Manhunt by: Terry Devereaux and directed by: Rob Bowman

 

“Manhunt” is written by: Terry Devereaux (a pseudonym for Tracy Torme) and is directed by: Rob Bowman.  It was produced under production code 145, was the 19^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2, the 45^th episode overall, and was broadcast on June 19, 1989.

 

Let’s talk about a filler episode.  This is something that is largely a thing of the past for prestige television, as since the 2010s it has shifted from on average 20 episode seasons to if you’re lucky 10 episode seasons (though usually it’s an 8 episode order for your streaming show).  But Star Trek: The Next Generation is a show where each season had a 26 episode order, except the second season due to the WGA strike which reduced the order to 22 episodes.  Filler isn’t a bad thing, but it’s a type of episode where you know there isn’t going to be anything super important and we’re essentially getting up to the episode count.  This can lead to filler being terrible, but also you get episodes like “Manhunt”, an episode that writer Tracy Torme took his name off because of disagreements with Maurice Hurley, Hurley generally coming to conflict with the writing staff and at this point it would be coming to a head.  After “Manhunt”, there are only three episodes left to be produced, the finale being shot in a couple of days to fill the episode order.  This is this season’s Lwaxana Troi episode, but it’s also a semi-sequel to Torme’s “The Big Goodbye”.  In a way you could argue this is Torme’s one last hurrah, he would leave the show completely after this point.  Structurally, the entire thing is kind of a mess.  It’s bookended by scenes of Antedean ambassadors, one of whom is played by Mick Fleetwood under heavy makeup, because this is still an episode of the second season where there is at least five minutes of material.  Wesley Crusher gets a little dialogue about not judging by appearances that vaguely ties into things, but really the bulk of the episode is Lwaxana Troi entering midlife and because this is a Gene Roddenberry creation, needs to find a mate.  If she doesn’t, well nothing bad will happen to her, so there aren’t consequences, but really it’s an episode that just wants to let the camp kind of fly.  This does mean that ultimately it’s an episode that doesn’t mean much and likely will not make any of the best episodes of the series list, but especially after “Up the Long Ladder”, it’s quite fun.

 

Majel Barrett is the real star of the show here, she commands quite literally every scene she is in and forces basically everyone in the cast, even Patrick Stewart, to completely loosen up.  Barrett and Marina Sirtis also have a lot of really fun small moments, far more confidently written than they were in “Haven”.  Sure there is a brief conflict of Lwaxana going after Commander Riker, which feels slightly out of character since it’s obvious the writers are writing Riker and Troi as a potential couple.  Barrett also gets to reveal, quite literally in the closing moments of the episode, that the ambassadors are actually assassins and are lined with explosives, intending them to go off once they are beamed down to the conference.  It feels like a left hook to the face, but it’s played so wonderfully it is clear that Torme and director Rob Bowman mean it to be funny and not serious.  That’s a lot of what the episode does, humor.  Her manservant Mr. Homn is constantly in the background drinking alcohol as a running site gag to add to this point.  To get away from Lwaxana Troi, Picard retreats into the holodeck, back into the noir Dixon Hill novels from “The Big Goodbye”, which doesn’t go anywhere outside of some scenes of Picard being unable to relax because being the protagonist in a noir story is not relaxing (reading a novel is).  It has scenes in Hill’s office, a bar where Lwaxana falls for the bartender because she can’t read his thoughts, and doesn’t actually have any real conflict.  It’s just Picard becoming increasingly exasperated with his scenario and that’s honestly quite funny.

 

Overall, “Manhunt” is one of those episodes that’s probably not going to be for everyone.  The script isn’t structurally strong, it’s being completely bolstered by strong performances and an understanding that this is a story that is so over the top there’s nothing else to do.  It’d honestly be stronger than “Haven”, Lwaxana Troi’s previous appearance, if it wasn’t for how structurally messy it was and the decision to have Lwaxana Troi disregard her daughter at points that feel more cruel than the character has been established in the past.  But Majel Barrett still shines and I had a lot of genuine fun with this, plus unlike the previous episode, it’s all about being free spirited and that’s a plus.  6/10.