Bigger, Badder, Balder: Revisiting Star Trek: The Next Generation

[Trollheart]

I have to admit, I love that episode and it's probably one of the few with LT that I can watch. She's just so herself for most of it and then she changes, and we see the human (all right, Betazoid!) face behind the mask, and it's really just a lovely lovely moment. While everyone else is getting chased by firestorms down corridors and looking for survivors in wreckage, two non-humans are showing what it means to be truly human. Superb.

 

[Trollheart]

If the charts have shown us anything, it's that, unlike its predecessor, TNG at least seems to be - for the first season anyway - a show centred mostly around one character. Oh, the others are usually there, but the way only one character advances each episode shows that the episode was based mostly around them.

And so it is with "Haven", where Deanna's starring role enables her to climb over the men and make her way to the third spot, advancing five places and in the process displacing Data and Wesley, as well as her captain, moving each down one place, and Beverly, who falls two places. Data and Wesley now occupy fifth and fourth place respectively, while Picard also slides one to number 6. Beverly is now at number 8.

Riker retains his place at the top for the second episode running, though his captain has a chance to move up again - though hardly to top spot! - as our next episode is built all around him. For now though, the top three has changed, with Riker, rather appropriately, at number one, Yar still making a good showing at number two and now the girls outnumber the boys with Deanna at number 3.

 

[Trollheart]

There was a hard rain falling that night, hard enough to wash the scum of this city into the gutters and... yes, you've guessed it.

Episode title: “The Big Goodbye”
Season: 1
Importance: 4 (First holodeck episode)
Crisis point(s) if any: Picard must greet an alien race flawlessly, but is trapped in the holodeck
Original transmission date: January 11 1988
Writer(s): Tracy Torme
Director: Joseph L. Scanlan
Stardate:* 41997.7
Destination: Torona IV
Mission (if any): Greet the Jarada
Main character(s) in Plot: Picard
Main character(s) in Subplot (if any): Beverly, Data, Geordi, Worf, Yar, Wesley, Riker
Not appearing: O’Brien
Villain/Monster (if any): None
Deaths: 1 ++
Lives saved (episode): 1
Lives saved (cumulative): 8
Locations:

Shipboard:
Captain’s Quarters
Bridge
Observation Lounge
Dixon Hill’s office ++
San Francisco street ++
Police precinct ++

Space:

Other:


Ships/vessels: 0
Space battles: 0
Bodycount

Historical
1 ++ (Dixon Hill’s client)
Incidental

Direct

Total: 1
Running total: 86

Make it so: 0
Engage! 0
Combat factor: 0
Transports: 0
Planets visited: 0
Planets mentioned: 0
Aliens: The Harada
Mysteries: Why the holodeck is stuck and won’t let them leave
Patients in sickbay: 0 (though presumably the historian was sent there, we don’t see him there)
Data v humanity: Like the Holmes stories, the whole idea of the forties private eye captivates Data
Data 3 - Humanity 5
Character scores:
Picard 155
Riker 10
Troi 10
Data 40
Beverly 30
Worf 10
Geordi 10
Wesley 30
O’Brien 0

Earl Grey: 0
Shuttlecraft: 0
Admirals: 0
Starbases: 0
First contact: 0
Humour: 6
Episode rating: 2/10
Episode score: 220

God preserve me! The first of several Dixon Hill holodeck episodes! What idiot thought that Picard/Stewart could play a private detective? I mean, I know he’s a good actor but look at anything he’s been in: he’s Captain Picard, always and forever. He has the wrong accent, the wrong demeanour, the wrong attitude for a private eye. This was, however, the very first holodeck-centred episode, so that’s something I guess. The second Picard-led one too, with most of the action taking place in the fantasy world created by the ship’s computer, set in San Francisco 1941. It does afford us the rare opportunity to see Beverly dressed up, and she looks well. Quite funny when she sits down in the police station, sees another girl sitting there whose legs are more exposed than hers, slides up her skirt a little and then realises the girl is a hooker! Oh dear.

