Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 171 (Genesis)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Those that have watched Star Trek: The Next Generation are familiar with Lieutenant Reginald Barclay. He’s recurring character that’s a hypochondriac who usually assumes the worst. He reports to sickbay reporting symptoms of yet another deadly disease. Dr. Crusher gives him a shot to activate some sort of latent RNA. Meanwhile, Spot is expecting kittens and soon. (Spot is Data’s cat.) It turns out that Nurse Ogawa is also expecting.

On the bridge, the crew is testing out upgrades to the weapons systems. Captain Picard and Data have to take a shuttlecraft to retrieve an errant photon torpedo. When they return, they find that the ship has gone to the animals – literally. It seems that something about the shot that Dr. Crusher gave to Barclay did more than she expected. It spread to the entire crew, causing them to turn into less-evolved creatures. Even spot has turned into an iguana.

Data is immune to it, but Picard soon realizes that the same fate will eventually befall him. When Data notices that Spot’s kittens have not been affected, he realizes that Nurse Ogawa might provide a solution for the rest of the crew. Unfortunately, they have to deal with a de-evolved Worf, who’s hot for Counselor Troi and is willing and able to pound his way through anything that stands between them. Fortunately, Data saves the day, finding a cure that can be spread through the air. Everyone returns to normal and Barclay even gets a disease named after him.

There are a few minor problems. First, it looked like Spot’s kittens, while unharmed, hadn’t been fed for a while. It would have been nice, at the end of the episode, to see Data holding a litter of kittens saying how everything worked out. I realize that it’s a minor point, but a lot of people seem to bring this up. However, Spot’s gender is firmly established. In previous episodes, Data had referred to her as either her or him.

Also, how is it that Spot turned into an iguana? Supposedly, the disease affected parts of human (and non-human) DNA that held the genetic codes that we had accumulated over eons of evolution. Even if cats and iguanas do have a common ancestry at some point, I don’t think that Spot would have access to the genetic code for iguanas. Theoretically, Spot should have turned into a less-evolved feline. (On that note, Troi should have had access to two sets of species to de-evolve into since she’s half Betzoid.)

One thing that caught my attention was that Nurse Ogawa was pregnant. Granted, it was necessary to give Data something to work with, but how is it that she goes from being uncertain about her boyfriend a few episodes ago to having his child? There are over a thousand crewmembers, presumably half of which are female. Out of 500 women, Nurse Ogawa is the only one that’s pregnant?

It’s a great episode that’s hampered by a few too many mistakes. If you can get past these things, it’s an enjoyable episode. I’d say that regular viewer and new viewer alike could watch this episode. As much as I liked it, though, I can’t give it more than three stars. There are just too many gaps in the story.


IMDb page

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 138 (Ship in a Bottle)

Way back in the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Geordi La Forge and Data decided to try out a Sherlock Holmes story on the Holodeck.  The problem was that Data is an android.  With his perfect memory, he was able to solve all of the problems instantly.  Having read all of the source material, there was no ending that he hadn’t come across already.  Due to a poor choice of words, they ended up with a sentient Moriarty taking the Enterprise hostage.  The issue was resolved with the holographic Moriarty being put in protected memory.

Ship in a Bottle has Data and La Forge playing Holmes and Watson again only to find that there are some discrepancies.  A character who should be left-handed catches something with his right hand.  It’s nothing major, but they have Reginald Barclay look into it.  He discovers Moriarty, who claims to have been aware of the passage of four years, even if nominally.  He demands to speak to Captain Picard, who had promised to find a way for Moriarty to leave the holodeck.

Picard assures Moriarty that the ship did everything they could before passing it off to Starfleet, who is still working on the problem.  Moriarty has no way of verifying it.  For all he knows, Picard is saying this to placate him.  Either way, Moriarty is still confined to the holodeck…until he isn’t.  He seemingly wills his way into the corridor, which should be impossible.  Moriarty is just a projection of light and force fields.  He has no actual mass that can exist off the holodeck.

So, how did he do it?  As far as anyone can tell, sheer willpower.  He scans as human.  Oh, and he wants his girlfriend, Countess Regina Bartholomew, to be afforded the same opportunities.  She is a holographic character as Moriarty was before.  Picard cautions against it, as it would be of questionable ethics and morality to deliberately create a second sentient hologram, to say nothing of getting her off the holodeck.  No one can be certain that Moriarty is stable.

