“The Icarus Factor”
Written by David Assael and Robert McCullough
Directed by Robert Iscove
Season 2, Episode 14
Production episode 40272-140
Original air date: April 24, 1989
Stardate: 42686.4
Captain’s Log: The Enterprise arrives at Starbase Montgomery. An engineering team is investigating some readout anomalies, while Riker is informed that he’s been offered a command. The captain of the Starship Aries is retiring, and Starfleet wants Riker to take the center seat and lead the ship’s exploration of Vega Omicron, a sector that has indications of new life.
The starbase sends a strategic attaché to give him a personal briefing on the Vega Omicron mission—that civilian advisor turns out to be Kyle Riker, Will Riker’s father. They haven’t spoken in fifteen years, and Riker’s demeanor toward his father could charitably be called “cold.”
However, “cold” is the exact opposite reaction that Pulaski has—turns out she and Kyle have a past, and they catch up. Riker, however, refuses every overture, while he vacillates on the subject of taking the commission. He gets advice from both Pulaski and Picard on the subject. Picard’s advice is particularly compelling: on the Enterprise, he’s still second in command, but on the Aries, even though he’d be on a small ship in an obscure sector, it would be his ship.
Meanwhile, both La Forge and Worf are out of sorts. The former is cranky at the rather large team of engineers the starbase sent to look over the engines. The latter’s issues take a bit longer to suss out: it’s the tenth anniversary of the Klingon’s Age of Ascension. It’s supposed to be a day of celebration with one’s fellow Klingons, but Worf doesn’t have any of those around.
Wes programs the holodeck to simulate the ritual, which he, La Forge, Data, Pulaski, and O’Brien attend. (Troi brings him there, but does not stay for the ceremony.)
The Rikers finally decide to have it out by facing each other in Anbo-jytsu, which Kyle laughably refers to as the ultimate evolution of martial arts. While wearing outfits that look like a combination of motorcross uniforms, Japanese armor, and Power Rangers costumes, they fight each other with giant staffs in a small circle with visors covering their faces. An evolutionary dead end, maybe….
Anyhow, it comes out that Kyle has been cheating since Riker was twelve because the son kept beating the father, and he had to keep the boy interested. Kyle says he loves Riker, Riker inexplicably says that he’s glad Kyle came, they hug each other, and Kyle goes off. Riker then comes onto the bridge, saying that he’s not taking the Aries because he finally remembered after 45 minutes that he’s in the opening credits, and therefore can’t leave the show.
Thank You, Counselor Obvious: Pulaski puts Kyle together with Troi, during which she psychoanalyzes him within an inch of his life. Later, she and Riker have a tearful, cliché-ridden, and utterly pointless goodbye, since Riker doesn’t actually take the command.
If I Only Had a Brain…: At the beginning of the episode, Data suggests that the Enterprise‘s readout anomalies can be solved by reprogramming the computer. After a lengthy once-over by Starbase Montgomery’s team, they recommend that they reprogram the computer, just as Data said. That’s why they pay him the android money….
No Sex, Please, We’re Starfleet: Pulaski has been married three times, all to men with whom she’s still on good terms. Kyle was almost number four, and she does say she loves him, but she didn’t think it would work. She tells Riker that she fell in love with him when he recovered from grave injuries under her care following an attack on a starbase where he was serving as a civilian advisor.
There is No Honor in Being Pummeled: Worf runs a gauntlet of painstik-wielding Klingons, admitting his innermost feelings—phrases like “blood of my enemies,” “bile,” “river of blood,” and other happy, shiny thoughts come out of his mouth, both in English and Klingon. At the end, he looks up at the others and utters a pained, “thank you.” It’s actually kind of touching….
I’m a Doctor, Not an Escalator: Pulaski never thought it was worth mentioning her prior relationship with Kyle. She insists that it never came up, having apparently forgotten that it came up just last week in “Time Squared.”
The boy!?: Wes is the one who notices that Worf is out of sorts, figures out that it’s the anniversary of his Age of Ascension, and programs the holodeck to do the ceremony.
