ST:TNG Season Three, Episode Twenty-Two "The Most Toys"

ST:TNG Season Three, Episode Twenty-Two "The Most Toys"
Production Order: 22
Air Order: 22
Stardate: 43872.2
Original Air Date: May 7, 1990

Picard's Log 43872.2: "The Federation colony on Beta Agni 2 is having a water supply contamination problem, and because we're not like the dick government of Flint, Michigan, we're going to do something about it immediately. To do this, we need to get a bunch of hytritium. It's hella unstable and can't go through the transporters, so we've sent Commander Data over to shuttle the chemicals back and forth between our ship and that of the trader, Kivas Fajo."

Data calls the E to say that they're loading the last shipment, and Picard then tells Worf to tell Beta Agni 2 that they'll be there in 16 hours, because water contamination should be taken care of as soon as fucking possible.

On the trader ship, the lady in charge asks Data to give a thumbprint saying that he received the shipment, and its rather a lot like when the UPS guy delivers something and asks for a digital signature, so good job for copying, UPS. I like it when real-life imitates Star Trek tech. Only when he pushes his thumb to the padd, it electrocutes him and he shuts down. That is not like UPS. Once he's down, the HBIC scans him and starts telling her little minion guys how much of each kind of material Data's frame contains.

The shuttle leaves the Jovis, the trader ship, and heads back to the E. The bridge monitors the transfer of the chemicals from their end, and everything is fine. But then the shuttle blows. Like completely. Everyone stares stunned.
"Data," says Worf.

Dramatic music! Opening credits break!

Picard's Log, supplemental: "We can't figure out what happened, but Data has been lost in a shuttle accident."

On the bridge, the crew has skipped straight to the manic anger stage of grief. They're trying to figure out what went wrong, but are angry AF.
Picard starts to bark that he wants to talk to the trader, Fajo, but Worf reports that Fajo is already calling.
Fajo goes up on the viewscreen, and there's something inherently asshole-ish about him. He asks, concerned, what happened, and when Picard barks back that he doesn't know, Fajo asks if Data made it.
"NO," says Picard angrily.
Fajo offers his condolences, and Picard requests the Jovis' sensor records.
"They're not great compared to yours," replies Fajo.
"Just fucking give them to me."
"Sure, no problem." Fajo snaps his fingers at someone off-screen, then makes a sort of "get it done" gesture, like douchebags make at waiters.
Worf reports that they got the records, and Picard asks how much hytritium they got.
"Like... just enough, but there won't be extra if there's a mistake," says Geordi.
"Where can we get more?" Picard demands of Fajo.
"Man, I dunno. I think they have some at (place) three weeks away. Pretty much nobody sells it anymore, because it's dangerous. I'll probably stop, too."
Picard sighs, thanks Fajo, and hangs up.

Because they can't afford the delay, they decide to go straight to Beta Agni. Riker tells Picard that there's a Federation ship near the hytritium site, and he'll let them know the E may need some help if they don't have enough of the chemical to clear the water. Picard is annoyed that they have to leave the place where Data was killed, but he still has to clean up that water supply, so they take off.

Meanwhile, Data wakes up in some weird room filled with vases and a cool couch. He's still in the same position - pressing his thumb to a padd that is no longer there - and I'm mostly finding myself asking how many of those minion dudes it took to move Data. He's not a light guy.
He's also missing his com badge.

Fajo and that HBIC, Varria, come in. Fajo is dancing around Data and can hardly contain himself.
"Why am I here?" asks Data normally.
Fajo starts talking to Data as though he's not only deaf, but also doesn't speak his language: loudly, with wild gestures, and simplified language. "It. Took. Great. Effort, effort. To bring you here."
"Okay, and why am I here?" Data repeats.
"For my enjoyment."
"So I'm a captive?"
Pretty much, yeah.
"That's such an inappropriate word," purrs Fajo.
It's really not.
"May I call you Data?"
"That is my name, asshole."
"You'll totally be catered to, and all of your wishes will be fulfilled."
So he's still your slave, but you're going to cover up for the abuse and captivity by pretending to spoil him. Sounds like Data just got himself a 1950's husband. Yaaaay.
"I can't stay here," Data points out. "Even if I wanted to, I'm still in Starfleet which means I just can't walk away."
"It's so polite!" Fajo gushes to Varria.
Bitches, we have been over this before: Data is not an it.