Finally, Data realizes what happened.  Moriarty created a nested reality.  He put the holodeck in a holographic Enterprise onboard the real Enterprise.  Picard, Barclay and Data are the real deal, as is the still-holographic Moriarty.  Everything else is a ruse designed to get Picard’s command codes.  This affords Moriarty some leverage in dealing with the real Commander Riker on the real bridge, who has to get the ship away from some colliding gas giants.

Moriarty is eventually turns Moriarty’s trick back on him and creates another level.  Picard has Moriarty beamed to this second fictional ship, where a fictional Riker gives Moriarty and Bartholomew a fake shuttle.  Moriarty then releases control of the real ship at the last moment, allowing everyone to get to safety.

It’s an entertaining episode, even if it does follow the same basic plot as Elementary, Dear Data.  (Moriarty gains control of the ship through trickery only to release it at the last moment.)  Here, a more permanent solution is found, where Moriarty and Bartholomew are on an independent device living out there existence in a virtual world.

Picard even muses that they might be part of some simulation on someone’s desk.  The first time I watched the episode, I missed the joke in that this is exactly what’s going on.  However, Barclay does tell the computer to end program just to make sure.  It has been noted that the computer should have responded, yet didn’t.  Even if it did, how would Barclay or anyone else really know?  The episode aired around the time that Deep Space Nine aired.  You could have had some cruel throwaway line at the start of the pilot episode about the Enterprise being lost a few weeks prior.

It is interesting to note that Star Trek: Voyager had a holographic doctor with a similar predicament.  The Doctor was confined to sickbay until he got his own portable emitter.  Of course, by the time it could have been any use to Moriarty, it would have meant admitting to Moriarty that they had tricked him.

Even if they did do this, there’s the issue of releasing Moriarty on an unsuspecting universe.  He claims that he can go beyond what he was written to do, but he’s twice taken hostage the flagship of the Federation, which is no small feat.  Given that they have Moriarty quarantined and that Moriarty has effectively gotten what he wants, it was probably best to leave well enough alone.

The character was never mentioned again in any of the episodes, even though Deep Space Nine had a recurring holographic character and Voyager had a regular holographic character, both aware of what they were.  It would have been interesting to have at least a mention.  I’d also like to know what happened to Moriarty and Bartholomew .  It’s possible that they lived their lives without ever realizing the deception or that they figured it out within minutes.  We may never know.


IMDb page

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 93 (The Nth Degree)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Despite the fact that Star Trek: The Next Generation had a good deal of continuity, there were still a few episodes that came from nowhere and went nowhere.  In The Nth Degree has a little of both.  The Enterprise finds a probe that it’s never seen before, doesn’t seem to like to be scanned and has a nasty habit of taking down computers.  In fact, the reason that they come across it is that it’s disabled the computers on the Argus Array, which may cause the nuclear reactors to go critical.

Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge goes in to investigate with Reginald Barclay.  Yes, this is the Reginald Barclay who would rather hide in the holodeck than deal with other people.  While scanning the probe, Barclay is knocked unconscious by a strong pulse of light.  (He and La Forge have to beam back to the Enterprise since their shuttlecraft has been disabled.)  At first, everything seems fine.

However, as he’s leaving sickbay, Barclay comes up with an idea to cut the turnaround time on a test.  His intelligence grows exponentially, as do his social skills.  His acting goes from fumbling to brilliant.  He teaches someone to play violin, despite never having been able to play, himself.  He even debates quantum physics with a simulated version of Einstein.

When the array is just about to go critical and explode, Barclay rushes to the holodeck and basically hooks himself directly to the computer since having to say stuff is too slow for him.  He’s able to shut down the array’s reactors, but can’t unhook himself; all of his higher brain functions are now handled by the ship’s computer.  If he were to leave, he’d die.

Having been in only one episode before this, it’s entirely conceivable that Barclay might not make it out, but there’s still the question of what’s going on.  What exactly happened to Barclay?  He’s seen as enough of a threat now that the crew has to try to get him out of there, whatever the cost, as has access to the ship’s internal sensors, meaning he can see and hear what everyone does.

Before anything can be done, Barclay takes the ship near the center of the universe to meet a race called the Cytherians.  Rather than build expensive ships to go around the galaxy, they build probes that show space-faring races how to come to them.  They’re able to get Barclay back out of the holdeck so that he might explain everything to the bridge crew.

All we get to see of the Cytherians is a disembodied head floating in front of the bridge’s view screen.  He makes a few comments about humans, but that’s it.  The closing scene starts with Captain Picard making a log entry about how long it will take scientists to figure out the new technology.   We then get to see Barclay maybe a little more confident after his ordeal.  He’s back to being his old self.

