Datalore by: Robert Lewin and Gene Roddenberry from a story by: Robert Lewin and Maurice Hurley and directed by: Rob Bowman

 

“Datalore” is written by: Robert Lewin and Gene Roddenberry, from a story by: Robert Lewin and Maurice Hurley and is directed by: Rob Bowman.  It was produced under production code 114, was the 13^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on January 18, 1988.

 

It seems the world has slipped into a parallel universe where Gene Roddenberry is actually a good writer and not stuck in the 1960s frame of mind as “Datalore” is an episode that somehow almost entirely clicks together to be a genuinely great piece of television and Star Trek.  This is especially surprising since there are three writers credited, though the idea and script are both largely coming from Robert Lewin who is technically this season’s head writer despite only contributing three scripts to the season and the show as a whole, “Datalore” being his first contribution.  It is also Roddenberry’s last credited contribution as writer to Star Trek, though he would remain as producer for the rest of the first season before being pushed to the periphery until his death in 1991.  As a script, despite having a writing credit, “Datalore” lacks the hallmarks of a Roddenberry script: it’s largely a focused character piece on Data, exploring his past, the only larger science fiction idea that could be Roddenberry’s influence is the general script questioning Data’s personhood, however, in my mind it does feel as if Lewin as a writer is also developing that idea further.  If that idea was Roddenberry alone, it would likely have been a simple yes or no and the rest of the cast would immediately be acknowledging Data’s humanity and complete trust, but “Datalore” actually decides to leave things in the air quite a bit.  Picard as a character certainly treats Data with personhood, but the introduction of Lore brings that into question.  Lore is referred to specifically as an ‘it’ and not a ‘he’ by Picard.  The episode even has Data call this into question, bringing up the age old flaw in logic for many people’s tolerance of marginalized groups: they are not tolerant of that group if they are willing to still see individual members of that group as an other.  This is both explicit in the text and quite possibly something that wasn’t as thought through by Levin and Roddenberry had intended, this is still 1988 after all and is a bold idea to put forward with the restrictions of 1980s television.

 

The actual plot of “Datalore” does have its roots in science fiction as a whole: the premise is that the Enterprise returns to the planet on which Data was found, investigating to discover an abandoned underground colony and the remains of another android of seemingly the same make and model of Data.  While it is just the setup for the episode, the scenes on the planet actually show off the best of Rob Bowman’s direction, despite clearly reusing many of the sets from “Haven” and “Hide and Q”, plus several props that have been in the show before and in the theatrical films, these sequences are directed quite well.  Bowman makes things seem vast and the cave wall swinging outward is constructed in just the right way to create that atmosphere of discovery.  The laboratory sets themselves are perhaps a bit scarce and clearly on a television budget, but they are in line with the aesthetics of the show in general, plus those scenes are brief.  The episode really picks up speed once the crew returns to the Enterprise, Lewin and Roddenberry give the episode just a little bit of time before the second android, Lore, is turned on and interacts, allowing Brent Spiner to really play up this anticipation of someone discovering they are not alone and unique in a universe.  The way Spiner plays and has played Data’s emotions in this and previous episodes become integral for how he then goes on to play Lore.  Yes, with the same make and model it becomes obvious that “Datalore” is doing the evil twin storyline, but Lore as a character is immediately set apart from just being a copy of Data by Spiner’s body language and delivery.  While the script points out Lore is more ‘human’ than Data because he can use contractions, it is really all in Spiner’s performance for how evil he is.  Spiner plays Lore as almost gleefully sadistic in places, annoyed that humans dared to think him too human so he communed with a crystalline entity to kill them all.  He also tries taking Data’s place on the ship, providing the conflict for the A-plot.

