I get the impression that this episode is heartily loathed by most fans and critics—and, to be sure, it’s nothing special in most respects. I, however, will stand firmly behind a two-star rating for it. Neither of its two primary plot lines is very interesting, but the tertiary storyline concerning Wesley (of all people!) does redeem it quite a bit. Pluls, a million small details of execution signal a huge surge upward in quality as compared to everything that came before this episode. Indeed, in a way, I must confess to actually loving this episode—not for its meat (such as it is), but for the subtle differences in the show’s general look and feel, its portrayal of the main characters, and its approach to storytelling that debut here and sharply contrast the rest of the series from the first season. With this episode, TNG, in some respects, arrived. To be sure, this was only a partial “arrival”; there will be another big leap at the start of season 3 that will complete the transformation. Still, in this episode, TNG suddenly feels a lot more like the not-embarrassing, quality show that I know and love (even if this is undeniably a rather sub-par episode of that show).
First of all, most of the actors seem much more comfortable in their roles this season, and the characters (particularly Data, Riker, and Worf) behave, and carry themselves, much more naturally, believably, and “properly” than previously. Two of the characters, of course—Geordi and Worf—change uniform colors for the new season, and even this makes a big difference to me. Worf looks much better in general than he did in the first season, and Geordi’s move to the role of Chief Engineer helps the character come to life and begin to seem integral to the functioning of the ship. This change will also mean starting to see a lot more of engineering from here on, which will help to make the show less relentlessly bridge-centric than it was in the first season. Troi, alas, continues to be dressed in her silly inexcusable costume (something that the show won’t correct until its penultimate season), but her general look improves here as well, losing some of the “exotic” and artificial flavor of her first-season incarnation. And of course, Riker’s beard is iconic and widely associated with the general leap forward that season two represented for TNG.
Two other semi-overlapping kinds of changes for the new season are the physical changes to the ship (sets) and a collection of what might be called meta-level improvements (things that lie outside the fictional world of the show itself). One huge improvement is the replacement of those hideous slanty chairs on the bridge with actually decent-looking chairs (yay!). Plus, the Ten-Forward set debuts here, and various other sets get subtle alterations (the walls of the bridge, the observation lounge, etc.). I’m pretty sure this is the first time we ever see the full shuttle bay set, complete with its upper-level gangway, too. As for the “meta” changes, I have in mind things like the notably improved rendition of the opening-titles theme music, a general improvement in the quality of the soundtrack music in numerous episodes, and the fact that even the exterior shots of the Enterprise in space somehow look better, starting here, than they generally did in the first season—though I can’t say in what way, exactly.
Finally, this episode debuts a much more realistic and compelling general approach to depicting normal shipboard operations than was seen during the first season, as well as a more sophisticated storytelling structure. The episode opens on a (beautiful) shot of a shuttle departing from the shuttle bay, before cutting to the bridge and letting the viewer catch up with what’s going on—a stark contrast to virtually every first season episode, which started on the bridge and usually with an expository captain’s log announcing what mission the ship was embarking on. Moreover, at the start of this episode, the captain is in his ready room being briefed by Geordi about some of the engineering details of an impending operation, while Riker oversees routine tasks on the bridge. This all conveys a sense of the routine of ship’s operations so much more effectively than anything that we saw in the first season—which, in turn, makes everything feel much more real. Generalizing from these particulars, Picard starts spending much more time in his ready room this season, Riker operates more as an actual executive officer, there’s more of a sense of the characters being professionals who are comfortable working together and have smoothly functioning routines, etc. Even Wesley is much more “regularized” as a member of the crew, and behaves much more professionally, beginning with this episode. Everyone has a clearly defined role now—Geordi in engineering, Worf at tactical and heading security, etc.—and it all just feels much, much more right. Now, some of what I’m lauding here will be realized somewhat inconsistently over the course of the season, showing up strongly in some episodes while being rather lacking in others. Still, this episode in particular just feels very different from a first-season episode.
But none of this changes the fact that this particular episode’s actual plots are pretty pointless. Troi’s alien baby is an instance of the venerable Trek trope in which an alien being does something-or-other because it is curious about and wants to study humanity, and while I don’t necessarily think stories fitting this description can’t be effective, this one was definitely nothing special. A bigger problem, though, is that the plot—all too reminiscently of several first season episodes—basically resolves itself without any help from any of the characters (which is what I mean in saying that it’s “pointless”). The child is born, it’s a mystery, everyone’s concerned, eventually its presence inadvertently causes a crisis, and it then reveals who and what it is to Troi before departing so as to avert the crisis. The idea of an alien “going through the process” of living a human life as a way of learning about humans is at least somewhat interesting, but nothing is really done with the idea here, and the main characters have little to do in the story besides react to events.
