Klingons are heard here to use kilometers as a unit of measure, even though kellicams had been used in Star Trek III (and later in “Redemption”/200). The heart of a targ, Worf’s onetime pet (“Where No One Has Gone Before”/106), is a delicacy here, as well as its milk (“In Theory”/199); gagh (pronounced “gawk”)—actually long brown noodles and root vegetables, according to prop master Alan Sims—is “best served live,” while rokeg blood pie, later learned to be a Worf favorite (“Family”/178), was actually bottoms-up turnips and roots in pumpkin pies, all dyed red. As usual, the show ran long and one cut scene used a miniature for the Bird-of-Prey’s engineering room.
After seven outings, Meaney’s character finally gets a last name, O’Brien; another two years would pass before viewers learned his first and middle names (178). Vekma’s fellow female Klingon, a nonspeaking character, is named Zegov. And John Putch, who appeared as Ensign Mendon, made TNG trivia history by becoming the first guest star to appear twice as a member of the same alien race but in a different role (see “Coming of Age”/119); how convenient that some Benzites really do look alike.
THE MEASURE OF A MAN
* * *
Production No.: 135 Aired: Week of February 13, 1989
Stardate: 42523.7 Code: mm
Directed by Robert Scheerer
Written by Melinda M. Snodgrass
GUEST CAST
Captain Phillipa Louvois: Amanda McBroom
Admiral Nakamura: Clyde Kusatsu
Commander Bruce Maddox: Brian Brophy
O’Brien. Colm Meaney
Guinan: Whoopi Goldberg
* * *
Data’s rights as a sentient being are questioned when Commander Bruce Maddox, a cyberneticist, wants to disassemble the android to make duplicates for Starfleet.
When Maddox seems uncertain of his ability to reassemble Data, the Enterprise second officer refuses to submit to his experiment and resigns from Starfleet. But that resignation is made moot when Maddox gets a ruling that the android is Starfleet property under a three-hundred-year-old law.
Picard is ready to tackle that decision in a court of law, but the insufficient legal staff at the new starbase forces him to argue against Riker as Data’s defender. On top of that, the base’s judge advocate general, Captain Phillipa Louvois, is an old flame of Picard whose zeal in handling the USS Stargazer inquiry years before split them up.
Riker, warned to do his best or see a summary judgment in Maddox’s favor, dramatically proves that his second officer is just a machine by removing one of Data’s arms and then turning him off completely.
Picard has all but conceded until Guinan helps him see that Maddox’s plan for an army of androids without rights would amount to slavery.
Confident again, Picard successfully argues that all beings are created but not owned by their creator. Later he and Louvois agree to a dinner date, while Data assuages Riker’s guilt for taking part in the prosecution’s case.
Picard argues Data’s rights before Commander Maddox (Brian Brophy) and Captain Louvois (Amanda McBroom).
Captain Louvois ponders her decision.
Riker “proves” Data is nothing but a machine.
Writer Melinda Snodgrass drew on her own experience as an attorney to craft this timeless tale of personal rights. This episode, which marked her TV debut, was nominated for a Writers Guild award. Now an established SF novelist Snodgrass hit the New York Times best-seller list with her first book, Tears of the Singers, also set in the Trek universe. She has coedited the Wild Cards SF book series with friend and fellow SF-fantasy author George R.R. Martin, a producer on TV’s Beauty and the Beast.
Guest star Brian Brophy, who may be best known to genre fans as Traker from Max Headroom, earlier played a doctor on the “good” side of the research ethics question in the film Paranoia. His Maddox character, who is actually more impulsive than villainous, has since popped up occasionally. In “Data’s Day” (185) he is corresponding with the forgiving android all the way from the Daystrom Technological Institute—an homage to computer genius Richard Daystrom from the 1960s episode “The Ultimate Computer.”
Amanda McBroom, a longtime Trek and SF fan, had a recurring role on Hawaii Five-O and won the 1980 Golden Globe for cowriting “The Rose,” the hit Bette Midler song from the movie of the same name. A Broadway actress, she had guested on M⋆A⋆S⋆H, Hart to Hart, Remington Steele, Magnum P.I., and Taxi.