Realizing that Fajo is not going to relent and let him go, Data announces that he intends to escape. He tries to force the door, and Fajo reveals that it's designed to only accept certain DNA patterns as a key. Which means that if there's a fire and you're inside without that person, you will probably be fried to a crisp. Seems safe.
Next, he tries to force Fajo to open the door for him, but Fajo is wearing some kind of personal forcefield, and Data gets thrown across the room.
"Why do you want me so bad?" demands Data.
Fajo, it seems, is a collector: he collects rare stuff from across the galaxy, and he starts to show Data different stuff in the room. Art, vases, alien tech, a Roger Maris baseball card.
He opens the little case, and Data sniffs.
"The scent is bubble gum. I've had it preserved."
Fajo looks like he's about to cum at thoughts of himself and how clever he is.
I have to admit, I'm impressed by his archival efforts. Still an asshole, though.
He also shows Data this little animal that people think is extinct. He owns the last one, and instead of giving it to science to see if they can resurrect the species, he's keeping it for himself in a little glass case on his ship.
He shows Data a chair. "This is your place of honor. Sit there!"
"No thanks."
Fajo starts gushing to Varria how his frenemy is going to be super jealous because now he has Data. Figures. All these douchecanoes have are frenemies.

Data starts to point out what kinds of laws Fajo is breaking, and the trader admits that he knows exactly how evil he is, but he doesn't care.
"Get over it. I did."
Varria picks up a message and reports to Fajo that some group has gotten back to him about some spices he offered, and he's suddenly explosively pissed that he's being interrupted right the fuck now.
But he and Varria leave. On their way out, Varria turns and gives Data a "Lol, fuck you" smirk.

Wes and Geordi go to Data's quarters to look at his stuff and feel sad. I don't think they're actually doing anything like cleaning them out for a future crew member or anything like that, I think they're just wandering around in his space. They talk about his hobbies and who should get his personal effects. They take out the hologram of Tasha Yar and turn it on. They admire his medals from Starfleet.
"I just keep thinking about the accident," admits Geordi. "What did I miss?"

In the slave room, Data is examining some artifacts. Varria comes in with a set of clothes for him.
"Fajo says to wear this and sit in your chair," she commands.
"Yeah, no," he replies. "Sounds like Fajo has no moral qualms about any of this?"
"Fajo has no moral qualms, period. And he'll give you some really bad reasons to obey him."
"I don't need to," Data answers. "My friends will find me."
"They aren't even looking." She details how they scanned Data and added his component elements to the shuttle in the same amounts, so that scanning the debris will show them that Data is completely destroyed.
"Do you have moral qualms about this?" he asks.
She's pretty pissed at this. "Is it part of your programming to seek out vulnerabilities in your enemies?"
"Yes. Are you my enemy?"
She's annoyed, but tells Data that no one on the ship will help him escape, because they all obey Fajo. "His rewards for loyalty are lavish. His punishments are equally... lavish."
She touches her face in a way that makes clear that the weird make-up on her face is actually supposed to be scarring and reconstruction rather than to indicate that she's an alien. Or maybe she's an alien with a reconstructed face. I dunno. Either way, Fajo fucked her up, and she "learned her lesson."
Lovely.
And suddenly, she's back to being Head Bitch in Charge. "Face it, android. He has you."
She throws the clothes on the couch and storms out.
"Looks like he has us both," remarks Data.
She gives him a look before the door closes.

Geordi goes to the ready room to complain to Riker and Picard that he should be finding something weird going on with the shuttle accident, but can't find anything.
"It can't be pilot error, because, well, it's Data. If he were here, he'd tell us those astronomical odds."
Riker suggests that Geordi needs to get some sleep and come back at it with fresh eyes.
"The data from the sensors won't be different when I get up again," Geordi argues.
"Okay, look," says Picard. "You can keep going with your investigation, but we'll be at Beta Agni soon, and I'm gonna need you to be rested and ready to go on that when we get there. And I know how much we all need an explanation here, but if there isn't one, then we need to accept that."
Geordi nods, leaves the copy of Hamlet that Picard gave Data, and walks out of the ready room.
"You know," says Riker. "For an android with no feelings, guy sure seemed to bring them out in others."
"Yeah," agrees Picard quietly. "We need someone to replace Data at Ops."
"Worf," murmurs Riker.
"My thought, too," nods Picard.
Riker leaves, and Picard opens Hamlet to a place where Data was using a torn piece of ribbon as a bookmark.
"He was a man. Take him for all in all. I shall not look upon his like again."

