“11001001”
Written by Maurice Hurley & Robert Lewin
Directed by Paul Lynch
Season 1, Episode 14
Production episode 40271-116
Original air date: February 1, 1988
Stardate: 41365.9
Captain’s log. The Enterprise arrives at Starbase 74 for maintenance. Part of the team includes a Bynar pair. The Bynars are the ultimate computer geeks, even speaking in binary code to each other. They all come in pairs, and when told that they only have 48 hours to complete the computer refit, they bring two others on board to assist.
The crew is preparing for a couple of days off. Picard plans to lose himself in a novel, Yar and Worf are playing Parrises Squares, Crusher is meeting with a cyberneticist on the starbase, La Forge is helping Data with creativity by advising him on how to paint, and Riker decides to try out the Bynar-enhanced holodeck.
Riker creates a jazz club on Bourbon Street in 1958 New Orleans, with an audience of one: a woman named Minuet. Because Jonathan Frakes plays the trombone, Riker sits in with the jazz band, then dances with Minuet, who captivates Riker.
While keeping an eye on the Bynars on the bridge, Wes discovers that something’s wrong with the magnetic containment unit. Data and La Forge verify that the antimatter will be released and destroy the ship inside of five minutes. Data orders the ship abandoned, and sets the Enterprise to fly away from the starbase. As it does so, the containment unit somehow regenerates, but by then the ship’s en route to Bynaus.
However, Riker and Picard, who joined Riker on the holodeck, are still being distracted by Minuet. They are kept from learning about the containment unit. When Picard tries to leave and Minuet is forceful in her desire for them to stay, they ask for the exit that much more anxiously. They quickly discover that the ship is at red alert, and the computer fills them in on what they missed, with some more filling in by Minuet, who was designed to keep Riker on board in case something went wrong.
Picard and Riker arm themselves and set the autodestruct, then beam to the bridge—only to find the Bynars unconscious. It takes some time, and some exposition from Minuet, but Picard and Riker figure out that Bynaus is being hit with an electromagnetic pulse, and they needed to core-dump their world computer into the largest mobile computer available: the Enterprise.
The captain and first officer manage to restore the Bynar computer by working in tandem. The Bynars explain that they didn’t just ask for help because Starfleet might have said no.
What happens on the holodeck stays on the holodeck. Riker totally falls for Minuet, whom he describes as “too real.” (The bass player retorts, “Too real is too right.”)
Also, the Bynars specify that their maintenance will prevent malfunctions like the one in “The Big Goodbye.” Would that it were so (Amusingly, the episode was intended to take place prior to “The Big Goodbye,” with the Bynar tampering being responsible for the holodeck malfunction in that episode.)
If I only had a brain Data decides to try his hand at painting—which would continue to be a recurring theme throughout the series. La Forge provides advice, leading to Riker’s suggestion that they take notes for posterity. “A blind man teaching an android how to paint? That’s got to worth a couple of pages in somebody’s book.”
The boy!? Wes keeps an eye on the Bynars and is the first to notice that the containment unit is going blooey.
There is no honor in being pummeled. Worf goes with Yar to play Parrises Squares, and assures Riker that they will win at all costs. When Riker says that the point is to have fun, Worf pointedly asks, “If winning is not important, then Commander—why keep score?”
Welcome aboard. Carolyn McCormick is simply radiant as Minuet, which makes up for how dull Gene Dynarski is as Commander Quinteros. Katy Boyer, Alexandra Johnson, Iva Lane, and Kelli Ann McNally are all nicely alien as the Bynars.
I believe I said that. “Hey, man, the chick digs you.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Hey, look at her.”
“Maybe it’s my music.”
“Yeah, well, about that, don’t give up your day job.”
The jazz musicians and Riker discussing Minuet’s very obvious interest in him.
Trivial matters: The Bynars would return in the Starfleet Corps of Engineers eBook series; a single Bynar whose mate was killed is one of the regular characters. The S.C.E. eBook 10 is Better than 01 by Heather Jarman provided the full backstory on Bynaus, establishing that they were organics that were enslaved by an artificial intelligence that they eventually overthrew.
