The Most Toys by: Shari Goodhartz and directed by: Timothy Bond

 

“The Most Toys” is written by: Shari Goodhartz and is directed by: Timothy Bond.  It was produced under production code 170, was the 22^nd episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 70^th episode overall, and was broadcast on May 7, 1990.

 

The ending of “The Most Toys” is where the episode is let down by interference from the production team.  It is the final thing the audience is left with and clearly meant to be part of the episode’s thesis, but is altered in a way that poorly attempts ambiguity.  The premise of the episode is that Data is kidnapped by Kivas Fajo, played by Saul Rubinek, because he is the only sentient android in existence.  The Enterprise thinks him dead in an explosion and Fojo treats him as an object to be shown off to his very rich and powerful friends.  The conflict is this game of quiet resistance Data puts up, only breaking not when his life is threatened but the lives of those happily working for Fojo.  Data’s programming of course will only let him commit acts of violence in self-defense, and when there is a clear and present danger.  The climax of the episode has Fajo happily kill his partner, a woman he is implied to have groomed for 14 years.  Data gets the gun in his hands and is transported away right as it is pointed at Fajo.  The trouble here is that the episode includes a line that Data did in fact fire the gun, only lampshaded as it possibly being the transporter that fired the gun.  Fojo is taken into custody and the final line of the episode is Data essentially telling him point blank he feels nothing now that the roles are reversed, for he is an android.  Now, the intent of this line is to be dripping with sarcasm and irony, Shari Goodhartz’s script to this point has been using the insistence that Data is an android to be dehumanizing.  He could not possibly have meaningful emotions or experiences, something that Fojo never comes to learn, importantly.  The last line is meant to be read as incredibly dark, Data is not just an android and he can make his own decisions.  He was going to kill Fajo, but adding the lampshade of it is just a transporter malfunction, shot in a way so we don’t see a trigger being pulled and it being deliberately added, undercuts this.

 

It does not tank the episode, but it does weaken it.  Brent Spiner is carrying the episode on his back as Data, something that should not be a surprise at this point, but he makes Data understand exactly how to resist within the parameters of the programming.  The most effective scene is Data refusing to even move when Fojo is showing him off to an old friend, knowing that despite Fojo insisting he is just part of his collection, if Fajo wants a thing he should get a thing and not a person.  It’s this great little bit of resistance that is enough to push Fajo into punishing violence, Data is stripped of his uniform forcefully by the use of a solvent which in and of itself is a violent act.  Data is patient, he understands that there is going to be a mistake and he is going to make it out at some point.  Goodhartz knows how to balance this idea that Data is both the kindest member of the Enterprise crew, and a genuinely terrifying person in many respects.  The same can be said about director Timothy Bond, often shooting Spiner as Data at this incredibly even level that just feels off intentionally in several shots of the episode.  He is effectively immortal, will outlive Fajo if it comes to it but also does not blame his crewmates for not coming to rescue him.  He knows that the lie was set up so that they believe he is truly dead.

 

The plot on the Enterprise is responding to the environmental disaster, something revealed to be part of Fajo’s plan to kidnap Data, is one that works well to focus on the characters.  The crew is dealing with their grief, even Captain Picard calls Worf “Data” at one point as it has been decided he will take over Data’s duties.  LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge gets the best material, Geordi and Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher being tasked with going through Data’s personal items.  That scene in particular is effective at exploring Data’s own sentimentality and just how his death is one of grief.  There’s even a reflection on the fact that Data is not the only crew member to have died in the line of duty, Michael Dorn as Worf does remember his previous promotion being from the death of Tasha Yar.  Geordi is the one insistent that something is wrong, there is a slight mistake in Fajo not having Data communicate that he was taking the shuttle back to the Enterprise, but that mistake is too small to notice and the actual issue at hand is saving a planet.  The transport of an unstable mineral adds to the heightened tension and the eventual logical deduction comes at long enough time for the audience to realize the length of time Data has been in captivity.  The unravelling of the plan is a great sequence and it’s surprising that there is actually a set made for the scene set at the contaminated water source.   Sure it’s not one of the most memorable Star Trek planets, but it is enough to notice how Star Trek: The Next Generation is growing in terms of budget and capability, especially compared with the previous season which in this episode slot was the clip show finale “Shades of Grey”.

