240. RascalsFORMULA: The Counter-Clock Incident + Ménage à Troi + Doogie Howser, M.D.
WHY WE LIKE IT: The kids do a reasonable job imitating the adults they play.
WHY WE DON'T: The Enterprise pwned by a handful of stupid Ferengi.
REVIEW: Of course the premise is ridiculous, but Trek seems to be on high-concept mode since the start of the season. In Rascals, Picard and three members of the supporting cast are turned into children by a transporter accident. Why the supporting cast? Casting reasons (didn't find kids that matched the main cast)? Plot reasons (Guinan and Ro are a good pair, and Keiko complicates things for O'Brien, who is also in the supporting cast)? In any case, suspension of disbelief hinges almost entirely on the child actors' performances. So how did they do?
Surprisingly well, actually. David Birkin, who played Picard's nephew René in Family, has Picard's mannerisms and diction down quite well, though it usually sounds like his voice has been looped back in (working each line so it would sound like Pat Stewart delivery?). The other kids are less interesting, though they're all "in character". Lil' Ro and Lil' Guinan arre good together, and Lil' Keiko, while not as panicked as you'd expect her to be, causes a really awkward scene with Miles. It's a testament to the character that it never gets too creepy. And since it's a kid show, Molly gets her first line (hey, she's cute and effective), and Alexander shows up too.
While it's interesting to see how these characters deal with their new-found youth (Picard's plans, Ro who never had a childhood, Keiko's little girl not recognizing her), there has to be a plot. Unfortunately, it's a Ferengi plot. Well, who else could be beaten by a handful of kids? What's unfortunate here isn't that they would be defeated by children (who, in fact, are adults), but that the Enterprise does so poorly against them. The ship fires a single shot, gets totally owned by a couple of rusty birds-of-prey, boarded by a handful of Ferengi... who can apparently dodge phaser fire! This is not a good episode for Worf. This puts the kids in a situation which could usually never have occurred.
At least Riker is on the ball, confusing the Ferengi with technobabble and making like he's Picard's Number One Dad (second time he's had a son called Jean-Luc). The badge-tag ploy is a good one too. It's just too bad the Ferengi are played as so stupid. This, by the way, was Ro's last episode until the very end of the 7th season and she's never shown growing back up. Had Preemptive Strike not occurred, it would have been reasonable for fans to conclude she decided not to return to adulthood right away. Intriguing, sure, but since this was one of my favorite characters, I'm sorry she won't be part of the series anymore, and that even here, we get so little of Michelle Forbes.
LESSON: Some Ferengi are interested in toys even when not in the original packaging.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Amusing enough and it does have something to say about the characters it uses, but the clownish Ferengi are starting to look like a dark stain on all of Trek.
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