What Happens on the Holodeck Stays on the Holodeck: The Klingon ceremony is re-created, allowing Worf to party hearty without having to leave the ship.
Welcome Aboard: Mitchell Ryan does an excellent job playing Kyle Riker as a spectacular jackass. Colm Meaney plays a major supporting role as O’Brien, for the first time acting as a serious part of the cast, sharing a drink with Riker, chatting with La Forge about the inspection, and joining the gang on the holodeck for Worf’s party.
I Believe I Said That: “Now, let me guess: twenty-piece orchestra, magnificent ballroom, everyone in formalwear?”
La Forge’s sarcastic speculation regarding the specifics of Worf’s Age of Ascension ceremony.
Trivial Matters: This is the second time Riker’s been offered a command and turned it down, the first revealed in “The Arsenal of Freedom,” when he said he turned down the Drake, choosing instead to sign on to the Enterprise. He will turn down yet another command, the Melbourne, in “The Best of Both Worlds,” and will finally sit in the center seat following Star Trek Nemesis on Titan.
Kyle Riker is the focus of about half of Jeff Mariotte’s novel Deny Thy Father, the other half of which follows Will Riker’s time in the Academy. He also appeared in two issues of DC’s TNG comic book in 1995 by Michael Jan Friedman and Gordon Purcell, and in the Voyager novel Mosaic by Jeri Taylor. He finally appeared in Robert Greenberger’s A Time to Love and A Time to Hate, during which he was killed and Riker accepted command of Titan.
Picard recalls Riker’s manual docking of the Enterprise‘s saucer section with its stardrive section in “Encounter at Farpoint,” admitting that he was “miserly” in his congratulations for his accomplishing it back then.
The cohost of Entertainment Tonight at the time, and also sometime New Age musician, John Tesh played one of the Klingons, apparently a lifelong dream of his. The overwhelmingly bland Tesh playing a Klingon is just too hilarious.
Make it So: “I can’t believe you fell for that.” What a dreadful episode. The entire plot revolves around a decision that is preordained by virtue of Jonathan Frakes’s position in the #2 spot in the opening credits. So we are subjected to endless scenes of pointless Riker agonizing combined with endless scenes of the Riker Family Drama. Kyle is an egomaniacal, self-centered jackass who deserves every bit of scorn that his son directs at him. Whatever redeeming features he might have had goes out the window when he dismisses his abandoning Riker at age fifteen: “I hung in for thirteen years, if that wasn’t enough, that’s just too bad.”
Worse, his very existence sabotages Pulaski as a character. Here’s a hint, guys: if you want your new chief medical officer to be sympathetic, don’t establish that she loves this guy.
And then we have the “ultimate evolution of the martial arts.” When I first watched this episode as a college student, I thought Anbo-jytsu was stupid. Now, twenty-five years later, I’m a first-degree black belt in karate, and I can say with authority that Anbo-jytsu was incredibly stupid. Staffs that long are completely impractical in a circle that small. Plus, the “ultimate evolution of the martial arts” would require physical skill beyond manipulation of a staff, none of which are in evidence in the Rikers’ match.
Finally, we have the ending. The Rikers have been sniping at each other the whole episode, culminating in Kyle revealing that he’s been cheating at Anbo-jytsu in order to keep beating his son at it. Then, Kyle says he loves him—suddenly, the sun comes out, flowers bloom, birdies chirp, and all is right with the world. Riker hugs him and says he’s glad he came. Say what?
The subplots with Worf and with La Forge and the engineering team are entertaining, but they’re B-plots that can’t carry this testosterone-drenched machismo-laced crap.
Warp factor rating: 3
Keith R.A. DeCandido has a story in a new anthology called Liar Liar that is filled with stories about lies, and also is the author of new novels Guilt in Innocence, part of “Tales from the Scattered Earth,” a shared-world science fiction concept, and the fantastical police procedurals SCPD: The Case of the Claw and Unicorn Precinct. Find out more about Keith at his web site, which is a portal to (among many other things) his Facebook page, his Twitter feed, his blog, and his various podcasts, The Chronic Rift, Dead Kitchen Radio, and the Parsec Award-winning HG World.