 

Overall, “The Most Toys” despite taking its title from one of the weirdest sources, a quote from a millionaire vaguely about the joys of collecting, and by undercutting itself with this unnecessary ambiguity, it’s still a great episode.  It’s an episode that just fires on all cylinders in the character drama and should be applauded for writing a B-plot that doesn’t actually have any conflict outside of characters coming to terms with grief.  The entire cast has each their moment to shine even if this is Brent Spiner as Data’s show.  Timothy Bond also directs to really wring the emotions out of the episode despite being stylistically often simple.  8/10.

Culture Shock! by: Grant Morrison with art by: Bryan Hitch and letters by: Zed

 

“Culture Shock!” is written by: Grant Morrison with art by: Bryan Hitch, and lettering by: Zed (a pseudonym for Richard Starkings).  It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issue 139 (July 1988) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: A Cold Day in Hell! by Panini Books.

 

Leave it to Grant Morrison to provide the first good Seventh Doctor comic story.  Their final work on Doctor Who is “Culture Shock!”, a single issue comic story that has the biggest issue of being only eight pages long.  The idea of telling a story from a cell culture that is an organism in symbiosis is actually a great one.  This is a premise that could not be done on television for Doctor Who for obvious budgetary reasons, even with the resources of the revival, but the format of a comic strip means the sky is the limit.  Bryan Hitch is on art duties for this script and his style does mean that the organism is one that looks fantastic, especially since half of the story is just from this perspective.  The big problem with “Culture Shock!” is that it’s too short to do too much interesting as note.  The twist is that the culture is one attacked by the virus and the Doctor just so happens to have an antiviral on his person so it can continue living, the Doctor even helping it get to the ocean.  The twist feels like it could have been a cliffhanger that could pivot to the Doctor finding a solution in a second or even third installment, but Morrison keeps it brief.

 

The Doctor, however, is a character that Grant Morrison has just latched onto in an interesting way.  “Culture Shock!” was released before Season 25 began broadcasting, but Morrison latches onto the idea that the Seventh Doctor is a tired incarnation of the character.  He has been traveling a long time, seen practically everything that he could possibly have wanted to see and is briefly contemplating stopping everything and going back to Gallifrey.  It’s almost Morrison voicing their complaints with the state of the show, because it is about to be cancelled in two years, the Doctor has lost whatever companion he had been traveling with.  Yet, “Culture Shock!” ends with the Doctor going off to have more adventures because he was shocked by something new.  It’s an interesting outlook to take and almost a comment on where Doctor Who Magazine is as well because there is a clear need to give the Seventh Doctor an identity.

 

Overall, “Culture Shock!” isn’t anything special, being held back by being a singular story, but after several dud stories it’s nice to have one with actual ideas behind it and something to say despite it having to just shout it out very quickly.  6/10.

Hollow Pursuits by: Sally Caves and directed by: Cliff Bole

 

“Hollow Pursuits” is written by: Sally Caves and is directed by: Cliff Bole.  It was produced under production code 169, was the 21^st episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 69^th episode overall, and was broadcast on April 30, 1990.

