Transporter Technician: Ryan Reid
Computer Voice: Majel Barrett
* * *
After receiving an old-style distress call from a moon of Mab-Bu VI, previously thought to be uninhabited, and after learning also that magnetic storms prevent the use of the transporter, Riker, Troi, and Data take a shuttlecraft down to the moon’s surface to investigate.
Stranded after the shuttle crash-lands, they are relieved when O’Brien risks his life to beam down to them. He brings along transport enhancers to enable them to beam back to the ship. As they depart, a strange cloud envelops all but the injured Riker.
Troi, Data, and O’Brien have been possessed by alien entities, who soon secure themselves in Ten-Forward with hostages—including a bewildered Keiko and little Molly—until Picard agrees to their chief demand: move the ship to the area over the moon’s south pole.
The entities claim to be from the USS Essex and say they want only to be buried in peace. Troi, possessed by the spirit of Captain Bryce Shumar, says they were disembodied when their ship broke up over the moon two hundred years ago.
But their violence belies this story, and Picard eventually learns the truth: the entities were actually prisoners condemned to the penal colony Mab-Bu VI. They tried to possess the Essex’s crew and use that ship to escape—as they plan to do now with the Enterprise and its crew.
Taken hostage by the three, Picard accompanies them to a cargo bay where the rest of the entities are beamed up. The captain then turns the tables, saying he will open the outer cargo bay doors and kill all of them, including himself, rather than allow the entities to take his crew. The entities relent, abandon their host bodies, and return to their prison.
Bearing a slight conceptual resemblance to an original-series episode, “Return to Tomorrow,” another tale of alien possession, this story went through several script treatments by free-lancers before being assigned to Braga. Herb Wright brought in the ghost angle when the two teamed up for the version eventually used.
“It was supposed to be the ultimate bottle show, a tense psychological drama between Picard and the possessed Troi, crammed into one room, but it became one of the costliest of the year with the shuttle crash and the phaser fight,” Braga said. “It has no socially redeeming value, but it sure is action-packed!”
“It was wonderfully directed,” Michael Piller agreed, praising David Livingston for his second outing behind the camera. “That’s why it was successful.” Marina Sirtis finally got into some rough stuff, and Brent Spiner found an edge different from Lore’s for his character as well. They and Colm Meaney invented nicknames for their “possessed” personae: Slugger, Buzz, and Slash.
Once again Planet Hell lived up to its nickname: filming spilled over an extra half-day on Stage 16, where Livingston recalled worrying about Spiner’s contact lenses and where Sirtis got so dirty from the blowing sand she had to take a midday shower and get made up again.
Possessed by an alien entity, Troi terrorizes the Enterprise.
The crashed shuttlepod was the Campbell, named for pioneering science fiction author Joseph W. Campbell. Inspired by the movie Cape Fear, a 360-degree rotating camera was used to film the craft’s interior crash scenes.
A bit of early Federation history is revealed here with the mention of the NCC-173 Essex and its ill-fated crew of 229. The end of service for the ship’s Daedelus class is established as 172 years earlier, or 2196, and its specific loss over two hundred years prior to this episode means the Daedalus prototype was likely designed and commissioned well before the UFP’s founding in 2161, as established in “The Outcast” (217). At the time of its loss, though, Starbase 12 is referred to as already in operation.
Finally, another bit of Klingon culture—their notion of spiritual possession, Jat’yln—is revealed here as well.
ETHICS
* * *
Production No.: 216 Aired: Week of March 2, 1992
Stardate: 45587.3 Code: et
Directed by Chip Chalmers
Teleplay by Ronald D. Moore
Story by Sara Charno and Stuart Charno
GUEST CAST
Dr. Toby Russell: Caroline Kava
Alexander: Brian Bonsall
Nurse Alyssa Ogawa: Patti Yasutake
* * *
Neurospecialist Dr. Toby Russell comes aboard to help treat Worf after an accident leaves the Klingon paralyzed from the waist down, but she and Dr. Crusher clash over Russell’s proposal to use genetonic replication to replace his spine. Beverly considers the life-threatening procedure an unnecessary risk to her patient, who is in no danger of dying.
