The Next Generation 4x16 "Galaxy's Child"

rating: **

the story: Geordi meets the real Leah Brahms

similar to: "Hollow Pursuits" (Next Generation), Star Trek: First Contact, "Author, Author" (Voyager)

my thoughts: A sort of sequel to "Booby Trap," the episode where Geordi interacts with a holographic version of Dr. Brahms, "Galaxy's Child" is one of those episodes where you can squarely ignore the sci-fi crisis elsewhere happening, if you so choose, and instead focus on the character development happening along the way.

Geordi is one of the more hapless romantics in Star Trek lore, not because of his VISOR, but because of the basic problem of not really knowing what to do around the opposite sex.  Ironically enough, this duo of episodes encompasses the experiences of another engineer in the crew, the infamous Barclay as introduced and featured in "Hollow Pursuits," who is far more comfortable interacting with people in the holodeck than in real life.

(No, these are not episodes based on the Internet age.)

That Geordi somewhat duplicates that in these episodes is a little ironic, because no one would otherwise associate him with Barclay's rich psychoses.  Yet that's kind of what happens with Dr. Brahms, whom he first meets in deceptive holographic form.  This episode is all about learning what the real person is like.  Suffice to say, she's almost the complete opposite of everything Geordi previously thought he knew about her.  Only O'Brien has worse luck, in general.

That makes for a pretty fun episode.  Not only can you discard the rest of it, you really wouldn't be missing much.  This is a rare opportunity in the series to just watch a single character squirm from very human circumstances.  Unlike Scotty, Geordi was not known as a miracle worker.  He wasn't even known as an engineer originally.  Yes, he's hugely capable in that regard, but he becomes more and more useful as one of the more relatable people in the crew, and this is probably the episode to see why. 

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Susan Gibney (Brahms)
Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)

The Next Generation 4x15 "First Contact"

rating: *

the story: Riker finds himself compromised on an alien world that has yet to find out they're not alone in the universe.

similar to: "The Communicator" (Enterprise), "Who Watches the Watchers" (Next Generation)

my thoughts: This is an episode that feels like it breaks new ground, but then you realize, the series itself had just done most of this episode already only a season earlier ("Who Watches the Watchers") with proto-Romulans instead of...whoever the alien race is this time. 

Yes, the approach is different, but the gist the same: alien species finds out Starfleet exists and puts our crew in a hairy situation.  Here you might consider it a Riker episode, but I'm hesitant to give "First Contact" too much credit.  It really could have featured anyone, and as a Riker episode, it's about as generic as you can get, in that he has a quasi-romance that's so convoluted and impossible (even for him!) that it's just not worth considering in that way.  Riker in peril, in short, is really it amounts to, and again, it could have been anyone.

It's a Prime Directive episode first and foremost, an exploration of something that's about as basic a Star Trek trope as you can get, so I'll recommend it for that basis alone.  Enterprise later goes a little deeper with the same basic premise ("The Communicator"), with the advantage of being able to add something to the mythos.

It's not a bad episode, it's just, in the grand scheme, not as memorable as you might originally think.  Enjoy it for what it is, but there are better episodes out there.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Bebe Neuwirth
Michael Ensign

The Next Generation 4x14 "Clues"

rating: **

the story: The crew begins to suspect something's wrong with Data when things don't add up and he looks increasingly guilty.

similar to: "The Menagerie" (Original Series), "The Omega Directive" (Voyager)

my thoughts: For most of the episode, "Clues" feels like a fairly generic mystery, with the crew trying to figure out why they seem to have lost time.  I prefer to think about it less in terms of the way most of the episode unfolds, and more about its ultimate implications.  It's best considered as a Data episode.

Just as Spock made himself look bad (in "The Menagerie") and Janeway had to withhold information from her crew (in "The Omega Directive"), what might have been an ultimately hackneyed story about Data being controlled by aliens (it's a Star Trek trope with spotty history, believe me) instead turns into another exploration of what sets the android apart.  I think ultimately the way the story approached limited its impact, actually.  A more straightforward story would have been more useful in that regard.  To salvage "Clues," you can of have to ignore most of it.

