TNG Rewatch: 7x16 - "Thine Own Self"

[Trekker4747]

It's… "nighttime" on the ship and Dr. Crusher is doing a rare bridge-watch when Counselor Troi returns from a Starfleet Academy class reunion via shuttle the two women share some banter about their current lots in life. Crusher says that even though it wasn't required for her to be a Chief Medical Officer she opted to take a bridge officer's course which allowed her to gain the rank of Commander because she always wants to challenge herself and give herself plenty of career options for down the road. Furthermore she likes the feeling of being in command, even if it's during the night shift.

Troi ruminates over the class reunion she just returned from and how surprised she was at how much her classmates had changed since she had last spoken to them, the experience has clearly left an impact on her. Their conversation is interrupted by the tactical officer, who informs them that they're having trouble contacting Data.

Data, as it turns out, has gone off on his own to recover a Federation probe that's accidentally veered off course and crashed onto an inhabited world. The probe contains radioactive material and could pose a danger to the pre-industrial population on the planet. (Plus, you, know, alien probe.) Crusher is unconcerned with the communication problem as she was informed it could be caused by the probe's radiation. She informs the tactical officer to continue trying to contact Data and to keep him updated on the Enterprise's status; they'll be delayed for a few days as the ship has to rendezvous with another for a transfer of medical supplies.

On the planet, which would seem to be about in the Renaissance period, an alien father talks with his daughter while walking her to school (the defining characteristic of these aliens is they have forehead herpes), the conversation is interrupted by the shocking sight of seeing Data android-staggering into the town square carrying a case, he opens his mouth and lets out an eerie electronic noise and the father and daughter stare in shock and disbelief.

Data's voice "croaks" a bit as it seems to correct itself, we see the case he's carrying is marked with "radioactive" warnings, the father sends his daughter off to school and confronts Data, asking who he is.

Data's voice still struggles and Data's mind must be filled with malware right now because he can barely manage to repeat the father's questions back to him, Data also seems pretty confused about what is going on around him. Dammit. He must have been upgraded to Windows Vista before leaving the ship.

The father continues to try and get information out of Data, who notably has a lucky tear in his uniform right where his combadge would be, and starts by introducing himself. Data takes the "Person With Amnesia or Communication Misunderstanding Cliché 2891" by repeating the father's words back to him verbatim, the daughter giggles from her hiding spot earning her an admonishing from the father to get her ass to school.

Data becomes more and more cognizant and seems able to talk more coherently (maybe the communication problems can from the Universal Translator trying to reboot?) and tells the father he cannot remember any events prior to his walking to the town from the mountains. The father is astonished to point out the mountains are some made-up alien measure of distance away, so maybe the UT is still stumbling, Data assures him he remembers the journey but knows nothing else about his circumstances, who he is, where he's from, or what happened to him to cause him to appear to have been in an accident.

The father notes Data's odd-looking skin and eyes, and further wonders if Data knows what is in the case he's carrying, Data isn't sure; the father takes the case for further inspection, it's weight coming as a surprise to the alien man as it drops his arm when in his grasp. The father notes the "strange markings" on the case, which includes the Starfleet chevrons, the "radiation/radioactive" symbol that humanity has stuck with for centuries it would seem as well as the word "radioactive." The father wonders what the markings mean, Data's able to read the word but doesn't know what it means, speculating that it may be his name.

It's interesting Data's been able to carry on a conversation for a couple minutes now and will grow more capable of it in the coming days on the planet but his brain apparently never recovers the definition of "radioactive" even though Data will use numerous "big words" over the course of the episode.

The father opens the case and pulls out one of the probe fragments, looking at the bit of metal with some wonder.

Back on the ship, Riker is playing his trombone (how well do you think the walls of these rooms are sound-dampened) when Troi walks in without using the door chime…. Well, well, well. Care to explain Commander?

She smiles as she sits down to watch Riker play for a bit and they begin holding a conversation with Riker responding with notes from the 'bone, Troi remarks it's a better way of speaking with Riker prompting to give her a discordant tone and finally sit and speak with her.

He asks her what's up, and she says she wants to take the "Bridge Officer's Test" in order to become a full Commander. Riker wonders what brought this on, and Troi says a few events caused her to consider this, most notably how she learned how her fellow alumni have moved on in their careers since the academy.

