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. And as promised, this time I have a bad episode. I realized I’ve
talked a lot about TNG’s early seasons and final year, but not so much
the middle. So I decided to discuss this gem from Season 6 that no one
on the creative team liked when they heard the idea. What episode am I
talking about?
Plot Synopsis:
Picard, Ro, Keiko, and Guinan are en route to the Enterprise after short leave somewhere, when an energy, thing, envelopes the shuttle. O’Brien manages to beam them all out but for some reason they are beamed back as children.
As the Enterprise rushes to respond to a distress call, Crusher determines that a part of the four’s DNA pattern was blocked when the transporter reassembled them, causing them to materialize as children. She realizes it would be possible to use the pattern they have on file to restore them to their correct forms.
Before that can happen, Ferengi ambush the Enterprise with two stolen Klingon ships and take it over. The four children are the only crew who are able to rescue the ship. Guinan reminds Picard that they have to act like children since they look like children, and they manage to confuse and defeat the Ferengi. Crusher finally restore the crew to their adult forms.
What I Liked:
To be fair, the kid actors are really good. Well ok that first scene where they appear was badly directed, the kids are just standing there with no reaction. But after that they were fine. The actor playing young Picard has already played Picard’s nephew in “The Family”. And the actress playing young Guinan had already played a younger version of Whoopi Goldberg’s character in Sister Act. I like that Alexander (Worf’s son) not only appears but contributes to the final outcome in this episode. I wonder if he was in the first draft of the script of if the creators realized, “hey he should be in there shouldn’t he?” He is an established characer at the right age, and he fit in very well. Alexander was a good character (before DS9 ruined him) and this is one of my favorite episodes he was in. You know if they had dropped the Ferengi stuff and just kept it about the four dealing with their situation it may have been OK. Granted that would have been a boring hour.
The scene where the kids defeat The Fereng is really good. You just have to kind of turn your brain off, and just go with it. Right up to that moment when Picard runs in to give Riker a hug so they can fool the Ferengi into thinking they are father and son. You get the feeling everyone probably just gave up at that point. As dumb as Riker acts in this episode he makes for or it in the scene where he is told to tell one the Ferengi how the computer works, and he confuses the poor Ferengi with technobabble. That is a great moment. I also do like the moment when Picard walks in and tells the Ferengi to get out his chair. Even as a kid, Picard was badass in that scene. I always loved imagining that first time after Picard is restored and he has to talk to Riker. “We’ll never speak of that again Number One!” Picard would say and Riker would just smiles and say “Speak of what sir?”
One of the rewrites for this episode gave more attention to the character’s dealing with the situation they are in. And that saved the episode to be honest. As cute as it is when the kids are defeating the Ferengi, it’s those early scenes that sell it. We have Picard dealing with losing his command, Keiko wondering what it all could mean for her family (that scene when her daughter doesn’t recognize her is heartbreaking), and Guinan teaching Ro it’s okay to have fun and act like a kid once in awhile. It really is good stuff. I find it amazing that best Keiko and Ro episode has almost none of the actors who actually played the characters. To be fair Keiko kind of disappears as the episode rolls on. But Ro, that’s another story. We probably learn more about her than any other episode and Michelle Forbes is hardly in it! I wonder if it’s a coincidence this would be her last appearance on TNG until “Preemptive Strike” in Season 7? That scene where Picard tries to do still be the captain even though he looks 12 is..awkward, but it’s supposed to be. The episode really isn’t bad in its first two acts. To bad it gets botched when the Ferengi show up.
What I Hated:
And of course, the Ferengi attacking and taking over the Enterprise is just plain dumb. The thing is you can almost get past the four turning into kids, it almost worked! But once the Ferengi appear there’s no salvaging the dumb in this one. I get the idea that you need a goofy villain for kids to beat, but still! Not bad enough they use stock footage from “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (the Enterprise was sitting there getting pummeled in that episode for a reason, here it makes them look stupid). but then the way the Enterprise is so quickly outgunned and taken over is just lame. I mean the only thing I can think of that was worst was in “Generations” when the Enterprise is pummeled by a Klingon vessel seventy years behind the times. Then the Ferengi just storm the ship? I know it’s accepted that security is useless but this useless? This isn’t like other times when a massive boarding party was invading and they outnumbered the crew, or it was something like Borg drones which are established as hard to beat. This was, what, six Ferengi??? The only smart moment is when Riker disables the computer. Then all the adults just get beamed down, and we never hear from then again what were they doing down there? Course they have to beam them all down so the kids can have carte blanc to run all over the ship. And what would have happened if the four hadn’t been turned into kids?? Sigh. The plot is the very definition of “forced”!
