Future Imperfect by: J. Larry Carroll and David Bennett Carren and directed by: Les Landau

 

“Future Imperfect” is written by: J. Larry Carroll and David Bennett Carren and is directed by: Les Landau.  It was produced under production code 182, was the 8^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, the 82^nd episode overall, and was broadcast on November 12, 1990.

 

“Future Imperfect” nestles two twists inside itself, with the second recontextualizing the episode into meaning far less than without it.  The premise of “Future Imperfect” puts Riker in a dreamscape of his potential future where he has everything he wanted: command of the Enterprise and a happy if slightly bittersweet marriage with son he could not be more proud of despite his tumultuous relationship with his own father.  He does not remember the events leading up to his command of the Enterprise, the episode opening with a transporter accident “infecting” Riker with an alien retrovirus that rewrites his memory.  The setup is a riff on what TV Tropes calls the Lotus Eater Machine: it’s a fantasy to trick Riker into complacency and a life that he would be happy in even if it was unchallenged. The Federation is actively in peace talks with the Romulan, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard overseeing for the Federation and Tomalak from “The Enemy” and “The Defector” for the Romulans.  Jonathan Frakes plays Riker as never quite complacent and seeing through the cracks of the fantasy scenario as the Romulan presence makes him uncomfortable and the awkwardness of being a father to a son he cannot remember is fascinating.  Frakes playing against Chris Demetral as his son Jean-Luc are the best scenes of the episode and Demetral has enough screen presence to work.  There are also multiple scenes where Riker plays the trombone, these little character moments making the episode what it is.  The first twist, the “obvious” twist, that the future is not the future but a holodeck scenario from Tomalak to coax out the location of a Federation outpost which would bring the Federation and Romulans closer to war.

 

This initial scenario and this first reality of the Romulans using Riker’s own desires against him as the holodeck scenario is from his subconscious mind is in conversation with The Best of Both Worlds and Riker’s decision to stay first officer on the Enterprise.  His subconscious tells him that he does want command but only the Enterprise, no other ship would satisfy him.  The desire can only come to pass for Riker if Picard fulfills his own command duties, the promotion to admiral allowing a standard transfer of command for both men at the correct time.  The scenario is superficially perfect, the crack that gives it away is that Riker’s dead wife is Minuet and his son Jean-Luc is not real.  Jean-Luc is actually a child called Ethan captured by the Romulans inserted into the fantasy, and with the reveal the episode shifts into an escape from their base.  It is a statement that Riker does not want an easy future, he does not want to give into the fantasies of an easy life.  This is a restatement and examination of who Riker is as a character, and then the episode throws it away for a secondary twist.  It is not in fact the Romulans, but Ethan creating these fantasy scenarios.  Ethan is a lonely alien in a really bad grey mask as the last survivor of his race, hidden from unknown invaders.  J. Larry Carroll and David Bennett Carren are taking the themes the first 40 minutes of “Future Imperfect” and throwing them out the window.  A charitable read is Carroll and Carren with this twist are attempting to make the episode about isolation and needing to find connection, the alien just wants to find a place where it can belong, and Riker does take him back to the Enterprise.  The final line does indicate Riker regards Ethan as Jean-Luc, the son from the initial scenario, but that does not say anything about either of these themes as Riker does not know this alien who might be called Ethan (the script is unclear).

 

In both fantasy scenarios, “Future Imperfect” as an episode is playing out like a standard, character focused episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Les Landau is in the director’s chair and continues his understanding of dramatic blocking, even in the scenes set in reality such as Riker’s birthday party and the final scene in the cave communicating the character’s emotions where the script is lacking.  Outside of the alien’s true form, the older designs for the regular cast also look great, the silliest being putting Patrick Stewart in a silly mustache while the grey streaks in Jonathan Frakes’ hair works quite well.  The crew of the Enterprise are given obvious futures: only Picard has moved on, Wesley is nowhere to be seen as that would involve recasting Wil Wheaton as an adult, Data has not changed outside of his position into a red shirt, and Geordi La Forge now has implants that allow him to see without his visor.  There is a very subtle detail in LeVar Burton’s performance of looking more intently as a blind person regaining sight would, emphasizing his eyes with specific head movements and slight strains while Landau’s direction is not giving Burton close ups.  The Romulan base is also quite a nice sequence of sets, this episode clearly getting a full budget to build new environments that sell it as reality, even if they could just reuse the Enterprise holodeck.

 

Overall, “Future Imperfect” while not a bad episode, ends by effectively removing much of the depth that it had by ending a plot challenging Riker’s view of the Romulans and implying his loyalty to Starfleet and the Federation could even be tested when abandoned on a Romulan base for something about loneliness.  J. Larry Carroll and David Bennett Carren write an episode too long and could not see a way to cut things down so implemented a secondary twist that’s the equivalent of a thought terminating cliché.  Luckily most of the episode is still solid and bolstered by Jonathan Frakes’ performance throughout even trying to wrap the final scene into the rest of the episode.  6/10.