Ah, but we *do* get to see John Tesh as a Klingon. That’s gotta count for something.
This is a craptastic episode, to be sure. After a (I feel) a fairly strong first season, the second is ideal of how floundering things were at the time with the writer’s strike going on, I might be wrong.
One positive thing to look at is this: Even though it’s canon, it’s not timeline-impacting canon. Look at it as the series still finding it’s legs because later episodes did right by Star Trek as a whole.
I do have a question, Colm Meany as O’brien really gets accepted into this cast, so why doesn’t it work on other shows like Nikki and Paulo in Lost?
The worst part about all these “Riker turns down command” plot points is that it’s career suicide. He might get away with the first, since he does it to get a position on the fleet’s flagship. But even once after that is admitting he’s unfit for command and will never rise higher than commander. He might as well hand in his resignation now.
Kyle Riker met Pulaski while recovering from grave injuries under his care? Wow.
Avoid this episode. Kyle is frankly a butthead. Who knows maybe thats the real reason mom Riker died. Sick of her self absorbed husband. Maybe it was a vegas wedding…
Also maybe Will just said all that stuff at the end to get rid of his father.
@DemetriosX (#4): I can’t agree with you about Riker’s “career suicide.” Early on, Riker was incredbily driven to become to a starship captain. In ten years he rose through the ranks from ensign to first officer of the Federation’s flagship, a meteoric rise. He jumped from ship to ship, supported an unethical captain, and sacrificed the love of his life for his goal. Then he arrives on the Enterprise, he meets Jean-Luc Picard, and he suddenly sees what it is to be a great captain and a great leader. And his character grows to the point that, by “The Best of Both Worlds,” he realizes that it’s better for him to stay in a place where he feels comfortable, where he has friends, and where he has a mentor that he can learn from — because he really does have a lot to learn. Everyone thinks he should move on and become a captain, but he doesn’t care what everyone thinks and instead he does what’s right for him. That makes Riker a very interesting character to me.
I like “The Icarus Factor” — apparently a lot more than KRAD does! — because it’s a turning point in Riker’s character. I don’t think this episode is about Riker learning to love his dad. I think it’s about Riker realizing that his dad is a huge jerk and forgiving him for it. Kyle had a hard job raising Will alone when he was heartbroken about losing his wife. Their relationship started bad and got worse. But as much as Will hated his dad he wanted to impress him, which is why he has spent his career thus far doing what people think he should do, not what is right for him. The moment Kyle admits he was cheating at anbo-jitzu Will sees the truth — that he’s just a jerk who behaved in an especially jerky way because he was desperate that he would lose what was left of a relationship with his son that was pretty crappy, but it’s all he had. Will sees that Kyle was a jerk, an awful dad, but he always has cared. There’s no point in impressing a jerk who already cares about you, so Riker lets go of a big part of the chip on his shoulder and becomes a man who does what makes him happy instead of what others expect of him. I find this story very touching and inspirational.
Yeah, turning down so many commands just makes him look unfit to do so. Even though Starfleet doesn’t seem to have an up-or-out policy, I don’t see how Riker could expect to command anything more than a desk or the equivalent of Camp Permafrost after this. Cmdr Shelby and the admiral in “The Best of Both Worlds” even say as much.
I guess Riker must have some serious blackmail on someone at Starfleet Command. Certainly that’s the only reason he could have survived losing the Enterprise in “Generations”. Shields or no shield, he had the most powerful ship in the quadrant. Maybe if he’d fired more than twice things wouldn’t have gone so badly.
Amen, Pendard. I personally don’t think it’s a great episode, but you certainly put a great spin on it.
