Tin Man by: Dennis Putman Bailey and David Bischoff and directed by: Robert Scheerer

 

“Tin Man” is written by: Dennis Putman Bailey (a pseudonym for Dennis Russell Bailey and Lisa Putman White) and David Bischoff and is directed by: Robert Scheerer.  It was produced under production code 168, was the 20^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 68^th episode overall, and was broadcast on April 23, 1990.

 

“Tin Man” should probably be an episode focusing on Deanna Troi but Star Trek: The Next Generation seems to be allergic to giving its female characters real episodes of substance.  The premise of the episode is a different Betazoid who never really adapted to his telepathic abilities arriving on the Enterprise to investigate a massive life form taking the form of a sentient spaceship preparing for a first contact situation.  The tin man is stuck in Romulan claimed space, though explicitly not acknowledged as Romulan space, but the Federation desperately needs this first contact to go well for whatever strategic advantage they could gain in the mounting conflict.  The episode is a character piece about Tam Elbrun, the Betazoid played by Harry Groener, in a way that isn’t going to be to everyone’s tastes.  Elbrun is a character written by Dennis Bailey and David Bischoff (and apparently an uncredited Lisa Putman White which is where Bailey’s middle name in the credits comes from) to be abrasive and impossible to work with.  The episode is very intentional in delving into the hell that would be telepathic abilities that one cannot switch off: Elbrun just cannot stop himself from blurting out what everybody around him is thinking and knowing that he is not liked.  He already has this great sense of guilt around an incident that killed 47 Starfleet personnel, the guilt taking him every day and, on the Enterprise Riker explicitly blaming him for not giving better guidance.  This is a man who has been broken and beaten, he is at the end of his rope and “Tin Man” as an episode serves as a way to give him an out.  The eventual message of the episode is actually quite sympathetic to his plight and gives him a place where he can be without the pains of other people.  The ending is almost beautiful.  Almost.  It doesn’t quite work nearly as well as the episode thinks it does, it feels almost as if the ending just creeps up on the episode.

 

There’s a lot of the episode that does explore Elbrun’s relationships with other people.  While the episode takes very little to focus on Troi, it is made explicit he is a previous patient of hers in her training as a counselor.  Mental health services here are presented in this very mixed light, the fact Elbrun had mental health services is presented as a dramatic twist, but Elbrun is treated at the very least like a person.  Marina Sirtis is clearly grabbing at the material she is given, even if it isn’t the focus on the episode.  The episode is more interested in creating a relationship between Elbrun and Data because Data’s android nature means he cannot be read telepathically.  This is the first person Elbrun doesn’t immediately know everything about and Groener plays it just as this sigh of relief.  Data becomes the only person that Elbrun can connect with because he doesn’t know Data’s internality.  Data has internality, that has been explicit throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation, but because he is not organic those thoughts aren’t there.  “Tin Man” is not a Data episode, though he does take a lot of time between Elbrun and Data as characters.  The episode is also interesting since there really isn’t a B-plot, instead it all being related to Elbrun.  Robert Scheerer is in the director’s chair for this episode and it is quite interesting to see exactly how he sets up so much of this episode to play into the emotions of the characters.  The way he shoots Riker in this episode is of particular note, he’s almost shot as the villain of the episode and certainly there is some antagonism there which feels wrong for the character on paper but in practice Jonathan Frakes plays it correctly.  Riker is emotional throughout the episode and his animosity towards Elbrun isn’t entirely unearned.

 

Overall, “Tin Man” is another example of a good episode but it is an episode that never quite reaches the status as one of the greats.  While the ending is touching and much of the episode works because of an emotionally charged script, it does have this problem of never actually being about our main cast instead being the story of a guest character’s relationship with the crew.  The relationships actually need just a bit more time to be fleshed out because they are all ever so slightly surface level while there isn’t really a B-plot to get satisfaction for characters like Riker, his anger just being an antagonistic force that is not ever brought to catharsis.  It is a good episode, but it’s an episode that could have easily been great with expansion to a two parter, especially considering this was based on a previously published novel.  7/10.