Episode of the Week: 4x09 "Final MissionI"

[Armored Saint]

You can imagine that, in-universe, there was much more too him, but making Wes look good while making things difficult for Wes was his only purpose in the story. Everything he did or asserted in the story was wrong. It was even his dangerously-rigged shuttle that got them into their situation in the first place. He was the object lesson in "what not to do".

Harry Mudd in TOS was a more delicious living source of trouble than Dirgo...of course, he was made for comedy and not drama.

It would have been more interresting if the mining conflict had been the subject of the episode and not only the pretext for a crash in desert. Picard and Wesley have trouble during the negociation while the Enterprise is attacked by one of the groups involved in the conflict. We could have seen more about the not utopian life of the miners.

 

[UUS Contrarian]

You can imagine that, in-universe, there was much more too him, but making Wes look good while making things difficult for Wes was his only purpose in the story. Everything he did or asserted in the story was wrong. It was even his dangerously-rigged shuttle that got them into their situation in the first place. He was the object lesson in "what not to do".

I'm all for seeing more flawed humans in Trek, but Dirgo was more of a caricature than a character.

Maybe Treklit can redeem him.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think this writeup is just a little nitpicky. Or rather, you make points about the scenario of the sort that could be made of any episode of any Trek.

I don't think the technobabbly solution was much of a problem. Wesley is not an action hero, he'd a technical genius and needed a carefully thought out scientific solution to reach the water. Technobabble is only a problem when it's used to replace drama. In this episode it's used properly, to communicate to the audience that the character is doing complicated technical things in a dramatically digestible way.

 

[WillsBabe]

It had Nick Tate, so that's a plus. Wish he'd played a good guy, though. OTOH, there are few good guy guest stars in Trek!

 

[Jeyl]

I don't think the technobabbly solution was much of a problem. Wesley is not an action hero, he'd a technical genius and needed a carefully thought out scientific solution to reach the water. Technobabble is only a problem when it's used to replace drama. In this episode it's used properly, to communicate to the audience that the character is doing complicated technical things in a dramatically digestible way.

The problem with that is that Wesley doesn't really work his way around the problem more than he just comes up with an idea that just happens to work.

WESLEY: I think I'm on to something. I've analysed the sentry's energy patterns. I've taken the transponder element from my communicator and I've used it to modify my tricorder. I think I can use it to interrupt the sentry's electrical pattern. Stop it, maybe slow it down.​

And it's all about pressing random buttons on his Tricorder. That's not really 'thinking' your way out nor does it make Wesley a genius. For all we know, everyone could have come up with this solution since we as an audience don't understand how this technology works.

I think what would have worked better is if the water was some how toxic and Wesley had to find some way of making it drinkable. How about heat? He's got a phaser, so what if he uses heat to destroy the toxic elements? Problem is that the amount of heat needed would most likely vaporize the water before all the toxins were gone. What if something could be put into the water that would destroy the toxins without destroying the water? Ah ha! The dresci! It's alcoholic content combined with a lower setting of the phaser would be enough to eliminate enough of the toxins to be drinkable without causing harm. Granted that's just my idea on how I would have done it, but you see what I'm getting at? That's not only thinking your way out of a practical situation using Star Trek technology, it's also using elements that were introduced in the story that now serve a purpose.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Dirgo was such a straw man...they made him an incompetent asshole to make Wesley look good.

Yes! Wesley can't be written to look, act and be cool without having some poor sucker playing the fool as a counterpoint? I have always hated that STAR TREK subscribes to that approach to storytelling. It always seemed so lazy to me, too.

 

[jimbotron]

What an impractical alien design:

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/season-4/4x09/final-mission-hd-016.jpg

Do they have to eat all their food through a straw?

 

[Kaelef]

What an impractical alien design:

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/season-4/4x09/final-mission-hd-016.jpg

Do they have to eat all their food through a straw?

Despite the impracticality, I thought that bit of design was one of the more imaginative bits in the show.

Definitely lazy writing throughout this one.

 

[Mojochi]

My wife, who is watching TNG in its entirety for the first time during this rewatch, swore that Picard was going to admit being Wesley's Father.

To which you reply "Except this is Star Trek, not LOST" You don't find out long hidden secrets about your characters 3 seasons into the thing. That's not how they roll lol