1.3 — “The Naked Now”
100-word Review: From a derelict ship, the Enterprise contracts a disease encountered by the earlier Enterprise that causes crewmembers to abandon their posts, cast restraint to the wind, and reveal their innermost selves. Except that no one seems to know who their real selves are, so this mostly involves tendentious repetition of exposition from the premiere and limp mugging. The casts’ only hidden desires involve potential couplings with each other–yawn. Wesley hijacks the ship and nearly kills everyone, before having a clever thought and saving everyone instead. For this he’s praised. Not by me. Grade: Fail.
Other Thoughts: Oof. “The Naked Time” is one of my favorite TOS episodes. It has a sense of danger and real pathos. This version barely makes sense. The virus hits everyone at different speeds and intensities. One thing it rarely does is make the characters act drunk. Wesley and the assistant engineer just act like imbeciles (the writers really don’t do Wesley any favors, do they?), while Wesley gratuitously hijacks and nearly destroys the ship. “It’s only fair to mention Wesley in a log entry, sir.” You better believe it–right before throwing him in the juvenile brig. I mean, really.
What we mostly learn is that the writers have a terrible ear for dialogue. “Well, hello, Enterprise, welcome. I hope you have a lot of pretty boys on board…”
I like Riker’s dialogue in the teaser. “They’re all dead.” Wait, I’m not sure they heard me. “As I said–All. Dead.” Dah-duuuum!
The virus gives Geordi whining disease.
It’s interesting to learn that Data is equipped to serve as a sex bot. “I am programmed in multiple techniques, a broad variety of pleasuring.” Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more! I believe this was fairly bold for its time. The whole Tasha plot line isn’t very complimentary to her, nor progressive. Still, scenes like this do tend to draw you into the characters, I guess?
Several online commenters, plus Wil Wheaton in his book, point out that the producers should have waited longer than the second episode to do a plot where the characters don’t act like themselves. The actors barely knew who their characters were yet, let alone the audience, so it falls flat. I recall feeling a wee bit enraged to see TNG fall back to overtly copying an Original Series episode so quickly, instead of pursuing orignial stories. “I remember ‘The Naked Time.’ ‘The Naked Time’ was a friend of mine. You, sir, are no ‘The Naked Time.’”
What did you think?
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