During the trial, Data is forced to reveal his on-off switch to Picard and Riker (“Datalore”/114) as well as his intimate encounter with the late Tasha Yar in “The Naked Now” (103); he keeps a small copy of the hologram she recorded for her memorial service. Here we learn that Data’s Starfleet awards include decorations for valor and for gallantry; the Medal of Honor, with clusters; the Legion of Honor; the Starcross; and three others seen in a case. His computer file, as viewed by Riker, refers to the android as NFN NMI Data; the initials stand for No First Name, No Middle Initial. And, for computer buffs, Data’s storage capacity is said to be 800 quadrillion bits, with a rating of 16 trillion operations per second!
The regular poker game among Picard’s officers is seen here for the first time, as is the redesigned flag officer’s uniform. An attempt is also made—here with a novel and later, in “Up the Long Ladder” (144), with love poetry—to reestablish an ethnic-pride joke for Worf and the Klingons, a successor to the original Trek’s Russian joke for Chekov and the short-lived French joke for Picard.
The Okudagram starmap originally seen behind “mother creature” Remmick (“Conspiracy”/125) is used for the last time on TNG in this show’s courtroom, though it later turned up as a wall chart in spinoff DS9’s classroom. Meanwhile, the Daystrom Institute would become a twenty-fourth-century Trek staple (“Booby Trap”/154, “Captain’s Holiday”/167, “Data’s Day”/185, and DS9’s “Q-Less”).
THE DAUPHIN
* * *
Production No.: 136 Aired: Week of February 20, 1989
Stardate: 42568.8 Code: dp
Directed by Rob Bowman
Written by Scott Rubenstein and Leonard Mlodinow
GUEST CAST
Anya: Paddi Edwards
Salia: Jamie Hubbard
O’Brien: Colm Meaney
Crewman Aron: Peter Neptune
Anya as Teenage Girl: Mädchen Amick
Anya as Furry Animal: Cindy Sorenson
Ensign Gibson: Jennifer Barlow
* * *
A diplomatic mission provides the setting for Wesley’s first romance when the ship must ferry home a princess and her overprotective guardian.
As Troi worries that the two passengers are not what they seem, Wesley seeks advice on how to handle his emotions. Meanwhile, the princess’s guardian Anya grows irrational at any hint of danger to Salia.
When Anya transforms herself into a dangerously violent creature to challenge Worf, Dr. Pulaski realizes that Salia’s people are allasomorphs, or shape-changers.
To avoid a fight, Picard orders Wesley to stay away from Salia, but Wesley cannot, and their meetings continue until Anya discovers them. When Salia matches Anya’s transformation with one of her own, Wesley is stunned, and he deserts her.
Wes at first rebuffs Salia’s apologies for having deceived him, but he finally overcomes his pride and brings her a peace offering: another bowl of the chocolate mousse they once enjoyed together.
This simple story by the early-season stay editors at last gives Wesley a contemporary problem and his first romance. It was a special thrill for Wil Wheaton: not only was it the sixteen-year-old’s first screen kiss but actress Jamie Hubbard was ten years his senior! “Dauphin” (pronounced doe-fan), incidentally, was the title given to the eldest son of the king of France from 1349 to 1830. The original Trek had included at least two references to shape-shifters: the people of Antos IV in “Whom Gods Destroy” and the Vendorians in “The Survivor,” an episode of the animated series.
Seen only briefly here, Mädchen Amick—Hu
bbard’s runner-up for the role of Salia—would go on to much more exposure as Leo Johnson’s unfortunate wife Shelly on Twin Peaks.
The folks at the Post Group stayed extra busy with “The Dauphin,” adding a seventh twenty-hour day to their week to create the shape transformations and the world the young couple visits on the holodeck. Two of the ten shots required for the Rousseau V asteroid ring required over 110 layers each, while some twenty-five steps were needed for each of the allasomorphs’ seven transformations. Still, Rob Bowman thought the monster outfits looked cheap and reduced their screen time as much as possible.
