Picard ends up stranded aboard the Enterprise as a team of bandits attempts to steal a toxic waste product to be sold and used as a weapon for terrorists. It's up to Picard to thwart them and save the day.
This episode uses some rather convoluted plot devices (and some glaring plot holes) to try and recreate a Die Hard-type scenario for Picard. The end result is fun but terribly flawed episode.
Picard as the action hero is great and his ventures as he McClanes his way through the Enterprise and eliminates the bad guys one-by-one are very fun to watch. He uses his superior knowledge of the ship an impressive amount of ingenuity to out-smart and out-maneuver the unwitting bandits. Probably his best move of all is telling them he is the barber, causing them to drastically underestimate him for the first half of the episode.
Tim Russ shows up as the first of three Star Trek characters he will end up playing. He would later play a small part in Generations as a tactical officer aboard the Enterprise B, before landing his most well- known role as Tuvok on Voyager. While he great as Tuvok (easily the best and probably only good thing about Voyager), here he is entirely unremarkable, doing little and getting taken out early by Picard.
The episode easily could have been a 9 or 10 if it weren't for the serious flaws in the writing. As I have re-watched the entire series, I notice that TNG has a serious problem with getting the bigger elements right but messing up on the details. This episode really exemplifies that, as explained below.
Overall, though, this is still a fun and enjoyable episode in spite of its flaws.
THE GOOD-
-Picard as John McClane, using his guile to outsmart the baddies. You almost feel bad for them because he is such a BA in this episode and you know they have no chance against him. And anybody who says Picard never wins a physical fight needs to see his slick takedown of Tim Russ' character. Of course he then proceeds to get beat up by a skinny woman later on. Ah well.
-Picard pretending to be Mott, the barber. He's actually convincing as a helpless and scared civilian and it's fun to watch how completely they buy his story.
-When Worf is given permission to not attend the reception but Geordi isn't. The smirk on Worf's face makes me laugh every time.
THE BAD
-Plot holes galore!
-Picard has his comm badge but never tries to contact anybody. The baryon sweep obviously doesn't impede communication since the bandits are able to still communicate.
-Picard's leisurely pace as he is trying to leave the Enterprise always annoys the heck out of me. He knows how little time is left and yet he barely hurries. When he tries to beam off and the transporter shuts down I find myself saying out loud, "Well what did you THINK would happen, Picard?!"
-The guys who take the senior staff hostage on the planet are impossibly incompetent. They sit there and watch and listen as the crew makes plans to stop them and they never try to interfere.
-What is the bandits' plan? Why wouldn't their ship come and get them as soon as they have the Trilithium? Why wait until the sweep is nearly completed? And were they planning on just leaving the hostage-takers on the planet?
THE UGLY
-Trilithium in the episode is apparently something completely different from Trilithium in Generations. I suppose that technically that is a problem with the latter and not the former, but it is still annoying.
-What happens to Commander Hutchinson? He gets shot and then isn't seen for the rest of the episode.
-Tim Russ. It's nice to see him here, but it is somewhat insulting to the viewers to have the same actor play three different characters, each with virtually no makeup, as if we wouldn't notice or care.
-Laforge says that the field diverter in engineering was necessary to protect sensitive equipment there. Since Picard destroyed it, was that equipment also destroyed?
-I don't like it when non-Vulcans use the nerve pinch. Supposedly there is a mental component to the nerve pinch, since the Vulcans have some telepathic powers, but having Data and Picard both do it in TNG (Data does it in Unification) goes against that idea.
-Do the bandits' weapons even work? They never fire them. Would explain why they don't just kill or stun Picard when they have the chance. It makes no sense for them to drag him along with them and give him more opportunities to mess up their plans. But if the weapons don't work then why have them?
-Picard is very destructive in this episode. He kills at least 7 people (maybe more, depending on how many are on the ship), cuts up multiple jeffries tubes, wrecks engineering, sets off an explosive in ten-for, and destroys the bandit ship. He also raids Worf's quarters for weapons.
