The Edo are shocked that the once-friendly visitors protest their law; one Edo is even given the chance to see her “god,” much to the machine-being’s displeasure.
Finally Picard agrees to take the boy from his Edo captors by force. He confronts the Edo, who cave in but bitterly taunt the crew with their own law.
But “God” won’t let the crew beam back. Picard argues that when laws are absolute there can be no real justice, and this convinces “Him” to let them go on their way.
John D.F. Black put his pseudonym, Ralph Wills, on this script, which as aired bears only slight resemblance to the story on terrorism he originally pitched. His first treatment featured the colony of Llarof where random “punishment zones,” originally designed to fight anarchy, are now enforced for any offense and, it turns out, against only those not deemed immune from the law. An Enterprise guard, protecting two children on shore leave who happen upon a crime scene, is shot dead by an overzealous local cop, who in turn is killed on the spot by his dutifully law-abiding partner.
In Black’s first draft Picard refuses to back the first of the timid rebels who want a change, but he finds a loophole just as the rebels’ army wins out and reestablishes order. Black’s second draft saw the rebel leader Reneg put on trial and executed for treason, with Picard musing that the people have the right to decide their own justice without interference. Later major rewrites by Worley Thorne and Gene Roddenberry would add the “Edolord” and the culture’s preoccupation with sex.
“Justice” was the first episode to feature location shooting since the brief holodeck scene in “Farpoint” (102). The Edo exteriors were shot at the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys, a north Los Angeles suburb (see “The First Duty”/219), and Wesley’s fall was filmed at the Huntington Library in Pasadena.
Director James L. Conway, an original-series fan who had directed everything from Sunn Classics’ pseudo-documentaries to Westerns to horror movies to industrial films, had just completed a MacGyver at Paramount when he was chosen to direct for TNG. Brad Zerbst became the first actor to play a recurring med tech or nurse in sickbay; his unnamed part lasted through two more shows, “Heart of Glory” (120) and “Skin of Evil” (122). And a character trademark, Worf’s curt one-liner, began here with his observation on the friendly, mostly nude Edo: “Nice planet!”
THE BATTLE
* * *
Production No.: 110 Aired: Week of November 16, 1987
Stardate: 41723.9 Code: ba
Directed by Rob Bowman
Teleplay by Herbert Wright
Story by Larry Forrester
GUEST CAST
DaiMon Bok: Frank Corsentino
Kazago: Doug Warhit
Rata: Robert Towers
* * *
While waiting to meet the Ferengi, Picard is amazed when his old ship, the Stargazer, turns up.
But the unusual headache he’s having increases when DaiMon Bok of the Ferengi welcomes him as the hero of the Battle of Maxia, the incident in which Picard had to abandon the Stargazer after it was mysteriously attacked.
To his own’s crew’s amazement, Bok presents the derelict starship to Picard as a gift—most unmercenary for a Ferengi. But there’s method in his madness: at Maxia, Bok’s son was the other captain, who was killed after attacking the Stargazer. Bok has forged log tapes on Stargazer showing Picard firing first.
As Riker, Data, and La Forge work to clear their captain, Wesley finds that energy waves from the old ship match Picard’s brain scan. He has stumbled onto the other part of Bok’s trap—a mind-control device planted among Picard’s old belongings.
Aboard his old ship, Picard is reliving the Battle of Maxia, and is about to use the acclaimed “Picard maneuver”—but with the Enterprise cast as the enemy ship. Data devises a defense for the tactic, and Riker breaks through to Picard, who destroys the device.
Before leaving, they see Bok removed from command for insanity—demonstrated by his giving away the Stargazer.
The Ferengi fare better in their second appearance, but their “silliness quotient,” as Rick Berman put it, made them a “disappointment as a major adversary,” Larry Forrester’s first story outline included several scenes aboard the Ferengi ship, but they were dropped and the chance to provide some insight into their culture was lost, The nine years in Picard’s life between the Stargazer and the Enterprise have been undetailed, although some incidents from his other command have come to light (“The Measure of a Man”/135, “Allegiance”/166, “The Wounded”/186)-including Jack Crusher’s death (“Family”/178, “Violations”/212, “Attached”/260).
