involved. Then, rather than make a phone call, he uses the inverter AGAIN to go back to the ship and tell Troi to tell the Federation to come talk. By the time he zaps back, he’s in bad shape thanks to the DNA damage.

That last transport was just what Wesley needed, though, so Riker plans a rescue party. They beam over, cut the power, and take down the terrorists while looking for Picard and Crusher. Crusher is starting to get a little Stockholm Syndrome, though, because Finn has been drawing her and gave her his sketchbook as a peace offering. She gets pretty upset when Devos finds the three of them–Picard, Crusher, and Finn–and kills Finn. Then a little boy shows up and points his gun at Devos, but Crusher tells him not to and that works for some reason.

RIKER: He could have killed you. He didn’t. Maybe the end begins with one boy putting down his gun.

Actually, no. The end begins with the credits, which can’t come soon enough.

Analysis

I very much want to admire this episode. I wish I could find in it a scathing indictment of the Federation’s dull pacifism, or a smart look at the difficulties that come with any quest for peace, autonomy, and freedom. It gets so close when Finn refers to the Federation’s “moral cowardice.” I hoped, again, to see a shadow of America’s history: the paradox of warring for peace and fighting for freedom.

Sadly, no. Terrorism and the skunk people who support it are bad!

I’m grossly unqualified to analyze this through its intended lens, that of “the Troubles.” But it’s too superficial and silly to even demur here. When Devos calls these people animals, she’s right. They’re completely ridiculous. We don’t know what they’re fighting for, and we don’t care. From where I’m sitting, their biggest difference appears to be hair stripes. The conflict is absurd, the Federation’s stance is absurd (why exactly are they supplying medicine to one side of a civil war??), the resolution is absurd, and the less we think about it the better.

The only way I find this episode remotely palatable is as a Dr. Crusher character piece. She’s competent, principled, and keeps her head together in the face of great threats. She sees a lot more complexity than the rest of us do in Finn’s cause, and isn’t afraid to defend the Federation’s own history against his distortion of it. And while she does sympathize with Finn, she doesn’t fall for him, and never misses an opportunity to call his tactics stupid and self-defeating. Finally, when she meets Picard again, she apologizes for her mistake, acknowledging that her effort to help those on the scene was in a sense selfish and jeopardized the whole ship. Her arc embodies the kind of maturity the rest of the episode so painfully lacks.

But then there’s the creepy pictures and the little boy at the end and the police lady who is just so SAD to be an oppressor and Troi needing to explain to Wesley what a hostage is and SIGH.

At least it includes Picard punching that guy. That was awesome.

Torie’s Rating: Warp 1 (on a scale of 1-6)

Thread Alert: Won’t somebody please think of the children?

Blue and purple, plus skunk hair: just no.

Best Line: FINN: Captain, the Federation has a lot to admire in it, but there’s a hint of moral cowardice in your dealings with non-aligned planets. You’re doing business with a government that is crushing us and you say you’re not involved. You’re very, very much involved. You just don’t want to get dirty.

Trivia/Other Notes: Snodgrass wanted to write an episode paralleling the American Revolution, but the producers meddled: “I wanted it with Picard as Cornwallis and the Romulans would have been the French, who were in our revolution, trying to break this planet away. Suddenly Picard realized he’s one of the oppressors. Instead, we do ‘Breakfast in Belfast,’ where our people decide they’re going to go off to Northern Ireland.”

Ron Moore, Michael Pillar, and Brannon Braga all disavow it, but someone wrote the thing, didn’t they!?

This never aired in Ireland or the UK until 2007.

Richard Cox, who plays Finn, has to be one of the hardest working actors in LA. He’s been in pretty much every TV show since the ’70s. He will look familiar. You will not know why. You will look him up on IMDB. You will still not know why.

Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 11 – “The Hunted.”

Next episode: Season 3, Episode 13 – “Deja Q.”

Season 3, Episode 11
Original air date: January 8, 1990
Star date: 43489.2

Mission summary

Picard and company pay a visit to Angosia III to evaluate its people for exclusive membership in the Federation. Things seem to be going swimmingly; Picard and Zefram Cochrane Prime Minister Nayrok are bonding over their moral superiority, and it’s all but a done deal when they receive word that a prisoner has escaped from a maximum security penal colony on Lunar V and stolen a transport vessel. The Angosians are strangely ill-equipped to take care of their own, so Picard offers the services of Enterprise to recapture the escapee. It should be a simple matter, but the pilot is devious and somehow they lose track of him around an asteroid, to Picard’s utter shock and dismay.

They eventually figure out how the prisoner managed to trick the ship’s sensors and flush him out, but he makes a suicide run for Enterprise–and bounces harmlessly off the shields. But this too is a ploy, used to distract from his attempted escape in a  pod. They’re unable to pick up any life signs from him at all, but Picard is tired of these games and orders anything large enough to be a humanoid adult beamed directly to the ship.

Chief O’Brien neutralizes the prisoner’s weapon in the transport matrix and brings him aboard, into the waiting arms of Enterprise security. Even unarmed, the prisoner easily subdues the transporter chief and the security officers, then tosses around their backup–Riker and Worf–until he is finally recaptured.

Roga Danar captures the interest of Deanna Troi, and ultimately the rest of the crew, which learns that he is the product of Angosian psychological conditioning and physiological modification to create a super soldier–including drug treatment to mask his electrical impulses and hide him from sensors. As unsettling as the evidence is that the Angosians are not as upstanding as they seem, Enterprise is unable to interfere in what Nayrok calls “matters of internal security,” and Picard is left to moralize on his own. “Matter of internal security. The age-old cry of the oppressor,” he tells his fish.

