Relics (⭑⭑⭑⭑)

Season six’s first real “hit” exhibits the usual strengths and weaknesses to be expected from a Ron Moore TNG episode: a fairly thin plot featuring somewhat underdeveloped sci-fi concepts, paired with an affecting character story, a number of fun continuity references, and plenty of feel-good moments. I actually find this episode a bit challenging to rate, in that three stars would definitely seem miserly, yet four admittedly feels slightly generous. Still, bringing back a beloved original series character and actually doing something interesting with him has got to count for something! “Relics” has weaknesses, to be sure, but they don’t stop me from mostly loving it.

It’s a little hard to put my finger on the thing that I think most holds this one back from being better than it is. There are some plot issues, and they matter, but they’re secondary. (I’m not even going to bother, outside of this parenthetical, with the questions raised by Scotty’s transporter jury-rigging—much less with the gaffe of having characters beamed through raised shields in the episode’s climax.) No, if I could change just one thing about “Relics”… Well, I don’t know if “one thing” is even accurate, but it’d be something about the episode’s pacing and tone. It feels like this episode sort of rushes past everything about itself except for the key character beats that it wants to hit, and thus ends up falling short of achieving the sort of epicness that either the Dyson Sphere or the appearance of the legendary Scotty on the transporter pad ought to engender. Emblematic of this is an awkward dialog moment between Scotty and Geordi early on. Scotty is enthusing about the Dyson Sphere and the engineering wizardry that must have gone into it, and Geordi agrees that it’s “amazing” in a way that comes across as perfunctory and dismissive, then immediately redirects Scotty to continue spouting exposition. Likewise, the episode as a whole never really spares a moment from dealing with the immediate plot complications thrown at the Enterprise by the Dyson Sphere to reflect on the significance of this abandoned technological wonder, or the story behind it, or to otherwise make any meaning out of it. And as for Scotty: I’ve seen this episode criticized for how the regulars (mainly Geordi) behave toward him, and although I don’t think the criticisms are entirely fair, I don’t think they’re groundless, either. Like, Geordi’s impatience and irritation with Scotty make sense to me, but they would come across better if he also seemed a little more in awe of the old fellow, you know? Some nuance and inner conflict, I’m saying, would have done wonders here. Perhaps we’re meant to mostly inhabit Scotty’s perspective, and to feel his sense of slightedness at being dismissed by the young whippersnappers running this new-fangled Enterprise, and if so, that could partly explain some of this. But it mostly just feels like the episode can’t spare the time for some of this tone-setting stuff in its rush to convey story information—which is especially odd when you consider how relatively little story the episode actually offers up.

It’s an easy and entirely valid criticism to point out the weirdness of “Relics” having the Enterprise encounter an abandoned Dyson Sphere, constructed by an unknown civilization, and…doing basically nothing at all with this idea. On the other hand, one might argue thusly: If the show was going to go the route of foregrounding a character story while a more procedural plot is taking place in the background (a not uncommon structure for TNG from its third season onward), isn’t it better to have the background plot still revolve around something interesting (like a Dyson Sphere), as opposed to some of the lamer jeopardy/B-plot offerings that other episodes have served up (metal parasites; invisible pockets of “subspace distortion”; rogue radiation barges; etc.)? Honestly, I’m more than a little sympathetic to this line of thinking. I would prefer for the show to actually do something with the idea of the Dyson Sphere, rather than merely relying on it to generate some fairly routine plot complications—but it still makes a far more interesting backdrop against which to play out Scotty’s story than what some other episodes have offered. There is even, in fact, some fairly obvious thematic resonance between the two story threads (aptly captured by the episode’s title), even if the story doesn’t really do as much as I’d like to evoke or develop that resonance. However, what might be called the world-building implications of the discovery of the Dyson Sphere are completely ignored by the episode. Is the Federation going to study this thing at all? Surely there’s plenty to be learned from it; shouldn’t our Starfleet heroes be geeking out like crazy over that prospect? And what about the people who built it? Are they still “out there” somewhere? No one even speculates about these things. I mean, aren’t these guys supposed to be all about discovering “new life and new civilizations”? It’s weird, right? So, on one hand, I genuinely appreciate that “Relics” introduces a unique and interesting sci-fi element like this—but again, it feels like the episode is really only interested in one thing (Scotty’s arc), and thus blows past everything else that it introduces in order to focus all of its attention exclusively on that thing.

What saves the episode, of course, is the fact that that “one thing” is actually worth the time devoted to it. The mere fact of bringing an original series character to the show for an episode is almost inherently fun, and “Relics” milks Scotty’s visit to the 24th century for just the right amount of TOS nostalgia. But, crucially, it also does more than that: In contrast to the way that “Unification” poorly served Spock in season five, “Relics” actually has a character arc for Scotty, presenting him as a man out of time and confronting the specter of his own obsolescence. Part of the genius of this is in how it explicitly justifies, in-universe, the episode’s expected indulgence in nostalgia and “fan service”; we don’t get references to classic TOS moments, and a holodeck re-creation of the bridge of the original Enterprise, just because these things will please fans (though of course, that’s ultimately the motivation), but because this is actually how a self-pitying old legend displaced 75 years into the future and trying to fend off suspicions of his own uselessness would behave! And on a related note, I’ve sometimes seen the portrayal of Scotty here criticized as a caricature for things like his doubling-down on the old joke about exaggerating repair estimates to inflate his reputation…but to me, that critique overlooks the context informing the dialog. The point is, this isn’t the Scotty who was Jim Kirk’s trusted engineer, and a respected professional at the height of his career; it’s a “relic” of that man, who was already en route to retirement, then got suddenly displaced into a future in which his expertise is out of date. Throughout the episode, he tries out various responses to these circumstances (and the insecurities that they provoke), one of which involves playing up his own legend in an effort to impress the young engineer who has, in effect, taken his old place. Subsequent responses include wounded pride and self-righteous indignation, followed by depression and self-denigration, before events (and a deliberate olive branch extended by Geordi, at Picard’s prompting) remind him of his enduring ingenuity and inspire him to attempt to adapt gracefully, approaching his new circumstances (in classic Trek spirit) as merely the next chapter in the adventure of his life. (The fact that it’s Picard—the elder among TNG’s regulars—who most naturally empathizes with what Scotty is feeling, is also a nice touch.)

Not for nothing, too, the various references to Trek lore are well-chosen and just plain fun. After all, the exaggerated repair estimates/”miracle-worker” exchange from The Search for Spock is one of the most classically “Scotty” bits around, except perhaps for “I can’t change the laws of physics!” (which is of course also referenced here). Getting to see the bridge of NCC-1701 “no bloody A, B, C, or D” was obviously a treat, and the exchange between Scotty and Picard about their respective first ships/loves rings true to character for both. Sure, Data reenacting another classic Scotty moment with “It is green” isn’t actually believable (Data would not only be able to identify the liquor; he could even provide a detailed analysis of its chemical composition), but it’s a funny throwaway moment that’s totally worth it. And ending things off with a reference back to a prior TNG moment (Geordi relating to Scotty the story of weaning the space baby off of the Enterprise in “Galaxy’s Child”) was also a delightful touch. Not only is it the sort of story that it makes total sense for Geordi to tell Scotty now that the two of them are bonding, but it also calls back to a previous instance when Geordi initially butted heads with another engineer, only to eventually forge a bond through working together to resolve a crisis via engineering brilliance. Nifty.