“The Price” is written by: Hannah Louise Shearer and
is directed by: Robert Scheerer. It was
produced under production code 156, was the 8th episode of Star
Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 56th episode overall,
and was broadcast on November 13, 1989.
Deanna Troi seems to only ever be given plots relating
to her sexuality, often reducing her down to a sex object for either a male
lead or male guest character. “The Child”
is perhaps the most offensive of these, subjecting her to fairly explicit rape
and the ensuing pregnancy, but “The Price” produced one season later continues
this terrible trend. “The Price” comes
from Hannah Louise Shearer, her fourth and final script for Star Trek: The Next
Generation, and her output has been decidedly mixed. Her strongest contribution is the cowritten “Skin
of Evil” or the story credit for “Pen Pals”, and there’s this sense that
Shearer as a writer doesn’t understand the implications of much of what she is
writing. “The Price” focuses so heavily
on Deanna Troi falling in this romantic relationship with Devinoni Ral, a
negotiator present on the Enterprise for negotiations between several races
for rights to own a stable wormhole that can revolutionize space travel. The big twist in the romance, however, is
that Ral is part-Betazoid and has been influencing the delegates towards giving
the rights to his employers and has been influencing Troi into a romantic
relationship. The episode plays this latter
aspect not as Troi once again being a victim of sexual assault through coercion,
but it’s the former that means their relationship cannot work. The reveal actually happens, not at the climax
of the episode, but in the middle of the episode on a date and Marina Sirtis as
Troi doesn’t actually play it as a problem.
She is once again a character who is okay with being violated and manipulated
by men, and aliens that present masculine.
The only problem is the deceit of the rest of the Enterprise crew
and delegates, painting Troi once again as an object of desire and not her own
person.
This is explicit in a particular scene where Shearer
remembers that Troi does have a romantic past with Riker, so Ral essentially
gloats to his rival that he won. Riker
of course is the bigger man which comes across as further objectification of
Troi. She doesn’t actually get a proper
say in her romantic life, she is passed around and influenced by the men in her
life who see her more of a prize to be won.
Every scene where Troi appears is oddly written, the episode opening
with a random scene of her wanting a chocolate sundae and the ship’s computer denying
her request because it is unhealthy. It’s
a scene that feels straight out of the previous season where episodes would
often be padded with these scenes that attempt to give character depth while
being entirely disconnected from the rest of the episode. This is also just a scene that doesn’t
actually say anything about Troi as a character, immediately getting her to the
bridge to introduce the other delegates.
The one scene in the middle of the episode where Troi gets to explore her
feelings towards Ral is also incredibly awkward: it’s a completely 1980s workout
scene between Troi and Dr. Crusher with some of the oddest sexual overtones in
the dialogue. Out of the context of the
episode it is quite a funny little scene, but within context it’s just another
scene really making Troi feel like less of a character. The scripting problems aren’t the only issues
with the romance, it's also just brought down further by poor
performances. Sirtis is a good actress,
but she isn’t really served by the material she is given and director Robert
Scheerer isn’t doing anything to give her actual direction. She is paired opposite a scene partner who doesn’t
know how to emote in line delivery, even in his scenes opposite the rest of the
cast. Matt McCoy gives a performance
that reads as a charisma vacuum, which undercuts the idea that he is a
charismatic negotiator and that Troi could find anything about this man
attractive.
This is just one of the plots of the episode, and
while Hannah Louise Shearer does at the very least integrate the two plots, the
delegation plot is one that doesn’t feel like a Star Trek plot. It involves essentially auctioning land
rights for a wormhole that even when revealed to not be all it is cracked up to
be, would be a fascinating scientific discovery to study. The big twist is that it is not a fully
stable wormhole, only one side is stable which is something that is presented
as just scientifically uninteresting because it couldn’t be a source of profit
or tax for the Federation or any of the other interested parties. This works for the Ferengi who are here,
though have absolutely no impact outside of attempting an assassination and
being generally annoying, but the Federation is acting in this weird capitalist
manner when they clearly aren’t meant to be.
It tries to have the desperation for this asset being for the scientific
advantages and an almost imperialist expansionist mindset, the former being
fine but then losing interest doesn’t actually work. A semi-stable wormhole as presented early in
the episode would still be a scientific marvel, just not nearly as much of a
scientific marvel as the wholly stable wormhole option would be. There’s also a moment where Geordi La Forge
is a complete asshole towards the potential of being stuck with Data as a joke
which is really cruel, something that underlines so much of the episode.
Overall, “The Price” is apparently just more degradation
on the part of the main cast’s female characters. It is the third season’s first really bad
episode, though at the very least it attempts to tell a linear story and has
some potential in the science fiction ideas it plays with. Ideas that it abandons for bad performances,
stilted dialogue, and just another misogynistic Troi plot. 3/10.
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