In his second directorial outing Rob Bowman particularly enjoyed working with Stewart, who had the stage all to himself during filming of the ghostly Stargazer battle scenes, The director used a Steadicam in these sequences to evoke an unsteadiness—the first such use on TNG—and Legato shot each of the Stargazer bridge crew separately with fog and filters, which were video-composited in later.
The Stargazer bridge was a re-dress of the Trek movies’ original; the four-foot filming model was built anew by Greg Jein from Probert and Sternbach’s design after they persuaded the producers not to use the movie-style 1701-A’s craft. That choice was made so late it forced the name of the new ship’s class: “Constellation” neatly fit over “Constitution” when LeVar Burton had to redub the scene after filming.
A long-running joke had its roots in this episode: the gesture Stewart makes as he pulls his uniform’s shirtwaist down when rising soon came to be called the “Picard maneuver.” The episode also provides one of the most offbeat moments in the first and only “blooper reel” of outtakes to be leaked so far. While exploring a darkened corridor of the Stargazer as Data, actor Brent Spiner shines his light across that starship’s dedication plaque and stammers in his best Jimmy “It’s a Wonderful Life” Stewart voice: “For God’s sake, Mary, they built this thing in Bedford Falls!”
Kazago (Doug Warhit) examines Data.
HIDE AND Q
* * *
Production No.: 111 Aired: Week of November 23, 1987
Stardate: 41590.5 Code: hq
Directed by Cliff Bole
Teleplay by C. J. Holland and Gene Roddenberry
Story by C. J. Holland
GUEST CAST
Q: John de Lancie
Disaster survivor: Elaine Nalee
Wes at 25: William A. Wallace
* * *
The meddling, troublesome Q returns just as the Enterprise is racing to help a disaster-struck mining colony—but this time his target is Riker.
The alien creates a bizarre test for the first officer and his away team by sending fanged humanoids in Napoleonic costumes to attack them. Then he tempts Riker with the Q’s power and lets him use it to restore Worf and Wesley, who were killed in the “skirmish.”
Riker is worried about the power’s influence on him, and when the Enterprise reaches the survivors of the mining disaster he refuses to help revive a dead girl.
Guilt over that leads him to yield to the power, and when Q presses him to grant his friends’ wishes, Picard does not object: sight for La Forge, adulthood for Wesley, a Klingon mate for Worf, humanity for Data. But, as Picard has predicted, they all turn down the gifts because of their origin—Q.
Riker understands the lesson, and a humiliated Q gets “called home” by his continuum for losing the bet. Riker’s power and the crew’s wishes all disappear.
Maurice Hurley used his pen name, of C. J. Holland, on this episode, a move he later called a “misunderstanding” over Gene Roddenberry’s extensive rewrites. That issue was soon resolved, and in fact proved to be a turning point in the way scripts would be handled. Hurley’s original story postulated that there were only three Qs but that a hundred thousand residents lived on their dying planet. Those residents needed assistance to escape their dying world.
Riker is on the spot during Q’s (John de Lancie) second appearance.
Returnin
g director Cliff Bole, who noted that the series was still trying to find its tone with this show, had prepared by reviewing Q’s previous appearance in “Farpoint,” However, once the episode began shooting, he found that de Lancie’s affinity for the character and the actor’s sheer talent made much of that work unnecessary.
It is during the head-to-head battle of wits between Picard and Q in the ready room that the title of the captain’s prized display book can be read: The Globe Illustrated Shakespeare. What isn’t so clearly visible is that the book, as usual, is opened to Act III, Scene 2, of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with two illustrations showing.
Although Q refers to the Federation “defeating” the Klingons, later events, such as those in “Heart of Glory” (120), suggest he is being typically sarcastic. As hinted at in “Justice” (109), Klingon foreplay is seen here as rough, at Michael Dorn’s suggestion, with extra Faith Minton as the first Klingon “warrioress” depicted in TNG. In a later episode, “The Dauphin” (136), Worf would imply that it is the male who is submissive.