 

Where “Datalore” drops the ball, at least in my eyes, outside of not going as far with its premise as it perhaps could, is in having Lore take Data’s place for the episode and the way the crew eventually discover what has happened.  It’s Wesley who ends up deducing Lore’s involvement, the rest of the crew not believing him, including Picard shouting at him “Shut up, Wesley!” which you might think if I were following popular opinion I would agree with.  However, it is not the fact that Wesley as a character is annoying, he just doesn’t really fit so far with this plot.  As a character, he hasn’t really had many scenes with Data and this plot wants to posit that they are quite close as characters when it would be more apt for say Geordi LaForge to take this particular role, especially since if we’re being honest LeVar Burton hasn’t had nearly as much focus as the other characters while Wesley has already had two episodes with rather important subplots.  Wil Wheaton actually plays the material pretty well, especially at the climax where Dr. Crusher is hurt and Wheaton just gives this look of fear that everything is falling apart.  It’s a bit too close to the end, and Lore is quickly dispatched by Data in an action sequence but there’s at least an attempt to write Wesley as a complex character, even if Lewin and Roddenberry don’t really know how to write a child character which is a recurring problem for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

 

Overall, “Datalore” is honestly the best episode that Star Trek: The Next Generation has done thus far.  There are still problems and clearly places for the series to grow, but like “The Big Goodbye” the week before it’s one that works because it is a character focused story that is written from a writer who understands that it is no longer the 1960s and that television has changed.  Lore as a character is perhaps the best villain this show has introduced thus far and Brent Spiner is carrying it all on his back, but it’s actually a great episode of Star Trek.  8/10.

The Big Goodbye by: Tracy Torme and directed by: Joseph L. Scanlan

 

“The Big Goodbye” is written by: Tracy Torme and is directed by: Joseph L. Scanlan.  It was produced under production code 113, was the 12^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on January 11, 1988.

 

If “Haven” was an episode I could praise because it was an episode that managed to be a competent episode of television, “The Big Goodbye” is an episode of television that actually knows what it’s doing and is part of a show with an actual vision and purpose.  What struck me about this episode is that the characters had both personality and motivation for what they are doing, something that writer Tracy Torme did well with oddly enough “Haven”.  The premise of the episode at its core is a pastiche of film noir, specifically The Maltese Falcon, complete with Harvey Jason doing a Peter Lorre impression, period sets and costumes, and a guest appearance by Lawrence Tierney.  While Star Trek would do these pastiches by having the Enterprise come upon a planet that just so happens to be a parallel version of Earth complete with cultural touchpoints, Star Trek: The Next Generation had already introduced the idea of the holodeck to provide basically any period piece.  It’s a clear piece of technology that can allow the production team to use existing period sets and come up with these types of stories, “The Big Goodbye” establishing it as something that can malfunction and trap people inside a simulation.  In this case it’s Picard, Crusher, Data, and historian Whalen who get stuck in a simulation of Dixon Hill novels, a fictional detective in the vein of a Dashiell Hammett novel.  The A-plot of the episode is the establishing of the holodeck and the setting for about half the episode before the malfunction actually happens, and then trying to resolve it after discovering that they can be hurt inside the simulation.  Whalen is shot and is slowly dying, motivating Picard, Crusher, and Data to actually get out of the simulation and attempt to survive.  This is because Torme does run out of time to actually develop the plot in the back half of the episode, meaning the conclusion relies on the B-plot of the rest of the Enterprise crew attempts to fix the malfunction.

 

This leads to the third act of the episode to be the weakest point, the plot itself just ends up resolving itself without much agency from the characters.  Wesley Crusher is the one to save the day and there is exactly one moment where Wil Wheaton gets the chance to give a good performance since his mother is in danger, but the weakness of the B-plot is part of the problem.  The reason Picard is using the holodeck is to have a breather for himself before having to make a greeting to the alien Jarada, a species who are easily slighted and that the Federation needs to begin negotiations.  Picard has to learn a complex greeting in the Jarada language, something that is particularly complicated so when he is stuck in the holodeck, the plot of the rest of the crew becomes feeble attempts to delay the greeting and fix the holodeck.  The issue is similar to Torme’s previous episode, “Haven”, in that there is almost not enough material or proper direction to move things along.  The ending in particular weakens the episode, even if the cast play it off better than much of the other material they have had to deal with on this show.  Though again like “Haven”, “The Big Goodbye” is an episode that is competent enough to structure its episode around an A-plot and a B-plot that are weaved together to form one conclusion at the end, Torme clearly understanding how to write a competent episode of television.

