The Enterprise is serving as host to a ceremony hoping to reunite a warring species, part of the ceremony involves the trade of "goods" lost to one side when the conflict began, at the same time the ship rescues a Ferengi duo when their ship becomes disabled.
As the Ferengi roam about the ship unimpeded one of them makes it into the cargo bay where the trade goods are being held and accidentally damages a forcefield containing a trade item.
A humanoid woman.
She's a rare genetic abnormality in her species that's born only once a century that grants her strong empathic abilities and enhanced pheromones, essentially allowing herself to adapt to meet the needs of any man she meets. She has been raised her entire life to be adept in a range of subjects to be something of a dowry to opposing side's leader in hopes to end the hostilities between the two sides. (Which began centuries ago when one side kidnapped a similar female subject.)
Naturally at first Picard is outraged that she was being hidden from him, not wanting the ship to be used to transport a "slave" and saying that sentient creatures are entitled to rights under Federation charters, but Kamala (the metamorph) assures Picard that she is there of her own choosing and that she's been raised to be a part in this arranged marriage. Picard agrees to go ahead with the negotiations but insists Kamala but treated like any other passenger.
The following morning, Picard learns from Beverly that Kamala has been confined to her quarters by the ambassador and doesn't like her being treated as a prisoner and arranges for her to have some freedom of movement outside her quarters with Data (who is naturally immune to Kamala's charms and empathic ability) serving as an escort. Unfortunately, this still proves to be a problem; while the crew are able to control themselves with Kamala Picard has no such control over the civilians and guests on the ship. (Including some alien miners who were rescued from a damaged craft who nearly start a confrontation in Ten-Forward.)
Kamala offers to stay in her quarters voluntarily under the condition that Picard visit her on occasion as she's taking a liking to him (perhaps influenced a bit by Picard's subconscious thoughts.) Picard refuses.
The ambassador visits the Ferengi in their quarters and is offered a bribe/made an offer for Kamala and when he refuses and threatens to go to the captain gets attacked and put into a coma.
With the ambassador in a coma, the rendezvous with the leader from the other side imminent and a "ticking clock" on Kamala's ability to adapt herself to the man she's with Picard is forced by the circumstances to fill-in for the ambassador in the trade agreements and must work closely with Kamala in order to prepare for the rituals.
Picard spends many days with Kamala trying to resist her charms and attempts to woo him and on the day of the ceremony Kamala reveals that she's already permanently adapted to be a "perfect woman" for Picard. In the name of peace for the two alien races she decides to go through with the wedding ceremony, since she's still empathic she can still be an ideal mate for the alien leader but, in reality, will always be one for Picard.
This one..... *Sigh* Let's get some other stuff out of the way first.
In this episode we some pretty damn inept security performance by Worf. It's understandable that the crew of the ship "know where they are supposed to be" so there's no need to have restricted areas, executive keys, and so forth to keep sensitive areas off-limits to certain personnel, as Picard notes there's civilians on the ship. And while we can assume human civilians and even alien civilians on the ship also are capable of controlling themselves, at this point there's at least two different groups of people on the ship with no such convictions.
Namely the alien miners and the Ferengi.
Now, the alien miners likely are civilized enough to respect the security protocols on the ship and not to wander into sensitive areas, the Ferengi -it should be well known- have no such convictions. So, in short, why wasn't there more of a security detail guarding the cargo bay where Kamala's cocoon was being kept? One of the Ferengi is able to wander right into the room, move stuff around, and spend a good deal of time in there before security catches up with him. And security only does this after Picard says to keep a tighter leash on them.
It's understandable a sentient being wouldn't have their every movement monitored on the ship, which is why an alarm or something didn't go off when the Ferengi entered the cargo bay and why the Ferengi were treated as guests, but it still seems like there'd be some kind of security in the cargo bay giving the sensitive nature of the trade goods there.
