Star Trek 241: A Fistful of Datas

241. A Fistful of Datas

FORMULA: Elementary, Dear Data + Spectre of the Gun

WHY WE LIKE IT: When the comedy works, it really does work.

WHY WE DON'T: Klingon cowboys... it's a little too silly.

REVIEW: Patrick Stewart only directs Data-heavy episodes, it seems (previous ones include In Theory and Hero Worship), but this is more of a Worf story anyway. Worf as a Old West sheriff (I'm sorry, I can't bring myself to call it the Ancient West) with Alexander as his deputy and Troi as the mysterious stranger. Troi? Aside from reinforcing these three characters as a kind of family, what is she doing here? Well, that's what happens when you forget to give a character any real interests - she just gets shoehorned into any damn thing. So she likes westerns. Hey, it's about as convincing as Picard's obsession with Dixon Hill. Or Geordi's second attempt at a beard (eeech, I hope it doesn't last long this time either).

So you're expecting two things: A holodeck malfunction and a comedy episode. And you get both. The tone is set from the beginning as everyone interrupts Picard's music study (yay! the Ressikan flute!). Well-timed and funny, especially the section where Crusher offers Picard a bit part in her play. Hearing Patrick Stewart utter the words "I'm not much of an actor" is hilarious. We later get to see Spot act like a cat and jump on Data's workspace, a return appearance for Ode to Spot, and Brent Spiner putting on his best hayseed accent.

The holodeck malfunction plot, with its ever-increasing number of android outlaws, also plays more to comedy than drama, with the usual fish-out-of-water scenes you'd imagine as Worf stumbles his way around the genre clichés in his funny hat. Once again, Alexander traipses around a program inappropriate for a child, full of violence, prostitutes, and Troi smoking a doobie! There are good production values with a wide western set, but the empty streets remind us this is made on a tv budget. In the end, Worf jury rigs a personal forcefield from a telegraph and a combadge... Hey, it's in the spirit of things (the power of stone knives and bear skins again).

A note on the ending (pictured above): That's one beautiful and unexpected shot of the Enterprise flying into the sunset, which certainly redeems the slow epilogue. I'd totally forgotten it. Great ending.

LESSON: In the 24th-century, everything will be compatible with everything. It's the technological equivalent of IDIC.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium: I find that comedy can work in Star Trek when it comes from the characters and isn't too over the top. A good example is Picard's flute scene. Data in drag, however, falls a little short of my exacting standards.