“Conundrum”
Written by Paul Schiffer and Barry Schkolnick
Directed by Les Landau
Season 5, Episode 14
Production episode 40275-214
Original air date: February 17, 1992
Stardate: 45494.2
Captain’s Log: The ship pootles along through space, tracking subspace signals that may indicate life in the Epsilon Sola system. In Ten-Forward, Troi beats Data at three-dimensional chess, which means he has to make her a Samarian Sunset, as only he can. In sickbay, Crusher treats a young woman named Kristin, who damaged some ligaments while swimming and diving, while Riker yells at Ro for altering procedure on how to handle flight handling assessments. Ro’s procedure is better, but she didn’t check with Riker first.
Riker and Ro arrive on the bridge just as Worf picks up a subspace signal from an unfamiliar ship, with only one life-form aboard. They don’t respond to hails, but they do scan rather intently—the scan penetrates the ship’s shields, damaging the computer and helm, and then moving through the ship. Suddenly, nobody remembers who they are or who anybody else is.
And there’s an additional person on the bridge who wasn’t there before the scanning wave hit.
They all stumble around trying to figure out who they are. They know they’re on a starship. Ro figures she’s the pilot, and she knows how to operate her console—which is currently dead. Riker and Worf know how to use the tactical console, as well.
La Forge manages to pick up intermittent sensor readings of debris in front of them. Worf postulates that they might have been in battle. They’re also not sure who’s supposed to be in command—Riker thinks it’s Picard based on the number of pips on his collar, but Worf points out that he is decorated (his baldric), and that may be an indicator of higher rank.
The new person on the bridge suggests that the other ship hit them with some kind of bioelectric field that wiped their memories, with Ro adding that maybe then they attacked and destroyed them. But there may have been other damage—Picard tries to get a report from the computer, but the voice interface is down. La Forge finds that the computer’s completely down—but he is able to get to a system directory. Life support is operational, but propulsion, navigation, and communications are all offline. Internal communication is working, though.
Worf takes the initiative to do a shipwide announcement: everyone should pick a representative from the group they’re in to report their status to the bridge. We then cut to sickbay, to Crusher and Kristin, who are just as amnesiac as the folks on the bridge.
Eventually, everyone reports in. The new guy reports to Worf, who has assumed command, saying that there are a thousand people on board, and nobody remembers who they are. Worf theorizes that the Enterprise must be a battleship, based on the armament and shield grid they’re carrying.
Riker, Ro, and La Forge decide to go check the rest of the ship on foot. They go to engineering first. Everything’s working, but the control systems are down. La Forge then goes after the computer core, trying to get things back online (and maybe find some personnel records so they can find out what their names are), while Riker and Ro do a personnel check.
Picard and the new guy report to Worf, now in the ready room, that no one’s hurt, but that transporters are working and shuttles are all on board. Worf’s priority is to get tactical systems online, which La Forge accomplishes, then Picard and the new guy suggest a full diagnostic. Worf is reluctant, because that would force them to take systems offline, but the computer was damaged, and they need to be sure everything’s really working properly.
Crusher comes to the bridge. She’s done several brainscans and found no damage, not even to the hippocampus. This suggests that they have their long-term memories, they’ve just been blocked somehow. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have access to the crew’s medical records, so she doesn’t have normal brainscans to compare to.
Riker and Ro continue their survey of the crew, and also flirt rather outrageously. They arrive at Ten-Forward. Troi speaks for that group, and she says she’s noticed two things: the bartender is an artificial life form (Data was behind the bar when the scanning wave hit, so that’s a natural assumption), and Troi herself has the ability to sense what other people are feeling. She gets a strong sense of recognition from Riker.
Worf then contacts Riker and Ro, saying that they’ve gotten access to personnel files and to report to the bridge. As they arrive, La Forge calls up the crew manifest. It reveals that Picard is the commanding officer, with the new guy as the executive officer, identified as Commander Keiran MacDuff. Riker is listed as second officer, with Data as operations officer, Crusher as chief medical officer, Troi as ship’s counselor, La Forge as chief engineer, Worf as chief of security, and Ro as helm officer. Worf is abject in his apologies to Picard, who gladly forgives and forgets.
Data and La Forge find out that the ship is called the U.S.S. Enterprise, it’s part of the United Federation of Planets (true), and the Federation is at war with the Lysian Alliance, a genocidal race out to destroy the Federation (not so much). The war has gone poorly of late due to a new Lysian weapon that has enabled them to capture fourteen Starfleet ships with the greatest of ease. The theory is that the weapon disrupts systems and mental functions—just like what happened to them.
According to what La Forge has dug up, the Enterprise‘s mission is to go behind enemy lines and destroy Lysian central command. They are to maintain radio silence, and they’re the linchpin of the entire plan. Picard orders MacDuff to take them to the Lysian system.
Riker escorts Troi to her quarters. To her frustration, nothing seems right or familiar—except for Riker. Then Riker heads to his own quarters, seeing both a trombone and a horga’hn—and Ro, who’s already changed into civvies and is waiting on his couch, reading a book. They fall into bed in about five seconds.
The next day, they come into Lysian territory. They encounter a Lysian destroyer. MacDuff takes it upon himself to arm weapons without orders, and when the Lysians hail the Enterprise, it’s MacDuff who urges them not to reply, his reasoning being that that may be how they transmit their disruptive weapon. The destroyer itself is no match for the Enterprise in terms of standard tactics. When the Enterprise does not respond to hails, the Lysians arm weapons and fire—and are destroyed easily.
Troi visits with Riker, who has been learning about himself, including his musical ability—he plays a trombone bit for Troi who is impressed, and Riker emphatically declares that no one was more surprised than him. He also finds a volume of Keats that Troi gave him as a present, inscribed “all my love,” and they almost kiss before Ro shows up and they have an awkward moment before Troi leaves. Ro is glad Riker insists that nothing was going on, because she figures herself to have been the jealous type.
