ST:TNG Season Four, Episode Fifteen "First Contact"

ST:TNG Season Four, Episode Fifteen "First Contact"
Production Order: 15
Air Order: 15
Stardate: Unknown
Original Air Date: February 18, 1991

Last week can go fuck itself.
Bad week at work, bad week at the cat rescue, bad week at our sister dog rescue, bad week family-wise, and because the world didn't hate me enough, I had 95% of that week's blog post done, and some technological hiccup ate several hours' worth of work just before the deadline. This laptop is a thorn in my side, but technology has always hated me, so I shouldn't be that surprised. (This week, it appears that the laptop keyboard wants to drop random F's into what I type, so if you see a typo like that that I didn't catch, that's why.)

*******

We start out in a hospital, probably some kind of alien emergency room. The doctor/healer/medical people are rushing to get someone hooked up to their equipment, but are baffled when the person's anatomy seems weird. The patient is missing "costal struts," his heart is where his digestive tract should be, and "his terminus has digits!"

"What are you?" one of the medical people asks the unconscious patient.
Oops, it's surgically-altered Riker.

Dramatic music! Opening credits break!

When we return to the hospital, Riker groggily wakes up and asks what happened. The head doctor guy tells him that he's in the Crisis Room at the Sikla Medical Facility, and he's very injured, but he'll be okay.
Riker reveals that he was caught in some riots and then there were cops, and then he woke up here.
Dr Berel (the head guy) asks Riker some personal questions, and he stumbles through the answers: he's Rivas Jakara, from the Marta community on the southern continent. Then they ask about his hands and feet, "and oh, hey - your cranial formations are surgical implants?" Thinking fast, Riker tells them he has a bunch of genetic abnormalities that he inherited from his father, and plastic surgery added the cranial ridges. He tells them his own doctor, Crusher, knows more about his medical weirdnesses, and could he please leave and go see her?
"Nah bro, you can't leave," insists Berel. "You're in bad shape. We can contact your doctor?"
"Oh, she's on sabbatical. Also, I have no family."
Not helping yourself, Riker.

Berel and the others start to leave, but then he backtracks to ask Riker about the phaser they found on him. Riker tells him it's a toy, a souvenir he was taking home.
"I thought you had no family?" asks Berel.
Riker is all offended. "It's for a neighbor's child," he responds haughtily. "Hey, um... I had a piece of jewelry? A pin?"
"No, sorry," replies Berel.
After they leave, Riker tries to sit up, but loses consciousness.
Screwed now, buddy. You're in a weird city in the hospital, with no phaser and no comm badge, and they know you've been surgically altered to look like them.

There's a short scene next that's all General Hospital-soap opera, where the doctors argue in the hall. Nilrem (we haven't learned his name, but he's kind of an ass) tries to convince Berel that Riker is an alien, and it's because the space program has been launching stuff into space, and now they've attracted aliens and shit! He immediately starts in on conspiracy theories, and maybe there are more, and maybe they're everywhere, blah blah blah.
Berel tells him to STFU, because he doesn't want rumors started. In the meantime, they're going to check out his story and put security on his room 29 hours a day.
Man, these people get five extra hours a day? Fuck their lucky asses.

We switch over to the office of the Chancellor, and just to make this writing thing easier, I'm going to tell you that we're on Malcor III, and these people are the Malcorians. There's a scientist, Mirasta Yale, and a lady who is probably the Chancellor's secretary or assistant or something as she has no lines here, and some other guy who also has no lines (another assistant?), then this douche-canoe named Krola.
I do not like Krola. He looks like an alien Ned Flanders and bitches about traditional values like someone's racist grandfather. He's the minister of security, so I have no idea why he keeps on about traditional values.
The scientist wraps up her presentation to the Chancellor (Durken), and tells him that if she gets the go-ahead from him today, she can launch her warp program in ten months or less.
You can tell that this project is her baby. She's so freaking excited to get her butt up into space.
But Krola's all like, "this is too much, and we're moving too far from our traditional values, and the people won't like this, and they've put up with your progressive shit for a while now, Chancellor."
"Dude, I'm not gonna push us backward into the Dark Ages," Durken tells Krola.
(They had a Dark Age? Interesting.)
Durken gives the scientist her go-ahead, then tells Krola that after Mirasta has done her space thing, they'll scale things back a bit to let everyone catch their breath, which is probably smart.
You're only as progressive as your least-progressive member of society, unfortunately.
Mirasta gives Krola a smug smile, because wouldn't you?

Mirasta Yale appears to be working by herself in a lab late at night when two familiar figures beam into the room.
"Hey, are you Mirasta Yale?"
"Yeah?"
"Cool, I'm Jean-Luc Picard and this is Deanna Troi. We're from a federation of planets, and we're both from different ones. We've been checking out your progress toward warp-drive capability, and we think you're just about there, so the time was right for first contact. We like to meet this way, instead of randomly in deep space."
"We've come to you," explains Troi, "because you're a leader in the scientific community, and scientists accept our arrival easier."
"We're hoping you can help us with intros to your government and people," adds Picard.
And now, the healthy skepticism: Mirasta backs up and asks angrily if this is a joke, and if "Lupo and the others from the lab" put them up to this.
Picard's answer is badly-worded, in my opinion: "Oh, it's certainly no joke. As you can see, we are physically quite different from Malcorians. And, with your permission, I'm prepared to prove it to you."
WHAT ARE YOU PROPOSING, PICARD?
"I would like that," Mirasta responds.
So Picard asks for a beam-up for three, and it sounds like they are going somewhere to compare peepees.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Picard and Troi take Mirasta to Ten Forward, and she checks out the various people before standing, charmed, in front of the big window where she can look out over her planet. They grab a table, and she waxes poetic about being a little kid with her parents in the planetarium, and dreaming about going into space and meeting other beings, and how she keeps waiting for the lights to come up and the show to end. She asks Picard how they knew to contact her, and he sighs a big sigh.
He's shown her the spacious kitchen and whirlpool bathtub in the master suite of this dream house, but now he needs to tell her that the walls are full of asbestos and the bathroom is moldy.
"Soooo, before we introduce ourselves to new people, we check out your broadcasts and your music and humor, and see what kind of people you are. But, um... it doesn't tell us everything. So the best way to get the job done is to surgically alter some of our specialists, and you know, have them blend in with your people and spy on them."

"Excuse the fuck out of me?"
"Yeah, they've been there, watching you, for a few years," Troi confirms.
"It's dangerous not to have to full understanding of a people first," Picard adds.
Mirasta nods. "Okay, I get it. That makes sense. But a lot of my people won't. They'll think you're invading or something."
Okay, now he has to break it to her that the basement is haunted.
"We have another problem - one of our people is missing. He's Commander Riker, my executive officer. And he disappeared in the capital city under the name of Rivas Jakara, a visitor from the Marta community. Can you help us?" asks Picard.
"Oh, totes!" she agrees. "But hey, let's keep this on the down-low, okay? Malcorians are pretty sure that they're a superior life-form, and also the center of the universe, and this would change the paradigm a lot. Some people won't want it to."
(KROLA.)
Picard asks about Durken - how will he take the news?
"Um, curious but guarded," she guesses. "But don't tell him about your surveillance or Riker yet. He'll assign Minister Krola of Security to look for him, and Krola will use Riker for his own crappy political agenda."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, we should keep that part to ourselves at first."