The footage of Starbase 74 was a reuse of footage of Spacedock from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
Make it so. One of the strongest first-season episodes, this one has it all: romance, jazz, adventure, suspense, a potential tragedy, and one of the finest alien species Trek has provided.
The nascent relationship between Riker and a hologram is disturbing if you think about it for too long, but while you watch the episode you’re too busy being totally charmed by Minuet. McCormick’s chemistry with Frakes is letter-perfect, and you have no trouble believing that Riker falls for her. It’s also fun to see Frakes play trombone with the jazz band .
Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton provide an intensity that makes the evacuation of the Enterprise tense, a nice modulation from the whimsy of the painting scenes. (“I am awaiting—inspiration!”)
Most impressive is director Paul Lynch’s maintaining of the binary theme. We see people in groups of two—not just the Bynars, but Yar and Worf, Data and La Forge, Picard and Riker. Of particular note is the way Picard and Riker move in near-perfect unison when they try to take the ship back.
In a series that all too often resorts to slapping latex on a forehead to create an alien species, the Bynars are truly alien aliens. Best of all, this lives up to one of Trek‘s finest ideals: what appears to be a threat turns out to be a tragedy, and Picard and Riker show compassion rather than anger when they learn the truth.
One thing that has always bugged me about this episode: Quinteros is very obstructionist to the Enterprise crew when they try to go back to the ship once they realize it’s been stolen. He’s very sympathetic to the Bynars, and one wonders if he was covertly helping them with their plight. Food for thought, anyhow .
Oh, and it’s a joy to see an episode in which the autodestruct is turned off, not with five or fewer seconds left, but with a full two minutes left. Nice avoiding of cliché there.
Warp factor rating: 7.
Keith R.A. DeCandido has a new novel out: the Dungeons & Dragons tome Dark Sun: Under the Crimson Sun. You should buy it. Really. You can follow Keith online at his blog or on Facebook or Twitter under the username KRADeC.
I recall an episode a few seasons after this, one of those “convince Riker of a false reality episode” where a picture of Minuet, presumably Riker’s “wife” was prominently seen.
It’s been a looong time since I’ve seen this, but I remember hating this episode. While there were good ideas here, they were overwhelmed for me by what I found to be stilted and overdramatic acting and dialogue. I particularly found the Bynars — let’s call it the implementation of the Bynars rather than the idea — absurd and Riker’s lech act offputting. The honey trap idea was interesting but seemed unrealistic, and throughout I thought the dramatic tension was off key. Perhaps if we had more history of the Bynar’s persecution the idea that they would not consider making a request might have been better motivated. At the time, I saw this episode as consistent with the general first season badness.
But your nice review has prompted me to take a fresh look at this one. I especially like your observation about people appearing in pairs, which I hadn’t remembered, and the commander’s potential complicity.
Jvstin: Yes, that was “Future Imperfect” in the fourth season.
ChrisG: Thanks! :)
Keith, when you get to “Future Imperfect,” note that it was more than just Minuet appearing in a picture. I believe they rehired the actress to film some “home movies” with Riker and his “son,” and they even have another character express astonishment that Minuet was not real because she was so real in Riker’s mind.
One of the first season’s strongest, though that’s faint praise. Imperfect, but effective. Carolyn McCormick deserves a lot of the credit for its success, even when Minuet’s dialogue is less than convincing.
But the title always annoyed me. Saying it out loud requires twelve syllables, which I think is tied with “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” for most syllables in a Trek episode title, and it’s hard to remember (or it was until I finally memorized it ages ago). I used to like to think of it by an alternate title, “Binary” (or maybe “Bynary”). For what it’s worth, the binary number 11001001 equals 201 in decimal, so technically you could pronounce it “Two Hundred and One,” though only math geeks would have a clue what you were talking about. And of course it represents the “names” of the four Bynar characters, 11, 00, 10, and 01 (or the numbers three, zero, two, and one). Which is odd in itself — are we supposed to believe that these four aboard the Enterprise are actually the first four Bynars in numerical order, out of the entire planet? Maybe those are just aliases, or their assigned numbers within a foursome that has a longer designation.
