268. Force of NatureFORMULA: -1(Where No One Has Gone Before) + Booby Trap
WHY WE LIKE IT: Spot shows Geordi who's boss.
WHY WE DON'T: Putting a speed limit on the Enterprise is just WRONG!
REVIEW: Absolutely dreadful. Though I understand the wish to make a Star Trek parable about global warming, how about you do it by screwing over some planet, not screwing over THE SHOW'S PREMISE!!! Star Trek is about exploration, brave new worlds, etc. etc. Putting the Enterprise (and all Star Trek ships) on a speed limit of Warp 5 goes against the very core of the show. And you just know they're gonna be finding excuses around the limit every chance they get!
But given a worthy script, it might have been forgivable. You can't even look to the B-plot for succor, a nail-biting thriller about Data's attempts to train Spot not to jump on his console. 10 minutes in, the only thing that had happened was that Geordi had convinced Data to train his cat, and the two of them aligned a conduit. That's it. Then the nondescript guest stars arrive and let us know that warp travel is eroding spacetime and causing climate changes on their nearby planet. That doesn't mean we're out of the longueurs, don't worry.
At least the cat training exercises made SENSE. Here's what doesn't: Dr. Serova (the sister) can't prove her theory that spacetime erosion will cause a subspace rift which will fatally iradiate her planet, right? Ok, she'll prove it to you. She commits suicide by blowing up a warp core in the eroded area, causing a subspace rift... which will now fatally irradiate her planet. It's like tipping over a truck carrying radioactive waste in your own neighborhood, to prove you're justified in worrying that it might happen. It is IDIOTIC!
Spot's subplot never pays off, and the cat is suddenly female as of this episode (doesn't seem like Data to incorrectly attribute her gender, does it?) and there's a hint of something in Geordi's rivalry with the Intrepid's engineer, but they miss an opportunity to make them fight over who's got the more spacetime-friendly engine now.
LESSON: Pollution BAD!
REWATCHABILITY - Low: Badly structured, wrong-headed and boring, Force of Nature would definitely make my Worst 5 of TNG.
Comments
*I feel the same way about most episodes of "Masters of Horror." Can't we have a horror anthology that's just scary without it being a thinly-veiled allegory on everything people dislike about the Bush Administration? I'm not even a Bush supporter... heck, I can't stand the corrupt, churchy bastard! But sermonizing and horror just doesn't mix.
In Trek terms, Picard's "there will be repurcutions for years to come" is hilarious. More accurately he'd say "there will be a brief mention when we're looking for the Pegasus, and then Voyager will have moving pylons and things will all be fine somehow".