“The Naked Now” is written by: J. Michael Bingham (a
pseudonym for D.C. Fontana), from a story by: John D.F. Black and Bingham, and
is directed by: Paul Lynch. It was
produced under production code 103, was the 3rd episode of Star
Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on October 5, 1987.
“The Naked Time” was the fourth episode of Star
Trek and is one of those early episodes that really was successful at endearing
the audience to characters by playing on what had come before to subvert who
these characters are. Star Trek: The
Next Generation decided that the third episode they aired, the second time
the show was airing, was to remake the episode after a pilot that was almost
entirely unsuccessful in establishing new character dynamics or even really
doing characterization. “The Naked Now”
was assigned to D.C. Fontana, who co-wrote the pilot and is genuinely one of
the best writers for Star Trek, but during production Fontana requested
her name to be taken off the script, another indication of the behind the scenes
production issues with Star Trek: The Next Generation, Fontana going on
to write two more episodes of the season and would have story credit on one final
episode before leaving the show entirely, though returning to pen an episode of
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The
trouble with discussing the plot of “The Naked Now” is that despite the
production team saying they simply wanted to homage a classic episode of Star
Trek, “The Naked Now” is quite literally the same plot with the aesthetic
difference of instead of a planet falling apart, it is a star that is about to collapse. The Enterprise sends a team to
investigate a ship in orbit of the collapsing star after receiving a message of
the crew sounding drunk and apparently being blown out into space. The team investigating the ship is the episode’s
best sequence, director Paul Lynch is quite dynamic with the lighting creating
an atmosphere that is quite good despite any viewer who has seen “The Naked Time”
knowing exactly what is going on. Geordi
La Forge is the first to be infected here and the episode attempts to be a
little slow with his descent into the illness, complete with one interesting if
slightly problematic scene with LeVar Burton really playing Geordi’s disability
as awkward.
After this point, things really start to go wrong as
more people become infected, including all three of the female main cast
members and Wesley Crusher. Wesley is
the one that causes actual problems on the ship, he takes up the role of Lt.
Riley from “The Naked Time” in commandeering engineering and holding the Enterprise
hostage complete with the same demands for more dessert. Wil Wheaton is clearly trying with the role
that he is given, and I do think Lynch is giving him direction: his scenes with
Geordi and Beverly Crusher hint again at deeper character relationships, but the
material he is given is quite literally a spoiled brat who thinks he can be in
command. This goes against what was
established in “Encounter at Farpoint” where he was characterized as in awe at
the Enterprise and wanting to prove himself, not one to just take over the
ship and have no regard for the crew and passengers being in danger. Fontana’s script is smart enough to have him
take part in the solution, even if it is an utterly ridiculous amount of
technobabble for a quick climax while Data works on drunkenly fixing the ship.
Where the episode struggles further is in
characterizing everybody else. The only
main cast member who remains uninfected by the end is Michael Dorn as Worf, the
trouble being that we don’t actually know much about these characters to
understand where their actions while infected take place. The female characters are given the worst of
it: Troi, Yar, and Crusher are all reduced to various states of sexual arousal. Denise Crosby as Tasha Yar is given the worst
of it, being forced to slink around the ship randomly kissing men and getting
into a sexual encounter with Data where the episode decides to use that moment
to establish the fact that Tasha’s upbringing is one of avoiding rape
gangs. This is a character with sexual
trauma that just isn’t explored, it’s using some of the worst possible sexual
violence as a background detail in a scene played for comedy. Gates McFadden probably gets the best
treatment of the three (Troi is just reduced to wanting to get back together
with Riker), Crusher being the one to still research how to stop the infection. The male characters, on the other hand, are
infected and characterized as bravely pushing through it, especially Jonathan
Frakes as Riker, despite the fact that he doesn’t really do anything in terms
of solving things. Picard just gives a bunch
of orders and looks confused as Patrick Stewart clearly doesn’t quite know who
the character is yet while Brent Spiner as Data is the one doing comic relief.
Overall, if “Encounter at Farpoint” was a pilot that
was deeply flawed but showed promise of improvement with time, “The Naked Now”
is a step in the complete opposite direction.
At its best it is an episode remaking the plot of a far superior episode
with characters who had already been established, and at its worst it’s an
incredibly uncomfortable and sexist experience, using sexual violence as a joke
instead of actually developing the little bit of the characterization the pilot
laid down. 3/10.
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