Picard hopes Beverly never discovers that he uses her makeup...

Data gets fully into the role, as you would probably expect, and from having arrived there in his Starfleet uniform and looking totally out of place, Picard is now immersed too in his character, dressed as a 1940s private dick. Also funny when Bev is given some gum and swallows it. Riker arriving at the holodeck to Geordi: “Have you tried the intercom?” Geordi facepalming: “The intercom! Now why didn’t I think of that?” The subplot is almost negligible, really only providing a reason why Picard needs to seek the sanctuary and release of the holodeck. In many ways, we’re talking “A Piece of the Action” here, though perhaps not handled quite as well. Even at the end, Picard makes a gangster-style comment, as did Kirk in the TOS episode.

 

[Mudd]

One of the two or three best episodes of the first season. Won a Peabody.

 

[Trollheart]

Really? I thought it was dire to the max. Certainly not the best Holodeck episode even.

 

[Trollheart]

Can't keep a good captain down! Picard rises all the way to number three, while his, um, Number One retains the top spot and Yar holds on to number two.

In other news, Data and Wesley now share 5th spot, the former having fallen one place and the latter two, but Deanna climbs four to the fourth spot. Others move up one place, but it's mostly a false move, due to two characters sharing the fifth slot, leaving room for others to move up. Essentially, they're the same, but visually at least Q, Worf and O'Brien move up one place, with Beverly and Geordi non-movers, remaining at 6 and 7 respectively.

 

[Trollheart]

Now that we're more than ten episodes in, it's time for the first episode chart.
And here it is.

Obviously, episodes don't quite have the same ability to rise and fall as characters do, since once they're done, they're done, but they can move by virtue of other episodes being ranked lower than them. Also, once we have 20 episodes things will look at lot clearer.

For now, is this what you expected? I admit "Lonely Among Us" was one of the better episodes, but I did think "Encounter at Farpoint" would be at the top. It should be made clear, of course, that these rankings are based solely on the criteria I established at the beginning, and have usually nothing to do with my own personal like or dislike of the episode, or indeed its popular rating among fans, critics, or small blue things that go whoop on alternate Thursdays. In one way, you could say they're the truest and most honest ratings, because they depend entirely and exclusively on the facts: how much danger was in the episode? Was there a war? Were there aliens in it? And so on.

Anyway, we have "Lonely Among Us" at the top, followed by "Hide & Q" and then "Encounter at Farpoint", which in general is not a bad top three really. More of a shock, perhaps, to see "Haven" take the number four spot, while "Where No One Has Gone Before" being at five is no surprise, but a major amazement, really, to see "The Big Goodbye" so high, at number 6. "The Battle", "Justice" and "The Last Outpost" at number 7, 8 and 9 respectively does make sense to me, while the final episode in the top ten ends up being the awful "Code of Honor", leaving the even worse "The Naked Now", somewhat like its subject, out in the cold at number 11.

Again, if you don't agree, don't blame me. These rankings are based on whether or not the episodes attained the criteria set out by me, not any personal preference.

I won't do a chart after every episode, as there would be little movement, so the next one will be when we reach episode 20, and then perhaps at the end of the season.

Rankings, then, look like this for now:

 

[Trollheart]

Episode title: “Datalore”
Season: 1
Basic plot: Data meets his brother. And he’s evil!
Importance: 8 (shows us the first real origins of Data, gives Brent Spiner, somewhat like Nimoy in “This Side of Paradise” and, to a somewhat lesser extent, “Mirror, Mirror”, a chance to step outside the somewhat rigid constrictions of his character. Also allows him to pull a Kirk in “The Enemy Within”, as in, play two opposing sides of himself, a good one and an evil one.
Crisis point(s) if any: Lore takes over and prepares to feed the crew to the Crystalline Entity - and it’s been trying to cut down!
Original transmission date: January 18 1988
Writer(s): Robert Lewin, Maurice Hurley (teleplay by Maurice Hurley and Gene Roddenberry)
Director: Rob Bowman
Stardate:* 41242.4
Destination: Omicron Theta
Mission (if any): Maintenance at Starbase Armus IX
Main character(s) in Plot: Data
Main character(s) in Subplot (if any):
Not appearing: Troi, O’Brien
Villain/Monster (if any): Lore; Crystalline Entity
Deaths: 0
Lives saved (episode): 2
Lives saved (cumulative): 10
Locations:

