The Arsenal of Freedom

Answering a distress call on a planet long considered devoid of intelligent life, the Enterprise discovers it has triggered some kind of alarm system where a humanoid played by Vincent Schiavelli appears and offers the Enterprise all kinds of weaponry.

Schiavelli is just a hologram, but he does get some interesting lines in. It seems as though way back when this planet had a war of annihilation and his people sold both sides the weapons that did the job.

A few close calls for some TNG regulars as Patrick Stewart looks to get away from this place without triggering off weapons that are for sale like in a department store.

Some thought provoking ideas in this TNG story.

Enterprise receives a recorded message from planet Minos.

This is an mostly good episode with a number of strong character moments but the production design and some performances let it down at times.

The plot is solid and based on a very interesting subject of weapons manufacturing. It starts in a fairly uninspired way, but when Picard leaves Enterprise to join the away team, the plot gets more interesting.

I enjoyed the scenes with Picard and Dr Crusher, which give some nice background on Crusher and has an interesting dynamic of patient looking after the doctor. Geordie's time in command also has some cool moments for his character.

Where I struggled is on the surface of the 'densely forested' planet Minos. Not only are the performances fairly weak, particularly from Denise Crosby, but the set and tech design is very poor. Considering this was made long after the original series, it appears to be more dated.

The above problems generally contribute to a distinct lack of threat offered by the technology described as a highly and advanced perfect killing machine.

Patrick Stewart is as strong as ever. LeVar Burton gives another likeable performance and carries the bridge scenes well. Gates McFadden is solid and likewise Marina Sirtis. Jonathan Frakes appears to be going through the motions in some quite bland exchanges with Crosby.

Like many stories in science fiction -including the first season of Star Trek: Picard- this episode is about the dangers of artificial life. AOF does a decent job of telling this story by obfuscating the theme initially. The episode also contains some great work from LeVar Burton, who can convey such emotion despite wearing a headband on his face.

The little conflict with this week's chief engineer also highlights the ridiculous way the highest-ranking officers just casually beam down to planets for whatever reason. Picard is only down there so the writers could develop his bond with Beverly. Silly, but it works.

"Arsenal of Freedom" is a very simple episode--good but with a simple plot. The Enterprise is looking for what's left of another ship, the Drake. The trail leads to a dead planet...and yet the planet makes contact with them! It seems to be an automated message by some arms merchants who own the planet--and it IS a dead planet indeed. But when the away team lands, the planet becomes VERY hostile and begins attacking. Why then the Captain and Doctor beam down, I have no idea. Soon, all five crew members are in a life or death struggle and they cannot beam back aboard. In the meantime, Laforge is in command and this offers him a huge challenge, as the planet soon begins attacking the ship as well. Basically it's a tale of survival as well as of growth for Laforge. Very simple, very direct and yet very enjoyable. Worth seeing.

The Enterprise receives a message from a long-dead planet, that continues to act as a showroom for self-sustaining advanced weapon systems. With the away team cut off after being attacked, the Enterprise itself comes under attack which forces La Forge to step up as commanding officer.

Despite a humorous cameo from Schiavelli, this episode feels a bit of a disappointment. The floating weapons look like golden hairdryers, there are too many subplots in play and the latest chief engineer Logan (Vyto Ruginis) is perhaps the most unprofessional and unlikeable officer in the whole of the galaxy! It feels like it couldn't decide whether to be a comedy, an action episode or a dramatic story and sorta ends up being none of these things.