This is another of those relatively rare “fun, but not deep” TNG episodes—a description (not necessarily in those exact words) that I also applied to both “Power Play” (three stars) and “Cause and Effect” (four stars) from season five. Quality-wise, “Starship Mine” splits the difference between those two previous offerings pretty evenly…and, accordingly, it feels right on the line between three and four stars. I’ve gone with three because, upon perusing the episodes to which I’ve thus far awarded four stars, I felt that all of them were clearly superior to this one. Still, this is a solidly good episode that, while not clearly better than all the other three-star ones, certainly counts among the cream of the three-star crop. Like the other two episodes that I mentioned above, “Starship Mine” has a fun, engaging plot—not as audaciously high-concept as that of “Cause and Effect,” but more original and ultimately better-constructed than that of “Power Play.” Also, while it lacks thematic heft or meaty character development, it does have plenty of charming little character moments. It’s not everything that I want Trek at its best to be, but as a single episode, it is thoroughly enjoyable.
One thing to get out of the way before proceeding with this review: Everyone and their brother likes to describe this episode as “Die Hard in space,” and regardless of whether they like or dislike the episode, most commentators follow this up by asserting that it’s a pale imitation of the movie. So, look: I don’t know that I’ve actually seen Die Hard (cue gasps of shock and horror). I’ve perhaps seen parts of it. I’m reliably informed that it’s an enjoyable movie, and I suspect that I would enjoy it if I saw it, so nothing that I say here should be construed as a dig on it—but straight-up action movies aren’t really in my wheelhouse, so to speak. On top of that, the other Trek installment that often gets compared to Die Hard is the movie First Contact, which—well, never mind that for now (I’ll get to that review eventually). Anyway, my point is that for me, and regardless of the quality of Die Hard as its own thing, comparing a Trek installment to it doesn’t hit my ears as a compliment to the Trek story in question. So, do I imagine (even without having actually seen the movie) that the “action” in “Starship Mine” in any way rivals what Die Hard has to offer? Of course not. But, do I necessarily see that as a significant strike against “Starship MIne”? Also no! Many have opined that Picard doesn’t really “work” as an action hero character, and for the most part, I agree; that’s not who he is. But what makes him fun to watch in this episode is precisely the contrast between his normal mode of operation and the role that he is forced to play here. This is not his strong suit—and yet, given that he’s on “home turf,” as well as knowing everything that we know about him and his past, what he accomplishes against a group of armed mercenaries is completely believable. (It also underlines the fact that Jean-Luc Picard normally defaults to intellectual pursuits and diplomatic resolutions not simply because he’s a slouch in other areas, but rather as a matter of preference.)
Broadly, then: The baryon sweep as a “ticking clock,” physically constraining obstacle, and tension-generating element is a great concept, and Picard being alone on the ship (with no one knowing he’s there), stumbling into the villains and their plot, and having to act to thwart them and escape alive: all of this makes for a fantastic setup. Moreover, the entire first half to two-thirds or so of the episode is very, very good, and a joy to watch. There’s lots of great tone-setting, and all the lighter character stuff totally elevates the episode out of the realm of a “mere” action thriller, and the initial plot developments are all reasonably logical and satisfying. For me, though, the latter portion of the episode kind of drops many of its balls, becoming something a lot more disappointingly routine. To fully elaborate on both parts of this assessment, I would like to discuss selected bits of the episode in some detail.
To begin with, the teaser is just really, really good from start to finish. We open on Picard striding along a corridor and being inundated with a series of people coming at him with various urgent problems, each of which he manages to resolve on the fly; then he enters a turbolift with Data and there is suddenly a calm, punctuated by an energy from our favorite android that is totally opposite to what everyone else has been coming at the captain with, as we see Data trying out his new “small talk” subroutine. Picard is mistaken, I think, when he tells Data that his remarks are “a little too ‘non-relevant'”; that’s not why they come off so awkwardly. The real reasons are partly the stark contrast from the brief exchanges he has just had with three other people, but mostly that the “non-relevant” remarks are disconcerting coming from Data. (Besides being unexpected from him, there’s also the issue that he has no idea how to deliver such remarks; no change in demeanor, no exhausted sigh, no sense of irony, etc.) This, of course, is also what makes the exchange amusing to the audience. Then, when Picard tells him to pay attention to Commander Hutchinson at the reception that will be happening later, it’s a nicely subtle way to establish Picard’s mild dread of said reception, while also letting him show a flash of good humor about the situation (his little grin of anticipation at what he has just set in motion). Moments later, the whole three-way exchange that begins with Worf asking to be excused from the same reception is pure gold: Geordi’s desperation gambit to jump on the bandwagon and avail himself of the opportunity that Wof has just revealed exists; Picard having none of it, but following his initial no-nonsense denial with the zinger “Mr. Worf beat you to it”; and most of all, the smug little “triumphant warrior” look that Worf shoots Geordi upon besting the poor engineer (so expressive of everything about who Worf is—a kinder, gentler man than he once was, very much adapted to life among humans, yet still driven by a warrior’s urge to defeat rivals). More generally, the whole air of rushed, last-minute business being dealt with in preparation for the baryon sweep is just good tone-setting and general plot setup. Then we get another abrupt transition from hectic to calm as the captain pauses for a little moment alone on the deserted bridge before leaving the ship…cut short by the intrusion of the technicians (actually the villains), who stride in without noticing him, enmeshed in their own work and suddenly making the space that he was just sentimentally cherishing feel “not his” (in a small hint of foreshadowing). This is all just great, great stuff.