In a rare a bit of internal-continuity for this show, Troi mentions the events of the Season 5 episode "Disaster" where the ship was critically disabled by a "quantum filament" and she was in command due to none of the other senior officers being available. She's thought about it off and on since that time, two years prior for her, and she missed the experience of it. Not the disaster itself but the rush and responsibility of the decision making.

Riker supports her decision to take the test, but warns her he'll be the one administering the tests and he can be a tough teacher, Troi points out she's a good student and then reconfirms with him on what a warp-core breech is.

On the alien planet, the village's medicine woman is examining Data. To the episode's credit the medicine woman is written pretty well and believably for this presented time period and accounting for the fact it's an alien race that's had a different development than where humans were at at this point in time.

None the less, she's also good and pulling theories out of her ass and passing them off as scientific, known, fact and, though no fault of her own, being ignorant about how the world works.

She notes Data has no smell to his breath, his "skin" feels "clammy" and though his "hearbeat" sounds odd to her it seems to be regular and steady (strangely her stethoscope's pad is attached to the earpiece with what looks like a thing headphone wire, rather than a tube to acoustically transmit the sound.) She asks if Data's is experiencing any kind of pain whatsoever and he affirms no, she asks him about other symptoms including indigestion, which Data says he cannot have that as he's yet to eat.

The medicine woman seems to have it licked now and supposes Data could be suffering from malnutrition and needs to eat, plenty of meat, butter and cheese to return his vitality. And possibly give him colon cancer and higher cholesterol. She further speculates Data's odd looks are because he's an "ice man" from the mountain tops, his strange eyes and skin being a result of living in the harsher environment. As much of out of her ass as this is, she credits her claims as being due to their society's more "scientific" approach to questions, saying their ancestors may have said Data was a demon or supernatural being of some sort.

She leaves, promising to be back to look Data over the following day, as she leaves alien daughter returns home and asks after Data's status… oddly the daughter knocked on her own front door before entering.

She's informed that other than memory loss, Data is fine. She wonders what his name is, they return to speculating it may be Radioactive but the daughter doesn't like the name and opts to give Data a new one, which Data accepts.

They then turn their attention to the probe fragments in Data's case and wonder if the town's local metal-smith can tell them anything about it. The metal-smith examines the probe fragment and notes that the piece is warm, the father says all of the fragments are, then the smith tamps on the fragment with a hammer on an anvil a bit and says the fragments are malleable enough to be of some use and asks if they are for sale.

Data, now in alien clothing, says he'll sell some of the pieces but wants to keep some of them for use as clues to his identity, he agrees to sell half the fragments for what the father deems to be acceptable amount of alien currency.

Data watches as another alien smith tamps on some metal on another anvil when the base of it gives way causing the anvil to fall on the man's leg and pin him, he cries out in pain. The lead smith and father rush over to help him but cannot lift the anvil, as the smith runs off to get a lever to attempt to move the anvil, Data walks over and simply picks the anvil up, freeing the trapped smith.

The father and town onlookers look on with shock as the father tells Data to put the anvil down, Data says he thinks the anvil's support structure gave-way because it was rotted but then he notes the townspeople "soda-water rhubarbing" behind him and wonders of he did something wrong. The father assures him that he did not, just unexpected.

It would seem Data's next house call came earlier than expected as that night the alien family and Data are having a meal with the medicine woman who pulls more speculation out of her ass that Data's strength would be necessary for him and other "ice men" living in the nearby mountains. Or I think they're nearby. Google doesn't have a "bullshit alien measure of distance-to-miles" converter.

Why the made-up alien unit of distance? I'll give them the name of the currency, but we're already accepting the notion of the Universal Translator allowing these people to talk to Data, why wouldn't it translate the distance traveled? The response means, obviously, it was a great distance but what to them is a great distance? Is it 20 miles? 200? 2000?

The woman's speculation is that it'd be necessary for the "ice men" to fight off the ferocious creatures that live in the mountains; Data's innate personality starts to reassert itself as he begins to question the medicine woman's claims. He affirms that no one from their village has ever been to the mountains, so how could she know there's ferocious creatures there? The woman says that while she knows of no one have been there, there must be creatures that live there.