 

“Hollow Pursuits” really should have been titled “Holo-Pursuits” as this is an episode exploring what happens when a crewmember becomes addicted to the fantasies of the holodeck and the consequences therein.  This is a very odd episode in many ways since it’s actually a look at a character with mental health issues, and in exploring mental health issues the episode is actually attempting sympathy towards Barclay, played by Dwight Schultz, an officer who clearly is suffering from some form of anxiety disorder.  He clearly has the knowledge to be a competent crewman and engineer, but struggles with interpersonal communication which in turn leads to harboring resentment towards his colleagues.  The episode does a fairly competent job at positioning Barclay as wrong for falling into the fantasy of the holodeck, there are several sequences where he places his colleagues in roles of villains for him to defeat as well as the rest of the crew regularly giving him the nickname Broccoli.  This is a nickname started by Wesley Crusher, something he is told to stop doing but it spreads even up to Captain Picard who uses it right to Barclay.  Picard is treated as in the wrong for this, it is portrayed as an incredibly awkward faux pas, though Picard doesn’t actually face any consequences.  Schultz’s performance is doing much of the legwork for the episode, because there are some major issues with Sally Caves’ script.  Schultz plays the role very much as well meaning but unable to communicate and it has caused him to become self-isolating.  That self-isolation becomes resentful and clearly wants the respect from his coworkers, but it’s more than that.

 

Barclay as a character is also a man in a television show written in 1990.  As a character, he is explicitly a misogynist: his fantasies specifically prop up his own sense of masculinity as either a strong man or swashbuckling hero while Troi and Crusher are presented as the only women in the fantasies.  Crusher is portrayed in Barclay’s fantasy as a mothering figure specifically to him while Troi is reduced to a sex object.  Now Troi as a sex object is something that Star Trek: The Next Generation struggles with, but here this is an episode that is actually aware that she is being reduced to this.  Troi as ship’s counselor is given material to be sympathetic towards Barclay, until his instability confronts her with her holodeck double which the tells to “muzzle it” with the comments about being a goddess of empathy.  It’s intentionally creepy, Barclay is implied to have rejected Troi’s counselor services when he desperately needs them.  The rest of the regular cast is largely written out of character.  Some of this is possibly down to the perspective of the episode clearly meant to be Barclay’s so the viewer may be seeing them through their eyes, but there are moments where Riker in particular is quite cruel.  He does not get much focus, but throughout there is just this lack of empathy and care that Picard has to call out at points which are off.  Again some of this is also clearly because Barclay is written to be in several ways morally repugnant, the episode proposing it is partially a result of his self-isolation, but the script also does have moments where Barclay is just treated terribly.  Wesley Crusher is responsible for most of them: there is the rather unflattering nickname but also a moment where Wesley just does not let Barclay even get a word in when he is reporting on the engineering issues plaguing the Enterprise.

 

Though the episode is focused on Barclay what helps “Hollow Pursuits” work is that unlike episodes which focus on one-off characters, this is equally an episode about Geordi La Forge having to be Barclay’s superior officer.  Geordi’s plot, the emotional B-plot of the episode because while the conflict is several mini-misadventures that link in the end to a leaking biological sample, the episode really is interested in examining Geordi’s command.  LeVar Burton actually gets his best material of this season (so far) in this episode, playing Geordi as the most understanding of the regular cast behind Picard.  He takes advice from his commanding officers (and Guinan in a particularly great little character moment) to put his dislike and frustrations towards Barclay aside to understand the man and help him work through his issues.  This does have the underlying message involving someone’s personal issues to be other people’s problems, especially when those problems are these biases and bigotries underneath are being placed on the one prominent black member of the crew, but then again this is a show made in 1990 by a mostly white production staff.  Caves’ script is interesting in that it does not at any point really invalidate Geordi’s feelings towards Barclay, even when the climax in the holodeck happens the episode portrays the crew as correct for being disturbed by the fantasy even if they are attempting understanding towards Barclay in equal measure.

 

Overall, “Hollow Pursuits” from the perspective of someone watching over 35 years later actually does play quite well in terms of mental health advocacy.  The biggest stumbles are in a script that mischaracterizes the regulars even with the argument that we are not in the typical perspective during the episode.  Barclay is an interesting character that is played well despite the character lacking much of the charm of a typical character.  Were it made today the nuance would be brought a little more to the forefront while the direction from Cliff Bole would also be more than the serviceable visuals we have.  The discomfort feels intentional at points even if there are some big blunders in portraying that discomfort, though the material for Geordi La Forge is particularly great.  7/10.