At the fifth anniversary Next Generation convention Frakes was asked why Riker turned down a command, when he’s established as extremely ambitious for one. His answer was ‘Bad writing’.
ah bad fathers. They are the bad writter’s switchblade easy to use and they usually work. If you read superhero comics in 1989 EVERYONE went thru “Dady never loved me plots”
Pendard @8: Riker may have been very ambitious, but the simple fact is that in any organization, but especially a military one like Starfleet, turning down promotion like that puts an effective end to your career. He could just about get away with turning down a command for the XO slot on the Enterprise, because the ship itself is so important and, while it looks like a lateral move on paper, everyone would view it as at least half a step up the ladder. But turning down a command promotion two more times should mean he’ll never get another opportunity. As Frakes himself said, bad writing.
I agree that anbo-jytsu is stupid, but that said, every martial art there is, no matter how stupid, claims to be the ultimate evolution of the martial arts.
IT looks a bit like the Martial art from the “scizoid man ep of the Prisonier.
I got the arc re: his bad father but I never bought KYLE’s part of the reconciliation. A man as flawed as Kyle is incapable of admitting error or having feelings of any real meaning. As far as command goes, even Lt. Riker disagrees with Commander Riker in Second Chances as well as his reconciliation with Kyle. I hope that the books (which I never read) don’t have Lt. Riker soften his stance.
Hideous episode. The A-plot is, as KRad points out, completely unbelievable. It’s also badly paced, the father-son relationship implausibly changes from vitriolic to loving in the space of about ninety seconds, and is acted out by two men who are good actors, but who, placed in the same room with this cowpat of a script to work with, came out of it looking like two pieces of corrugated cardboard. I cannot think of a single good thing to say about it. How long is it til we get to the Borg?…
1. tng NEVER got that not everyone needs to be a deep character
2. Bad father/brother does not appove of Starfleet feels hacky anyway.
3. Somewhere in my brain the real reason Rykier turn down comand (why would that EVER happen?!) is his HUGE crush on Picard! Start your slashfics today!
I dont think it detracted from Pulaski that she had a thing for Rikers dad. Why would that be so? Its not like she knew about his treatment of Riker. Did she?
“I think it’s about Riker realizing that his dad is a huge jerk and forgiving him for it.” – Well put.
– I wonder if Starfleet is really strict on its Career progressment path. Not like our is in the US. In Starfleet, Federation civilization in general it seems a meritocracy. But does it force people to take jobs they dont really want?
GAH! I forgot about John Tesh!
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@6: Very interesting take, Pendard….manages to make this episode’s A plot just bearable.
As for the B plot with Worf, I’ve always liked it very much. I thought it was sweet how La Forge doesn’t miss a beat when Wesley says that the “klingon’s family has to be in attendance” or something to that effect and Geordi says simply “So, we’re his family, we’ll go!” aaaawwwwwwwww =)
This episode never left much of an impression on me. The one thing that stands out in my mind is that I believe it was the first post-TOS mention of the Tholians.
Luv: Yes, thanks, that was a typo. *sheepish grin* ‘Tis now fixed. Loves me that edit function…
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
The thing about Riker turning down command so much is that Starfleet, while being military, is a lot less so than our current militaries, especially in the mid-24th century, at least before the Borg and Dominion. Remember that Picard has a 16-year old boy as Flight Controller and with the rank of someone six years his senoir, and would later promote a woman whose knowledge of starships and starship operations was, frankly, appaling to a position of command responsibility less than two years later. And then there was Kirk taking a reduction in rank in order to command Enterprise in TMP.
What I find odder is the fact that Riker was offered Melbourne just before the Borg attack, and wouldn’t be offered again for another thirteen years, during which two major Borg offences on Earth, a war with the Klingons and a war with the Dominion and Cardassians took place.
DemetriosX, Cradok: if I recall correctly, Picard actually states in a later episiode in this series that “Starfleet is not a military organisation” (I think the last or second last episode, but I’m not sure – definitely heard it though). So while it bears similarities to current miltary organisations of our time, the comparison is probably limited.
@euphbass (#23): I agree. Starfleet is not like today’s military.