An admiral’s dress uniform is briefly seen here for the first time, before the duty uniform debuted in “Too Short a Season” (112). As worn by Q, it has wider gold braid for the tunic flap and collar.
TOO SHORT A SEASON
* * *
Production No.: 112 Aired: Week of February 8, 1988
Stardate: 41309.5 Code: ts
Directed by Rob Bowman
Teleplay by Michael Michaelian and D. C. Fontana
Story by Michael Michaelian
GUEST CAST
Admiral Mark Jameson: Clayton Rohner
Anne Jameson: Marsha Hunt
Kamas: Michael Pataki
* * *
A hostage situation on Mordan IV brings the Enterprise and Admiral Mark Jameson, who successfully negotiated a peace there forty years earlier, back for another case.
Unknown to Starfleet and Federation historians, Jameson actually appeased the planet leader Karnas with arms for his hostages then but kept the Prime Directive by supplying all his enemies, thus sparking four decades of civil war. Karnas doesn’t need Jameson to negotiate on behalf of hostages now; the invitation is just a ruse to get him there so the governor can exact his revenge.
But the wheelchair-bound admiral has another surprise, which he has kept secret even from his wife, Anne. Another planet, grateful for Jameson’s diplomacy, has revealed their de-aging compound to him, and he has been using it.
His youthfulness startles his wife and the crew until the overdoses start to backfire: his body can’t take the strain.
Meanwhile, Picard arrives at Mordan and confronts Karnas with the truth, but the leader wants Jameson and doesn’t believe the young man he sees before him is his enemy of so long ago. Only Jameson’s display of their blood-cut scar convinces an amazed Karnas, but by now even vengeance is futile: the governor allows Jameson to die as his wife watches, and the admiral is buried on Mordan IV at her request.
Rapidly growing younger, Admiral Jameson (Clayton Rohner) draws Dr. Crusher’s concern.
Michael Michaelian’s original story used the reverse aging device to deal with the issue of male menopause. In that version Jameson helps Governor Zepec and his rival the high priest, sit down to peace talks and does not die at the end. Instead, he regresses to the age of fourteen and loses all memory of his wife. Fontana tightened up the terrorism trap as the dramatic story’s lure and had Jameson die for having tampered with nature.
Rob Bowman, the director, remembered being excited about working on weekends with actor Clayton Rohner to build up the character of Jameson, but otherwise he recalled the show as a “sit-and-tell” script that was long on dialogue, Other problems with this episode included a sub-par makeup look for the aged admiral Jameson and a malfunctioning $10,000 wheelchair.
Michael Pataki had previously played another K-role on the original Trek: that of Korax, Captain Koloth’s aide who taunts Scotty and Chekov in “The Trouble with Tribbles.”
This show marks the first appearance of a Starfleet admiral in TNG and of his duty uniform, which would eventually be redesigned thrice more. Little used here is a miniature of the Mordan city, built by Okuda and Sternbach—the last such model used in favor of matte paintings until Season 6 (“Birthright”/242-243). Note the wall behind Kamas’ desk, lined with “old-style” phasers from the 1960s and the Trek movie eras; the Portal’s Tkon-style staff from “The Last Outpost” (107) also hangs there.
THE BIG GOODBYE
* * *
Production No,: 113 Aired: Week of January 11, 1988
Stardate: 41997.7 Code: bg
Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan
Written by Tracy Tormé
GUEST CAST
Cyrus Redblock: Lawrence Tierney
Felix Leech: Harvey Jason
Lieutenant Dan Bell: William Boyett
Whalen: David Selburg
Lieutenant McNary: Gary Armagnac
Desk Sergeant: Mike Genovese
Vendor: Dick Miller
Jessica Bradley: Carolyn Allport
Secretary: Rhonda Aldrich
Thug: Erik Cord
* * *
Protocol is all to the insectoid Jarada, who insist that they be greeted successfully in their own tongue without fail before diplomatic relations can begin. It has been twenty years since the Federation last tried to contact them, and the demise of the Starfleet vessel that failed is a tale so horrible that no one wants Data to repeat it.
