The Naked Now

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.

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.

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.

The Enterprise answers a distress call from from a ship studying the affects of a red giant star about to go supernova. When they get there, the crew is all dead and the ship looks like a wild party happened.

The same thing happened on Star Trek prime in an episode and to my knowledge this second episode is the only one in the whole series that mentions Captain Kirk and his crew.

As it was with Dr. McCoy, responsibility falls on Dr. Crusher ad she's got a problem with Wesley showing abherent behavior an effect of the disease.

Even Data is affected which was unusual. Later on he's imperious to various maladies that strike the human crew.

Look for Wil Wheaton to make one of his strongest performances in the series history.

My heart sank a bit when I saw this recently. It was only the second offering and I would imagine those who thought that the pilot was setting up an intellectual kind of science fiction was suddenly thrust into a kind of 1950's space commando movie. Wesley Crusher is a loose cannon whose character should have been eased into the series a little at a time. Let him earn his stripes. When one considers the expense and seriousness of these missions, for him to be playing around with such dangerous stuff seems awfully careless. He becomes a cause of trouble and then goes into the solution mode. The Enterprise is affected by a viral condition that causes irrational behavior. One would think that there would be some sort of fail-safe in operation. The fact that the crew is still around for the third episode is a credit to incredible chance and luck. I believe that the series is only strong when the interplanetary forces are at odds and invention is at the fore, coming from those carefully trained in their duties and experiences.