The series routinely attempted to feature Data in circumstances that exploited his unique nature as a nonhumanoid.  Most of the time it did so from oblique angles (Voyager was far less bashful with the Doctor, and even Enterprise with Phlox), as if making Data stand out too much would, well, make him stand out too much.  His ability to experience the alien culture mostly teased in the episode, and then have to lie about it, could have been far more interesting (would he really be incapable of tying up all the loose ends in the effort?). 

But, the episode is poised as a mystery, so you must accept that Data inevitably has his own limitations.  So to watch him try is as much as you'll get, and it's at least worth it just for that.  Theoretically he would experience moments like this all the time, maybe not to such a dramatic extent, but at least things he can't properly convey, or moments that he can't properly share, like how Geordi sees everything differently because of his VISOR, or Worf because he is a Klingon.  Which makes this a somewhat clumsy but still fascinating way to explore another aspect of what sets him apart and yet still a welcome member of the crew.

In the end, then, "Clues" is a better riddle about Data himself than the aliens he's attempted to help shield from the outside world.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Colm Meaney (O'Brien)
Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)
Patti Yasutake (Ogawa)

The Next Generation 4x13 "Devil's Due"

rating: ****

the story: The crew attempts to counter a being's claims to fulfilling an alien culture's prophecies.

similar to: "The Apple" (Original Series), "False Profits" (Voyager)

my thoughts: From seemingly such common origins as a Star Trek trope, "Devil's Due" emerges to be a true classic in execution thanks to displaying just how clever the crew really is.

An alien claiming to be the devil is certainly unique in the franchise (unless you count the Animated Series), but otherwise the original series had so many godlike beings running about, Next Generation already created Q in answer (brilliantly, of course) in that direction.  So exploring the opposite was both natural and risky.  Watching it all play out could just as easily have produced another episode about a naïve culture needing to be set straight, but instead it becomes a battle of wits.  Voyager did a lot of episodes like this, actually, and usually quite well.  The most similar one would be "False Profits" (a sequel to a Next Generation episode, fittingly enough), in which a different prophecy is seemingly fulfilled.

But watching Picard match wits with a con artist, or someone other than Q, is a thrilling experience, with a wonderful denouement as all their tricks are reproduced by Starfleet technology.  Too often this sort of intervention story can seem condescending.  It helps that even our crew is trying to figure it out, and by the time they do they're far more concerned with the bad guy than judging the duped alien culture.

This is a wonderful example of Star Trek taking one of its most tired tropes and really having fun with it in the classic one-off adventure format.  As a result, existing fans will have as much fun watching it as someone not nearly as familiar with the franchise.  That's a good way of defining a classic right there.

What's more, it's a perfect example of just how comfortable the series was with itself by this point.  This could have been a Q episode.  It wasn't, and even references Q in the dialogue.  That's confidence for you, in ways that at the time were startling and new.  It's hard not to love.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

The Next Generation 4x12 "The Wounded"

rating: ****

the story: A rogue captain declares war on the Cardassians.

similar to: "The Doomsday Machine" (Original Series), "Defiant" (Deep Space Nine), "Equinox" (Voyager)

my thoughts: It's not at all uncommon for Star Trek to bring in a Starfleet guest character who's gone off the rails.  It's one of the franchise's most notable tropes.  What sets "Wounded" apart, other than the debut of the Cardassians, is how it ends up focusing on Miles O'Brien instead of someone from the main cast.

In contrast to his wedding in the preceding "Data's Day," O'Brien's appearance here gives him his first real chance at carrying a story, letting the viewer know just what kind of man he really is.  It's the perfect way for a Next Generation fan, besides, to find a way into Deep Space Nine, because that's exactly the version of the character they're going to find.  Almost two years to the day this episode originally aired, in fact, and it looks like a deliberate set-up to the third live action series, with O'Brien beginning a new career confronting Cardassians on a regular basis.

Whereas Picard was always known as the calmer counterpart to the more rash Kirk, even he seems pretty wild to the O'Brien we meet here.  For someone who had been making the odd appearance in the series since "Encounter at Farpoint," the very first episode, it took a long time to find out who he was.  Until now, he could just as easily have been another of the original series type of supporting character, familiar but still nowhere near as memorable as the main characters.