The reuse of the ST III Spacedock footage always bugged me a bit. The Enterprise-D is so much bigger than the original that it could never fit through the Earth Spacedock doors, so taken literally, this would have to be a station of the same design but scaled up to a greater size. Not entirely out of the question, I guess, but contrived, especially in combination with an Earthlike planet and a Luna-like moon in the same shot. Still, the necessity of reusing stock FX footage from the movies at this point in the series, before they’d created a large library of their own footage, is certainly understandable. And they did a good job of match-moving the E-D with the film elements from ST III.
It’s funny you point up how everyone is paired up with someone in this episode. (Riker/Picard, Yar/Worf, Data/LaForge), but Wesley stands alone, which is symbollic of his entire run as a character on TNG. We see him with his mother late in the episode, after the evacuation, but they are not working together the way the other three groups do.
If Ryker’s gonna fall in love I REALLY don’t wanna clean the holodeck!
>2: I interpreted the Bynars’ decision not to ask StarFleet for help as a layman’s interpretation of what it might be like to think in binary — only yes/no answers are possible, and the ramifications of a no answer are too grave to be risked, so better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, right? Made as much sense to me as any other justifications they give the alien species on the show. . .
I hadn’t seen this episode in a very long time and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it is! I agree that it’s one of the better Season 1 episodes. :)
A few thoughts:
– Isn’t it funny that Minuet has a better French accent than Picard? :P
– I don’t mind the re-use of the ST III footage, and I actually think it’s a beautiful scene
– The nitpicker in me can’t help but wonder how did the Bynars manage to get to the bridge before Picard and Riker? We leave them apparently setting up shop in Engineering, follow Picard and Riker as they head directly to the bridge….where we find not two but four Bynars already working there???? Oh well….pretty minor stuff considering we’ve just come from Angel 1…
-I loved all the performances of the main characters, and the little tidbits we learn in regards to their backgrounds, interests, etc, for example I really loved seeing Dr. Crusher’s passion and energy when telling Riker about her meeting with the cyberneticist.
I’m really enjoying this rewatch! So much so in fact, that two eps a week not being enough, I’m now doing the TOS rewatch as well. (I missed it the first time around).
Thanks!! :D
Finally, an episode not to bitch about. I loved Minuet, thought she made the episode. The episode had some nice character moments. I thought most everyone finally seemed comfortable in their characters. I still think that the whole series could have done with fewer stars and worked as well.
I really enjoyed this one (second only to “Conspiracy” as far as the first season goes, IMO). Minuet was a great character. As much as Picard and Riker comment on her uniqueness, I like the fact that we, as an audience, can see it. She calls Riker by his first name, knows she’s a hologram, speaks French to Picard, etc. Also, this episode is really the first time that Data and LaForge work together in engineering (they would do it many more times in the future). There’s the obligatory technobabble, but you could always forgive it, even here, because Brent Spiner and Levar Burton are so great together (nice touch in your review, noticing all the crewmembers working in pairs, BTW).
One GLARING plot hole though: It’s explained a few times that Riker was needed to be distracted, and stay on board, so that he could help if anything went wrong, while Picard’s presence was mere luck. Good thing, because without Picard and Riker working together, the Bynars all die (remember, both were needed to access that computer program on the bridge). So, the Bynars plan was highly flawed. Maybe it was made to show that, while the Bynars are computer geniuses, they handle people, and other species, so poorly. Even so, I would have liked to have seen that point at least be mentioned.
Great episode, though.
Christopher (#5): try hexadecimal, instead; that translates it to C9, for only two syllables. (Too bad it isn’t B5, eh?)