Nayrok sends a transport vehicle to pick up Danar, but as he is being beamed over from his cell, he somehow resists the transporter beam and escapes again with a phaser. He leads the crew on a merry chase through the ship, evading all attempts to intercept him while laying traps and leaving breadcrumbs to divert them from his true destination: a deactivated transporter pad in the cargo hold that he powers using a phaser.

Just go with it, it’s almost over.

Danar beams over to the transport ship, armed, and seizes control. Then he attacks the Lunar V colony and leads his fellow soldiers toward the capital city. Nayrok again asks for help, so Picard leads a small away team into the thick of danger, seemingly just to say good-bye. With the prime minister and Angosian leaders held at gunpoint by the very soldiers they engineered to protect them, the Starfleet captain fires a parting shot:

I have all the information I need for our report. Your prisoner has been returned to you and you have a decision to make. Whether to try to force them back or welcome them home. In your own words, this is not our affair. We cannot interfere in the natural course of your society’s development, and I’d say it’s likely to develop significantly in the next several minutes. It’s been an interesting visit. When you’re ready for membership, the Federation will be pleased to reconsider your application. Mister Riker, four to beam up.

Enterprise leaves, promising to help the Angosians deprogram their soldiers if they make the right decision and the government remains intact.

Analysis

This episode is about as poorly engineered as Captain Angosia and his super soldier friends, and no amount of psychological reprogramming can make me enjoy it. The plot is utterly contrived every step of the way, which might have been passable if we had something to make us care about Danar, but the only interesting and sympathetic detail we get is this:

ROGA: My improved reflexes have allowed me to kill eighty four times. And my improved memory lets me remember each of those eighty four faces. Can you understand how that feels?

There’s no room for moral debate here: It’s obvious that the Angosians are evil cowards, Picard and the others loathe them (Riker even says it’s “a little stuffy” for his taste, and that’s when they were on friendly terms), and Danar and the other prisoners have been wronged. The only conflict arises from the perception that the Federation is completely powerless to do anything about the situation, because this week we’re going to adhere to the Prime Directive. Politics, red tape, blah blah blah.

What’s even more annoying is just how little thought went into the script. The super soldiers could have been deprogrammed, but the Angosians didn’t feel like it, or they thought it was better to lock them up on a moon in case they were needed again. Yeah, I’m sure they’d be real willing to help them out of their next pickle. Maybe the super soldiers couldn’t be deprogrammed, but the chemicals could have been removed from their bodies, thus rendering them not only visible to sensors but physically normal, so they’d pose less of a threat.

Then we have Danar touted as incredibly clever and powerful. It is pretty shocking that he was able to escape from Enterprise, since his trick isn’t all that impressive. For all their talk about him being able to hide from the ship’s sensors, couldn’t they, you know, see his transport ship? If they bothered to look at the viewscreen or out a window?

In fact, Danar is so skilled, he manages to overcome a transporter beam through sheer will, which no one ever even attempts to explain. “What the hell?” indeed, Mr. O’Brien. Danar moves through the ship’s corridors, tubes, and systems with the ease of a genetically enhanced mind who has one of those “So You Want to Take Over Enterprise” pamphlets they leave out for all new arrivals. I still can’t figure out how he got out of the turbolift while it was moving unless he went through the ceiling panel. And this is news to me, but phasers are not only weapons but battery packs that can be plugged into consoles with no extra modifications. I must have missed that post on Lifehacker.

Other “huh?!” moments:

• Data says the ship can detect artificial lifeforms. Really?
• O’Brien calls for backup–repeatedly–and all they send are Riker and Worf?
• You can set a phaser to overload after a specified period of time has elapsed?
• Picard beams down into the middle of a potential firefight, pretty much on the basis of, “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
• Riker tells Worf he’s “personally responsible for the Captain’s safety.” Isn’t that part of his job description? Isn’t that Riker’s job too? Come to think of it, aren’t they all responsible for his safety?

In short, this episode requires you to do more than suspend your disbelief, you have to expel it completely. But I think its worst failing is that it is just so inane. There’s no interesting conflict, the events don’t affect any of the Enterprise characters in any meaningful way, and ultimately, they don’t accomplish anything. At all.

Eugene’s Rating: Dead in Space (on a scale of 1-6)

Thread Alert: I actually kind of like the Angosian suits. There’s something nicely totalitarian about them. They make me think of Orwell’s 1984. The soldiers’ uniforms, on the other hand, seem kind of generic. Were they forced them to wear them all the time, or did they change into their old uniforms because they look more rebellious than leisure suits?

Best Line: PICARD: Prime Minister, even the most comfortable prison is a prison.

Trivia/Other Notes: This episode was written as an allegory for the way U.S. veterans of the Vietnam War were treated when they returned to society. I see now that we never should have stuck them in that prison on the Moon.

The original ending with Danar and the soldiers’ violent attack on the capital was cut…because of a lack of budget and time. Talk is cheap.

The Angosian senators’ shirts were turtlenecks from Starfleet uniforms in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. No wonder I liked them!

This is the first mention of Jeffries tubes on TNG.

James Cromwell (Nayrok) returns to TNG in “Birthright” and also makes appearances in DS9, Enterprise, and, most notably, Star Trek: First Contact.

Jeff McCarthy (Danar) appears, briefly, in the pilot for Star Trek: Voyager as the original chief medical officer.

Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 10 – “The Defector.”