Dr Berel is walking through the corridors of the hospital, and all of the medical workers are hardcore gossiping about Riker and possible aliens, and what if there are more?
He grabs Dr Tava, who was with Riker earlier, and hisses at her that he thought he said to keep this shit contained. Apparently, that other doctor - Nilrem - is a big freaking gossip, and now everyone is talking.
"You can't keep this under wraps much longer," Tava tells Berel. "People will find out and lose it."
"Yeah, but whatever he is, he's our patient first, and we have a responsibility to care for him."
Yaaaasssss, Berel is a professional.

Berel goes in to check on Riker. "So we can't find you or your doctor in our system, and your address in Marta is a restaurant. I don't think you're one of us."
"Do you know how weird you sound?" Riker asks in return. "Not one of us? I'm just a regular guy with some genetic abnormalities."
"Really? Because peeps think you're an alien. And we've been doing stuff in space lately, so imaginations are running wild. You gotta tell me who you are. Otherwise, people will keep talking until things get dangerous, and they won't end well for you."
Looking less professional, Berel.

A quick trip over to Durken's office, where he's stamping papers and doing Chancellor-type busy work.
An assistant calls from the outer office to tell him that Mirasta Yale wants him to meet someone.
"I don't have time for that shit," Durken bemoans. "Ask her to call the Vice-Chancellor."
"Nah, she's here in the office already," says the assistant.
"Ugh. Okay. Send her in."
When Mirasta enters, he keeps stamping papers and says in a long-suffering voice that there's always time to meet her friends.
"Yeah, I think you should clear your afternoon for this," she says.
Picard enters behind her.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Picard leads Durken and Mirasta onto the bridge of the Enterprise, and she points out the viewscreen to Durken, showing him their planet from above. The Picard introduces them both to Data, and Mirasta, awe-struck, tells Durken that Data is an android.
Durken requests that he and Picard meet somewhere private to talk about stuff, and Mirasta excuses herself to return to the surface. Once Picard and Durken have left, Mirasta asks Data if they have heard from Riker. Amusingly, she uses a tone and manner that suggests that this is all old-hat to her, being on a starship with aliens and an android.

In the ready room, Picard offers Durken a glass of wine and introduces him to the toast, wishing them both good fortune in their new, impending friendship.
"You're a good diplomat," says Durken. "I appreciate diplomacy, but I don't always trust it."
"Trust takes time," Picard agrees.
"Conquerors often arrive with the words we are your friends."
"We're not conquerors. We want a friendship. We want to help guide you into a new era. But how we go forward is up to you."
"What if our wishes conflict?"
"There won't be a conflict," Picard shrugs.
"What if I want you to leave and never return?"
"Then we'll do so.We won't interfere with your natural development. That's our Prime Directive."
"Uh-huh," says Durken. "Does that mean you're not gonna share your fabulous technology?"
"Pretty much."
"Is that how you maintain superiority?"
"Dude," says Picard logically, "suddenly dumping a bunch of tech on an unsuspecting world is harmful."
Durken sighs. "Yeah, that's probably true." He goes to the window. "Every night I go home to my family, and they ask about my day and if it was a good one. And today I have to tell them I woke up the leader of the known universe, but this afternoon, I'm just a voice in a chorus. But I think it was a good day."
Yay, friends!

We go back to Riker, who has gotten out of bed against medical advice and is looking for a way out. He grabs a short bench and is preparing to throw it through a small, high window when a medical worker comes in.
"That's not gonna work," she advises. "There are tons of people in that corridor out there."
Oh, man. It's Bebe Neuwirth. She plays delightful weirdos, and I like her so much.

She says she's not afraid of Riker, and asks if he's an alien. "You can tell me! I won't tell anyone!"
"I need to leave."
"I can help you out of here - it would be easier for you to get out if you went out the service door. I can distract the guard."
"Cool, let's do it."
"Why should I?" she asks.
He decides to throw caution to the wind and humor this walking tin foil hat. "You know why. I don't belong here. I need to get back to my ship... in space."
"Okay, I'll help you."
But she has a stipulation:

...

Ohhhhh, girlfriend has a kink. She's always wanted to make love to an alien, and I don't mean to kink-shame here, but that's real specific, and outside of this situation, when will she ever get the chance to get her rocks off like that? She'd have to find someone willing to dress up like an alien and get down with her, and if they're not into it, where's the fun in that? The hilarious part here is the layers involved: Riker is an alien, pretending not to be an alien, pretending to be an alien to humor a woman who will help him escape if she gets to bang an alien.
Riker is thrown. He's really not interested, but he needs to leave, and it's probably against regulations of some kind to get down with the natives on a First Contact mission.
She tells him her name is Lanel, and she quickly starts clearing stuff off the hospital bed in preparation, and it's sort of funny-creepy. It's a ridiculously awkward situation. She totally propositioned him, and he's not interested, and he tries to let her down easily.
"There... there are differences in the way my people make love."
Who knows if that's true? Maybe, maybe not. Only Riker and the First Contact watchers know for sure. He may be full of shit. Humans and Malcorians may have very similar bits and ways of doing the deed.
"I'm willing to learn!" she says enthusiastically, taking off her glasses. She strokes his fingers and calls him "my alien."

At some point later, Lanel coyly pushes her glasses back up her nose and peeks around the door, looking for all the world like she got what she wanted. Did Riker give it to her? Probably not, lol. Maybe he performed oomox on her and told her that was it.

Either way, my guess is that he bullshitted his way through something that she'll describe to her diary in great detail as soon as she gets home.
She tells the guard outside the door that she thinks Riker has died, and that he should run and get help, and as soon as he takes off, she gestures to Riker to come out. Before he heads off, she asks if she'll ever see him again.
Sassy Riker Moment:

Riker sneaks through the hospital, trying to avoid people, but in a bit of rotten luck, he runs into Berel, Nilrim and Tava.
Shit.
A fight breaks out as they try to capture him and he attempts to defend himself, but one of these medical workers has a billy club (!) and they beat the shit out of Riker. One of them actually uses Kirk's patented two-handed back blow.