Love this episode! Love the true alien-ness of the Bynars as Keith put it, love Minuet, and Riker playing the trombone (don’t give up your day job? Please! He’s got chops!). I also love the Enterprise D docking at a starbase. Even if it was stock footage, it was still a beautiful thing to see.
A toss-up with Conspiracy for my favourite Season 1 episode. This one has tremendous atmosphere and character development for Riker and Picard. We finally get to see them in a relaxed environment with the scenes in the jazz club. Kudos to Ron Jones who crafted a truly sensational soundtrack for this episode.
This is a cogent analysis. The episode is indeed tight. Ron Jones also shines with a good soundtrack and with the Jazz numbers. And Carolyn McCormick shines, between her dress, character, and unique role as holodeck beauty and Bynar distraction-liason.
I don’t think I can very add much beyond that to your bottom line.
Concur with the analysis in toto. Very good episode. This is where this Star Trek incarnation begins to show it’s potential. The auto-destruct sequence is a little overboard, but it is redeemed by the fact that they knew they were leaving plenty of time to turn it off. The moments of whimsy worked. “Why didn’t you ask for our help?” “You might have said no.” Thumbs up.
Interesting that krad mentions The Big Goodbye and how it was originally supposed to be a sequel to this one. I always took the Bynars’ line that started with “The results of your previous scan…” was specifically referenceing TBG and saying “Yea…we fixed that problem for you.”
Keith, in my opinion the best part of this episode was when Data was utterly ruthless and ecisive in evacuating everyone from the ship.
Absolutely awesome and spine tingling.
http://tng.trekcore.com/audiocaps/1×16/1×16-abandonship-e.mp3
‘decisive’ sorry.
Keith, I’m surprised you didn’t point out the presence of Jack Sheldon, of Schoolhouse Rock fame, in the jazz combo. :)
Garrett: Mainly because I didn’t know that until you posted it. :)
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Hey, Keith:
Just wanted to post to let you know that I’m a huge fan of your novels – particularly the Trek ones. :-) Thanks, and keep up the amazing creativity!
Thanks, Scott!
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I find it amusing that the tech genius Bynar’s did not program Minuet with a sequence for when they come asking WTF is going on. Like “sorry gentlemen, but the Bynar planet is dying and we needed your ship to save everyone. Picard, sit at a terminal and pull up 11001001 whilst Riker does the same at another terminal”. Something to that effect; i.e. making it painfully clear what needs done to complete the mission. If it’s so critically important, I’d want to be sure I left a clear manual for people :)
I just watched this episode last night, and I am convinced Commander Quinteros was in fact working with the Bynars. I never noticed it when watching this episode before, but there were a couple of scenes where he threw a few sideways glances that, in retrospect, were clearly saying “get lost, Enterprise crew. The scene in the Starbase control room when the ship was backing out, and he took Tasha by the arm actually looks like he’s restraining her from bolting for the transporter.
It’s also worth noting that Gene Dynarski played Ben Childress in Mudd’s Women and Krodak in The Mark of Gideon.
Excuse me if this is a stupid question (I’m a great ST fan but not an in-depth expert, so there are gaps in my knowledge) — in other episodes I’ve seen, inhabitants of the Holodeck don’t seem to be aware that they’re not “real” (in “The Big Goodbye,” Cyrus Redblock, for one, seemed to take considerable offense at the idea). Obviously, not only does Minuet know she’s a hologram, but Riker and Picard talk about her as one, in front of her, obviously knowing that she’ll understand what they’re talking about. Is this a continuity glitch between episodes, or do Holodeck figures (Redblock notwithstanding) usually have this kind of meta-awareness?
Most holodeck characters don’t know they’re not real, but Minuet was a special case, and there have been others, including Moriarty in “Elementary, Dear Data” and “Ship in a Bottle” (albeit not on purpose) and Vic Fontaine in the latter seasons of DS9 (who is programmed to know he’s a hologram).
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Trivia: the bass player (Abdul Salaam El Razzac) played the Cyberdyne security guard who gets duct-taped to a urinal in Terminator 2.
