The Naked Now (TNG)

"I am programmed in multiple techniques, a wide variety of pleasuring."

           “Everyone acts weird” is not a bad premise for an episode. There are plenty of decent, or even good examples out there. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for example, thrived on these, with episodes like “Band Candy” and “Once More with Feeling” serving as important catalysts for plot developments and changes in character relationships. But it seems to me an especially poor choice for the second episode of your series. Especially with a premise like “The Naked Now”, where impaired judgment leads to people acting out their deepest desires. A season later, this would be an awesome way to explore these characters and their relationships with one another, but at this point we don’t know these people well enough to really care. The writers are grasping at straws in a big way.

Indications of what humans would call "a wild party."

            I haven’t seen “The Naked Time”, the TOS episode this one plays homage to, in too long for me to say whether it had the same pitfalls. The set-up, in brief: The Enterprise receives a distress call from the U.S.S. Tsiolkovsky, a science ship, which consists of the Captain coming on the whole Enterprise crew, then some daring someone else to pull a lever, then everyone being sucked out the airlock. In short, Frat boys… IN SPACE! Of course Picard sends an away team over, and finding evidence of a “Wild Party” they quickly contaminate the Enterprise with the “everybody acts wacky” virus. Geordi becomes a sad sack about being blind, Tasha tries to fuck anything with a pulse (er… and some without), and Wesley Crusher does what any drunk sixteen year old would do if he could, and seizes control of the Enterprise.

            Seriously, this kid is terrifying. More on that later.

            Anyway, I’m not going to do this review in the form of a scene-by-scene synopsis. That was really just for the pilots because there was so much new stuff being introduced that I wanted to react to. This week I want to focus on a few specific issues, most notably the developing Wesley/ Picard situation and blatant sexism that runs rampant through the episode.

            Let’s start with the latter concern. So, while this contaminant is described as being like alcohol, i.e. lowering inhibitions, impairing judgment, etc, everyone does not react to it the same way, just as everyone does not react to alcohol the same way. Picard is a kind of a tired, sluggish drunk, Data is super friendly and rambles, and all of the women become nymphomaniacs. And here is issue number one. None of the men seem to develop increased libidos. Even Riker, who’s libido is pretty intense under normal circumstances, doesn’t hit on anyone. But Tasha, Beverly, the unnamed Captain of the Tsiolkovsky, and to a lesser extent Troi, all respond to the contaminant in the same way.

TNG's most popular ship. (You thought it was the Enterprise?)

            I’m not really sure what else to say about this. Beverly at least has some self-control, but her feelings for Captain Picard should be blatantly obvious to the entire crew by now. Tasha is out of control, as sexually aggressive as she usually is just aggressive, and doesn’t appear to have a particular target in mind. She’s ready to seduce whoever walks through the door, and while her dalliance with Data is played entirely for laughs, I can’t help but feel a bit skeezed out by it, especially as I don’t think Data was capable of giving consent. Still, he is sort of game for anything when it comes to experiencing new aspects of humanity, so he probably wasn’t too bothered by it.

            Incidentally, Data seems a lot more biological in this episode than in later ones. For example, he can be administered the cure via hypospray.

           In brief though, I feel like the writers could have tried a little harder, and seeing Beverly and Tasha go all boy-crazy in episode two does not bode well for how this show treats its female characters. Along similar lines, having its only disabled character spend all his drunk time whining about his disability is a bit pandering. Like seriously, “blind” is the entire extent of Geordi’s characterization as of yet. He doesn’t even have a real job, the Chief Engineer and Assistant Chief Engineer being people we never see again after this episode.

"Like taking candy from a baby."

            Speaking of the Chief Engineer, perhaps the reason we don’t see more of her is that a drunk sixteen-year old can easily wrest control of the ship from her. Apparently good judgment and inhibitions were the only thing keeping Wesley from pulling off a successful one-man mutiny, which honestly just does not bode well for the Enterprise. Although this kind of behavior is totally believable for a bratty teenager, other aspects of his personality in this episode make him seem like he’s nine or ten, for example talking to Geordi about using his Picard’s voice recorder to pretend he’s on the Enterprise. I mean, dude, you have a Holodeck! Or his proclamation the “a desert course will follow every meal, including breakfast” which is also quite silly because people have replicators and eat what they want when they want anyway.

            Wesley doesn’t get thrown in the brig because as well as recklessly endangering the ship, he ultimately manages to save it, he and his mother being basically the only two crew members capable of keeping their heads and solving problems while under the influence.

Random Observations:

The Tsiolkovsky's Captain says they're going to have "a real blow-out", just before everyone gets blown out the airlock. Ha!

This is another very ensemble-heavy episode – no one crew member takes center stage, but if I had to call it I’d say it’s a Beverly or a Wesley episode. Tagging Data and Tasha because of the famous scene.

             

Best laugh line in the episode was the Picard/ Data callback to the famous Tasha/ Data seduction scene:

“Well at least your functioning”

“Fully, Captain.”

            

 I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that “Fully Functional” has become one of the premier Star Trek Convention Pick Up Lines, and if nothing else this episode gave us that.

             

Deanna is still talking with a weird fake accent.

             

There is actually something charming about Will Wheaton in this episode. Sort of Ferris Bueller-esque.

             

The scene between Beverly and Picard was actually well-acted and quite funny. So was the scene where Picard finds out Data isn’t immune. Basically, Gates McFadden, Patrick Stewart, and Brent Spiner all managed convincing portrayals of “Drunk but trying to act sober” while the rest of the cast either went too far (Tasha, Geordi) or didn’t go far enough (Riker, Deanna.)

             

Worf manages to avoid getting infected possibly because Klingons have awesome immune systems and can also hold their liquor.

             

The Tsiolkovsky is a blatant reuse of the Enterprise D sets – they barely even tried to disguise it.

             

Still seeing a few of those miniskirts on the junior officers.