The conversation puts the father off his meal and drives him to illness, he says he hasn't felt well the afternoon, the medicine woman notices he's running a slight fever (which anyone would feel that way feeling their head with the palm of your hand, *doctor*) and suggests he goes for a walk in the cool air. I begin to question this woman's medical degree.

The doctor and father leave, giving Data and the daughter a chance to talk some, the daughter speaks of her mother and mentions that she died a year prior, her father told her that her mother went to a place where everything is peaceful and no one ever gets sick. She asks if Data thinks a place like that might really exist.

Data looks poignantly out the window to the star-lit sky and moon (Earth's moon?!) and says yes, he does.

Back on the ship Troi is taking her Commander's testing. They don't want you to think this is the case but it's totally the case.

She's in engineering and there's an emergency going on with a catastrophic failure with the techno-greebles. She struggles a bit when it comes to telling Geordi on what to do when it comes to fixing it but her plan won't work. Neither will ejecting the malfunctioning greeble. Before much else can happen the ship "explodes" and the test is over, Riker comes in to chide her.

He says she's passed all of the other parts of her training excellently (so… days? Weeks? Months? Have passed? How easy it to become a Commander) and that the engineering portion is the toughest. Troi wants to know what she did wrong, but Riker says as her trainer he cannot help her, nor can he give her hints on what the next test might be like to help her on what to study for.

Okay, I can, sort-of, understand the need for their being some-kind-of engineering segment to this test, but does the Commander really need to know the specific courses of action to take in engineering problems? I know there's been a couple of times Picard's eyes have glazed over when thrown technobabble or needed something explained to him in common tongue (which, yeah, is more for our benefit) but isn't this *why* there's a Chief of Engineering? Is Troi, or any commander, really going to be the one to decide on what action to take on fixing a critical problem? In "Booby Trap" Picard laid it all on Geordi to get them out of the mess, he wasn't going around trying to figure out how to keep power going on the ship.

 

[Trekker4747]

Anyway, back on the planet Data is attending some-kind-of class with the alien daughter and I guess today's unit is on science so the medicine woman is teaching the class. She explains the, to us, ancient theory that everything is made up of the basic elements of "rock, sky, fire and water." These elements can be found in literally everything and to make her point she uses some wood as an example. The "rock" of the wood makes it hard and heavy, exposing it to flame releases the fire (which, okay…), she blows out the small fire she set on the piece of wood and says the smoke is a form of the "air" in the piece of wood. She struggles on the "water" part and says sometimes these "elements" can be hard to find, and are often buried deep in an object. But they are always there.

Data sheepishly raises his hand and clears his throat in order to correct her by explaining to her the scientific knowledge he has, saying wood doesn't contain fire because it is combustible, that it -like everything- is made of thousands of different chemical compounds. He says she's making conclusions off of superficial observation rather than true evidence.

The medicine woman dismisses Data's comments and tells her class that he's suffering from memory loss. She gives them homework and ends the class.

Data and the alien daughter talk a bit, Data assures he's alright and even though he's lost some of his memory he's sure wood doesn't contain fire. They soon overhear a confrontation between the father and metal-smith over the deal with the metal fragments, namely over the agreed upon price.

(Wait, they gave the metal-smith the fragments without getting the money in return?)

Data goes over to affirm the initial deal, but the metal-smith himself notes Data's memory problems as not being enough evidence to the truth, the father slumps some due to his illness.

Back at the house he's being looked over by the medicine woman who is baffled by the lesions and burn marks on the father as well as his hair beginning to fall out. She surmises the fluids in his body are overheating and he needs water, fresh air and she leaves some herbs behind as medicine.

Data takes not of her magnifying glass and says he knows how to make it's magnification stronger, she takes the glass from him and leaves. Data asks permission to begin is own investigation on the father's illness.

Leaving a nearby shop with a box full of supplies Data talks with the daughter over his hope to find the problem to her father's illness; he's confronted by the metal-smith and other townspeople who are all now sick due to the unknown illness. Data assures them he's not sure what is causing it but is looking for a solution.