Shameless random nitpicks on an otherwise stellar episode. Officers have a hard time following orders in this episode. When Picard leaves the bridge, he tells Wesley to keep him apprised. A few scenes later when Wesley discovers a problem with the warp core, he apparently doesn’t even try and contact Picard, he contacts Data first. Then Geordi tells Wesley not to contact the captain until they check out engineering. Umm, sorry Wesley, but a higher ranked officer than Geordi ordered you to keep him apprised. Then in engineering, Data, who is Geordi’s superior, tells La Forge to contact the captain immediately; La Forge just ignores him, haha.
@26/jazzmanchgo: Holodeck characters are just avatars animated by computer programs, so how “awarely” they behave is a function of how their underlying software is specifically designed to behave. Some are just simple game NPCs or relationship sims, others are interactive expert programs designed to engage with the real-world situations they’re advising on, while a very few are animated by code sophisticated enough to be sentient.
In the case of this episode, Picard and Riker spoke explicitly of how much more intelligent and self-aware Minuet seemed to be compared to other holodeck characters, and that was because of the way the Bynars programmed her to be an enticing distraction. But she wasn’t actually a sentient being, just a very sophisticated simulation designed to read people and compute the right things to say and do to keep them engaged and fascinated. She wasn’t a real live girl, just a more elaborate and convincing imitation of one that the usual holodeck software provided. Once the program had done its job, “Minuet” went away.
@29/Thierafhal: I think the idea was that the Bynar program cut off communications to the holodeck, so attempts to contact Picard and Riker were unsuccessful. They didn’t notice the ongoing red alert until they walked out into the corridor, and when Picard asked the computer why he wasn’t notified, it said “Unknown.”
This was the whole idea of the holoprogramming that created Minuet — to keep the captain and first officer from leaving the holodeck, by giving them such an enticing distraction that they didn’t want to leave, and by cutting off communications with the outside so they couldn’t be called away. Although that raises the question of why they didn’t just keep the doors from opening. Maybe actually physically trapping them inside was too aggressive an action for the Bynars; they just wanted to keep them safely distracted.
@30/CLB: As I said, Wesley “apparently doesn’t even try and contact Picard.” If he had tried before contacting Data, he would have said he can’t reach the captain when La Forge told him not to contact the captain. In my last nitpick, La Forge literally just ignores Data. Only when Data tries does anyone know the captain is unreachable.
I know it sounds like I hate this episode, but I actually don’t. It’s a top ten TNG episode for me, haha!
@25/DonRudolphII:
That’s an interesting theory, but I think it’s highly unlikely. As Riker correctly states, the Bynars binary thought processes were part of their rationale for stealing the Enterprise. 1 or 0 is a 50% chance that they would all die. Having Quinteros in on their plan would have been a prior 50% gambit. As they said, their need was too great to risk rejection.
#5, yes, I also always found the space dock scene distracting because of the scaling issues. Never seen anybody comment on it before! But, yes, works well and was no doubt very pricey to create at the time, so no biggie.
Anybody notice that Wesley is one of the first to beam off? He’s annoying, but not stupid!
There’s absolutely no way the D could be fully evacuated in the time given.
Great episode though.
@32/Silly: “There’s absolutely no way the D could be fully evacuated in the time given.”
Not by foot, but if the starbase used its transporters, it could clear the ship pretty quickly.
@5/32: I just kinda handwave it that they cut out a bigger segment around the old doors and put in a new larger set. Obviously the doorway doesn’t look bigger, but whatever, doesn’t bug me too much. As for there being two sizes of spacedocks, as CLB said @5, it’s contrived, but possible. I prefer my handwave, though.
Sci-fi space station size charts online often show a smaller and a larger spacedock; not that that’s canon or anything, but kinda cool.