Next episode: Season 3, Episode 12 – “The High Ground.”

Season 3, Episode 10
Original air date: January 1, 1990
Star date: 43462.5

Mission summary

Picard is giving Data lessons in humanity by way of Henry V on the holodeck, but their epiphanies are interrupted by a Romulan scout ship asking for help. Suddenly a warbird decloaks, fires some shots at the scout ship, and turns away as the Enterprise extends its deflector shields around the scout ship to protect it. As life support there fails, Picard has the ship’s only occupant beamed over: Romulan Sublieutenant Setal, bearing warnings that the Romulans are planning to start a war, beginning at Nelvana III.

Setal claims he’s not a traitor, and set his ship to self-destruct so that the Federation can’t get ahold of Romulan technology to prove it. Rather, he fears that the Romulans would never survive another war, and has risked everything to prevent the annihilation of his people and his way of life. But his allegations–that the Romulans have built a base within the Neutral Zone and the reactor will be online in just two days–can’t be corroborated by any sensor readings or objective evidence. Hours of interrogation with Riker and Troi yield little information of value, and La Forge discovers something curious about the man’s arrival: the warbird never meant to destroy him. It matched speed and ensured non-lethal hits, as if they wanted him to reach the Enterprise unscathed. Starfleet headquarters is similarly confused, telling Picard to sort out the truth of whether he’s a traitor or a spy, and if war is truly imminent.

Setal, for his part, is not adjusting well to his time among enemies. The computer can’t seem to understand his specifications, and any mention or reminder of the home or family that he’ll never see again sends him into a tailspin of depression. When Data takes him to a holographic re-creation of the Valley of Chula, he finally breaks, and tells Data to let Picard know that it is not Sublieutenant Setal, but Admiral Jarok, that wishes to speak with him.

Picard gets confirmation from Starfleet that this man is indeed Admiral Jarok, the devious mind behind some massacres here or there, but Picard still (or perhaps especially now) doesn’t believe this story about war. He asks to be persuaded.

JAROK: There comes a time in a man’s life that you cannot know. When he looks down at the first smile of his baby girl and realizes he must change the world for her. For all children. It is for her that I am here. Not to destroy the Romulan Empire, but to save it. For months, I tried desperately to persuade the High Command that another war would destroy the Empire. They got tired of my arguments. Finally I was censured, sent off to command some distant sector. This was my only recourse. I will never see my child smile again. She will grow up believing that her father is a traitor. But she will grow up. If you act, Picard. If we stop the war before it begins.

But Picard is still skeptical, until Jarok finally decides to provide strategic, tactical, and technological information about the Romulan fleet. In agreement, Picard sets course for Nelvana III to discover the alleged base meant to start a war.

But when they get there without resistance, they discover nothing.

PICARD: Nelvana Three, Admiral. No base, no weapons, no sign of any life at all.
JAROK: But I saw the tactical communiqués. The records. Timetables for completion. An entire legion was assigned to the section.
PICARD: Is it possible they could have been feeding you disinformation? You said that you had been censured. Reassigned, four months ago. They knew of your dissatisfaction. Could all this have been to test your loyalty?
JAROK: No. No. It’s impossible.
PICARD: They let you escape with an arsenal of worthless secrets. What other explanation is there?

At that moment, a Romulan warbird commanded by Tomalak appears. He’s pleased to see Picard again and delights in his little scheme. By feeding misinformation to Jarok, he has enticed the Federation to cross into the Neutral Zone and violate the treaty themselves. He prepares to destroy the Enterprise and display its broken hull on Romulus, but Picard reveals that with him are three cloaked Klingon ships.

PICARD: What shall it be, Tomalak?
TOMALAK: You will still not survive our assault.
PICARD: You will not survive ours. Shall we die together?
TOMALAK: I look forward to our next meeting, Captain.

With a war averted, all should be celebrating. All but Jarok, who, devastated by his unnecessary betrayal for an invisible threat, has committed suicide. He leaves in his quarters a letter to his wife and daughter, which cannot be delivered, of course. Picard hopes it may be delivered one day when there is peace thanks to other men like Jarok.

Analysis

“The Defector” put the 1990s era of Trek off to a great start. This has always been one of my favorites, but some of the shine has rubbed off since I last saw it.

James Sloyan gives fantastic depth and nuance to the tortured Jarok. Even in the silly shoulderpads, face ridges, and jewelry, I absolutely buy this man’s anguish. Jarok’s ambivalence about his actions give meaning to the little faraway looks and painful reminders of his exile and his contempt for the Federation’s delays. He makes this Romulan feel both very different–aggressive, irritable, arrogant–and so much the same, with his love for his family and country. I love his interaction with Worf (followed by his cop to Riker that he’s just trying to light a fire under the Klingon), as well as his menacing implication to Data about being taken apart. He’s complex and contradictory: a man of war who seeks peace, a warrior who puts his family first, a traitor and also a patriot. I wish that the story weren’t so overwhelmed with Shakespeare references because Jarok is a perfect Shakespearean hero. He’s one of my favorite characters in all of Star Trek.

I am less impressed with the way the entire crew articulates the mystery of his appearance, asking aloud if he’s a traitor or a spy and wondering about his motives. We’re all wondering! You don’t have to tell us to wonder! And Riker and Troi don’t so much as test his trustworthiness as constantly ask him if he’s trustworthy. This… is not a good interrogation technique. Can’t Troi tell if he’s lying anyway? If she can’t, what the hell is she doing there? I was also disappointed that some of the central unknowns are solved so quickly, as La Forge discovers very early on in the episode that the warbird’s threats to Jarok weren’t serious and it was all staged. So it’s clear from the start that at least part of this is inauthentic, which deflates the balloon a little when you have such a sincere Jarok. The same is true for Picard, who says aloud at least twice that he’s anxious about going to war, which doesn’t at all convey anxiety the way the writers think it does. He says he worries about war, yet I never felt any real threat that it was a possibility.