Crusher has come up with a possible cure for the amnesia, but it requires the crew’s medical records, which have been irreparably damaged. La Forge is suspicious of how selective the damage to the ship has been—just as selective as the damage to their memories. Crusher doesn’t want to try her cure without medical records, but they have to give it a shot. MacDuff “nobly” volunteers, then fakes a seizure during the procedure, which forces Crusher back to square one.
Picard calls MacDuff into his ready room. Everything feels wrong to him. They greatly outclassed the one enemy ship they’ve met, and every shred of information that might shed some light on their mission has been conveniently eliminated. He needs some kind of moral context to justify his actions, and he doesn’t have it. MacDuff agrees that he’d rather have answers, but there’s so much else riding on this, can he justify breaking off the mission?
MacDuff then calls Worf to his quarters, giving him a pep talk about how they’re the two warriors on the ship. MacDuff wants to know that he can count on Worf not to hesitate during a crucial moment, or the mission will be lost.
They enter the Lysian system, and are met with negligible resistance. Lysian central command has no defenses beyond what the Enterprise has already destroyed. Data’s tactical analysis is that one photon torpedo would wipe out the entire central command. MacDuff insists that they need to complete their mission, but Picard, Riker, and Troi all think this is wrong. The Lysian technology is a hundred years behind that of the Federation—a war between the two wouldn’t last a day.
Picard’s final word is that he will not fire on defenseless people, and orders Worf to open a channel. MacDuff belays that order and takes command, ordering Worf to fire. When Worf refuses, MacDuff knocks Worf down and tries to fire the weapons himself. Riker and Worf stop him with phasers, and when they fire on him, they penetrate his disguise, eventually stunning him.
The Lysians identify “MacDuff” as a Satarran in disguise. The Lysians and Satarrans have been at war for decades. The Satarrans were trying to use Starfleet’s more advanced weapons to bring the war to an end. Crusher manages to restore memories now that MacDuff isn’t sabotaging her efforts, and the Enterprise heads to Starbase 301.
Riker then enters Ten-Forward to see Ro and Troi having a very animated conversation. They both torture him for a bit, with Troi assuring him that he can talk to her about it—in her office—before she walks off, leaving a rather flabbergasted Riker behind.
Can’t We Just Reverse the Polarity?: The Satarrans have the technology to block certain memories—all the ones relating to a person’s identity—without losing the person’s skill set. They also are very good with Federation computer systems. Of course, one wonders why they didn’t just use that as a weapon on the Lysians…
Thank You, Counselor Obvious: Troi is the first to be ambivalent about their mission, as she feels they should get some kind of confirmation before flying behind enemy lines to destroy something. She also takes great pleasure in tormenting Riker at the end.
There is No Honor in Being Pummeled: In March 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot, and Secretary of State Al Haig famously declared himself in charge, since Vice President George H.W. Bush was on a plane. I always think of that when I watch Worf in this episode. It’s really amusing to see how quickly and easily and skillfully Worf takes to being in command.
If I Only Had a Brain : Data gets beaten by Troi at chess, is mistaken for a bartender, and is the one able to access the personnel records (only to find them wiped). He also comes up with several hypotheses regarding why he’s the only one on the ship.
In the Driver’s Seat: Ro’s back, her first appearance since “Disaster,” and she’s the first one to figure out what it is she’s supposed to be doing on the ship, to wit, flying it.
No Sex, Please, We’re Starfleet: Riker and Ro are all over each other, and Riker and Troi realize that they have a romantic past. The every-man’s-nightmare ending as Riker watches Ro and Troi compare notes is one of the single funniest scenes in Trek history.
I Believe I Said That: “Contact the operations officer to assist you.”
“He’s in Ten-Forward—waiting tables.”
Picard telling La Forge to find Data, and Ro amusedly telling them where to find him.
Welcome Aboard: Erich Anderson does well as MacDuff, and he’s the only major guest, as this was a bottle show, intended to keep costs down by using minimal guest stars and existing sets.
However, we do get another Robert Knepper moment! Liz Vassey—probably best known as Wendy Simms on CSI, who also played Captain Liberty on the short-lived live-action version of The Tick, and who is currently recurring on Necessary Roughness—had a small role in this episode as Kristin, one of Crusher’s patients.
Trivial Matters: Information from the personnel files in this episode includes some things we already knew (e.g., Picard’s birthplace of LaBarre, France, established in “Family“), lots of new information (e.g., Crusher’s birth name of Howard, which will be referenced again in “Sub Rosa”), false information (e.g., Troi’s father’s name, established in “The Child” as Ian, is listed as “Alex” in the file), and information that would later be contradicted (e.g., Ro’s home planet is listed as “Bajora,” rather than Bajor).
The Satarrans return to plague the Enterprise in Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore’s duology A Time to Sow and A Time to Harvest.
The episode is told from Kristin’s perspective in the short story “Kristin’s Conundrum” by Jeff D. Jacques & Michelle A. Bottrall in Strange New Worlds V.
Picard tells MacDuff that he feels as if he’s been handed a weapon, sent into a room, and been told to kill a stranger, something of a reference to The Manchurian Candidate, which was also the basis of the plot of the episode “The Mind’s Eye.”
Joe Menosky actually wrote most of the teleplay, but chose not to be credited for it, allowing Schkolnick to get full credit (and full payment for writing same).
Riker still has a horga’hn from Risa, though it’s unclear whether it was the one Picard got in “Captain’s Holiday,” or from one of Riker’s own trips there (“The Game,” e.g.). He also plays “The Nearness of You” by Hoagy Carmichael on the trombone for Troi—he played the same song with the holographic jazz band in “11001001.”