While that last scene with Ro and Guinan is sweet, Ro made a picture of her mother because she never had before, but i think it would be have been more effective if it had been Michelle Forbes in that scene, as it would cemented the character development she gets in the episode. For all we know when she was turned back to an adult she pretended all that stuff never happened.
So, what caused this to happen to the four? Ok get this. In human beings there is a substance in our DNA. It’s called RVN and this substance stores all of out adult genetic information. These sequences determine how we develop into adults. So what happened was the energy thing was enveloping the shuttle, when the four were beamed away this energy was masking the RVN in all four. So the transporter didn’t read the sequences and simply materialized them as children. Sigh. I need Linkara;s “Of course, don’t you know anything about science?” joke here.
The solution? Well of course they have the adult patterns on file so they just need to send the four through the transporter, add he old pattern, and viola back to normal! This makes the solution in Enemy Within look smart and plausible.
And one question that has always bugged me, why in he hell did Picard, Keiko, Guinan, and Ro go on a shuttle trip together? That just never felt like it made any kind of sense. I also love how Crusher has the answer mid way through the episode but of course that has to be put on hold when the Ferengi attack. Oh and by the way, that energy reversion field that envelopes the shuttle, where did t come from? Never explained.
Fast Forward Moment:
It’s clear the idea was so weak they needed filler to make it a whole hour. The second act almost nothing really happens except the characters discussing the situation.
Final Thoughts-First of all, this was not the absolute worst of TNG-By far. There are so many more cringe worthy episodes from “Code of Honor” to “The Dauphin” to “Night Terrors” to “Sub Rosa”. I said at the top this reminds me of “Spock’s Brain” which is pretty much at the level of this episode as a so goofy it’s fun kind of episode. But I don’t enjoy watching “Brain” as much, it’s just to campy and ridiculous that the episode is hard to sit through. But with this episode you can tell they tried to make something more of this mess. It’s what makes it underrated, it’s bad but watchable. Season six had a rough start with this episode, “A Fistful of Data’s” which was silly at best, and “Man of the People” which is an episode whose time will come here one of these days my friends.
This is sort of TNG’s equivalent to “Spock’s Brain”. But while
Spock’s Brain is hard to sit through, this one is passable. This episode
was bought by Michael Piller and pretty much only he and Jeri Taylor were the
only ones who liked it. But they tried to make something out of it
anyway, so does the episode pull it episode off at all ? Let’s take a
closer look:
Plot Synopsis:
Picard, Ro, Keiko, and Guinan are en route to the Enterprise after short leave somewhere, when an energy, thing, envelopes the shuttle. O’Brien manages to beam them all out but for some reason they are beamed back as children.
As the Enterprise rushes to respond to a distress call, Crusher determines that a part of the four’s DNA pattern was blocked when the transporter reassembled them, causing them to materialize as children. She realizes it would be possible to use the pattern they have on file to restore them to their correct forms.
Before that can happen, Ferengi ambush the Enterprise with two stolen Klingon ships and take it over. The four children are the only crew who are able to rescue the ship. Guinan reminds Picard that they have to act like children since they look like children, and they manage to confuse and defeat the Ferengi. Crusher finally restore the crew to their adult forms.
What I Liked:
To be fair, the kid actors are really good. Well ok that first scene where they appear was badly directed, the kids are just standing there with no reaction. But after that they were fine. The actor playing young Picard has already played Picard’s nephew in “The Family”. And the actress playing young Guinan had already played a younger version of Whoopi Goldberg’s character in Sister Act. I like that Alexander (Worf’s son) not only appears but contributes to the final outcome in this episode. I wonder if he was in the first draft of the script of if the creators realized, “hey he should be in there shouldn’t he?” He is an established characer at the right age, and he fit in very well. Alexander was a good character (before DS9 ruined him) and this is one of my favorite episodes he was in. You know if they had dropped the Ferengi stuff and just kept it about the four dealing with their situation it may have been OK. Granted that would have been a boring hour.
The scene where the kids defeat The Fereng is really good. You just have to kind of turn your brain off, and just go with it. Right up to that moment when Picard runs in to give Riker a hug so they can fool the Ferengi into thinking they are father and son. You get the feeling everyone probably just gave up at that point. As dumb as Riker acts in this episode he makes for or it in the scene where he is told to tell one the Ferengi how the computer works, and he confuses the poor Ferengi with technobabble. That is a great moment. I also do like the moment when Picard walks in and tells the Ferengi to get out his chair. Even as a kid, Picard was badass in that scene. I always loved imagining that first time after Picard is restored and he has to talk to Riker. “We’ll never speak of that again Number One!” Picard would say and Riker would just smiles and say “Speak of what sir?”