An unusual touch is seen in Wes Crusher’s quarters: just as Anya resumes her shape, you can see on the shelf behind her a display cube with an old-style Kirk-era phaser and communicator.
Wesley with his first love (Jamie Hubbard).
CONTAGION
* * *
Production No.: 137 Aired: Week of March 20, 1989
Stardate: 42609.1 Code: cg
Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan
Written by Steve Gerber and Beth Woods
GUEST CAST
Captain Donald Varley: Thalmus Rasulala
Sub-Commander Taris: Carolyn Seymour
Tactical Ensign: Dana Sparks
O’Brien: Colm Meaney
Doctor: Folkert Schmidt
* * *
Crossing the Neutral Zone to answer an SOS from the USS Yamato, the Enterprise arrives in time to see widespread computer malfunctions destroy its sister ship.
When log tapes from the Yamato reveal that its captain had tracked the mythical planet Iconia to this location, Picard has his ship retrace the Yamato’s course: discovering the secrets of the extinct Iconian civilization would be worth risking an encounter with the Romulans. But after the same computer malfunctions begin to plague the Enterprise, La Forge realizes that an Iconian probe’s energy burst infected the Yamato with a computer virus that rewrote that ship’s control software. By downloading the Yamato’s logs, the Enterprise has now become infected as well.
A desperate Picard beams down with Worf and Data to a control tower on long-dead Iconia, where they discover a time gateway. There Data becomes infected with the Iconian virus as well.
Meanwhile, the crew is forced to raise shields and strand the away team when a Romulan ship suddenly attacks the Enterprise. But Riker soon learns the enemy vessel is also crippled by the virus.
Picard decides to destroy the control tower and the remaining Iconian probes, but first returns Data and Worf to the Enterprise through the time gateway. Once Data arrives back on board ship, his self-correcting function eradicates the Iconian virus in his system; that reminds La Forge that the ship’s computers have the same capability.
Iconia’s computer virus infects Data as well as his ship.
The Enterprise regains transporter capability in time to rescue Picard from the planet below. The Romulans, of course, offer no thanks for the virus cure that saves them as well.
Appropriately enough, the story was conceived by a fan and computer technician (Beth Woods) who at the time worked on the Trek offices’ computers. It also introduced Picard’s interest in archaeology (“Captain’s Holiday”/167, “Qpid”/194, “The Chase”/246, “Gambit”/256-257, and “Bloodlines”/274). Carolyn Seymour would turn up as a different alien (“First Contact”/189) and another Romulan (“Face of the Enemy”/240).
This segment features Picard’s first oral food-slot order for “Tea, Earl Grey—hot,” and the first-ever name of a Romulan ship in twenty-three years of aired Trek: Haakona. A familiar character, Commander Bruce Maddox, is already being mentioned as a genius after his debut earlier in the season in “The Measure of the Man” (135).
Rick Sternbach designed the Iconian gateway with lots of Japanese inscriptions that refer to numerous animé titles and characters. And the names of the show’s cowriters, Steve Gerber and Beth Woods, can barely be seen in the list of Yamato’s log entries, as the ship’s first and second officers.
THE ROYALE
* * *
Production No.: 138 Aired: Week of March 27, 1989
Stardate: 42625.4 Code: ro
Directed by Cliff Bole
Written by Keith Mills
GUEST CAST
Texas: Nobel Willingham
Assistant Manager: Sam Anderson
Vanessa: Jill Jacobson
Bellboy: Leo Garcia
O’Brien: Colm Meaney
Mikey D. Gregory Beecroft
* * *
Puzzled by the recovery of a chunk of a twenty-first-century Earth spacecraft, Worf, Data, and Riker beam down into the middle of the lone structure they find on the nearest uninhabited planet.
After passing through a revolving door set in an otherwise black void, they cannot escape from what appears to be a resort casino named the Hotel Royale.
