Captain's Holiday by: Ira Steven Behr and directed by: Chip Chalmers

 

“Captain’s Holiday” is written by: Ira Steven Behr and is directed by: Chip Chalmers.  It was produced under production code 167, was the 19^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 67^th episode overall, and was broadcast on April 2, 1990.

 

“Captain’s Holiday” is the definition of a good time.  It’s an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that is slightly fitting to be reviewed while I am away on vacation (I am writing this review before I leave for posting over the weekend).  Ira Steven Behr writes an episode that is utterly ridiculous: Captain Picard being overworked is tricked by his crew, mainly Riker, Troi, and Crusher to get him to go to the pleasure planet of Risa.  This is some of the best character interactions in the episode: from Troi’s tactic of claiming that her mother is going to join the Enterprise on the Starbase for maintenance which just pushes him away, Crusher attempts the indirect approach by proposing a completely different crew member is burnt out and desperately needs a vacation, and Riker just proposes his general charm and the ridiculous thought that Picard might need to have a relationship that is not strictly professional.  Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis in particular play it specifically as if Riker and Troi have been trying to profess their love for one another but Picard being a stick in the mud has come in between their relationship.  It’s genuinely a hilarious moment that’s entirely in the subtext.  The implication that Picard would wish to go to Risa also feels deliberately the wrong vacation for Jean-Luc Picard, he brings far too many books with him to read intent on staying alone by the poolside for the entire trip.  Ira Steven Behr also doesn’t forget that this is a show with an ensemble cast, giving every main cast member in the episode at least one little comedic moment to push Picard into taking a vacation.

 

This is only the first act of the episode, an act that takes up perhaps just a bit too much time to get to the actual point of the episode.  “Captain’s Holiday” is a big tribute to adventure films with treasure hunting, ridiculous time travel, and several beautiful women flirting with Picard because Riker tricks him into buying a souvenir that is basically an upside down pineapple.  Ira Steven Behr’s script is maintaining a tone between the Roger Moore James Bond films and Spielberg’s Indiana Jones trilogy, attempting to connect the time travel shenanigans to Picard’s own personal future.  Jennifer Hetrick plays Vash, our Bond girl though given far more characterization than the typical Bond girl.  Vash is an archeologist’s assistant looking for the Tox Uthat, that is our MacGuffin of the episode, after her mentor had died, though Picard is wrapped up in several lies.  Hetrick and Stewart have fantastic chemistry throughout the episode and Vash is far too much a presence to waste in a single appearance.  Our Bond villain of the episode is Max Grodenchik’s Sovak, welcoming back the Ferengi into Star Trek: The Next Generation in a role that intentionally is leaning heavily into the comedy of the episode.  The joke being that capitalist scruples, the lack of, are eventually a fruitless endeavor.  “Captain’s Holiday” is about fruitless endeavors, Behr concludes the episode by noting that Picard and Vash’s actions were only ensuring a future would come to pass, not altering the timeline in any notable way.

 

“Captain’s Holiday” is in a way all about subversion.  Patrick Stewart may have wanted an episode full of action and adventure, but Jean-Luc Picard as a character still feels ever so slightly out of place in this type of adventure.  The adventure is a pastiche of a very old type of adventure film, something that the original series of Star Trek would actually be more comfortable in.  Yet, the episode works because Picard as a character is so out of place in this genre.  Despite Gene Rodenberry envisioning the character as Horatio Hornblower in space, Horatio Hornblower isn’t actually an American hero while the protagonist of this subgenre of film is explicitly American.  Where the episode actually falls down is honestly the limits of being an episode of television made in 1990.  The effort is being put in by director Chip Chalmers and he is shooting most of the episode well, but the way the action is shot is limited by the resources available and the closer, quieter scenes aren’t quite allowed to be as quiet or intimate as Ira Steven Behr’s script really is allowing for.  There is also the concern that this is just the type of episode certain people will not really connect with because you have to be willing to go into some very silly places for it to work.  The pacing is not quite at the three act structure of a television episode, the first act actually taking up a bit too much time leaving the second and third acts to be slightly truncated.

 

Overall, “Captain’s Holiday” works because of how much fun Patrick Stewart is having getting to play the reluctant Starship Captain out of his element.  There is something magical about the 26 episode season allowing an episode like this to exist, it’s filler focused exclusively on watching one character dragged into a vacation because he has been working too hard.  It would not be made today, and the plot would not allow a self-fulfilling prophecy of time travel with a reluctant hero, but because of where it is placed in the season it is nothing but a good time.  7/10.