Worf feels that he is dead already; his shame at being helpless is so great he won’t let Alexander see him. He even asks Riker to help him commit ritual suicide to avoid being pitied. Riker is torn, weighing his values against Worf’s, until he learns that Klingon custom requires the son to assist in the ceremony anyway.
After Worf refuses to consider the partial mobility offered by neural implants, Beverly is shocked when Dr. Russell tempts him with her untried genetonic process. It has only a fair test success rate and has never been tried with humanoids—and failure would mean death.
Meanwhile, during a rescue attempt, another of Russell’s experimental techniques costs a patient’s life. Angered, Crusher relieves her of all medical duty. But when Worf can’t bring himself to ask Alexander to complete the suicide ceremony, both he and Beverly relent, and agree to try Dr. Russell’s procedure.
The Klingon dies in surgery, but mourning turns to joy when a redundant Klingon body system kicks in. Worf again asks his son for help—but this time with his therapy.
This examination of medical ethics once again shows how conflict can be drawn out of the regulars using a guest star as catalyst. The story faced off not only the two doctors but Riker and Worf as well—seen here battling over Klingon ritual suicide. Picard’s willingness to respect Worf’s Klingon beliefs echoes his decision in “The Enemy” (155) not to force Worf to donate blood to a Romulan, but here the captain almost seems to be taking the easy way out, even given Trek’s multicultural philosophy, in light of Riker’s aggressive condemnation of suicide.
Seen again are the red surgical outfits used during Picard’s heart surgery in “Samaritan Snare” (143). For much of the surgery sequence, Michael Dorn’s photo double, Al Foster, stood in as the Klingon exo-backbone was glimpsed for the first time. We also learn about the redundancies of Klingon anatomy, discovering that Worf has twenty-three ribs, two livers, an eight-chambered heart, a double-lined neural pia matter, and of course a backup synaptic system.
Continuity with earlier Starfleet medical references was maintained with the use here of “motor assist bands” and the drugs inoprovaline in “Transfigurations” (173) and cordrazine (see “Shades of Gray’/148). Other echoes of the past include Russell’s ferrying ship, the Potemkin, mentioned in “Peak Performance” (147) as one of Riker’s prior assignments and, in “Legacy” (180), as the last ship to visit Turkana IV. A gravitic mine, the Cardassian War leftover that does in the USS Denver, was referred to earlier in the Kobiyashi Maru scene in Star Trek II.
Alexander (Brian Bonsall) helps his paralyzed father choose life rather than ritual suicide.
La Forge is seen briefly in the teaser sporting a beard—a test that the producers allowed LeVar Burton to try, once.
THE OUTCAST
* * *
Production No.: 217 Aired: Week of March 16, 1992
Stardate: 45614.6 Code: oc
Directed by Robert Scheerer
Written by Jeri Taylor
GUEST CAST
Soren: Melinda Culea
Krite: Callan White
Noor: Megan Cole
* * *
The J’naii, an androgynous race, ask the Enterprise for help in locating a missing shuttlecraft. An abnormality called “null space” proves to be the cause of its disappearance. Riker works to recover it with a J’naii shuttle pilot named Soren. The
two become fast friends, even to the point of comparing their cultures’ mating habits. Soren tells Riker that sexual preference is banned on J’naii and that all nonconformists are treated to a brainwashing “cure.” Soren insists on coming along on the rescue mission with Riker, where “she” reveals the female tendencies she has always been too scared to admit.
Soren is injured on the flight, delaying their search, but now grows bolder and admits her feelings for Riker. He finds himself falling too, but they present a professional front while rescuing the shuttle and its near-dead survivors.
But after the two share a kiss at that night’s celebration party, the J’naii Krite detects what’s going on and takes Soren into custody with no warning. Enraged, Riker crashes Soren’s “trial” and tries to defend her, but she admits her feelings in an impassioned plea for acceptance that falls on deaf ears.