 

The question then becomes why if “The Big Goodbye” suffers from many of the same issues as “Haven” does it still manage to be the strongest episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation so far?  Well, the big reason for that is the fact that the characters are allowed to be characters, Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in particular is actually allowed to crack jokes.  Picard is a fanboy for noir pulp fiction, and the premise of getting to live one of these stories is completely appealing.  He goes on a tangent in briefing his crew after his first peek into the holodeck because he is being a total fanboy.  This is more emotion that Stewart has been allowed to show in one scene than the previous eleven episodes of the show combined.  For the audience this means that there’s finally some relatability to Picard who to this point had been defined as ‘stiff diplomat’ and almost nothing else.  In the grand scheme of things these are largely smaller moments, but they are also finally something to latch onto Picard as a character.  That can also be extended to Dr. Crusher as Gates McFadden is getting material to sink her teeth into as Crusher plays the first half of the episode as basically an audience member having a good time and then having to switch when things get serious.  Brent Spiner as Data has had previous episodes to be comic relief to mixed effort: “The Naked Now” is perhaps the perfect example of how not to write Data as comic relief while this episode actually allows Spiner to flex his comedic chops.  It’s another bit of development in the fact that Data admires Sherlock Holmes and becomes interested in Dixon Hill as a setting because of how pulp fiction essentially grew out of the Holmes stories.  While the gag of him being South American doesn’t work and hasn’t aged well, Spiner just understands how to deliver the lines.  The episode is also helped by Joseph L. Scanlan’s direction, especially that first transition from ship to holodeck really emulating the magic of entering a fantasy world, even though it’s a fantasy world of 1920s Earth and ‘mundane’ to the modern audience.

 

Overall, “The Big Goodbye” is only the second episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation to really excel at the concept it is trying to execute.  The plot itself is perhaps the weakest aspect, falling apart right at the end, though still being interesting to watch as it brings up philosophical questions of whether holodeck simulations are alive (and leaves them hanging for other episodes to potentially explore).  The cast are clearly enjoying the script and the fact that writer Tracy Torme is actually invested in developing the characters of the show unlike other writers, meaning that their performances are just elevated that much further.  It’s got these few problems, but it’s a shining light in an otherwise incredibly subpar season.  8/10.

Haven by: Tracy Torme, from a story by: Tracy Torme and Lan O'Kun, and directed by: Richard Compton

 

“Haven” is written by: Tracy Torme, from a story by: Tracy Torme and Lan O’Kun, and is directed by: Richard Compton.  It was produced under production code 105, was the 11^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on November 30, 1987.

 

“Haven” is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation marked specifically by how competent it is.  This is an episode that hits just about every necessary beat to propel the plot forward from inciting incident, to rising action, to climax, to falling action, to resolution.  In any other series, it would likely be an unremarkable, perhaps even mediocre episode, but here among the early days of Star Trek: The Next Generation it is actually almost a breath of fresh air.  It is just so nice to have an episode that at the very least accomplishes telling a story from beginning to end, following the television structure of an A plot and a B plot that tie into each other, wrap up loose ends at the end, and end up being quite enjoyable.  Now, the actual plot is generally basic: the A plot concerns an arranged marriage set to take place between Counsellor Deanna Troi, played by Marina Sirtis, and Dr. Wyatt Miller, a friend of her parents played by Robert Knepper, in the orbit of the planet Haven while the B plot involves a vessel from a long dead species drifting towards the planet that the Enterprise must investigate.  The plots combine in the end: the ship is actually carrying the last members of the Tarellians who were wiped out by a plague, they have been communicating to Wyatt through his dreams and one of them has fallen in love with them meaning he cannot go through the marriage with Troi.  The A plot’s conflict is between the couple’s parents having several arguments while the B plot has the conflict of defending Haven from the unknown, even if that unknown is far less dangerous.  Richard Compton’s direction goes through the motions of setting up perfectly serviceable shots that flow perfectly fine.  Again, this is an episode that is almost entirely mediocre by definition, though it does open with the message of the arranged marriage arriving with this messenger of a silver box with a face on the side which gleefully announces it.