"WTF?" yells Berel. "Dude was already injured!"
Tava  examines him and discovers that they re-injured Riker's kidneys in the fight. They have to take him to surgery, and Berel yells that they need to contact Central Security. And who is that looking suspicious and guilty nearby? Riker's would-be lover.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

We cut back to Durken's office, where he's talking to Mirasta and Krola about the situation. Present is that lady from before and that other guy, but they're kind of set dressing, and get no lines, and I haven't decided whether they're Durken's assistants or other Ministers.
"Picard says we're in control here as far as what happens next," Durken explains.
This where alien Ned Flanders goes off. "You can't be thinking of surrendering to them!" yells Krola.
"No one is surrendering," says Durken. "I've seen their ship, and if they were hostile, they could have just taken us over without effort."
"Oh, yeah? We captured one of their spies!"
Aw, crap. Point of no return.
"Um, that's Commander Riker," volunteers Mirasta. "Picard's First Officer. He's been missing for two days."
"Wait, you knew about this?" demands Durken. "What else do you know?"
"They've... had people on the surface for several years, collecting info. I warned Picard not to say anything to you about it, because I was afraid this would happen."
Basically, she knew Krola would be a dick. Which he is. Upon hearing the word "years," he ramps up the paranoia.
"OMG, who knows what they've been doing? Influencing our young, stirring up dissent?!"
STFU, Krola.
Trying to stay even keel in comparison to Krola, Durken asks where Riker is. Krola tells him that Riker is recovering from surgery and head injuries in the Sikla Medical Facility.

I guess she's another Minister, given how much side-eye she's giving Krola.

Krola gets Berel to let him in to see Riker, who is still knocked out from surgery. Dr Berel tells Krola that he's surprised that Riker has survived his injuries thus far.
"I need to interrogate him before he dies," says Krola.
Ugh, why are tv cops so unsympathetic to people of interest who are recovering in the hospital? Are IRL cops this dickish, too?
"He's still recovering," says Berel. "Come back tomorrow."
"Too long. We need to do it now."
Mirasta sneaks in. "Krola, let's give him back to his people. They have medical facilities on the ship and can care for him."
"Hell no. He's our bargaining chip. You have meds to revive him," he tells Berel. "Give them to him."
"Those meds will fuck up his heart rate and blood pressure and could do serious damage," argues Berel.
"You can't do it," Mirasta hisses at Krola. "You could kill him!"
Krola is adamant. Berel refuses. They have some kind of Hippocratic Oath on this planet, and he refuses to break it.
"Fine," snaps Krola. "I'll get someone to replace you."

Picard beams down into Durken's office.
Durken gets right to the point: he knows about the First Contact team, and Riker.
"Well, shit," says Picard. "Mirasta said not to mention it."
"Yeah, she tried to take responsibility."
"Nah, it was my mistake," Picard replies. He pauses. "First Contact is really super dangerous. We never know who is going to greet us. When we first encountered the Klingon Empire out in space, it went badly and we had decades of war as a result. The decision to do reconnaissance on planets before First Contact was controversial, but I think it's solved more problems than it's created."
"I... appreciate the logic in that," admits Durken. "But you should have told us about the surveillance."
"Yeah, we would have eventually. Things went... sideways. This is not normal for us. Unfortunately, everything the surveillance team got indicated that your people would not react well to First Contact, and that the surveillance would be seen as an act of aggression. We really hoped to find Riker before all of this went down, so it wouldn't complicate First Contact. I made a mistake, sorry," Picard finishes.
"I might have made the same mistake in your place," Durken admits. "Actually, I like that you make mistakes, like a regular guy. Makes you seem less superior."
"I've definitely done some stupid shit over the years," agrees Picard. "Can I have my guy back, please?"
Durken may have softened toward Picard a tiny bit, but he isn't giving an inch. "Maybe later."
Picard beams back up.

I like Durken's office. The lighting is a bit harsh, but the windows,
 furniture and architecture are cool.

Back in the emergency room of the hospital, Berel is being informed by phone that he's relieved of duty. Krola made good on his threat.
"Guess you're acting director now," Berel tells Nilrem the Gossip.
He leaves and Krola orders Nilrem to wake up Riker.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Nilrem: "Gonna set my jaw and act like I'm the shit, because I'm in charge now."

When we come back, Krola is ordering Nilrem from the room. Nilrem looks like he was feeling all pleased with himself, being the new director of the whole medical facility and being a cool kid and all, but then Krola tells him "you can't sit with us," and Nilrem looks all Sad Panda.
I would almost feel sorry for him... except he just pumped Riker full of dangerous drugs in a power grab. Walk of Shame, Nilrem. You got used.

Riker is groggy.
"I'm Krola, the Minister of Security. You're Riker, an alien. We totes know about you."
Riker drops the pretense. He's like, half-dead. Go for broke, Earthling.
"I need my people."
"Yeah... gonna interrogate you first."

Mirasta goes to see Durken. He tells her that he needs her for space expertise, otherwise she would have been fired.
"We have to let Riker go," she pleads. "Krola just gave him dangerous drugs to wake him up, and he could die. If he does, any chance of a relationship we have with these people goes out the window. His own people could help him. I'm sorry I didn't tell you the whole truth. I thought I was doing what was best for our people."
"Seriously? You're not the freaking Chancellor - I am! I decide what's best for our people!"

Back in the ER, Krola has fully given over to the Power of the Tin Foil Hat. He starts monloguing about how Durken would probably end up giving in and welcoming Riker's people, and that would be the death knell for Krola's way of life, and he can't permit that, so he's going to force Durken into walking away.
(Real quick, tho - how fucking selfish is that? "I like my life the way it is, so I'm going to alter the course of history for everyone on my planet"?)
"Dude, we're on a peace mission," groans Riker.
"No way," says Krola. "You have lethal weapons." He shoots a piece of medical equipment with Riker's phaser, and it bounces back and hits the wall.
"It's for defense," Riker mumbles.
And then, like any good villain, Krola outlines exactly what he's going to do: "People are about to run in here and see me dead on the floor, shot by you, with this."
He wraps Riker's hand around the phaser, pointing it at himself. Riker tries to stop him, but he's too weak. Krola sets off the phaser, and it flashes.

Tava and Nilram run in and make the exact assumptions that Krola intended: that Riker shot him with the phaser. Tava calls for a crash cart, and Nilrem determines that Krola has a weak heartbeat, but is definitely NOT dead.
There's a shimmering, and Crusher, Worf and a Blue Shirt appear in the crisis room.
"Hi, are you doctors?" asks Crusher. "I'm a doctor. What's going on?"
Tava stumbles through her explanation of "he shot him," while Crusher examines Riker. The Blue Shirt checks out Krola. Worf takes the phaser.
Crusher calls Picard. "Hey, Riker is near death, and I need to beam him the fuck out off here. Also, there's a Malcorian with a phaser wound in his chest. I wanna transport him up, too."
Picard, who is in Durken's office with Mirasta, gets the go-ahead from Durken and tells her to Make It So.

Upstairs, Crusher does one last scan of Krola as Picard enters with Durken and Mirasta. She tells him that both men will be fine, and Riker is stabilized, but he was near death and would have died had they not arrived right then. Krola was never in any real danger, as he was only stunned.
Durken and Mirasta seem surprised and Picard explains that phasers are for defense.
"So, looks like Krola's hand was on the phaser when it went off," explains Crusher.
"They were struggling for it," says Durken, a bit aggressively.
"Yeah, have you seen Riker?" Crusher asks. "He was pretty much dead. How exactly would he have struggled to shoot someone?
Mirasta guesses the truth: Krola was trying to make himself a martyr.