One of the best episodes of the first season although that’s not really saying much. There’s nothing dated or embarrassing here like a planet of the tribal Black people or the planet of the blonde southern Californians, and very minimal Wesley. Great reuse of the ST III: TSFS space dock footage. The opening shot with the majestic music was very cinematic. We get to spend quality time with Picard and especially Riker, getting to know what the latter is into especially when it comes to his choice in women. Carolyn McCormack puts in an enchanting performance as Minuet. I liked seeing Yar and Worf together out of uniform and on their way to participate in a sporting competition. I think more moments like that would have really deepened the Yar character plus develop her relationship with Worf. And then finally the Binars were very alien and just a unique creation in general. I’d like to see them again at some point. I’m sure the Borg would find them to make for great analytical drones. Haha.
In addition to his Schoolhouse Rock gig, Jack Sheldon was a fairly important figure (as a trumpeter) on the LA jazz scene, particularly on a few Art Pepper albums; starred in the short-lived 60s sitcom Run Buddy Run; and led the band on the Merv Griffin Show.
And either the bass player is super-tall or he’s playing a cello.
Wasn’t there another episode where someone managed to get everybody but Picard off the Enterprise under the guise of a cleaning crew?
In the meantime, I’d love to be a fly on the wall at the inquiry where Picard and his first officer have to explain that while the entire ship was being evacuated and moved to a safe distance so it could explode, both of them were in a jazz club mooning over a hologram babe.
B-b-but Admiral– she spoke French!
Don’t give me that, Captain, your accent is British!
@37: The episode you’re referring to is “Starship Mine.”
Well, that was better than most of the episodes so far, in the sense there was nothing especially glaring here.
It’s a pretty big design flaw that the Bynars would have life support systems dependent upon the computers on their planet though. I know they mention the downsides but that really ought to be fixed.
@39/Fujimoto: There are things on our planet that our survival is completely dependent upon, like the oceans and the forests. If they fail, we all die. And yet we do very little to fix the damage we do to them. At least the Bynars put real effort into fixing their system.
Despite what libertarians pretend, independence is a myth. We’re all dependent on something outside ourselves. And a lot of what we’re dependent on today is technological, like roads, the electric grid, the Internet, etc. Maybe our internal organs don’t directly depend on the Internet (yet), but how many of us would die from various causes if all our technology suddenly failed?
The Bynars deserve a place in the Best Pirate I’ve Ever Seen meme. My son and I were saying it tonight as they warped away from the starbase, lol. I’d call it even more smoothly done than the Star Trek 3 escapade.
Speaking of which, does the ST3 shot re-use serve as a kind of foreshadowing?
“The nascent relationship between Riker and a hologram is disturbing if you think about it for too long, but while you watch the episode you’re too busy being totally charmed by Minuet.”
I think you got that half right. Charmed? Sure am. Riker crafting the audience he’d like and coming on to her, though, is palpably skeevy in the moment. (Despite that, I feel the dagger to the heart when he returns to the holodeck at the end but Minuet is gone.)
Picard and Riker moving in lock-step as they march to the bridge and work at the console thereafter is great.
Quinteros definitely gives off… I dunno, proprietary? collusive?… vibes when he arrives on scene with the Bynars but it might just be the old Brusque Starfleet Officer and/or Consultant Whose New Way Is the Best Way trope we often see.
Troi is missing again this episode, yet apparently not missed, as she’s not mentioned once in the post or previous comments.
One thing I’ll point out is that the computer starts its time-to-failure countdown at 4 minutes and 18 seconds, which is 258 seconds, which is also (2^8)+2 seconds.
Coincidence!?! Yeah, probably.
nms72: That is an incredibly nerdy post, even by the high standards of this site…..
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@44: Coming from you, Keith, that is a true compliment. Thank you!
There was so much infrastructure in this episode. Honestly, I could watch 45 minutes of the details of a ship docking at a star base. I wanted to see all the docking clamps and doors opening and closing. But I guess you have to have a plot, and this one’s pretty good on that count too. I’d forgotten pretty much all the details from when I first watched it, so I actually found it pretty tense.