Exasperated Calculator

Another good episode – hey, that’s two in a row!

While I’m not convinced by the legal procedure used by the JAG office, it gets us into a great situation: Picard facing off against Riker to prove that Data is sentient. OK, so that’s a setup for a bunch of lengthy courtroom scenes. But I kinda like courtroom scenes. They’re a good opportunity for actors to perform.

The moment, for instance, when Riker comes up with a brilliant ploy, and then realises what it means, is wonderfully played. It really shows the strength of the actors. Picard, Riker and Data all make what could very easily be dull scenes come alive.

Great Star Trek moment: The first poker game of the officers, a game that will show up again and again.

141 down, 596 to go.

Riker goes on a holiday on a Klingon ship.

It’s just about the most we’ve ever seen of Klingons to this point, and while the culture is a bit primitive (rargh, warriors) it’s drawn out quite nicely, and the dinner scene makes them feel more like a culture than a one-note villain factory.

The plot is a bit silly, with a fundamental math problem that bugged me once I thought about it. The microscopic bacteria doubles in size every fifteen minutes. We then hear that there’s a spot of it fifteen centimetres across on the Klingon ship. They say that it will take 8 hours to destroy the ship – but that would make the bacteria 644,000 km across.

Still, math nerd complaints aside, a good episode.

140 down, 597 to go.

Doctor Pulaski has her big moment. I’m not sure if this was always intended as the big ‘Doctor and Captain become friends’ moment, or if it was a mid-course correction from the writers when they saw how things were developing. Regardless, it doesn’t quite work.

Why not? Captain Picard never really has a breakthrough in understanding her, and he just shows the kind of concern he’d show for any member of his crew. And she still just seems mean and cranky, with too much regard for her own abilities. Oh, and a creepy fascination with eugenics.

It seems morally inconsistent to me that the Federation is cool with the kind of genetic modification being done here, but on the other hand has a Prime Directive.

Almost great moment: Dr Pulaski almost says “what is the nature of the medical emergency”. OK, that one won’t make sense until Voyager comes along, but still. There’s also the first TNG appearance of 3D Chess.

139 down, 598 to go.

Here’s a helpful hint if you’re ever on board a starship in similar situations to these ones: when you’re emotionless android suddenly has human emotions, the correct answer is to lock him up and then find out what’s going on. Especially if he’s super strong and acting irrationally and jealously.

At this point, you’d think they’d be considering some kind of “is this really Data” test to be deployed every day or so, to make sure Data hasn’t been replaced or taken over.

Once we’re past the slight dose of the idiot plot the episode picks up. It’s a great performance from Brent Spiner, as he subtly twists Data in different directions. And to be fair, the crew isn’t as stupid here as in some past episodes – they do work it out fairly quickly.

138 down, 599 to go. And I’ve half caught up on the latest mini-hiatus (4 episodes behind).

To me, the core of Star Trek is to tell good Science Fiction stories through the lens of the Enterprise crew.

This is a really good example of that. The basic idea is an exploration of a common trope of SF, exploring some ideas of more alien lifestyles. It’s carried through well here, particularly through the relationship with Troi (the first time that I’ve actually liked her in the series).

Riva’s chorus is implemented well, with the concept settling in quickly without being beaten over the head with it. Although there is a slightly unsettling overtone with the caste-like system of the chorus – it would have been interesting to come back to this setting again.

137 down, 600 to go.

Apparently the writers think the most important character to resurrect from the Original Series is Harry Mudd. It’s hard to see the character of Okona as anything other than a direct copy, which is not a good sign. After all, the Mudd episodes were some of the worst.

The first act (’oh, the charming rogue’) is then followed by the second act (’Data tries to find out what funny is’), and about the point that they were doing Jerry Lewis impressions I would have given up if this wasn’t part of the project.

As it turns out, I should have stopped while I was ahead. Because then we plunge into a bad retelling of Romeo & Juliet, written by someone who didn’t really understand the story. Soon there will be two good episodes in a row, but not now.

A side note: it’s nice to see that the first search result for a great comic wasn’t from the 20th century for a change.