This episode jointly won the Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Special Visual Effects with “A Matter of Time.”
Make it So: “You and I have shared something that we will treasure forever.” This episode doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on the face of it, as the Satarran ability to manipulate the Enterprise is a little too perfect, but ultimately it doesn’t matter, because it’s just a means to an end, to wit, giving the crew a) amnesia and b) a terrible conundrum (hence the title).
In fact, the episode could’ve afforded to do more with a). It might’ve been fun to go through the whole episode with Worf thinking he’s in command, with Data as the bartender, and so on. As it is, what we did see was wonderful, in particular the rather bizarre Riker-Ro-Troi triangle that developed.
Ultimately, a fun little episode.
Warp factor rating: 6
Keith R.A. DeCandido wants to know why there ain’t no sun up in the sky.
I almost felt bad for Riker.
…almost.
I don’t know why MacDuff didn’t give himself an extra pip and take charge.
Yay, pre-Captain Liberty! I love The Tick.
Thought it was odd when Ro and Riker were musing along the lines of “We might be married,” “We might hate each other,” no one thought to bring up “We might be SIBLINGS” (not physically likely, but who would place the Rozhenkos as Worf’s parents not knowing any better?) or “You might be my best friend’s wife…” or any other not-entirely-out-of-the-realm-of-possibility scenario that would make jumping into bed a BIG mistake. Still, agreed, a fun episode with lots of nice moments.
sps49: It’s easier to insert a second commander than a second captain.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I’m going to start out by saying I do like this episode. Then I’m going to nitpick it for a while :P Overall though, it’s something we haven’t seen before on the show (it’s a little similar to other episodes like Allegiance, but not quite) and it has a great premise behind it. What would you do if you didn’t know who you were?
I’m with SPS49 @@@@@ 2 and our noble recapper- it would have been better if either Worf or MacDuff was in command- it makes Picard as the voice of doubt more powerful since he isn’t in a position to determine the course of events. If one of the “warriors” was in command then the explorer/peacenik guy as the counterpoint makes much more sense.
I also agree with you KRAD that if the Satarrans are that good at computer hacking (and apparently instantaneous computer hacking) why not just go to the Lysian central command, and hack the reactor so it blows up? Why go to this really complicated end to do it? And if you’re going to disguise yourself amongst the crew, why not choose a more warrior race (like say a Klingon ship) to use as your merry band of marauders. I’d think there would be far fewer doubts about blowing stuff up by the Klingons then by the Federation.
Two more minor nits- once again I am baffled by the Enterprise’s computer security, as apparently not only are they hacked (again), but there appears to be no sort of protected backup in case files get damaged. Two, adding MacDuff to the crew actually makes sense, as I’ve often said there should be far more Lt. Commanders/Commanders on board- at least one for each shift. This way you could actually have Captain/First Officer as your alpha shift, Second Officer as your beta shift, and Third Officer/Operations Officer as your gamma shift commanders.
Lastly, KRAD I’m a bit disappointed that you didn’t immediately recognize the Edo god, which has apparently moved on to better things as the Lysian command now that Wesley isn’t around to execute.
if the Satarrans are that good at computer hacking…why not just go to the Lysian central command, and hack the reactor so it blows up?
Because the Lysians’ computer technology is just as advanced.
I think military technologies of warring groups probably evolves in parallel, the way that in nature, predators and prey, or pollinators and flowers, evolve in parallel. Imagine if Earth’s WWII and further conflicts had all been fought with chemical weapons like WWI — we’d have extremely advanced systems for detecting, dispersing and neutralizing chemical warfare agents, but maybe much less advanced technology in other areas (for example, because of the wide-area nature of chemical weapons, there would be little point in GPS-guided bombs or indeed in a GPS system at all). Instead, we have a dozen kinds of precision-guided conventional weapons but a hundred years later still lack a (reliable) battlefield-ready system to detect chemical attacks.
So I assume the Lysians and the Starrans have great computer tech but maybe they never discovered the physics principles behind shields and warp drive.
This was one of the first episodes of TNG that I saw. Since I was not familiar with the characters at all, it was also like a mystery. I could not be sure that MacDuff was really an alien. Probably made it even more interesting to watch. Liked the Samarian Sunset (or something like that) drink that Data did for Troi.
Ah yes, the Satarrans: freaky bastards, all around. And man, when they made their reappearance in the “A Time To…” series it was an awesome moment. I remember reading and thinking, “Why does these guys seem so familiar?!” only to have the bomb dropped in the last chapter and making me wig out whilst waiting for the next one.
Though I do agree with the fact that having the Lysians being severly underpowered vs. the Enterprise was a bit ridiculous, and should have engendered a more thorough investigation directly with Starfleet instead of taking what MacDuff said and running with it. I always felt like saying, “You people can’t remember who you are, what makes you honestly think it’s still a good idea to continue with your covert mission. Maybe you forget some very specific piece of information that you were supposed to adhere to?” I know that if they do, the story falls apart, but any crew that suffered that big of a setback should know that procedure should be paramount, and that maybe after acquiring the handicap of the lost memory, it might be best to sit that mission out, at least until EVERYTHING is back online and in working order.
Though I agree, it is a fun episode that turns a couple things on its ear, regardless if it is a bit extreme that the bad guys were able to do such amazing things as figure out how Data’s memory works internally and suppress his memories… even when Geordi and the SCE don’t really know exactly how he functions all that well…
They might’ve wondered why, if they were in a war with a race that could wipe their memories, someone didn’t write down the mission so if they did get their memories wiped, they could still know what they were supposed to be doing. At least as a backup to the computer in case it was damaged, or they were unable to access the computer after their memory was wiped.
