Rascals

'Rascals' is the first TNG episode in a long time to . . . eh, it just doesn't do anything for me. It's clear that they were going for something light-hearted with a title like that, but it's the execution that's a problem. The science involved is flimsy (it's just there to explain the problem away) and even though the child actors are able, the absence of Patrick Stewart just saps this of any dramatic wright.

And then the Ferengi walk in, and things were already silly enough.

5/10

PIcard, Ro, Guinen, and Keiko are accidentally filtered through an ion cloud. When they are transported on board they have returned to their childhood body, but with all their adult intelligences intact. This is a puzzle for sure, but when a couple Klingon vessels attack and ultimately board the ship, they have bigger troubles. As it turns out, it is not the Klingons; it is a group of Ferengi rogues who have commandeered the old Klingon vessels and now have moved on to the Enterprise, the purpose to sell it to the Romulans. The regular crew is transported to a planet that was to be explored and the children are left behind, among them the four mini-adults. Of course, the plot takes an expected route when the Ferengi begin to be too comfortable on the ship, full of themselves as usual. It allows the children (who are in grave danger) to begin a plot that feeds off the stupidity of the Ferengi. This is one of those just plain fun episodes that isn't to be taken too seriously, but there is still an element of danger.

This has to be one of the silliest episodes in the entire Star Trek franchise history yet it probably is one of the most engaging.

Patrick Stewart, Rosalind Chao, Michelle Forbes, and Whoopi Goldberg while returning to the Enterprise in a shuttle craft encounter an energy storm and return to the Enterprise as they were when they were just about hitting puberty. Gates McFadden thinks with a little work, some genetic readjustment they can be restored. If that was possible Dr. Crusher would get a Universal Noble Prize and be honored more than the discoverer of Viagra.

When some Ferengi however take over the Enterprise it's these younger selves who save the day. It's all quite amusing.

If this is the secret of eternal youth. I'm not sure why these four want to be adults again. They get a chance to do something every one of us dream about, a lifetime do over.

It's that universal lament that I've said thousands of times, "if I knew then what I know now". These kids really do.

It was a great premise that's let down but the writing.

It was hilarious to see the four crew appear on the transporter pad as children but this scene is both inconsistent and illogical. As Sci-Fi viewers, we'll readily accept that a transporter malfunction can turn us into children but the changes need to be consistent. It would have been so simple to place the child actors in the adult costumes but instead they made inconsistent costumes. Keiko and Guinan's and Picard's only had slightly long sleeves and pants whereas Ro's were way oversized. There's no reason for that incongruence, so many viewers will be annoyed.

In contrast, many viewers know that Picard has an artificial heart and will recognize that it would be too big for a child but most will readily ignore that for the sake of a good story.

The writers could have had all oversized clothes and made a joke of it, and could even have young Picard to have chest pains or trouble taking a full breath because of his oversized heat.

There was no reason to clutter the opening scene with the distress call. It didn't add anything. It would be more interesting if that call came in just before or while young Picard was first visiting the bridge and the confusion as to whether Riker or Picard was in charge of responding.

It was odd that young Picard stepped to each of the stations on the bridge to give his orders. I haven't seen Picard do that before. I didn't feel that the actor played a young Picard very convincingly but that's certainly a difficult task for a teen.

We all laugh at how easy it is to take over the Enterprise and accept that it's necessary for interesting plots, but, again, make it plausible. For example, have the two Klingon ships both focused on hitting the shield generators, lose the aft shields and then have reports of people disappearing because they're being beamed down to the planet. Then, lose the forward shields, Data says "we're now losing many people from the saucer section ..." and then he's beamed away (ideally mid sentence), the Ferengi beam onto the bridge, Warf raises his phaser and is beamed away before he can shoot. That would make far more sense than capable warrior Warf missing a 5 meter shot! It would flow.

It annoyed me that young Picard retained his 4 pips because as soon as he realized what was happening he should have removed them, so that the Ferengi didn't realize his importance. In fact, he and Ro shouldn't even have their uniforms once relieved of duty.

It's disappointing that we didn't see Ro discover childhood and contemplate doing it again so that she could experience the things that she missed during her childhood. Rather than the contrived jumping on the bed with Guinan, she could have found joy playing with the children, doing something that she never had the chance to do when she was growing up during a civil war. I suppose that we did get a moment of that with the crayons at the end but would have been more profound if introduced earlier. For example, if a child had asked her to draw and she initially said "no", but then did draw with the child, have fun, and then reprise that at the end as a discovery of the joy that she missed.

If they were in civilian clothes, then the other children would not know who they are and invite them into their world. This could happen at a chance encounter in the hallway when a child says "I haven't met you before, would you like to join me doing ..."

Mile's challenges relating to an apparent teenager Keiko was very good. There could have been much more exploration of the issues involved in a teen with an adult mind and experience.

I haven't watched the fan-made episodes of Start Trek but now perhaps I should go see how fans do it. I'm curious, if the fans were given the same premise as an existing episode, how would they do it differently?

It was a good episode, but it could have been more.

It's every adults dream, to be his/her young self again but with the knowledge gained as adults e.g.- "If I knew then what I know now...". Very funny, interlaced with real drama.

Wonderful episode, one of my favorites, with excellent performances by the young actors playing the adult stars characters in 12 yr old bodies. One could actually believe them to be their adult counterparts.

Star Trek TNG is my favorite show of the series, followed by Voyager. With a very elegant ship and excellent actors, TNG also quickly did away with the mini-skirt costumes, thank goodness, paving the way to more respect for the women of the future and for Voyager to break ground being the first to have several female characters in the major roles of captain, engineer and science officer. A great role model show for developing young women today.

Getting back to this episode, I found it one of the series most entertaining.