There also seems to be a touch of racism in how the Ferengi are treated. Usually when we see guests brought on the ship they're given pretty nice quarters (usually the ones with the slanted windows that serve as the quarters for much of the bridge crew) here we see them given the smaller, less elaborate, quarters (like what Data, Worf and Geordi have.) Seems sort-of mean to not give the Ferengi a nice set of quarters.
For what it is worth, Kamala is given an unusual quarters set that we don't really see again. It doesn't seem to have windows either but are still more elaborate-looking that the secondary quarters the Ferengi were put in. It's possible that since the quarters set was made-up to serve as Picard's quarters (which are larger than the usual quarters) the production crew saved time/money by not having to redress/modify the set to serve as three different rooms. Unfortunately the implication we're left with is that Picard, Worf, or somewhere along those lines are racist and stuck the Ferengi in the crummiest possible quarters because, well, the Ferengi.
This is probably one of the more annoying outings/use of the Ferengi in the franchise. I really, really, don't know what they were thinking with them. The laughter, the bad jokes, the clumsy way the one Ferengi constructs something to stand on in the cargo bay and uses "looking for a barber shop" as an excuse for why he's in the room. The encounter with the ambassador in the quarters, all of it. Sheesh.
I know the ambassador is an alien, a 200-year-old alien at that, but given the rather "short" fall he takes into a "glass" table it doesn't seem like he'd be put in an days-long coma. 24th-century medical technology has always seemed a bit more advanced than that.
After an encounter with Kamala involving two passionate kisses, Riker excuses himself and out in the corridor pages the bridge to say he'll be in the holodeck. Obviously this is a joke that Riker is going to go to the holodeck to rub one out after getting all riled up by Kamala but... Did he need to page the bridge to tell them where he was going to be? If they needed him couldn't they just page HIM?!
When explaining what she is, Kamala (played by Famke Janssen) says she's "a mutant." Sort of a humorous thing to call herself considering Famke Janssen would go on to play the mutant "Jean Grey" in the X-Men movies.
Shallowness aside, Famke wears the sheer gown very, very well.
Now... sigh.
Maybe in my aging years, as I grow more and more feminist and comfortable with my feminism I'm bugged by this stuff more and more but this episode is.... Tough to watch.
I enjoy the episode enough and I think I get where it wants to go but it never seems to get there. We're told that Kamala adapts herself to be a perfect woman for whatever man she is speaking with, and she says she feels empty when no one is around which sort of just chews oddly. It sort of sends a message that "women are nothing but here to serve for men."
As Kamala has more and more encounters with Picard his inante sense of freedom, morals, and ethics is supposed to come through and make Kamala more and more individual, that never seems to really happen. It's hard to not see Kamala as someone just trying to please Picard rather than being her own person.
Really, over the course of her encounters with Picard that's what should have happened, she becomes less and less trying to suit Picard's needs or the needs of the man she was nearest to, but instead Picard's morals made her more and more independent. Beginning to truly find things SHE enjoys.
But, no, through most of the episode she pretty much does whatever she can to be Picard's perfect woman. And while that includes a woman of independence and conviction there's still just something "off" about the way it comes across.
No slight against Famke who does a fine job in the role (one of her earliest, I believe,) but more on the writing and directing. It's just hard to not see Famke as a blank-slate waiting to be filled in by whatever man she's with.
Picard also seems to too easily accept the idea of the "erranged marriage" between Kamala and the alien leader. Sure there's the Prime Directive and he can't get too involved but he seems to too easily accept Kamala saying she's going through with the ceremonies of her own free will.
Sure, she's been brainwashed and kept from her family her entire life and has been conditioned and raised for decades to be a perfect, ideal, woman for this specific man and is being used as a key component in a trade/peace agreement between two people but, yeah, she's doing this of her own free will.
Again, I doubt there's anything Picard really could have done but I'd think he'd put up more of an argument than just accepting that Kamala "wants" to do this.
I dunno, that's all I have. A good enough episode but there's parts of it that just sort of make me squirm.
Next week... (looks)
Oh, mother of god.
