You know, I had to laugh. No matter the justification offered, the whole idea of Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) having a saddle aboard the Enterprise just cracked me up. It reminded me of the time Captain Kirk had a suitcase in his stateroom on the Enterprise in the episode "This Side of Paradise". Of all things, why? When assigned to the Enterprise as Captain, did Picard say to himself, gee, maybe I should take my saddle in case we encounter a planet with horses. The idea is so absurd I'll remember it for a long time, just like the Captain Kirk episode, which by the way, also told a story of a planet with potentially lethal Berthold rays that could disintegrate living animal tissue. How's that for coincidence?
Anyway, now that I've stopped laughing, this was a pretty good episode detailing how Captain Picard could think on his feet to defeat a gang of mercenaries attempting to steal a quantity of dilithium from the ship's engineering section. With everyone on board the Enterprise evacuated because the ship was going to be swept to remove deadly accumulated baryon particles from years in space, the only ones left were the profiteers making their move before the cleansing routine was initiated. That is, until Picard beamed back up to get his saddle (sorry, I'm busting up again!). With help from the bridge crew safely distanced in space dock, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) set off a sonic burst that rendered the accomplices of the mercenaries unconscious while the Captain eliminated those aboard the ship one by one. Even though their leader Kelsey (Marie Marshall) got the drop on Jean-Luc and managed to escape with the dilithium, its instability caused the escape scout ship to explode, rendering the theft a futile exercise.
Counterbalancing the tension of Picard's situation, Commander Data (Brent Spiner) serves up a lot of humor in his effort to perfect small talk to fill in the gaps in conversation with those he comes across. His dialog with Commander Hutchinson (David Spielberg) in space dock is particularly amusing as they exchange trivial details about nothing at all of importance. It's surprising to see Data's facial expressions as he initially observes 'Hutch' boring the officer crew, knowing that he's unable to express emotion, but at least this one time you can overlook it.
By the way, Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is getting a little paunchy, isn't he?
Anyway, now that I've stopped laughing, this was a pretty good episode detailing how Captain Picard could think on his feet to defeat a gang of mercenaries attempting to steal a quantity of dilithium from the ship's engineering section. With everyone on board the Enterprise evacuated because the ship was going to be swept to remove deadly accumulated baryon particles from years in space, the only ones left were the profiteers making their move before the cleansing routine was initiated. That is, until Picard beamed back up to get his saddle (sorry, I'm busting up again!). With help from the bridge crew safely distanced in space dock, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) set off a sonic burst that rendered the accomplices of the mercenaries unconscious while the Captain eliminated those aboard the ship one by one. Even though their leader Kelsey (Marie Marshall) got the drop on Jean-Luc and managed to escape with the dilithium, its instability caused the escape scout ship to explode, rendering the theft a futile exercise.
Counterbalancing the tension of Picard's situation, Commander Data (Brent Spiner) serves up a lot of humor in his effort to perfect small talk to fill in the gaps in conversation with those he comes across. His dialog with Commander Hutchinson (David Spielberg) in space dock is particularly amusing as they exchange trivial details about nothing at all of importance. It's surprising to see Data's facial expressions as he initially observes 'Hutch' boring the officer crew, knowing that he's unable to express emotion, but at least this one time you can overlook it.
By the way, Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is getting a little paunchy, isn't he?