Durken goes and takes Krola by the hand, recognizing exactly what this means. Like, he's still friends with Krola, but that was a dumbass move on the minister's part. And there will probably be more Krola's on the planet's surface if they introduce the Federation right now.
Krola wakes up and asks where he is cuz, you know, he thinks he should be dead.
Durken smiles. "You're on the starship, my foolish old friend."
Krola panics. "No! You can't be friends with the aliens!"
"Yeah, I know."

Later, Durken and Mirasta argue heatedly in the ready room. Durken is going to send the Federation away and essentially shut down the warp program because his people aren't ready to move forward at the same rate that Mirasta is. They need to funnel that money into becoming better members of the galaxy, and stop thinking of themselves as Masters of the Universe... even though they have not idea that they are Not Alone.

Picard is disappointed, but he gets it. "How will you keep us a secret, though? Lots of people saw Riker and guessed that he was not one of you."
"Yeah," agrees Durken. "But let's face it: they won't be believed, and people will make fun of them for saying something, and most people will just go back to watching television and getting on with their lives. It'll just be some goofy story after a while."
Mirasta snorts derisively. "That's probably true." She pauses. "Will you take me with you?" she asks Picard.
He's taken aback. "We probably won't be back here in your lifetime. And I, uh... don't think you'll be able to handle going into space."
"Pssht, I've been ready for that since I was a kid."
Surprisingly, Durken agrees. "I pretty much have to shut down her program. She won't be happy here."
Picard calls Worf to the ready room. "Take Chancellor Durken to the transporter and make up quarters for Minister Yale, who is coming with us."
Mirasta is so freaking stoked.

"Hopefully, you'll be ready for us in our lifetimes," Picard tells Durken.
"And then we can be BFFs," agrees Durken.

Happy, uplifting music as the E flies away from Malcor III!

I love this episode, for two very specific reasons.
Reason one: this episode is lighthearted and amusing. Star Trek can get a bit heavy-handed at times, and watching an episode where it makes fun of itself or handles the episode in a goofy way is refreshing. Some of the best Star Trek material has come from these kinds of stories (such as the fourth film, The One With the Whales). However, let us not forget that, when done incorrectly, the lighter material can fall far short (ugh, the episode where Data learns how to tell a joke).
Reason two: we get to see part of the First Contact process. I love that sort of thing, where the policies and procedures are explained in such a way that you get to see them in action. And up until now, we didn't actually get a good look or discussion of this process. You assume it's like Kirk in the "The Apple," where the E crew stumbles blindly onto a civilization and announces, "All your closely-held beliefs are mumbo-jumbo, and I will now teach you about sex!" Instead, it's handled in a careful, thoughtful way, and much like Durken, I appreciate that the Federation owns up to its mistakes every now and again (ie, incorrect handling of the situation lead to decades of war with the Klingons). I also liked that Picard talked about how controversial the decision to do surveillance was in the Federation. No way that that would have received universal support, and Patrick Stewart even delivered the line in such a way that it gives the viewer the impression that he doesn't agree with it one-hundred percent, either.

However, this episode had a couple of weird notes for me: while I can't presume that Malcorian technology progresses in the same way as that of humans, it seems odd that we never hear about their earlier space flights, or why there seem to be no satellites in orbit around the planet. They have "daily broadcasts" and a centralized government, where those broadcasts put out via some kind of ground signal? Did they skip some steps to get to warp, and will they be flying completely blind when they launch their first warp ship? And the ultimate point of my questions: how did no one notice the E was in orbit? Did they not monitor what was in orbit directly around their planet? Could no one see it from the surface?
My other beef: wouldn't removing Mirasta from Malcor violate the Prime Directive? The PD is partially about not influencing the progress of another culturing, yet I wonder how well their warp program might have fared at a later date when they returned to it without the Minister of Science, and the person who seemed directly responsible for its initial test-runs. A fair equivalent seems like members of the Manhattan Project leaving the planet mid-way through their research. I mean, the atom bomb was not a great invention in my opinion, but not only did we use the technology for other, better applications, but dropping those bombs and seeing the consequences made us take a step back and go, "wow, that was shitty. Let's maybe not use those so casually, okay?" Subtract one or more of that group of scientists, and now the program doesn't run on time, or gets derailed altogether. Mirasta Yale seems to be their top scientists on this warp project, and while I don't doubt that a whole host of scientists were working with her, just as hard, it seems to me that Picard is leaving that particular ship rudderless.



- Fun Facts:

- This is one of five TNG episodes with no stardate.
- The wine that Picard offers Durken is from the bottle that Robert gave him before he left France. Robert requested that Picard not drink it alone.
- Entertainment Weekly ranked this episode as 8 out of a list of top ten TNG episodes to watch in celebration of TNG's 20th anniversary.
- Carolyn Seymour has appeared in TNG before, as Sub-Commander Taris in season two's "Contagion."

- Writer Marc Scott Zicree pitched this story in season three, and would later write an episode of DS9.
- Michael Piller liked the concept of exploring the first contact, but the script went through several rewrites before the final was settled upon. Among the ideas:
  - the story told from the POV of the E crew;
  - making this episode a seasonal cliffhanger;
  - making this Wes' last episode, where he stays behind on the planet as part of the cultural contact team;
  - the planet discovers the Enterprise when one of their shuttles is crippled;
  - the members of the away team become celebrities.
- According to Star Trek rules, the episodes should always be told from the viewpoint of the Federation. This rule was set aside for this episode, and then Piller promised Rick Berman that it would never happen again. However, this rule was revisited in Voyager. Lol.
- The plot was seen as a homage to the film "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
- The sets and props were made to look like contemporary Earth, with slight differences, to make it look "alien."
- The Lanel scene was written at the last minute, and with Bebe Neuwirth in mind for the role.
- This episode is the first time that a cast member from the show Frasier (also distributed by Paramount) appeared on Star Trek. Kelsey Grammer appeared in a fifth season episode of TNG, and most of the main cast of Frasier appeared in a skit about Voyager with Kate Mulgrew for the 30th anniversary special of Star Trek.
- Jonathan Frakes liked the idea for this episode, as well as the guest stars, but thought the episode contained loopholes.
- Marina Sirtis thought this episode was interesting, and she and Patrick Stewart agreed that Picard and Troi were the best people to make official first contact with the Malcorians.



Red deaths: 0
To date: 0
Gold deaths: 0
To date: 0

Blue deaths: 0
To date: 0
Unnamed color crew deaths: 0
To date: 11,000

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: 2

Sassy Wes Moments: 0
To date: 1

Sassy Worf Moment: 0
To date: 2

Sassy Riker Moments: 1
To date: 8

Sassy Picard Moments: 0
To date: 7

Sassy NPC Moments: 0
To date: 1
Sassy Data Moments: 0
To date: 2
Sassy O'Brien Moments: 0
To date: 0
Sassy Crusher Moments: 0
To date: 2
Sassy Troi Moments: 0
To date: 4
Sassy Guinan Moments: 0
To date: 1
Sassy Guest Star Moments: 0
To date: 3

Number of times that it is mentioned that Data is an android: 1
To date: 21

Number of times that Troi reacts to someone else's feelings: 0
To date: 14

Number of times that Geordi "looks at something" with his VISOR: 0
To date: 1
Number of times when Data gives too much info and has to be told to shut up: 0
To date: 1
Picard Maneuvers: 0
To date: 16
Tea, Earl Grey: 0
To date: 5

ST:TNG Season Two, Episode Fifteen "Pen Pals"

ST:TNG Season Two, Episode Fifteen "Pen Pals"
Production Order: 41
Air Order: 41
Stardate: 42695.3
Original Air Date: May 1, 1989

Picard's Log 42695.3: "Going to a virgin sector. All the systems here have goofy geological readings. Gonna check it out."