Shipboard:
Bridge
Data’s Quarters
Ready Room
Engineering
Observation Lounge
Cargo Bay

Space:

Other:
Omicron Theta


Ships/vessels (encountered): 0
Ships/vessels (mentioned only): 1 (USS Tripoli)
Space battles: 0
Bodycount

Historical
0
Incidental
0
Direct
0
Total: 0
Running total: 86

Make it so: 1
Engage! 1
Combat factor: 0
Planets mentioned: 1
Aliens: Crystalline entity.
Mysteries: Destruction of colony on Omicron Theta
Patients in sickbay: 1 (Lore)
Data v humanity: Data really drops the ball on this one, and it’s up to Wesley to save him, so no, afraid he loses on this one too.
Data 3 - Humanity 6
Character scores:
Picard 10
Riker 25
Data 140
Troi 0
Geordi 15
Bev 20
Yar 15
Wesley 50
O’Brien 0

Earl Grey: 0
Shuttlecraft: 0
Admirals: 0
Starbases: 0
First contact: 1 (Crystalline Entity)
Humour: 3
Episode rating: 5/10
Episode score: 160

Having had a Riker, two Picards and a Troi-specific episode, it’s Data’s turn, and it will by no means turn out to be the last. This one, of course, concentrates on his brother, his evil brother Lore, and tells us not only how he was created and by whom, but how, had things been different, Data might have turned out to be a true adversary of humanity. Like they used to say about Sherlock Holmes, thank god he chose to work on the side of law: can you imagine Data as an enemy? Of course, this will happen later on in the series, when he teams up with Lore in the two-part episode “Descent”, but that’s getting a little ahead of ourselves. Picard shows admirable sensitivity in addressing the awkwardness the senior staff have about speaking of Data’s “brother”, by reminding them that we are all machines, of one sort or another.

We learn here that Data has an off switch, something which Riker will use to terrible effect in the episode “The Measure of a Man”. It’s interesting to see that both Chief Engineer Argyll and Beverly can work on Lore, as he is both man and machine. I always wonder why, if Picard was, as he says, certain of Data’s loyalty, he had to ask him the question in the first place? He obviously was not as certain as he makes out. Wesley proves pretty insufferable here, but it’s good to see he comes close to getting his comeuppance when Lore gets his hands on him. I am surprised though when Lore tells Data he can use contractions while his brother can’t; I’m sure I heard Data using those before. We also get some hints as to the existence of the alien known as the crystalline entity here, which will reappear in a later episode.

Is this what they mean by not losing your head? Sorry...

I have to wonder why Deanna is not in this episode. It seems like there would have been ample opportunity to use her talents, especially to determine Lore’s intentions. Maybe that’s why: if she had been able to tell Picard Lore was up to something, it might have spoiled the episode. Still, Marina Sirtis must have been feeling on a bit of a roller-coaster: one week she’s out, next week she’s the centre of the episode, the next week she’s not there at all. Well, not in that order, but you know what I mean. A small, almost insignificant role in the previous one. Lore’s facial tic that gives him away is a bit of a lazy plot device, almost as bad as if he were to twirl a moustache, and it’s pretty obvious how they’re going to identify him, though he does a half-decent job of covering it up by pretending he’s copying Data.

Picard: "I SAID, we will NOT do a Christmas episode, dammit!"

