Episode-a-week: The Naked Now

It's Tuesday, which means time for a new episode of the week. This week: The Naked Now.

No time for me to comment right now, but the thread needs to be made so here it is.

 

I remember the basic recycling of a TOS plot didn't do much to help TNG get off the ground.
I've also seen it said it was a bit early to see characters we were just introduced to and just getting to know acting "out of character."
And thinking as I type, anyone find it odd or perhaps "sexist" that the female crew (Yar, Troi, Crusher) all went super-horny, while the men didn't? Sign of male perspective writing?
That Data could be affected seems implausible.
And I can't comment without saying that while watching, I did notice that shot of Yar's "under boob," if that's what it's called.

P.S. And was this the start of "Super Wesley Saves the Day"? Seem odd that a teen-age boy takes it upon himself to destroy/sacrifice a Federation starship?

 

Better than eating a huge piece of stellar debris.

Always loved this episode, it's visually stunning in HD. These are the types of Trek episodes I like, ones that don't take themselves too seriously.

 

The ship was going to be destroyed anyway. He merely caused it to be destroyed a few seconds earlier than it otherwise would have been, in the process giving the Enterprise a few extra seconds. Pretty much a no-brainer, even for a 15-year-old.

I expect some Wesley hate in this thread. I don’t share the hatred of the character. He’s a Mary Sue if ever there has been one — Wesley is Gene Roddenberry’s middle name — but as a Mary Sue he speaks to me. When the show first aired, I was about Wesley’s age and bore a passing resemblance to him. My mother somewhat resembled Dr. Crusher in both appearance and personality. I was gifted in math and physics. I often stuck my ignorant nose in adult business because I had no friends my own age because I was even more annoying than Wesley. I could easily dream of myself in Wesley’s position and I liked saving the ship every other episode.

 

Loved the scenes with Crusher and Picard. Early signs of great chemistry between the two. McFadden could do comedy well.

 

And that other Federation ship was made in the USSR.

 

I just remember that the throat clearing/cough thing Picard did to cool down Beverly might be one of the most unintentional bits of humor in Star Trek history. I can't help myself from chuckling at the ridiculousness of that scene. That and that Beverly drunken salute in her office were aboslutely cringe worthy.

 

Like most of the 1st season, weak.

 

Yeah, but the ship is only going to be destroyed anyway because of Wesley's actions (as presumably the Enterprise would have just towed her away when she left otherwise. Indeed, why Picard keeps both ships sitting next to a sun about to go BANG for so long is one of the episodes flaws).

I don't have any innate Wesley hatred (I think he improved drastically as the show goes on) but this episode is terrible for him. I'm not sure being drunk is much of an excuse for nearly getting everyone killed.

As for the episode itself, a lot more fun than it's reputation. As someone upthread noted all the women becoming super randy is- at best- a bit odd but Stewart, Spiner and (surprisingly considering how I laid into her acting in Farpoint) McFadden are all brilliant with perfect comic timing. It's a very, very silly show, but things like Picard's little skip into sickbay are just hilarious.

 

So many great one liners in this show. Tasha comes off kind of silly in that whole "yes helping is more important...dramatic pause...how can I help you Geordi." Yeesh.

 

I think they were sitting close to the star to finish the science ship's original mission,in studying the collapse of the star. At one point, picard asks Data how fast the enterprise could get out of the way when the star blows. And of course, he didn't count on wesley to get the virus and disable the ship.

 

I too never felt or got the hate for Wesley. Probably helped that when TNG came on in 1987, I was 16. I never had a problem with him, character or actor.

 

I've always enjoyed this episode. Not one of my all-time favorites, but one I definitely enjoy. It's light-hearted, but has some serious elements. There's some great remastered effects--the sun looks amazing, the explosion against the stellar fragment is spectacular and the Oberth-class looks better here than in Search for Spock.

The big standout for me in this episode is the music, though. Ron Jones' first ever Trek score is amazing, and I can only imagine if he'd kept up this style throughout the series. There's many great uses of the Trek fanfare throughout, and the pounding action music during the exploding star and repulsor beam scenes are just incredible.

 

Wesley didn't disable the ship. Shimoda did.

 

After watching this episode last week, the scene where Picard get's infected still annoys me to no end. YOU DON'T GET INTOXICATED BY GRUNTING. I was really hoping the HDs would fix that little rule break, or we could actually see Crusher and Picard touching skin but no.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Enterprise would have far greater mass than the Oberth class Tsiolkovski, hence have greater inertia. I think the Tsiolkovski should have "pushed" away from Enterprise as opposed to Enterprise "pushing" away from Tsiolkovski.

 

I enjoyed the chief engineer as well in this episode. Shame we never saw her again.

 

^ The lack of a regular chief engineer is conspicuous in this season. After Scotty became such a major character on TOS, what made them think they didn’t need one when they assembled the cast for TNG? Was Geordi’s transfer planned from the beginning?

Speaking of Geordi, I don’t understand his desperate desire to see like everybody else. He says here, “I see more, but more isn’t better.” What makes him think normal vision is better?

Near the end of the episode, Yar tells Data, “I’m only going to tell you this once: it never happened,” and walks away. The officer at the station next to Data glances over and then back to his station before the cut. I like to imagine that after the cut, he leans over and says to Data sotto voce, “What never happened?”

 

The original assumption was that technology had advanced so much that it would repair itself, so no need for an engineer.

 

If I remember right, Gene wrote a scene in engineering just to get the set built.

I guess at first they just didn't think they needed a regular cast member as engineer - look at the size of the cast to start, they're all elsewhere.

But I guess they came to realize fans wanted a regular engineer, and Geordi was given that task.