Down planetside, once we meet Commander Hutchinson, he doesn’t disappoint—and Data is hilarious, first practice-mimicking him from behind a pillar and then approaching Riker and Crusher to “try out his material.” To them, of course, it comes off as mockery of the poor commander, which is most of why they find it funny…but to the audience, it’s all the funnier because we know that isn’t Data’s intent at all. Next, our introverted captain endures only a few moments of conversation with “Hutch” before seizing upon the first excuse that prevents itself and totally bailing on the whole reception—right in the face of Geordi, too, whom of course he has already denied permission to skip the social event. He and Troi see right through the captain, of course, and the whole running gag about how “any serious rider would have his own saddle” is fun. Finally, Riker brings the Data small-talk thing to a head by actually introducing the android to “Hutch,” who for his part never seems to glom onto how everyone else reacts to him (or to perceive Data’s demeanor as affected or unusual in any way). When Riker says that he’s “not sure which one to feel sorry for,” though, it seems to me that the answer is obviously Hutch; Data is perfectly happy, while Hutch is the butt of a joke that he never even becomes aware of!
Okay, so, the plot kicks into gear. Getting the captain back onto the (mostly) deserted ship and out of uniform, and having him stumble upon something that’s not quite right, is great—and then, after incapacitating the guy who isn’t Tuvok (oops; did I just acknowledge that Voyager exists?), his little race to get himself off the ship before the power automatically cuts out, and even as we see the baryon sweep starting up, is wonderfully tense and worrying (one ticking clock starting just as another is running out). Then he gets caught, but has the presence of mind to keep his identity a secret, and his little bumbling everyman performance as Mot the barber is yet another delight. So, thus far, it feels like the whole episode is operating on full thrusters, as it were. The next several plot developments aboard the ship, too, are reasonable enough; the captain disables the field diverter that the villains are using to enable them to safely remain in engineering during the sweep, then makes good his escape and heads off into the ship. Darkly, he arranges a situation in which his pursuer ends up caught in the lethal baryon sweep; cleverly, he then goes to Worf’s quarters to put his hands on weaponry that will function when phasers won’t. So far, so good.
Honestly, though, I feel like things go downhill quite a bit around this point. For one thing, down on the planet, the highly entertaining light comic subplot is brought to a screeching halt by the aliens who run the station pulling out guns and taking everyone prisoner….and what follows is mostly a boringly routine standoff-resolved-by-Starfleet-ingenuity scenario that doesn’t strike me as really serving much of a narrative purpose (though admittedly, Riker’s distraction-punch of Orton is a funny moment). Meanwhile, on the ship, the lead mercenary (Kelsey) reacts to an obstacle left in her path by the captain by…calling him up to chat with him? Why would she do this? Thereafter, the action kind of devolves into a random exchange of Picard and the villains alternately getting the drop on each other, before ending up in a climactic fist-fight (but not before Kelsey randomly kills her own tech lackey because…why? Just to underline that she’s a villain, so it’s okay if Picard ends up killing her?). I would have preferred for Picard to have come up with some more clever and interesting way of defeating the bad guys. On top of that, he actually loses the fist-fight. Sure, he manages to covertly remove the safety device from the container with the stolen trilithium resin, thereby ensuring that Kelsey will not get away with the goods. But he himself would still have met his end in the baryon sweep at about the same time, if not for a last-minute rescue by Data due to the resolution of the planetside standoff subplot. One is left wondering: If Picard hadn’t gone back for his saddle and thus hadn’t discovered the plot and worked to thwart it, would Data have still managed to stop the villains from getting away in the end? Riker did order him to stop the ship from leaving, and although it’s by no means clear that he had any ability to do so, they both appear to regard the idea as non-ridiculous. So, in short, I don’t feel that the end of the episode really works. I think I would have preferred for Picard to successfully thwart the villains and escape on his own, while, down on the planet, the reception proceeded uninterrupted (as a comic counterpoint to the PIcard storyline), and the rest of the characters remained oblivious to any danger or problem. There would have needed to be some reason why Picard couldn’t communicate with the station, of course (on which subject—we don’t actually see him even try to do so until the very end, which is odd), but with some clever plotting, I feel like this would have made for a much more satisfying (and probably four-star) episode overall.
My favorite commenter on Jammer’s site, William B, thinks that the thematic arc of the episode involves Picard moving from his initial, very Starfleet, non-lethal measures against the villains, to eventually using lethal force in order to prevent the resin from falling into dangerous hands. I can see that this is basically present in the episode, but I don’t think it really does much for it in terms of adding depth or meaning. I mean, what are we intended to take away from it, exactly? There’s no emotional follow-through for Picard, no reflection on the irony of using violence to prevent violence or where the line is between lethal measures being acceptable or not, etc. He kills people, yes—but is it really so different from other things that he’s had to do in his role as a starship captain? Phasers and photon torpedoes are not exactly gentle nudges, after all…and this is the guy who was on the verge of a decision that might (as far as he knew) have wiped out the entire Borg collective near the end of the previous season. But, I mean, that’s fine; I don’t insist the the episode absolutely needed greater depth or a larger theme. It was a plot thriller with a contrasting subplot full of fun character bits; what it needed was a more satisfying resolution to both of those elements.
On the plus side, the final scene (with Worf finding the captain’s saddle, and the recurrence of the “any serious rider” bit…and yes, even the corny rhyme joke) is good for a laugh.