 

Majel Barrett is what elevates “Haven” from an episode of complete mediocrity, to an episode that at the very least is enjoyable in places with a completely camp performance.  Lwaxana Troi is the complete opposite of the very little that we have established of Deanna Troi: she is outgoing, over-the-top, and entirely comfortable with her sexuality.  She doesn’t love that this marriage is happening, but it was promised in the past and she can at the very least make the wedding go her way.  She hates the Millers as Nan Martin as Victoria Miller is the straight woman fed up with Lwaxana’s antics and overt flirtation.  She immediately takes command of Picard and puts him off guard with her own attraction to him, meaning that Patrick Stewart also has to loosen up in terms of his performance.  She is an argumentative woman which gets slightly grating, but it is also certainly fun as Barrett is chewing all of the scenery.  Barrett also gets one or two softer moments, mainly one on one with Deanna about her life choices which Barrett plays well.  The moments that work particularly well are when Barrett is allowed to show how much she actually cares for her daughter despite her camp exterior.  Marina Sirtis also finally gets some particularly good scenes, even if Deanna Troi as a character even in this episode isn’t particularly strong in terms of characterization.  Troi’s desires are simplified to clearly wishing to get with Riker, who gets to be a little jealous, but having a strong duty to her family’s vows, but isn’t quite grateful enough when everything is resolved.  Sirtis and Knepper actually have some screen chemistry, there are moments in the first two acts of the episode that setup the possibility they could end up together and make the arranged marriage work.  Weirdly this episode doesn’t have much to actually say about the concept of arranged marriage, more concerned with exploring duty to family above all else.  It could be because writer Tracy Torme was brought in to salvage Lan O'Kun's original idea and he had his own ideas of what to include, or it could just be because the episode is thin and only just barely making it above mediocrity.

 

Overall, despite it being enjoyable and making it to become an above average episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Haven” is an episode that really only rises above because Majel Barrett keeps making utterly ridiculous choices that translate well to a character with stronger personality and screen presence than much of the main cast.  Lwaxana Troi is a character allowed to create conflict and her introduction essentially makes her work as a character immediately, but it does prove this show can do something written to follow a plot properly and be enjoyable.  It’s Star Trek by numbers, but somehow above average exclusively because of Barrett and the fact that it's the second attempt for the show to do a straight character piece after "The Battle".  It's close to getting on what makes Star Trek and by extension Star Trek: The Next Generation work.  6/10.

Hide and Q by: CJ Holland and Gene Roddenberry from a story by: CJ Holland and directed by: Cliff Bole

 

“Hide and Q” is written by: C.J. Holland (a pseudonym for Maurice Hurley) and Gene Roddenberry, from a story by: C.J. Holland, and is directed by: Cliff Bole.  It was produced under production code 111, was the 10^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on November 23, 1987.

 

John de Lancie as Q was honestly the best thing about the pilot to Star Trek: The Next Generation “Encounter to Farpoint”, despite being added to fill time and bring the episode to the requested time slot.  It only makes sense to make Q a recurring character in the series, and because of how television was produced the return would come only eight episodes later in “Hide and Q”, and it’s an episode with once again a lot of problems.  Like “Encounter at Farpoint”, “Hide and Q” is an episode that was originally assigned to one writer, current head writer of the show Maurice Hurley in his first script.  It’s telling of the chaotic production that Hurley as a writer would contribute several scripts for the first two seasons before leaving the position and the show.  Hurley would request his name to be pulled from the writing credit of the episode, the third time this has happened this season with a writer and “Hide and Q” is an episode that is largely competing between two visions.  Gene Roddenberry as a writer has rarely turned in effective scripts, look at my extensive reviews of the original series, but he is a man who at least understands ideas and the idea behind “Hide and Q” is a solid one.  Star Trek likes a lot of godlike aliens, the Q are godlike aliens, but what actually happens if those godlike abilities are given to a main character of the show.  How would they react and perhaps more importantly how would the rest of the crew react?  While it is still a premise very much connected with the original series’ way of doing things, it is trying to push it forward to see what can be explored with these new characters.