Later, Data is investigating the town's illness when he's visited by the medicine woman. The two share some discussion over the recent events, the medicine woman takes note of a microscope-like device Data has built using several magnifying glasses of varying size, he says he improved on the one the woman had earlier. Intrigued, the woman asks to look through it and recoils a bit at what she sees, Data says it's magnifying factor is 500x and goes into a technobabble explanation on what is happening to the cells on the slide.

The medicine woman, for once, seems humbled as she has nothing to really add to Data's diagnosis which he feels discounts a communicable disease, but he feels there's some common event between those who are ill.

The only one the medicine woman can think of is exposure to Data, he says while he's not discounting himself as a causal factor the fact that the medicine woman isn't ill after having significant interaction with Data there's likely another common event.

The daughter comes down saying her father refuses to eat, the daughter also now sick and showing sores on her body. Before the doctor rushes her back to bed Data notices a pendant she's wearing made from the metal that came out of the radioactive materials box. He takes the pendant and studies it intently.

Back on the ship, Troi is pouring over diagrams of the ship when Riker comes in and says he's cancelling any further testing, he doesn't feel Troi is ready to be a Commander because she's unable to make the tougher choices. Troi takes great offense to this and tries to defend herself and her compassion to want to be a Commander. She points out that there's more to being a commander than technical manuals and Riker agrees and she doesn't have what it takes to get past that hurdle.

Troi wonders if there's a solution or if it's a no-win scenario (which it is) but Riker says it isn't. He tells her his first duty is to the ship and he cannot allow someone who is not qualified to be a bridge officer and he leaves. Troi studies the diagrams more and Riker's words resonate with her.

She walks purposefully into the holodeck and retakes her final test, this time asking Geordi if he can fix the engineering problem manually. He says he can, but would be exposed to lethal levels of radiation, Troi, sadly, orders him to do it.

Even though it's a holodeck program, the episode plays the scene well with some good weight in the reactions between the main cast members and even an extra in the background as she overhears the conversation.

As he goes off, the program ends, and Riker congratulates her on passing the exam, realizing that to be in command she has to be able to make tough choices. Which, honestly, didn't she struggle with this in "Disaster." In that episode her and Ensign Ro butt head a lot over what to do.

Ro wants to separate the ship and take the saucer section as far away from the engineering section as is possible because a warp core breech may occur due to an instability in the antimatter containment pods. Troi feels there may still be people alive in engineering who can see and fix the problem.

The ship comes dangerously close to a WCB as the containment drops, even reaching the failure point, and she never separates the ship all on some feeling or hope there may be people alive in engineering.

While she can be lauded for not wanting to abandon those people, doesn't this come down to her first duty being to the ship? The separating the ship and saving some lives is the better route to go on than to leave the ship intact and risk it blowing up, killing everyone?

Anyway, Riker says she was able to overcome the hurdle in order to make the tough call. She is now a commander.

Data is still trying to figure out the spreading disease on the planet and his reached a theory, he has coated a cloth with the liquid used in the village's lamps he shows that it illuminates when exposed to the metal fragment. He surmises that the fragment emit’s a damaging type of energy that's harming the villagers.

The medicine woman is unsure, but Data says he can block the rays and does so by placing the "radioactive" case between the fragment and cloth. He says the words and symbols on the case may serve as a warning for it to not be opened, and the case is made of a material that can block the rays.

The woman is unsure but, again to her credit, is willing to accept Data's theory but she wants to examine his work and notes when she returns from collecting the fragments with the case.

Data goes back to his work and is soon interrupted by a knock on the door the smith and another villager has come to try and rid their village of Data and the plague he has brought, they attack him but Data is able to fend them off to some degree, the villager swipes at Data with an pick-ax and recoils at the sight. The axe has torn a piece of Data's "flesh" off of his face exposing some of his circuitry, the villagers flee wondering what Data is, Data himself is unsure.

In a scene almost our of Frankenstein he smith has formed a mob set on finding Data and kill him, but he cannot be found. Though they have collected all of the radioactive metal fragments. The father, daughter and medicine woman are all unsure that Data means any harm, the villagers grumble off to find Data.

