Legacy (⭑⭑⭑)

This is a pretty routine, down-the-middle, three-star episode: not without its charms, but somewhat frustrating in some ways, and overall, kind of nothing special. Plot-wise, there’s nothing particularly interesting or memorable about it at all; only the hook of encountering Tasha Yar’s sister, and her involvement in the events of the episode, command any interest or provoke any emotional investment, and even that doesn’t go as far as one might have hoped. Still, it’s a pleasant enough hour in most respects.

In theory, the Turkana IV colony could have been interesting. Here is a group of twenty-fourth century humans who, unlike most, emphatically do not have their shit together. The story potential inherent in a failed earth colony that has long since devolved into anarchy and factional violence, and wants nothing to do with the Federation, is that it provides an opportunity to illuminate the vulnerabilities and the limitations of the cultural evolution by which earth and the Federation have become as ideal a society as they have, without in the process undermining that premise or sullying its idealism. Unfortunately, this episode is not interested in any of that, and doesn’t delve at all into the how or the why of the colony having gone so wrong. (As an aside, one does wonder: When a bunch of Federation citizens start a new colony, do they somehow pass out of the jurisdiction of Federation authority? So that, if the colony descends into lawlessness and “rape gangs” and street violence, no one from outside the colony intervenes? That seems…odd.) So, anyway, in the episode, Turkana IV is merely an unpleasant place that provides a backdrop for a (fairly routine) plot, while also bringing the regulars into contact with Ishara Yar, rather than serving any more ambitious world-building or issue-raising purposes.

Ishara herself is just interesting enough to hold my attention as I watch the episode, without quite rising to the level of being an especially distinctive or compelling character. I don’t recall my thoughts when I first saw this episode years ago, but to my mind now, it seems fairly clear at every point that she is not to be trusted and is in fact playing Data and the rest of the regulars for chumps, and that’s mostly pretty disappointing. Being fooled, along with your favorite characters, by a really clever deception, can be a fun ride—but watching your beloved characters be played in a fairly transparent way is another matter. If it weren’t someone like Tasha’s sister doing the deceiving, in fact, I would probably find it kind of unpalatable. As it is, even though I don’t have a ton of patience for stories in which someone betrays the main characters, but hey, some of what they pretended to feel was real!—I still, in spite of myself, enjoy some of Ishara’s scenes with Data and the others. In particular, of course, Data explaining what a “friend” is for him is a classic moment, and one that the show will call back to in a wonderful way in a much later episode. (Remarkably, too, Data responds to Ishara asking whether he has feelings by saying “not as such,” rather than simply “no.” Was this the show acknowledging that although he doesn’t have human-like emotions, that isn’t quite the whole story?) In another interesting scene, Picard tells Ishara a story about when he first encountered Tasha. I had entirely forgotten this, and now I find myself wracking my brain to recall whether the “flashback” scene in “All Good Things…” with Yar shuttling the captain to the Enterprise prior to his taking command of it is consistent with this back story, or if that scene implies that they have never met previously. I’ll have to wait until I re-watch the finale to answer that question, I guess.

Probably my two favorite scenes in “Legacy,” though, are its opening and closing scenes, which work together in a cool way. We open on another poker night (so often a fun device on this show), and the thrust of the scene is that Data has become much savvier by this point than he once was when it comes to poker (as, for instance, in the very first poker game scene at the start of “The Meausre of a Man”). “You’re getting harder and harder to bluff, Data,” Riker remarks, after losing a hand to him. “You’ve learned this game very well.” To which Data replies: “Yes, sir. I believe I have.” Riker than tries to pull the wool over Data’s eyes in a new way, via a card trick—only to have it totally backfire as Data easily recognizes the sleight of hand behind the trick. In effect, Data has learned not to be deceived so easily—that is, not to trust surface appearances. Yet, of course, Ishara still deceives Data, as well as RIker and everyone else. This, in turn, brings us to the closing scene, in which Data seeks Riker’s input as he reflects on how “curious” it is that he fell for Ishara’s deception. “In all trust, there is the possibility of betrayal,” Riker expounds. Data posits that perhaps, then, “it is better not to trust,” but Riker points out that this cuts one off from friendship and all interpersonal bonds. With a knowing smile on his face, he even cheerfully affirms Data’s observation that he is advocating for “putting yourself at risk.” It’s a delightful exchange, containing a wisdom that resonates with me and providing a nice counterbalance to the message of the poker scene. (It’s also a nice example of how Riker is a pretty great character, in ways that sometimes get overlooked.) In fact, it even redeems for me, to some extent, a complaint that I have already lodged about the episode as a whole. I said that I was not overjoyed at watching characters that I admire get played for chumps in a fairly obvious way—and I’m not. Still, there’s something very charming about seeing those characters, themselves, largely shrug the matter off. “Yeah, well, it seems we were all too eager to see Tasha in Ishara,” Picard observes to Riker on the bridge (I’m paraphrasing, obviously)—all but adding “Oh, well.” And in this final scene with Data, Riker, too, has made his peace with what happened; he’s essentially telling Data “Yes, we were tricked—but being susceptible to such trickery is part of who we are, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” And honestly, at the end of the day, neither would I; I’ll take heroes whose hearts can lead to their being deceived, over excessively jaded alternatives who might not fall for such trickery, but only because they never trust anyone.

So, these bookend scenes add a lot to what is otherwise a pretty unremarkable episode. They don’t add enough to warrant a fourth star, or anything; for that, I think, either the plot would have to be more interesting, or the failed colony premise explored more fruitfully, or Ishara, at least, a more genuinely engaging character. But I do really quite like these scenes, just the same.