Star Trek The Next Generation appreciation thread (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

By coincidence, I watched all of Ro’s episodes prior to the start of Picard this year, so that was a choice that paid off well.

What’s been really interesting about this latest season of Picard is how it’s coming back to follow up on some of the dangling plot points left behind in the seventh season of TNG, paying off things that the TNG showrunners could only hint at given limitations of episodic television in the early 1990s. The Picard-Crusher flirtation is one example; “Attached” ends with an uncharacteristically emotionally vulnerable Picard reaching out to Beverly, only to have her coldly slam the door on his entreaties. It’s not a loud or showy moment, but it foreshadows where Beverly is in terms of her relationship with Picard when we catch up with her in the newer show. Similarly, “Preemptive Strike” has a devastating end to the Picard-Ro mentorship, but it didn’t feel like the end of that story. Once again, the newer Picard show has turned a mere hinting into something fully fleshed out that rings true. Not only do these new stories work well on their own terms, but they add depth and weight retroactively to these TNG stories by letting these earlier moments have real consequences.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Having previously revisited "Disaster", "Conundrum", and "Power Play"...

Tonight's episode: "Cause and Effect", from Season 5.

This episode starts with a literal bang. Ensign Ro plays a very minor role, only appearing in one scene—albeit a scene that repeats many, many times.

Time loops were still a novel and unfamiliar idea to most viewers when this first aired, nearly a year before Groundhog Day hit theaters. It's a Brannon Braga teleplay, and we all know how Braga loves time travel stories. But this one is different than his usual shtick.

Jonathan Frakes, slipping into the director's chair, shot this story in a very unusual fashion for TNG, largely avoiding the normal flat full lighting and standard camera angles to keep the repetitive beats fresh.

The poker games were a device that the writers liked the use to pad out episodes than came in short, and one I tend to like because it allows for the kind of character beats that the normally plot-focused TNG episodic format doesn't make much time for. But here, the poker game serves as a crucial framing device. It provides a concrete numerical source of repetition that makes the characters confront their sense of deja vu in a conspicuous and easily validated way.

My one issue with the episode is Picard's determination to maintain course even after he's been presented with incontrovertible evidence of the time loop. It seems like the obvious decision in that situation would have been to order an immediate full stop and see if it gave them more time to work the problem.

Impacts on Star Trek Continuity:
Having just watched "Ensign Ro", I was amused to see two stories back to back with folk remedies from Picard's Aunt Adele.

The USS Bozeman was named after Brannon Braga's hometown of Bozeman, Montana. But the events of Star Trek: First Contact provide a compelling in-universe reason to name a starship after such a remote an sparsely populated city: It was the city where Vulcans made first contact with humanity after Zefram Cochrane's maiden warp flight aboard the Phoenix.

Captain Bateson (played by Kelsey Grammar, a huge star at the time from "Cheers") reports the year as 2278, which places the episode between Star Trek: The Motion Picture (roughly 2273) and Star Trek: Wrath of Khan (2285). That implies that the TMP leisure suit-style uniforms didn't last very long, and nor should they have: They were hideous.

I always thought it would have made a good film or miniseries following Bateson and the crew of the Bozeman as they adapt to life in the 24th century. The only time we see the character again is a brief non-speaking role in the "Lower Decks" episode "Grounded", as the leader of a covert investigations team that included Tuvok. But we know from one of the screens in Star Trek: Generations that he was still the commanding officer of the Bozeman in 2371, and the Bozeman is also mentioned as being at the Battle of Sector 001 in First Contact, either an upgraded refit of this ship or a new ship with the same name (NCC-1941-A?). If we see the fleet museum on this season of "Star Trek: Picard", it would be fun see the Bozeman as one of the mothballed ships in the collection.

Season	Episodes Revisited
1	3, 8-9, 14, 16-18, 25-26
2	2, 7, 10-13, 15, 18, 21
3	4, 6-9, 11, 18, 22
4	3, 5, 12, 14-16, 24
5	2-3, 5, 7-9, 12-15, 18, 22-26
6	1, 4-6, 9, 12-13, 18-19, 21-22, 26
7	1, 7-9, 12-13, 16, 18, 22

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Tonight's episode: "Cause and Effect", from Season 5.

That is one of my all-time favorite episodes! I almost wish I could Eternal Sunshine myself so I could see it again for the first time.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Having previously revisited "The Next Phase"...

