UNDERDOG of PERFECTION

Deja Q
Season 3 Episode 13
Original airdate: February 3, 1990

Netflix Synopsis

Much to Capt. Picard’s displeasure, Q reappears on the Enterprise claiming to have been ejected from the Q Continuum and stripped of his powers.

My Brief Review

Ah, a bit of Q-based comic relief after some heavy episodes. Once again I’m forced to think of current events, as “Q” is presently more strongly associated with a ludicrous online conspiracy theory (one that was involved in nearly taking down the federal government this week) than with John de Lancie’s love-to-hate-him omniscient immortal.

I have mixed feelings about Q. The worst Q episodes make me pine for the Ferengi, but this is a pretty good one. Q actually has been stripped of his powers and turned into a mortal being — a human, per his request. And as he discovers the trials of mortality — fatigue, hunger, Guinan stabbing his hand with a fork — he begins to question why he chose to be human. The real reason, of course, was that he knew Picard was one of the few entities he’d encountered in the universe who might actually come to his aid when vengeful species hunted him down to retaliate for his transgressions. But ultimately Q realizes he’s a failure as a human, and in one final act, with a whiff of self-sacrifice, the Continuum welcomes him back, and he uses his restored powers to… uh… bring a mariachi band onto the Enterprise bridge, save a planet from destruction and… oh yeah…

Memorable Moment

Q gives Data the gift of laughter. It’s in moments of emotive expression that I really feel Brent Spiner is best suited for the role of an unfeeling android.

Crew Rando

Ensign Bennett! For the first time in a while, we have an uncredited crew rando who actually has a name! I’m not sure if he’s the curiously old character at the helm in the final scene, or one of the other passing randos earlier. There’s also a crewman guarding the brig who, curiously, just nods faintly in the captain’s direction as Picard enters the room, without even standing up. Shouldn’t a crewman stand at attention in the captain’s presence??

Distance Rating: 4K

IMDb score: 8.6/10

The High Ground
Season 3 Episode 12
Original airdate: January 27, 1990

Netflix Synopsis

While visiting a planet under civil war, Dr. Crusher is taken hostage by an opposing faction of the planet’s ruling government.

My Brief Review

First, my copy editor instincts are kicking in and I desperately want to rewrite this poorly structured synopsis (which is word-for-word identical to what’s on IMDb). It should read “While visiting a planet under civil war, Dr. Crusher is taken hostage by a faction opposing the planet’s ruling government.”

Second, I’ll just mention that I watched this last night but didn’t have time to write the review until this morning.

OK, with that cleared up… whew. Part of why I’m immersing myself in ST:TNG this winter and writing these blog posts is to distract myself from reality. But strangely it always seems that an episode focused on a virus seems to appear whenever the COVID situation flares up, and now this episode, which I watched just one day after a mob of delusional right-wing revolutionary cosplayers tried to overthrow the US Congress.

So just bear in mind that I’m seeing the episode through this lens.

After the faction takes Picard as well, he perceives Dr. Crusher’s sympathy towards her captors as a case of Stockholm Syndrome, whereas the situation is actually more complex. But the important thing to remember is that the situation in this episode has no analog to what’s happening right now in the U.S. because the insurrectionists here are not being repressed by their government. They’ve been lied to and brainwashed and lured into a fantasy world of ludicrous conspiracy theories in social media echo chambers. They are not in a righteous fight for justice. They’re, at best, pawns of a shrinking minority political party using them to desperately cling to unearned power.

Anyway, where were we? Ah yes…

Maybe this episode is relevant to our times, after all. At the very least, it made it much easier for me to see the appropriateness of calling the Capitol mob “terrorists.”

Speaking of which…

Any time I see something in Star Trek that refers to events in the first half of the 21st century, I wonder, did they really think we wouldn’t still be watching the show when that time came? Or did they hope we would be watching and would have a reaction to moments like this?