Despite Picard’s warnings that a rash act could ruin him, Riker tries to free her with Worf’s help, but it is too late: the “therapy” has already taken hold, and Soren renounces her feelings for him.
A bitter Riker returns to the ship and assures Picard his business on J’naii is finished.
For over twenty-five years Trek’s two television series had pioneered the intelligent and fair-minded depiction of various sexes, races, and ethnic groups, including aliens. One notable and controversial exception, though, was homosexuals. With the relative freedom of expression granted TNG, various letter-writing campaigns over the years grew more and more insistent that one or more gay crew members be seen.
Jeri Taylor jumped at the chance to take on this teleplay, the first of the late-season run that emerged from the writers’ Mexican weekend, and she brought to the script a real empathy for the feelings of the powerless and disenfranchised.
After the show aired, Taylor received mail from viewers who ranged all the way from fundamentalists on the religious right who thought the episode “‘should have been balanced with the other side,’ whatever that means,” to gays who thought the ending might be misinterpreted as “sanctioning” Soren’s brainwashing therapy.
“I did get lots of thank-yous from both gay and straight people who appreciated the story as a science fiction treatment of the intolerance of choice and need as a tragedy,” she said. “It really woke up the audience,” Michael Piller agreed. “We didn’t want to just blow off the issue by showing a same-sex couple holding hands in the corner.” Added Rick Berman: “We thought we had made a very positive statement about sexual prejudice in a distinctively Star Trek way, but we still got letters from those who thought it was just our way of ‘washing our hands’ of the homosexual situation.” TNG’s executive producer added that he considered the letter-writing fan on any issue very rare—about one-tenth of a percent of TNG’s total audience. And the massive write-in campaigns “where you receive three hundred letters with the same sentences” didn’t carry as much weight as the simple individual letters.
Aside from the question of sexual preference, this story shows a maturity of another kind in dealing with Riker. He was the first regular to be out of control over an emotional attachment, other than Worf, whose actions were always explained away by his Klingon nature.
Riker brings out the forbidden “female” feelings of Soren (Melinda Culea).
A minor story throwaway line but a major point for trivia fans is the revelation that the UFP was founded in 2161. Michael Okuda, who calculated the in-house chronology of Trek events taken from series facts throughout the years, assumed the Federation was founded after the Romulan War, a century before Kirk’s time, based on the statement in 1966’s “Balance of Terror” that “Earth,” not the Federation, fought the alien empire.
We also received a better view of the starship’s Magellan shuttlecraft, first seen in “Darmok” (202). The J’naii shuttle Taris Mum, briefly seen, is the same craft used as the Nenebek in “Final Mission” (183) and as Rasmussen’s time pod in “A Matter of Time” (209).
CAUSE AND EFFECT
* * *
Production No. 218 Aired: Week of March 23, 1992
Stardate: 45652.1 Code: ce
Directed by Jonathan Frakes
Written by Brannon Braga
GUEST CAST
Ensign Ro Laren: Michelle Forbes
Nurse Alyssa Ogawa: Patti Yasutake
Captain Morgan Bateson: Kelsey Grammer
* * *
The crew’s regular poker game suddenly feels too familiar to Dr. Crusher, who experiences feelings of déjà vu that are at first puzzling and then maddening. Those feelings intensify when she is called away to treat La Forge for a minor but baffling dizziness. Preparing for bed, she hears strange voices in her cabin.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise is continuing to chart the Typhon Expanse when the ship’s propulsion systems fail, hurling it onto a collision course with another starship that appears out of the void. Picard follows Data’s advice to use the tractor beam to alter the other ship’s trajectory, but the tactic fails. The ships collide, and both are destroyed….
The regular poker game resumes, and this time Beverly is not alone in her feelings of déjà vu. After experiencing another cycle of destruction, she records the voices she hears in her room, which Data discovers are the echoes of their own conversations from past time loops.
