“The First Duty”
Written by Ronald D. Moore & Naren Shankar
Directed by Paul Lynch
Season 5, Episode 19
Production episode 40275-219
Original air date: March 30, 1992
Stardate: 45703.9
Captain’s log: The Enterprise is heading back to Earth. Picard is giving the commencement address to this year’s graduating class, and Cadet Wesley Crusher’s flight team, Nova Squadron, will be performing a demo as part of the commencement ceremony.
While en route, and after Riker and Picard trade stories of their respective Academy superintendants, the current superintendant, Admiral Brand, contacts Picard with a grave message: there was an accident with Nova Squadron. When the five ships flew close formation during practice, something went wrong, and they all crashed into each other. Four of the cadets made it; Cadet Joshua Albert did not.
When the Enterprise arrives, Brand briefs the families of the five cadets, plus Picard. There will be an investigation and a memorial service for Albert, and commencement will go forward as planned (there was talk of cancelling it). Picard and Crusher then visit Wes in his quarters, where he’s recovering from his injuries. He doesn’t want to talk about the accident—it’s all he’s discussed for two days.
Then Wes’s flight team leader Cadet Nicholas Locarno enters. After exchanging pleasantries, Wes says that he and Locarno have things to discuss. They then talk about sticking together, and that everything will be all right—basically the exact conversation you’d expect from two guilty people trying to cover something up.
Picard then goes to say hi to Boothby, the groundskeeper, who is a cantankerous old bastard. They reminisce, and Picard mentions an incident from his time at the Academy; no specifics, but Picard admits that he would never have graduated if not for Boothby.
Locarno and the survivors meet—along with Wes, there’s a Bajoran girl named Sito Jaxa, and a human girl named Jean Hajar—and then head to the inquiry. Locarno explains what happened. They were in a diamond-slot formation doing a Yeager Loop around Titan. Albert broke formation and crashed into Hajar’s ship. Everyone activated their emergency transporters except for Albert. The flight team also deviated from their filed flight plan by a few thousand kilometers, and Sito claims she was flying only on sensors, not visuals, which is unusual in that close a formation.
Then Locarno drops the bombshell: Albert was nervous, and he panicked and broke formation. Brand is disappointed that they did not mention Albert’s nervousness before. The inquiry is then recessed until the data from Wes’s flight recorder is recovered.
Sito, Hajar, and Wes meet with Locarno in private, and are furious with Locarno for saying that the accident was Albert’s fault. Wes says that they agreed that they weren’t going to lie. Locarno then engages in some lovely doublespeak that gets Hajar to agree that it might have been Albert’s fault. The preliminary report from Wes’s flight recorder is that they only have a third of the telemetry, all of it from before the crash. Locarno assures them that everything will be fine.
Albert’s father talks to Wes, and apologizes to him for his son letting the team down. Wes looks utterly miserable at this—as well he should.
Wes gives his deposition, and it all goes well until they show telemetry from a nearby sensor station that shows that the five ships were not in a diamond-slot formation as they all testified, but rather a circular one. Wes says he has no explanation for the disparity.
Crusher gives what she probably thinks is a pep talk to Wes, including offering to ask Brand to delay the inquiry while La Forge and Data go over the telemetry. Wes, though, urges her not to protect him and to stay out of this.
Picard goes to Boothby and asks about Nova Squadron. When the team won the Rigel Cup, the celebration was huge—the Academy practically worships the squadron as gods. That, though, is tough to live up to, but Locarno keeps them together. The team, he says, would follow Locarno anywhere—even over a cliff.
Back on the Enterprise, Picard and Crusher go to La Forge and Data for a report. They can’t figure out how they got into the new formation, nor why the crash happened. Picard asks if there was anything odd in Wes’s flight recorder info, but all they found were a few minor fluctuations that were a) within normal parameters and b) would be irrelevant to a crash. He also had a coolant valve open, which was odd, but not harmful. You’d only do that to refill the coolant, or as the first step to ejecting plasma before igniting it—
—at which point a light bulb goes off over Picard’s head. He immediately summons Wes to his ready room and confronts him with what he believes the truth to be. Five ships flying in a circular formation within ten meters of each other and igniting their plasma trails form a spectacular display called a Kolvoord Starburst. It was banned by the Academy a hundred years earlier because of a training accident where all five cadets died. Picard assumes that Locarno convinced Nova Squadron to attempt it for the commencement demo to show how awesome they are.
Wes chooses not to answer Picard’s direct question, at which point Picard seriously looks like he’s going to slap him. Wes insists that he told the truth at the hearing—up to a point. But a lie of omission is still a lie, and they neglected to tell the board of inquiry that their incredibly illegal maneuver was the direct cause of the crash.
Picard guilts the crap out of Wes, then, reminding him of the day he first came on board, sat in his chair, and manipulated ship’s systems like he was born to it, and later when he made him an acting ensign, how he thought Wes would become a fine officer. He believed that until now. The captain makes it very simple: either Wes tells the board, or he will.
Wes panics and talks to Locarno. Locarno points out that Picard doesn’t actually have evidence, so it’s his word against theirs. Wes is appalled at the notion of calling Picard a liar, but Locarno says that Wes has no right to make the decision for him, for Sito, and for Hajar. If Wes feels he can’t lie to the board, then he should quit the Academy.
The board reconvenes. Brand doesn’t have sufficient evidence to know what actually happened, and she finds the inconsistencies troubling. Her judgment is that Nova Squadron’s flight privileges are revoked, and she issues a formal reprimand on all their records.
And then Wes steps up and admits the truth about the Kolvoord Starburst. To Wes’s surprise and relief, Locarno doesn’t deny any of it, simply saying he has nothing to add. In the end, Locarno takes full responsibility and expulsion in order to keep the team together. Wes himself thinks all four of them should’ve been expelled. Not that they get off easy: all of them have their previous year’s credits vacated, so the remaining three each have to repeat a year.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity?: If you ignite the plasma trail of a small flight ship in close formation, you can make an awesome bit of fireworks. Since you have to fly within ten meters of each other, it’s also incredibly dangerous.