I always figured (not that there is any on-screen evidence of this) that perhaps the Lysians and their technology were immune to the Satarran mind-wipe. If they’ve been at war for decades, it’s quite possible that the Lysians figured out a way to counter the technology when it was in an early stage, since negating their enemy’s advantage would be a major goal in wartime. Instead, I was always puzzled that the Satarrans have been able to devise a way to selectively wipe various alien memories, an android’s memory, and an advanced alien computer’s files, all in one shot, yet never developed conventional weapon technology remotely close to that of the Federation despite decades of conflict. Granted we know next to nothing about the Satarrans and there could be any number of reasons for why that may be, but a little more exposition in that regard would have gone a long way to clear up some things.
That out of the way, I have always enjoyed this episode. The idea of waking up and not knowing anything about who you are is thought-provoking enough, but all the more so is the idea of what might happen if everyone around you did likewise.
I agree about the overly contrived premise, but the execution is pretty good. And the glimpse we got of the very creepy Satarran makeup under the disguise was one of Michael Westmore’s most impressive creations.
Other than that, the best thing in the episode is a tossup between Worf instinctively assuming command and Liz Vassey spending the whole episode in a bathing suit.
The story “Kristin’s Conundrum” by Jeff D. Jacques and Michelle A. Bottrall, in Strange New Worlds V, retells this story from the perspective of Vassey’s character.
As you say, Keith, a fun episode.
But I have a nit to pick with your categorization of Al Haig. Then again, it’s not just you.
Years later, Haig claimed that he wasn’t trying to take over the country, but was trying to reassure people. He claimed that he said, “I’m in control *here*,” with the emphasis on the “here,” to reasssure people that someone was in control. Here’s what he said to the press in the chaotic aftermath of the assassination attempt:
“Constitutionally gentlemen, you have the president, the vice president and the secretary of state, in that order, and should the president decide he wants to transfer the helm to the vice president, he will do so. As for now, I’m in control here, in the White House, pending the return of the vice president and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with him, of course.”
I can’t believe I’m defending Al Haig, but years later, I did watch the footage, and I agree with the claim he made that he was not trying to wrest control of the government.
— Michael A. Burstein
Christopher: oh, right! Thanks for the reminder of Jeff & Michelle’s story!
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Seems to me that a slight tweak of the scenario would make more sense than “the Feds are so powerful we had to manipulate them for their weapons tech”. Why not make it a political maneuver? For that matter, weave the Romulans in or something. Make the Federation look bad in a move as part of a larger game to undermine and conquer them.
I know, I know, they didn’t do larger story arcs like that. It’s just… making it a political manipulation makes more sense to me than the weird supercomputertech/wimpy weapontech explanation that we got.
One of my favourite TNG episodes.
I personally thought the episode should have been titled “Lay Off, MacDuff”. But then that would have been a spoiler.
As for the Secretary of State’s taking over in an emergency, isn’t the Speaker of the House supposed to be constitutionally third after the President and Vice President?
@Rich F
LOL at Lay Off Macduff
And Yes, per the 25th Amendment, the line of succession is President, VP, Speaker, President Pro Temp of the Senate, then running through the cabinet secretaries in the order of origin of office, so SecState, SecTreas, SecDef, Attorney General and downwards to Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, as that is the most recent Cabinet Secretary position.
In the case of the Reagan Assassination though, it was a bit muddled- the President was not dead, so section 1 of the 25th Amendment was not invoked, nor did he remove himself from office, so section 3 of the 25th Amendment was not invoked. Section 4, which is the Cabinet/VP declaring the president incapable of holding office wasn’t invoked b/c they couldn’t get together to meet since VP Bush wasn’t there. (there actually were some concerns in 1987 about President Reagan’s fitness but the Cabinet didn’t meet to discuss them in any sort of formal way) So since the 25th Amendment couldn’t be used, there was some confusion. Haig himself was incorrect, forgetting the speaker and president pro temp in line of succession. However, as VP Bush didn’t have secure communications at that moment, Al Haig was de facto in control at the White House as the most senior individual present. VP Bush arrived at the White House and for all practical purposes assumed the presidency but legally he never became the Acting President.
Since that time, there has been more of a priority in ensuring a Presidential successor is available with secure communications- if you watch the Presidential State of the Union for example, you’d see that at least one cabinet secretary is not present (usually one of the less visible ones like the Secretary of Agriculture or Housing and Urban Development). At President Obama’s inauguration, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was at a “secure location” in case of emergency- also since he already was the Secretary of Defense under Bush, he was most ramped up and capable to act as Designated Survivor.
In reality though, if there was a wide scale death in the line of succession, the whole damn thing would be a constitutional nightmare.
Additional fun fact: the Lysian Central Command station was the same model of space station that the ‘gods’ of the Edo had in season one’s “Justice.”
I totally did not recognize Liz Vassey, as this was pre-nose job. Yikes.
I actually really liked this one, although I did have a few nits to pick. For instance, if this species is so powerful, why didn’t they must make it so the computer said he was the captain and Picard was some other low ranked officer?
Also, it kind of bugs me when you introduce a technology that is SO insanely powerful (can selectively wipe memories of ALL species on the ship, can very selectively alter computer records as well as insert their own modified records, as well as modifying Data’s android brain – and what if somebody kept a paper journal ;))….and then you never hear about it again.
@Lisamarie,
Blame the prime directive! If I was in charge of the Federation, the first thing I would do (after apologizing to the Lysians, of course) is to offer to trade them phasers and shields for computer and brain technology.
@folkbum So that’s why I can never quite equate ‘this’ Liz Vassey to when she’s in CSI, that had always bugged me.
@folkbum: Yikes? What does that even mean? I don’t see anything even remotely wrong with her nose here–certainly nothing to warrant surgery.