Quietly dramatic music... commercial break.

I'm completely thrown off watching this scene because we're looking
at the corner that they usually film from.

On the Jovis, Data is feeding the lapling, the creature that Fajo wants everyone to think is extinct. Data is making this weird noise at the lapling, saying loo-loo-loo-loo in a monotone voice.
Fajo comes in, annoyed that Data is not wearing the outfit he provided. When Data protests that he is wearing his Starfleet uniform, Fajo snaps back that he is not in Starfleet anymore.
"Just change your programming," he says dismissively.
"Yeah, not possible," replies Data. "Anyway, I have pretty much no respect for anyone who harms anyone else."
"WTF kind of programming is that?" asks Fajo. "You're a militaristic pacifist? Who the hell thought it was a good idea to put you in Starfleet, anyway?"
"My skills were suited for it."
"Have you killed anyone?"
"No, but I'm programmed for that if need be, for defensive purposes."
"How can you participate in a murder?"
"Uh, I'm not. It wouldn't be murder if I had to defend myself to that point."
"Naw," says Fajo. "You're better off here. I'm not at war with anyone. We just travel the galaxy. I'm your liberator."
BITCH YOU THINK YOU OWN HIM. THAT IS NOT LIBERATION.

Sassy Data Moment: "You are a fine debater, sir. It is a shame that you have used your verbal skills for mere hucksterism and the advancement of your own greed."
Fajo starts to spin a tale of growing up rough on his planet, trying to get some pity out of Data, but it doesn't work. Data flat-out tells him that his past is no excuse for acting like a complete asshole now.
"Lol, it isn't even true," laughs Fajo. "My father was rich. He was a thief."
I'm shocked.
He tries again to get Data to put on the new clothes, and when Data refuses, he goes to the replicator and orders up a vial of some liquid, throwing it at Data's chest.
"You'll be fine," he assures Data, as holes begin melting in his uniform. "That won't actually harm your skin, just shred the uniform." He gets up to leave. "Decide which alternative you hate the least. Also, I invited someone to dinner tonight. I hope you'll be as entertaining with him as you have been with me."
Dick.

We get a short scene were Geordi is trying to sleep, but it's restless, and you know what he's dreaming about, because you can hear Data's voice giving out the perfunctory response before taking off in the shuttle.
He sits up. "I did miss something."

Worf is walking through the corridor when he walks past Troi talking to someone else. She finishes her convo and follows him, asking if it's his first shift at Ops. He reminds her that he's worked that station before, and she replies that she is worried about him.
"I would feel bad replacing Data, too," she says.
They get in the lift.
"Replacing a crew member who has died is commonplace on a Klingon ship," he points out.
"Yeah, but this isn't a Klingon ship. And this is the second time you've replaced someone who has died."
"I'm honoring Data like I honored Lt Yar," he says stoically. "By attempting to do their jobs as well as they did."
That's valid.
"In true Klingon fashion," she sighs.
Girl, don't be culturally insensitive.
The door opens.
"I appreciate your concern," he says quietly.

Down in Engineering, Geordi is playing some recordings for Wes. For the first two recordings, Data tells the E that the loading is complete, and the shuttle will be taking off now. Then he lets them know that he's cleared the shuttle bay doors of the Jovis.
"I don't hear anything weird," says Wes. "That stuff is all protocol."
"Exactly,"says Geordi. "Now listen to the last one."
Data tells the E that the loading is complete, and this will be the last load, and the shuttle is taking off now.
"That's the last thing he said," says Geordi.
"He didn't talk about clearing the doors," exclaims Wes.
"Yeah. And any other pilot, they might have skipped something. But not Data, because he doesn't get lax about protocol." Geordi is frustrated. "Maybe there was something wrong with the shuttle."
"Yeah, but he would have communicated that."
"So maybe there was something wrong with him.Wish I could talk to those people who last saw him alive."