Data tells Riker that one of the planets in one system broke up a century and a half ago and formed an asteroid belt. Worf suggests that maybe an intelligent life did it on purpose, but Riker tells him that "it's geology, not malevolence."

Picard and Troi walk through the corridors on their way to the holodeck. Picard is going to go horseback riding, and for some reason, Troi is tagging along, even though she doesn't want to ride. Is she just going to walk along the trail, or...? Anyway, they discuss the fact that Picard isn't a small animal guy, but he likes horses.
"So you want a companion instead of a pet?" asks Troi, which is not accurate, because a great pet blurs that line.
Picard says he finds the activity relaxing, and instructs the holodeck to make him an Arabian with an English tack, and specifies that he wants to control the horse he is riding. There's an interesting bit here:
Picard: "The Arabs believed that Allah gathered the South Winds and made the horse."
Troi: "On the holodeck, we've made that legend come true."
Picard: "... I like that."
They enter the holodeck into a space that was actually filmed outside (!) and Picard begins putting the saddle on the horse. He says he likes horses for the romance aspect (no, not that), because there's a mutual need served by the human-horse pairing.
Troi says she had a Betazoid kitten once, but Lwaxanna and the kitten did not get along. When he offers to get a horse for her to ride, she says she prefers transportation "without a mind of it's own."
"Huh, I would have thought Betazoids would get along well with animals and stuff," he remarks.
"Naw, we get caught up in their emotions," Troi replies.

Picard literally has one foot in the stirrup when Riker pages him.
"We're in that system now, and there's something hella sweet and kind of freaking scary you wanna see," says Riker.
Picard resignedly drops his foot. He then clips the horse's bridle to the hitching post, which is kind of hilarious, because is he concerned that the horse will wander off in the two seconds that it takes him and Troi to walk back to the arch and exit the program? The whole thing will disappear the second he turns the program off. Unless he has decided to be an a-hole and continue to run his program, taking up a holodeck suite while he's elsewhere...?
When Picard hits the bridge in uniform again, Riker shows him a planet on the viewscreen that's a lava-infused (literal) hot mess.
"Federation sent an unmanned probe out here to collect info a bit ago, and this was a thriving ecosystem," explains Riker.
Picard considers the planet. "Well, that sucks."

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Riker calls some kind of senior officer's meeting that for some reason doesn't include Worf or Data. Riker is in charge of overseeing Wes' education and Starfleet training while on the ship, and he proposes to put Wes in charge of the planetary mineral surveys. He wants to get everyone's opinion on the idea. Pulaski is concerned that they may be putting too big a responsibility on his shoulders, and while the others agree that this is a big task, they think that Riker should go forward with it.
Wes gets paged into the Obs Lounge. He walks in to this, which is mildly terrifying when you're a teenage boy being called into a meeting with an unknown agenda.

Fuck, that's intimidating. Great composition, though.

Then Riker breaks the news to him, and he's pretty fucking stoked. Riker says that he must assemble a team, gather data, and present that shit. Picard tells him to talk to the senior officers and get advice, and that he has more respect for an officer who admits ignorance and asks a question, rather than one that just kind of stumbles forward with a bad plan out of pride.
Wes is trying to be excited and professional at the same time, grinning while telling the officers that he'll try not to disappoint them.

I really like this so far. We've learned that Picard likes horses and riding, for specific reasons. Troi told us that she had a kitten, and why Betazoids don't always mesh well with animals, and that riding is not her thing. We're checking in on Wes' education. And we're finding out what Picard values in an officer. Little bits of things that add to a character and keep us interested across the seasons.

Data is working in the science section on the bridge, and he's got bits and bobs spread out on the carpet.
"Whatcha doin'?" asks Worf.
"Personal project," says Data. He gives a bunch of jargon that basically adds up to "ham radio."
Worf seems mildly interested, because Data's project is searching for frequencies in the stars, including "man-made" ones. He appears satisfied, but when he turns to walk away, he trips on some of those parts on the floor and breaks them.
"Totes moving that shit to my quarters," Data apologizes.

A col under-arch shot. Bonus points: I never noticed that there were
pull-out chairs in the underside of those stations. They fold up like IKEA, apparently.

Wes catches Troi and Riker in the corridor and asks for a walk-and-talk. He's figured out who he wants for the different tasks in his project, but...
"Those people are all much older than you," Riker guesses.
"Yeah," sighs Wes. "Like, this would be easy if I was just choosing the best person for the task, but what if I choose people that don't like each other?"
"Fuck 'em," says Riker. "They're supposed to be professionals. If they have a disagreement, you solve it."
"Wait, I gotta be CO and also Freud?" asks Wes.
"Kinda," says Troi.
Then they all go their separate ways.

Picard's Log 42696.3: "Going into the second system in this area, and Wes is gonna start his survey here. Hopefully, we can use the results of that survey to find out why the geology here is so weird."

Blueshirt Ensign Davies is dicking around with some rocks in a lab when Wes comes in and invites him to join the mineral survey team.
"Sounds sweet, who else are we working with?" asks Davies.
Wes names off three other people, and Davies makes some infantilizing comments.
"Oh, man, Wish you'd talked to me first. I think it's better to break up married couples."
Now Wes is needlessly worried.
"I'm sure it'll be fine," shrugs Davies. Then: "Give me a signal if you feel like you're in over your head, and I'll take over. Wouldn't want you to get too beat up on your first assignment."
Dude, it's one thing to give advice, but another completely to offer to "take over." No one asked you for that, Davies.

Data is working on his personal project in his quarters when he stumbles upon a weak man-made signal. He boosts it to find out what it is, then runs it through the universal translator.
"Is anybody there?" asks a little girl's voice.
"...yes," says Data.

Dramatic music! Commercial break!

Wes is waffling in the hallway outside a door, padd in hand, when Pulaski walks by.
"What's up?" she asks.
"My team's in there," he says. "And I don't really know them, and I have to be the CO, and I only have the authority because Riker says I do."
"Sure," she agrees. "But it's up to you to keep it. And I think you'll do just fine."
He takes a deep breath, and walks in.

Picard's Log 42737.3: "Okay, so we skipped ahead six weeks. Keep up. Every planet we've checked out has the same weird geological stuff going on."

