The Next Generation 1x15 "11001001"

**

The episode with the binary title is a step in the right direction for the young Next Generation, and aside from anything immediately relevant to the story itself features strong character work for Riker.

Like Kirk before him, Picard's first officer was pegged as a ladies man, which grew complicated initially when it was deemed that he'd also serve as a surrogate for Gene Roddenberry's holdover character sketches from The Motion Picture and be paired romantically, at least as a matter of backstory, with Troi.

In "11001001" Riker gets around that by romancing a hologram, the first of many to be more than just a hologram in this series (setting the stage for an even more distinctive hologram in Voyager), thanks to the shenanigans of the aliens both servicing the Enterprise and trying to take advantage of the crew that has vacated it for the occasion (sadly, not the only time that would happen, so you can watch this for precedent if you'd like, even for the similar Enterprise episode "The Catwalk").

But this is another one I don't want to inflate too much.  As for the character work, there's also Data's budding career as an artist, which became a much bigger deal in later seasons, which kind of makes this an origin story.

Still, watch it for Riker first and best of all, and for the charming Minuet, one of very few memorable romantic interests from this series.

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Memory Alpha summary.