The boy!?: Wes is the voice of reason throughout, the first to go for telling the truth, and the one who agonizes most about lying. But ultimately he goes right along with the coverup, going so far as to plead the fifth to Picard, which is, to say the least, ballsy. (And Picard totally looks like that’s where he wants to kick him when he says it.)
In the driver’s seat: Wes’s experiences flying the ship from the second through fourth seasons no doubt led to his being considered for Nova Squadron, and helped them win the Rigel Cup.
I believe I said that: “What happened to your hair?”
Boothby’s greeting for Picard.
Welcome aboard: Obviously, Wil Wheaton comes back as Wes, alongside Robert Duncan MacNeill, warming up for the role of Tom Paris as Nicholas Locarno; Shannon Fill, making the first of two appearances as Sito Jaxa (she’ll be back in “Lower Decks”); and Walker Brandt as Hajar. Jacqueline Brookes provides gravitas as Admiral Brand, veteran character actor Ed Lauter acts all tough-guy weepy as the father of the dead cadet, and Richard Fancy makes no impression at all as the Vulcan who aids Brand in the inquiry.
But the best guest star here is the perfectly cast Ray Walston—best known as the titular My Favorite Martian—as Boothby. It would’ve been easy to drop the ball when finally casting this character so revered by Picard, but instead they absolutely hit it out of the park.
Trivial matters: This is the first time Starfleet Academy is seen on screen in Star Trek.
This episode was the springboard for showing the Academy in more depth in the novel The Best and the Brightest by Susan Wright and the Marvel comic book Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, written by Chris Cooper. The characters of Admiral Brand and Boothby were supporting cast members in both the novel and comic book.
Speaking of Boothby, after being mentioned in both “Final Mission” and “The Game,” we finally see the groundskeeper in the flesh. Images of Boothby will be seen, again played by Ray Walston, in the Voyager episodes “In the Flesh” and “The Fight.” Boothby himself will continue to be referenced both on screen and in tie-in fiction quite a bit moving forward.
There are a lot of resemblances between Nicholas Locarno and Voyager‘s Tom Paris—both played by Robert Duncan MacNeill, and both with remarkably similar backstories. It’s not entirely clear why the producers didn’t just use Locarno on Voyager. The official story is that Locarno was considered irredeemable after this episode, which isn’t particularly convincing. However, Writers Guild rules are such that the creator of a guest character gets a (very small) royalty every time a character is subsequently used. (As an example, when the Traveler came back in “Remember Me” and “Journey’s End,” Diane Duane and Michael Reaves got a little sum added to their next royalty check because they created him in “Where No One Has Gone Before.”) It has been rumored that the real reason for changing Locarno to Paris was so that they wouldn’t have the added bookkeeping of paying writers Moore and Shankar every time a Voyager episode aired. However, there is no verification of this.
Locarno returns in the novella “Revenant” by Marc D. Giller in the Seven Deadly Sins anthology, where he’s part of a civilian crew that encounters the Borg.
The events of this episode will be followed up on through the eyes of Sito Jaxa in “Lower Decks” and Wes in “Journey’s End.” Sito also is seen as a child on Bajor in the Terok Nor novel Dawn of the Eagles by S.D. Perry & Britta Dennison.
The incident that Picard and Boothby discuss is never specified, though an incident described in the comic book Starfleet Academy #11 written by Chris Cooper, involving Picard and his friends Marta Batanides and Cortin Zweller (introduced in “Tapestry”), might well fit the bill.
The hearing bell was the same one used on the original series in the episode “Court Martial.”
Michael Piller has stated on DVD commentaries that the Air Force has shown this episode to cadets.
The Yeager Loop performed by the cadets when they crashed was named after test pilot Chuck Yeager.
Make it so: “The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth.” It’s easy to simply describe this as the one where Wes screws up, but it’s actually a fairly brave choice for an episode. So often, the TNG crew are painted as paragons of virtue and brilliance, with screwups reserved for visiting admirals or messed-up officers who get better by serving on the ship (I’m looking at you, Reg Barclay). So it’s a refreshing change to have a character royally mess up, and not because the plot calls for it or because the writers don’t understand that the character’s being an ass (I’m looking at you, Geordi La Forge), but because the character’s just a fallible human being.
Having it be Wes, the kid who saved the ship way too often in the early days of the show, makes it even better. The moment when he says, “We thought we could do it—we thought we could do anything,” is heartbreaking and utterly convincing because we spent three-and-a-bit seasons watching Wes pretty much do anything. It’s real easy to get arrogant and complacent and think you really can perform miracles at the drop of a hat.
And thank goodness for that back-knowledge of Wes, because that’s the only way the episode works. As it is, it’s really hard to get your arms around the storyline because we don’t know anything about Nova Squadron. Boothby tells Picard that they’re worshipped as gods, and he also tells Picard that Locarno’s a great leader. Sadly, telling is all we get—we’re not shown anything about Nova Squadron beyond their clandestine meetings where they’re arranging their coverup. They don’t come across as highly regarded students being taken down a peg, but rather a bunch of thoughtless teenagers pissing on their friend’s grave.
Worse, Locarno is played by Robert Duncan MacNeill, who doesn’t give us a great leader so much as a sleazy lawyer type. MacNeill is a charismatic actor, but it’s the wrong kind of charisma for this role, and that, combined with the utter lack of context for Nova Squadron’s exalted status in the Academy, really takes the wind out of the episode’s sails.
Still, it’s salvaged by genuine consequences to a character we do care about. (Actually, two, though we won’t truly come to care about Sito until she comes back in “Lower Decks.”) And it’s easily one of Wil Wheaton’s two or three best performances on TNG. The scene where Albert’s father comes and apologizes to him is beautifully played. In general, director Paul Lynch deserves a ton of credit for getting a great deal out of facial expressions: Picard’s fury when Wes pleads the fifth, Albert’s father’s sadness, Wes’s free-floating guilt, Locarno’s easy-does-it-everything-will-be-okay-don’t-worry-your-pretty-little-head affect, Crusher’s desperate attempt to be clinical and calm when Picard tells her about the accident, and so on.
Warp factor rating: 6
Keith R.A. DeCandido wonders what ever happened to Cadet Hajar.
