Snodgrass’s stay, originally titled “Send in the Clones,” began as a look at immigration and the “we don’t want their kind here” prejudice, but the author admits it lost something in the push-and-shove of rewrites and budget limits. Still, she recalls the story drew some flak from two different directions. Right-to-life advocates objected to the pro-choice “I’m in charge of my body” sentiment espoused by Riker (intended) in denying the Mariposan permission to use his body for cloning, and Irish Americans protested what they felt was a stereotypical portrayal of the Bringloidi (unintended, since Irishman Hurley conceived their look). The original title, a pun on the title of the Sondheim song “Send in the Clowns,” actually survived until well after the scripts were printed.
The pregnant Bringloidi woman was no fake: prop man Alan Sims’ wife was two weeks overdue with her baby at the time. The Sims family actually bred the African pygmy goats used in the scene. Mention of Earth’s recovery from World War III in the early 2100s and the European Hegemony as the first stirrings of world government later that century seem to jive with Earth’s twenty-first-century “post-atomic horror” of “Farpoint” (101-102) and “nuclear winter” (“A Matter of Time”/209), apparently separate from the Eugenics Wars of 1967’s “Space Seed” in 1992-96; the reference there could be the “Third World” War, since most of Khan’s people came from non-Western nations. In 1968’s “Return to Tomorrow,” Kirk said Earth had managed its nuclear crisis more wisely than ravaged planet Arret; “Bread and Circuses” set out that some 37 million died in World War III.
An Okudagram seen here—Picard’s search menu for Ficus sector launches—includes several humorous references. There’s the SS Buckaroo Banzai, captained by John Whorfin with a “mission to Planet 10, Dimension 8”; and two other ships are the animé-related Urusei Yatsura and the Tomobiki, the setting of “Urusei.” Then there are mission assignments such as “diplomatic mission to Alderan,” a Star Wars homage, and the one given “Commander Gene Roddenberry” to “explore strange new worlds.”
Though it can barely be glimpsed, Picard overlooks on this screen the very launch he’s looking for: the sixth line is for the SS Mariposa. Beyond the data he reads aloud, another chart shows the ship to be a DY-500 class vessel owned by OCC, launched November 27, 2123, with U.N. registry NAR-7678 and powered by—yes—yoyodyne pulse fusion. According to the 1960s “Space Seed” episode, the DY-500 class dates back to the early twenty-first century, making it a decades-old model by the time of this launch.
MANHUNT
* * *
Production No.: 145 Aired: Week of June 19, 1989
Stardate: 42859.2 Code: mh
Directed by Rob Bowman
Written by Terry Devereaux
GUEST CAST
Lwaxana Troi: Majel Barrett
Slade Bender: Robert Costanza
Mr. Homn: Carel Struycken
Rex: Rod Arrants
O’Brien: Colm Meaney
Scarface: Robert O’Reilly
Madeline: Rhoda Aldrich
Antedian Dignitary: Mick Fleetwood
Transport Pilot: Wren T. Brown
* * *
While picking up Antedian delegates on diplomatic escort duty, the Enterprise is graced once again by Troi’s mother, Lwaxana, who checks aboard this time with full ambassadorial status as a delegate.
Her daughter is dismayed to learn that Lwaxana is not only chasing Picard again but is in the midst of the Betazoid “Phase”—a midlife female cycle that quadruples (at least) the woman’s sex drive.
Picard escapes from Lwaxana’s dinner-for-two trap and flees into the holodeck to hide out and play Dixon Hill, his favorite gumshoe.
Lwaxana moves on to a short-lived engagement with Riker, then tracks both men down on the holodeck, only to fall for the program’s bartender.
Meanwhile, in sickbay the fishlike Antedians have remained in a trance, their race’s preferred state for deep-space travel. Upon arrival at the Pacifica conference site, they awaken and prepare to beam down just ahead of Lwaxana.
The whole flight having been a waste of time for her, Troi’s mother finally shows off her telepathic powers by casually pointing out that the two Antedians are assassins carrying undetectable explosives with which to bomb the conference.
With security officers sheepishly standing by, a departing Lwaxana manages to redden her old friend Picard’s face one more time.