This episode uses some rather convoluted plot devices (and some glaring plot holes) to try and recreate a Die Hard-type scenario for Picard. The end result is fun but terribly flawed episode.
Picard as the action hero is great and his ventures as he McClanes his way through the Enterprise and eliminates the bad guys one-by-one are very fun to watch. He uses his superior knowledge of the ship an impressive amount of ingenuity to out-smart and out-maneuver the unwitting bandits. Probably his best move of all is telling them he is the barber, causing them to drastically underestimate him for the first half of the episode.
Tim Russ shows up as the first of three Star Trek characters he will end up playing. He would later play a small part in Generations as a tactical officer aboard the Enterprise B, before landing his most well- known role as Tuvok on Voyager. While he great as Tuvok (easily the best and probably only good thing about Voyager), here he is entirely unremarkable, doing little and getting taken out early by Picard.
The episode easily could have been a 9 or 10 if it weren't for the serious flaws in the writing. As I have re-watched the entire series, I notice that TNG has a serious problem with getting the bigger elements right but messing up on the details. This episode really exemplifies that, as explained below.
Overall, though, this is still a fun and enjoyable episode in spite of its flaws.
THE GOOD-
-Picard as John McClane, using his guile to outsmart the baddies. You almost feel bad for them because he is such a BA in this episode and you know they have no chance against him. And anybody who says Picard never wins a physical fight needs to see his slick takedown of Tim Russ' character. Of course he then proceeds to get beat up by a skinny woman later on. Ah well.
-Picard pretending to be Mott, the barber. He's actually convincing as a helpless and scared civilian and it's fun to watch how completely they buy his story.
-When Worf is given permission to not attend the reception but Geordi isn't. The smirk on Worf's face makes me laugh every time.
THE BAD
-Plot holes galore!
-Picard has his comm badge but never tries to contact anybody. The baryon sweep obviously doesn't impede communication since the bandits are able to still communicate.
-Picard's leisurely pace as he is trying to leave the Enterprise always annoys the heck out of me. He knows how little time is left and yet he barely hurries. When he tries to beam off and the transporter shuts down I find myself saying out loud, "Well what did you THINK would happen, Picard?!"
-The guys who take the senior staff hostage on the planet are impossibly incompetent. They sit there and watch and listen as the crew makes plans to stop them and they never try to interfere.
-What is the bandits' plan? Why wouldn't their ship come and get them as soon as they have the Trilithium? Why wait until the sweep is nearly completed? And were they planning on just leaving the hostage-takers on the planet?
THE UGLY
-Trilithium in the episode is apparently something completely different from Trilithium in Generations. I suppose that technically that is a problem with the latter and not the former, but it is still annoying.
-What happens to Commander Hutchinson? He gets shot and then isn't seen for the rest of the episode.
-Tim Russ. It's nice to see him here, but it is somewhat insulting to the viewers to have the same actor play three different characters, each with virtually no makeup, as if we wouldn't notice or care.
-Laforge says that the field diverter in engineering was necessary to protect sensitive equipment there. Since Picard destroyed it, was that equipment also destroyed?
-I don't like it when non-Vulcans use the nerve pinch. Supposedly there is a mental component to the nerve pinch, since the Vulcans have some telepathic powers, but having Data and Picard both do it in TNG (Data does it in Unification) goes against that idea.
-Do the bandits' weapons even work? They never fire them. Would explain why they don't just kill or stun Picard when they have the chance. It makes no sense for them to drag him along with them and give him more opportunities to mess up their plans. But if the weapons don't work then why have them?
-Picard is very destructive in this episode. He kills at least 7 people (maybe more, depending on how many are on the ship), cuts up multiple jeffries tubes, wrecks engineering, sets off an explosive in ten-for, and destroys the bandit ship. He also raids Worf's quarters for weapons.