Both Riker and Picard show uncharacteristically poor judgement and insight when Wesley clearly has a problem with Lore. They ignore his warnings and never for once think this may not be Data who stands before them. I mean, I hate the little bastard, but it can’t be denied he has saved the day more than once, most recently when he gained access to the holodeck in the last episode. Yet they’re ready to jump on him for being rude to “a senior officer”, without considering the cause of that impertinence. Again, given how much I despise Wesley it hurts me to say this, but surely they should trust him? And their suspicion is not any further aroused by Wesley’s continued attempts - even though he knows he’ll lose his position on the bridge, something that means more to him than almost anything - to continue warning them? Not to mention Lore’s dismissive use of Riker’s surname without rank and his inability to understand Picard’s “Make it so”? Man, are they dumb.

It’s also a bit crazy how easily Lore overpowers Data. I mean, he just pushes him, and suddenly two (or, I suppose, at a stretch, three) against one becomes meaningless, and they’re all more or less hostages. Funny how it then devolves into a game of Donkey Kong! Nice how Picard apologises to Wesley for not believing him and for saving the ship. Oh no wait: he doesn’t.

 

[Jellico]

This is an important episode for Data. There are a couple of issues at the very end of the episode that had bugged me when I saw it the first time. For one thing, they went out of their way to explain that Data was unable to use contractions when he spoke and that Lor had mastered the ability. After Data beams Lor into space, Picard asks Data if he is alright. Data answered, “I’m fine”. Another thing happened at the very end. Data beams Lor into space. He beams Lor into space. Lor is floating in space and Enterprise D beams away from Lor, who is floating in space alive. Lor floated until rescued by a Pakled ship. He seems to be wearing Pakled clothes when we next see him.

I wonder how Lor treated the Pakleds.

 

[Geargoose]

I wonder how Lor treated the Pakleds.

He promised to make them clever and powerful by showing them a planet with lots of dilitium crystals, but instad transported pakleds to a random planet and gone

 

[Trollheart]

Yeah the pack are easily led though... sorry, sorry.

I know what you mean, even so. It's like they went out of their way to note what the major differences were with Data and Lore, then ignored them when they made a mistake. Data has been able to use contractions before, but it has never been remarked upon, probably because at the time it wasn't seen as being important, or maybe a part of Data's attempt to "humanise" would result in his being able to use them. I think it would have made far more sense to have said things like "Lore didn't know what Make it so meant." Or "Data would never call me Riker." That sort of thing.

And here's a thing: if Data has a cutoff switch, why couldn't they get to Lore and turn him off?

 

[Trollheart]

One more thing about Datalore. When Lore sees the CE he says "Beautiful, isn't it?" Not only is that an inappropriate thing for Data to say, he shouldn't be able to say it. He has no concept of beauty and can only go on what others tell him, so if the rest of the crew are repulsed by, or scared of the thing, then he should be too. He should not be able to make an independent appraisal of the beauty of an unknown object. So that should have raised suspicions. Picard does raise an eyebrow, but that's about all.

Anyway, on we go with the chart.

To nobody's surprise, Data makes strides up the chart, displacing his captain as he moves two places from 5 to 3, pushing Picard down to 4 from 3, while everyone else drops one place, the exception being Deanna, who, by virtue of not being in the episode, slips two places from 6 to 8. Wesley, despite his performance here, remains at number 5. He's about to become the fifth character to break the 300-point barrier, while Yar has already punched through the 400, with Data not far behind her - remember "The Naked Now", Tasha! - and Picard also heading for that milestone. Out on his own, Riker of course is well into the 600s.

It's not been, um, glorious for poor Worf yet, despite taking on Lore - read, having the crap beaten out of him - and even the blind guy is ahead of him. Mind you, consider poor Miles, who still can't get arrested, with a paltry 30 points after a dozen episodes! Even Q, who has only been in two, has more points than him.