As another cycle climaxes, Data plants a clue for himself in the next time loop—recurring instances of the number 3. Realizing at the last second that the three refers to the pips on Riker’s uniform and his plan to decompress the main shuttle bay to alter course, Data follows the first officer’s suggestion rather than his own—and the loop is broken.
The weekly poker game: Dr. Crusher’s first clue to the Typhon Expanse’s time loop.
They find the Enterprise has been trapped for seventeen days, but Picard wonders how he will explain to the crew of the other starship, the Bozeman, that they have been caught for ninety years.
Braga, who said he’d always wanted to do a time-travel story without the cliché of the “screwed-up time lines,” called this solo story the smoothest he had yet worked on, though it provided a challenge in drawing out the subtleties of the varying time loops. Beginning with what he called “The ultimate teaser,” he was proud for once to be able to tie the poker game scene into the plot as a major point.
Kelsey Grammer became the third Cheers actor to enter the Trek universe—after Bebe Neuwirth in “First Contact” (189) and Kirstie Alley in Star Trek II—but his viewscreen scenes were all shot separately from the rest of the cast, again using the old movie bridge set re-dressed. The staff had wanted the first officer to the right of Bateman to be Kirstie Alley as Lieutenant Saavik, but the scheduling couldn’t be worked out.
The USS Bozeman was a “new” Soyuz-class ship: the Reliant miniature from Star Trek II minus the roll bar and with new sensor turrets, docking port, and bridge. Originally the plan was to make the ship a 1960s-era, pre-movie Constitution-class starship, but budget demands put an end to that when the costs of creating and filming ship, props, and costumes were added up.
The enormous main shuttle bay was depicted for the first time in any form. It was actually a tabletop model built by Michael Okuda on which the two shuttlecraft were named—in lettering too small to be legible—the Berman and the Piller!
THE FIRST DUTY
* * *
Production No.: 219 Aired: Week of March 30, 1992
Stardate: 45703.9 Code: fd
Directed by Paul Lynch
Written by Ronald D. Moore and Naren Shankar
GUEST CAST
Boothby: Ray Walston
Cadet First Class Nicholas Locarno: Robert Duncan McNeill
Lieutenant Commander Albert: Ed Lauter
Captain Satelk: Richard Fancy
Superintendant Admiral Brand: Jacqueline Brookes
Cadet Third Class Wesley Crusher: Wil Wheaton
Cadet Second Class Jean Hajar: Walker Brandt
Cadet Second Class Sito: Shannon Fill
/> Cadet: Richard Rothenberg
* * *
En route to deliver the commencement address at Starfleet Academy, Picard learns that a horriyfing accident has occurred. While rehearsing for the graduating ceremonies, a member of Wesley Crusher’s five-person flight squadron has been killed.
A routine inquiry into the accident finds discrepancies between the cadets’ filed flight plan and their testimony. Nova Squadron leader Locarno reluctantly reveals that the dead squadron member, Joshua Albert, panicked and caused the mishap. This news comes as a painful blow to his already grieving father.
But in a squadron meeting later, Wesley is angry. Locarno lied, he says. Joshua Albert wasn’t to blame. But the squadron leader makes an impassioned plea for the four remaining team members to stick together, pointing out that their careers will be over if they reveal the whole truth.
Picard (below) consults his old Academy mentor Boothby the gardener (Ray Walston) after the tragedy that threatens Wesley’s young career. Opposite, bottom: The charismatic Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill) tries to lead Wesley and Sito (Shannon Fill) astray by encouraging them to cover up their flight accident. Top: Picard helps Wesley choose the truth.
The next day, Wesley’s testimony is countered by surprise evidence from a satellite. But to the surprise of both Picard and Beverly, he refuses to expain the discrepancy. Returning to the Enterprise after a talk with his old mentor, Boothby, Picard realizes that the accident occurred because Nova Squadron was practicing the Kolvoord Starburst, a spectacular exhibition of stunt flying banned for over a century, that would have made Locarno a living legend.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion: Revised Edition Page 33