Tracy Tormé once again used a pseudonym to protest the revisions of this episode, which turned out to be his TNG swan song. He had conceived of this show as a sequel to two of his first-season episodes, a chance to bring back both Lwaxana Troi and Dixon Hill. The show, designed as a Majel Barrett vehicle, was also the last for prolific director Rob Bowman until season four’s “Brothers” (177). Particularly funny were Riker’s reaction to the thought of Troi’s sex drive quadrupling during the Phase and the scene in which the holodeck character, Rex, realizes that he doesn’t know his last name.
Even Dixon Hill and Madeline (Rhonda Aldrich) can’t shake Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett).
K’Ehleyr (Suzie Plakson) participates in Worf’s holodeck “calisthenics.”
In that fiction-within-fiction of the Dixon Hill world, we learn his drink is “scotch, neat,” and that secretary Madeline’s is “rye and ginger.” The holodeck villains, though, come from yet another story, “The Parrot’s Claw” (see “The Big Goodbye”/113). Tormé, who based this plot roughly on Farewell, My Lovely, had included several Chandleresque voice-overs for Picard/Hill that were removed to avoid confusion with the captain’s logs. The escapism is nicely underscored by the use of three pop standards “Moonlight Serenade,” “How High the Moon,” and “Let’s Get Away from It All.”
Longtime Trek fan Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac became the second rock music figure to appear as a guest star on TNG, though as the piscean Antedian terrorist in disguise he kept a much lower profile than did Michelle Phillips in the earlier episode (124). Fleetwood, by the way, shaved off his trademark beard to accommodate the makeup, which took 2½ hours to apply.
THE EMISSARY
* * *
Production No.: 146 Aired: Week of June 26, 1989
Stardate: 42901.3 Code: em
Directed by Cliff Bole
Teleplay by Richard Manning and Hans Beimler
Story by Thomas H. Calder
GUEST CAST
K’Ehleyr: Suzie Plakson
K’Temoc: Lance le Gault
Admiral Gromek: Georgann Johnson
O’Brien: Colm Meaney
Ensign Clancy: Anne Elizabeth Ramsey
Tactical Crewman: Dietrich Bader
* * *
Sent to assist the Enterprise in stopping a pre-alliance Klingon sleeper ship that could awake to prey upon helpless UFP worlds is a special envoy from the Klingon Empire—a half-human, half-Klingon female named K’Ehleyr.
K’Ehleyr, whose advice to destroy the ship is rejected by Picard, turns out to be a former lover of Worf’s. He resists her playful advances, finally revealing his pent-up feelings left over from their last parting.
Later K’Ehleyr tries out Worf’s holodeck combat program to relieve her mounting stress. Finding her there and joining in the fight, a battle-roused Worf grabs K’Ehleyr and they consummate their passion.
The couple’s newfound intimacy is shattered, though, when she storms out after refusing Worf’s marriage proposal traditionally offered after making love.
K’Ehleyr’s original mission finally brings the two back together. The cruiser’s crew awakens before being intercepted, and Picard lets Worf and K’Ehleyr masquerade as the Enterprise’s commanders.
Worf doesn’t blink in the ensuing standoff and pulls off the ruse, winning kudos from his captain. Seeing K’Ehleyr off privately to take command of the ship, he at last agrees with her that neither will be complete without the other.
Worf’s well-ordered life is disrupted by the first in a long series of complications when Suzie Plakson’s
dynamic K’Ehleyr steps back into his life with this story. Credit director Cliff Bole with the Klingon’s crushing hand-holding, which draws blood. The popular Plakson played a Vulcan doctor earlier in the series, in “The Schizoid Man” (131) and would return as the ill-fated K’Ehleyr again, in “Reunion” (181).
Footage of the Klingon K’t’inga-class vessels is recycled from the first Trek movie, which makes sense: a seventy-five-year-old ship would still have been in use four years after the events of the Star Trek II-III-IV trilogy, in 2286, using TNG’s years as mentioned in “The Neutral Zone” (126). K’Ehleyr arrives in a probe that was redressed from Spock’s photon-torpedo coffin from Star Trek II and III.