Tonight's episode: "Rascals", from Season 6.

It's kind of a ridiculous lark of a concept, but the writers mine it for some good character work and a satisfying resolution to the Ferengi's hare-brained plot. You need a lesser quality villain for this story, because otherwise you run into the Phantom Menace problem of asking the audience to believe that children could take out a threat that is meant to be deadly and formidable. The Ferengi are already kind of a joke, so the suspense becomes how they'll be defeated, rather than a darker plot about a bunch of children potentially being slaughtered.

This era of Trek doesn't have a great track record with child actors, but this episode fares better than most.

David Tristan Birkin had already acquitted himself pretty well as Jean-Luc's nephew René in "Family" so it made sense to bring him back as the prepubescent Jean-Luc here. Both his speech patterns and certain tics like straightening the wrinkles in his uniform eerily mirror Patrick Stewart's performance. The only think that didn't quite work for me is that he is too tall to be plausible as a twelve-year-old, not much shorter than Patrick Stewart himself. Especially with the other child actors who are closer in age to the age their supposed to be playing, he stands out as being a bit too mature.

Isis J. Jones is a marvel as the young Guinan. She had previously played a young version of Whoopi's character in Sister Act, which I don't believe had come out yet when this episode was shot. Guinan is a very different character than Deloris Van Cartier, and Jones gives a very different performance here. She captures both the tone and rhytyms that Whoopi brings to Guinan but also the feel of the character. Even as a twelve-year-old, Guinan feels ancient. And she sees what Ro was denied as a child, and coaxes it out of her. Jones conveys both Guinan's strategic thinking and her genuine joy at being a child again.

Megan Parlen and Caroline Junko King are a bit more wooden as the preteen Ro Laren and the preteen Keiko O'Brien respectively. But they're no worse than the norm for TNG child actors, and director Adam Nimoy does coaxes some genuine moments out of them. Parlen, in particular, loosens up a bit and feels more natural when playing off of both the child and adult versions of Guinan.

And in fairness, it's a tricky ask for both of them: What experience can a child bring to scenes where a mother is rejected by her child? And presumably Parlen didn't grow up in a refugee camp, so what would she know about Ro Laren's childhood?

But given the laughable presence, there is more meat on the bones here than we probably had any right to expect.

My one issue with the episode is that it makes Riker look a bit incompetent: He's acting captain for less than a day, and the flagship of Starfleet gets outmatch by Ferengi in two ancient Klingon Birds of Prey. He does redeem himself later, with that genuinely funny and pretty meta technobabble scene, but I didn't buy that he'd let the Enterprise get into such dire straights to begin with.

Impacts on Star Trek Continuity:
This episode begins to explore how the Cardassian occupation of Bajor led to so many Bajoran children growing up without a childhood, something that will get a lot more play during DS9. To understand why Ensign Ro is the way she is, you have to understand what she was deprived of growing up. The fact that she isn't ultimately in any great rush to grow up again is both poignant and tragic.

I believe this is the first time we've seen Hana Hatae as Molly O'Brien; she would reprise the character roughly a dozen times on DS9.

Season	Episodes Revisited
1	3, 8-9, 14, 16-18, 25-26
2	2, 7, 10-13, 15, 18, 21
3	4, 6-9, 11, 18, 22
4	3, 5, 12, 14-16, 24
5	2-3, 5, 7-9, 12-15, 18, 22-26
6	1, 4-7, 9, 12-13, 18-19, 21-22, 26
7	1, 7-9, 12-13, 16, 18, 22

 

[Sam Favate]

My feeling on Rascals is that the episode was much better than it had any right to be.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Tonight's episode: "Preemptive Strike", from Season 7.

The penultimate TNG story, and the last Ro Laren story for over a quarter of a century, feels more like a DS9 episode: The Cardassians are conniving and unlikable, but not outright antagonists. The Federation's position is pragmatic but morally dubious. Instead of tying the plot up in a neat little bow, the characters are forced to live with the choices they've made.

This is also the last time Patrick Stewart has directed on a Star Trek show. The episode is relatively light on Picard, with Ro as the undeniable central character. But the scenes Picard does have are doozies, and the final shot is staggering: the camera pans around a Picard who is stiff as a statue, his British stoicism struggling to contain fury and heartbreak and betrayal. Picard had invested a lot personally and professionally in Ro's redemption, and she has thrown it all away for reasons that he can understand intellectually but never empathize with emotionally.