Wes is in the lab with his team. One chick turns in her results, and they talk about it, and he compliments her work. Davies also turns in his work on that third system in the area.
"Same shit, different day," says Davies.
"Yeah, but didn't you say you detected (jargony-jargon)?" asks Wes.
"Yeah, but (jargony-jargon) was faint," argues Davies.
"I think we should set up (expensive-sounding thingy) and run tests," says Wes. "I want to be thorough."
"I don't wanna do that," whines Davies. "(Expensive-sounding thingy) takes five hours to set up. It's a waste of time, and unnecessary."
"That's true," says the chick. "As an officer, you need to know when you're being thorough, and when you're just being overkill."
Bitches, both y'all are ensigns. You guys don't know any better than Wes does what being a good officer is. Y'all just don't wanna work, is all.
But Wes takes the bait on that, and dejectedly leaves, agreeing not to run the tests with (expensive-sounding thingy).

Data is back at the science center on the bridge, and he's Googling some shit about a specific planet in this sector. Brent Spiner makes as much of an oh-shit face as he possibly can while still playing an android, and then he asks Majel Barrett where Picard is.
"Holodeck 3," says Majel, because of course that's where he is.
So Data high-tails it to holodeck 3, and we see Picard in action, racing the horse down the trail. He heads back to the hitching post when he sees Data standing there.
"What up?" says Data, making weird android small-talk. "Nice horse."
Then he realizes that petting the horse has only bought him a micro-second of stall-time, so he dives in.
"Okay, soooo... like eight weeks ago, I'm dicking around with whatever the hell the 24-century equivalent of a ham radio is, and I hear this humanoid void say, "Is anybody out there?" So, you know, I answered back."
Picard gets off the horse, and super clips it to the hitching post again, like he's ever gonna get more than five minutes together to ride. "That's pretty tough, not answering back. I think a lot of people would do what you did."
Data appears relieved. "Okay, awesome. Glad you're not pissed. Because anyway, I've been talking to this little girl - her name is Sarjenka - this whole time, and now I'm in a bind. Her planet, like all of the planets here, is totally fucked up and falling apart in major ways, and I was thinking if we could figure out the problems and fix them... you know, we could fix them."
Picard pauses, because he suspects that an unknown number of shoes is about to drop. "What have you told this kid about yourself?"
"Like, almost nothing," Data asserts. "Been vague on purpose."
"Uh-huh. And is her civilization pre-warp like I suspect it is? Like, they have no idea that aliens exist?"
"Yeeeeaahhh... most def," the android admits.
"So you pissed on the Prime Directive, and now you're hoping we could do it some more?"
"More like, I was holding a copy of the PD in one hand, and pissing with the other, and then I didn't wash my hands. But yeah, gonna need you to break that PD for sure."
Picard thinks. "Okay, firstly: stop talking to this kid. Seriously. You're getting your piss germs all over the PD. Secondly, call all the senior staff into my quarters for a meeting."
"Cool," says Data,
He leaves the holodeck to call the meeting, and you know this is some serious shit, because when has Picard ever held a meeting in his own quarters?

Riker is in Ten Forward flirting with a Blueshirt. (She's black too, which I like. Riker is equal-opportunity when it comes to flirting.) He leaves the table to get them more drinks, and Wes appears in the doorway, motioning for Riker to join him. When Wes gets a table, Riker takes the drinks back, then whispers to his date "family emergency." I also really like that. Dude is willing to set aside his own down-time to mentor a kid, and refer to him as family.
Wes is in crisis mode over the (expensive-sounding thingy) test, and I can relate. It's hard not to let anxiety take over in situations like that. Like, he asked a dude to run a test, and the guy pretty much told him that he was wasting their time.
And the advice that Riker gives Wes is solid, general advice.
Riker: "Do you think you were right?"
Wes: "Yes. I guess... Or I could have just been picking nits."
Riker: "It's tough to tell other people what to do."
Wes: (nodding) "I suppose I could have made it an order, but how do you give orders to someone who is older and more experienced than you?"
Riker: "The difference in ages between you and Davies is not the issue here."
Wes: "I guess not."
Riker: "Do you think it might have something to do with ego?"
Wes: "No, it's just the opposite of ego. Every time I try to give an order, something inside of me says, what makes my judgment so superior to these people?"

Riker: "Wes, responsibility and authority go hand in hand. Now, I know you're responsible. Now we're going to teach you a little bit of authority. One of the reasons you've been given command is so you can make a few right decisions which will lead to a pattern of success and help build self-confidence. If you don't trust your own judgment, you don't belong in the command chair."
Wes: "But what if I'm wrong?"
Riker: "Then you're wrong. It's arrogant to think that you'll never make a mistake."
Wes: "But what if it's something really important? I mean, not just a mineral survey? What if somebody dies because I made a mistake?"
Riker: "In your position, it's important to ask yourself one question - what would Picard do?"
Wes: (smiling) "He'd listen to everyone's opinion and then make his own decision. But he's Captain Picard."
 Riker: "Well, it doesn't matter. Once Picard makes his decision, does anyone question it?"
Wes: "No way."
Riker: "And why not?"
Wes: "I'm not sure."
Data breaks in over the comm to call Riker to Picard's quarters. He gets up, but not before saying one last thing.
Riker: "When you figure it out, you'll understand command."
Wes thanks Riker and tells him that he's going to have Davies do the thing.

Wes marches confidently back into the lab and tells Davies to do the thing.
"You got it," says Davies.
Wes is amazed.
Like, I'm glad that he gained some confidence here, but that wrapped up a little too nicely. I know many Davies that would continue to argue, forcing Wes to either back down or stand his ground.

The senior officers gather in Picard's quarters, and like a good host, he's set out a spread on the table.
"Okay," he starts. "Data did this wrong thing, and we're not going to argue about how wrong it was, or why. It's done, so now we have to figure out what to do about it. Everybody talk freely."
Worf begins. "The Prime Directive is absolute, and you can't break it down and make it grey in some areas."
"Bullshit," says Pulaski. "We can't let those people die."
Now, this is a given. We already know how this pair will vote. Worf will always take the hard line approach when it comes to security and safety, because he's the security chief. And Pulaski, who sticks like glue to her Hippocratic Oath, will always err on the side of the patient/person involved. Pulaski says "save 'em all!" while Worf says "walk away." But these serve to bookend the dilemma here: if they go all or nothing, it will be one of these choices. If they go grey-scale, and only get involved in a certain way, the choice will fall somewhere between the two. And that's the philosophical discussion that arises from the others: to save, to not save, to commit to an action somewhere in the middle. Picard, sitting at his desk sipping his tea, is moderator, and they all have to decide collectively whether or not they should further violate the PD to save potentially millions of people. Nobody else takes quite the hard line that Worf and Pulaski do, so it seems like they'll go somewhere in the middle.
Riker, Troi and Geordi have a quick debate about fate, and whether or not it put them there at this time in order to save these people.