 

[Trollheart]

Episode title: “Angel One”
Season: 1
Basic plot: Riker ends up on a planet run by women. It's not as great as it sounds. Oh no wait, it is. Kind of.
Importance: 0
Crisis point(s) if any: Sort of none other than the trouble out Neutral Zone way
Original transmission date: January 25 1988
Writer(s): Patrick Barry
Director: Michael Ray Rhodes
Stardate:* 41636.9
Destination: Angel One
Mission (if any): Track down any survivors from the freighter Odin
Main character(s) in Plot: Riker
Main character(s) in Subplot (if any):
Not appearing: O’Brien
Villain/Monster (if any): None
Deaths: 0
Lives saved (episode): 14
Lives saved (cumulative): 24
Locations:
Shipboard:
Bridge
Sickbay
Holodeck

Space:

Other:
Angel One


Ships/vessels (encountered): 0
Ships/vessels (mentioned only): Freighter Odin, USS Berlin, Romulan Warbirds
Space battles: 0
Bodycount

Historical
0
Incidental
0
Direct
0
Total: 0
Running total: 86

Make it so: 0
Engage! 1
Combat factor: 0
Planets visited: Angel One
Planets mentioned:
Aliens: The Angel One-ians
Mysteries: None
Patients in sickbay: over 100 (“More patients than beds”, according to Bev)
Data v Humanity: n/a
Data 3 - Humanity 6
Character scores:
Picard 10
Riker 175
Data 15
Geordi 10
Troi 15
Bev 20
Wesley 30
Worf 10
Yar 15
O’Brien 0

Earl Grey: 0
Shuttlecraft: 0
Admirals: 0
Starbases: 0
First contact: 0
Humour: 4
Episode rating: 1/10
Episode score: 65

Oh god this is the one about the planet of women isn’t it? And not in a “Space Bikini Girls on the Moon” sort of way, or anything. This is a matriarchy, where Riker has to dress in an embarrassingly revealing… oh no. My dinner! It’s rather typical that in a story where the women are in power (written, I should note with some asperity, by a man) there has to be rebellion fomenting. Like male equivalents of the Suffragettes, the men who have survived from the Odin are now leading a rebellion, helped by women who don’t enjoy the status quo. Sort of a reversal of the movement here, where certain women went against the idea of suffrage. But the underlying sentiment, though it’s cleverly presented as “no one gender should have power over another” is really “women should not be in power and the natural order of things is that men should be in charge.” To illustrate this, the arrival of the manly men - as opposed to the somewhat vain and effeminate native ones - has sparked feelings long suppressed in some of the native women, who just want the men to take over and rule them as they feel should be how things are.

"Ah yes! At last, the power is mine!"

It doesn’t help that the central figure of this matriarchy, the authority, Beata, is presented as gruff, masculine, butch and uncompromising, unfriendly and not exactly all that pretty. You are, as a man (or I am anyway) more or less immediately annoyed by and turned off by her, and your sympathies quickly lie with the “rebels”. It is interesting that, when they’re located, and refuse to leave, because they’re civilians they can’t be forced to go. This episode does give the two main men the chance to bare their manly chests, if you’re into such a thing, and also for a sort of reflection of the planet below to occur on the ship, as Beverly is the one running things, since somehow she hasn’t got sick. The ending is very poe-faced I feel: Riker basically talks Beata into letting the captives live. It’s very ****ing Star Trek, isn’t it?

A few seasons later, they might have been executed and we’d be left with an uncomfortable reminder that sometimes you just can’t and shouldn’t interfere with internal planetary politics. Still, you’d wonder, given that Ramsay and his men are all Federation citizens, if Angel One is risking a diplomatic incident by attempting to execute them? And why Riker - or Data - doesn’t point this out in an attempt to change yer wan’s mind? Seems like with a race that prides themselves on strength so much, an open threat might be more respected than a plea.

 

[Jellico]

This is typical of the traveling do gooder theme that was prevalent in episodic tv into the early 90’s. Our heroes arrive and when they leave, they leave the place a littler better than it was. Why did the Angel One government cave so easily?
For a moment, I thought that Trent was going to refuse to carry out the execution, but it was the Matriarch who made the decision. I’ll still watch this one on a rewatch, but it’s a lesser episode for season one, in my opinion.

