Originally aired: November 16 1987
Ah, the second attempt to establish the Ferengi as the villain of the show. It works moderately better than the first, what with the enemy Ferengi actually coming across as somewhat menacing and willing to stop at nothing to destroy Picard. But overall, this seems to be the point where the writers give up on the Ferengi as the main villain and drop them back into the background to only be pulled out once in a while as a minor threat. We won't see them again as the focus of an episode until Season 3 and the rest of Season 1 and most of 2 will try to get by (with varying degrees of success) without a major villain.
The episode kicks off with the Enterprise meeting some Ferengi ship as ordered, and then having to wait for three days until the Ferengi to talk to them. Really, Starfleet? Are Federation types that passive that they'll sit for three days and wait with nothing to do? In the meantime Picard is doing what most men will never do and talks to his doctor when he's feeling ill. He complains of a headache and Dr. Crusher is amazed. Apparently people don't often get headaches in the 24th Century. Wonder how they managed that when the causes of headaches aren't fully understood even today. Picard blames it all on the stress of waiting for the Ferengi to do something. Picard seems pissed that his quick check-up with the doc seems to be turning into a proper trip to Sickbay but he's saved by the bell as the Ferengi call and he heads to the bridge. And with that little bit of foreshadowing and setup out of the way, the episode can get going.
Daimon Bok of the Ferengi seems happy to be talking to the Captain Picard, and wants to talk about a mutual problem in person. Unusually, Troi shows initiative and orders the communication suspended to warn Picard that Bok is lying about something. Given that the ships must be kilometres away from each other at least, I always find it amazing that she can sense what people are feeling at that distance. At least she sensed something useful this time and isn't just spouting the obvious. Armed with this warning, they choose to meet Bok on the Enterprise. While I agree that it's better than meeting on the Ferengi ship, I doubt the wisdom of inviting a strange, untrustworthy Ferengi aboard the Federation flagship. But whatever.
There's a few scenes with Picard in sickbay after all, but other than filling out the running time of the episode they serve little other than to repeat that Picard has a headache for an unknown reason. On the bridge, Wesley spots an incoming old Federation ship before anyone else having magically boosted the long range sensors, pissing off both characters and viewers. Picard lectures Wesley a bit, and then the Ferengi beam over - straight to the freaking bridge. Not only are they an unknown quantity, and untrustworthy, Picard has to beam straight to the control centre of his ship. Jesus. The Ferengi immediately ogle the women and try to purchase Data. Then the old ship arrives and it turns out it's been arranged by the Ferengi. Clearly they're not up to anything at all and it's a fantastic idea to have beamed them to the bridge. At least the crew are a little worried when the Ferengi claimed the ship is a gift from them, for the Hero of Maxia.
The truth starts to come out when Picard realises that nine years ago, his ship defended itself against an unknown ship and destroyed it - and it turns out to have been a Ferengi ship. Picard starts to have more headaches, but Troi senses something causing them. Picard finally realises that the old ship approaching is the old ship he was on at Maxia - the Stargazer. The other Ferengi are shocked that Bok is giving away the ship. Shortly afterward Picard is back in Sickbay and is remembering Maxia with ridiculous clarity. This leads to Picard recounting the battle of Maxia to his crew, but in doing so he keeps slipping back to that day as if he's reliving it. Maybe he's going senile? Long story short, he sums up winning the battle by using what's now called the Picard Maneuver. And I don't mean that thing he does when he tugs his tunic straight when he stands up from his chair.
No, the Picard Manoeuvre involved a tiny faster than light jump so that you arrive out of warp in the right position so that the light from where you are and the light from where you were arrive at the enemy at the same time, and you appear to be in two places. The enemy will probably be firing at your old position and you get the drop on him. A brilliant manoeuvre but it will only work once. Since it's now well known throughout the fleet - and presumably by Starfleet's enemies as well - all it would take is some small bit of code in a ship's targeting computer to defeat this manoeuvre. It only works when you surprise the other ship. Also, the show has repeatedly shown us ships using sensors to track other ships moving faster than light, so the trick shouldn't work in the first place. Which is where the climax of this episode falls apart - Riker acts as if they're doomed if the enemy ship uses the Picard Manoeuvre, but if you know the trick then you know which of the two ships to fire on - the one that wasn't there a second ago. So despite the mounting tension throughout the rest of this episode, it just didn't work for me as I kept wanting to smack the bridge crew for being so stupid.