Claws of the Klathi! by: Mike Collins with art by: Kev Hopgood and Dave Hine and letters by: Zed

 

“Claws of the Klathi!” is written by: Mike Collins with art by: Kev Hopgood and Dave Hine, and lettering by: Zed (a pseudonym for Richard Starkings).  It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issues 136-138 (April-June 1988) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: A Cold Day in Hell! by Panini Books.

 

The claws of the title “Claws of the Klathi!” are not literal, they’re not even metaphorical, it’s just to sound evocative.  Sounding evocative is perhaps the best analysis of Mike Collins’ second Doctor Who Magazine strip.  This entire story has some fairly intriguing big picture ideas: aliens at a freakshow during the Great Exhibition, giant robots committing murders at the docks, and a group of scientists who meet during the full moon to discuss experiments.  Any one of these ideas could very much take up the premise of an issue of the Doctor Who Magazine strip at this time and actually give the readers the first good Seventh Doctor strip.  Even with Collins being given three issues of the magazine to tell the story you could do these ideas justice, but in execution there really isn’t anything deeper than the initial idea.  The plot itself ends up being something not so much standard for Doctor Who: aliens have been captured by Victorians and are trying to escape with the twist that the two Klathi are actually evil.  That twist is where everything becomes surface level analysis, Collins is uninterested in examining the nature of the freak show and its place in Victorian society.  It just isn’t there.  The Victorian setting reads more like Collins having an idea for a backdrop because of the freak show idea, it’s integral to the story but doesn’t actually contribute to the plot.  The freak show is just a reason to have some violence done on our sympathetic alien, which should give the story at least a little bite but every other character including the Doctor barely reacts to it.  Even at the conclusion when the Klathi Danq and Yula are defeated it just reads as something that has happened with no emotional stake.

 

The characterization of the Doctor, despite being written after Sylvester McCoy has had a season air in the role, is weak.  This is not a Terrance Dicks style generic version of the Doctor, he is more a cypher who arrives and vaguely wants to help out seeing someone in trouble, but only after being accused of theft for a page or two to add some drama.  If I didn’t know better I would think that Collins started this story for a different Marvel UK strip and converted it into a Doctor Who strip.  It does not help that in this story the pseudo-companion shares more character traits with the Seventh Doctor as characterized in Season 24 than the Doctor here.  Nathaniel Derridge is portrayed as an upper class gentleman and scientist who bumbles around, creating spoonerisms of colloquial phrases and having an eye for justice.  This is something that I have to ascribe to Collins and not artists Kev Hopgood and Dave Hine despite the possibility of the Marvel method being used to write “Claws of the Klathi!”.  It isn’t like Collins hadn’t written for Doctor Who before, his previous effort was “Profits of Doom” which was a great Sixth Doctor strip, so he should have a handle on at least the Doctor’s characterization.  Hopgood and Hine do at least make “Claws of the Klathi!” interesting to read, the art is particularly good and stylized in a way to evoke Victorian illustrations while maintaining the late-1980s house style.

 

Overall, “Claws of the Klathi!” is another poor entry for a period of Doctor Who Magazine comics that seem to lack a solid sense of identity.  It does reflect where the show was at during Season 24 as a period of transition, but unlike the show this is not a story that gives the Doctor any sort of character or assurance that the transition will be going somewhere.  4/10.

Tin Man by: Dennis Putman Bailey and David Bischoff and directed by: Robert Scheerer

 

“Tin Man” is written by: Dennis Putman Bailey (a pseudonym for Dennis Russell Bailey and Lisa Putman White) and David Bischoff and is directed by: Robert Scheerer.  It was produced under production code 168, was the 20^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 68^th episode overall, and was broadcast on April 23, 1990.