There are also some other oddities: the computer can’t seem to convert Romulan scales to Celsius and Ten Forward can’t create Romulan ale, but the holodeck can recreate a valley from Romulus? How does Jarok know Klingon curses? And for the love of god, can someone please put down the Shakespeare mallet and stop hitting us with it? It’s one thing to open with the holodeck piece, which I hate no matter what; it’s another to then pepper the whole episode with lines and references. One or the other! And frankly, I don’t feel Henry V is even appropriate for this episode. There is no question here that the war would be just or that the troops would follow their leader. It feels tacked on and misunderstood, like the script was accidentally stapled to a 10th grade book report. The letter at the end also felt like too much to me, too hokey.

Nevertheless, it all comes together in the end with the reappearance of the delightful Andreas Katsulas as Tomalak, Picard’s ace up his sleeve, and the death of Jarok. I find it particularly interesting that Jarok ends the episode believing that it was all a waste–that his defection was for nothing, that he left his home and his family for a threat that didn’t exist–and yet the events of the episode prove that all he feared was absolutely true. There really was a Romulan plan to bring about war with the Federation; it just wasn’t the plan he thought it was. Perhaps if he hadn’t defected the Romulans would not have been able to put the plan into motion, but I suspect they would have done it anyway, one way or another, and in that scenario Picard would not have had the vital warning. And now that this plan failed, Picard and the rest of the Federation are on notice, and future Romulan attempts to start a war would be ineffective. Further, I imagine that Jarok’s actions were bold enough to persuade some on the High Council to recognize the seriousness of their weakness and delay (perhaps forever) the offensive (he wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t really believe it!). It seems clear with the introduction of the suicide tablet at the mid-way point that Jarok had no intention of settling among the Federation peoples, but it’s much more tragic that he probably never realized how right he was and how much good he did.

Torie’s Rating: Warp 5 (on a scale of 1-6)

Thread Alert: This wig is an abomination. Patrick Stewart had hair once, you don’t have to guess.

Best Line: JAROK: You’re the android. I know a host of Romulan cyberneticists that would love to be this close to you.
DATA: I do not find that concept particularly appealing.
JAROK: Nor should you.

Trivia/Other Notes: James Sloyan will return in “Firstborn” as a Klingon. He also appears in DS9′s “The Alternate” and “The Begotten” as the scientist who first studied Odo, and in Voyager‘s “Jetel” as the title character.

The entire staff worked on the script together, but I like to think the parts that irritate me most are all Ron Moore.

In case you weren’t sure Moore was a hack, he used this exact same plot on Battlestar Galactica.

The holodeck scene was going to be more Sherlock Holmes, but they had to ditch that thanks to rights issues. It was Patrick Stewart that suggested Henry V.

When Jarok is surprised that Dr. Crusher knows about Romulan anatomy and Crusher then gives a nasty look to Worf, they are of course referencing the events of “The Enemy.”

Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 9 – “The Vengeance Factor.”

Next episode: Season 3, Episode 11 – “The Hunted.”

Season 3, Episode 9
Original air date: November 20, 1989
Star date: 43421.9

Mission summary

After discovering a ransacked Starfleet research facility–evidence of encroaching raids from a group of Acamarians called the Gatherers–Picard decides to do something about this problem once and for all. Enterprise sets out for Acamar III, where he meets with the leader of the ruling group of Acamarians, Sovereign  Marouk.

Marouk hopes that Picard’s arrival means “the Starfleet” will help hunt the Gatherers, but Picard is more interested in healing what he perceives as the Acamarians’ broken society. Marouk is not interested in absorbing the nomadic marauders back into Acamar; the two groups split off a century before, and the people on the planet have evolved so much since then. They aren’t barbarians who scavenge and steal from other races–they’re civilized, with clean clothes, refined tastes, and slaves. She ultimately gives in to peer pressure when Picard offers a compelling argument:

But there is so much to gain and there is so little to lose by the effort. The problem affects us all. It cannot be ignored.

Meanwhile, Riker takes a shine to Marouk’s fetching young chef/food taster, Yuta. He astonishes her by using the replicator to prepare a cold drink of water for her sovereign, then says he looks forward to having her make him her signature dish, “Parthas a la Yuta,” because Acamarian food is totally like Italian cuisine and she’ll obviously get his little joke.

Enterprise seeks out the Acamarian raiders at their base on Gamma Hromi II, walking right into an ambush from the Gatherers. But with help from science and the ship’s transporters, they turn the tables and get the drop on the raiders, who look like rejects from the Thunderdome. They force the Gatherers to participate in negotiations to return home to Acmar, but things get off to a bad start. While their leader Brull has a private discussion with Sovereign Marouk, Yuta kills one of his men with a single touch–thus getting back at him and his clan for some previous slight against her own clan, of which she is the last survivor.

The other Gatherers aren’t too upset about the death of their companion, Volnoth, since he was old and they’re too busy dividing up his stuff. Dr. Crusher determines he died of a heart attack, but she soon discovers that this was no ordinary heart attack; it was triggered by a micro-virus engineered to target only Volnoth. Murder most foul!

