A Fistful of Datas

One of the poorest episodes made. The poor writing was only exceeded by the poor acting and special effects.

The Golden Age of Star Trek: we had the 6th Season of The Next Generation and the 1st Season of Deep Space Nice on our televisions, Generations on view in our cinemas and First Contact due out soon. This season of TNG contains some excellent stand-alone episodes and several spectacular two-parters, with only the occasional make-weight. Despite the length of time it had already been on the air, it still represents some of the highest standard of television Science Fiction ever broadcast.

Oh dear! The holodeck has broken down again. Let's all have fun with another ridiculous premise because fresh ideas are in short supply. Well, now I've got that out of my system I'm going to admit that I am as fond of this episode now as I was when I watched it with my young children giggling all the way through, first time around.

If you can get over the "pastiche of a pastiche" Sci-Fi/Old West genre mix and Marina Sirtis's dreadful Western accent, and if you can suspend your disbelief for long enough, you can enjoy some great jokes and entertaining performances. For anyone who can't, it isn't worth getting hot under the collar about. The Kirk-era Original Series was not above raiding other series' sets and costumes, after all.

Brent Spiner gets some of the best lines & costume changes but it is Michael Dorn, as the gruff Klingon gradually being sucked into this fantasy at the behest of his son, who's delivery is close to perfect.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.

It's and ongoing joke with my friend Chad but this tough Klingon character is often put down by what ever threat comes aboard the Enterprise. Very funny that he's not very macho for a Klingon. I would have been pretty ticked off if I was that actor. I mean come on. Let him do some UFC knockouts just to give him street cred in the galactic travels. I feel for ya Worf. They didn't write your character very well and it only gets worse for you once you are off the Enterprise and involved in some sort of political position. Very lame to say the least. Keep trying old boy and someday you'll lift that victory belt.

The ship is experiencing down time and the crew is allowed to relax. However, Geordi and Data are anxious to use this time to tinker with the ship's systems. They want to try tying the control of the ship through Data--and it ends up corrupting the system instead. While some of this is just a minor annoyance, such as replacing the food in the replicators with cat food, Worf, Alexander and the Counselor are on a holodeck adventure in the old west--and because of the corruption, the program becomes all too real. The normal safety protocols no longer work and they could end up getting killed. Can Sheriff Worf save kidnapped Deputy Alexander before the gang of Datas blow they to kingdom come?

The word 'slight' is exactly what comes to mind with this one. It is a silly and incredibly dopey episode. Fortunately, the works better than you'd expect because the show does have a nice sense of humor--which goes into overdrive near the end. Plus, compared to another old west episode ("Star Trek: Spectre of the Gun"--which was one of the worst of the original shows), it is downright terrific!

Worf and Alexander spend a bit of quality time together in a Western themed holodeck program.

This is a reasonably good episode if you do not take it too seriously and fancy a bit of lighthearted fun.

It is a standard holodeck malfunction story with Worf, Alexander, and Counsellor Troi stuck in a simulation that naturally gives them a threat to deal with and no safety parameters. There is nothing particularly original other than the way it incorporates Data's memory circuits into the technobabble.

There are plenty of character moments to enjoy. Worf being placed a number of fish-out-of-water situations as the Klingon sheriff of Deadwood is a funny concept and Michael Dorn is perfectly deadpan in all scenes. Brent Spiner and Marina Sirtis look to be having a ball in their roles too. I particularly enjoyed the scenes where the real Data starts using Western clichés when talking to members of the Enterprise crew.

The sets, costuming, props, and general Western movie art direction is all spot on.

For me it's a 6.5/10 but I round upwards.