To relieve the stress of his preparations, Picard tries a little role-playing in his favorite holodeck program, a 1940s hard-boiled detective named Dixon Hill. He is so excited after a short holodeck visit that he takes Data, Dr. Crusher, and literary historian Whalen back with him.
Picard-as-Dixon Hill reads of his client’s murder, while Data and Whalen (David Selburg) look on.
Data and Beverly Crusher’s lark on the holodeck almost turns deadly.
But a long-range Jaradan scan glitches the holodeck programming, and the game turns deadly: Whalen is shot by mobsters, and the party is trapped with no exit. Wesley and La Forge try to make repairs, but a wrong move would kill the players.
Finally the holodeck is opened, and the mobsters gleefully leave, intending to plunder the Enterprise, but of course they dematerialize. Hill-Picard’s police friend, in a metaphysical twist, ponders about reality for holodeck inhabitants as he watches them go.
Still in his trench coat, Picard emerges from his stressful play at last and delivers the Jaradan greeting perfectly, to his bridge crew’s applause.
This 1940s-style romp that ponders the question of existence became an instant hit with the fans and an award-winner as well. Tracy Tormé credits the initial idea of Picard’s detective fantasy on the holodeck to Roddenberry and the staff, but Tormé added some film noir references, including Redblock and Leech as echoes of the Sydney Greeratreet and Peter Loire characters from The Maltese Falcon. He also included a metaphysical twist at the end, when the holodeck creations become self-aware.
It takes a holodeck glitch that creates the Image of an ice planet to convince Cyrus Redblock and henchman Felix Leech (Lawrence Tierney and Harvey Jason, rear right) and Lt. McNary and the thug (Gary Armaganal and Erik Cord, rear left) that they are not real. Meanwhile, Beverly tends to literature historian Whalen’s (David Selburg) gunshot wound.
Rob Bowman had been set to direct the segment, but it was given to Joe Scanlan at the last minute, when problems developed with “Datalore” and the two were switched in production order, The director joined Tormé in suggesting that the 1940s scenes be filmed in black and white, but Berman and Justman disagreed, noting that the holodeck could not change the real Picard and crew.
The episode was “jeered” by TV Guide as too derivative of an original-series episode, “A Piece of the Action,” a comic turn that featured a planetary culture based on 1930s gangland Chicago. Tormé and most of fandom disagreed. The writer felt the comparison was based merely on th
e appearance of “three-piece suits.” Eventually those suits were good enough to help snare an Emmy award for series costuming, and “The Big Goodbye” was chosen by the George Foster Peabody Award Board for its “best of the best” award—the first for an hour-long first-run drama.
The private eye was originally named Dixon Steele, an homage to the character in Torme’s favorite Bogart movie, but he was told to change it because of its resemblance to the title of a TV series, Remington Steele.
The Jarada themselves became a casualty of budget problems; in the finished episode, they are only heard, not seen. “Tormé had done a terrific amount of work on the aliens, creating a hive mind culture he wanted desperately to depict. Still, Marina Sirtis, as Troi, gets a chance to do some linguistics coaching in this episode, and Spiner, McFadden, and Stewart all get to display their rarely used comedic talents. One detail in this script almost equals the “Chinese rice picker” explanation of Spock’s ears from the original-series “City on the Edge of Forever,” and that is the explanation of Data’s skin color: “he’s from South America”!
A good VCR will reveal the detailed period graphics Okuda created for the Dixon Hill computer file. “Tormé is credited as the author of “The Big Goodbye,” Hill’s debut, purportedly published in Amazing Detective Stories magazine in 1934 and followed by the novel The Long Dark Tunnel in 1936. According to his business card, Hill’s office address is Room 312,350 Powell, Union Square, San Francisco, Calif., phone PRospect 4631. The London Kings baseball shortstop who broke DiMaggio’s hitting record in 2026 is later Identified as Harmon “Buck” Bokai on spinoff DS9.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion: Revised Edition Page 8