 

The major problem of the episode is honestly the decision of who to give the godlike powers to, instead of following up “Encounter at Farpoint” establishing a particular chemistry between Q and Picard due to de Lancie and Patrick Stewart just clicking and playing off one another, it is Riker who is given the powers of the Q as a test.  The test is to bring a member of humanity into the Q, seeing how Riker will use the powers to change those around him.  At least that’s where the episode attempts to go with it, as an episode “Hide and Q” feels like it wants to be about power corrupting but by only being 45-minutes long and devoting the first half of that episode to a faux battle scenario on a planet where Riker has to learn that he has been given the powers to save himself and his crewmates, there isn’t enough time to really explore Riker being corrupted by power.  Jonathan Frakes as an actor is clearly working with the material, in the back half of the episode he alters his delivery to be more like John de Lancie, as well as some of his posture to be more stiff.  The stiffness doesn’t really work since de Lancie is a very physical actor, but Frakes is making interesting choices in the role.  It’s a role that doesn’t really fit the character of Riker, the back half of the episode has the crew immediately distrust him and Riker becomes immediately serious and graven with these powers, but Frakes is making the best of a bad situation.  His portrayal of Riker giving up the powers, ending with Picard getting Q to disappear, never to interfere with humanity again, is actually quite good even if the script is incredibly weak in terms of actually showing the corruption.

 

Patrick Stewart as Picard, while relegated to the background and foil for Riker for much of the episode because Hurley and Roddenberry are trying a different relationship, actually gets the best scenes in the episode.  The scene with Picard and Q trading Shakespeare quotes is the best scene of the episode, drawing on the fact that you have Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart and haven’t yet allowed him to go full Shakespeare.  It’s particularly sad because outside of Stewart, de Lancie, and Frakes, the rest of the cast is poorly served, Tasha Yar once again is forcing Denise Crosby to just cry and be punted to the side.  Sadly Yar’s fate was spoiled for me, at least in terms of for this first season, and I can see exactly why Crosby made the decisions she did.  Cliff Bole returns to direct this episode, having directed “Lonely Among Us” which while not a strong episode, at least looked good, and Bole once again is doing his best and succeeds whenever the episode is on the Enterprise, but the planet Q forces the battle on is a set that I don’t think anyone could shoot convincingly.  This is also an episode that for whatever reason wants to have its first half be really concerned with the Enterprise going to a rescue, but either Hurley or Roddenberry seemed to have forgotten to include this at the forefront of the characters’ minds when the episode actually gets going until Riker uses his powers and it becomes relevant to the plot again.

 

“Hide and Q” is honestly guided by the motivation of because the plot says that is what needs to happen.  Because the episode doesn’t show Riker’s descent into corruptive power, it has to be put in exposition.  The big climax of the episode really suffers from Roddenberry’s view of not having conflict guiding the characters: what makes Riker reject the powers is giving his friends gifts and them rejecting them.  Wesley is turned into an adult, Geordi is given his sight, Data the option of humanity, and Worf given a mate (another example of this show’s objectification of its female characters which is a recurring problem).  They all reject these gifts and that is what makes Riker snap and give the powers back.  This is honestly on paper an interesting conclusion, but it is not earned as we haven’t had Riker fall at all.  The only evidence is Riker not saving an already dead little girl, because Picard asks him not to.  This scripting decision feels like cowardice, “Code of Honor” shows that death can be undone in certain circumstances and “Hide and Q” doesn’t actually want to sit with any of the implications of the ability to bring someone back from the dead so they don’t even attempt it.  It would actually be the perfect way to introduce conflict in line with Gene Roddenberry’s misguided view of no interpersonal conflict, this would be a philosophical conflict between the characters and is truly what holds “Hide and Q” back from hitting hard as an episode.

 

Overall, “Hide and Q” like “Encounter at Farpoint” is an episode with a lot of potential.  The direction is certainly a lot better, even with one particularly bad set that is saved by going insane with de Lancie’s over the top marshal costume.  Gene Roddenberry not allowing interpersonal conflict, and heavily rewriting what I imagine was a much stronger script is really what brings this down.  Wherever a decision needs to be made for character dynamics or the plot, Roddenberry decided to make the wrong choice in focusing on Riker and then not allowing him to actually have any moral failings with being given the godlike powers.  It’s marginally better than “Encounter at Farpoint” but it is still another miss in what is clearly a season of television with so many production issues that needs a true guiding hand.  4/10.

The Battle by: Herbert Wright from a story by: Larry Forrester and directed by: Rob Bowman

 

“The Battle” is written by: Herbert Wright, from a story by: Larry Forrester, and is directed by: Rob Bowman.  It was produced under production code 110, was the 9^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on November 16, 1987.