The daughter examines Data's workspace when he walks into the room, amnesiatic Data has a flare for the dramatic as he has taken on a morbid and sinister tone to his voice, he is also now wearing a Phantom of the Opera style hooded cloak, the hood covering the exposed circuitry behind his face, he speaks with the daughter, hoarsely, and says he's unsure of what he is and he doesn't want to frighten her.

Good job at it Data, the hood, the hoarse and sinister voice, hiding in the shadows.

The daughter assures him she won't be afraid and he lowers the hood, the girl reacts some and shows noticeable fear but continues her conversation with Data. She's unsure when the others will return, Data says he will continue to work on finding a cure for the radiation sickness.

Sometime later he seems to have come up with the medicine, he speaks with the daughter about it, having her try about a tablespoon's worth. He says he already gave some to the father and he's shown improvement. Wow! Data makes some good medicine fast!

He tries to concoct a plan to administer the medicine to the rest of the village but he doesn't believe the townspeople will believe him, or the daughter after recent events. The idea then strikes him to put the medicine in the town's well and affirms with the daughter it's the only source of water. She confirms, the next nearest source is two days away.

Data goes on to make a large batch of the medicine, it'll be diluted in the well but should work.

To the young actress's credit she does a good job of speaking in a "feverish fog" even foggishly repeating some of her sentence as Data leaves and she drifts back to sleep.

Later, Data carries a bucket full of the medication to the town's well, he's confronted by the mob from Frankenstein who are unwilling to listen to Data's attempts to explain things to them. Just as he dumps the medicine in the well the smith runs Data through with a large spear, electrical bolts spark from Data as he falls "unconscious."

The medicine woman looks over Data's body and looks to the mob with some shock and sadness, the villagers watch over Data's body.

Sometime later, the daughter is walking mournfully through the town, we get some nice establishing shot of the town with the villagers being villagers, one walks by with an alien bicycle with no obvious means to sit on it and provide movement to the drive wheel.

The daughter is stopped by a strange woman, it's Crusher dressed as a villager, saying she's looking for a friend of hers who may have wandered into the village. Why she picks the 10-year-old girl to talk to and not one of the adult villagers is anyone's guess. Riker is there too, he points out the odd looks Data would have had.

She says she's seen him and points to a nearby headstone/memorial, Crusher is confused and she gives them a brief explanation of what happened and how Data was her friend too and saved the village from the illness, they buried the metal in the forest.
She leaves, and Crusher pulls out her tricorder and begins scanning, Riker looks over the well. She finds Data's body but cannot tell how badly he's damaged. Riker has them transport Data and the probe remains to the ship, no one on the planet will ever know.

In sickbay, Data has been repaired and Crusher reactivates Data. He springs to life and begins to process what has happened, it would seem the events on the planet are unknown to him (take a drink as this is one of those episodes that "doesn't happen"), last thing he remembers is a power surge from the probe.

Riker and Crusher fill him.

Troi excuses herself, she has the bridge this watch and Data notes her promotion. She acknowledges it and says Data can now call her "sir" (which, no. She may be higher rank, but Data still holds a higher position on the ship) and she leaves.

_____________________

When I started the notion of doing full recaps, I knew doing episodes I liked would prove to be a bit of a challenge as it's hard to be snarky and witty on something you like. I mean… what's there to make fun of?

I ran into that problem last week and it happened again to me this week as this is one of those episodes I really like, though I think it mostly gets tepid or lukewarm reaction from the fan community.

I find it interesting to see our characters interact with alien species who've not yet reached any meaningful technological development -meaning the Prime Directive precludes some of the more interesting encounters- so here it's interesting to see Data visit a race in a Renaissance-like era, it makes for more interesting costumes and set design (though the home of the main alien characters seems a bit large and well appointed for this level of development) and a more interesting encounter between the main characters and guest alien characters. Granted in a much more mundane scenario there wouldn't any revelation or let-on about things beyond the knowledge of the aliens.

The biggest thing holding this episode down is the stuff dealing with Troi and wanting to become a Commander. It's too late in the series to make this kind of change and to really do anything with it. I also think Troi's class reunion would have been enough to motivate her to do it without mentioning "Disaster" though it was a nice bit of internal continuity.

