Star Trek TNG The Price

This episode has good stuff and weird stuff.  It's not a bad episode, but the way it goes about proving its point is a little off to me.

There are some important firsts in this episode.  It's the first time they incorporate a wormhole and the first mention of the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta quadrants.  The geneses of two more Star Trek series are spawned right here in this episode. There are many versions of the set up of the four quadrants of the Milky Way, but this one will do to help illustrate the complexities the mere backdrop of this episode spawned.  And also to give you a visual if you need to understand where the Gamma and Delta Quadrants are in relation to the Alpha and Beta Quadrants which is where the Federation  and all of the Star Trek universe up to this point has existed.

I did like the fact that the subject matter was a kind of space economics.  Not all the conflict has to be dangerous or philosophical.  Nobody was coming to conquer the Barzans to take their wormhole and oh my God isn't American colonialism terrible?  What's taking place here is what could be called business as usual when they aren't having to fight off the Borg or Romulans.  And it's not boring.  The planet of Barzan is selling rights to the wormhole in hopes of gaining external resources that they are in need of.  So their Premier Bhavani is holding a conference on the Enterprise to get offers from different delegations.

It opens an closes on a regular schedule, and the Barzans have sent unmanned probes into it and they've come back with readings from the Gamma Quadrant.  And a stable wormhole that can be successfully navigated through is a unicorn at this time in Star Trek history, so many parties are interested in this short cut through the galaxy. 

 Of course, the main thrust (no pun intended) of this episode is the relationship between Troi and the negotiator representing the Chrysalians, Devinoni Ral.  It gives Sirtis some sexy time and she gets to literally let her hair down.  It gives us a little girl talk time between the women of the show.  I guess it could be an appealing fantasy for some women, but I thought the way he came on to her so strongly was a little creepy, frankly, so I couldn't get into the whole fast and spontaneous romance story. It didn't seem real to me. However, without it, there would be no conflict later in the show. Yet, it's merely a conflict of ethics so it's weak on the whole.

Ral is a quarter Betazoid, which is why Troi felt so drawn to him.  And after learning that he uses his empathic powers to help in trade negotiations she's offended.  Ral points out that Troi uses her abilities to give the Enterprise an advantage as well.  He makes very good points about people without empathic abilities being able to manipulate situations simply by being observant.  He makes a lot of valid points on the ethics of the situation and I couldn't really argue with any of them.

Meanwhile the Ferengi delegation that crashed the party at the beginning have taken out the Federation negotiator with a poison that doesn't kill him but gives him a sever allergic reaction.  This places Riker in the position of having to negotiate for Federation control of the wormhole which makes things awkward because of his history with Troi and the fact that he has to work closely with Ral now. This is also a good turn of events for the development of Ferengi culture.  Although their behavior is still a little too cartoonish, they have started maneuvering their objective of "profit" away from piracy and more towards being unscrupulous businessman types.  It's not perfect yet by any means, but at least now you can enjoy the humor of their presence without it seeming too far fetched.

But the Federation is still suspicious of a stable wormhole and the Barzan probes aren't of a first class nature, so they want to send a shuttle through to see if all is really as it seems.  Not to be outdone the Ferengi go too.  It's definitely a full episode with lot of things going on so that if you don't like one part, you're almost certain to like another.

Ral continues to take out opposition by getting into the head of the Coldonian delegate and convincing him to withdraw his bid.  His attempts to do the same with Riker fail though.  In true poker form, Riker calls his bluff.  I don't see a problem with Ral's methods because of the points he was making about the fact that regular humans can do this too without the added edge of empathic powers.  Is it wrong?  I can't say that for certain, either.  It's not black and white.  This is one part of the episode that I do like though because it's another good reflection of real life in the writing.  The fact that they were trying to make these parts seem seedy and morally ambiguous wasn't holding water with me.

I think they realized that a lot of people like me would wonder what the big deal is about Ral and his tactics - you know... that's life; get over it.  So, they had to write in a bit at the end where he does something a little more underhanded by teaming up withe the Ferengi to sway Bhavani's decision in favor of the Chrysalians prematurely.  I think the way Troi "tattles" on him was supposed to seem like her clearing her conscious, but it also kind of proves Ral's point at the same time, so I don't see it as a win.  Not a necessary win anyway because when the Enterprise's shuttle returns with news that the wormhole is unstable on the other side, it's clear that all of his manipulation of the situation only got him the booby prize anyway.  In this case, I appreciated the humor of the Ferengi shuttle being stranded in the Delta Quadrant (not too many light years difference from where Voyager would start) to offset the lackluster story with Ral, Deanna, and the wormhole negotiations.

I think I'm going to have to go with three stars on this one. It's still better than most anything in the first two seasons since it's debating a more real-life matter of ethics, but it just didn't blow my skirt up otherwise.