Gene Roddenberry has pointed out that Starfleet is dedicated to the self-actualization of its members, not just the overall goals of the organization. What’s important to Starfleet is that all of its members find what they most want to be and do it the best that they can. A captain who has reached his full potential is no more important than a security guard who has reached his full potential. Riker’s decision to be the best first officer he can be as he learns how to be the best captain he can be makes a lot of sense in this context.
Whether or not you believe that an organization could be set up that way in real life, it is a fact that in the Star Trek universe it can be and this one is (mainly because Gene Roddenberry says so). And it would be nice to think that maybe in 300 years our bosses really will care that what we’re doing makes us happy.
@3 Shard, because Colm Meaney is a superb actor and turned his rather bland character into something interesting. Nikki and Paulo, on the other hand, were a couple of jabonis.
BTW, was that really Japanese they were speaking during the Anbo-jytsu match?
OMMFG, they didn’t invent a completely credible, complete martial arts system for a single episode of a weekly TV show? The nerve. The sand. Not properly calibrating the staff-circle ratio? What fooloids, OMMFG.
This episode, probably unintentionally, makes it seem like Fat Leery Beard ( #1) refuses command of other ships because his pa didn’t love him and No. 1 needs Cap’n JLP cuz JLP is his new, better daddy who drinks Earl Grey tea instead of scotch.
Trivial aside: Having just rewatched this episode for the first time in years, I have to say those are the worst Japanese accents I’ve heard this side of Sean Connery (who speaks poorly accented Japanese in not just one but two movies!). Also, the writers obviously didn’t check with any translators (caveat: that’s one of my jobs) since I can’t think of or find any character combination that would make sense as the name of a martial art corresponding to the sounds “anbojitsu” (sic.–“jitsu,” for starters, should be “jutsu”). Is it really that hard to spend five minutes consulting with someone who, um, has some actual background in the foreign language you’re trying to play with? Or can tell your actors how to pronounce the words that are written in the script? (Some of the supposedly Japanese words they said didn’t make any sense, either, though it could be the accents that made them unintelligible.)
USER@26, it’s not that they didn’t invent a completely credible martial art. It’s that lunging vaguely at your antagonist with a foam-rubber-wrapped boom mike while blinded and wearing a plastic american football outfit is not even *slightly* plausible as a martial art. They’re supposed to be proficient, but this could not look anything but ridiculously clumsy, which martial arts well-done never do.
@22, you said that it’s odd it took another 13 years for Riker to get offered a command after being offered 3 in the first 3.01 seasons. Can we just consider that bad writing as well? =)
@22, 29,
Actually, the fact that Riker wasn’t offered another command for 13 years doesn’t strike me as odd at all. He was offered 3 commands in 3 years and turned them all down. Why would you offer him another one so he could turn that down too? He made it clear he wasn’t leaving the Enterprise, did everything but tattoo on his forehead, “I am not interested being captain of my own ship”; Starfleet got the message. If Riker doesn’t want a ship of his own, there are plenty of ambitious young officers who do.
Riker actually turned down 4 promotions; he had the rank of captain after “The Best of Both Worlds” but b/c he was in the opening credits (and there could only be more than two captains in the original series movies) he was back to commander in “Family” with only the mention that “My career plans are my own business and nobody else’s.”
Anbo-jutsu is laughably bad but it does have a silver lining; while fictional it’s clearly Japanese in origin meaning that it was invented sometime between now and the future setting of this show. It’s nice to include the idea of continually productive culture on Earth rather than pegging a gimmick on some alien race never mentioned before and probably never again.
Agreed.
If you found yourself serving on the same ship as the son of a former lover woul you discuss the affair with him? I wouldn’t.
First degree black belt in karate lol. Do some forms for us!
Johnny Red: When I wrote this rewatch entry, I was a first-degree black belt. I got my second degree in March 2013, and currently I’m in training for my third degree promotion, which will be happening a month from now. You can laugh out loud all you wish, I really don’t care.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
krad, why do you bother?