Another good episode after a few duds in a row. Wil Wheaton had matured as an actor (and the writers didn’t turn him into the most obnoxious boy in the galaxy) so this episode suceeded on a couple of levels. You get a real sense of a father/son relationship between Wes and Picard, where the real punishment for Wes isn’t that he has to spend another year at the academy but rather that he let down his mentor/hero. You also get a sense of the pressure that Wes had to deal with at the academy. (Much like former enlisted military personnel going to service academy’s and now dealing with cadet politics). I find myself wondering what it must have been like the first time a fourth year cadet tried to haze him, the kid who was ready to ram a starship into the side of a Borg cube.
I also find it interesting the attitudes of cadets we see here and again in Red Squadron (I think that’s what they called themselves) in DS9. The sense of invincibility and seeing things only as what they are capable of doing, not what they should be doing. Wes is reminded of this by Picard and it adds a level to not only Crusher but Riker, Picard and all of the other senior officers- that they understand not only how to do things but when to do things.
I remember being on pins and needles, wondering what Wes’s final choice would be in this one, and how they would pull it off. I was so relieved when he confessed. I remember Picard’s shock that Wes would do something so dangerous and then cover it up, too. Overall, it was a pretty scary episode as far as character relationships go!
A strong episode, to be sure, but why the heck do they even have a fighter squadron at Starfleet Academy? We’ve never seen one-person fighters used in ST before or since, and despite the conceits of certain franchises that transpose WWII tropes into outer space, fighters really don’t make any sense in space combat. Their only purpose is to extend a warship’s reach beyond the horizon, and there are no horizons in space. Anything a fighter could do, a remote-controlled missile or UAV (well, USV, since it’s in space) could do as well, and without the need for the costly added mass of a pilot and life-support equipment.
All I can figure is that they use the fighters strictly for training purposes, to teach piloting. But it seems odd to teach piloting with a type of craft that nobody’s ever actually going to pilot in the course of their duties.
I can’t agree that Richard Fancy left no impression as the Vulcan captain on the inquiry board. To me, he left an intensely negative impression as possibly the most miscast Vulcan in ST history. He came off as more petulant and irritable than logical and unemotional, and he looked kind of silly in the Vulcan makeup and wig. But then, lots of one-time guest actors over the years have had trouble understanding how to play a Vulcan. It even took Nimoy a while to figure it out, so it’s not surprising that one-time guests wouldn’t get it right (though Mark Lenard caught on right away). Jolene Blalock also needed a year or two to sort out her characterization. Tim Russ got it right from the start, but mainly because he was doing a Spock impression. (Not a criticism; Tuvok was the only good Spock impression I ever saw before Zachary Quinto came along.)
By the way, Keith, your mention of Boothby’s Voyager appearances is a bit misleading. The Species 8472 “Boothby” only appeared in “In the Flesh” (and made a return appearance in my Myriad Universes novel Places of Exile). The Boothby seen in “The Fight” was initially a holodeck character and subsequently a hallucination.
Picard’s chastising of Wes about the truth is by far one of the best pieces of writing in the series. And it was rather refreshing to have Picard be extremely disappointed in someone who he nurtured (in his own way). I don’t think that even with the admission of guilt on the part of Wes that he ever returned to the Status Quo in Picard’s eyes. Not to say that Picard is one to hold a grudge (except with the Borg, but that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax), but being part of a conspiracy to cover up a death that you caused is tantamount to burning all your bridges with him is how I see it. I mean not even Ro Laren got that and she was openly responsible for the death of a landing party AND essentially became a traitor in the second to last episode.
Boothby was a great addition to this episode, and I never realized that this was his only appearance outside of Voyager. I guess he was referenced so much in other episodes and featured in the novels, that I thought he got a whole lot more screen time. But I have to admit, he was quite the badass not to be trifled with. I kind of see him as a proto-Garak: Doling out veiled advice, seeming like chastisement, and someone who’s bad side you NEVER want to be on. Man, I’d have loved for them to have a meet up. I don’t recall if it happened in Una McCormick’s “Hollow Men”, but it should have.
The only thing that bothers me about this episode is that you find out that starfleet has these short range, one man ships, but you almost never see them in use anywhere else. Sure, Starfleet is not specifically a military organization, but I think that the fighter wings would be standard on certain ships instead of just an academy training vehicle. I recall that they were only used in two other occasions: at Wolf 359 (when Jupiter Station scrambles defenses, that the Borg make short work of), and during certain engagements in the Dominion War. They might have been featured more in the novels, but I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.
Pretty good but lost some points for a “story you have to tell once there’s a bording school” On the other hand it was cool to use Wesely.
After this though I kind of wanted to see some other universe where Wes did’nt go to Starfleet and just took over the universe.
I don’t know why, but the thing that really stood out for me in this episode was the father who was so quick to think his son was kind of a failure to the point that he felt he had to apologize for him.
it was 1980s popculture if you were a male and it’s not a comedy you’re father is a dick.
I think by Season 5 we were already in the 90s.
Ray Walston was brilliant.
While yet another in a long, long, LONG line of TNG episodes where most of the scenes are people sitting in a room and talking, I find this one entertaining.
@@.-@ The Mars Defense ships seen in BoBW were unmanned, or at least that’s what they were intended to be. The model didn’t even have windows.
The ‘fighters’ we see the Maquis using and during the Dominion War (and by the Terran Rebels) are probably the closest to what we consider fighters, but it’s actually bigger than a Danube-class runabout or the Delta Flyer, and has a flight deck, rather than a cockpit. Exactly why it – or any small attack ships we see – is used pre-Dominion is never really explained.
One thing that’s always annoyed about this episode is exactly what did they think was going to happen if they pulled it off? It’s still banned.
Quoth Cradok: “One thing that’s always annoyed about this episode is exactly what did they think was going to happen if they pulled it off? It’s still banned.”