One of the rewrites for this episode gave more attention to the character’s dealing with the situation they are in. And that saved the episode to be honest. As cute as it is when the kids are defeating the Ferengi, it’s those early scenes that sell it. We have Picard dealing with losing his command, Keiko wondering what it all could mean for her family (that scene when her daughter doesn’t recognize her is heartbreaking), and Guinan teaching Ro it’s okay to have fun and act like a kid once in awhile. It really is good stuff. I find it amazing that best Keiko and Ro episode has almost none of the actors who actually played the characters. To be fair Keiko kind of disappears as the episode rolls on. But Ro, that’s another story. We probably learn more about her than any other episode and Michelle Forbes is hardly in it! I wonder if it’s a coincidence this would be her last appearance on TNG until “Preemptive Strike” in Season 7? That scene where Picard tries to do still be the captain even though he looks 12 is..awkward, but it’s supposed to be. The episode really isn’t bad in its first two acts. To bad it gets botched when the Ferengi show up.
What I Hated:
And of course, the Ferengi attacking and taking over the Enterprise is just plain dumb. The thing is you can almost get past the four turning into kids, it almost worked! But once the Ferengi appear there’s no salvaging the dumb in this one. I get the idea that you need a goofy villain for kids to beat, but still! Not bad enough they use stock footage from “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (the Enterprise was sitting there getting pummeled in that episode for a reason, here it makes them look stupid). but then the way the Enterprise is so quickly outgunned and taken over is just lame. I mean the only thing I can think of that was worst was in “Generations” when the Enterprise is pummeled by a Klingon vessel seventy years behind the times. Then the Ferengi just storm the ship? I know it’s accepted that security is useless but this useless? This isn’t like other times when a massive boarding party was invading and they outnumbered the crew, or it was something like Borg drones which are established as hard to beat. This was, what, six Ferengi??? The only smart moment is when Riker disables the computer. Then all the adults just get beamed down, and we never hear from then again what were they doing down there? Course they have to beam them all down so the kids can have carte blanc to run all over the ship. And what would have happened if the four hadn’t been turned into kids?? Sigh. The plot is the very definition of “forced”!
While that last scene with Ro and Guinan is sweet, Ro made a picture of her mother because she never had before, but i think it would be have been more effective if it had been Michelle Forbes in that scene, as it would cemented the character development she gets in the episode. For all we know when she was turned back to an adult she pretended all that stuff never happened.
So, what caused this to happen to the four? Ok get this. In human beings there is a substance in our DNA. It’s called RVN and this substance stores all of out adult genetic information. These sequences determine how we develop into adults. So what happened was the energy thing was enveloping the shuttle, when the four were beamed away this energy was masking the RVN in all four. So the transporter didn’t read the sequences and simply materialized them as children. Sigh. I need Linkara;s “Of course, don’t you know anything about science?” joke here.
The solution? Well of course they have the adult patterns on file so they just need to send the four through the transporter, add he old pattern, and viola back to normal! This makes the solution in Enemy Within look smart and plausible.
And one question that has always bugged me, why in he hell did Picard, Keiko, Guinan, and Ro go on a shuttle trip together? That just never felt like it made any kind of sense. I also love how Crusher has the answer mid way through the episode but of course that has to be put on hold when the Ferengi attack. Oh and by the way, that energy reversion field that envelopes the shuttle, where did t come from? Never explained.
Fast Forward Moment:
It’s clear the idea was so weak they needed filler to make it a whole hour. The second act almost nothing really happens except the characters discussing the situation.
Final Thoughts-First of all, this was not the absolute worst of TNG-By far. There are so many more cringe worthy episodes from “Code of Honor” to “The Dauphin” to “Night Terrors” to “Sub Rosa”. I said at the top this reminds me of “Spock’s Brain” which is pretty much at the level of this episode as a so goofy it’s fun kind of episode. But I don’t enjoy watching “Brain” as much, it’s just to campy and ridiculous that the episode is hard to sit through. But with this episode you can tell they tried to make something more of this mess. It’s what makes it underrated, it’s bad but watchable. Season six had a rough start with this episode, “A Fistful of Data’s” which was silly at best, and “Man of the People” which is an episode whose time will come here one of these days my friends.
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