 

There isn’t really a battle in “The Battle”, or at least there shouldn’t be.  It is Star Trek: The Next Generation’s first proper attempt at a psychological character study and the second episode of the series to actually be good.  Not, great, but “The Battle” is actually a solid episode and were it earlier in the season, say in the place of “The Last Outpost” it might have actually worked to make the Ferengi a credible threat.  The episode is close to a ship only style bottle episode, only a few scenes are set away from the Enterprise on the Stargazer, the previous ship to be captained by Jean-Luc Picard, found derelict by the Ferengi Bok and returned to Picard for mysterious reasons.  The episode is largely structured on Picard’s descent into not quite madness as he is forced to relive a battle where he destroyed an unidentified aggressive vessel (revealed to be a Ferengi vessel) by developing the Picard Maneuver, warping the ship so enemies detect a ship in two places at once.  This central descent for Picard really puts the focus on Patrick Stewart in the role and develops him further than the basic sense of diplomacy previous episodes have employed.  This is a man haunted by the past, something that would never have made it to screen were this the original series: Picard consistently questions his decisions and his own memories throughout the episode as evidence begins to pile up that perhaps that fateful decision to fire was not against an aggressive ship after all.

 

Now, “The Battle” as an episode does immediately tip the viewer off to where it’s going, Picard suffering from a headache that is steadily getting worse revealing essentially a Ferengi brainwashing technique.  The climax of the episode reveals that Bok, played by Frank Corsentino, is actually the father of the Ferengi in charge of the ship Picard destroyed all those years ago, clandestinely wanting revenge.  Bok is actually an effective villain for the first two thirds of the episode, the Ferengi in this episode having been largely toned down in terms of delivery under director Rob Bowman even if there’s still the established hyperactive way of speaking.  Making Bok the father of someone Picard killed makes the animosity personal, it’s pulling a trick out of the Star Trek films in reverse, putting Picard in the role of villain in someone else’s story and the episode is direct in its resolution to imply that there could eventually be an alliance between the Federation and the Ferengi.  Okay, the implication is a little weird with the fact that the Ferengi are even more explicitly capitalists driven only by profit here, but it actually would be an interesting start for a race of aliens to develop towards a post-scarcity, post-capitalist society as was Gene Roddenberry’s vision of humanity’s future.  Would be is the important phrase because “The Battle” as an episode is actively hurt by “The Last Outpost” being what established the Ferengi as a completely non-credible threat.  “The Last Outpost” treated them as a joke, so “The Battle” is attempting to do almost a season’s worth of heavy lifting to break a first impression in the viewer’s mind, one that doesn’t entirely come across.  There are still some comedic scenes with the Ferengi and again that style of line delivery is actively working against it despite the great attempts.

 

Bowman as a director is currently the best director Star Trek: The Next Generation has to offer, it’s clearly no accident that this and his previous episode “Where No One Has Gone Before” are the only two episodes that would qualify as good episodes.  Bowman both blocks and lights “The Battle” as incredibly dynamically.  While the actual camera angles are largely standard for late 1980s television, working around the sets quite well, Bowman actually blocks his actors in line with the emotions that the characters are feeling.  There is a soap opera blocking technique I’ve heard called backacting, where two or more actors are having a conversation largely while facing the camera.  The first scene between Picard and Beverly Crusher largely employs the technique intentionally (most bridge scenes in Star Trek have at least some backacting because of how the set is laid out).  It’s actually quite effective for allowing both Stewart and Gates McFadden to actually emote, likely again down to Bowman’s direction.  This is also an episode where Wesley gets a few genuinely effective scenes, especially early on allowing Wil Whaton to attempt to develop the character as learning to become an officer and form a relationship with both Picard and Riker.  Herbert Wright is clearly in a better element in terms of scripting here than he was in “The Last Outpost”, dealing with straight forward character drama instead of a comedic science fiction plot.

 

Overall, “The Battle” still has some problems, mainly with the way that it just kind of ends without a strong resolution and that it doesn’t undo nearly enough of the damage of the Ferengi’s first impression, but it’s still a solid episode of television.  After nine episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation the show should really be striving to have scripts of at the very least this quality, only the second episode to really work and come together as an episode of television and that’s enough to give me at least a little hope back that this show will actually work, at least until the quality inevitably plummets later in this season.  7/10.