Oh, that didn’t bother me at all. These are teenagers — worse, these are arrogant teenagers who have done all sorts of awesome stuff. They’re indestructible and nothing bad will ever ever happen to them. Between a former part-time job at a high school and my current experiences teaching kids at a karate dojo, believe me when I tell you that belief that the rules don’t apply to meeeeeeeee ’cause I’m speshul! is pretty damn common….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
We’ve seen shuttles act as fighter/bombers on a number of occassions — most obviously the runabouts at DS9, but I also recall a shuttlecraft providing air support during Kirk’s failed attempt to capture Paradise City, and numerous examples from Voyager. Given the limited capacity of starships, it would make sense to have multi-purpose vessels. Dedicated fighters are probably assigned to star systems for patrol and defense so as to avoid having starships tied down.
9 dead right
@10,
I think the idea is that they would practice in secret, then show off at graduation, and the cries of “Wow, look how awesome they are” would drown out cries of “Hey, that manuever is banned.”
There is still writerly stupidness here, particularly the idea that the move has been banned for 100 years. Really? Technology has stood so still that this move is as unsafe in 2380 as in 2280? That’s like saying that because the Wright brother’s first flight crashed after 39 seconds, no cadet should ever fly longer than 39 seconds in an F-18.
Also stupid: Of course the Federation has fighters, especially AFTER Wolf 359 and the Cardassian war. But the writers, being good liberals and utopianists, totally ignore the military function of Starfleet in 99% of episodes. The problem is not that they were in fighters, the problem is that the fighters were never mentioned before or since.
But still, much less stupidness here than in other episodes, and much good to balance it.
@14 – I think what Christopher and others are questioning about the fighters is not that Starfleet has specifically-military craft, but whether, with ST technology, tiny one-person attack craft make military sense – add me to the list of people who think they don’t. (Unlike aircraft and ships, there’s no order-of-magnitude speed difference between a small spaceship and a big one – the analogy for a space carrier isn’t “aircraft carrier with lots of F/A-18s”, it’s “USS Iowa decides that carrying 60 speedboats to attack other battleships makes sense”.) The fact that ST combat used to be fighter-free and more like big naval ships maneuvering was always a feature, not a bug.
Didn’t bother me here, though – I assumed the ships in this episode were only for training.
This is another episode that shows the limitations of television as a medium. Despite the fact home-recording became ubiquitous in the 1980s, most TV episodes can’t stand the scrutiny of re-runs or re-watches. What makes sense when you first watch an episode often doesn’t hold up later. TV is too structured and too fleeting. Nowhere is this more apparent than in TNG with its ideas that go nowhere from one episode to the next and its quick resolution of monumental problems as the hour ends.
I am a usaf academy grad (’96), and can confirm that a clip from this episode was played during first basic cadet training in one of first classes about the usafa cadet honor code. Man, that almost exacly 20 years ago now (like 20 years and 2-3 weeks!)..
I always thought of the squadron as sort of like the Blue Angels – intended to fly cool stunts, impress people, represent the academy well. Maybe there are competitions as well?
@15: Depends what the fighters are used for.
Taking on capital ships — unlikely given what we’ve seen of space battles in the Trekverse.
System patrol — fighters probably could interdict smugglers and offer limited defense for systems that don’t have starships constantly in port. Basically what we saw runabouts doing in DS9.
Air support — not every battle’s going to take place in space; at some point you need boots on the grounds. I imagine fighters played a major role in the Battle of Betazed, for example.
It wasn’t until this moment that I realized that Sito Jaxa was in this episode too! Poor Jaxa. She still makes me sad. Then again, I sometimes get bummed thinking about Captain LaForge (Geordi’s mother) and her doomed vessel.
Hell, I am still sad about Lt. Stahdi and the vulcan nurse from Voyager.
I also have this episode mentally scrambled with the dreadful “Red Squad” one from DS9.
Except that these guys weren’t nearly as annoying as Red Squad.
This is one of the two TNG episodes that I felt treated Wesley as a real person (the other one that I liked was “The Game” which had Wesley save the day, not because he knew more about everything than anyone else on the ship, but because he was more interested in chatting with Ashley Judd than in playing games with anyone else). It would have been nice to see some mention of the effect that the punishment year had on Wesley after this episode, but I don’t recall any – but we did hear about Sito’s experience later on, which worked so well, that I wouldn’t want to dilute it with a Wesley episode trodding the same ground.
I’m sure we can imagine Wesley’s experience was pretty similar to Sito’s, and I seem to remember the next episode that he’s in that from this point on, his grades slip and he starts to fall in danger of being kicked out of the Academy which leads to him becoming a Traveler.
Actually, the flight training is such an important military role that Sheppard AFB is only still around just because they are a NATO flight school (mainly t-38s). My main problem with this episode is my utter disbelieve that Wes would EVER even hang out with this tool. The other cadets seemed easily starstruck but with his Enterprise experience Wes would never be conned by this guy. MacNeill plays him convincingly IMO but I don’t think for one minute that Wes is that naive by the time he enters the Academy so this episode never works for me on any level. 4 only for the acting which was good.
Names don’t generally stick with me, so when Voyager started, I naturally assumed Paris was the guy from this episode. It was the same actor, and their backgrounds were similar. I think I still think they’re the same character, even though technically I know they’re not.
@19
Going to agree that small patrol craft probably do have a purpose in the Star Trek universe. Runabouts sort of fill this role in DS9, escorting the USS Odyssey to the gamma quadrant. And they would actually have a purpose in Capital ship combat, draining shield power and drawing phaser fire to make larger ships more effective.
I think the reason we really didn’t see them was probably more budgetary than anything else. Space combat would probably end up looking more like Star Wars or BSG than Star Trek. Star Trek combat (at least prior to the Defiant) shows the ships as heavyweights, slugging at each other more than three dimensional maneuvering to seek advantage. Plus localized patrols, reconnaisance, anti-pirate activities, ground support would all be better undertaken by a small fighter than a big starship. If I want to find out how many ships are in drydock around cardassia and I can send a small warp powered shuttle with enhanced sensors or a starship, I’ll take the shuttle because if my mission fails, I haven’t lost a more resource intensive, heavily manned ship, but if I suceed, I get the same info regardless.
And at KRAD- I agree that it makes perfect sense for these kids to expect everyone will be so wowed by their tricked out exhaust that they won’t get the book thrown at them the moment they make the ground, but I also agree with bawambi @24 that it doesn’t make sense for Wes to be enthralled with Locarno- after being exposed to Picard and Riker I wouldn’t expect him to be that impressed with his fellow 20 year old. I’d almost think that it would make more sense if Locarno was trying to pin it on Wesley instead of the dead kid.
