Captain’s Holiday
Season 3 Episode 19
Original airdate: March 31, 1990
Netflix Synopsis
After mediating a treaty, Capt. Picard is encouraged to take a much needed vacation — yet his efforts to rest are repeatedly interrupted.
My Brief Review
This Netflix synopsis makes the episode sound like a bad sitcom, but once again it only describes the first few minutes.
Immediately upon his arrival on Bikini Planet, Picard bumps into a woman, who promptly kisses him, to elude a Ferengi who’s after her. We know immediately that she’s going to be trouble for Picard, and before long we’re on a quest for a McGuffin from the future.
The setting on Risa, a mysterious woman, and time travel all give this episode a strong feeling of Star Trek: Enterprise to me, which of course came a decade after TNG, but having watched it more recently, it’s fresher in my mind.
This episode is… pretty good, if only for one reason. Picard punches a Ferengi in the face.
The whole time travel thing is a bit problematic, and my initial reaction to why it’s problematic actually gets addressed near the end of the episode, but in a way that doesn’t really make any sense.
Memorable Moment
Picard punches a Ferengi in the face.
Crew Rando
Even though this episode takes place almost entirely off the Enterprise, with no one from the crew except Picard, we actually have a named rando! At the very beginning of the episode, Ensign Bennett is at the helm, for unexplained reasons (probably just that Wil Wheaton, whose presence in this season was intermittent anyway, couldn’t be bothered to be on set for one brief scene), and Picard addresses him, by name.
Distance Rating: 3K
IMDb score: 7.3/10