The strange thing is, after the peace in Northern Ireland (just a few years after this episode originally aired), and the growth of the E.U. through most of the past couple of decades, I would have looked at this and scoffed. But right now? Well… with Brexit a reality, and the giant unresolved question of the Irish border, it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that events could unfold over this decade that would cause Northern Ireland to split from the U.K. and join the Republic of Ireland. (I’m no expert on the finer details of this immensely complicated situation… just acknowledging the fact that the “Irish Unification of 2024” doesn’t sound as nonsensical right now as it would have at any other time in the past quarter century.)

Now where were we? Ah yes, a Star Trek episode. I thought this episode was reasonably good. Kyril Finn, the leader of the faction (played by Richard Cox), with his flowing dark mane and piercing gaze, looked to me like a combination of Adam Driver and Roland Orzabal from Tears for Fears, with just a hint of both Jerry Seinfeld and Welcome Back, Kotter-era John Travolta. His scenes with Dr. Crusher were probably the best parts of the episode, where once again we’re confronted with the moral ambiguities inherent in all social conflicts — a running theme of this season.

There were some interesting technology and science concepts in the episode, centering around a special dimension-shifting device the faction used to travel undetected from place to place. How, exactly, it different from the transporter was not entirely clear. But if I understood it correctly, it actually seemed a lot more plausible than the transporter. Unfortunately it caused severe damage to people’s DNA each time it was used. Wesley Crusher used his big brain to figure out how to detect a signature left behind by the device, allowing the Enterprise crew to track down the power source and rescue Crusher and Picard. And once again, as in the immediately preceding episode, Enterprise leaves the leadership of an unaffiliated planet in a tough spot where they must learn to resolve their internal conflicts before gaining acceptance by the “ideal society” (Dr. Crusher’s words, not mine) of the Federation.

As a final note, I’ll mention that, once again, I am inclined to see parallels between an episode and today’s current events, but clearly in the context of its time this was more of a direct commentary on the Troubles in Northern Ireland, or the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

Memorable Moment

Probably Data’s multiple conversations with Picard, which basically served as narrative exposition of the moral dilemmas presented in the episode, in case their significance wasn’t obvious.

Crew Rando

OK, so, she’s so anonymous that she’s not even listed in the uncredited cast list on IMDb, but there’s an ensign sitting at Data’s station on the bridge when he returns to the bridge. She’s staring straight ahead, stone-faced, and then silently gets up and leaves (as she’s supposed to) the minute he shows up. She looks to me a bit like Ensign Gomez, but I would think she’d have been identified. So, who knows… that’s why she’s a rando!

Distance Rating: 5K

IMDb score: 6.8/10

The Hunted
Season 3 Episode 11
Original airdate: January 6, 1990

Netflix Synopsis

Investigating a planet applying for membership into the Federation, the crew of the Enterprise finds a group of inhabitants who used to be soldiers.

My Brief Review

Why, it’s Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell), inventor of the warp engine! Oops, no, it’s Prime Minister Nayrok, of a planet whose inhabitants look exactly like humans. (I always find it interesting when Star Trek doesn’t even put weird nose ridges on alien species. Budget? Laziness? Some pseudo-explanation about a common ancestor seeding humanoid species all across the galaxy?)

Anyway… this is another great episode. The planet applying for Federation membership has a dark secret: in its earlier period of wars, it programmed some volunteers as super-soldiers without letting them know they’d never be themselves again. Instead, they’re forced to live on an off-world penal colony because they’re deemed too dangerous to rejoin mainstream society.

And the escapee certainly is dangerous… but only when threatened. That’s how he’s programmed. After he makes a daring and shrewd escape from the Enterprise (including breaking free of a transporter beam!), Picard and the away team confront the Prime Minister with the fact that he’ll have to make peace with his own veterans before his planet can be considered for membership in the Federation.

As some of the reviewers on IMDb noted, this episode is a pretty direct reference to the struggles of Vietnam War veterans and the lack of support they received from the government on their return.

Memorable Moment

Yeah… that whole breaking-free-of-a-transporter-beam thing. How’d he do that???