I don’t think Albert’s father was meant to seem dickish in this episode — although I too was struck by how different his reaction was from the much more typical “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY SON?!” we usually see in pop culture. I interpreted it as a way for the writers ratchet up the guilt levels, and also thought it was meant to represent the general good public opinion of Starfleet — super-smart, super-capable, super-full-of-integrity. Thus making the cadets’ actions even more irksome.
But if you want to see Ed Lauter in a positively delightful “dick dad” role, I highly recommend 1985’s Girls Just Want To Have Fun, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt. He is AWESOME in that movie as a retired military colonel squashing his daughter’s dreams to dance on DTV!!!
@15,
I honestly think it is amazing, that in one of the best episodes of TNG, with some of the best scenes for at least 2 characters, the only f-ing conversation on this board is whether or not you need 1 man fighters in space!!!
First off, this is stupid, and anyone who is arguing you WOULDN’T need 1 man fighters has obviously NEVER read a book about military or military history. A previous poster made a point about our history when used massive naval ships and not smaller ones. I am not sure what history he is reading, because in every period in naval warfare, no matter how big capitol ships are, you are always going to have smaller faster support craft.
The answer is simple…YES, they would. Suppose someone needed to go somewhere in space that was a tight fit, and they might need a gun…DONE. you need a one man fighter…..
This is where I am surprised that sci-fi fans are not more logical. To argue that starfleet would have no need for 1 man fighters, you must by defintion argue that there would “NEVER be a situation in which a small manned lightly armoured vehicle was needed”. Now, there were people in WW2 who argued that after the invent of large bombers, small fighters were no longer needed. Of course, then dresden happened.
Oh, and @10, cradok, of course people would not have cared if it was awesome, in fact there is a star trek example of this, remember Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru??
So sorry people, of course there would be need for 1 man fighters.
Anyways, great episode, and I love the return of “Mean Picard”
@28: Drawing precedents from military history doesn’t work here, because there is no history of military activity in outer space. Fictional franchises like Star Wars can just take the trappings of WWII dogfight movies and recreate them in a space setting using miniatures or CGI, but that’s a fantasy. Realistically, space is a profoundly different environment than any in which human beings have ever waged combat, and it doesn’t make sense to transpose aerial craft into space combat any more than it would make sense to use tanks and jeeps in underwater combat. It’s just not a valid analogy.
Here’s a very good analysis of the problems with the idea of fighter craft in space:
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunexotic.php#fighters
“Suppose someone needed to go somewhere in space that was a tight fit…”
What does that even mean? Space, as the name implies, is very, very spacious. There are no tight fits in space. Something like the asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back is pure fantasy; in reality the typical distance between two adjacent asteroids in the Main Asteroid Belt is sixteen times the distance from the Earth to the Moon, and you could fly through its densest portions fifty times without even seeing an asteroid with the naked eye. The only real thing that would approach a sci-fi-style asteroid swarm is something like the rings of Saturn, but even there the particles are typically a kilometer or so apart, and the whole thing is so utterly flat and thin that there’s no good reason to fly straight through it when you could just fly above or below it.
Besides, even today, the military is increasingly using UAVs to do the jobs that you used to need fighter planes for. There’s no need to risk a human life when a remote-operated or computer-controlled drone can do the job just as well (another reason why historical precedents fall short). Already, in real life, the Air Force is training more drone pilots than fighter pilots. And in space, there’s the added issue of the life-support equipment you’d need to keep the pilot alive, which would add considerably more mass to the craft and reduce its range and maneuverability. So drones are preferable for reasons of efficiency as well as human safety. If fighters are already on the way out in real-life military scenarios today, then it’s kind of outdated thinking to expect them to play a role in space combat in the future.
I would totally use a tank in underwater combat.
KRAD said–
“The incident that Picard and Boothby discuss is never specified, though an incident described in the comic book Starfleet Academy #11 written by Chris Cooper, involving Picard and his friends Marta Batanides and Cortin Zweller (introduced in “Tapestry”), might well fit the bill.”
This incident was also mentioned in “Section 31: Rogue”, by Mangels and Martin.
Agree with many comments here about both strengths and weaknesses of this episode. One additional weakness, though, is that there’s nothing specifically science-fictional about the story. It might as well be about contemporary military cadets; the fact that they fly in tight formation over Titan and not the Nevada desert adds no significant new content.
#32 – Why should not being science-fictiony be a weakness of the episode? The whole point of Star Trek is to take modern issues and present them in a fictional context which is accomplished here simply by taking place in the future and with futuristic spacecraft. “Family” was another episode that wasn’t science-fictiony at all but it worked all the better for it because it was simply an exploration of characters we care about.
I get a kick out of knowing this episode made such a real-life impact as to be used in the training of U.S. Air Force cadets.
And I picked up the recent blu-ray release of the 5th season and Ron Moore and Naren Shankar confirm it – Nick Locarno wasn’t reused as a character on Star Trek: Voyager because it would have meant that Paramount would have had to pay the writers every time Locarno’s name was used which would have been for every episode! Moore and Shankar joked about sueing the studio for essentially stealing their character.
Okay, I know the story wouldn’t work if either of these two tools were used in the trial/hearing. One, Betazoid mind reading. In the opening scene of this episode, Picards states his Academy superintendent was a Betazoid who, when you were summoned to his office, didn’t have to ask what you did. He was a full telepath, and alreay knew. Two, Vulcan mind meld. There is a Vulcan sitting right there on the hearing panel. I recall Spock ripped the truth out of Valeris, near the end of Star Trek 6:The Undiscovered County, to find out about the assassination plot at the Khitomar peace conference. So we know getting the truth, is possible. It could be said both techniques are an invasion of personal rights, and therefore not used, but it brings up the interesting idea that trials/hearings in the 24th century could be basically cut and dry, if all available resources, were used. After all, this was a military hearing, with a death involved, so kind of important, to get to the truth.
Just seen this for the first time.
