The Schizoid Man by: Tracy Torme from a story by: Richard Manning and Hans Beimler and directed by: Les Landau

 

“The Schizoid Man” is written by: Tracy Torme, from a story by: Richard Manning and Hans Beimler and is directed by: Les Landau.  It was produced under production code 131, was the 6^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2, the 32^nd episode overall, and was broadcast on January 25, 1989.

 

“The Schizoid Man” takes its title from an episode of The Prisoner: a 1967 British television series with a focus on counterculture about a man working for some British intelligence agency resigning and being exiled against his will to the Village, christened Number Six, and constantly psychologically monitored and tortured.  “The Schizoid Man” for The Prisoner is an examination of identity through an almost romantic lens, Number Six being tricked into believing he is in fact Number Twelve in an attempt to break him.  It’s a piece of counterculture and is one small part of a revolutionary story deconstructing the ruling authority.  Star Trek: The Next Generation takes the title to write an episode around an old, dying scientist who takes over Data’s mind, is lecherous for a while, and then just kind of vacates while transferring his knowledge to the Enterprise’s computer.  If we’re going to connect anything thematically between “The Schizoid Man” and “The Schizoid Man” are themes of identity, this is an episode that once again is building Data as a human character despite being an android.  There is an argument to be made that “The Schizoid Man” is attempting to explore transhumanism, but Dr. Graves as a character is explicitly a villain and the episode doesn’t ever really coalesce into a theme.  Looking on the surface Tracy Torme’s script indicates that transhumanism is a bad thing: the knowledge that is allowed to persist is fine but only if it’s taken away from the human element.  It doesn’t really have enough plot to fill 45 minutes of an episode, but then again this is Tracy Torme coming in to write a script based on an idea from two writers who for whatever reason couldn’t write it themselves.

 

Torme’s previous scripts were “Haven” and “The Big Goodbye” plus writing the script for “Conspiracy” while Richard Manning and Hans Beimler both took other story ideas and converted them into scripts such as “The Arsenal of Freedom” and some of “Symbiosis”.  Torme’s track record is fine, Manning and Beimler decidedly mixed, leaning towards bad, so it’s very possible “The Schizoid Man” isn’t intentional in what it’s trying to do.  The title may largely just be a reference to The Prisoner because it’s an episode dealing with overtaking someone’s identity, and not really taking into any account why that reference might be made.  It isn’t helping that The Prisoner is a cult series, it’s not exactly well known with the general public who would be watching Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Add that to the fact that schizoid as a term outside of the very specific medical context of Schizoid Personality Disorder is close to a slur diminutive for schizophrenia (and other mental illnesses due to the history of understanding mental illness is a dark and dangerous one), and you have an episode that, humorously, doesn’t actually have any real identity.  There are a couple of good things about it: despite the fact that nobody seems to realize Data has been taken over because the script decides the crew must all be idiots even though Les Landau is directing it so the audience knows Data is no longer Data.  It’s very possible that Torme (or more likely showrunner Maurice Hurley) underestimates the ability for the audience to pay attention to what the episode is actually saying.  Landau can direct television to look interesting, the main cast is clearly having a good time especially Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis early in the episode, plus W. Morgan Sheppard as Dr. Graves, despite being a totally sexist pig genius, is a fantastic character actor.  That’s about it.

 

Overall, “The Schizoid Man” is an episode that doesn’t understand what works about what it is tributing.  It feels like a lot of writers has some ideas on what the episode should actually be, but nobody actually put any of the ideas into the episode so at around the halfway point it really just falls apart.  That is, falls apart more than it already was after the already pretty weak setup.  It’s well put together and the performances are actually pretty solid, but that’s only getting you so far.  3/10.