Crew Rando

Several, but they’re too rando to really pay attention to. Did I mention that James Cromwell is in this episode?

Distance Rating: 6K

IMDb score: 7.5/10

The Defector
Season 3 Episode 10
Original airdate: January 1, 1990

Netflix Synopsis

When a Romulan officer defects to the Federation and warns of an impending invasion, Capt. Picard struggles to decide if he is to be believed.

My Brief Review

Welcome to the 1990s!

These Romulan episodes are almost always good. The Romulans are probably my favorite “enemy” alien species in Star Trek. Their ancestral connection to Vulcan, and the extreme contrast between their cultures, is a fascinating contrast. Beyond that, the Romulan characters are always pretty well written and acted. That’s definitely the case here.

James Sloyan (who I recognized in Romulan makeup but could not identify — he’s been in a ton of stuff but I know him best from his recurring character on Murder, She Wrote, as well as from the movie Xanadu) is great as the defector, Admiral Jarok, and we have the excellent Andreas Katsulas back, after just a few episodes (which his character even notes) as Tomalak.

Memorable Moment

The episode begins on the Holodeck, with Data acting out a scene from Shakespeare’s Henry V, and, if you look closely, you’ll notice that one of the holographic commoners is in fact Patrick Stewart in heavy makeup. Picard is watching the scene from a distance and coaching Data on his acting.

Crew Rando

Wes isn’t in this episode, so I was thinking perhaps Crewman Martinez would finally get some more screen time! Of course, I need to pay attention to my rank insignia pips. Crewmen don’t have any. The rando who’s at the helm throughout the episode is an ensign (and of course, a crewman wouldn’t be at the helm anyway). Unfortunately, the ensign isn’t even given a name! IMDb just lists him, uncredited, as “Operations Division Officer.”

Distance Rating: 5K

IMDb score: 8.5/10

The Vengeance Factor
Season 3 Episode 9
Original airdate: November 18, 1989

Netflix Synopsis

The Enterprise pursues a race of “gatherers” who continue to raid Federation outposts, unaware of the dangers lurking among them.

My Brief Review

It’s Balbricker from Porky’s (seriously) vs. Snake Plissken (not seriously) in the ultimate smackdown!!

If your planet had a millennia-long history of clan wars, and made peace, except for one small group who were exiled to an existence as nomadic raiders, how would you expect them to look after a century? If you said, “Like a cross between Kip Winger and Snake Plissken,” you’d be right! Mullets and all. (It was 1989, after all.)

This is a decent episode, but a very poorly paced one, and it was difficult to get too enthusiastic about it even though the basic premise was solid.

The real problem comes in the climactic scene, however, when Yuta, the young woman who acts as the servant to the Sovereign of the planet (and who of course has had a romantic encounter with Riker earlier in the episode), attempting to murder Chorgan, the leader of the Gatherers by… uh… touching his face (it makes sense in context), is confronted by Riker with his phaser.

He stuns her… on a setting so weak that it’s little more than a weak punch in the stomach. She recoils, then takes another step towards her enemy. Riker turns up the phaser a bit, to “kickpuncher” level. She recoils again, then takes another step. Riker slowly turns his phaser up to maximum setting. She looks at Riker, then lunges at her enemy… and Riker completely vaporizes her!

In any other episode, phasers are set to “stun” which means “knock unconscious.” Why didn’t he do that so she could be taken into custody? It makes no sense for Riker to murder her. Of course, this isn’t the first time Riker has murdered with impunity and I suspect it’s not the last.

Memorable Moment

It’s hard to forget when Brull, the leader of the group of Gatherers who brings Enterprise to Chorgan, struts into Ten Forward, grabs another man’s drink out of his hand, walks over to Wesley, grabs his PADD, plops down with his foot up on Wesley’s table, and proceeds to… well… mock him for being a nerd, I guess.

Crew Rando

Backflip master Crewman Martinez was apparently in this one too but I didn’t notice him!

Distance Rating: 4K

IMDb score: 6.5/10