11001001 by: Maurice Hurley & Robert Lewin and directed by: Paul Lynch

 

“11001001” is written by: Maurice Hurley and Robert Lewin and is directed by: Paul Lynch.  It was produced under production code 116, was the 15^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast on February 1, 1988.

 

To say Star Trek: The Next Generation has had a rocky first season is an understatement to say the least.  Just as it looks like they’re getting into the groove of things, an episode will come along like “Justice” or “Angel One” to really sap away the goodwill the series had been building up, but with those episodes it almost makes whatever comes immediately next look better by comparison.  “11001001” is one of those episodes that comes after and is a little odd in terms of how it is constructed.  Instead of an A-plot and a B-plot, it’s really an episode that is all one plot with exactly one thread running through it and a few scenes that could be described as B-plot by way of red herring.  It’s an atypical way of constructing an episode of television, but for what “11001001” is attempting to do it works.  This sadly is an episode that only really comes together after a first act that lasts nearly half the episode for setting up what is a particularly simple situation which would be easily resolved had any communication between the Enterprise and the alien Bynars took place, they are introduced as doing routine maintenance while the ship is at a Starbase before the halfway point instigating an evacuation and leaving Picard and Riker in the holodeck.  The holodeck sequence is the red herring B-plot, and perhaps the oddest thing about the episode.  Maurice Hurley and Robert Lewin just continually cut back to Riker flirting with the holodeck program in a jazz bar, Riker playing the trombone (though it’s clearly just a jazz track over miming Riker and the trio backing him up when really they could have at least hired a jazz trio to play or director Paul Lynch could have avoided us seeing any of the instruments being played).  The sequence is really just padding so the crew can evacuate the Enterprise leaving Riker and Picard behind, and it just keeps going.  Once they leave the holodeck it doesn’t actually take long to wrap up the conflict and get the big reveals of the episode out into the open.

 

The Bynars’ sun was going supernova, releasing an electromagnetic pulse that would completely shut down their world, they are a society run entirely by and integrated biologically with computers.  It’s a perfectly good idea and sadly there isn’t too much actually given to the Bynars outside of a particularly good design: they are generally short and purple with these little computers at their waists and implanted into their heads.  They come in pairs and seem to be single life forms in pairs reflecting the on/off states of binary code, something that I don’t entirely think Lewin and Hurley were really thinking about when writing the episode.  There are technically four of them, but they aren’t given much in terms of characterization individually, or as pairs.  Only one pair is actually given names in the dialogue, the other two being given names in credits, indicating that the way that the Bynars are named could potentially mean there are only a few of them living on the planet.  The resolution actively questioning why they wouldn’t just ask the Federation for help is a particularly good resolution, and a way to do an episode without really a central interpersonal conflict, something that Gene Roddenberry was very much against as he believed the future would have all but wiped that out in a utopia situation.  What is particularly interesting is also the fact that while Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes as Picard and Riker are fine, it’s actually Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton as Data and Geordi LaForge who are continually stealing the show.  Spiner in particular as an actor is quite underrated as there is time given to Data’s insecurities on whether he is making the right call in evacuating the Enterprise.  Again this is something that doesn’t go quite as far as it could, but it’s moments like these that actually make it feel as if the characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation are actual characters and have development.  The relationship between Data and Geordi is also this really interesting mutual friendship throughout the episode, Geordi kind of being one of the few crew members to really respect Data’s autonomy and personhood fully.  This is also an episode with some particularly nice model shots, even though they don’t actually do much to advance the plot.

 

Overall, “11001001” despite having a title that is a pain to type out because it is binary code, is actually a fairly decent episode.  It’s not one that would ever be a standout with the best of what has come before, or even the best that this season has actually been able to do, but there are certainly good character moments that elevate a script that at best is just perfectly fine if once again underbaked in terms of its ideas.  The final scenes are really what makes the entire thing become tied up to actually work as an episode, but the first half does drag far too much for what it's trying to do.  More time to make the B-plot a B-plot and not just a red herring would have probably helped this work better.  6/10.