There aren’t a lot of TNG episodes that aim almost exclusively for comedy; even “Rascals,” the episode immediately before this one, has some non-comedic aspirations, despite its ridiculousness. But “A Fistful of Datas,” despite its token element of danger and a vague gesture in the direction of father-son bonding for Worf and Alexander, is pretty much just a full-on comedic “TNG does a western” spoof. This proves both a plus and a minus. Whereas “Rascals” offers up genuine, laugh-out-loud humor at the cost of a plot and premise so ludicrous that they damage the integrity of the characters and the setting, “A Fistful of Datas” takes a lighter approach. It disrupts suspension of disbelief much less, but it also ends up being rather less funny than it aspires to be. TNG can be genuinely funny, but it seldom pulls off deliberate, out-and-out comedy especially well. That said, this episode is…fine. Worf, Alexander, and Troi doing a western on the holodeck is hardly riveting stuff, but it has its charms; meanwhile, there are a few nice moments and some bits of goofy humor outside the holodeck as well. In short, if “Rascals” was basically half-terrible, half-inspired, “A Fistful of Datas” splits that difference and comes out mostly sort of mediocre.
My favorite scene here may actually be the teaser, wherein we see the captain spending his free time playing his Ressikan flute (a nice little callback to “The Inner Light”). With its gag of other characters constantly interrupting him, the scene borders on the TNG cliche in which Picard’s life revolves around duty so much that he’s never allowed time for hobbies (see my complaints about this in episodes like “Pen Pals” and “Clues”)—and for a moment, the bit with Worf seeking out tasks with which to busy himself during the down time threatens to double down on the annoying “all work and no play” motif. However, the latter turns out to be to a specific purpose (and serves as the episode’s way of introducing the father-son holodeck excursion and Worf’s mixed feelings about it), and the scene ends with Picard still resolutely trying to plow through his music practice, rather than going the route of having him give it up and go attend to some duty or other, which I very much appreciate. Plus, the scene both displays our captain in a relaxed and indulgent sort of mood that we don’t often get to see, and (of course) features the meta-joke of Patrick Stewart declaring that he isn’t much of an actor. Good stuff.
I suppose the idea that Alexander, a Klingon child whose only time on Earth was presumably spent in eastern Europe (I believe the Rozhenkos live in Minsk?), would look to the American western genre for his holodeck adventure, is something that I just have to accept, chalking it up in-universe to the cultural syncretism of the 24th century and out-of-universe to the fact that Star Trek is an American entertainment franchise. (The “ancient west” joke still falls a bit flat for me, though. I get it, obviously—it’s longer ago now, so “ancient” rather than merely “old”—but this seems to ignore the fact that the passage of a few more centuries is not remotely the only, or even the most important, gulf between the audience’s relationship to the “old west” and these two characters’ relationship to it.) That Counselor Troi has always loved westerns, owing to her father having read western stories to her during her childhood, I can also more or less accept, even though it feels sort of out of nowhere since we never got even the slightest hint of it in the show’s first five seasons. In other words, the whole scenario is pretty transparently cobbled together out of nothing merely because the writers thought it would be fun to do a western on the holodeck—but for all that, they pull it off without setting off my BS-ometer too egregiously. Also, Marina Sirtis turns out to be more fun to watch playing against type here than she tends to be in her regular role—foreshadowing, perhaps, a couple of more significant turns in store for her character later this season. I do think that having Troi show up to save Worf’s bacon at the end of the initial saloon scene (with Alexander belatedly explaining “Oh, I asked Counselor Troi to join us”) is a bit of a dramatic cheat, though. Also, I don’t care for the bit where Worf too easily defeats the bad guy right away, only to have Alexander interrupt in frustration and reset the scene at a higher difficulty level. We’ve seen similar ideas multiple times before (“Elementary, Dear Data”; “Manhunt”), and it’s not really doing anything here besides just filling up time. Likewise, the holodeck safety settings inevitably failing (and the computer ignoring “end program” commands) for no stated reason is a bit eye-roll-inducing. It’s all just obvious plot contrivances designed to manufacture the writers’ pet scenario—but, hey, it’s still more palatable than a pack of Ferengi taking over the damn ship.
The actual western-movie-homage storyline that plays out on the holodeck and takes up most of the running time of this episode is, alas, not especially interesting. But the memory swap between Data and the ship’s recreational database gives us Brent Spiner in Data makeup overlaid by period costumes doing various “old west” archetypes, and at the same time leads to Data unconsciously adopting a goofy accent and mannerisms while interacting with other characters outside the holodeck, and both are good for a few laughs. Spiner manages to play various shades of sinister and goofy on the holodeck without ending up just seeming like Lore (something he has not always succeeded at in the past), and Data’s loping gait as he leaves the captain’s ready room is pretty hilarious. (But the end-of-scenario gag where Worf is embraced by Data-in-drag as the love interest barmaid is way too broad for my tastes, and does nothing for me.) Also, the scene where Data’s “Ode to Spot” gets substituted for Riker’s lines during a play rehearsal is fun. (If I recall correctly, when I saw this episode for the first time, I had missed “Schisms,” so this was actually my first exposure to Data’s poetry.) On other fronts, it should perhaps be acknowledged that this is a rare Worf/Alexander episode in which the two are not embroiled in trite bickering and actually get to bond a bit (and Worf comes across as an actually not-terrible parent). Finally, Worf getting his moment of glory when he shoots the gun out of the villain’s hand, and finding himself actually getting into the spirit of things (even practicing his fast-draw in the mirror at the end of the episode), are fun little bits.
In short, “A Fistful of Datas” is a passably fun little episode despite some distinct shortcomings…but still one that, whenever I watch it, generally leaves me eager to move on to something a bit meatier and more genuinely Trekish.