 

“Tin Man” should probably be an episode focusing on Deanna Troi but Star Trek: The Next Generation seems to be allergic to giving its female characters real episodes of substance.  The premise of the episode is a different Betazoid who never really adapted to his telepathic abilities arriving on the Enterprise to investigate a massive life form taking the form of a sentient spaceship preparing for a first contact situation.  The tin man is stuck in Romulan claimed space, though explicitly not acknowledged as Romulan space, but the Federation desperately needs this first contact to go well for whatever strategic advantage they could gain in the mounting conflict.  The episode is a character piece about Tam Elbrun, the Betazoid played by Harry Groener, in a way that isn’t going to be to everyone’s tastes.  Elbrun is a character written by Dennis Bailey and David Bischoff (and apparently an uncredited Lisa Putman White which is where Bailey’s middle name in the credits comes from) to be abrasive and impossible to work with.  The episode is very intentional in delving into the hell that would be telepathic abilities that one cannot switch off: Elbrun just cannot stop himself from blurting out what everybody around him is thinking and knowing that he is not liked.  He already has this great sense of guilt around an incident that killed 47 Starfleet personnel, the guilt taking him every day and, on the Enterprise Riker explicitly blaming him for not giving better guidance.  This is a man who has been broken and beaten, he is at the end of his rope and “Tin Man” as an episode serves as a way to give him an out.  The eventual message of the episode is actually quite sympathetic to his plight and gives him a place where he can be without the pains of other people.  The ending is almost beautiful.  Almost.  It doesn’t quite work nearly as well as the episode thinks it does, it feels almost as if the ending just creeps up on the episode.

 

There’s a lot of the episode that does explore Elbrun’s relationships with other people.  While the episode takes very little to focus on Troi, it is made explicit he is a previous patient of hers in her training as a counselor.  Mental health services here are presented in this very mixed light, the fact Elbrun had mental health services is presented as a dramatic twist, but Elbrun is treated at the very least like a person.  Marina Sirtis is clearly grabbing at the material she is given, even if it isn’t the focus on the episode.  The episode is more interested in creating a relationship between Elbrun and Data because Data’s android nature means he cannot be read telepathically.  This is the first person Elbrun doesn’t immediately know everything about and Groener plays it just as this sigh of relief.  Data becomes the only person that Elbrun can connect with because he doesn’t know Data’s internality.  Data has internality, that has been explicit throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation, but because he is not organic those thoughts aren’t there.  “Tin Man” is not a Data episode, though he does take a lot of time between Elbrun and Data as characters.  The episode is also interesting since there really isn’t a B-plot, instead it all being related to Elbrun.  Robert Scheerer is in the director’s chair for this episode and it is quite interesting to see exactly how he sets up so much of this episode to play into the emotions of the characters.  The way he shoots Riker in this episode is of particular note, he’s almost shot as the villain of the episode and certainly there is some antagonism there which feels wrong for the character on paper but in practice Jonathan Frakes plays it correctly.  Riker is emotional throughout the episode and his animosity towards Elbrun isn’t entirely unearned.

 

Overall, “Tin Man” is another example of a good episode but it is an episode that never quite reaches the status as one of the greats.  While the ending is touching and much of the episode works because of an emotionally charged script, it does have this problem of never actually being about our main cast instead being the story of a guest character’s relationship with the crew.  The relationships actually need just a bit more time to be fleshed out because they are all ever so slightly surface level while there isn’t really a B-plot to get satisfaction for characters like Riker, his anger just being an antagonistic force that is not ever brought to catharsis.  It is a good episode, but it’s an episode that could have easily been great with expansion to a two parter, especially considering this was based on a previously published novel.  7/10.

Captain's Holiday by: Ira Steven Behr and directed by: Chip Chalmers

 

“Captain’s Holiday” is written by: Ira Steven Behr and is directed by: Chip Chalmers.  It was produced under production code 167, was the 19^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 67^th episode overall, and was broadcast on April 2, 1990.