A bit more confusion of roles in this episode could have made it really good. The fun of this sort of premise is seeing everyone outside their usual element. We got glimpses of this with Worf taking command and Data tending bar, but status quo-ish was reestablished too quickly. The rest of the episode only works at all because of the Riker-Ro-Troi dynamic. The military plot simply had no real danger for the Enterprise crew. Unfortunately, the episode is neither as fun nor dramatic as it could easily have been.
This was a fun episode, which I felt the actors acted out of character well. A good premise. The only gripe is, I would have had Ro Laren hook up with Picard or another officer. Watching “Horny Riker” is tiresome, and watching him have unwarranted success with the ladies TWICE in one episode is enough to make my blood curdle into bitter whey.
Having Ro hook up with Picard would have been a better continuity move, seeing as Cpt. Picard did play his role in “Ensign Ro” as slightly attracted to her at the end, and vice-versa. Picard is a much more interesting man than Mr. Number 1.
There is no way in the world that Troi would be able to beat Data at chess.
I agree with @jelsilk , i dont believe that Troi would be able to beat Data at chess :)
However this was very fun episode !
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Why is Data the one doing a tactical analysis on the Lysian ships and Central Command? Shouldn’t Worf be doing that? Or are the crew still confused about what each is supposed to do?
While there where some holes and missed opportunities, I really enjoyed this episode. I usually tire of Riker’s need to bed everything possible, but mixing him up with Ro was great fun since it makes all future tensions between the two automatically awkward. It also created a fun ending scene.
For once Trio’s character has actual purpose and adds to the fun. It would have been nice if some nobody was on the bridge and assumed to be part of the commanding crew. Perhaps Lieutenant Barclay.
I feel it must be said- at this point, Marina Sirtis’s Troi is becoming much stronger. From the fantastic counseling in “Hero Worship,” to the extremely likable delivery of “It’s psychologically valid” at the end of this episode, not to mention the wondefully haunted recollections as she emerges from her coma with a much-understated smoky eye and tousled hair in “Violations,” she’s becoming much more interesting, and demonstrating acting chops she really hadn’t before. Next, we get to see her as villainess…
To be honest, I am not sure I understand the general acclaim for this episode (it is in the top twenty or thirty episodes on both IMDB and TV.com); I just cannot logically accept the episode’s plot, where for whatever reason MacDuff does not simply make himself the captain. Too reminiscent of the early seasons where the entire excuse for or resolution of the episode was patently absurd and relied more on improper character actions than any true conceptual legitimacy.
@27
Data is the operations officer (which seems to also be the science officer in 24th century Trek). I imagine his console has easy access to more sensor readouts than the Tactical station since Tactical also has all the controls for communications and weapons. Plus, since he’s an android, he’s able to process the incoming data and cross reference it with computer records more quickly.
Haven’t Riker and Ro broken the regulations? She is in his direct line of command isn’t she?
@33/Roxana: I’m not sure if there is such a regulation. If there were, wouldn’t it prohibit Picard and Daren’s relationship in “Lessons”, too?
Well, while Picard is Daren’s CO, she’s under the science department, and while she’s under Picard, she’s not directly under him. Riker, as XO, is the “HR” chief for the whole ship, in a sense; plus Ro is a bridge officer, directly under his command.
God knows what the regulations are concerning relationships in Starfleet. But as I recall Kirk felt Janice Rand was out of bounds but Helen Noel and Marlena Moreau were not implying that science and medical are in a different category than operations personnel.
Same situation; Rand is directly under Kirk’s command, she’s his Yeoman. Noel and Moreau are under his command, but indirectly. Still, it’s kind of iffy.
@36/Roxana: I think Kirk felt that every crewmember was out of bounds. The Christmas party did not end the way Noel wanted, and as for Moreau, he only said that he wanted to “become friends”. That could mean anything. I think he really just wanted to chat with her, because he knew her Mirror counterpart. I know I would be curious about her if I were in his place.
I’m inclined to agree with you. Kirk seems to limit himself to flirting with any woman under his command.
@39/Roxana: I don’t think Kirk ever flirted with a woman under his command. For example, he didn’t flirt with Dehner, or Chapel, or Uhura, or McGivers, or Mulhall, or any of the many yeomen we saw besides Rand.
@23 I think the “yikes” was referring to what her nose looks like post-surgery. I haven’t seen enough of her recently to make a fair comparison, but the picture of her on Wikipedia kind of makes me feel like she looked better before the nose job.
I agree with Midnightair, it would have been much more interesting if Picard and Ro had started eyeing each other. And been MUCH more embarrassing to them both when they got their memories back!
I always thought it was interesting that Picard had no urge to take control. I’ve long speculated that command doesn’t come naturally to him but is something he’s taught himself to do. Picard always struck me as naturally introverted and unenthusiastic about dealing with large numbers of people. His nostalgia for the Stargazer may have something to do with her being much smaller and tighter than the Enterprise with a select crew.
I enjoyed this episode, and actually found the revelation of the Enterprise being manipulated for evil ends by the Satarran a surprise. I’d assumed it was another “testing humanity” episode and they were going to be judged on their moral character when their memories had been erased. It was interesting to see this take on morality and personality being separate to identity and memory, and seeing a bit of a love-hate relationship between Riker and Ro was fun.
Unfortunately, the basic premise does start to fall apart once it’s examined. I can accept that the Lysians are immune to the Satarran effect – the standard shields on the Enterprise couldn’t stop it, but maybe a different technology could. The problem is that it would make much more sense for the Satarrans to change the mission to being one where the Enterprise is to share technology with the Satarrans in the interests of friendship and to help them advance. There would likely be fewer moral questions over a friendly aid mission than one of destruction, plus the Satarrans would get to advance their own technology to Federation levels. They could then win the war easily and skip their development forward at the same time.