Wesley and Brull bond in Ten Forward, and Yuta presents Riker and Troi with a dish of parthas. In a rare moment of real insight, Troi departs–allowing Riker to have a moment to appreciate Yuta’s meal until they are both called away by duty. But she later disturbs Riker’s attempts to relax in the most uncomfortable chair designed by man, when she comes to his quarters and offers herself to him–at Marouk’s suggestion. This sets off the commander’s internal red alert:

RIKER: Wait a minute.
YUTA: I don’t understand. Don’t you want me to give you pleasure?
RIKER: Not as a servant. I told you, I prefer equals.
YUTA: Even in the matters of love?
RIKER: Especially in matters of love.
YUTA: I’ve offended you.
RIKER: No. I only want to make you as happy as you want to make me. You’re entitled to that.
YUTA: No, I’m not.
RIKER: Yuta.
YUTA: I do not feel pleasure, or passion. I haven’t been able to for a long time.
RIKER: I don’t know who did this to you, or why, but it can change.
YUTA: I wish it could. Tonight most of all. I’m sorry.

I’m sorry too. Fortunately, this precious moment is interrupted by a real red alert: Enterprise is under attack by another Gatherer ship, commanded by Chorgan. Picard uses phasers to convince the Acamarian to hear Marouk’s offer of amnesty. They adjourn on his ship. Then Data and Dr. Crusher come up with shocking news: Through rigorous research, deduction, and computer wizardry, they have learned that Yuta is more then seventy years old and that she murdered Volnoth.

Riker beams over to Chorgan’s ship just in time to stop Yuta from assasinating the Gatherer leader, the last of the Lornak clan on whom she must exact her revenge. As the last of her clan, she was somehow altered to age more slowly to give her time to fulfill her purpose. Stubborn against Riker’s pleas to stop, as well as the stun setting of his phaser, he finally disintegrates her to protect Chorgan.

Since he’s had a rough day, Picard tells Riker he can take shore leave at a starbase before their next courier mission, but the commander is inconsolable.

Analysis

For a long while watching this, I wondered if I had ever seen this episode before. I had no recollection of it at all, but I’m certain I saw it years ago–just not more than once, it seems. Easy to see why: There isn’t much to recommend it, and what’s there is overall unremarkable. The conflict is boring and seems too easily resolved, and the budding romance between Riker and Yuta, not to mention the uneasy understanding that grows between Wesley and Brull, never goes anywhere. The ingredients are all here, but the recipe was lost and they just tossed everything together in a large mixing bowl.

The Acamarians are supposedly upgraded from a nuisance to a real threat, enough of a problem that Picard decides to put a top to their reign of terror. But of course, we’ve never heard of them before, they don’t actually seem all that dangerous, and I can’t even tell if Starfleet has ordered Enterprise to settle a non-existent dispute or if this is Picard’s own vendetta. It’s strange, because in some ways this reminds me of an original series episode, but it’s so bland. It might be preferable if it were terrible, because at least that might mean it was trying to do something ambitious or interesting, but it just feels like filler. Like no one had anything better to do, so they picked up a mediocre script and decided to film it.

The worse thing for me, what absolutely wrecks it beyond mere incompetence, is the ending. As far as I can tell, there’s no reason for Riker to kill Yuta. He tries to stun her a couple of times, then he raises the setting of his phaser to maximum, skipping over like eight or nine other settings. No one else makes an attempt to stop her. Riker doesn’t even try to just get between her and Chorgan. Couldn’t he maybe knock her down? Punch her out? Chorgan could, I don’t know, get up and try to stay away from her.

Then there’s the whole matter of Yuta being a murderer. Not only did they miss the opportunity to lend the episode a little mystery, but they solve the crime by magically extrapolating her face from the smallest visible sliver of it, further lowering the bar set by TV procedurals that resort to sloppy tactics like that on CSI and The X-Files. Then there’s some serious hand-waving going on to explain how she hasn’t aged in more than fifty years.

Maybe this episode was supposed to be some kind of moral lesson about slavery or the folly of violence and gang warfare; naturally, Picard doesn’t give up his chance to compare the Acamarians’ situation with humanity’s violent history. But this episode is essentially a waste of everyone’s time.

Eugene’s Rating: Dead in Space (on a scale of 1-6)

Thread Alert: There is so much to remark on in this episode. Yuta’s the only Acamarian who looks halfway decent, oh-so-subtle slave collar and all. The Gatherers are just generic grungy rebels, but Marouk stands out in her shapeless yellow mumu and hideous makeup. This is the stuff of nightmares.

Best Line: Having trouble coming up with one, honestly. How about this, from Brull: “A child? This doesn’t inspire my confidence.” He isn’t wrong.

Trivia/Other Notes: Some of the other inspired titles for this episode include “The Human Factor,” “The Vengeance,” and “The Weapon.” Too bad they didn’t think of “Into Darkness.”

Picard doesn’t react to Riker killing Yuta because Patrick Stewart had to remain still in order to get the special effects for the phaser to work. Director Timothy Bond wanted to have him in the shot. But one wonders, was a reaction written into the script? Bond claimed that “the dialogue was of little consequence” and some of it was cut. This doesn’t inspire my confidence.

The background of the science outpost in the teaser was originally created for the 1956 film Forbidden Planet.

Lisa Wilcox (Yuta) might be familiar to some viewers as Alice from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and 5, or as Missy Preston in the short-lived TV show Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures. Michael Lamper (Mallon, one of Brull’s Gatherers) is a rock guitarist who was Marina Sirtis’ boyfriend at the time of this episode; they were married in 1992.

Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 8 – “The Price.”

Next episode: Season 3, Episode 10 – “The Defector.”

Season 3, Episode 8
Original air date: November 13, 1989
Star date: 43385.6

Mission summary

Troi has a fight with the replicator over chocolate, because she’s had an exhausting day or has her space period or whatever. But she can’t even enjoy it because Picard summons her to a diplomatic reception for a first look at a wormhole owned by the Barzans. The Barzan Premier, Bhavani, plans to auction off rights to the wormhole and so the Enterprise hosts delegates from several interested parties: the Federation, represented by Mendoza; the Caldonians, represented by Leyor; and the Chrysalians, represented by a humanoid named Devinoni Ral, with a sexy lady hanging off his arm. He and Troi lock eyes with the kind of vapid, sultry looks Calvin Klein models wear, making it really uncomfortable when Bhavani says “There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the first and only stable wormhole known to exist. It’s yours, for the right price. ”

I hope she means the space anomaly.

Negotiations begin, and are interrupted by a new delegation: the Ferengi. The leader, DaiMon Goss, takes a seat at the table and at Picard’s request dismisses his two consuls, Kol and Dr. Arridor. Goss offers to beat any price on the table with a bag of gold, which I guess he hasn’t realized is worthless yet. Meanwhile, Troi is Facebooking Ral in her quarters when he comes in. They exchange some smalltalk but he launches into full-out creeper mode, running his hands through her hair and asking for dinner at 8. Sexy!

The first round of negotiations didn’t end well for the Federation, who are concerned about the Ferengis and Ral, but that’s okay, because they want to learn more about the wormhole before throwing all their chips in. An initial probe shows that the wormhole leads to the Gamma quadrant, but Geordi and Data plan to run a manned test of their own the next day to kick all the tires first. You know those snake-oil wormhole dealers in the future… Well, they’re at negotiations, too, and because they’re Ferengis they distill some “pyrocytes” to cause an allergic reaction in the Federation representative and get a competitive edge. It works, and Mendoza is out for the count for the rest of the episode. Naturally the ship’s cardshark Riker takes his place because poker is basically the same thing as diplomacy, right? As we all know Kissinger was a killer poker player.

While the men do the real work, Troi invites Ral into her quarters for dinner. He goes straight to dessert and carries her off, romance-cover style.

The manned probe is well underway (in both storylines, I guess…) and so Geordi and Data leap through the wormhole, with a separate Ferengi pod in close pursuit behind them. But they find themselves nowhere near where they’re supposed to be. They’re in the Delta quadrant, not the Gamma quadrant, and if they don’t get back through that wormhole soon they’re going to be meeting Captain Janeway before they ever see the Enterprise again.

Ral’s own, um, survey has ended in a foot massage, body oil, and some totally casual needling about Troi’s relationship to Riker. She assures him they’re just friends now and tries to change the subject to him. He admits that he’s not really what he appears–he, too, is part Betazoid–and he uses that quarter of himself to gain a competitive advantage at the negotiating table to exploit others’ emotions. Like Troi’s, because she totally falls for his isolated quarterling persona. But she’s loving it, and the next day she and Dr. Crusher meet for calisthenics to talk about relationships, like an 80s version of a Upper East Side spinning class. Crusher tells her to go for it, proving her internal BFF red alert system is clearly down for repairs.

Ral, meanwhile, is off doing tough-guy real-life poker. He senses Leyor is nervous about the administrative aspect of running an interstellar toll booth, and so convinces him to drop out in exchange for a deal with the Chrysalians. When Troi learns what happened, she gently confronts him about being a con-man, and asks why he doesn’t disclose his empathic abilities.

TROI: I think you don’t tell them so you can gain an advantage.
RAL: Well, I gained an advantage by using it with you. You didn’t seem to mind that.

I did, does that count? He then tries to draw a parallel between the way he’s made a career of exploiting people’s emotions for money and the way she uses her abilities in her role as a counselor protecting a ship, saying she’s the more unethical one. This works on her, but no one else. As if to prove her point, he goes to Ten Forward and sits down with Riker. He tries to unsettle him first by insinuating he’s not man enough for his own command, and then going straight to the “guess where I was last night” routine. Riker is disgusted, calls Ral on his transparent attempt at emotional manipulation, and leaves in a confident twirl. Nice.

But Ral’s not done. Just as he and Riker make their final pitches to the Premier, DaiMon Goss, having stolen away in the night on his vessel, starts firing missiles at the wormhole. He claims that the Ferengi bid was never seriously considered. Ral seizes the chance to show the Premier that this is merely a power struggle between the war-like Federation and the war-like Ferengi. The Premier, duped into believing the Chrysalians can offer a more peaceful contract, decides to accept their offer. Ral, then, negotiates with the Ferengi to allow them free passage through the wormhole, leaving the Federation out in the cold.

Of course now everyone thinks something’s fishy, and it’s finally time for Counselor Obvious to shine. Troi outs her empathic boyfriend and his obvious ploy to secure the Barzan contract. But the joke’s on them, because at that moment Data and Geordi emerge from the wormhole and explain that it’s completely unstable and, thus, worthless. On the plus side, the two Ferengi consuls got trapped in the delta quadrant because they wouldn’t trust Geordi.

In the end, Ral packs up to face the Chrysalians and the lemon they just bought. But he wants Troi to share in his humiliation!

RAL: I’m very grateful for what you did, in a way. It’s made me take a hard look at who I am. I don’t like what I see. I once asked you to run away with me. Now I’m asking again. I need you. You could help me change. You could be my conscience.
TROI: I already have a job as counselor.