The episode ends with Barclay (presumably) helping someone in a game of 3D chess, hinting that he may have kept something.  This doesn’t prove to be the case.  Barclay makes three more appearances on The Next Generation.  There’s no mention of him doing anything special, even unrelated to the influence of the Cytherians.  He doesn’t write any papers or get a promotion.  It would have even been funny to have the person he helped at chess make a snide remark about how he was wrong or something.

For that matter, the Cytherian technology and information is never mentioned again.  Barclay is able to take the Enterprise 30,000 light years in a short period of time.  This is never brought up again.  You’d think that at some point during Star Trek: Voyager’s seven-year run, someone would have looked into it, considering that they were stranded 70,000 light years from home.

One thing I remember finding odd was that the Cytherian technology was so incredible incompatible with Federation technology.  I understand that they must come in contact with a lot of different races and varying technologies, but this is what they do.  I suppose that’s why they’d start with an unmanned piece of technology.  If the array had blown up, at least there would have been no one onboard to be hurt.  If they were successful, someone would have eventually been contacted, or at least come looking when the Argus Array stopped transmitting.  I find it hard to believe that the Cytherians nearly blew something up because of compatibility issues.

Ultimately, the episode seems a bit rushed.  It might have been interesting to have buildup over several episodes.  Maybe we could even learn a bit more about the alien race, especially considering that the Enterprise is on a mission of exploration, sent out to meet new races.  The rush is especially noticeable in Barclay’s advancement.  The crisis seems to be there just to get Barclay to either use his super intelligence or to get him into the holodeck.

I’d advise against getting this on VHS.  It’s fun to watch, but has little replay value.  Instead, I’d say get the season on DVD or watch it streaming on Netflix.


IMDb page
 

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 69 (Hollow Pursuits)

Note:  This review was origianally posted to my Epinions account.

 

It seems like everything in the 24th century is perfect.  Everyone is happy and well-fed.  Things seem good for everyone.  Then again, the show primarily takes place on the flagship of the Federation.  There is a pretty high standard.  This is why it’s so confusing when Lt. Reginald Barclay is transferred into the Enterprise’s engineering section from another ship.  He’s usually late.  His work is barely passable.  It seems as though someone was padding his performance reviews to pass him off on someone else.  Captain Picard decides that instead of doing the same, Lt. Cmdr. La Forge is going to become Barclay’s new best friend and make him into an officer worthy of being on the Enterprise.

La Forge is resistant at first.  Nobody likes the guy.  He knows his stuff, but he’s socially awkward.  He can’t seem to get a sentence out without someone interrupting him.  Add to that the fact that he runs to the holodeck and escapes into fantasy when the going gets tough.  The Enterprise is actually having a series of problems that La Forge needs people working on.  (The only serious problem is a transporter malfunctioning.)

When La Forge visits Ten Forward, the ship’s lounge, Guinan points out that maybe he’s looking at this backwards.  Instead of having to deal the guy that’s so strange, realize that maybe the reason he’s so strange is that no one wants to deal with him.  If someone takes the time to be his friend, maybe Barclay will come out of his shell.

Of course, it’s not that simple. Whenever someone gives him grief, Barclay goes back to the holodeck.  His fantasy world becomes more strange.  The attractive Counselor Troi becomes the Goddess of Empathy.  When Commander Riker becomes too threatening, Barclay creates a shorter version of him.  When the crew discovers this, no one is amused by their counterpart.  It isn’t until a crisis hits that La Forge is able to pull Barclay out of the holodeck long enough to do anything and it is Barclay that comes up with the winning idea.

I think part of the difficulty in writing a flawed character like Barclay onto the Enterprise is that, as I said, this is the flagship.  It’s only because someone was doctoring performance reviews that Barclay even made it.  However, the episode handles it well.  We get to see a Starfleet officer who can’t make it on a day-to-day basis.  The truth is that we all have moments when we’d like to run home and hide from the world, but we don’t.  We have ways of coping.  (Who hasn’t been nervous about going to a party?)

Barclay is a little overdone.  He seems to be a little too nervous at first.  It does get toned down in later appearances, but it almost comes across as comical.  I have to wonder how he was put in engineering.  I understand that it’s sometimes difficult to fire someone and it’s possible that Starfleet Academy didn’t have the same pressures.  I just don’t know I want this guy around critical systems.

It seems like the series is finding a good balance in the episodes.  Even if it’s silly, it’s not overdone.  The stories are more believable and the actors seem to have a good handle on the characters.  We have a more coherent episode here.  Barclay will come back in later episodes.  He’ll still be awkward, but he’ll have his moments. 

IMDb page