My first thought was the same as Cradok: What on earth did they think would have happened if they had pulled off the Kolvoord Starburst? They might have become heroes amongst their fellow cadets but Starfleet would still have had to court martial them for disobeying orders. There may still have been expulsions. Not good for anyone’s CVs.
I have to admit I was a bit disappointed by the black and white simplicity of the episode. It begins with a moral dilemma. Will Will do the right thing or not? And it ends, after a stern lecture from Picard with Will doing, surprise, surprise, the right thing. But the middle section hinted at a greyer, more complex solution that might have been more interesting. When Picard and Boothby meet they talk about an unspecified incident in Picard’s past that nearly caused Picard to fail to graduate. Boothby concludes by saying: “The most important thing you did with your life was what you did afterwards”. At this point I assumed that Picard had done something similar to Will and lied on oath to protect his team. I assumed Boothby’s comment was a way of saying that the end justifies the means: You told a lie, Picard, but you made up for it by becoming a credit to Starfleet. As a result, I expected Picard to figure out Will’s dilemma (which of course he does) but then surprise him by encouraging him to maintain the lie to protect the team – perhaps even lending a hand in the deception. Instead, of course, we got a holier-than-thou Picard giving Will a good telling off without even hinting that a similar thing had happened to him.
After the episode ended, I replayed the Picard – Boothby scene just to see if I had misinterpreted it. I realise now that the dialogue is ambiguous. It could support my original theory that Boothby persuaded Picard to maintain his lie. Or it could be read that Boothby persuaded Picard to finally tell the truth – in an exact parallel of the scene between Picard and Will.
Assuming the latter is the intended version, I have a couple of problems with the storyline conclusion. Firstly I don’t mind Picard giving Will the third degree in order to get him to do the right thing – but Picard goes further than just telling him off – he blackmails him by saying “if you don’t tell the truth, I will”. This robs Will of the opportunity to nobly do the right thing. Because if he doesn’t stand up at the end and own up, Picard’s going to rat on him anyway! Some choice!
Secondly, when Picard and Will meet at the end I really think the script writers should have given Picard the opportunity to admit to Will that something similar happened to him when he was at Starfleet – so he can show Will he sympathises with his predicament. Without this, Picard comes across as an arrogant and insensitive hypocrite – unable to admit his former failings. Of course, he admits those privately to the audience with his final line to Will: “You knew what you had to do. I just made sure that you listened to yourself”. This, of course, is almost exacty what Boothby told Picard. So we, the audience, know that Picard sympathises with Will – but poor old Will doesn’t. Imaging how he’ll feel if, in year’s to come, he discovers that a similar thing happened to Picard – but Picard never said. If I were Will I’d be thinking “To think of all the times I saved the Enterprise, the least Picard could do was admit that a similar thing happened to him at Starfleet. That would have made my subsequent years so much more bearable”. If I were Will, Picard would definitely be off my Christmas card list.
Anyway, I know I’ve been taking the show far too seriously. Oh well … back to the real world!
Just saw this episode for the first time. I’m a huge fan of Voyager, so I was shocked to discover the Robert McNeil played a character with involved in an incident nearly identical to the backstory of Tom Paris on TNG. It really is absurd they didn’t simply use this character instead of making a new one.
While this was a decent episode, I felt the ending was a bit too predictable. It was clear in the end that Wesely was going to spill the beans despite learning that the team was going to get off with a slap on the wrist. I actually thought it would have been more interesting if he kept his mouth shut and showed his darker side.
Also, I didn’t like how during his conversation with Picard, he didn’t bring up the fact that Picard has broken Star fleet regulations on more then one occasion. Granted he’s never done something so wreckless as to risk the lives of his crew just for showing off a ship manuver, but still, this is something Wesely should have brought up.
Finally, I thought the notion that everyone besides Locarno would get to stay at the academy was totally implausible. There is no way they would allow cadets who destroyed 5 ships and got a man killed doing a banned technique and then lied about it initially would ever get to salvage their careers, even if they did fess up eventually.
I know Picard says “The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth,” but I disagree. The first duty of every Starfleet officer should be to Starfleet General Order 1: To not interfere in the natural development of a pre-warp civilization, because as Picard has said, no matter how well-intentioned that interference, it inevitably leads to disaster. Kirk said in “The Omega Glory” that Starfleet General Order 1 is to be upheld even at the loss of a Starfleet crew and ship. The truth is insignificant in comparison to that. That’s why it is the Federation’s Prime Directive. I know many people will cite the number of times it has been broken to defend it. To me that is not the issue.
Wasn’t there a few posts that explained why the Nick Locarno character wasn’t used in “VOYAGER”? And to be honest, does it really matter?
From this very same rewatch article:
I’m struck in the episode by the differences in what Moore wanted to do and what Berman forced him to do. Moore wanted Picard to uncover the truth and Wesley to stick with his friends because he thought it was more realistic. Berman forced him to make Wesley speak up b/c he was Gene Roddenberry’s Mary Sue and Gene didn’t believe humans in the 24th century would lie. I wish he had left it as written. In life, people rarely admit their own fault, especially in a serious matter like an accident that resulted in death. It would have been more realistic for Wesley’s guilty conscience to make him resign from the Academy; that sort of thing happens all the time in the real world. When an organization is doing something illegal or shady if you don’t like it, you get out. I’m not arguing right or wrong here; what Nova Squad did was wrong, both committing a banned maneuver and covering it up, period. But it would have been more interesting for the shades of gray to be brought out, if they had allowed the interplay between Crusher and Picard to play out to a better crescendo and that Crusher had resigned from the Academy rather than dragging the rest of the team down with him. That would have been more realistic.
Didn’t like this episode too much. Yes, it’s interesting to finally see starfleet academy after hearing so much about it. But it’s too much talk and not enough action.
But, the scene between Wes and the father was indeed very intense. You can see that Wes would like to simply say ‘stop it!’ when the father goes on about how much his son liked his friends.
I actually liked the Vulcan actor. He didn’t play the stereotypical monotonish Vulcan many other actors make the mistake of making. When Sito said she was flying on sensors only, his dismay was borderline emotional.