Analysis

I need to shower after watching this.

I wish I could just blame Ral, with his soulless dead eyes, total creeper vibe, complete inability to pick up social cues or respect personal boundaries, and general douchiness. But the problem here is Troi. She likes chocolate! And exercising in a leotard with her gal-pal who is the only other female on the ship with a name! And she has emotions and gets manipulated because of them! Any one of these things would be okay, they really would. But together, it’s the most ludicrous stereotype onscreen short of a Lifetime original movie, and given that Troi is given absolutely no other identifiable qualities it’s a degrading, offensive shortcut to character. I was sure the episode was going to end with a “Next time, on Days of Our Lives…” where we discover that Ral is really a twin and Troi has secretly been in love with the other one who’s also a spy and married but she has cancer and must tell her son.

Right.

This is right up there with the Dr. Crusher incubus episode. They both share this misguided idea that just because a main character gets laid, it must be sex-positive. Well, it’s not. First of all, Ral has a disturbing serial killer vibe going on (that voice goes straight to my flight reflex), then guilts her into sleeping with him by daring her to progress faster than she’s comfortable with. So empowering! Then, sex completely addles Troi’s mind such that she can’t see through this complete scumbag’s bag of pick-up artist tricks. Finally, when all was said and done, I felt like applauding. Not because she has that hilarious epiphany and tells him to get someone else to wipe his emotional ass, but because the thing was over. But I am glad she told him to get lost, too.

Aside from the cartoonish sexism (just a wee little aside…), there’s something inherently hilarious about trying to parallel 1) poker; 2) diplomacy; and 3) mind-reading. I love the way Ral does the “I’m not unethical, YOU’RE unethical!” table-turning. How is there even on its a face any kind of equivalency between being a woman specifically hired for her empathic ability to be a therapeutic counselor and a hired con-man? REALLY, TNG? And I love the little poker thing, mostly because it’s obvious that none of these delegates have any kind of “hand” to reveal but rather the Barzans are just picking the race they like the most, so it’s ultimately a meaningless comparison. Riker is just so good! At being… clean and well-behaved such that the Barzans will want him as a neighbor! POKER.

I do like the wormhole concept, as well as seeing various delegations vie for it. Too bad one of them is represented by Norman Bates, Pick-Up Artist, and the rest all drop out before it gets interesting.

Send this back to the daytime soap opera vault.

Torie’s Rating: Dead Stop (on a scale of 1-6)

Thread Alert: Our first look at the full-body spandex-plus-bathing-suit ensemble we will see again and again. The best part is Troi’s boob divider. Because who needs a sports bra when your boobs can flap around independently instead! The future, ladies and gentlemen.

Best Line: MENDOZA: You must play poker, Commander.
RIKER: Poker… Is that a game of some sort?

Trivia/Other Notes: If you think what they left in was bad, wait until you hear what they left out. First, a cut scene involved O’Brien getting dating advice about his then-girlfriend “Mitzi” (who I am assured was not a toy poodle). Wesley also got advice on how much his mom totally sucks for not letting him go to a sleepover. Oh, and the last scene was going to be Troi eating a tub of ice cream by herself while watching Gray’s Anatomy. (Okay it wasn’t, but if it had been there, would you have blinked an eye?)

Kol and Dr. Arridor return in Voyager‘s “False Profits.”

The original title was “A Price Far Above Rubies.” As in the Biblical proverb: “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.” SHOWER. NOW.

And my absolute favorite: Michael Piller remarked, “As far as servicing the character of Troi, it was quite a wonderful vehicle and she was marvelous.” She got serviced all right. Ugh.

Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 7 – “The Enemy.”

Next episode: Season 3, Episode 9 – “The Vengeance Factor.”

Season 3, Episode 7
Original air date: November 6, 1989
Star date: 43349.2

Mission summary

A distress signal leads Enterprise to a crappier-than-usual planet, Galorndon Core, where a small away team discovers the remnants of a Romulan shuttle–which was apparently destroyed after it crash-landed. Worf stumbles across an injured Romulan and promptly injures him some more to make him easier to rescue. Meanwhile, the hapless La Forge becomes the proverbial “boy in the well” when the ground crumbles beneath him and he plummets into a crevasse. Because of magnetic interference in the atmosphere that disrupts transporter beams, communications, and tricorders, Riker and Worf have to leave their friend behind, but no one really considers a surly Romulan on the verge of death a fair trade for their engineer.

Dr. Crusher examines their prisoner and informs them that he will die unless he receives a transfusion of precious, precious ribosomes. The search begins for a matching donor on board, while the crew tries to figure out how to retrieve La Forge and puzzle out what the Romulans were up to on the wrong side of the Neutral Zone. Their ailing guest refuses to give up any information.

La Forge is not one to sit at the bottom of a pit and wait for death or help to come to him. His VISOR reveals metal ore in the soft walls of the hole he’s fallen into. He uses his phaser to melt them down and fashions primitive spikes that he uses to climb out. He stumbles around the inhospitable landscape until he spots a neutrino beam that can cut through the planet’s interference and allow him to contact Enterprise–courtesy of Wesley Crusher, boy genius. Before he can get to it though, he is accosted and knocked out, by a second Romulan.

Romulans are popping up everywhere–Enterprise intercepts a signal from  Commander Tomalak, who tells them there was only one Romulan pilot, and he wants him back. He’s on his way, but he promises to stay inside the Neutral Zone until the Federation ship rendezvous with him. It’s even more imperative to keep their only bargaining chip alive, and it turns out there’s one match for the ribosomes he needs: Worf.