I actually have better things to say about the “framing” subplot involving the transporting of medical samples. To be sure, it, too, is nothing special—but it doesn’t need to be. Since the main plot doesn’t revolve around a mission being carried out by the ship and crew, something has to be “going on” in terms of shipboard operations during the episode, and the subplot serves nicely in that capacity. Unlike certain superficially similar framing plots from the previous season, this one is low-key and routine enough to work as a backdrop (the unresolved “hostile delegates en route to a peace conference” filler plot of “Lonely Among Us” comes to mind as an obvious contrast), and it also serves to showcase some of the stuff I talked about earlier (the new, more sophisticated depiction of routine shipboard operations). Plus, it gives Geordi something to do in his new engineer role, and even provides a role for the one new character (Pulaski). The plague prompting the transport of the samples isn’t cheesily overhyped like it would have been in the previous season, and the guest character in charge of the samples seems like a real human being and interacts with the Enterprise people in a way that actually feels believable. Finally, the plot is followed through on (the samples get delivered safely), but not over-resolved, in that the episode doesn’t feel the need to resolve the underlying plague issue; it just ends on the note of the Enterprise having played its part. Having said all of this, though, I will acknowledge that the episode leans on this rather “routine” subplot a bit too heavily, as well as that the cropping up of a problem with the containment of the samples feels a bit too inevitable. Were the main plot not so thin, this crutch would perhaps not have been resorted to. Still, on the whole I regard the subplot as being to the episode’s credit.
Finally, then, there’s the second subplot concerning Wesley’s decision to remain on board the Enterprise. The worst thing about this thread is the way the episode barely acknowledges the departure of Dr. Crusher (one very artificial-feeling line from Picard is all we get); aside from that, though, I consider the Wesley story the best part of this episode (besides the general improvements to the show that it introduces). Obviously, if the show was to drop Dr. Crusher as a character but keep Wesley, this had to be addressed in some way, and having Wesley wrestle with his feelings about his presumed impending departure from the ship brings the character to life to a degree that was not often seen during the first season. It also provides one of the first-ever instances on the show of a character simply dealing with his or her own personal issues in a way that doesn’t relate directly to a larger plot or to major goings-on aboard the ship—again, breathing a new level of life and realism into the show and its main characters. Plus, this storyline serves to introduce Guinan to the show. The scene between her and Wesley, looking out the Ten-Forward window as the ship gets under way, is both visually beautiful and very well-written, showing a degree of subtlety that’s nothing short of astonishing in comparison to anything that has come before on this show. Finally, the Wesley plot provides a genuinely warm and funny moment at the end of the episode, when the bridge officers joke about having to look after him (with even Worf joining the fun and exhibiting a sense of humor). Nicely done.
I should also say something here about Dr. Pulaski, I suppose. Debate rages among some segments of TNG fandom over her general merits as a character and over which doctor—her or Crusher—was the better character. Personally, I distinctly prefer Crusher, but I can also appreciate some aspects of what the writers tried to do with Pulaski. However poorly served and underdeveloped Dr. Crusher was throughout the show’s run (very rarely getting the spotlight, and even then too often in distinctly subpar episodes), I like the core character: warm and passionate, yet also very intellectual; strong-willed and not afraid to express her views, even when they differ from Picard’s, yet not abrasive or annoying; and set up with a back-story relationship to the captain that begged for exploration and development. Pulaski, on the other hand, was too obviously the writers’ attempt to recreate the original series’s Dr. McCoy, albeit without much of the charm that made Bones an actually likeable character. Also, her dialog often strikes me as more reflective of the writers’ desire to insert a generically acerbic and somewhat contrarian voice into the proceedings than of the actual thoughts and reactions of a consistent character. Still, Pulaski wasn’t all bad. In particular—even though (again) it was fairly obviously intended to recall the Spock-McCoy relationship, and also even though it seems sort of disturbingly out of place in the setting of the show—the running theme of her skepticism about the “personhood” of Data that plays out over the course of the first several episodes of the season (beginning with this one) was kind of interesting. I am glad that it was not continued all season long, though; the fact that Data eventually convinces her, essentially, and that she gets over her uneasiness about him, is part of what makes it work, in my opinion.
To sum up: This is a pretty lackluster episode story-wise, but one that’s executed more proficiently than almost any other episode to date, and that has some really nice touches along the way—as well as fundamentally feeling like an episode of a different and much better series from the cheesy and lame one that TNG was during its first season. The second season will be very uneven: at times the well-written, sophisticated show that this episode’s overall style and some of its character moments presage, and at other times the much more amaterish show that this episode’s main plot might lead one to expect. All in all, then, this is a fitting opener to the season.
One final tidbit: Although he hasn’t been given a name yet, this is the first episode in which Colm Meaney plays the ship’s transporter chief (though he previously appeared in two first-season episodes—including the pilot—in other roles aboard the ship)!