“The Big Goodbye” is written by: Tracy Torme and is
directed by: Joseph L. Scanlan. It was
produced under production code 113, was the 12th 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.