From what I understand, there was quite a bit of antipathy between the Star Trek producers and Michelle Forbes, after they had designed DS9 in part around Ro Laren only for her to turn down a series regular role. I have mixed feelings about that; I think continuing her journey of redemption under Sisko while getting back to her Bajoran roots would have been a more interesting and organic place to take the character. On the other hand, Nana Visitor was great as Kira Nerys and there were things they could do with Kira and her backstory that they never would have been able to do with Ro.

This episode was the result more or less of desperation; they were approaching the end of the series an episode short, and this was the only story idea developed enough to get before cameras by the deadline. And so it fell to Jeri Taylor to mend fences enough to get Forbes back one last time.

The episode continues Riker's unfortunate track record when it comes to undercover assignments. I really liked how Riker was written in the scene where Ro sabotages the mission and defects to the Marquis, and I thought Frakes brought a wonderful kindness and understanding to his performance that felt like a 180 from how Riker first met her in "Ensign Ro". They're not on the same side in that moment, but Riker still cares about her as a person, understands why she's making the choice she's making, knows how hard it is, and doesn't have any desire to make it any harder.

In terms of Ro's choice: I'm on the fence about whether it tracks or not. Given her upbringing, her history with the Cardassians, and her outsider status within Starfleet, it probably does. But as an audience member, I've seen her develop this mentor-mentee relationship with Picard over three seasons. It's hard to believe that one guest star in one episode can get her to betray him.

I also don't know that I buy Picard planning to lure the Marquis into a trap so that they can be slaughtered, especially given the care taken to disable but not destroy the Marquis raiders at the beginning of the episode. I get the realpolitik behind it -- better to sacrifice hundreds to save hundreds of thousands -- but it's not the kind of moral calculus Picard usually makes. I think it would have worked better if Admiral Nechayev had come up with the plan and Picard -- despite his reservations -- obeyed orders and executed it.

But all in all, lots of meaty stuff and a story that felt like a real departure for this show.

Impacts on Star Trek Continuity:
This was the only TNG episode featuring Ro Laren to be made after DS9 had debuted. That resulted in a number of changes to better align with (and take advantage of) what DS9 had established, starting with the elimination of the ridges above Ro's nose on the bottom edge of her frontal bone. The production reason for this change was to streamline the creature makeup now that a Bajoran character was a series regular. As some who has a strong desire for verisimilitude in my fictional worlds, I wish they'd provided an in-universe explanation. Perhaps the eyebrow ridges release hormones during adolescence, and dissipate at a certain point in adulthood. Or perhaps it could have been a racial difference, like how the Romulans from the northern continent have forehead ridges but the Romulans from the more southern regions do not.

I do like seeing the Cardassians in their proper fascist uniforms, though.

The most recent episode of "Picard" deals with the fallout of this episode, and the ways its consequences have rippled down through lives of both central characters involved. It's some really beautiful work, at least as poignant but no more tidy in its resolution.

Season	Episodes Revisited
1	3, 8-9, 14, 16-18, 25-26
2	2, 7, 10-13, 15, 18, 21
3	4, 6-9, 11, 18, 22
4	3, 5, 12, 14-16, 24
5	2-3, 5, 7-9, 12-15, 18, 22-26
6	1, 4-7, 9, 12-13, 18-19, 21-22, 26
7	1, 7-9, 12-13, 16, 18, 22, 24

 

[Nelson Au]

I watched Ensign Ro last night for obvious reasons. I had seen it many times, but not seen it in many years and I had not completely recalled the plot, so it was good to re-see it. I enjoy Rascals and The Next Phase as two really good Ro episodes so they have more repeat views. And Disaster is pretty good too though her role is smaller.

What I enjoyed a lot about Ensign Ro was how Picard uncovers the conspiracy with Ro’s insights and then how we see her come out of her rut and through Picard, she is re-engaged with Starfleet. It’s understandable that she became so disillusioned with how the Admiral was using her. So it makes the events of her departure from Starfleet particularly bitter for Picard after his efforts to turn her around.

 

[Nelson Au]

I forgot to mention another aspect of Ensign Ro that I thought was great, is the opening scene with Captain Picard getting a haircut from Mr. Mott. That was a hoot! i had not seen that sequence in a long while. He comes back on Die Hard in a starship in the episode Enemy Mine. It pays of well.