Recently re saw this, and from a personal stand point, I remember watching it during its initial airing while away af college during my senior year, weeks away from my own commencement, and the themes of that struck a chord with me..Also, could be reading into things too much, but I’m wondering if some elements were inspired by the rejected prequel/origin story intended for Star Trek VI…From what I understand it was to have been framed by Shatner’s Kirk visiting the Academy, perhaps to give the Commencement address, and reflecting on his time there, much as Picard did at times in the episode..
I have a mild dislike for all episodes where the Federation is a carbon copy of today’s US and/or Starfleet is a carbon copy of today’s US military. Lack of imagination, among other problems.
@45/JanaJansen: I always thought the Federation was really just a futuristic version of the United Nations. No doubt the U.S. military influence on Star Trek is borne out of Gene Roddenberry’s own personal experiences and it was just easier to write what he knows. But I agree about the lack of imagination thing – I’ve often wondered how different a Star Trek series would be that took place on a purely non-Starfleet ship that was just a vessel full of civilian scientists/explorers workout all of the rank and military protocol. I think that would open up the storytelling possibilities.
@43/thierafhal: “I actually liked the Vulcan actor. He didn’t play the stereotypical monotonish Vulcan many other actors make the mistake of making. When Sito said she was flying on sensors only, his dismay was borderline emotional.”
There are ways to play Vulcan emotion well, but this wasn’t one of them. The ideal is like Nimoy or Lenard, a subtle emotionality under a surface of calm and control. Fancy’s performance here was just snide and petulant. A well-done Vulcan performance has layers and nuance, but he was just one-note and unlikeable.
@46/GarretH: TOS’s Federation seemed more like the UN, but the movies and later shows turned it into something more like the USA, complete with a president.
And yes, I’d love to see a Trek series focusing on civilian explorers for a change.
@47/ChristopherLBennett
Certainly Leonard Nimoy is the gold standard. I just feel that Richard Fancy was adequate enough for me to like. I’m not saying he blew me out of the water or anything. I mean it’s such a tiny role in the episode, it’s not worth debating excessively.
@48/Thierafhal: Well, we each react differently. I’ve seen a lot of bad Vulcan guest performances, but somehow Fancy’s just grated on me. As I said before, Keith’s rewatch said he left no impression, but for me he left a strong negative impression.
@46/GarretH: I’ve always found Roddenberry’s Starfleet less military than Nicholas Meyer’s or Ronald D. Moore’s. It’s actually one of the things I like about Star Trek (or perhaps that should be “liked”) – no saluting or other excessive military behaviours, a rather flat hierarchy, discussions and participatory leadership, colourful, comfortable uniforms that look like sportswear. Like a mixture between a traditional military and a university system, which seems appropriate for an exploration organisation that also patrols the borders.
In contrast, Meyer’s Starfleet didn’t even seem to do exploration and had people shouting “Captain on the bridge”, and Moore introduced things like “Chief Petty Officers”, the Nova Squadron, and characters who cared a great deal about their rank.
@50/Jana: “Moore introduced things like “Chief Petty Officers””
On the contrary — there have been chief petty officers in Star Trek since the very beginning, quite literally, with CPO Garison in “The Cage.” There was also Chief Humboldt in “The Menagerie,” the “chief” who reported to Kirk about the Thanksgiving meat loaf in “Charlie X,” and the guard in “Mirror, Mirror” who said “Mister Chekov was going to make me a chief — you could make me an officer” (confirming that “chief” is lower than an officer, and thus an enlisted title). And Janice Rand was a CPO in ST:TMP.
@50/JanaJansen: I don’t think it was Ronald D. Moore who introduced a militaristic Starfleet, but maybe he helped reinforce it. Moore was added to the TNG writer’s room in the 3rd season. But beginning right off the bat in the series premiere, “Encounter at Farpoint”, we’re introduced to a very ambitious William T. Riker who is very much working his way up through the ranks to get to captain (of a prestigious ship anyway as he he had already turned down the captaincy of an unimportant starship), and actually corrects Geordi when he doesn’t report to Riker in the correct manner.
In the Star Trek universe, humans of the 23rd century and beyond have eliminated money (among other things) as Picard explains to a primitive 20th century thawed-out human in 1st season’s “The Neutral Zone”. Therefore, lacking a system of money, which is a great driver of people today to work and innovate, it stands to reason that our 23rd and 24th century counterparts will strive to motivate themselves in other ways and excelling in one’s career and rank (as that is a signifier of status in Starfleet) naturally makes sense. But an organization can have ranks without being militaristic which Starfleet is. Picard infamously declared in “Peak Performance” in the second season of TNG that Starfleet is not a military organization when all evidence points to the contrary.
Some thoughts on this one…
There was speculation that Wesley wouldn’t have been star-struck by Nick. My thought is–maybe he wasn’t. Maybe that was the other three, and Boothby just assumed Wesley was another. I think Nick treated Wesley like a prodigy, constantly praising his skills and extraordinary experience, making him think he was special, and THAT is why he went along with the dangerous stunt–because Nick pumped his hubris.
As far as Moore thinking Wes would stick with his team and Berman thinking he wouldn’t, personally I think Berman was right. Because whatever Nick was to Wesley, Picard was greater. Captain, surrogate father, hero. I have no problem believing that feeling Picard’s disapproval would wreck his ability to go through with the cover up. Remember that this is the boy that stared unknown punishment in the face and said proudly, “I’m with Starfleet, we don’t lie.” I’m sure he thought of that when Picard was dressing him down. So, much as I dislike Berman I’m with him on this one.
I don’t agree that Nicholas Locarno was the “sleazy lawyer” type. Nor did I have a problem with Robert Duncan McNeill’s portrayal of this role, unless you had expected him to portray Locarno exactly as he had ended up portraying Tom Paris.
There are many that believe Nick Larcerno and Tom Paris were basically the same character. I believe their similarities were at best, superficial. Both were pilots who had committed an error that led to someone’s death. Both had initially lied about the accident. And both were portrayed by Robert Duncan McNeill. But there are differences.
It took Wesley Crusher’s confession to finally lead Locarno to take full blame for the accident. Tom Paris had admitted his guilt without anyone forcing his hand. Locarno seemed to possess a “cult leader” personality, mixed in with a driving ambition. Paris did not. The latter had something of a cynical personality. Locarno did not.