Bizarre scenes now unfold before them: a clichéd love triangle, gamblers who invite the Starfleet men to join them, and finally the discovery of a twenty-first-century American astronaut’s remains in a hotel suite.
There Data also finds a book entitled The Hotel Royale, and the pieces of the mystery begin to fall into place.
By reading the astronaut’s diary, the away team learns that aliens found his disabled ship and created a world in which he could live out his life. Unfortunately they used the badly written pulp mystery as their model.
As the love triangle resolves itself yet again with a mobster gunning down a bellboy, the trapped crewmen find a way to break the time-loop trap. Using the novel’s ending, in which foreign investors buy the Royale, Data returns to the craps tables and breaks the bank, angering the casino characters but allowing the away team to exit for beam-up.
This story was supposed to be surreal, but if it comes across as merely unfocused, it’s not surprising. The name of writer “Keith Mills” is a pseudonym of Tracy Tormé, who reportedly removed his name from the script after Maurice Hurley objected to its surrealism, comedy, and subtle satire. Hurley later said he thought it too derivative of the copycat aliens in the original-Trek episode “A Piece of the Action.” The original story was good, but it was a budget-buster, according to director Cliff Bole. Later, Bole was reminded of his years directing Vega$ when the “Royale” script took a budget cut that resulted in a casino built out of “curtains and some tricks.”
The dispute led Tormé to leave active staff duty and take on a looser, nonexclusive role as a creative consultant with a commitment to just three more episodes; he would complete only one, “Manhunt” (145).
In the original final draft of “The Royale,” completed on January 10—one of two scripts that had won Tormé a staff job during TNG’s first season—the astronaut survivor was actually the last of his crew of seven to die. His image was then kept alive in this macabre setting, to be entertained by the captured Enterprise party. In the end, as with Pike and Vina in the original-Trek pilot, “The Cage,” a dead away team crew woman is retained to keep the astronaut company after the unseen casino manager agrees to tell the story and release the crew.
In that early draft Dr. Pulaski at one point was supposed to say, “I’m a doctor, not a magician”—harking back to DeForest Kelley’s Dr. McCoy, but that line was lost in the revisions.
Data’s high rolling Intrigues Vanessa (Jill Jacobson).
Lending sparkle to this outing is veteran character actor Nobel Willingham, who has played many film and TV roles. He appeared on Northern Exposure in 1992 as Maurice Minefield’s former U.S. Marine commander.
Despite the story’s unevenness, much Federation and Earth history is revealed here. As seen in Colonel Stephen Richey’s uniform patch, the United States is said to have had fifty-two states in the years between 2053 and 2079, the year the “new” United Nations fell—see “Farpoint” (101). Richey’s flight, launched on July 23, 2037, and overseen by NASA with its 1970s-era logo, was the third to try to push outside the solar system. Given the series’ date, according to “The Neutral Zone” (1
26), his death 283 years earlier would have occurred in 2082.
By the way, for math fans: the missing proof for Fermat’s Last Theorem, devised by the seventeenth-century inventor of differential calculus and differential geometry, would show that xn + yn = zn where n>2 and x, y, and z are whole numbers. This too may be dated soon: Princeton University professor Andrew Wiles claimed in 1993 to have discovered a proof to the famous puzzle, and within a year had worked out the one snag pointed out, winning tentative early backing for his solution among academicians.
TIME SQUARED
* * *
Production No.: 139 Aired: Week of April 3, 1989
Stardate: 42679.2 Code: tm
Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan
Teleplay by Maurice Hurley
Story by Kurt Michael Bensmiller
GUEST CAST
O’Brien: Colm Meaney
* * *
In a bizarre turn of events, Picard is confronted by his own double from six hours into the future, out of phase and disoriented after being recovered from a shuttlecraft that has recorded the Enterprise’s destruction in a vast energy whirlpool.
The double Picard, dazed in a nightmare world, cannot communicate what happened, and the real-time captain begins to fear that the ship will become trapped in a time loop.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion: Revised Edition Page 14