Star Trek TNG 11001001

This is a decent enough episode it's just not one of my favorites. 

It's a classic type of episode.  Simplistic, but engaging.  The Enterprise goes to a starbase to get some repairs and upgrades to their computers.

Gotta love the star bases in TNG.  This thing is better than a lot of their planetscapes at this point.

Also gotta love these sports and leisure activities that are never followed up on like Parisse Squares.  Would love to know what that's all about but leaving it to the imagination is fun too.

So they take on the Bynars (Binars? I've seen it spelled both ways.) to do the computer work which seems like no brainer - that people named for the binary system that is the basis for most computer functions would be the people you want upgrading your system.  I always kind of thought it was an unimaginative name... a little too obvious.  But harmless.

They are androgynous and played by female with pitched-down voices like the Talosians in the TOS pilot.  Both makeup jobs are excellent and the effect is believable.  This is actually a good first example of improving on the original concept.  All through this first season they did a lot of rehashing and remaking, but the makeup for these aliens is taking an original idea and actually making it better and then utilizing it slightly differently - the Talosians experimented with the crew, the Bynars were just helpers who needed the Enterprise to save their planet. Really, it's hard to say which is the better makeup job in this case too, which makes it more creative than just drudging up old ideas. Bravo.

They impress Riker with the holodeck upgrades.  By the way, Frakes really plays trombone.  I have to smile knowing that.  A fellow band geek since the tender age of nine.  This was a nice way to add depth to his character as well.  And I always liked it that they chose jazz as his particular favorite style of music.

It was a good episode for other character development as well.  You see Data painting for the first time as a hobby and Geordi taking a particular interest in it.  He was often doing experiments with Data and other engineering projects as his hobby.

The woman that plays Minuet is really pretty.  Another variation on a theme... in a bar playing music and the woman's name is a type of musical composition.

And she's there to be a distraction while the Bynars highjack the ship by making everyone else think it needs to be abandoned.

Poor Wesley.  They're finally treating him like an officer and he ends up being duped with the rest of them.  Just more mishandling of the character.

It's the first time the auto destruct sequence is used.  It only requires two officers to set it up instead of three like in the old series.  I was a little disappointed that they pulled this one out of the hat so soon in the series and for something as benign as this, although the characters didn't know it to be benign at the time.  It just seemed a little over done and anticlimactic. They find the Bynars dying on the bridge and turn it off.

The way it plays out, the computer needs two people to operate it since the Bynars always work in pairs, so it's kind of lucky for them that Picard just happened to go to the holodeck with Riker to become distracted and trapped.  I don't think they thought that one through, but it worked out.

And a silly, kid's show type ending... they were afraid if they'd asked that the Federation would've said no.  Aww.  Sorry, it was just too cutesy for me with the alien's names and Minuet's name.  Not my type of thing.  But I have no animus towards this episode.  It was certainly better than many of the episodes so far.  Good enough for 3 and a half stars.