The Okudagram seen here gives K’Ehleyr several other holodeck exercise options: scuba diving, Hanauma Bay, Earth; Klingon Rite of Ascension Chamber, mentioned in “The Icarus Factor” (140); Shi-Kahr Desert survival, Vulcan, from D. C. Fontana’s animated Trek episode, “Yesteryear”; carnival celebration, Rio de Janeiro, Earth; racetrack, Longchamps, France, Earth; and two Dixon Hill mysteries, “The Long Dark Tunnel” and “The Black Night.” Worf’s calisthenics are seen in two other episodes, “Where Silence Has Lease” (128) and “New Ground” (210).
Anne Elizabeth Ramsey, who plays Clancy, was earlier seen as an assistant engineer in “Elementary, Dear Data” (129), although the actress’s name there was “Ramsay.”
PEAK PERFORMANCE
* * *
Production No.: 147 Aired: Week of July 10, 1989
Stardate: 42923.4 Code: pk
Directed by Robert Scheerer
Written by David Kemper
GUEST CAST
Sima Kolrami: Roy Brocksmith
Bractor: Armin Shimerman
Ferengi Tactician: David L. Lander
Ensign Nagel: Leslie Neale
Ensign Burke: Glenn Morshower
* * *
To prepare for the Borg threat, Picard asks for a master Zakdorn strategist to oversee a battle simulation he will wage against Riker, who will command the revived derelict USS Hathaway. Strategist Sirna Kolrami, who predicts that Riker has no chance, is also a champion at the game Strategema. His shockingly easy defeat of Data leaves Pulaski and others fuming at the tactician’s arrogance.
Meanwhile, Riker realizes his ship’s hope in the “battle” is his own flair for off-beat tricks. With the help of a dilithium sliver from Wesley’s science project, his crew stands ready.
Riker scores an early hit using the holographic image of a Romulan warbird as a distraction, but the games turn deadly when Picard mistakes an incoming Ferengi ship for another illusion. Its attack leaves his weapons fused in the harmless war games mode.
The Ferengi demand the secret weapon they surmise the Hathaway must be holding and threaten to destroy both vessels. But, using its jury-rigging, the older ship fakes its “shooting” in the split second as it warp-jumps, startling the materialistic Ferengi into withdrawing when they can’t fathom its illogical destruction.
Kolrami (Roy Brocksmith) briefs Picard and Riker on the war games.
Meanwhile, Data gets a Strategema rematch with Kolrami. This time he coolly plays only for a draw and “wins” when the frustrated Zakdorn loses his patience.
The Ferengi return to grace here as comic foils, and they wear a more refined uniform to boot; note the yin-yang collar pips signifying rank. Armin Shimerman, the second to play two Ferengi roles (“The Last Outpost”/107), later starred as a third—Quark on spinoff DS9. Brocksmith later had recurring roles on Picket Fences and Lois & Clark, while Zakdorn would again be seen (“Ménage à Troi”/172, “Unification II”/207) and heard (“Unification I”/208).
The antimatter shards seen in this episode are actually blue candle wax, the Hathaway’s bridge is yet another redress of the film set, and the Tholians—referred to in “The Icarus Factor”/ (140)—are mentioned again here, this time as a “victim” of Riker’s quick thinking during an Academy simulation. This story also includes the first known name of a Ferengi ship, the Kreechta. The acronym LCARS, seen prominently on Enterprise computer screens here and in other segments, stands for Library Computer Access-Retrieval System.
More Okudagrams with in-jokes and animé references: Kolrami’s briefing chart calls the war games Operation Lovely Angel and lists Kei and Yuri as proper names of the three Braslota planets, along with Totoro. The Hathaway’s plaque, showing it was built at Copernicus Ship Yards of Luna (Earth’s moon), carries two Buckaroo references: Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems is the builder, and the motto is the film’s catch line, “No matter where you go, there you are.”
SHADES OF GRAY
* * *
Production No.: 148 Aired: Week of July 17, 1989
Stardate: 42976.1 Code: sg
Directed by Rob Bowman
Written by Maurice Hurley, Richard Manning, and Hans Beimler
Story by Maurice Hurley
GUEST CAST
O’Brien: Colm Meaney
* * *
A painful thorn in the leg snagged during a planetary survey turns deadly for Riker when it is found to carry an organism that attacks his central nervous system.
When Riker falls into a coma and his vital signs plummet, Pulaski realizes that the invading microbe cannot be separated from the nerves it has wound itself around.