 

“Captain’s Holiday” is the definition of a good time.  It’s an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that is slightly fitting to be reviewed while I am away on vacation (I am writing this review before I leave for posting over the weekend).  Ira Steven Behr writes an episode that is utterly ridiculous: Captain Picard being overworked is tricked by his crew, mainly Riker, Troi, and Crusher to get him to go to the pleasure planet of Risa.  This is some of the best character interactions in the episode: from Troi’s tactic of claiming that her mother is going to join the Enterprise on the Starbase for maintenance which just pushes him away, Crusher attempts the indirect approach by proposing a completely different crew member is burnt out and desperately needs a vacation, and Riker just proposes his general charm and the ridiculous thought that Picard might need to have a relationship that is not strictly professional.  Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis in particular play it specifically as if Riker and Troi have been trying to profess their love for one another but Picard being a stick in the mud has come in between their relationship.  It’s genuinely a hilarious moment that’s entirely in the subtext.  The implication that Picard would wish to go to Risa also feels deliberately the wrong vacation for Jean-Luc Picard, he brings far too many books with him to read intent on staying alone by the poolside for the entire trip.  Ira Steven Behr also doesn’t forget that this is a show with an ensemble cast, giving every main cast member in the episode at least one little comedic moment to push Picard into taking a vacation.

 

This is only the first act of the episode, an act that takes up perhaps just a bit too much time to get to the actual point of the episode.  “Captain’s Holiday” is a big tribute to adventure films with treasure hunting, ridiculous time travel, and several beautiful women flirting with Picard because Riker tricks him into buying a souvenir that is basically an upside down pineapple.  Ira Steven Behr’s script is maintaining a tone between the Roger Moore James Bond films and Spielberg’s Indiana Jones trilogy, attempting to connect the time travel shenanigans to Picard’s own personal future.  Jennifer Hetrick plays Vash, our Bond girl though given far more characterization than the typical Bond girl.  Vash is an archeologist’s assistant looking for the Tox Uthat, that is our MacGuffin of the episode, after her mentor had died, though Picard is wrapped up in several lies.  Hetrick and Stewart have fantastic chemistry throughout the episode and Vash is far too much a presence to waste in a single appearance.  Our Bond villain of the episode is Max Grodenchik’s Sovak, welcoming back the Ferengi into Star Trek: The Next Generation in a role that intentionally is leaning heavily into the comedy of the episode.  The joke being that capitalist scruples, the lack of, are eventually a fruitless endeavor.  “Captain’s Holiday” is about fruitless endeavors, Behr concludes the episode by noting that Picard and Vash’s actions were only ensuring a future would come to pass, not altering the timeline in any notable way.

 

“Captain’s Holiday” is in a way all about subversion.  Patrick Stewart may have wanted an episode full of action and adventure, but Jean-Luc Picard as a character still feels ever so slightly out of place in this type of adventure.  The adventure is a pastiche of a very old type of adventure film, something that the original series of Star Trek would actually be more comfortable in.  Yet, the episode works because Picard as a character is so out of place in this genre.  Despite Gene Rodenberry envisioning the character as Horatio Hornblower in space, Horatio Hornblower isn’t actually an American hero while the protagonist of this subgenre of film is explicitly American.  Where the episode actually falls down is honestly the limits of being an episode of television made in 1990.  The effort is being put in by director Chip Chalmers and he is shooting most of the episode well, but the way the action is shot is limited by the resources available and the closer, quieter scenes aren’t quite allowed to be as quiet or intimate as Ira Steven Behr’s script really is allowing for.  There is also the concern that this is just the type of episode certain people will not really connect with because you have to be willing to go into some very silly places for it to work.  The pacing is not quite at the three act structure of a television episode, the first act actually taking up a bit too much time leaving the second and third acts to be slightly truncated.