Worf is not keen on saving the life of a Romulan with the blood of the parents that they killed, so he declines to share his ribosomes. La Forge isn’t making any friends either–his Romulan, Bochra, is holding a disruptor on him, at least until a pile of rocks falls on him. La Forge rescues him, only to be captured again. But once they’ve had some time to bond, he brings Bochra around to his way of thinking. Only it’s too late; the magnetic forces on the planet are wreaking havoc on both their bodies, causing Bochra to suffer neurological damage and breaking La Forge’s connection with his VISOR. He can no longer see the neutrino beacon.

Now completely blind, La Forge is finally ready to give up, until Bochra suggests he link his VISOR to the tricorder to point the way to the neutrinos. The Romulan becomes La Forge’s eyes and hands, and La Forge half-carries him to the beacon. Back on the ship, everyone tries to cajole or guilt-trip Worf into helping the Romulan, but Picard stops just short of making it an order. Worf refuses and the Romulan dies, just as the impatient Tomalak’s warbird appears to reclaim him.

It looks like they’re going to start a war, until Wesley detects La Forge’s signal from the beacon. Picard takes a chance and asks Tomalak to act in good faith as they lower the shields to beam up La Forge and the Romulan that Tomalak claimed didn’t exist. The new buddies make it to the ship in the nick of time, averting a bloody space battle and a costly special effects budget. Picard agrees to hand over Bochra…and escort Tomalak’s ship back to the Neutral Zone.

Analysis

Weirdly, I remembered the two story lines in this episode as being in two different episodes, but they obviously fit together and play against each other well, an excellent example of how writers had finally figured out how to balance the plot in their scripts.

This is simply a standout episode, largely because of the unexpected, dark place it takes one of the main characters. In fact, it constantly subverts our expectations, providing plenty of opportunities where you think, “This is it. Worf is going to come around.” But he never does! The last, most striking moment is after Worf refuses again and Picard sternly says, “Lieutenant.” It seems he might actually order Worf to “volunteer,” but he doesn’t. The captain does the right thing, and whether you think Worf does the right thing or not, he stays true to himself. The more I re-watch the series, the more I realize Worf is one of the most complex and nuanced characters on the show, and Dorn really has been shining this season.

I also loved the bits on the planet–and how cool is the name “Galorndon Core”? I like seeing how resourceful Starfleet crew members can be when they’re really put to the test, and La Forge is rather brilliant, as is his new friend, Bochra. Seeing creativity at work like this is so much fun, and it’s a nice message that even though they rely on technology to do so much, they also have ingenuity. However, I did think it was strange that La Forge instantly assumed that Wesley had set up the neutrino beacon. Maybe if it had been another repurposed science experiment, but La Forge is basically implying that the kid is the only person on the ship who could have come up with it. To which I say, “Really?”

You add in the impending threat of the approaching warbird and Commander Tomalak, portrayed by the fabulous actor Andreas Katsulas, and the episode has even more tension with the highest of stakes. It feels like a mashup of “Balance of Terror” and “Arena.” It’s also content to let the mystery of what the Romulans were doing there go unanswered at the end of the episode; it seems to be fodder for a later plot point, but I don’t recall if they ever come back to it. I mean, I’m sure they were up to no good.

There are many other great character moments. Riker is tormented by having to leave Geordi behind: He snaps at poor Chief O’Brien and ends up drinking shots alone in his quarters. His animosity toward their Romulan prisoner is also apparent (Geordi dials the snark up to 11 too), and Picard once again displays admirable diplomacy and strategic thinking under difficult conditions. Unfortunately, you also have Deanna exlaiming “It’s Geordi!” when they get his neutrino signal, continuing to state the obvious.

Sure, I can pick some nits too. Why couldn’t they put the dying Romulan in stasis until Tomalak arrived? Why do Geordi and Bochra seem perfectly fine immediately after getting to Enterprise, despite the cumulative neurological damage and the fact that the Bochra was on the planet longer than the first Romulan? Why didn’t Picard just give Tomalak permission to cross the Neutral Zone, knowing that doing so could save their prisoner’s life? At the end of the episode, they’re supposed to escort the warbird to the Neutral Zone, but they seem to depart in opposite directions?

But whatever. These are minor quibbles when the emotional and moral core of the episode is so strong and like nothing we’d seen on the show before.

Eugene’s Rating: Warp 6 (on a scale of 1-6)

Thread Alert: Stand down from Thread Alert. No new costumes to mock in this episode.

Best Line: “I never lie when I’ve got sand in my shoes, Commodore,” Geordi lied.

Trivia/Other Notes: An early draft of the script had Troi trapped on the planet with Geordi, which at least would have given her something useful to do.

Michael Dorn and some of the writers objected to Worf letting the Romulan die. Dorn was concerned that people would view the Klingon as a murderer, but the producers wanted to show that he has different values than humans do.

LeVar Burton claimed this episode was an homage to the 1958 film The Defiant Ones, starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier as prisoners who are shackled together and must cooperate when they escape from a chain gang.

This is the first of four appearances by Andreas Katsulas as Commander Tomalak. Katsulas is probably best known to SF fans as G’kar from the series Babylon 5, as well as the one-armed man from the film adaptation of The Fugitive. He also played another character in Star Trek: Enterprise.

John Snyder (Bochra) returns to TNG in “The Masterpiece Society.”

Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 6 – “Booby Trap.”

Next episode: Season 3, Episode 8 – “The Price.”