I carried on with Ensign Ro episodes and watched Disaster. It had been some time since I last watched it. On this viewing it reminded me how this episode showed the flagship of the fleet as a death trap! It was interesting how every character was placed in a difficult position, Picard having to care for children, Riker and Data’s cranial unit, Keiko and Worf with the birth not going as simulated, Troi being out in command, Geordi and Beverly and the plasma fire and Keiko dealing with Ensign Ro who wanted to separate the saucer. I’d forgotten how much Ro was pushing to cut the drive section believing everyone was dead there. Better episode then I recalled. The birth scene was a hoot too.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Tonight's episode: "Future Imperfect", from Season 4.

This is an unusual time travel episode, because there isn't really any time travel. And it's an unusual holodeck episode because there isn't a holodeck as we know it.

The episode is a bit of a puzzle box, but it plays fair with the audience. The convention of not showing any exteriors of the ship during the simulation scenes is maintained here, and evidence is planted early on that something is amiss when the computer lags when Riker unexpectedly changes their destination. A lot of the story holds together in the moment, and the student that doesn't make sense given what we learn in the final reveal.

It's a great Riker episode, giving Jonathan Frakes a bunch of different facets to explore. And I enjoyed Patrick Stewart's acting choices as a child's idea of what a Starfleet admiral would be like.

The final scene, with Riker learning that his entire predicament has been the result of a child's loneliness was well-rendered. I love how Frakes plays Riker when Barash reveals his true form; he doesn't even flinch, and is no less empathetic than when Barash looked human. And I liked that his true form was one of the closer approximations Trek has attempted to the short, long-fingered gray aliens that have permeated our cultural imagination for decades.

I've said before that Trek in general, and TNG in particular, doesn't have a great track record when it comes to child actors. But Chris Demetral is excellent in a challenging role. He's playing three characters who are all in some ways one character: Young Jean-Luc, "Ethan", and Barash himself. I believed every iteration.

Impacts on Star Trek Continuity:
I wanted to revisit this episode now, in the middle of the final season of "Picard", to compare how the future Barash's technology imagined for Riker compared to the future that actually played out for him. His service record is particularly interesting:

Now these are taken from the HD remasters, so I have no idea if the text was updated to incorporate events from later works. But either way, there are some notable similarities and some notable differences. In both futures, he was promoted to captain and assumed command of the USS Titan. But in the simulated future, it happened a lot earlier: stardate 47203 instead of 56845. In both futures, the Titan was initially assigned to the Romulan Neutral Zone. In both futures, Picard would go on to lead Starfleet Academy as an admiral. But in the simulated reality, it happened much sooner; he never resigned his commission and so he never had to come out of retirement. In both realities, Riker had a son, but with different names and different fates. The death of Thad is the defining tragedy of the real Riker's life. And of course his spouse is different, probably because Barash knew he wouldn't be able to fake Deanna successfully over the long term. There are other major differences too: The Enterprise-D never got destroyed in a crash landing, and the Romulan home star never went supernova.

It's funny to see such a young Nurse Ogawa in what is supposed to be sixteen years in the future. They probably had no idea at this point that she would go on to be such a prominent recurring character.

I always thought it was a mistake to waste these alt-combadges on a simulation. Having the rank pips built into the combadge just makes so much more sense. I believe the only other time we see them is in some of the alternate timelines from "Parallels", when they were presumably using everything they had to suggest the various differences.

"Enterprise" took a similar premise -- a main character waking up with no memory of the past several years of his life -- and spun it in a very different direction in "Twilight". I think I liked that episode better, but both are strong episodes and distinct from one another.

Season	Episodes Revisited
1	3, 8-9, 14, 16-18, 25-26
2	2, 7, 10-13, 15, 18, 21
3	4, 6-9, 11, 18, 22
4	3, 5, 8, 12, 14-16, 24
5	2-3, 5, 7-9, 12-15, 18, 22-26
6	1, 4-7, 9, 12-13, 18-19, 21-22, 26
7	1, 7-9, 12-13, 16, 18, 22, 24

 

[Philip Verdieck]

I forgot to mention another aspect of Ensign Ro that I thought was great, is the opening scene with Captain Picard getting a haircut from Mr. Mott. That was a hoot! i had not seen that sequence in a long while. He comes back on Die Hard in a starship in the episode Enemy Mine. It pays of well.

Nice reference to a great episode (Enemy Mine) that is in my Top 20. In addition to the Picard plot, I just love the B-plot where Riker/Troi? points Data as a small talk counter-weapon against the base commander. Hilarious and often forgotten against the main story line.