 

[Trollheart]

This is typical of the traveling do gooder theme that was prevalent in episodic tv into the early 90’s. Our heroes arrive and when they leave, they leave the place a littler better than it was. Why did the Angel One government cave so easily?
For a moment, I thought that Trent was going to refuse to carry out the execution, but it was the Matriarch who made the decision. I’ll still watch this one on a rewatch, but it’s a lesser episode for season one, in my opinion.

Agree. I always thought the voiceover could have been "Its mission, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life, and new civilisations, to poke our nose in where it's not wanted and tell more aliens how to run their lives than any man has done before!"

I actually think, though of course this is early in the series so maybe not, but if the men had been executed, it might have been a hard lesson for the Enterprise crew, that they can't control everything. I think this episode sent a very bad, sexist and almost misogynist message: women should not and cannot be in charge. Didn't Gene leave us that as his parting shot in TOS?

Anyhoo...

Quite a phenomenon this episode. Not a single move up or down. Not one.

Despite Riker's strong performance, and subsequent high point tally, you can't go higher than number one, so he remains where he is, though he puts clear daylight between him and Tasha (and she hasn't much time to catch him either) as he becomes the first character to break the 800-point barrier. Not much else to report. Data becomes the third to gain 400 points, but there's no movement, so nothing more to discuss. Not that surprising, since the lion's share of the episode was Riker's.

 

[Trollheart]

I have to re-evaluate my episode scores. The way I’ve set the system up, I’m noticing that some really good episodes are scoring quite low, so I want to try something else. In addition to the scores already used, I’m now going to score them under these criteria:

Action: simple enough. Was this an episode filled with aliens, space battles, races against time, planetary searches, combat etc? Was it slow or did it move and flow well?

Drama : Was there drama in the episode?

Performance of lead character(s): Given who the episode was based around, did they use their role well, or did the story just revolve around them without them doing much?

Plot: Self-explanatory

Arc: Not so self-explanatory. Did the story add to or refer to elements which either occur later or have already occurred, in other words is this a thread that fits in to the overall pattern of the tapestry, is it a loose thread or is it not even in the sewing room?

Personal enjoyment: I surely need not explain this.

All the above criteria will be rated at from 10 to 100, 10 being the lowest and 100 the highest. So potentially an episode can score an additional 600, down to a lousy extra 60. These scores will then be added to the main scores to come up with a total score, and because this will obviously give episodes from here on in a clear advantage, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that I’ll be going back and rescoring all the previous episodes, which means that chart I posted will be useless now, and will be redone and reposted.

In this way I feel that an episode that is excellent but for some reason doesn’t score that high on the original criteria has a better chance of scoring high on these, plus my own personal approval, or not, of the episode will also be a factor, which will allow those I really like to have a better chance of being right up there.

Episode title: “11001001”
Season: 1
Basic plot: The Enterprise is upgraded but all is not as it seems duh
Importance: 4 (First use of self-destruct code)
Crisis point(s) if any: Ship taken by Bynars
Original transmission date: February 1 1988
Writer(s): Maurice Hurley, Robert Lewin
Director: Paul Lynch
Stardate:* 41365.9
Destination: Starbase 74, Tarsis III
Mission (if any): Maintenance and upgrades
Main character(s) in Plot: Picard, Riker
Main character(s) in Subplot (if any):
Not appearing: Troi, O’Brien
Villain/Monster (if any): Bynars
Deaths: 0
Lives saved (episode): 0 ( I mean, the whole Bynar planet, but I said I wouldn’t count populations, as there’s no way to be sure of a count)
Lives saved (cumulative): 24
Locations:

Shipboard:
Bridge
Gangway I guess, as they’re getting off
Holodeck

Space:

Other:
Starbase 74

Ships/vessels (encountered): 0
Ships/vessels (mentioned only): USS Wellington, USS Trieste, USS Melbourne
Space battles: 0
Bodycount