Back in the collection room, Data has changed into the non-tattered clothes that Fajo has left him. He opens the baseball card case to smell the bubble gum, but when the doors whoosh open, he turns and faces it, standing stock still.
Fajo comes in with Varria and another dude.
Yikes.

Fajo and his frenemy are talking about some kind of sex idol, and Fajo tells the friend that he got taken, because the Ferengi add pearls to those things to up the price. The friend spies Data and chides Fajo for getting something new and not telling him. Fajo introduces him to Data as Palor Toff.
"It's a mannequin," says Toff of the rock-like Data.
"No, it's a famous android," insists Fajo. "Say something!" he yells at Data.
"I think you got taken," laughs Toff.
Frustrated, Fajo yells and pushes Data over. Data hits the edge of the couch, stiff as a board, and bounces off.
Sassy Guest Star Moment: "Well, he falls well!"
Toff takes Varria's arm and leads her out of the room, saying she's more fun than Fajo's new toy.
"You'll regret this," Fajo hisses at Data.
Fuck off, Fajo.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

The E has arrived at Beta Agni 2.
"Mr Data, scan the surface," says Picard automatically.
Everyone freezes.
"Um, sorry Mr Worf. I mean you."
Worf does his scan and reports that he found the source of the contamination. They ready a probe with hytritium, and Geordi calls from Engineering to say that he's pretty sure the amount they got from Fajo should be just enough. The probe is fired at the coordinates.
"Something's weird," says Worf. "Scans show too much contamination at the source for it to be naturally-occurring."
"Hey, Majel," says Picard, "has there been any geological activity on this planet lately?"
"Nope," replies Majel.
Picard sends Riker down to check on it with Crusher and Worf.

Data is in the slave-collection room trying to imitate the pose and facial expression of the Mona Lisa, which is hanging on the wall. It's both adorable and infuriating, because why does Fajo think he deserves a Leonardo? Or the Dali on the opposite wall? Fucker.

Fajo comes in and says that he'd like their relationship to change. He's being all diplomatic, but what he really wants is for Data to sit in the chair and talk to his visitors and comply. Fajo is what you become when you're Augustus Gloop as a kid. Nobody tells this guy no, so he asks why Data is so argumentative.
"I'm not gonna comply," Data says. "I'm just not."
Fajo opens a wall safe, telling Data that he's going to get him to change his mind. He pulls out a gun.
"This is a prototype for a Varon-T disruptor. They only made five, and I have four."
Geez, even when this guy is threatening someone, he still can't shut up about the shit he's got.
"That's banned in the Federation," Data points out.
"Yep. I sleep with one under my pillow. It's really hideous to be shot by one. It rips the body apart, inside-out. It's a very painful death, and I've always wanted to try it out."
"You're not shooting me," Data calls his bluff. "I'm too valuable."
"That's true," Fajo replies. He goes to the comm and calls someone to come inside.
It's Varria. He's gonna shoot Varria. But first he's gonna talk about how they've been together for 14 years, and how great those years were.
"I'm gonna miss you." He aims the disruptor at her and does this kiss-and-wink thing that's creepy.
"Fajo."
Fajo looks up. Data is sitting in the chair.

Worf, Riker and Crusher beam down to the water source on Beta Agni 2. It looks a lot like the set where Picard and Vash dug for the Tox Uthat, only painted blue.
They start their scans and decide that the chemical that is contaminating the water supply was manufactured rather than occurring naturally.
"The hell?" asks Crusher. "Who would poison the water supply on purpose with that stuff? It's hard to replicate and hard to transport, and would basically be a huge pain in the ass."
"Why would someone choose this?" asks Riker.
She shrugs. "Could look like a natural disaster. And it could only be treated with hytritium, which is hard to find. Maybe someone thought we wouldn't find any."
"How fucking convenient that Kivas Fajo had just enough at just the right time," says Riker disgustedly.

