The Naked Now

This was the first "Official" mission for the Enterprise-D.

To tell you the truth, I cringed when I first saw this. I agree with some of the other reviews, that this is a poorly adapted "rewrite" of "The Naked Time" from TOS. Or so it seemed when I first saw it.

Getting that out of the way, this episode does introduce a few interesting things. First off, that Data is "Fully Functional" and that when you prick him, he leaks.

Season 1 and particularly this episode, was more of an exploration for the writers and actors - I like revisiting this to see the depth and scope of Trek and how it progressed. The 90's was the decade of Trek, as three major shows occupied our TV screens, two of them very successful as they were syndicated.

This episode, as well as being a continuation of the same odd chemicals that affected Spock, Sulu and Chapel (And O'Reilly in Engineering) is also an exploration of various forms of intoxication, particularly alcohol inebriation.

The Mechanism by which these molecules brought this drunken effect, not being explained in the original series episode, does not need to be explained here, other than it has to do with Gravitational effects. So, while the 1701-D crew fights off delirium, we also get to see a star explode and huge chunks of Solar Surface approach the Enterprise. Watching this in the recently remastered HD makes that experience much more enjoyable, the Stellar Explosion is perfect and the Cosmic Debris, highly detailed.

And, revisiting this reveals that Wesley did not really "Save" the Enterprise, but he had an idea that contributed to their escape from impending vaporization.

Any awkwardness with the characters can be explained as a Crew who did not know each other well, as well as actors who were defining their roles for the first time. And this Episode introduced the nice outfit that Troi wore for the rest of the season.

If these early episodes had any drawbacks, they had to do with Gene Roddenberry trying to see how much of The Original Series they could safely implant here. Some of it did not work, some of it did. Eventually, he had to hire a whole new stable of Writers to bring us the 24th century rendition of Starfleet and the state of that Universe. The Klingons are allies. The Romulans are ??. The Ferengi are mentioned. At this point, we have an ideal universe, and ideal universes are not very exciting to write about. Eventually it came to be that Earth was ideal, but the universe outside was not, and starting with Season 1's "Conspiracy" episode, that starts getting explored.

Shamelessly borrowing a story from the original series, the Enterprise falls prey to a powerful virus that causes the crew to act and behave as if heavily intoxicated. This results in characters behaving goofily and, for the first time in this series, wanton lust and desires.

Feeling very much like a Roddenberry episode, this is far more comical than most episodes. Spiner makes the most of his character displaying genuine progression but generally speaking, this is a fairly weak episode that exposes the lack of depth the characters possess at this point, especially Yar. Trek can do comedy better than this.

The Enterprise crew seem like they are intoxicated.

Being a massive fan of classic Star Trek, I welcomed this follow- up/remake with open arms and after watching it, I felt like more direct re-makes should have been made.

Who could forget that early scene where Picard mentions Captain Kirk going though all this years ago. This bit nicely lines up old Trek with TNG.

This episode gets all sorts of reactions from fans and cast members, many like it while others say it is terrible.

And finally, I would just like to make the point that the Enterprise uniforms looked better in season's one and two. Too bad they changed them in season three.

Near a collapsing star the crew catch a virus that makes them act intoxicated.

This is a distinctly average episode and the positives I take are the performances.

The story is almost an exact remake of the original series episode 'The Naked Time', just with worse character moments. The original series episode was entertaining, but this one unfortunately doesn't do it for me.

Data, Picard, Wesley C, Beverly C, Geordie, Troi and others become fairly annoying when infected with the virus and like other reviewers have stated it does not work so early into the series. The only character who pulls it off is Tasha Yar because you get some insight into her past. The fact that Data is infected is probably the biggest implausibility and it's difficult to suspend disbelief when what you're watching is not particularly interesting. What irritates the most is seeing Enterprise hindered by this type of problem.

The visuals are good with some nicely framed shots and interesting technical scenes in the engineering room, especially as data reconnects the control chips. Also Wesley's handheld tractor beam contains some decent effects. My favourite images are rather macabre in the scene with the frozen bodies.

Performances of most cast members are pretty strong considering they have poor material to work with, however LeVar Burton really struggles to convince, particularly in his sickbay scene.

The Enterprise-D probes the mysterious fate that befell the crew of a starship called the Tsiolkovsky. Although their time is short, as they are in the vicinity of a super red giant star that is due to collapse, the Enterprise-D crew will have their hands full. The party that boarded the Tsiolkovsky bring back with them a strange contaminant that affects many of the crew members - Data included, oddly enough. It makes these individuals behave as if they are drunk. Certainly, their inhibitions are greatly lowered.

Written by famed 'Trek' scribe D. C. Fontana, based on a story by her and John D. F. Black, 'The Naked Now' is overall quite silly, with an awful lot of comedy, although things finally start getting really tense as the Enterprise has to avoid being struck by debris from the star. Some tension is derived from the fact that the affected crew members have to struggle mightily to control themselves - especially Beverly, as the starship doctor, who works hard to find some sort of antidote. (The script references an incident from the original 'Trek' series (on the episode 'The Naked Time'), and what Kirk & others did to combat the problem.) Wesley creates some huge problems as he too is not unaffected, but at least at the end he plays a large part in the outcome.

This first "official" mission for the Enterprise-D *can* get too goofy and comical for its own good, but this viewer would be lying if he said that he didn't have some good laughs watching it. The oddest touch: a scene with Tasha & Data which she swears they must never mention again.

Guest starring Brooke Bundy ("Firecreek"), this second episode was directed by Paul Lynch, whose feature credits include such Canadian shockers as the original "Prom Night" and "Humongous".

Seven out of 10.