MaGnUs: a moment of weakness, obviously.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Anbo-jytsu was the dumbest thing I’d seen since Number Six played Kosho in ‘The Prisoner’ Not even Patrick McGoohan had the gravitas to sell Kosho and Jonathan Frakes is no Patrick McGoohan.
@23 and @24: Yeah, I do like how it seems that in Starfleet you have the option stay in a duty-position that you like, and are good at. Our current US military has an “Up or Out” policy, where if after a certain number of years in service you haven’t reached a particular rank, then you are discharged whether you want to be or not. It never made sense to me to kick someone out of a job that they’re good at. As an Army officer, it seemed like whenever I finally got to really understand my job and get good at it, it was time to move on to the next assignment.
Credit Where Credit is Due Dept: I did like Troi’s scene with Kyle — finally, she’s doing her job as counselor, smoothly combining her Betazoid empath abilities with her actual training as a working therapist, and being winningly tough and focused while doing it (e.g., deflecting Kyle’s ridiculous attempts at flirtation with the barely-concealed contempt they deserve, delivering her responses to his statements with a perfectly honed balance between compassion and unsparing bluntness). TNG, I believe, really took a while to figure out what to do with her character, and it would take them quite a bit longer to really get it right (and I know that a lot of people think they never really did), but here I think they nailed it.
. . . And oh, by the way — exactly what does the title, “The Icarus Factor,” refer to? Is it supposed to be ironic? Icarus’s father, Daedalus, built a set of wings for him, but then he warned him not to let his hubris tempt him to fly too close to the sun. Icarus ignored the warning, and the result was tragic. How does that tie into a story like this, in which the father is assuredly NOT a font of wisdom to be ignored at one’s own peril? Or am I missing something?
jazzmanchgo: It’s meant to refer to the myth, but it’s, for the reasons you state, a bad metaphor. Fitting, as it’s a terrible episode also. (Though I agree that the Troi-Kyle scene is well done.)
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I did like that both the A story and B story were about family: the one you are stuck with and the one you create. As for Worf, the crew of Enterprise serve as a surrogate family for Will.
I did not like the dated “men are so different” rubbish of the doctor and Troi.
I really liked the Worf plot; it was sweet and built up the slow reveal of Klingon culture.
The Rikers plot wasn’t so good. Regarding Anbo-jytsu; I agree the form is bad, though I did like the uniforms. The fighting blind aspect was interesting. However, I do have a nit with the poster criticizing the bad Japanese. I don’t disagree, but I believe I’ve posted a variation on the Picard board, it may be bad Japanese in the 1980’s or even 2020, but it doesn’t mean its bad Japanese in the 24th century. That’s 400 years from now; languages change. Who’s to say this word isn’t perfect Japanese at that time?
I usually find something redeeming about even the worst TNG episodes; there’s almost always some moment of character development or a cool B plot that makes the bad ones worth watching. But I forgot just how irredeemably awful this one is.
I know Mitchell Ryan had a long TV and film career, but he does nothing with this role. At all. He’s completely unmemorable. Granted, he wasn’t handed Hamlet to work with, but he doesn’t seem like the “hard ass” the expository dialogue in the script really wants him to be. He just seems like a bland older guy who is sort of bummed out that his son won’t forgive him.
The Pulaski-Kyle Riker relation is badly written and they have no chemistry (though Diana Maldaur really tries to portray Pulaski as someone who cares for Kyle to the point of being protective).
The pain stick scene is sort of cool, but really pales in comparison to later Klingon development plots, and Worf sulking like a five-year-old doesn’t really seem believable.
Data and Geordi having nothing better to do than join Wesley in running social experiments on Worf is verystrange. Come to think of it, the writing for Data just seems a tad too smug in this episode. The writers didn’t quite get the character quite right in this one.
This is just a total, unentertaining train wreck. -1/10.
Tell me, if Data and Geordi, say, went to Ten Forward to help out Troi with a problem, or agreed to a handball game with Riker to get him past regrets for some past disappointment also engender a “nothing better to do?” Why is helping a friend an activity that should be discarded because its not very important and any other activity is preferable?