“What makes you think you’re going to get any sleep?” What a woman….
Okay, regarding fraternization: The handwave happened in the episode with Lt. Cmdr. … Daren, was it? Anyway, the one Picard started dating. Either Crusher or Troi just said, “Starfleet doesn’t have any fraternization regulations.” And years later, Keith DeCandido recapped a DS9 episode and said, “WHY NOT?”
Found it interesting that in Mass Effect, the Alliance Navy does have such regs, and they pay very, very close attention to them in the first game (to the point where if Shepard starts a … thing, with Chief Williams or Lt. Alenko, it only happens after they’re in much MORE trouble than a fling. So of course that can get flushed down the toilet in the third game, and while most love interests are either officers or not Alliance Navy personnel, one Specialist Samantha Traynor really stands out like a sore thumb. An O-4 having a fling with an E-5 serving directly under her? (Obvious joke inserted here, except that Alenko was on the receiving end of the exact same joke in the first game.) Yeah, the head writer wasn’t even trying at that point.I missed Drew Karpyshyn a LOT that final game, even if his endgame scenario was kind of more-stupid-than-what-we-GOT. </tangent>
Late to the coversation – on a rewatch.
Biggest plot problem in this episode is one it seems NOBODY is talking about on the web. The children. Enterprise has enough children to warrant an entire school… So why does this not register? A warship with a pile of kids in bright and colourful school rooms? C’mon. That right there should have tipped them off that they were not on a secret war mission against anyone. Was so unconvincing…
And ‘Riker’ should have refused to take part in this episode… Ruined his character forever.
This episode is just ok in my book. I’m surprised more people haven’t commented on is Riker. Being a bit caddish makes him fun; being a horn-dog makes him stupid and one-dimensional. After they get flashed, nobody knows who’s with whom, so jumping into something just HOURS later is recklessly opportunistic. More than that, before he gets together with Ro, there’s the immediate connection with Troi. Any reasonable, restrained person would keep in their pants until things get sorted out. It’s not just a problem relating to a military-esque environment: what workplace environment can you think of where a respectable man would be that quick to jump in with a co-worker? I generally like Riker, and I don’t think this episode is representative.
The other, more minor nit, is that Troi has a better chance of pinning Worf in a wrestling match than beating Data at chess. Data has the computing power to predict virtually every chess game physically possible, but can’t see a possible checkmate in eight moves? It’s not just Troi – in a world where computers have been besting chess masters for centuries, no human is likely to beat him. Poker, on the other hand, is entirely believable.
The most fun part of this episode is seeing the characters interact while not knowing who they or anyone else is. Worf as captain is a riot! Maybe it’s played to a stereotype a bit, but it’s more entertaining that way. I like the idea mentioned, of keeping the musical chairs going to the end. Other than dialing back “horny Riker,” the one thing I would have done with this episode would be to keep Worf in command . Incidentally, why didn’t MacDuff jump at that idea? I could see Worf diving right into wiping out the Lysians while Picard grows increasingly skeptical. All the time, Picard’s sense of authority grows, culminating in a last-ditch effort and confrontation with Worf and MacDuff, where Worf realizes Picard is right, and in fact the captain. Easy to say “my idea’s better,” but I just see that building a lot more nicely.
Anyway, not a bad episode, but not great either. I’ll give it a 5 for first watch, but the Riker thing makes it a 2 for re-watch.
As I’ve said in other comments, I’m a big fan of Ensign Ro, so I really like this episode. The post two up mentioning the children makes me a little more skeptical of its premise (that’s a great point about the school that I had never thought of), and the amnesia would have very serious ripples throughout a ship of 1,000 people (think about married couples or couples with children; a small child with her memory erased would be almost impossible to console) that the episode can’t explore. But others have made those points better than I can now.
I did want to say, that all the people critical of Riker’s behavior are missing a crucial point: Ro is all over him. Right from the start. Riker may be flirting back, but Ro is extremely aggressive. It would have taken some serious restraint (and maybe Riker should have that restraint, but he doesn’t really show it in prior episodes) to have rebuffed Ro’s advances.
You could almost say the same thing about Troi. She isn’t as in-your-face as Ro, but she also initiates all the romantic advances with Riker. In many scenes, Riker is just kind of standing there smiling as attractive shipmates throw themselves at him (or kiss him). I think he’s being a little unfairly criticized here.
This episode is kind of Exhibit A in the trial of Deanna Troi on charges of Extreme Uselessness. In a crisis, one of the crew members is an imposter, and Troi doesn’t sense ANYTHING out of the ordinary? I mean, I can believe that she couldn’t read him, but that in itself would be important, especially since McDuff appears to be the same species as Picard, Riker, Crusher, LaForge, and lots of other crew members she can sense emotions from. On top of all the other nitpicks, it’s pretty significant.
Shannon makes a great point about the children on board being a major tell that they weren’t in the middle of a long, drawn-out war. Also, there are 1,000 people on board, and not one of them keeps a paper journal or diary? It’s an enjoyable episode, but it REALLY doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
Picard had plenty of time to think about what was going on, and he showed his concerns about fighting a weaker opponent. What really bugs me is if Picard could just concentrate on one thing….how could they actually figure that an enemy could do such specific damage to your computer and they don’t go after anything critical like weapons , shields or life support. Plus they were never attacked right after the weapon was used. It all adds up that there’s no way the Lysians did this, but rather points to the fact that we see in the end that someone else wanted them to destroy the Lysians.