Historical
0
Incidental
0
Direct
0
Total: 0
Running total: 86

Make it so: 0
Engage! 1
Combat factor: 0
Planets visited: Bynus
Planets mentioned: Omicron Pascal , Pelius V, Bynus
Aliens: Bynars
Mysteries: Why the Bynars have stolen the Enterprise
Patients in sickbay: 0
Meetings: 0
Data v humanity:
N/A; which is odd, given that this one revolves around what are essentially computers on legs, but there you go.
Data 3 - Humanity 6
Character scores:
Picard 570
RIker 700
Data 40
Troi 0
Bev 10
Geordi 10
Wesley 20
Worf 20
Yar 20
O’Brien 0

Earl Grey: 0
Shuttlecraft: 0
Admirals: 0
Starbases: 1 (Starbase 74)
First contact: 0
Humour: 0
Episode rating: 6/10
Episode score: 625 (Note: this is under the new system, as all future episodes will be)

Another mostly holodeck-centred episode, and again built more or less around Riker, as the previous one was, which might seem a little unbalanced, especially as this appears to be yet another Troiless one: she must have been worried every episode she wasn’t in. The Bynars are interesting creatures, but when Wesley says that there must be tremendous advantages to a race being so intermixed with computers, well, he hasn’t met the Borg yet has he? Bloody typical that the music has to be jazz though. Why is it always ****ing jazz? Damn oldies who write these things. And what is it with blondes and jazz don’t mix? Given that she’s only a hologram, it’s funny how pissed off Riker looks when Minuet invites Picard to join them. Reminds me of Homer: “But I was going to get lucky!” and Marge “No you weren’t.”

The Picard family reunions don't tend to be very lively affairs

I do find it hard to credit that Data says they have just over four minutes to evacuate the ship, and in that time all those people get off it? Apart from the fact that they’re, perhaps rather stupidly if by the book, not running but walking fast, the transporter can only take a few people at a time. Can the entire remaining complement be beamed off, and the ship get away from the Starbase to a safe distance in two hundred and forty seconds? Of course, I know and you know it’s a ruse, but they don’t, and if it’s real, can they expect any chance of everyone surviving? Would they not have been better to get the ship away and then start transports? And how come they never checked the holodeck? Wesley knew they were there; why doesn’t he speak up?

Pretty good idea really; using the Enterprise as a huge mobile hard disk to back their civilisation up and then download themselves back down to the planet when the danger had passed. But who has the password? Better hope there’s no virus in the system!

 

[Qonundrum]

There was a hard rain falling that night, hard enough to wash the scum of this city into the gutters and... yes, you've guessed it.

Episode title: “The Big Goodbye”
Season: 1
Importance: 4 (First holodeck episode)
Crisis point(s) if any: Picard must greet an alien race flawlessly, but is trapped in the holodeck
Original transmission date: January 11 1988
Writer(s): Tracy Torme
Director: Joseph L. Scanlan
Stardate:* 41997.7
Destination: Torona IV
Mission (if any): Greet the Jarada
Main character(s) in Plot: Picard
Main character(s) in Subplot (if any): Beverly, Data, Geordi, Worf, Yar, Wesley, Riker
Not appearing: O’Brien
Villain/Monster (if any): None
Deaths: 1 ++
Lives saved (episode): 1
Lives saved (cumulative): 8
Locations:

Shipboard:
Captain’s Quarters
Bridge
Observation Lounge
Dixon Hill’s office ++
San Francisco street ++
Police precinct ++

Space:

Other:


Ships/vessels: 0
Space battles: 0
Bodycount

Historical
1 ++ (Dixon Hill’s client)
Incidental

Direct

Total: 1
Running total: 86

Make it so: 0
Engage! 0
Combat factor: 0
Transports: 0
Planets visited: 0
Planets mentioned: 0
Aliens: The Harada
Mysteries: Why the holodeck is stuck and won’t let them leave
Patients in sickbay: 0 (though presumably the historian was sent there, we don’t see him there)
Data v humanity: Like the Holmes stories, the whole idea of the forties private eye captivates Data
Data 3 - Humanity 5
Character scores:
Picard 155
Riker 10
Troi 10
Data 40
Beverly 30
Worf 10
Geordi 10
Wesley 30
O’Brien 0