Like I said the recap, I liked the doctor/medicine woman character on the planet as she was a good cross between being believably naïve about the nature of how things work, her confidence in her assumptions and her seeming willingness to accept Data's determination of events.

The stuff with the metal-smith also was interesting in a, as I said, Frankenstein sort of way. I think without the Troi subplot, that could have been expanded on much more, as well as the relationship between Data and his alien caregivers.

Interesting in this episode, Geordi only really appears as a hologram and isn't even around for the repair and reactivation of Data near the end of the episode and Picard is there but just watching over things, not really saying anything at all.

So, a good Data episode and I guess a marginal Troi episode but I think it's odd that the engineering section of the Commander's qualification has her making engineering decisions. Yeah the "solution" was for her to sacrifice an officer to solve the solution, but what made her think she was the one to make the engineering decision itself?

Next week? Put your waders on, it's going to be rough.

 

[Marsden]

Great recap! Thanks!

 

[tomalak301]

I've always liked this episode. Both plots were just nice, even though this is probably remembered best as the Troi kills Geordi episode.

 

[Terok Nor]

This was a decent episode. Neither plot was particularly exciting but it's a watchable entry.

 

[Makarov]

Yeah I like this one as well, I actually liked Troi's part the most. Probably not my favorite Data episode but it's still memorable to see him school those people in some science.

 

[RAMA]

I enjoyed this episode immensely when it first came out. While the planetary culture was primitive relative to Data's tech, and though a slightly unfair comparison to make, it's somehow tremendous fun to see Data correct the pompous know-it-all from the natives.

There's an excellent teaser...Data's mouth opens and out comes static. The drama is fine, I think if you buy Data's relationship with the family on the planet it goes a long way towards investing in the planet and the predicament with radiation poisoning that Data inadvertently causes.

The episode highlights another strength of the best of Trek: problem solving--under difficult circumstances--and most of all, even if the stories are sometimes not scientifically accurate, ST almost always champions the scientific method over all.

RAMA

 

[RAMA]

Ok, so I know I said full synopsis might be cool and all..but maybe you can keep it down to a 1000 words or less. I counted over 4500!

It's… "nighttime" on the ship and Dr. Crusher is doing a rare bridge-watch when Counselor Troi returns from a Starfleet Academy class reunion via shuttle the two women share some banter about their current lots in life. Crusher says that even though it wasn't required for her to be a Chief Medical Officer she opted to take a bridge officer's course which allowed her to gain the rank of Commander because she always wants to challenge herself and give herself plenty of career options for down the road. Furthermore she likes the feeling of being in command, even if it's during the night shift.

Troi ruminates over the class reunion she just returned from and how surprised she was at how much her classmates had changed since she had last spoken to them, the experience has clearly left an impact on her. Their conversation is interrupted by the tactical officer, who informs them that they're having trouble contacting Data.

Data, as it turns out, has gone off on his own to recover a Federation probe that's accidentally veered off course and crashed onto an inhabited world. The probe contains radioactive material and could pose a danger to the pre-industrial population on the planet. (Plus, you, know, alien probe.) Crusher is unconcerned with the communication problem as she was informed it could be caused by the probe's radiation. She informs the tactical officer to continue trying to contact Data and to keep him updated on the Enterprise's status; they'll be delayed for a few days as the ship has to rendezvous with another for a transfer of medical supplies.

On the planet, which would seem to be about in the Renaissance period, an alien father talks with his daughter while walking her to school (the defining characteristic of these aliens is they have forehead herpes), the conversation is interrupted by the shocking sight of seeing Data android-staggering into the town square carrying a case, he opens his mouth and lets out an eerie electronic noise and the father and daughter stare in shock and disbelief.

Data's voice "croaks" a bit as it seems to correct itself, we see the case he's carrying is marked with "radioactive" warnings, the father sends his daughter off to school and confronts Data, asking who he is.

Data's voice still struggles and Data's mind must be filled with malware right now because he can barely manage to repeat the father's questions back to him, Data also seems pretty confused about what is going on around him. Dammit. He must have been upgraded to Windows Vista before leaving the ship.