And he does it by being completely vulnerable, even admitting that he was wrong.  That's just something you don't see in Star Trek all the time.  Here is the franchise really breaking the mold, with the one character most capable of selling it.

The Cardassians you'll see here are almost exactly as they'd later appear, with some odd exceptions, including the uniforms.  The series had tried so hard with the Ferengi to create a distinctive new threat, and here it appears almost effortless.  The difference is astonishing.

As for the ostensible main plot of the episode, you can almost put it aside, as it so easily gives way to better elements.  "The Wounded" is one of the more unique classics in franchise lore.  It deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as "Balance of Terror."  It's all but an answer to it.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Colm Meaney (O'Brien)
Marc Alaimo
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Bob Gunton

The Next Generation 4x11 "Data's Day"

rating: ***

the story: Data records a letter detailing, among other things, the wedding of Miles and Keiko O'Brien.

similar to: "In Theory" (Next Generation), "Explorers" (Deep Space Nine), "Dear Doctor" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: Groundbreaking without being overly significant, "Data's Day" is one of those episodes you can heartily recommend to fans of the series.  It's a true slice-of-life experience.

"In Theory" later in the season revisits observing what being Data means on a routine basis, and on the whole it's fairly mundane, though not in a particularly trivial way.  Data's wonder at life around him, and his attempts to make sense of it, has a wide range of implications.  He's the only character who could get away with having nothing to do with someone else's marriage and yet still be relevant to its occasion.

It's not particularly a surprise, however, that this isn't an experience the franchise rushed to duplicate, and thankfully when it did there was usually a better point to be made, some personal achievement (the Siskos bonding in "Explorers") or perspective worth noting (Phlox's opposition to Archer's actions in "Dear Doctor").

What's puzzling is that Data is composing a letter to Maddox, a character we originally meet in "The Measure of a Man," and he's supposed to be addressing matters of his own unique nature.  If the recipient had been anyone else, or merely his recording a common log entry, it would have made more sense.

As much as you might enjoy Data in the episode, it's much more important as an O'Brien story, the culmination to that point in his whole development, and his further adventures in Deep Space Nine, solidifying him as important in his own right, and not just as a familiar face.

It's always nice to have a change of pace, and aside from everything else, this is an episode that proves once and for all that Next Generation is comfortable in its own skin.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Colm Meaney (O'Brien)
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)
Alan Scarfe

The Next Generation 4x10 "The Loss

rating: **

the story: Troi loses her empathic ability.

similar to: "Broken Link" (Deep Space Nine), "Mortal Coil" (Voyager)

my thoughts: Of all the episodes that centered around Troi, this is probably the most important, the essential one, where her whole character is deconstructed.  Like taking away Odo's shape-shifting ability ("Broken Link" and half the episodes of the fifth season) or Neelix's will to live ("Mortal Coil"), taking away her half-Betazoid-derived powers is about as big as it can get.

Naturally, she's completely devastated, and the episode is a complete examination of her coping with that, and how she fits in with the rest of the crew, with or without her empathic ability.  The result is about as fascinating a character study as Next Generation ever did, even if it's wrapped up in a fairly generic sci-fi story that is otherwise undistinguished (don't blame the series and/or franchise if you don't like that sort of thing; it's pretty much half the reason Star Trek exists at all, something a lot of people have a hard time understanding).

What results is a version of Troi who's more significant than perhaps she is otherwise, in the series or later films, someone who has unique insight not only into the minds of others but the psychology of the situation.  This would have been fascinating to explore later, but Troi reverts to what she always was, which is a real shame, and somewhat diminishes the impact of the episode.

On its own, "The Loss" is a classic allegory in the best Star Trek sense, what might almost be described as a PTSD episode (Deep Space Nine's "It's Only a Paper Moon" explores this in more detail, and more directly).  The fact that it features Troi and augments her character, however briefly, is kind of a bonus. 

If you're a fan of Troi, this is the one to watch.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)