 

Overall, “Captain’s Holiday” works because of how much fun Patrick Stewart is having getting to play the reluctant Starship Captain out of his element.  There is something magical about the 26 episode season allowing an episode like this to exist, it’s filler focused exclusively on watching one character dragged into a vacation because he has been working too hard.  It would not be made today, and the plot would not allow a self-fulfilling prophecy of time travel with a reluctant hero, but because of where it is placed in the season it is nothing but a good time.  7/10.

Allegiance by: Richard Manning and Hans Beimler and directed by: Winrich Kolbe

 

“Allegiance” is written by: Richard Manning and Hans Beimler and is directed by: Winrich Kolbe.  It was produced under production code 166, was the 18^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 66^th episode overall, and was broadcast on March 26, 1990.

 

With any season of television that has 26 episodes there are going to be episodes that don’t really give you anything.  For Star Trek: The Next Generation that very often is scripts from Richard Manning and Hans Beimler.  Manning and Beimler’s written episodes are all over the place from incredibly strong like “Who Watches The Watchers” and one of the rewrites of “Yesterday’s Enterprise” but they also had their hands in “Shades of Grey”.  “Allegiance” is their final script for the show and it can best be described as unnecessary filler.  Now filler is not a bad thing, for the medium of television: it is necessary.  It’s the chance for the characters to be characters so they can develop outside of whatever overarching plot for those more serialized shows.  “Allegiance” doesn’t actually have anything to say about the characters.  The premise should be gold, Captain Picard is abducted by mysterious aliens and replaced with a doppelganger as the episode wants to build suspicion among the crew until the climax where Riker, Worf, Troi, and Crusher succeed in a mutiny before the real Picard is back.  This is the strongest material in the episode, it is the A-plot after all, but the script itself does not allow for the suspense to build because the pre-credits scene is Picard’s abduction.  This is an episode that should be building that tension about what’s happened to Picard because he is acting strange, but not in any sort of malicious way which is a fascinating examination of what the crew thinks of Picard.  Potentially the episode could have examined how Picard as a person is far too stiff and ordered for his own good, many of the “wrong” things fake Picard does include going on a date with Dr. Crusher and singing a drinking song with the crew.  The singing is explicitly joked about in the closing stinger of the episode as the most ridiculous aspect, but these scenes are of Patrick Stewart getting a chance to have a lot of fun in the role.  There is also a lot of secret keeping that provides the sinister aspect of the episode and the mutiny itself is fantastic, especially how sinister the rest of the cast play it.

 

While the A-plot is fine, flawed because the audience knows that Picard is a doppelganger and we lose tension, but the B-plot is just absolutely nothing.  It is following the abducted Picard with other, alien prisoners who slowly have to unravel the layers of their capture.  There are trials like food that one of the prisoners cannot eat and scenarios where they have to work together, but this is a type of story that at this point feels stock.  It’s a stock story that Manning and Beimler just write almost to fill the runtime so the episode can have something different to cut back to when the A-plot needs a cutaway.  There also really isn’t enough plot because the characters are clearly intelligent enough to realize they are in an experiment as is the big twist of the episode, but that could be fine if the characters are given the time to shine even if like in this episode they are non-recurring characters.  Manning and Beimler provide basic characters for the episode: there’s an alien that’s a warrior, a Starfleet cadet, and a pacifist.  These are all things that are perfectly okay for characters, but they are also skin deep which is a problem.  It all means that this big plotline in the episode is a complete afterthought, something that could be almost entirely cut without losing anything.  “Allegiance” would be better in practically every way if this were excised entirely.

 

Overall, “Allegiance” is one of those episodes that’s just going to be lost in the shuffle of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s third season.  It’s an example of one of those episodes that is by no means bad, it is just an hour of television that exists and is taking stock elements to put on screen to fill time.  Patrick Stewart in a double role is clearly having a good time to cut lose as the doppelganger of Picard and the rest of the regular cast each get a moment to shine but having a B-plot that does not actually do anything of note with the stock plot.  It’s mediocre.  5/10.