Having a lot of fun both rewatching TNG and reading through these rewatch reviews and comments in the midst of the Covid crisis. This episode is good fun and, while I take some of the queries, I think some of this poking holes in the plot is a bit too quick. I’m not suggesting the writers had really thought this all through, but species out in the Star Trek world would, surely, not analyse all problems the way the Federation (or us in the 21st Century) would. Why doesn’t MacDuff just take over as Captain? Could be lots of reasons. The crew retain skills despite losing their memory, perhaps as Captain his lack of such skills could become visible? Perhaps the Satarrans ploy would almost never fail even with him just as XO – it’s just that the E-D crew are so awesome they are exceptional in seeing through it (Picard and Troi are initially pretty key here)? How can the Satarrans overpower Federation computer technology when they’re otherwise so far behind the Federation? Because societies and cultures evolve in different ways – Chinese and Islamic societies vastly exceeded the technological capabilities of European states in most respects other than shipbuilding, gunpowder and glass technology deep into the early modern period, but those technologies (and colonisation of the New World) proved crucial in eventually securing geopolitical dominance in the 18th century. Why can’t the Satarrans just use their hacking on the Lysians? Because interactive cultures technologically evolve in interaction (as others have suggested).
I guess I’m making a broader point, which is that I love the dissection of some of these episodes, which occasionally are just lazily written. But we’ve got to embrace the fact that this is a big old Star Trek universe and there’s a lot we don’t understand about it. Not everything that seems puzzling to our reasoning as viewers of the episode is necessarily a major howler of implausibility.
All that said, I too found Troi beating Data at chess irritatingly implausible. Maybe Data has difficulty settings you can agree with him before each game. Riker’s behaviour is also bizarre and not explicable through the kind of point I’m making above.
@51, I think him taking the XO job was really smart. For starters, most of what the XO does is sit there next to the captain- he’s probably not going to be asked to fly the ship or try to rig something up with a control panel, and so won’t reveal his lack of specific ability. Not pretending to be captain also removes him from any potential squabbling about who is in charge, and lets him keep a lower profile. Picard isn’t really that type, but it is possible he figured the Captain of a ship like the Enterprise might have a very strong compulsion to take over, even without specific memories of being in command. The XO is also the person that the Captain is most likely to confide in (since Starfleet has no senior NCOs), and therefore he is able to push Picard back toward there mission when he has doubts- and is able to do that without anyone else there to contradict him.
What I like about this episode is that, while everyone has lost their memories, they haven’t lost who they are. Worf wants to be ready for battle, Picard wants more information/ context and for things to run smoothly, Geordi wants to get his hands on a practical problem to solve. I know some people didn’t like the Ro- Riker thing, but I actually think it makes a lot of sense. Riker *likes* strong, assertive, smart women- he doesn’t like Ro because of the incident that got her thrown in jail. Without that memory, all he sees is a pretty, capable woman who seems to find him very attractive. And Ro’s issue with Riker is that he is always riding her ass, and she refuses to let people see she is vulnerable. Without those memories, she is more willing to tell him that she is scared and uncertain, and he is able to sympathize with her. I think the episode would have been better if they’d ditched the thing with Troi, because that just turned it into “every woman is all over Riker,” and Troi had enough going on with being the person most concerned about their mission. I would have liked to have seen more of that, and less of her mooning over Riker.
Some great observations here, took most of what I would have perhaps said.
But, I wanted to add a note for the record: This is the same premise later used in Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s episode “Tabula Rasa”, famously the followup to the musical epsiode. I always thought it was a fun concept and now I realize it was so similar to this episode, it transcends “derivative of” and becomes “a tribute to”!
(Disclaimer: I’m not spoiling anything that isn’t in the general description of the Buffy ep, and just like this, I believe the memory loss begins in the cold open.)
As long as I’m here I might as well add: I wish they hadn’t made MacDuff so obvious. I know these shows were calibrated for distracted dinner viewing, but it would have been great if we were more in the dark about what was happening until the end.
Also I agree that Troi has officially become a good character with not painful acting around here. I wonder what shifted. She’s got layers, humor, complexity, usefulness!
Oh and I do think Troi could beat Data, if he’s not paying enough attention and if he’s self-calibrated so the game could go on to a statistically enjoyable duration :)
@14 Tesh
I think that is part of the point. The reason the Sataarans use the complicated subordination of the Enterprise WAS to blame everything on the Federation. After all, it’ll be the Federation that killed all those poor Lyssians.
Which is also why McDuff is the executive officer rather than the captain; Picard is blamed. Most people aren’t going to give a damn about the XO; its the captain that is responsible.
So the nasty Federation sends the Enterprise to destroy the Lyssian station and Picard is equally culpable in not questioning the orders to attack a nation they are not at war with.
@Custumer.
But if Macduff had been in command and then vanished what difference would it have made. Assuming the Lyssian’s don’t assume it is their enemy, are they going to take Picard’s word for there having been another captain?
Because you have hundreds of crewmembers there. All those people start talking about Captain MacDuff, people are going to doubt. Not everyone, sure, but a lot. If Picard is in command, and everyone agrees he was in command, he takes all the blame.
It also allows MacDuff to more easily manipulate everyone else. The captain makes the major decisions, but its the XO who transmits and coordinates them with the rest of the crew. MacDuff can more easily push and prod the details if he is not the captain.
“Thanks” to #46, for pointing out what was one of my thoughts during the episode. When they say, ‘this is a warship’ and then take no notice of having so many civilians on board. Sure, the 18th century Redcoat sometimes took Mrs. Redcoat off to war, but entire families? And having a ‘warship’ clearly designed to facilitate raising children?
The first tip-off this would be nonsensical, however, is the chess match. No way.
I suppose the writers are setting up an analogy: Troi unexpectedly bests Data , just as the Satarrans can unexpectedly best the Federation. It may also have been a way to bolster the status of an overall weak character, one whose purpose has heretofore been rather unclear and lacking the same weight as the others– ok, I admit, I’ve never like Troi as a character.