In the Obs Lounge, Riker tells Picard that he thinks Fajo poisoned the water supply.
"You think he did it to sell us hytritium?" asks Picard. "To make a profit?"
"No, he'd lose hella money making the other chemical," says Crusher.
"What does he want, then?" muses Picard. "Hey, Majel, we have biographical info on Kivas Fajo?"
"Sure," says Majel. "He's a trader who collects rare and valuable objects, like Starry Night by Van Gogh, and (other assorted cool shit)."
Dammit, why does this infected peen hole own so much awesome Terran art?
But everyone in the Obs Lounge has caught on that Fajo likes stuff. Stuff that no one else has.
"What if Data wasn't on the shuttle?" asks Geordi.
"Aw, hell naw!" says Picard, hitting his comm badge. "Wes, get us the fuck back to the site of the shuttle accident!"

Riker, Wes and Picard do some sleuthing to figure out how far Fajo might have gotten, or where he'd be. Wes thinks he might be hiding, but Picard reasons that, as a trader, he'd need to be easy to find. He also probably wouldn't be hiding from the E, as he doesn't know that they know that he might have Data.
"Put out the all-call to Federation colonies in those areas?" asks Riker.
"Make that shit so," nods Picard.

Data is in the slave room trying to open the wall safe when Varria comes in.
"If I show you how to escape, will you take me with you?" she asks.
"There are some bad consequences if we fail," he replies.
"Don't I know it." She inputs the right code into the wall safe and takes out the disruptor.
They leave the room.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

On the bridge, Worf tells Picard that they got a hit from their APB, and that Fajo spent half a day in orbit at a planet nearby, then left seven hours ago. Wes switches course to go to that planet. They'll easily overtake the Jovis because its top speed is warp three, and again, Fajo has no idea that he should be running or hiding.

In the shuttle bay of the Jovis, Varria tells Data that he can't communicate with the E, because Fajo has communication restricted to the bridge. She also tells him that once they open the shuttle bay doors, there will be an alarm, and they'll have to high-tail it out of there, especially because the escape pod they'll be taking will emit an emergency signal. He nods and gets in the pod. She opens the doors. The alarm goes off.
One of the minions scurries into the bay, but she aims the disruptor at him. He figures out quickly that it's not just a phaser, and holds his hands up in surrender. She's almost to the pod when the other minion grabs her from behind.
She drops the disruptor. The first minion closes the bay door. Data comes out of the pod and extracts Minion #2 from Varria, tossing him across the bay. Minion #1 also gets tossed. Varria runs for the controls to open the door again. Data gets back in the pod.

The door opens again, but this time it isn't minions. It's Fajo, here to remind everyone that he sleeps with a disruptor under his pillow. Varria looks at the disruptor she dropped, on the floor between herself and Fajo. She takes a running leap for it, but it's just out of her reach. For some reason, she doesn't crawl quickly enough for it, despite the fact that there doesn't seem to be anything holding her back. He forces her to stand up. She does so, despite the fact that that disruptor is mere inches from her fingers.
There's a kind of stand-off here, where Varria looks at him, and silently dares him to shoot her. He backs down, his eyes saying that he can't. Her expression is slightly triumphant. She holds the power. He starts to drop the disruptor to his side, but at the last moment pulls it up and shoots.
Data hears Varria screaming and runs to the door of the pod.
The disruptor beam appears to burn slowly through a person before burning them up quickly. Fajo is shaken by what he just did and watched, and throws the disruptor away from him.

Recovering slightly and gathering his moxy, he sort of half-smiles at Data.
"It's your fault. You knew the price and so did she. Oh, well. There's always another Varria."
YOU GASLIGHTING FUCK.
He walks away behind the escape pod. Data picks up the disruptor and follows him.
Fajo realizes that there is a disruptor pointed at his back, and turns. "You won't shoot me. You said you respected living beings, and I am one. Empty threat."
"You're gonna turn yourself in to the authorities."
"Yeah, no. You're not gonna do it. You're gonna sit in the chair and entertain me and my guests, or I'll kill someone else."
The minion on the floor stirs and starts to get up.
"Like him. I could kill him, and his blood would be on your hands, just like Varria."
Gaslighter gaslighter gaslighter gaslighter.
The minion runs away.

Fajo stupidly decides to taunt Data.
"See, your only choices here are to shoot me or get back in the chair. Entertain or murder. Too bad you can't feel rage over Varria's death, rage to fuel revenge. Then you could do it. But you're just an android and can't feel anything. It's just another intellectual curiosity to you."
Data ponders on that, then raises the disruptor again. "I cannot permit this to continue."
Fajo starts to panic, spouting off about how Data's program won't allow him to fire.
At the last moment, Data is beamed out of the cargo bay.

