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| An Army of One: Picard fights for his ship - alone. |
The Enterprise is docked at Arkaria Base for a routine procedure to remove space asbestos ("accumulated baryon particles," if you want to be picky), which requires the evacuation of the ship's crew. When Picard hears that the planet where they are docked has horses, he takes a quick trip back to the now-empty ship to pick up his saddle... only to discover that the maintenance crew prepping for the baryon sweep is actually sabotaging ship's systems!
The maintenance crew is actually a group of clever criminals, who are executing a heist they had planned for years: Draining trilithium resin from the Enterprise's engines to sell as a weapon. With the ship's power cut in advance of the sweep, Picard is left with only his training and his knowledge of the Enterprise to stop the group and their ruthless leader, Kelsey (Marie Marshall). And he has only about thirty minutes in which to do it, before the deadly sweep envelopes the entire ship!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: Patrick Stewart was pushing as early as Season Three for Picard to be more of an "action hero." Attempts to indulge him in this yielded mixed results, but writer Morgan Gendel gets the mix just right. Picard is formidable, but mainly because of his wits. He outthinks the criminals, using his superior knowledge of the Enterprise to set up traps and ambushes. He is also not invulnerable. For all of his competence, he is nevertheless captured twice. If Kelsey had been just a touch more ruthless and had killed him when he was first captured, he would have been little more than an inconvenience to her plans.
Riker: In the "B" plot, Riker and most of the supporting crew are taken hostage at Arkaria Base, presumably to keep them from interfering with Kelsey's heist. Riker has evidently learned well from Picard, as he listens to options from Data, Dr. Crusher, and Troi, then makes a plan based on their suggestions. When a distraction is needed at a key point, he provides it himself in classic Kirk fashion - by instigating a fistfight with the lead hostage-taker.
Data: The first part of the episode sees him in "obnoxious comedy" mode, imitating the mannerisms of the boorish Commander Hutchinson (David Spielberg) in an attempt to master "small talk." Thankfully, this would-be comedy routine is put to a merciful end by the hostage situation, and Data returns to his normal personality. His ability to function in conditions that are debilitating to everyone else plays a key role at the episode's climax.
Hot Space Villain of the Week: Kelsey (Marie Marshall) is clever and ruthless... though bizarrely, not ruthless enough to kill Picard at two different points at which she has the chance (perhaps she fancies older bald men?). She is a solid foil for Picard. Both are smart, quick-thinking people, both able to command respect from others. But while Picard's respect for life makes him show regret even at the deaths of these criminals, Kelsey has no respect for life at all. Picard will do anything in his power to safeguard the welfare of his crew; Kelsey regards her crew as entirely expendable, to the point of killing one inconvenient crewman herself. Marshall gives a credible performance, and the Kelsey/Picard interactions are definitely the high points of the episode.
THOUGHTS
Die Hard on a starship!
Though writer Morgan Grendel downplayed any connection, that tagline really does sum up the basic concept of Starship Mine. To the episode's credit, it pulls it off. This attempt to do a Star Trek action movie in 45 minutes works for many of the same reasons the original Die Hard worked (back when Bruce Willis was playing the everyman instead of the superhero) - The script is well-crafted and tightly-structured, and its hero is a thinking man's action star, far from invulnerable and fighting with his mind as much as with fists and weapons.
As with most action movies, there are plenty of holes to poke in the script. If Kelsey's plan is to drain the trilithium resin from the engines and leave on a small ship while the Enterprise is empty, why is there a need to take the crew hostage back on the base? Surely the best plan is one that involves the Enterprise crew never knowing that anything had happened at all. The "A" and "B" plots are never adequately tied together in any case, with the entire hostage situation seeming to exist solely to give the rest of the regular cast something to do.
This is easy to forgive, though, given the episode's fantastic pace. Once Picard discovers the criminals, there is no dead space at all. It's a given that the Picard scenes are stronger than the Riker ones, but both "A" and "B" plots move quickly and show the regulars on fine form. The Enterprise decks are also made genuinely atmospheric - a rarity - thanks to the dim lighting left by the power cut. Director Cliff Bole is able to maintain a tense atmosphere throughout.
The episode is anchored by Patrick Stewart, who clearly relishes the chance to be a full-fledged action star. He is fully convincing in the role, the intelligence in his eyes making us believe that this man can devise effective plans on the fly, improvising with what tools are available. Two moments that stand out are him holding a gun on Devor (Tim Russ), and him telling Kelsey over a comm link that he intends to take her ship and will "send (her) regrets," even as he preps a bow to take out another of the criminals. Moments worthy of any action star, played to the hilt by Stewart.
Plus, he gets to do the Vulcan nerve pinch on Tuvok. What more can you ask?
Overall Rating: 8/10. Sure, there are better episodes... But this was a huge amount of fun.
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