Also, with multiple scenes in Ten-Forward, and a psychological episode, what a missed opportunity to cameo Guinan!
Just watched this again and I would give it a high rating just because it’s entertaining, despite all the glaring plot holes, but I do want to comment on Riker’s behavior here. On one hand, I don’t blame him for his tryst with Ro. Without Ro’s past to get in their way, they obviously found each other quite attractive, and Ro initiated. That said, later when Troi needs a shoulder to lean on, I found it kind of gross that Riker showed her the book she inscribed, almost as if it was a seduction technique, and then immediately went to make out with her. I mean, he probably still has Ro’s scent on him and he’s already horndogging in on someone else? C’mon man.
Belated revisit:
A lot of people seem to have asked why MacDuff didn’t make himself the captain, but I agree with wildfyre that that would’ve been too obvious. If you want to be sneaky, you don’t want to be the person everyone expects to be making the decisions, the person who gets all the scrutiny. You want to be the power behind the throne, standing off to the side of the figurehead everyone’s looking at.
@38/roxana: “God knows what the regulations are concerning relationships in Starfleet. But as I recall Kirk felt Janice Rand was out of bounds but Helen Noel and Marlena Moreau were not implying that science and medical are in a different category than operations personnel.”
That’s misreading both episodes. In “Dagger of the Mind,” Kirk was deeply uncomfortable with having danced with Helen at the Christmas party; a deleted scene in the script reveals that he hadn’t known at the time that she was a member of his crew, so when he recognized her in the transporter room, he was dismayed by his earlier impropriety, even though they hadn’t done anything at the party but dance and talk about the stars. When Helen implanted a romantic fantasy in his mind later, the whole point was to create a scenario that had never actually happened and never would, to prove that the neural neutralizer was capable of altering his memories. Kirk absolutely did consider Helen off-limits and had to be brainwashed into believing otherwise. Yet it only took a slight effort of will for Kirk to throw off Adams’s “You love Helen madly” brainwashing and coldly order Helen to risk her life in the ventilation shaft.
In “Mirror, Mirror,” Kirk only seduced the alternate Marlena because it was necessary for his impersonation of Mirror Kirk. The ending implied that he was flirting with Marlena Prime, but we never saw more than a casual conversation, so there’s no basis to assume it went beyond that. It would be completely out of character for Kirk as he had been portrayed up to then.
@51/Jonathan LM: “Chinese and Islamic societies vastly exceeded the technological capabilities of European states in most respects other than shipbuilding, gunpowder and glass technology deep into the early modern period”
“Other than?” Chinese shipbuilding was immensely more advanced than Europe’s for quite a long time. Zheng He’s treasure ships in the early 1400s were vastly larger and more advanced than anything Europe would bring to bear for centuries after that. And the Chinese invented gunpowder.
I couldn’t help feeling the pips were dismissed in awfully short order and never revisited that we saw.
The phasers are test-fired once weapons are back online, bringing up a question I occasionally have when there’s a miss in battle onscreen: At what point will a starship’s phaser blast peter out and is there no concern of hitting an unintended target first? I realize we’re talking literally astronomical distances here, and the fact that the Enterprise can hit a planet from orbit barely factors in if there are no planets visible in the frame of the space melee, but still.
Guinan sure is absent when her intuition and nebulous abilities would be handy a lot, something that may be more top of mind as I watch episodes daily.
I would’ve much preferred it if MacDuff weren’t a white male, although he probably had to at least seem human for his ploy against Crusher’s gizmo to work.
I have to admit I have a fondness for this episode as I distinctly remember on first watch trying to figure out how I had never noticed the character of McDuff before and admonishing myself for not realising that Riker was second officer. I’m sure I must have been partially affected by the Satarran beam
I am also vaguely aware of having similar thoughts on the second watch and rewinding the tape to understand what I missed, which says a lot for my memory or lack there of.
What struck on this watch is Worf’s look of annoyance when his orders are contradicted by Picard, I almost expect him to assert his authority physically. This rewatch of the whole series has really made me appreciate both Michael Dorn’s and Patrick Stewart’s acting chops (PS is at a different level though ).
Just rewatched this one. One thing I never noticed before; when the Enterprise first comes across a Lysian destroyer, the destroyer attacks after they do not respond so the captain reluctantly orders them to return fire. The CGI shows the phaser beam hitting their shields for a moment, then their shields collapse and the beam moves on to strike their hull then blow it up.
I loved that little attention to detail :)
@63/Ken: It wouldn’t have been CGI back then, but hand animation created on video (though I’m not sure of the nature of the technology used). TNG only very rarely used computer animation, for things like the Crystalline Entity and the “Galaxy’s Child” space creatures (which were done with a mix of miniatures and CGI).
@65/garreth: I think you meant to post that in the Picard thread.
@66/CLB: Thanks. I just re-posted the comment on the Picard thread and flagged my own previous comment on this thread so the moderator can just delete it since I can’t seem to do that myself.
I never understood the ending of this episode. I get Riker’s reaction when he sees Ro and Troi talking. Then Troi points out that in their situation, it’s possible to give in to subconscious desires. Which, to me does seem psychologically valid. Then Ro has her humorous dig at Riker about them having a memory they’ll cherish forever. Then Riker has this look on his face and says he’s confused; Deanna says if he’s still confused tomorrow…
What exactly is Riker confused about?? That’s what I don’t understand. Deanna just explained the tryst between him and Ro. He’s confused that Ro’s okay with it? He’s confused about his own subjective desires?
I get it’s joke at Riker’s expense. I just don’t get it.
Mary: He was confused at Ro’s very calm reaction to the whole thing, which is, to say the least, out of character.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido