1.9 — “The Battle”
Plot: The Enterprise is summoned by Starfleet to a rendezvous with a Ferengi vessel. The Ferengi (who recently were so secretive that Starfleet didn’t know what they looked like, and had never seen one of their ships) requested the meeting and insist that it be face-to-face, even offering to beam Picard aboard their ship. That would have required too much set construction, however, so the Ferengi beam aboard the Enterprise instead (even skipping the transporter room–one less set to light!). The Ferengi captain wants to give Picard a present–the remains of the U.S.S. Stargazer, his first starship command, which he had to abandon nine years earlier, following a space battle. What could go wrong? Well, one of the Ferengi bears a grudge stemming from the aforementioned battle, and has a glowing red orb, which produces strange effects on the Captain’s mind.
Thoughts: It’s tempting to grade this on a curve. Hey, it’s not as bad as the last Ferengi episode! There’s only one leering comment about how unbelievable it is that the men allow the women to wear clothes.
The episode is clumsy, however. “So-and-so has a grudge against the Captain, and tries to get revenge using a secret mind control device” is a pretty rudimentary plot. Nothing quite so crude ever got to the screen in TOS, even in third season.
It’s interesting to explore PIcard’s past, but the way it is depicted mostly seems like a wasted opportunity. I kept thinking, “this would have been done so much better in Babylon 5!”
We learn that when Picard was younger, he was a decisive, brilliant captain who did everything right. The catastrophic loss of a starship, followed by rescue from a shuttlecraft only nine years ago, sounds like it should be a big deal, and a black mark on Picard’s record. Instead, we’re told that Picard hasn’t thought about the incident in years. If he doesn’t care, why should we?
The continuity-straining Ferengi attack against the Stargazer that started the battle (9 years before the Federation’s official first contact with the Ferengi) is allowed to remain senseless and unexplained. If it was just a random act of piracy, why is Captain Bok so offended that the Stargazer acted in self defense? How does Bok find out who the Stargazer’s Captain was, let alone track his career? There’s no larger story arc here–the premiere of Babylon 5, which forever changed the expectations for continuity in televised science fiction, was still more than 6 years in the future.
Meanwhile, the drama is flat, the mind control device is a cheap, tacky prop, and, as Wil Wheaton observes in his review in Memories of the Future, Volume One, the audience is always several steps ahead of what is happening on screen. Picard is still indecisive, and irresponsibly unconcerned about his own health. The episode only succeeds when it relies on Patrick Stewart’s considerable charisma. Stewart, Brent Spiner, and Levar Burton always seem to be worth watching, even when the script is bad. Grade: Fail.
Leave a Reply