Picard asks Pulaski if she would feel the same way if they were interfering with an epidemic instead of a geological calamity. It's Pulaski, so she says yes.
"What about war?" he counters.
That one gives everyone pause.
The Federation is certainly no stranger to violating the Prime Directive so they can get involved in someone else's war. (Specifically, "A Private Little War," "A Taste of Armageddon," "The Omega Glory," "Too Short a Season.") Not to mention that time that Picard's inaction due to breaking and then "unbreaking" the PD most likely started a war sometime in the near future. ("Symbiosis.") The Prime Directive, as he points out, is there not only to protect the futures of those people, whatever come what may, but also to protect the Federation from stepping in it deep.
He then asks if they should get involved in a culture where one side is oppressing another. (I could be here all day linking past episodes.)
"What if they asked for our help?" suggests Geordi.
"Maybe she was asking for help," Data says.
Picard mutters "sophistry" and Worf says that Sarjenka can't ask for help from someone she doesn't know.
"She knows me," says Data.
Silence.
"Okay, then," says Data quietly. "We're gonna do nothing and let her die."
Picard thinks, then replies just as quietly, "I need you to stop talking to Sarjenka."
Data goes to the panel on the wall and starts pulling up the frequency. But when he does, Sarjenka is already on the line.
"Data, where are you? Why won't you answer? Are you mad at me? I'm so scared!"
And now she's not just a little voice in the dark to one person, now she's a person to everyone.
Picard sips his tea. "Well, fuck. That's a plea for help, and we can't ignore her. Guess we're breaking the PD some more."
It's like going to the animal shelter, you know? Your mom can say "no puppy" all she likes, but as soon as you go, you know you're taking home a puppy. That's why I'm evil and encourage people to play with our rescue cats. Like hell you're not adopting that cat once you've played with him.

Picard's Log 42741.3: "Orbiting Data's friend's planet."

Picard and Riker meet with Wes' team. They tell the first officer and captain that there's a shit-ton of dilithium under the surface of the planet (and all of these planets in the area), and it's causing huge problems for the tectonic plates, leading to increased volcanic activity. Surprise, surprise, Davies says that they wouldn't have found it if Wes hadn't ordered (expensive-sounding thingy) test. They tell Picard that they'll try to reverse the process.

When they leave, Riker tells Picard that Data has been watching the planet, and has figured out where the safest location on the planet is. Picard is annoyed with the level of their involvement already, but tells Riker to tell Data to tell Sarjenka to tell her family where they should evacuate to.
"Know where we are?" asks Picard.
He holds his flattened hand up to the top of his neck, indicating "up to our necks."

Data tries to contact Sarjenka, but the computer tells him that the atmosphere is crummy enough at this point that the transmission can't go through.
He rushes to the ready room.
The Goldshirt on Wes' team is there with Worf and Riker, detailing how they're going to shoot resonators into the planet's surface to break up the crystal lattices being formed by the dilithium. This should stop the earthquakes and volcanoes.
"Good," says Picard. "Make that shit so."
They leave, and Data steps forward.
"I want to beam down to Sarjenka's house."
Picard nearly chokes on his tea. "Say fucking what?"
"I can't get her over the radio frequencies because of the atmosphere. So really, what's the difference between telling her over the radio, and doing it in person?" he reasons.
Riker gives him a look. "Dude."
"Yeah, I know," says Data. "But we're already doing this, might as well go all in."
"Ugggghhhhh," sighs Picard. "Okay, fucking go. Riker, you run the transporter."
Data dashes out.
"Where are we now?" asks Riker.
Picard holds his hand up to his head, above the ear.

Riker and Data bust into the transporter room.
Riker Sassy Moment: "O'Brien, take a nap. You never saw any of this."
O'Brien steps away from the transporter. Sassy Response: "Cool. I'm over here dozing off in the corner."

"Ten minutes," says Riker.
"Gotcha," agrees Data.
Data beams down, and Riker is called to the bridge.
"Shit!" says Riker.
Sassy Announcement by O'Brien. "I just woke up."
Riker takes off.

Data materializes in what a clearly a home. There are a couple of weird dolls on some kind of soft furniture, and some sculptures on tables. But there's no one home. He walks up to a wall and puts his hand up. The wall disappears. It's a door, and he can see some volcanoes erupting nearby.

He closes the door and begins snooping around. The door opens from the outside and a little orange kid runs in, not seeing him and going straight for a piece of equipment.
"Sarjenka?" he asks.
She gets stranger danger until he says, "I'm Data."
"Oh, yay! I knew you would come! My father made us run away when the earthquakes started, and we weren't allowed to take anything but I had to come back for my transmitter, because I knew you would try to call me again. I mean, I didn't want to leave you hangin.'"
"Yeah, sorry I did that," he says. "Things are... complicated. Does your family know where you are?"
"Noooo..." She looks a bit guilty.
He looks out the door again and there's another earthquake. "You guys won't survive this." He hits his comm badge. "Two to beam up."

Worrisome music! Commercial break!

Data and Sarjenka appear on the pad.
"Oh, fuck me," says O'Brien. "Should have finished that nap."
"Where's Riker?" demands Data.
"Bridge," says O'Brien.
The pair heads out the door.
"Where are you going?" asks O'Brien.
"Bridge," says Data, matter-of-factly.
O'Brien Shitty Moment: "And you're taking... that?"
Dude, not cool, O'Brien.
Sarjenka, whose planet is dying and who has just beamed up to a strange ship with an alien that has just reduced her to a thing, grasps Data's hand and begs him not to leave her there.
"Hell yeah, I'm taking her," declares Data.

Picard is pacing on the bridge. There's three minutes left to go until launch time for the resonators, and Data hasn't returned.
Just then, the lift doors open, and Data steps out with Sarjenka in hand.
Picard is livid. "WTF? He brought an alien onto the ship, and a kid onto my bridge. Is he fucking serious right now?" he asks Riker.
"She was scared -" Data starts to say.
Picard points to the comm. "Station. Now. Troi, take the kid to sick bay."
Sarjenka is having none of this. She really wants to stay with Data, and rebuffs Troi, like she's afraid the counselor is going to murder her in the lift. Data tries to tell her that no one will hurt her, and that these are her friends, but really, how much should she believe him, based on the fact that she hopped off the transporter pad and was immediately insulted by O'Brien?

"Fuck it," says Picard. "Keep her with you, and take your station. I guess this is her rodeo, too."
So they launch the probes, and Data explains to her that they're fixing her planet, and that the volcanoes and earthquakes will stop. All of the sensors show that they fixed the problem, and Data puts the planet up on the viewscreen to show her where she lives.
Wes, whose survey made this all possible, is hella stoked.
"Okay, yes, awesome," says Picard wearily. "Seriously Data. take her to sick bay."
They disappear in the lift, and Picard goes to the ready room. He calls Pulaski.
"Hey, Data and the little alien girl are going to see you. How involved is it to erase her memory of these events?"

