Valiant

In the show "Star Trek: The Next Generation", Wesley was one of the most hated characters in the series. Imagine an entire crew of Wesley Crushers!! Oh, the humanity! Inexplicably, that's kind of what happened here with "Valiant"...and entire ship where the crew are teens!! If the idea sounds really dumb, then you kind of have the idea of this show!

Then the show begins, Nog and Jake are on a runabout and they're being chased by a Jem'Hadar ship. Fortunately for them (and not the audience), the USS Valiant arrives to save their young butts. The pair are shocked, however, when they are beamed aboard the Valiant and find that the crew is made up entirely by the teenagers from Red Squad (an elite group of Starfleet cadets). Nog is in love with the idea--but Jake things the Captain of the ship is a nutter who is addicted to stimulants.

In many ways, this is like watching an episode of "Muppet Babies". While just about everyone likes the Muppets, this show was marketed to small children and was nausea-inducing for almost everyone else. Embarrassingly bad and stupid--so much so that it makes you wonder if the show had simply run out of ideas. Nuff said....

Jake and Nog are rescued on their way to Ferenginar by a sister ship of the Defiant, called the Valiant. Unfortunately for them, it is crewed entirely by cadets and Starfleet didn't actually mean for them to be doing so.

This episode had a good premise, and there was a lot in the background that worked. The cadets had been given battlefield promotions, there was a captain, a commander, lieutenant commanders all running around in their grey cadet uniforms, and it was clear they really liked wearing those titles long before they had actually earned them. And the elephant in the room for all of them was that if the adults back at Starfleet knew their ship was still alive, if they ever actually contacted another Federation vessel, the first thing a real officer would do is tell them to fly home and all those temporary promotions would be taken away. No more playing captain, no more playing hero.

That's actually a pretty fun premise, but the writers just don't quite know how to pull it off. The crew is too simple, they do need to be fleshed out more, you need that one skeptic among the bridge crew, somebody, Jake probably, needs to give a Star Trek speech about how they can give themselves new ranks they didn't put the years in to deserve, and they can talk about glory and duty, but the reality is they're acting like exactly what they are, which is a bunch of cadets. But Jake remains more teen than man still in this episode and has nothing to say which might trump their youthful enthusiasm. I think perhaps that's why this episode would have worked better with Nog and a civilian adult. Somebody they didn't feel required to listen to, but who still had the years and wisdom to know more than all of those cadets put together. I can only imagine if this was on season 5 of TNG, it could have easily been an 8/10 given how much there was to work with.

Instead events just played out like they would on any old action TV show. And it missed what makes Star Trek, Star Trek. Also, the ending was just bad, too many things to go into, the last five minutes are the worst minutes of the whole episode. And it really makes the trope of the exploding console painful. Who keeps putting a half stick of dynamite under every typewriter in Starfleet? They really ought to be held accountable.

Jake and Nog run into trouble on route to Ferenginar.

I like the idea of group of fanatical cadets becoming like the Hitler Youth after being left to their own devices. This rings true with the way people behave, particularly when left unchecked.

The main problem is the premise of this happening in the Star Trek universe. You would think the cadets would have certain values instilled that prevented this type of lunacy. Starfleet seems to have way too many of these rogue commander types. I can forgive it when the episode is a very good one, but this one is not strong enough.

I am not particularly keen on the use of Nog in this one. Considering how cynical most Ferengi are portrayed, he falls for the death or glory stuff too easily. Jake is not used much better, particularly the 'Do you know who my Dad is?' moment. To me most characters (regular and guest) come across as annoying throughout a quite heavy-handed story.

I do not think it deserves some of the ridiculously low ratings given previously, as it is a solid production with interesting themes. When the writers take a story and characters in a direction I do not like, that does not make it bad, just not to my taste.

I'm working through a full series rewatch and this may be my least favorite episode yet. The young "captain" is unwatchably obnoxious. Perhaps that was the intent and he's a good actor, but I wanted to look away whenever his smug face was on screen. Might rate lower but there were actually serious consequences by the end, which gave the episode a certain gravity.

Another opportunity to see Jake Sisko, one of the most boring characters ever produced. He an Nog end up on a starship, the Valiant, which is run by a group of young people. They are all members of the Red Squad, a group of elite cadets. They have have some success after the original leaders of the crew were killed. Nog fits right in. Jake walks around, whining. He probably has some good points about the mission, but he is such a dork no one will listen to him. The whole reporter thing is so poorly presented. He is abundantly lazy and lacking in drive. Eventually, experience is going to be the most significant factor--that and immaturity.