 

[Nelson Au]

Philip, I misspoke, the title of that episode is Starship Mine. I agree the subplot was great. I’ve always thought Brent Spiner is quite an actor who can perform such scenes with the comedic touch!

 

[Nelson Au]

I watched Conundrum tonight. It’s not a favorite as it’s a similar plot device of an alien race taking control of the Enterprise crew to make them carry out their nefarious plans, such as The Game which I thought was better. But this episode was still pretty good in how they eventually defeat MacDuff.

But it does have some fun stuff, Worf trying to take command, Data as the bartender, and the best part, Riker‘s story where he’s enjoying his time with Ro and Deanna. And the end when they get their memories back, his awkward moment with Troi and Ro.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Tonight's episode: "The First Duty", from Season 5.

This episode is a departure in a number of ways. It's entirely character-driven, our series regulars are relegated to supporting roles, and it has nothing to do with the show's mission of exploring new planets and boldly going where no one has gone before.

The plot allegory is basically a fraternity hazing ritual gone wrong, and the point of tension is whether Wesley Crusher will remain loyal to his friends or steadfast to his ideals. The Wesley of the first couple seasons would have ratted his friends out immediately. It's to the writers' credit that it's by no means a sure thing here.

It's a story that has a lot to say about peer pressure, and the difficulties that arise when deeply held values are in conflict with one another.

It's also a story about Beverly Crusher having to see her son in a less angelic light, and accept that even though he's really smart and was always really well-behaved, he's capable of making grave errors in judgment just like any other young person out on their own for the first time.

We get hints that Picard was embroiled in some mischief of his own during his academy days, too, though the details are left unstated. His memory of that experience helps him nudge Wesley in the right direction, and confirms for the audience that the great man did not live an unimpeachable life. But whatever mistakes he made, he owned them and learned from them. That too is what Wesley is being asked to do.

Impacts on Star Trek Continuity:
With "Picard" in its final season, and "Discovery" ending next season, we'll be down to one live action Star Trek show. There has been a lot of discussion about possible new Trek shows, and one of the ideas that keeps coming up is a Starfleet Academy show. So I wanted to revisit this episode, centered around Wesley Crusher, which is probably the closest thing we've gotten yet.

What this episode does, and what I think any Starfleet Academy show would have to do, is basically tell a boarding school story or a college years story. Most of the classes are going to be full of meaningless technobabble, so they can't really build a show around the curriculum. Instead, it would have to be about shaping a group of young cadets into the kind of people who have earned the right to wear the Starfleet uniform.

It's also one of three appearances by the late great Ray Walston as Boothby, and the only one where the character appears in the flesh. It's a character that's fascinated and intrigued me: A gardener who had no official role in the education of the academy's pupils who nevertheless knew everything that was going on with everyone, a key source of continuity as the admirals leading the academy came and went, and who mentored countless future officers over half a century or more.

Robert Duncan McNeill has a significant role in this episode as Nicholas Locarno, the leader of Nova Squadron whose arrogance got Cadet Albert killed and who pressured the rest of the squadron to cover up his mistake. McNeill would later go on to star as Tom Paris on "Voyager". Paris bears a number of similarities to Locarno, and photos of McNeill as Locarno would be repurposed to show Paris during his days at the Academy.

Both characters made mistakes that got people killed. But Locarno is a darker and more selfish character. Paris ultimately confessed just like Wesley Crusher did. Locarno's lack of remorse would have made any redemption arc a much steeper climb.

Another co-conspirator, Sito Jaxa, would be revisited in the seventh season episode "Lower Decks". And the price for her redemption was very steep indeed.

Season	Episodes Revisited
1	3, 8-9, 14, 16-18, 25-26
2	2, 7, 10-13, 15, 18, 21
3	4, 6-9, 11, 18, 22
4	3, 5, 8, 12, 14-16, 24
5	2-3, 5, 7-9, 12-15, 18-19, 22-26
6	1, 4-7, 9, 12-13, 18-19, 21-22, 26
7	1, 7-9, 12-13, 16, 18, 22, 24

 

[Sam Favate]

Robert Duncan McNeill has a significant role in this episode as Nicholas Locarno, the leader of Nova Squadron whose arrogance got Cadet Albert killed and who pressured the rest of the squadron to cover up his mistake. McNeill would later go on to star as Tom Paris on "Voyager". Paris bears a number of similarities to Locarno, and photos of McNeill as Locarno would be repurposed to show Paris during his days at the Academy.