Earl Grey: 0
Shuttlecraft: 0
Admirals: 0
Starbases: 0
First contact: 0
Humour: 6
Episode rating: 2/10
Episode score: 220

God preserve me! The first of several Dixon Hill holodeck episodes! What idiot thought that Picard/Stewart could play a private detective? I mean, I know he’s a good actor but look at anything he’s been in: he’s Captain Picard, always and forever. He has the wrong accent, the wrong demeanour, the wrong attitude for a private eye. This was, however, the very first holodeck-centred episode, so that’s something I guess. The second Picard-led one too, with most of the action taking place in the fantasy world created by the ship’s computer, set in San Francisco 1941. It does afford us the rare opportunity to see Beverly dressed up, and she looks well. Quite funny when she sits down in the police station, sees another girl sitting there whose legs are more exposed than hers, slides up her skirt a little and then realises the girl is a hooker! Oh dear.

Picard hopes Beverly never discovers that he uses her makeup...

Data gets fully into the role, as you would probably expect, and from having arrived there in his Starfleet uniform and looking totally out of place, Picard is now immersed too in his character, dressed as a 1940s private dick. Also funny when Bev is given some gum and swallows it. Riker arriving at the holodeck to Geordi: “Have you tried the intercom?” Geordi facepalming: “The intercom! Now why didn’t I think of that?” The subplot is almost negligible, really only providing a reason why Picard needs to seek the sanctuary and release of the holodeck. In many ways, we’re talking “A Piece of the Action” here, though perhaps not handled quite as well. Even at the end, Picard makes a gangster-style comment, as did Kirk in the TOS episode.

I like the idea that Picard would be enamored by a fictional character, to the point he wants to play out said character - but fumbles incessantly.

However, the material isn't terribly strong, I'm not buying the notion Picard is really fumbling along, the holodeck subplot is literally filler time. Wesley's explanation is so half-half-baked.... and Picard even stumbles with the alien species inflection as "Klaxon" sounds so out of place. Again, the idea is not bad but the execution is cobblers.

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Quick, make that a ringtone's klaxon!

Nitpicks aside, seeing Picard come onto the bridge and pulls off the phrase once "klaxon" is uttered has something of a considerable charm and I do like the scene.

I'm not finding the youtube clips where they have Data doing that dumb Spock homage from "The City at the Edge of Forever". That's far worse.

But there is also this:

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Some good acting, and I recall some nice visual effects for when the holodeck environment program is changed. Still, Wesley's dreknobabble about how the crew are endangered (yet the dialogue more than stretches things) is another big negative.

 

[Trollheart]

As you would probably expect, with the saving of an entire civilsation, there's a huge jump for the two main men, though Riker can't go any higher. His captain can, though, and does.

Riker becomes the first character to smash the thousand-point barrier, and does he smash it, pushing all the way in fact to the 1,500 mark, while Picard is a few points short of doing the same, just outside the 1000 points limit.

Yar finds herself finally slipping and losing ground as Picard eases her down to third position, taking second for himself, a climb of two places. Yar now shares third slot with Data, the two lovers reunited. Aahh!

Nothing else happens really. Because of Yar and Data both occupying third, everyone shifts up one spot, though in reality nobody moves. Even Deanna, who wasn't even in the episode, gets a bump, the only non-mover being Data, who remains at number 3.

 

[Jellico]

11001001 was our first holodeck episode that I recall. It advanced Riker’s character early on in the series. I liked this episode. They needed a huge back up hard drive. Now that I think of it, I didn’t have a computer yet when this aired, and my first external hard drive for my Mac Plus, when I did get my first computer, was 31 megabytes. I wouldn’t be able to save an ant colony with that, let alone an entire planet.

 

[Jellico]

I completely missed The Big Goodbye noted above. That was our first big holodeck episode. Lawrence Tierney, priceless!