The father continues to try and get information out of Data, who notably has a lucky tear in his uniform right where his combadge would be, and starts by introducing himself. Data takes the "Person With Amnesia or Communication Misunderstanding Cliché 2891" by repeating the father's words back to him verbatim, the daughter giggles from her hiding spot earning her an admonishing from the father to get her ass to school.

Data becomes more and more cognizant and seems able to talk more coherently (maybe the communication problems can from the Universal Translator trying to reboot?) and tells the father he cannot remember any events prior to his walking to the town from the mountains. The father is astonished to point out the mountains are some made-up alien measure of distance away, so maybe the UT is still stumbling, Data assures him he remembers the journey but knows nothing else about his circumstances, who he is, where he's from, or what happened to him to cause him to appear to have been in an accident.

The father notes Data's odd-looking skin and eyes, and further wonders if Data knows what is in the case he's carrying, Data isn't sure; the father takes the case for further inspection, it's weight coming as a surprise to the alien man as it drops his arm when in his grasp. The father notes the "strange markings" on the case, which includes the Starfleet chevrons, the "radiation/radioactive" symbol that humanity has stuck with for centuries it would seem as well as the word "radioactive." The father wonders what the markings mean, Data's able to read the word but doesn't know what it means, speculating that it may be his name.

It's interesting Data's been able to carry on a conversation for a couple minutes now and will grow more capable of it in the coming days on the planet but his brain apparently never recovers the definition of "radioactive" even though Data will use numerous "big words" over the course of the episode.

The father opens the case and pulls out one of the probe fragments, looking at the bit of metal with some wonder.

Back on the ship, Riker is playing his trombone (how well do you think the walls of these rooms are sound-dampened) when Troi walks in without using the door chime…. Well, well, well. Care to explain Commander?

She smiles as she sits down to watch Riker play for a bit and they begin holding a conversation with Riker responding with notes from the 'bone, Troi remarks it's a better way of speaking with Riker prompting to give her a discordant tone and finally sit and speak with her.

He asks her what's up, and she says she wants to take the "Bridge Officer's Test" in order to become a full Commander. Riker wonders what brought this on, and Troi says a few events caused her to consider this, most notably how she learned how her fellow alumni have moved on in their careers since the academy.

In a rare a bit of internal-continuity for this show, Troi mentions the events of the Season 5 episode "Disaster" where the ship was critically disabled by a "quantum filament" and she was in command due to none of the other senior officers being available. She's thought about it off and on since that time, two years prior for her, and she missed the experience of it. Not the disaster itself but the rush and responsibility of the decision making.

Riker supports her decision to take the test, but warns her he'll be the one administering the tests and he can be a tough teacher, Troi points out she's a good student and then reconfirms with him on what a warp-core breech is.

On the alien planet, the village's medicine woman is examining Data. To the episode's credit the medicine woman is written pretty well and believably for this presented time period and accounting for the fact it's an alien race that's had a different development than where humans were at at this point in time.

None the less, she's also good and pulling theories out of her ass and passing them off as scientific, known, fact and, though no fault of her own, being ignorant about how the world works.

She notes Data has no smell to his breath, his "skin" feels "clammy" and though his "hearbeat" sounds odd to her it seems to be regular and steady (strangely her stethoscope's pad is attached to the earpiece with what looks like a thing headphone wire, rather than a tube to acoustically transmit the sound.) She asks if Data's is experiencing any kind of pain whatsoever and he affirms no, she asks him about other symptoms including indigestion, which Data says he cannot have that as he's yet to eat.

The medicine woman seems to have it licked now and supposes Data could be suffering from malnutrition and needs to eat, plenty of meat, butter and cheese to return his vitality. And possibly give him colon cancer and higher cholesterol. She further speculates Data's odd looks are because he's an "ice man" from the mountain tops, his strange eyes and skin being a result of living in the harsher environment. As much of out of her ass as this is, she credits her claims as being due to their society's more "scientific" approach to questions, saying their ancestors may have said Data was a demon or supernatural being of some sort.

She leaves, promising to be back to look Data over the following day, as she leaves alien daughter returns home and asks after Data's status… oddly the daughter knocked on her own front door before entering.

She's informed that other than memory loss, Data is fine. She wonders what his name is, they return to speculating it may be Radioactive but the daughter doesn't like the name and opts to give Data a new one, which Data accepts.