“First Duty” is a good episode, but there were times when the pacing nearly put me to sleep. Or perhaps I was tired at the time of my last viewing. Also, all of the cadets should have been drummed out of Starfleet Academy and not simply Locarno. He didn’t order Wesley and the others to lie about their attempt to perform a banned maneuver. He merely convinced them via his cult personality. Also, why on earth did the Enterprise crew investigated the accident? They were not needed. The episode should have featured someone within Starfleet Academy to do the investigation without LaForge and Data’s help. I found this aspect of the episode rather contrived.
Because they were there. It is a common trope of any continuing series that when a member of the main cast ends up in trouble the rest of the main cast investigate. I’m sure there were Academy investigators. The Academy held the inquest. But our main interest is the main cast and they carry the load.
Now, is that realistic? To an extant. I think most teams will tend to be protective of their members. Protocols almost always prohibit those members from the investigation; for good reason. But, inevitably, they find some way to participate or largely take over the investigation.
#54. Right, and McDowell’s is a completely different restaurant. ;-)
I just want to point out the shoutout to Wesley´s sweater fashion
I liked MacNeill’s performance in this episode more than anything he did as Tom Paris. If there’s one thing he does well, it’s smarmy gaslighter.
And, really? 5 ships, all equipped with the Starfleet version of the black box, and only one of them is functioning, and that one only partially at that? I know there is no money in 24th century Federation, but somebody’s been hiring out to the lowest bidder, because that’s ridiculous.
For once, really good casting here with the guest stars I thought. Brookes’ Admiral Brand is one of the few performances of an admiral that actually carried some weight. And I thought Ed Lauter was an inspired choice for the grieving dad. Completely disagree with those who suggest he should not have believed his son was to blame so easily. He was looking for closure, any kind of closure, you could tell he loved his son dearly, but also honestly. And he was willing to accept him as a flawed person, who makes mistakes like the rest of us. Like any good parent should.
Ray Walston was awesome. Watching him and Stewart, two consummate pros,, work together was a pleasure.
I think Moore’s ending is one of the rare times when I think he’s completely divorced from how real people and I’m not so much sure its cynicism as not thinking through his actions. I thought he brought a lot of realism and “humanity” to DS9 which remains my favorite Trek but having Wesley stick up for his friends crosses the line from believable to evil. Moore’s ending basically seems to miss one of Wesley’s friends is DEAD and it is literally their fault.
If they refuse to come forth on it then they are absolutely not trustworthy on a starship where other people’s lives are on the line. More people WOULD die and they would blame other people. Wesley sticking up for his friends would make him not more realistic but an utterly irredeemable pile of garbage. The same as covering for a drunk driver who gets a friend of yours killed.
These are not circumstances that can be yada-yadaed over unless you have a belief humans have zero sense of ethics or responsibility.
I definitely think that this should have been the end of all of their careers in Starfleet. At best, Nick Locarno belatedly taking responsibility should have kept the others out of prison.
I think seeing Boothby in the flesh, no pun intended, could’ve been a terrible letdown with a casting choice that didn’t work as superbly as Ray Walston’s. As it turns out, though, he’s easily the best part of this episode; Ed Lauter as the utterly shattered father does a nice job, too. On the other hand, I’m with Christopher on Richard Fancy as the pissy Vulcan captain.
Hi everyone – like the last few comments I’m coming back to this episode, and this rewatch, about ten years now since Krad’s original commentary. As with the whole series, his evaluation hasn’t aged in the slightest.
Still, I think this episode is underrated. As with a lot of TNG episodes I rewatch, I think the flaws are clear and Keith identifies them perfectly. But I think there are more positives in this episode than first meet the eye. Jacqueline Brookes, out of nowhere in Trek universe terms, is astonishingly convincing. I particularly like the sense of mutual respect between her and Picard conveyed purely through facial expressions and gravitas in their initial scene together. Also, Gates McFadden is just perfection in every moment on screen in this episode. Not just in her appropriate representation of Crusher’s motherly concern, and bias, for Wesley, but more importantly in her relationship with Picard throughout the episode, which is restrained and professional but incredibly intimate. And that’s before we even get to Ray Walston’s Boothby, which is a staggeringly brilliant performance from utter scratch that creates a character that immediately feels legendary (and obviously was since he persists through three Trek series).
So while I do agree that ‘Nova Squadron’ are disappointingly insipid compared to the rest of the episode…that needs to be taken in the context of the rest of the episode. This is such a rich and well acted fleshing out of the TNG universe, with terrific low key performances from most of the actors who hold the episode together. The fact that McFadden, who is both a regular and an important character, nails every single scene and yet feels like one of the supporting cast…that indicates the breadth and depth of what this episode is doing. If you exclude Nova Squadron, I think this is a 9-10 episode. But they are weakly scripted and performed. So maybe an 8. But it’s really one of the richest and most interesting episodes in TNG and the broader Trek universe.
The problem I’ve always had with Boothby is mostly a manifestation of the same small-world issues that have always plagued Trek: why does everyone seem to have known this guy and learned important life lessons from him? When does he ever have time to do his actual job, what with all the mentoring and boxing training?
Not everybody has to know all the same people!
@63/Jono: But surely it makes sense that most of the people who went to Starfleet Academy during Boothby’s tenure there would’ve had occasion to meet him during their four years there, especially if they were advised by older students that he was worth seeking out. It doesn’t count as small-world syndrome if there’s a logical reason for it. If he’d been on a starbase somewhere, it would be small-world syndrome if every major character had served on that particular starbase, because that would be an implausible coincidence. But it’s not at all implausible when we’re talking about the Academy, the one place that we know every Starfleet officer attended for years.
Although it could be argued that Starfleet Academy should logically have multiple campuses on multiple worlds, and Boothby was only on one of them. But despite occasional allusions to annexes elsewhere, Trek generally assumes that everyone went to the San Francisco campus.
There can be an academy stunt flying team without implying that starfleet has small one person fighters. NASA astronauts train on T-38 aircraft. John Young called them decision machines. Perhaps this sort of flying serves a similar purpose for training the cadets. The stunt team is just the varsity squad.
Ray Walston was terrific. What a coup to have him in the role.