Wasn't the original intention to have McNeill be the same character? I thought I read that he was changed to a new character to avoid owing the writers of The First Duty anything. That's just wrong, if true, and the character of Paris has so many similarities to Locarno that it's insulting to viewers that it's not.

Locarno is a better character too, IMO. Tom Paris became kind of a goofball on Voyager.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

Philip, I misspoke, the title of that episode is Starship Mine. I agree the subplot was great. I’ve always thought Brent Spiner is quite an actor who can perform such scenes with the comedic touch!

Yeah, I missed it too. And I read your post and was wondering why you were talking about a Dennis Quaid/Lou Gossett Jr movie from 1985. I love that movie, because I first read the Barry B Longyear novella in Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine, which was a TV-Guide sized periodical.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

Cause & Effect and Conundrum are 2 eps that I really like. They are at least partway responsible for me viewing S5 as one of the stronger seasons of TNG.

I once read, and view as accurate, that with most SF series, it takes a couple seasons to get things going smoothly. That is for everyone, cast, crew and writers.

I would say that TNG started hitting its stride in S3.

By S5 the scriptwriters know what they are doing with a few rare exceptions/turkeys/filler eps, the characters' backstories have been developed, the actors are very comfortable in their characters and with each other.

OT. I was killing time watching YouTube cast convention clips (I saw a more recent one with Spiner and Delancey). That led to blooper clips. There are a bunch of the season blooper clips available. There was one with the camera focused on Worf in a briefing room scene. He didn't have much to say, just look attentive. Riker is issuing orders. Dorn just kind of drifted and a few seconds later Frakes fires out "And that means now, Mr. Worf" or something to that effect and Dorn scrambles to recover.

 

[Wiseguy]

Wasn't the original intention to have McNeill be the same character? I thought I read that he was changed to a new character to avoid owing the writers of The First Duty anything. That's just wrong, if true, and the character of Paris has so many similarities to Locarno that it's insulting to viewers that it's not.

Locarno is a better character too, IMO. Tom Paris became kind of a goofball on Voyager.

Didn't Shakespeare say "A character by any other name would have become a goofball anyway"?

 

[Nelson Au]

Well guys. I seem to watching the same episodes as Adam, I watched Power Play last night and Cause and Effect tonight As I continue with Ro Laren episodes.

Power Play is not an episode I revisit too often. It was interesting rewatch because I rememebered at this stage of the series, the support cast has grown. With Keiko O’Brien seen in more episodes, the budget must have been pretty good to have her and Ro Laren in the same episode! The storyline was a pretty good one where I’d forgotten the twist ending. So it was more fun to watch because I remembered in the earlier times I’d seen it, it wasn’t as much fun because we are seeing evil version of Troi, O’Brien and Data.

Cause and Effect I remember well when it was first aired how it was unusually set up and Frakes did a good job of directing the repetitious scenes in a way to make them interesting and different. The whole loop idea does seem kind of out there, but I remembered liking the concept and how the crew was able to figure out a way to send a message.

What was odd was seeing Kelsey Grammer at the end. He must have been right at the end of Cheers and right before Frasier. And ironic that Frasier was such a snobbish character and he was no fan of Star Trek. I find that amusing.

About Michelle Forbes, I thought in these two episodes, she had far less to do, especially Cause and Effect where she repeats the same lines. The next episodes she appears in was more fun for her and I look forward to that.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Tonight's episode: "Symbiosis", from Season 1.

This episode was both a wacky, outrageous science fiction story and a very evocative artifact of the Reagan era of America's War on Drugs.

I knew we were in for a wild ride when the Enterprise responds to an emergency hail from a doomed freighter, and the freighter's captain is completely stoned, with only a vague idea of what's going on.

We quickly learn that the system is home to two inhabited planets, each home to a different species with a common ancestor -- similar to the Vulcans and the Romulans. Both species are humanoid, except with the ability to generate electricity and delivering controlled jolts. They have achieved space travel, with regular freight runs between the two inhabited worlds, and they are aware of other life in the galaxy. But they have not yet broken the warp barrier, so the Prime Directive still applies.

The Ornarans were once an industrious society that produced great feats of science and engineering. By contrast, their neighbors the Brekkians were an agrarian society with little industry of their own.