Data and Sarjenka walk through the corridors, and Sarjenka asks if she can join the crew when she gets bigger.
"Totes," says Data.
They enter sick bay, and he introduces her to Pulaski. I guess she's decided to trust Data's friends now, because she doesn't shy from Pulaski. She picks up a rock from the doctor's desk, and a song very quietly plays.
"That's an Elanin singing stone," says Pulaski. "It plays a different song for each person."
"What does it play for you?" Sarjenka asks Data.
"It doesn't play for me," says Data. "I'm a machine."
Pulaski says she wants to examine Sarjenka to make sure that she's okay, and Sarjenka agrees, so long as Data is there.
Pulaski knocks her out, then sets this brain scanner thing above her.
Data looks uncomfortable.
"You did a good thing," says Pulaski gently.
"But is it a good thing to erase her memories?" asks Data, so clearly he realized or was told at some point along the journey that this would be happening.
"Yeah," says Pulaski. "If we let her have these memories, it could change who is she is as a person, and also change the course of events for her planet. You'll still have your memories of her, though."
"That's true," says Data, and he seems a tiny bit happier about that.

Data beams down to the planet with a still-sleeping Sarjenka. He places her on the soft furniture that's either a bed or a couch, and because he just can't resist breaking the PD a little more, he places the singing stone in her hand. Then he opens the door to see that the volcanoes have stopped spewing lava, and the place isn't going to hell. He pauses, then calls for a beam up.

Wes enters the bridge, and Riker offers him the captain's chair.
"Naw, I have a long way to go before I can sit there," smiles Wes. "Does this command thing ever get any easier?"
Riker laughs. "Oh, fuck no."
Data enters the bridge, and goes to the ready room to collect his punishment.
Picard is sitting on the couch reading when Data is invited in.
Data is ready to throw himself on a pyre, but Picard says that apologies are not necessary, because he did what he did because his friend was in trouble and needed help. Picard asks after Sarjenka, and Data says that she is safely at home with her memory erased.
"She won't remember me, but I'll remember her."
Picard: "Remembrance and regrets, these too are a part of friendship... And understanding that has brought you a step closer to understanding humanity."
Data does his tiny smirk-smile.
Hopeful music! Ending credits!

This is another one of those episodes that gets buried in season two. You don't quite remember it because it isn't over-the-top awesome, but it isn't lousy, either. It's middle of the road, like a lot of season two. It doesn't stand out as being on either extreme end of the spectrum. Like many episodes of Trek, the script went through some re-writes, some better, some worse. Apparently, everyone loved the first script, but one of the higher ups wanted ore technical talk in Wes' B-plot, so the story moved further and further away from the A-plot of "Data and Sarjenka are friends." It's felt that a bit of spark was lost there when the A-plot got watered down in favor of more B-plot. With the original story idea, someone on the E hears the question "is anyone out there?" posed by the little alien kid, and ideas were batted around as to who might be the one to answer. The logical selection was Data, because there's a sweetness to him, and a curiosity. However, many of the people who worked on this episode felt like it didn't quite measure up to their expectations when the final episode was finished, because the emotional aspect of Data's friendship with Sarjenka was missing. We kind of went straight from, "is anyone out there?" to "I started talking to this kid two months ago." Everything in the middle was skipped, so it feels more like Data and Sarjenko were Facebook friends, the kind where you stop remembering after a while how you met that person, then you never speak, and eventually, they fall off your feed completely. When they finally meet up in Act 4, I buy it because of the way they interact, but it would have been nice to see some of the middle parts.

I have some concerns with the outcome of Sarjenka's planet, though. Like, it's assumed that once they've hit the planet's surface with those resonators, they've broken up the crystal lattices for good. I mean, have they? Could those lattices not just reform at some later date? Or do the resonators keep resonating, continuously breaking that shit up? If so, how does that constant resonating in the surface crust affect the rest of the planet? Did their solution cause more harm than good in the long run? Also, what of the other planets in these three systems? It appears that they all have high concentrations of dilithium, and the ultimate outcome seems to be: earthquakes and volcanoes caused by tectonic shifting, which is caused by these crystal lattices forming from the dilithium; then shifting into the scary-ass planet featured in the cold opening; and lastly, breaking apart. They reported that the unmanned probe made a note that one of those planets in those systems had broken up and created an asteroid belt. If this is the ultimate outcome for all of these planets, then it's possible that the other planets in these system will break up and alter things in such a way that Sarjenka's planet will be affected. The only way to know if the E's meddling actually did any good at all is to occasionally travel back there to check up on the planet and those affected systems.
I'm also becoming annoyed at the idea that every time a Data story ends, he "comes a little bit closer to understanding humanity." It's starting to feel like the Princess Points system from "To Wing Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar."

Some good stuff: I like that we got more background info and character development for Picard and Troi, no matter how little. But I'm a sucker for that.
Also, even though it ate up the A-plot, I still like the B-plot where Wes gets his first command assignment. I also thought Riker's advice to him in Ten Forward was fantastic, mostly because it was applicable to any number of situations, not just in joining Starfleet command. I also like that Riker co-opted the phrase "What would Jesus do?" into "What would Picard do?" (For some quick rabbit-holing, check out this Wiki article.)
The last bit that I liked was the debate over what the Prime Directive means, not only for others, but for members of the Federation. It's a complicated document, but the general gist is "no identification of self or mission; no interference of said planet; no references to space, other worlds, advanced civilizations." tl;dr: MYOB. The senior officers here kick around what the PD means, where it might be acceptable to break it, and which actions actually would. I like that, and I like when Picard calls them all together to discuss this kind of thing. It's taken far more seriously in TNG than TOS, and I like that the consideration is given before a decision is made.

Fun Facts:

- Maurice Hurley instantly liked the idea for this story because he had played with radio sets as a child. However, he was less than thrilled with the outcome, saying that more emotion should have been given to the Data-Sarjenka friendship.
- Contact had to be limited between actress Nikki Cox and Data, because Sarjenka's orange make-up smeared so easily. (Were they using TOS Klingon make-up?)
- This episode contains the only location shoot of season two. The horse scenes were filmed in Thousand Oaks, near Los Angeles. The horse was added because Melinda Snodgrass, who wrote the teleplay, loves horses.
- This episode was taking to long to film via one unit, so a second was brought in to tackle the task. This one one of the earliest instances of this series using more than one filming unit.
- This is the first episode in which Picard drinks a cup of Earl Grey tea.
- I want this chair. It looks uncomfortable and unsupportive, but I bet cats would dig it. This is cat furniture of the future, friends.

Red deaths: 0
To date: 2

Gold deaths: 0

Blue deaths: 0

Obnoxious Wes moments: 0

Legitimate Wes moments when he should have told someone to go fuck themselves: 0
To date: 1

Sassy Geordi moments: 0
To date: 5

Sassy Wes Moments: 0
To date: 1

Sassy Worf Moment: 0
To date: 3

Sassy Riker Moments: 1

To date: 5

Sassy Picard Moments: 0
To date: 11

Sassy NPC Moments: 0
To date: 3
Sassy Data Moments: 0
To date: 5
Sassy O'Brien Moments: 2
To date: 3
Sassy Pulaski Moments: 0
To date: 2

Number of times that it is mentioned that Data is an android: 1
To date: 19

Number of times that Troi reacts to someone else's feelings: 0
To date: 17

Number of times that Geordi "looks at something" with his VISOR: 0
To date: 1
Number of times when Data gives too much info and has to be told to shut up: 0
To date: 12

Episodes Left Until We Get Rid of Pulaski:

Um, I was sitting there...