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| Data suspects the Enterprise is developing its own intelligence! |
The Enterprise is on a routine mission, surveying potential sites for new colonies, when the ship suddenly goes to warp, seemingly of its own accord. Geordi has no idea why this happened, but reveals that it's lucky it did: The area of space the ship was in was subject to a "theta flux distortion." Had the Enterprise remained there for another 1.7 seconds, the ship would have been destroyed.
As Geordi and Data continue investigating, they discover new circuit nodes, protected by force fields and connecting ship systems that had previously been separate. The nodes are connected through the holodeck, which is running on its own, combining multiple holodeck programs into a single simulation. The result is a combination of Wild West gunfighters, armored knights, and Chicago gangsters, all riding on the Orient Express to "Keystone City," the place "where everything begins." When Data attempts to tamper with a node on the train, the characters turn hostile and the Enterprise crew are forced to leave.
As the nodes continue to appear, Data develops a theory: The nodes are forming a neural net. The ship is developing its own intelligence!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: When Dr. Crusher reveals that the Orient Express came from her holodeck program, Picard begins talking about the history of the line. He is actually surprised when Crusher explains that the history is not her interest, but the atmosphere and the varied people who traveled in the train. When it becomes clear that the ship has come to life and has a purpose, Picard is less interested in stopping it than in understanding it. He insists that if there is an intelligence at work, the crew needs to respect it as they would any other life form. He adds that he is inclined to trust any intelligence formed from the Enterprise: "It came from us. From our mission records, personal logs, holodeck programs, our fantasies. Now, if our experiences with the Enterprise have been honorable, can't we trust that the sum of those experiences will be the same?"
Data: As an artificial intelligence himself, he recognizes the nodes' resemblance to a positronic brain, and thus he is the one to recognize what is happening. He takes the most active role in investigating the holodeck situation, and his android strength allows him to deal with the intelligence's attempts to stop him. Unfortunately, despite Data's prominent role, no attempt is made to create some meaning, either in theme or plot, out of an artificial intelligence investigating an awakening artificial intelligence.
Troi: The script makes a big deal out of Troi going into the holodeck to try to understand what the various characters' roles in the situation mean. The episode then proceeds to do absolutely nothing with the concept. For all the story difference that Troi's presence makes, Riker might as well have led all of the holodeck expeditions.
Worf: The one halfway interesting thing Troi's presence does is to show the building relationship between her and Worf. On two occasions, after some incident occurs on the holodeck, Worf asks if Troi is all right. In both instances, the question is very specifically addressed to Troi, not to others, and in both instances the emotion in Worf's voice is audible.
THOUGHTS
Joe Menosky's last TNG script is, unfortunately, closer in quality (and content) to Masks than to Darmok. The plot ends up acting as a sort of hybrid between a "bizarre things happening on the ship" episode and a holodeck episode. As with Masks, it's clear that this episode really wants to be intriguing and thought-provoking. But, as with the earlier episode, it just doesn't quite come off.
I actually liked Masks better. That episode was so completely off-the-wall, I was hooked in spite of myself, wanting if nothing else to see what weird thing would happen next. Here, the proceedings are just kind of... dull. There is very little atmosphere, even to the "Orient Express" scenes. Worst of all, as my unenthusiastic take on the episode's use of the characters shows, this story does nothing at all with the regulars.
The characters are so passive as to be completely ineffectual. The episode's structure, such as it is, consists of: a team of crew members goes into the holodeck, observes strange behavior from the characters, then are menaced and forced to leave; stir and reheat as necessary. Sure, there are token gestures made by the crew to try to deactivate the nodes, but this just feels like a holding pattern.
Even when the crew is allowed to truly act at the end, it's in a manufactured third act crisis that is resolved by Geordi making a blind choice that fails to generate either interest or tension. Geordi can choose to hunt for Technobabble Particles in either a nebula or a pulsar. We are not told what the advantage of one choice over the other might be, or what the risks are. Picard just asks Geordi, "Nebula or pulsar?" Geordi picks, he's right, and the day is saved. Had we been presented with some risk in Geordi's decision, or had the final attempt seemed at risk of failing, then there might have been a bit of... well, drama in the drama. As it stands, it's just stuff happening with minimal context.
Which, unfortunately, describes the entire episode all too well. A few nice Picard bits aside, TNG's final holodeck episode has extremely little to recommend it.
Overall Rating: 3/10.
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Next Episode: Preemptive Strike
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ReplyDeleteGenerally agree about the characters doing nothing, the only positive being they all kind of had equal screen time- an ensemble of doing nothing!
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