Lonely Among Us (TNG)

There goes our entire make-up budget for the season.

            If I could use one word to describe “Lonely Among Us”, it would be "playful". It’s not the episode doesn’t have high stakes or drama. But between Tasha and Riker’s absurd subplot and Data’s Sherlock Holmes obsession, it’s hard to take the serious threat to the ship that the saboteur imposes particularly seriously. I don’t think that makes the episode an all out failure. The show is trying to figure out exactly what its tone should be, and I think this episode just falls a little too far on the cheesy/silly side of the scale.

            Basically, there are two plots. They barely intersect. In the first, the Enterprise is transporting two delegations to a treaty negotiation – the furry, carnivorous Anticans and the Reptilian Selay. The trouble is, they absolutely loathe each other. They’re also rather obnoxious in their own right. The humor here comes from the obnoxious demands the delegates make, and the fact that no-nonsense Tasha has to deal with them. Also, the not-so-subtle implication that the Anticans would like to eat the Selay.

And next season...

            In many episodes, one sentient race eating another would be disturbing, or at the very least played up as some sort of nature vs. nurture debacle, but here its played almost entirely for laughs – as in, these are the wacky day-to-day problems you face when transporting interstellar diplomats. It works because the actors playing the aliens play them in such an animalistic way, and their make-up is uncharacteristically non-humanoid, so we don’t see them quite as much as human. It’s more like one of those Farside comics about the wolf trying to eat the sheep.

            Taking up more of the hour is another plotline. The Enterprise scans a mysterious nebula, and accidentally takes an alien life form onboard. The life form can possess both people and subsystems, and jumps from one to another, leaving gaps in people’s memories and interfering with ship’s systems. When navigation goes down (and generic chief engineer number 3 is mysteriously killed) Data, Geordi, Beverly and Tasha embark on a ship-wide investigation to find the saboteur. Data acquires a pipe and a deerstalker. But then the alien realizes it’s much easier to just possess Picard and order the ship back to the nebula.

Note to self: install circuit breakers on bridge consoles.

            Dr. Crusher and Riker try to relieve the captain of duty, but he throws it back in their faces with a “no, you’re possessed by an alien!” When they get to the nebula, the alien explains that he has in fact merged with Picard, and they are going into space together to be beings of pure energy. The crew can’t stop him, so off to the transporter room he goes.

            Shortly thereafter, Troi senses Picard out in the nebula, alone. He starts possessing ship’s systems too, and with his help their able to use the transporter to get him his body back. He remembers nothing of being possessed.

            Then Tasha rushes into the transporter room and reports that the Anticans have, in fact, eaten one of the Selay. LOLz.

Random Observations:

            There won’t be as many of these, since my notes all got deleted when my computer crashed.

            Riker has a model of the Galileo from TOS in his office.

            Doctor Crusher has a silly hat.

           

I'd like to say it gets better for you, chief...

            Worf is annoyed that he has to learn how to recalibrate the sensor arrays. Later we will see Worf take some pride in his knowledge of engineering and ship operations, even if security is his specialty.

            Gates McFadden is probably the most believable actress in terms of portraying being possessed by the alien. She really gets the whole “not quite familiar with this body” thing down. But then, she is a dancer, and they tend to be more aware of their physicality.

Minor Character Watch: Miles O’Brien appears again, as one of the security officers Tasha has assigned to see to the needs of the Selay delegates. As always, his job is thankless.

Code of Honor (TNG)

As much as I’ve been dreading what I remembered as an objectively terrible episode, I was sort of looking forward to reviewing one of the few Tasha-centric stories the show has to offer. Unfortunately, this isn’t really a Tasha story. Inasmuch as its about anything, it’s about the Prime Directive, and when it comes into conflict with Picard’s mandate to protect his crew. It’s also about pride, and when it’s necessary to swallow it for the greater good. Ultimately, it’s about a power struggle between Picard and the alien Lutan, in which the Strong Female Character Tasha is pretty much treated as a commodity.