If a friend came to you and told you another friend needs a pick-me-up would you tell them, “sorry, I have to wash my hair or change my oil pump or whatever. I can’t waste my precious time helping my good friend Joe.”
49. Something about the relationship between Geordi and Data just seems off in this episode. They are amused and detached from the plot, and even finishing each other’s sentences. It’s good to help friends, but their actions here seem like more like a sitcom plot and less like their later friendship is written.
I have no interest or any specialized knowledge in the martial arts, so maybe that’s why I had no issue with that scene. As someone else implied earlier, the competition was merely a setup for the father-son reconciliation anyway, so why quibble too much about the fact that they didn’t invent a plausible new martial art for a 5 minute scene. Compared to that silly episode where Yar was dancing around a kids jungle gym trying not to be offed by the poison glove, this was positively Bruce Lee-esque.
I’m not sure about the premise of the a plot anyway. Why did this have to be set up with Riker considering a promotion, since after his situation with the Drake, all this does is emasculate the character and make everyone wonder whether he’s got the stones to be The Man. They even have Picard give an eloquent soliloquy about the incomparable feeling of commanding your own ship, no matter how modest the vessel. And when he turns it down, Riker just offers a lame line like this is where I’m supposed to be or whatever. You can sense the disappointment in Picard’s voice when he asks him about the change of heart.
I like Riker generally speaking, but this episode makes him out to be (forgive the crude colloquialism. It seems to be the only word that fits) a bit of a pussy quite frankly.
Oh and I also need to mention my favorite moment in this episode is where O’Brien and Riker watch Riker’s dad and Pulaski kiss and Riker says with surprise ‘they know each other”. Love O’Brien’s response.”I know her too but we don’t do THAT”.
LOL, I admit I didn’t pay much attention to Colm Meaney as O’Brien during first watch, but in light of what I now know about his ascension to starring role on DS9 it’s been fun to watch his character grow from an unnamed crewmen to semi-regular. He’s definitely Trek’s Joe the Plumber, in the best way.
fullyfunctional: Honestly, I thought the kids jungle gym in “Code of Honor” was way way better than anbo-jytsu. And if it’s not worth inventing a plausible martial art for a five-minute scene, maybe don’t have the script call it “the ultimate evolution of the martial arts” and draw attention to how stupid it is.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Krad– agree with that last point. Why build it up as this apex of human combat skills. Isn’t it enough they’re playing Rock’em sock’em with sticks?
@47/costumer: “it may be bad Japanese in the 1980’s or even 2020, but it doesn’t mean its bad Japanese in the 24th century. That’s 400 years from now; languages change. Who’s to say this word isn’t perfect Japanese at that time?”
But their English is exactly like ours, so either it hasn’t changed or it’s being translated into present-day idiom for our benefit. So why should Japanese be treated any differently?
A couple of the comments from back in 2012 were asking if the Japanese spoken in the episode made any sense. According to the script, what they say when they bow at the start is supposed to be yoroshiku onegaishimasu, which is basically “pleased to meet you,” “let’s get along/work together,” or “I’d appreciate your assistance.” (Yoroshiku is literally just “well,” and in this context means “please think well of me” or “please treat me well”). I suppose it’s a reasonable thing to say in that context, but their pronunciation is atrocious and different each time (Ryan’s second attempt comes closest).
The script says they call “Matta!” to mean “halt,” which seems to be an erroneous rendering of matte, “wait.” Frakes says “Matta!” the first time, but pronounces it more correctly the second time.
When Will accuses his father of an illegal move, the script calls it “hachidan kiritsu,” though Frakes mangles the pronunciation. The best I can figure is that that means “eighth-rank discipline,” but how that works in that context is inexplicable. Memory Alpha suggests “eight-steps rule.”