That all changed a couple centuries prior, when a plague ravaged both worlds. A treatment was found, made from a plant that only grew in the richer and more fertile soil of Brekka. For all of their technological and scientific advancements, the Ornarans found themselves at the mercy of the Brekkians, who were the only source of the medicine that could keep their illness at bay.

But Dr. Crusher quickly discovers that the plague was eradicated a long time ago, and the illness that plagued the Ornarans was actually just withdrawal symptoms from the heavy duty narcotics in the Brekkians' "treatment". Ornaran is planet where basically every man, woman, and child is a heroin addict.

Picard feels bound by the Prime Directive not to reveal this information to the Ornarans. The smug and self-serving Brekkians think they have him over the barrel, until he uses their manipulation of the Ornarans against them.

There's a strange tension between the prime directive's imperative to avoid cultural contamination and interference and the writers' desire for anti-drug moralizing.

The consequences of Picard withholding the needed parts for the Ornarans' freighter ships is essentially planetwide suffering for two entire planets: The Ornarans will suffer an extremely traumatic global withdrawal. And not knowing that it's something that can be overcome if it is endured long enough, many of them are likely to commit suicide rather than endure what they have every reason to believe is a miserable, painful death.

Meanwhile, the Brekkians have so successfully indentured the Ornarans through their drug dependency, they are no longer in the business of any industries other than the manufacture and distribution of narcotics. They depend on the Ornarans for everything else. Once the last of the Ornarans' ships is no longer operable, they will be cut off from their supply of all essential goods. Global famine and mass death from starvation is almost certain.

And Picard lectures Crusher smugly about the moral correctness of his stance, despite the fact that Crusher was able to synthesize a Methadone-style treatment that would allow the Ornarans to treat their withdrawal symptoms while weaning themselves off the narcotic. He wants to avoid engaging in colonial paternalism. She wants to upload her Hypocratic Oath to "do no harm."

One gets the sense that part of why the episode left the Ornarans to suffer came out of the same moral impulse that has resulted in such controversy around states' programs to make Narcan readily available to the public to treat overdoses in the face of the ongoing opioid epidemic. The addiction is seen as a moral failing rather than a disease, and so the treatment is seen as enabling the moral failing rather than managing the disease.

And if the Very Special Episode messaging wasn't clear enough, the whole story grinds to a halt at one point for a comically earnest conversation between Wesley Crusher and Tasha Yar about the dangers of drug use and how important it is to Just Say No.

Impacts on Star Trek Continuity:
The aftermath of the events of this episode are explored in a "Lower Decks" episode when the USS Cerritos revisits the system nearly two decades later in the third season episode "Trusted Sources". We learn that Picard's gambit was successful in freeing them from their dependence on the narcotic, but it took them ten to fourteen years of chaos in order to get there. On the other hand, Brekka proved to be an inviting target after it was abruptly cut off from the Ornarans' supplies and technology. By 2381 it has been invaded and conquered by the Breen Confederacy. So when it comes to rolling the dice on noninterference, you win some and you lose some I guess.

Season	Episodes Revisited
1	3, 8-9, 14, 16-18, 22, 25-26
2	2, 7, 10-13, 15, 18, 21
3	4, 6-9, 11, 18, 22
4	3, 5, 8, 12, 14-16, 24
5	2-3, 5, 7-9, 12-15, 18-19, 22-26
6	1, 4-7, 9, 12-13, 18-19, 21-22, 26
7	1, 7-9, 12-13, 16, 18, 22, 24

 

[Jason_V]

Oh lord, “Symbiosis.” The teaser and Act One are good enough: tension and a decent amount of drama…and the episode goes off the rails. Terrible acting, terrible moralizing, Tasha wagging her finger at the audience over drugs, bad effects like when Riker is attacked.

“Symbiosis” falls into that slot on the schedule after a BIG episode and likely got overlooked by the production. It’s happened throughout the franchise (big one: anyone remember what happened after DS9’s season six opening arc and the wedding episode?). It’s also likely a victim of the looming writers strike which would hobble the end of season 1 and all of season 2.

I’d almost rather watch “Shades of Gray” over this one. And, somehow, it doesn’t come in as the worst of the franchise on a regular basis. Not sure how that happens.

RIP Merritt Butrick who passed away about a year after filming this episode from toxoplasmosis, complicated by AIDS. This wasn’t even his final role; he would keep working right up until his death.