Let’s back up a little. Our story opens as Picard and co. have been given an important mission by Starfleet command – negotiate for a rare and valuable vaccine that can’t be synthesized and is needed to treat a plague on a nearby world. The plague provides the stakes for the episode, though not terribly well because we never see it and have to rely on Dr. Crusher constantly popping up to remind us that it’s terrible. But unfortunately, the planet is controlled by a power-hungry guy named Lutan, and his demands in exchange for the vaccine are kind of… unorthodox. He kidnaps Tasha Yar and wants to make her his wife.

Of course, this is not immediately obvious. Data’s research into the planet’s history shows that they have a tradition of stealing things basically just to show that they can, and to humble an enemy by forcing them to beg for the object back, in this case Tasha. Picard is initially extremely reticent to play this game, but ultimately the importance of the vaccine convinces him to swallow his pride and ask for Tasha back. Lutan says he’ll return her at a banquet being held in Picard’s honor. At the banquet, though he reveals his true plan.

There’s just one problem (well, one more problem) Lutan already has a wife (whose name is Yarina. Yar vs. Yarina? Seriously? But I digress.) Anyway, by their alien laws, she has the right to challenge Tasha to a fight to the death. Which she does.

YARR!

            I’m actually super confused about what happens next, because as far as I can tell Lutan never actually promises the vaccine to the crew whether Tasha wins or loses, and while Tasha does think Lutan is kinda cute, she doesn’t actually want to leave Starfleet to marry him and live in his weird, misogynistic, oppressive society. But Picard has a secret plan, and Tasha commits to the fight and kills her rival, at which point everyone is beamed to the Enterprise to be revived by Dr. Crusher. But because she technically died, her marriage contract with Lutan is void, and because of weird alien politics that aren’t explained very well, this makes Lutan no longer the planet’s leader. Yarina chooses a new husband who is more than happy to send the Enterprise on its way, vaccine in tow, and everyone lives happily ever after.

            Despite the jarringly racist costuming and casting choices – the hyper-masculine machismo driven race is all black in in stereotypical African Tribal getup - this episode was actually not nearly as bad as I’d feared. It’s reasonably entertaining. The main problems I think come from the fact that the interesting conflict, Picard’s mandate to protect his crew vs. the Prime Directive, is examined only briefly, as the Captain comes up with a loophole pretty quickly. Meanwhile, the specifics of the alien political system aren’t set-up well enough ahead of time to make the ending feel like anything other than an ass-pull. I also would have liked to see a little more of Tasha besides “she’s a badass”, as I think the writers are struggling a little with who exactly she is beyond that.

She is kind of a badass though.

Random Observations:

The conversation Troi and Tasha have about Lutan being what every woman secretly wants was just ugh in so many ways I don't even want to get into.

 

The subplot with Wesley and Picard was just the tiniest bit distracting, but I can’t help but feel those are minutes that could have been used to help build up the tension in the main plot and also make it make a little more sense.

The first season sees contact with a lot of misogynistic cultures, of which this is the first. I’m not sure why this is a recurring theme. It might have something to do with the eighties.

Deanna Troi is actually kind of useful here, offering Diplomatic advice and an analysis of the alien culture.

The Holodeck! Now we see it can make characters, but not any smarter, really, than what current AIs are capable of. They can learn from their opponents. It’s an inkling, though, of the Pandora’s box this seemingly innocuous technology is going to turn out to be.

There are some very nice character moments in this episode. Riker is good with kids and happily humors Wesley, in sharp contrast with Picard. Troi kind of insists on talking to Tasha woman to woman, which makes Tasha uncomfortable in kind of a fun way.

Bros.

Most importantly, this is the first we see of the Data/ Geordi bromance, possibly the third greatest bromance in Star Trek lore (it must, of course, follow Kirk/Spock and O’Brien/Bashir.) It is on point, as Geordi tries to teach Data how jokes work.

Speaking of Data, at some point he makes a disparaging remark about the French, and Picard takes offense. Because Picard is French. Hee hee.

Wesley’s shirt is in this episode is exceptionally ugly. 24^th century teenage fashion continues to be terrible.

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.