Justice by: Worley Thorne, from a story by: Ralph Wills and Worley Thorne, and directed by James L. Conway

 

“Justice” is written by: Worley Thorne, from a story by: Ralph Wills (a pseudonym for John D.F. Black) and Worley Thorne, and is directed by: James L. Conway.  It was produced under production code 109, was the 8^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on November 9, 1987.

 

“Justice” may be the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that suffers from outright bad politics among other things.  It’s an episode that doesn’t really know what it wants to say and seems to not understand how story structure works.  Beginning at the ending, there isn’t actually a resolution to the episode.  The Enterprise crew just decide to leave the society because they are allowed to leave by the godlike entity that makes up the B-plot of the episode.  They don’t change the society, Picard just makes a speech amounting to the simple idea of justice not dealing in absolutes and needing nuance.  I suppose that could be seen as enough to change the society, or at least what writer Worley Thorne was intending to be portrayed but between a weak script and particularly static direction it isn’t properly communicated.  Not helping matters is that the lead in to what is the final scene is written and framed as if it’s a setup for something more, potentially even a second part of the episode which also feels like the wrong decision since there isn’t enough meat on the bones of the episode to justify a second part.  The actual plot of the episode on paper is one that seems fine: the Enterprise arrives on the planet Edo which has a rigid system of justice, a crew member falls afoul and is set to be put to death for the infraction and the rest of the crew have to save them.  The rigid sense of justice is where the political allegory falls apart: it’s ridiculous enough that the great crime of falling on some flowers is treated with death as every crime is, but only if it’s a crime committed in a consistently moving zone.  This idea is played 100% straight, by the way, and I have the sneaking suspicion that John D.F. Black intended the pitch to play it for satire and Thorne wanted it played straight.

 

It’s also Wesley Crusher who falls on the flowers and is going to be put to death, and for whatever reason Wil Wheaton is given little direction or material to work with.  Much of the script has characters talk over Wesley as a character, Picard getting the most pathos when it comes to the emotional fallout of the sentence.  The script describes Wesley as scared, an emotion that should be completely justified, but it doesn’t seem that much of the cast actually cares that this child is going to be put to death.  It’s also a script that tries to escalate that the rest of the crew would be put to death but the zone had been moved immediately following the infraction.  Wheaton as an actor can clearly give a better performance, he did two episodes prior in “Where No One Has Gone Before”, the focus just isn’t on Wesley and the way he deals with his own death.  Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher is equally as poorly served by the episode, getting very little material to work with even though it’s her son that is being put to death.  Her delivery is particularly flat, lacking any emotion or urgency for saving her son.  Now I think part of this is James L. Conway’s direction being flat because in previous episodes McFadden hasn’t struggled with this type of emotional scene.  Yes, she might have underplayed it but never to the point that you didn’t believe she cared for her own son like this episode implies.

 

There’s also the portrayal of the sexual element of the episode.  “Justice” wants to make Edo a classic false utopia, fully open to displays of sexuality and peace which to be fair is progressive for the late 1980s in concept.  In execution, it comes across as awkward: Jonathan Frakes is honestly the only actor who seems to be comfortable enough with sexuality on display and everyone else, even the actors playing the Edoans, feel uncomfortable in the situations.  The society is just too over the top in everything, that the overexpression of specifically heterosexuality doesn’t actually fall in line with the society as created.  It reeks of a writer and a show that is really lacking confidence, something that honestly seems emblematic of where Star Trek: The Next Generation is as a show.  It’s very much trying to let Gene Roddenberry’s ideas go wild, Roddenberry was very much into portraying sex and sexuality even if it comes across as awkward when mixed with the standards and practices of the 1980s.

 

Overall, “Justice” is an episode that doesn’t really work with the whole concept of justice as a theme.  The messaging is shallow, likely because of three competing voices behind the scenes (while not credited it’s clear Gene Roddenberry as showrunner brought his own eye to the script).  John D.F. Black demanding a pseudonym should have been a sign that this script is not working.  As an episode it feels like such a step backward for what the show was doing in terms of writing and especially performances.  After three episodes of mixed quality that at the very least had the cast start to click, “Justice” is an episode that is already weak in terms of scripting but nobody seems to have chemistry.  It’s a sharp downturn in a show that with each week amazes me in terms of how successful it became on the weaknesses of this first season.  2/10.