In the transporter room on the E, O'Brien is surprised to report to Riker that there's a weapon in transport with Data, and that it's been discharged.
"Don't worry, I deactivated it," says O'Brien.
Data is astonished to find himself on the E. He lowers the disruptor.
"You okay?" asks Riker.
"Yep," says Data. "Please have Kivas Fajo arrested for murder, theft, kidnapping..."
"We already alerted the authorities," says Riker.
Data hands him the weapon. "This is a Varon-T disruptor."
"Yeah, O'Brien said it was being discharged during transport."
Data considers this. "Huh, maybe something weird happened in the transporter."
He leaves the transporter room, leaving Riker and O'Brien to exchange a look.

Sometime later, Data goes to the brig, where Fajo is trapped in their fist cell.
"Did you come to gloat?" asks Fajo, manically. "Now the roles are reversed, with you as the collector, and me in a cage. You were in my collection once, I can have you there again."
"Not gonna happen," says Data. "The authorities have confiscated your collection, broken it up, and sent the stolen items back to their owners."
Fajo seems shaken and angry again. "Oh, yeah? That make you feel pretty good, huh?"
"No, sir," says Data. "I cannot feel pleasure. I am only an android."
And he drops the fucking mic and walks away.

*******

This is one of those episodes that I never remember. It's not that it's bad or particularly forgettable, I just never recall it. (A lot of season three is turning out that way, which is strange, because season three is actually pretty good. I think it's mostly that my favorite episodes are clustered in season five, so they tend to stand out more.) When I do recall this episode, I mostly recall visuals: Palor Toff and his weird gold ribbon accessory, and the fact that during his interaction with Fajo and Data, he picks that middle nostril; and Varria touching her face, which was the first confirmation that you get that her face was mutilated and rebuilt, rather than the actor just having alien make-up on. Or maybe she's an alien with a mutilated face. She is, but we have no idea what species she is. The point is, you can't really do a mutilated alien face on a sci-fi series where the audience doesn't know what the original species is supposed to look like. It doesn't read clearly.

So this episode offers a strange outside-world dilemma: people outside of Starfleet are aware of Data, the Soong-type android, but are possibly not aware of his rights. Fajo and Varria refer to data as "it," which stopped in Starfleet during season two. If you were in Starfleet and still used that term when talking about Data, you were a robophobic asshole. In "Measure of a Man" Data's rights as a sentient being with the freedom to choose his own path were established, as well as the fact that Starfleet did not own him. It's possible that Fajo, not being a member of Starfleet, was unaware of this. Does this make him less evil? Not even remotely. It does mean that he might have thought that he was stealing an object from Starfleet rather than kidnapping a person, and also that he didn't realizing that he was engaging in slavery. Maybe he was surprised to hear that the charges against him included human trafficking, but as any lawyer will tell you, not being aware of the law doesn't mean you're immune to the consequences if you get caught breaking it.

This was a pretty solid episode. Not a lot of sci-fi elements, as the sabotage of the water included science elements, but could have been written for a non-sci-fi show just as easily. The acting for Fajo and Varria were both pretty good, and Brent Spiner did a nice job conveying Data's inner conflict about shooting Fajo, and in the end, that's kind of what the whole episode was about - Data's inner turmoil about whether or not to kill someone.

The thing that ultimately trips me up about this episode is Fajo's kidnapping plot. They traveled out a ways to Beta Agni, took the time and resources to replicate a chemical that's hard to work with, traveled back to another part of space, and waited for the colonists at Beta Agni to report to the Federation that the water was contaminated. So far, so good. Then he had to have hytritium, just a little more than the E would need to fix the water supply, and be just far enough away from another supply of it that it would not be worth the E's time to fly out there to get more. There are two wild cards in this plan: 

A) that the E would be assigned to this job, or be near enough and not have a job at the time (or have an unimportant job) so that they could drop what they were doing to take care of the water supply situation.

B) that the Enterprise would send Data as their shuttle pilot.

