“The Neutral Zone” is written by: Maurice Hurley, from
a story by: Deborah McIntyre and Mona Clee, and is directed by: James L. Conway. It was produced under production code 126,
was the 26th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and
was broadcast on May 16, 1988.
“Conspiracy” felt like a season finale for Star
Trek: The Next Generation’s first season, it called back to a previous
episode and felt like there was a setup for future potential stories to be
told. “The Neutral Zone” is the actual
season finale, and in some ways it also feels like it was written to be an
ending for the season. It’s one of the
episodes written by Maurice Hurley who essentially took over the position of
showrunner near the end of the first season and would stay on until the end of
the second, though that does not mean the chaotic behind the scenes situation wouldn’t
really iron itself out until the third season saw a stable production team. Now, I have not seen anything past this episode,
“The Neutral Zone” is an episode that feels like it wants to be a mission statement
for where the show is going. The entire
episode is building to this idea, like “Conspiracy” that there is something out
there, something able to destroy both Federation and Romulan outposts. There isn’t any indication as to what that
something actually is, so much of the episode is the buildup to the reveal that
the Romulans are not responsible for the destruction of the outposts. The Romulans only appear in the final ten minutes
of the episode which is perfectly fine, were this the first part of a two-part
finale, but this is both the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation
and was made in 1988 when the Writer’s Guild of America was on strike. It’s likely that there were some answers or even
a second episode intended to finish the story and launch the show out of its
first season and into its second. The strike
likely meant that they had to fill whatever they could at this point to meet
the 26-episode order, but still that leaves “The Neutral Zone” as an episode
that just kind of stops. There is buildup
but no conflict, climax, or resolution; there is an attempt at making it about
Picard’s diplomacy but the episode ends with establishing the problem. It’s an inciting incident.
Because this is an episode that is entirely an inciting
incident, the actual appeal has to be with the B-plot, the plot that has more
time, care, and conflict imbued into it than what the episode is named for. The plot is that before discovering the
outposts being destroyed, the Enterprise comes across a space capsule
containing three people from the late 20th century in cryogenic stasis. The episode sets this trio, a businessman,
housewife, and musician, up as representative of late 20th century
culture and values to clash against Gene Roddenberry’s vision of an enlightened
future. Now the culture of the future is
explicitly socialist, arguably closer to communism, but a television series produced
in the United States of America is never actually going to say that. Instead, the episode emphasizes that the status
quo is post-money, Ralph the businessman is characterized as being only
concerned with how his assets are doing in an almost cartoony way, but this is
Reagan era America so it’s at the very least a swing to try and go against what
was the dominant culture of consumerism of the time. The trio is clearly meant to look at
different aspects of the culture shock between the capitalism in which the show
was being produced in, and the socialist/communist ideal that should be the
goal of humanity as proposed by the show.
Claire, the housewife, is the one the most affected by the future and
the strongest character arc because it’s one that ends particularly uncertain. All three had gone into cryostasis with
deadly diseases that are cured upon their thawing with the advanced science,
but Claire is the one to really examine the fact that everyone she knew and loved
is dead. Much of her arc is coming to
terms with that fact and taking the first steps to crafting an identity for
herself. Now it's not perfect and it’s
painfully basic, but it’s executed well enough despite director James L. Conway
really struggling to frame any shot this episode as interesting. Conway’s direction goes for a lot of wider
shots and doesn’t quite give his actors the direction they need, which at least
by now isn’t as detrimental to a main cast that has gotten comfortable with
their roles, but it holds the episode back.
Overall, despite the major issue of being literally an
inciting incident and not even the first half of a story “The Neutral Zone” is
at the very least saved by the B-plot actually trying to make explicit parallel
to what path humanity is on and the path humanity would need to take to thrive
in the future. It’s fine, tarnished by
the Writer’s Guild of America strike which as always is one of the few avenues
for collective action, but does mean that nobody on staff really understood how
to compensate for the crunch time (not for the first time). 6/10.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
ended its first season with “The Neutral Zone” allowing for the first time to
take a look at the worst and best episodes of this season/show which I’m
willing to put money on not the worst list not changing too much and the best
changing a lot:
Top 5 Worst Episodes of Star Trek: The Next
Generation…So Far:
1. 5. Too Short a Season
4. Home Soil
3. Justice
2. Angel One
1. Code of Honor
Top 5 Best Episodes of Star Trek: The Next
Generation…So Far:
5. Conspiracy
4. Where No One Has Gone Before
3. The Big Goodbye
2. Heart of Glory
1. Datalore
No comments:
Post a Comment