Anyway, to pick up the pace of this post, Picard and crew take the Stargazer from the Ferengi and make sure it's safe for Picard to come aboard. And they do such a bang up job that when Picard goes to his cabin to reminisce an odd looking alien device hidden there powers up and his headache gets worse, and we're shown Bok back on his ship dialling up the power on a matching device and gloating about Picard's suffering. They all go back to Enterprise and take the Stargazer in tow. Picard gives Riker command and goes for a rest. And of course, his stuff from the Stargazer has been moved to his quarters including the alien device hidden there so his rest isn't all that restful. Data reports the logs from the Stargazer appear to indicate that Picard attacked and destroyed an ship under flag of truce and has the recordings to prove it. To their credit, the crew immediately assume it's a frame up job and set out to work out how the Ferengi can simulate someone else's voice. Em, guys? Data himself can speak using the voice of anyone he's heard. It's not that big a mystery. :) Nonetheless, they report it to Starfleet as per policy.
Riker compares notes with his Ferengi counterpoint. Bok has started spreading the altered story of Maxia on the Ferengi ship. During this conversation, the Ferengi says "I'm all ears." but it's okay, it's not racist (or speciesist) when he says it. Though the conversation does not go well. Picard's getting grouchier in the meantime as the pain gets worse. This episode got going for a while but it's slowed right down again as Picard agonises over Maxia and we occasionally see Bok gloating. Finally something happens when Picard wakes and hallucinates being back in command of the Stargazer about to pull his Manoeuvre. In the meantime Data has found evidence that the log has been faked. Picard dismisses everyone and order the Stargazer cut loose so her inertia will carry her along. Then we get more scenes of people waffling about what's happening and Wesley butts in to say that he detected transmission from the ship that match Picard's brain scans. Dr. Crusher and Troi take the evidence to Riker.
Riker discovers that Picard has left the ship. He's on the Stargazer where Bok is there to reveal that he's out for revenge for the death of his son at Maxia. Riker and the others discover the alien device on board, and rush to investigate. But in the meantime, the Bok has Picard convinced that he's back at Maxia and sets him off attacking the Enterprise. On the Enterprise they've worked out what the alien device is for and how it's been affecting Picard.The Ferengi first officer confirms that it's an illegal thought altering device. But by now Picard has fallen into the complete delusion that he's at Maxia and starts his attack. Riker realises Picard is about to use the Manoeuvre, and consults Data who says there is no defence. What was the point of teaching you about this attack at the Academy if there's no defence? So you know how fucked you are? Riker orders Data to come up with a defence. While they had this talk, the Ferengi first officer has taken command of their ship and arrested Bok.
Data comes up with the idea of looking for disturbances of the trace gases in space to spot movement of a ship under warp to get a small warning of where the Stargazer will reappear when it jumps. A good idea, but if your sensors can see the movement of the gases, then it should be able to see the ship itself for fucks sake. Either that or they won't see the movement of the gases until it's too late. Either way, the do this and plan to tractor the Stargazer when it appears and hold it so it can only fire in a limited direction and they can prepare their shields. The plans works and they open a comm channel to Picard and talk him down, and convince him to phaser the thought altering device. They all had lemonade. The End.
Seriously, after Picard takes out the sphere it's pretty much all resolved - Bok is under arrest and Picard is himself again and returns to the ship. All in all, an okay episode. There's nothing particularly sci-fi about it but then Star Trek was like that a lot of the time. Sometimes it was all about a strong sci-fi idea, and other times it was just an entertaining bunch of stuff that happened to the crew. If it wasn't for the implausibility of the Picard Manoeuvre being so feared by people who understand exactly how the trick works and can predict when the other ship is going to use it, I'd have liked it a lot more.
Next; Hide and Q, when the always awesome John de Lancie returns, Riker gets the power of a Q and Wesley Crusher gets killed.
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