They then turn their attention to the probe fragments in Data's case and wonder if the town's local metal-smith can tell them anything about it. The metal-smith examines the probe fragment and notes that the piece is warm, the father says all of the fragments are, then the smith tamps on the fragment with a hammer on an anvil a bit and says the fragments are malleable enough to be of some use and asks if they are for sale.

Data, now in alien clothing, says he'll sell some of the pieces but wants to keep some of them for use as clues to his identity, he agrees to sell half the fragments for what the father deems to be acceptable amount of alien currency.

Data watches as another alien smith tamps on some metal on another anvil when the base of it gives way causing the anvil to fall on the man's leg and pin him, he cries out in pain. The lead smith and father rush over to help him but cannot lift the anvil, as the smith runs off to get a lever to attempt to move the anvil, Data walks over and simply picks the anvil up, freeing the trapped smith.

The father and town onlookers look on with shock as the father tells Data to put the anvil down, Data says he thinks the anvil's support structure gave-way because it was rotted but then he notes the townspeople "soda-water rhubarbing" behind him and wonders of he did something wrong. The father assures him that he did not, just unexpected.

It would seem Data's next house call came earlier than expected as that night the alien family and Data are having a meal with the medicine woman who pulls more speculation out of her ass that Data's strength would be necessary for him and other "ice men" living in the nearby mountains. Or I think they're nearby. Google doesn't have a "bullshit alien measure of distance-to-miles" converter.

Why the made-up alien unit of distance? I'll give them the name of the currency, but we're already accepting the notion of the Universal Translator allowing these people to talk to Data, why wouldn't it translate the distance traveled? The response means, obviously, it was a great distance but what to them is a great distance? Is it 20 miles? 200? 2000?

The woman's speculation is that it'd be necessary for the "ice men" to fight off the ferocious creatures that live in the mountains; Data's innate personality starts to reassert itself as he begins to question the medicine woman's claims. He affirms that no one from their village has ever been to the mountains, so how could she know there's ferocious creatures there? The woman says that while she knows of no one have been there, there must be creatures that live there.

The conversation puts the father off his meal and drives him to illness, he says he hasn't felt well the afternoon, the medicine woman notices he's running a slight fever (which anyone would feel that way feeling their head with the palm of your hand, *doctor*) and suggests he goes for a walk in the cool air. I begin to question this woman's medical degree.

The doctor and father leave, giving Data and the daughter a chance to talk some, the daughter speaks of her mother and mentions that she died a year prior, her father told her that her mother went to a place where everything is peaceful and no one ever gets sick. She asks if Data thinks a place like that might really exist.

Data looks poignantly out the window to the star-lit sky and moon (Earth's moon?!) and says yes, he does.

Back on the ship Troi is taking her Commander's testing. They don't want you to think this is the case but it's totally the case.

She's in engineering and there's an emergency going on with a catastrophic failure with the techno-greebles. She struggles a bit when it comes to telling Geordi on what to do when it comes to fixing it but her plan won't work. Neither will ejecting the malfunctioning greeble. Before much else can happen the ship "explodes" and the test is over, Riker comes in to chide her.

He says she's passed all of the other parts of her training excellently (so… days? Weeks? Months? Have passed? How easy it to become a Commander) and that the engineering portion is the toughest. Troi wants to know what she did wrong, but Riker says as her trainer he cannot help her, nor can he give her hints on what the next test might be like to help her on what to study for.

Okay, I can, sort-of, understand the need for their being some-kind-of engineering segment to this test, but does the Commander really need to know the specific courses of action to take in engineering problems? I know there's been a couple of times Picard's eyes have glazed over when thrown technobabble or needed something explained to him in common tongue (which, yeah, is more for our benefit) but isn't this *why* there's a Chief of Engineering? Is Troi, or any commander, really going to be the one to decide on what action to take on fixing a critical problem? In "Booby Trap" Picard laid it all on Geordi to get them out of the mess, he wasn't going around trying to figure out how to keep power going on the ship.

 

[Trekker4747]

1000, might be tough.... But, yeah, this one got away from me. And, well, the next one isn't going to be any easier.

 

[Trekker4747]

Should be able to do the next episod tomorrow.