The chief medical officer is finally able to stabilize its spread, but not until it has actually reached Riker’s brain. In a desperate try, she uses a tearful Troi’s help in electronically stimulating his brain to help fight off the growth.
When Troi senses that Riker’s romantic dreams promote the microbe’s growth, she and Pulaski begin trying to stimulate the negative memories, including a recollection of Tasha Yar’s death, to slow the organism. Pulaski finally decides to risk the potentially fatal all-out induction of Riker’s most primitive emotions; after his body is racked with convulsions, the organism is defeated and disappears.
The neural stimulator proves to be Riker’s only hope for surviving the Suratan microbe.
A limp “clip show” finale to the season, “Shades of Gray” is probably the weakest Trek script ever written for either generation; even writer Maurice Hurley agrees that it was “terrible, just terrible.” Hurley wrote the hurried script—designed as a budget-conscious “bottle” (all-shipboard) show—on his way out the door after deciding to leave the series. Even Rob Bowman’s touch as director couldn’t save a show that only took three days to shoot; production assistant Eric Stillwell searched through tapes and came up with scenes representing Riker’s memories to pad out the show.
For the record, those scenes included the momentary aloneness of away team command (“The Last Outpost”/107); fond first memories of Data (“Farpoint”/101); flirting with Guinan (“The Dauphin”/136); and a possible good-bye with Deanna (“The Icarus Factor”/140). More erotic memories include his times with the Edo (“Justice”/109), Minuet (“11001001”/116), Beata (“Angel One”/115), and Brenna (“Up the Long Ladder”/144). When his recollections turn increasingly negative, they cover his grief at the death of Yar (“Skin of Evil”/122) and Troi’s “son” (“The Child”/127); violence at the hands of the Pagh’s officer Klag (“A Matter of Honor”/134); the alien-controlled Admiral Quinn (“Conspiracy”/125); and the primal survival urge when threatened by T’Jon (“Symbiosis”/123), the Ferengi (“The Last Outpost”/107), and Armus (“Skin of Evil”/122); the possible autodestruct of the Enterprise (“11001001”/116), his near-death on the exploding Batris (“Heart of Glory”/120), and a rapid-fire mélange of many crises, including those involving Remmick (“Conspiracy”/125), the Tsiolkovsky virus (“The Naked Now”/103), the Solari traitor (“Loud As A Whisper”/132), and the infected Lantree (“Unnatural Selection”/133).
The drug tricordrazine—also used in “Who Watches the Watchers” (152) and in “Yesterday’s Empire” (163) is a likely descendant of cordrazine, the drug that fired McCoy with enough hysterical paranoia to change history in the original-Trek episo
de “City on the Edge of Forever.”
Notes
1 Edward Gross, Starlog No. 152, March 1990, p. 32.
2 Mike Okuda and Rick Sternbach, The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual, p. 64. Pocket Books, 1991.
PRODUCTION STAFF CREDITS—SECOND SEASON
* * *
(In usual roll order; numbers in parentheses refer to episode numbers.)
Casting: **Junie Lowery
Main Title Theme: **Jerry Goldsmith, **Alexander Courage
Music by: Ron Jones (all even-numbered episodes, 128-146 except 136); Dennis McCarthy (all odd-numbered episodes, 127-147 (plus 136)
Director of Photography: **Edward R. Brown, A.S.C.
Production Designer: Richard D. James (EMMY NOMINATION: “Elementary, Dear Data” [129])
Editor: Tom Benko (127, 130, 133, 136, 139, 145, 148); Monty de Graff (142); William Hoy (128, 131, 134, 137); Jon Koslowsky (140, 143, 146); Bob Lederman (129, 132, 135, 138, 141, 144, 147)
Unit Production Manager: *Sam Freedle
First Asst. Director: *Les Landau (127, 129); Merri D. Howard (all even-numbered episodes, 128-148); *(as 2nd AD) Robert J. Metoyer (odd-numbered episodes, 131-147)
Second Asst. Director: *Robert J. Metoyer (127-129); *Adele G. Simmons (130-148)
Costume Designer: Durinda Rice Wood (EMMY NOMINATION: “Elementary, Dear Data” [129])
Starfleet Uniforms: *William Ware Theiss
The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion: Revised Edition Page 16