If neither of these conditions were met, then Fajo would be screwed. He would not have another chance himself to get that close to data, and would have had to acquire him a different way, as too many interactions with the E would have seemed suspect.

Unknown is how the Enterprise knew to contact him about the hytritium. Did he let them know that he had some to sell, not too long after they went looking for it? "Hey, guys. Heard you were looking for this stuff I have to sell"? Seems more likely that he approached up other traders and bought it off them so that he could be the only trader in the area to have it. Otherwise, it seems too open to chance. The whole plan seems kind of shaky where it counts, so I'm deducting points.

Fun Facts:

- The title for this episode comes from the phrase "he who dies with the most toys, wins," concerning greedy people. I kind of wish now that Fajo had collected at least one memento mori painting, for the lovely irony it would have brought.
- David Rappaport was initially cast as Fajo, but attempted suicide a few days into filming. It was decided that they could not continue with him in the role, and they cast Saul Rubinek instead. The scenes featuring Rappaport were re-filmed with Rubinek, even though promotional photos of Rappaport as Fajo had already gone out. Sadly, Rappaport's depression did not get better, and his next attempt at suicide was successful a few months later.

- Director Timothy Bond had initially thought up some interesting ways in which to film Fajo's scenes, as he was supposed to come off as intimidating, but Rappaport was very small. His favorite idea was to film in a set where the ceilings were all very short, making most people duck. But the show runners wouldn't let him do it, which is fortunate, as it would have been difficult to film, especially after the actors were changed.
- Saul Rubinek typically did not do guest spots on television, but he was a Trek fan, and old friends with Timothy Bond. He asked to see the sets while he was in town for a few days, and Bond talked him into taking the role of Fajo.
- There was a scene in the final script which would have had Fajo sending Varria to Data to test his sexual abilities, but when data learns of this, he sends a humiliated Varria away, fueling her need to escape. This scene dd not make the final episode.
- The scenes filmed with David Rappaport can be seen as extras on the season three Blu-ray set.
- Writer Shari Goodman asked Brent Spiner if he thought Data had shot the weapon that would have killed Fajo. Spiner said yes, and Goodman agreed. She wished it had been less ambiguous. Supposedly, the original ending was clearer on that matter, that Data had meant to shoot Fajo, but the higher-ups wanted it to be murky. Director Timothy Bond loved that it was left unknown.
- We'll see Palor Toff's outfit in later episodes: his robes will be seen on someone else next season, and the gold "ribbon" will be used as a sculpture in season six.
- The shuttle craft in this episode is named Pike for Captain Christopher Pike from TOS.
- Michael Piller began collecting baseball cards after this episode.
- Fajo is a Zibalian, but Saul Rubinek flubs a line and refers to Fajo's home planet as Zimbalia.
- The Dali painting in Fajo's collection ("Persistence of Memory") was painted by Elaine Sokoloff. Sokoloff was a graphic and scenic painter for the show, and did all of the paintings in Picard's art class in "A Matter of Perspective."

Red deaths: 0
To date: 1

Gold deaths: 0
To date: 1

Blue deaths: 0
To date: 1
Unnamed color crew deaths: 0
To date: 127

Obnoxious Wes moments: 0
To date: 1

Legitimate Wes moments when he should have told someone to go fuck themselves: 0
To date: 0

Sassy Geordi moments: 0
To date: 11

Sassy Wes Moments: 0
To date: 0

Sassy Worf Moment: 0
To date: 7

Sassy Riker Moments: 0
To date: 13

Sassy Picard Moments: 0
To date: 11

Sassy NPC Moments: 0
To date: 0
Sassy Data Moments: 1
To date: 6
Sassy O'Brien Moments: 0
To date: 0
Sassy Crusher Moments: 0
To date: 2
Sassy Troi Moments: 0
To date: 5
Sassy Guest Star Moments: 1
To date: 1

Number of times that it is mentioned that Data is an android: 6
To date: 28

Number of times that Troi reacts to someone else's feelings: 0
To date: 25

Number of times that Geordi "looks at something" with his VISOR: 0
To date: 5
Number of times when Data gives too much info and has to be told to shut up: 0
To date: 3
Picard Maneuvers: 2
To date: 31
Tea, Earl Grey: 0
To date: 4

Lovely dilute calico Gretle