As for “anbo-jyutsu,” Memory Alpha says, “The name of the sport is probably derived from Japanese 暗 (an, “darkness”), 棒 (bō, “staff”) and 術 (jutsu, “technique”). So 暗棒術 (anbōjutsu) means “the martial art of staff [combat] in darkness.”” The “jyutsu” in the script is a variant romanization of “jutsu.” The “anbo-jytsu” rendering used in this rewatch column, the ST Encyclopedia, and elsewhere is apparently a misreading of the name from the script.
Absolutely dull, but since no one’s mentioned it yet, I want to comment on the Japanese writing featured in the anbo jytsu scene.
At the center of the arena is 星 hoshi (“star”), with アタル Ataru and ラム Ramu written to the right and left respectively. To the back and right is a banner reading うるさいやつら Urusai yatsura (roughly “those guys are annoying”). These are all references to Rumiko Takahashi’s manga series Urusei Yatsura, which has leading characters named Ataru and Lum. The title’s a pun on the phrase “urusai yatsura” with the “sai” part replaced with “sei,” another pronunciation of 星.
At the base of the arena are words for Japanese elements like 火 (“fire”), 水 (“water”), 地 (“earth”) and 空 (“emptiness”), which also appear on the armor in different combinations. The odd one out is ユリ Yuri, apparently a reference to Haruka Takachiho’s Dirty Pair novel series which has a protagonist by that name.
There’s another banner on the left but I couldn’t make out what it said other than 忍. Probably something about enduring.
Certainly not a good episode, but neither hopeless. All three subplots are capable, but the engineering one is heavily underdeveloped – in its actual shape it seems rather like a botched joke with a “Data was right in the end” conclusion – while the Worfian one is too short, and the Rikerian one has a terrible father-and-son psychology.
I think they try to cram too much into a single episode, so the pacing becomes the main problem, not Kyle Riker’s jackassing. Actually I liked the geezer! Mitchell Ryan is a charismatic actor and, boy, how come no one has applauded his outfit? An elegant turtleneck with a comfy woolen garb on top with materniy leave vibes. I am certainly looking forward to that future!
Guest actor Mitchell Ryan (Kyle Riker) has died.
I could almost buy Will getting away with turning down the captaincy offers based on Federation/Starfleet values of personal fulfillment, but they surely weren’t all merely about him being in line for promotion — just based on dialogue in this episode, as I recall, he’s declining Starfleet’s request and putting the organization in a position to have to move on down to the next most uniquely qualified person.
The Rikers’ Japanese is most definitely awful. If you can’t, just… don’t.
I hadn’t seen this episode in years and my memory of it was better than it deserved. The acting and dialogue are sub- daytime soap standard, it veers on smell-the-fart acting several times.
I would say though, the Klingon ceremony is pretty uncomfortable to watch, in a good way. I’d like to have seen an episode where that was the central plot.
A mostly dreadful episode, but at least we now know why the safety switches on the holodeck can be turned to off. Otherwise how would a Klingon have an authentic acensionversary?
Also, I’ve never been more delighted by — and disappointed in — Troi. She neuters the skeevy Riker senior’s advances and gives him a serious psychlogical reading, but then later spouts inherent gender-based characteristics that were dated even when this show came out (to say nothing of the the narrative’s era).
Not that it matters 12 years later but my vote for “I believe I said that” is:
“If I were not a consummate professional, and an android, I would find this entire procedure insulting.”
Data telling it like it is.
Warp factor: 1/4 impulse for the Riker storyline
I don’t think the holodeck safeties preclude pain, just serious injury. Like, holographic guns would have no bullets, a holographic sword blade would become intangible if it “struck” you, and if you fell off a holographic cliff, it would probably waft you gently to the virtual ground. But it can’t prevent one real live person from striking another real live person.
If the holodeck uses force fields to aid in the illusion, then technically it could prevent two people from hitting each other if it blocked them from doing so :)
Then the question becomes how fast can it throw one up and how localized can it be. That’d be an interesting holodeck-goes-awry episode; the force field generation system goes bonkers and crushes people to death, heh.