Damn, this episode veers wildly all over the map from good to bad and back again over and over. Right out of the gate after the pilot and the show goes straight for a homage to an Original Series episode. Not too bad an idea, but the show should really be trying to find it’s own voice before taking time out to acknowledge what came before.
I won’t talk about the plot of this episode much - it’s pretty unremarkable. The crew gets infected with something that makes them act extremely intoxicated. The doctor claims it’s a variation on the Original Series infection, but the crew doesn’t quite act like Kirk’s crew did back then. Where’s the crazy Japanese man running through the corridors of the ship with a sword?
Instead we get a the security chief acting slutty. Well, at least they did something with the character before they got stuck realising that she and Worf occupied the same dramatic role on the ship and had to get rid of her. Well, that and Denise Crosby posed for Playboy so they fired her.
After that, the only really notable thing about this episode is the arrival of Wesley Crusher, wonderboy. He takes over Engineering and we’re supposed to believe no-one on the ship can take back control of the ship from a teenage child? Fuck that. This marks the first of many times lazy writers on this show write shitty stories for Wil Wheaton’s character because they don’t really know what teenage kids are like or how to write for one. Conveniently, the ship is in mortal danger from a chunk of a sun about to go nova being ejected right at the ship. Excuse me Star Trek writers? Morbo wants a word.
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| SUNS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY! |
Anyway, Doc Crusher finds a cure, Data fixes the computer and everything ends happily ever after. Another dodgy episode, but the pilot and the homage to Old Trek are out of the way. Surely the show is ready to find it’s own voice. For the sake of my continued watching - and my sanity - I hope it does.
Next up - Code of Honor.
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