Underrated Trek:The Royale (TNG)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. A few weeks ago I talked about how with the right writing and acting, a really stupid idea can be turned into gold. Alas, that is not always the case. Sometimes a stupid idea that makes no sense is just a stupid idea that makes no sense, no matter what you do. Especially when you rush that has been re-written to many times. That brings us to :

 

Ah, second season Next Generation. It wasn’t as bad as Season 1, but still had a lot of problems. This is my third or fourth time talking about an episode which I really want to love from that season…but yeah let's talk about it

Plot Synopsis:

The Enterprise is looking into a discovery made by a Klingon vessel at an obscure planet. They beam some debris up, and it turns out to the remains of a NASA ship which would put it at least 200 years prior!

The crew discover a pocket of breathable air, which contains a building. Riker, Worf, and Data beam down to find a revolving door in the middle of nothing. When they enter, they walk into a casino resort from Vegas (well, 70’s Vegas maybe) with real people gambling and having fun. They also discover they are trapped.

Turns out that the shuttle was from Earth, brought by aliens on a trip which killed all but one. To make it up to the person, they created a world modeled after a crappy book that happened to be on the shuttle. Riker, Data, and Worf realize the way out is to pretend to be characters from the book. When they gamble and win the hotel, they manage to escape.

Things I Hated:

There are points in this episode where Riker, Data, and Worf just come off a little to stupid. Like Worf not understanding how an elevator works, or none knowing what room service is for example. Something SFDebris mocked in one of his better bits. The dumbest line may be when they find teh astronaut’s flight suit and Data asks Riker if that is significant. Nah Data, not at all!!!


Ok, I’ll  get more into the plot in the next section but there is one thing that bugs me. It’s explained very clearly why the hotel exists. Ok, fine. The astronaut they find has died, makes sense considering how old he would have had to be. Here is my question..WHY IS THE HOTEL STILL THERE?? Are the aliens not aware that the human is dead? And is it a loop that starts over everyday? No wonder the astronaut considered it a private hell. But that is nothing compared to the big question of the episode that never gets answered. And that is simply…what are these people anyway? Data says that none are emitting life signs, but what are they are? Machines? Holograms? Illusions? To be fair Worf asks these very questions. Data says they are not illusions, they do exist but do not register as anything…and it goes not further than that. The script never really gives an answer. Yeah the vagueness of that really hurts the story.


There is no way I could talk about this episode and not bring this up. In the teaser Picard is trying to solve Fermat’s Last Theorem. If you don’t know it, it involved a mathematical formula left by Pierre De Fermat when he died in the 17th century, and there is no way I can explain it. Point is that Picard says it is still unsolved in their time. This episode came out in 1988.  A proof was, however, found by Andrew Wiles and published in 1995! This little error was retconned in an episode of DS9 when it’s claimed that people still try to find their own interpretations, but the scene here still makes me laugh. Sometimes predicting what will, or will not, happen in the future isn’t so easy.



The big problem is the episode is just all over the place. We don’t know it it’s meant to be creepy and scary..or light comedy. For instance when they find the door, it’s very creepy. In the casino, it’s light camp. When they can’t escape and find the dead astronaut, it’s creepy again. Then it is full comedy during the final scene at the craps table. This makes the episode a mess since it seems to want to be both but doesn’t know how. To be fair, this treatment was re-written so badly the original writer asked his name be taken off of it. That’s a bad sign.

Things I Liked:

The casino setting is pretty good. For the most part. It does feel we are seeing characters from a real cheesy book. The actors do a good job especially Noble Willingham as Texas. A crooked gambler taking advantage of a dimwitted woman. His scenes with Data are really funny. Yeah the stuff with Mickey D is corny, but that’s the whole idea. They set the right mood and it works.


The mystery is pretty good. First they find a door but no building. When the enter they find a casino from old Earth. Meanwhile, the Enterprise can’t communicate with the away team. Then the three discover that they are trapped inside. Ok this is good so far. The solution is well presented as well. An astronaut was brought there by aliens who simulated the world described in a crappy novel they had on the space ship. The story was full of shallow character sand unending cliche, which is exactly what we see. The guy survived and eventually died there of old age. The problem is the solution, not only does it drag on but once we hear about the “trio of foreign investors who buy the hotel and then return home”. Yeah real subtle! It’s obvious how the episode will end, there is no suspense. And wasn’t it convenient that the novel’s storyline was so accommodating?


Ok we know how it will end but the final scene at the craps table is just gold. It’s almost as if Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner simply decided the hell with it, let’s just have fun. Data is hilarious as he keeps winning, while Riker is fantastic giving money away and enjoying every second. If you forget how stupid the whole thing is, it’s a cute moment. Though it’s to bad they didn’t play it up more, but for it’s still a good scene. It’s also fun watching Picard and Troi reacting to the bad writing and awful dialogue as they follow the text on board the ship.



But Riker sums up the episode perfectly in the end, when he comments that none of it makes any sense. Indeed Riker, Indeed!

Fast Forward Moment:

As the away team explores the hotel, there are cutbacks to the Enterprise as the crew discover they can’t communicate with the away team. The scenes of them working on cutting through the interference are really unnecessary. It’s the kind of thing that would eventually vanish from TNG, no need to stop the story cold to remind us the others are still up there (or have pointless crap from Troi telling us what we’ve already seen!!!). By the way Pulaski’s scene is so brief it’s almost entirely pointless….but that’s OK actually.

Final Thoughts:
There was a good idea here, but it just doesn’t work. Instead we get a boring, predictable episode which tries really hard.