Star Trek TNG The Chase

You probably think, based on my previous opinions, that I didn't like this one because it pushes evolution over creationism. While it's an eye-roller for me and while it may be a reaffirmation for atheists and perhaps scientologists in this case, I actually have a live-and-let-live attitude on this one because the fact is: Star Trek is a fictional universe. In real life there aren't any Klingons, Romulans, or Cardassians... upright, intelligent, humanoid life forms. So, if they've got a common ancestor in this fictional universe, that seems like legitimate creative writing to me and I'm cool with it. It explains why all the aliens look basically human which was always a big talking point in the Star Trek vs. Star Wars argument - Star Wars had the greater variety of aliens and like it or not this is a distinguishing factor of the two franchises. The preaching about peace between the races is actually a good message since even Christians know that we are all children of the Living God, made in his image. It's just that we all know that liberals don't mean it since they use race to divide and conquer. But there are no politics in this episode. It's just a good sci-fi mystery.

It starts out with the Enterprise exploring a stellar nursery, analyzing the newly forming stars. Very routine and not terribly exciting. Riker calls Picard to the observation lounge and although it seems like an unusual request, he's not bothered by it. When he gets there the room is dark except for a light over an old figurine sitting on the table. Picard appears to recognize the significance of the relic and when the lights come on an older man asks "Mister" Picard if he can identify the piece. The man is a retired professor from Starfleet Academy and one of Picard's personal mentors, Richard Galen. Picard is overjoyed to see him and they begin to discuss the statue in detail. Picard thought he was done studying the artifacts on the planet Kurl that this piece was found on years ago, but Galen said he couldn't resist going back since he was in the neighborhood. He is giving it to Picard as a present and Picard is overwhelmed with gratitude. He asks how long Galen can stay. Riker tells him that he's due to meet with a Vulcan transport in two days. But Galen says that they'll have lots of time together because he intends to take Picard with him. They discuss it in Ten Forward. After getting in a few friendly digs about Picard's amateur speeches on archaeology, Galen jogs his memory about studying paleontology on the microscopic level. He says he remembers Galen writing about it several years ago but then his work just seemed to stop. But it didn't. Galen has continued studying it his entire life and has now made such a remarkable discovery that he's decided to proceed with his investigation in secret. He won't tell Picard what the discovery is unless he agrees to go on the expedition with him. He's not as young as he used to be and needs Picard to help with some of the potential dangers. Hearing that the project could take three months to a year to complete leaves Picard hesitant though. Galen encourages him to sleep on it, sure that he'll say yes. But the audience doesn't even need the breakfast conversation with Beverly to know that he'd never leave the Enterprise. He explains that Galen chose that particular figurine as a gift to remind him of his passion for archaeology and that part of him regrets choosing Starfleet, but taking a hiatus is out of the question. You really feel his conflict in the choice he has to make.

Galen finds Picard the next day and begins to eagerly tell him that the Vulcan transport will take them to their next destination of Indri III. Picard gently tells him that he won't be going because the Enterprise isn't something that he can leave and come back to. Galen is outraged and accuses Picard of squandering a great opportunity. He makes disparaging remarks about the mundane work of studying stars when a monumental discovery awaits. He's so angry he insists on leaving right away even though the transport he was waiting on isn't due to arrive for another two days. Picard is grieved. It wasn't an easy decision. Troi offers to take a walk with him but they're interrupted when Worf alerts the Captain to a Yridian vessel that has just attacked Galen's shuttle. They put it in a tractor beam so the Enterprise can't transport him out and the vessel fires on the Enterprise. Picard orders Worf to disable their weapons and Worf fires the phasers. It shouldn't be enough to cause great damage, but the hit ends up destroying the Yridian vessel and damaging Galen's shuttle. Worf doesn't understand what happened and they beam Galen to sickbay. As he lay dying he apologizes to Picard saying that he was too hard on him. Geordi finds that Galen was trying to protect certain information in the computer banks of the shuttle when he was attacked. It's a series of number blocks that make no sense. So, Picard assumes that the Yridians wanted the information to sell, which is consistent with the Yridian we met in Birthright, and they examine Galen's flight plan to find out where he'd been. Data points out that his course brought him to a life sustaining planet and they go there to find that there are no intelligent inhabitants. He considers Galen's plan to go to Indri III and sets out to go there next. Riker reminds him of his obligations to attend a diplomatic conference, but Picard chooses to pursue the mystery of why Galen was attacked and the nature of his mission. They head for Indri III while Picard tries to decipher the number blocks and can't make any sense of them.

When they get to Indri III they see the atmosphere of the planet being destroyed by a plasma reaction, killing all the life on the planet. Worf says that it can't be reversed and they watch helplessly as the planet turns brown. Then we get reports from Beverly and Geordi who have also been looking into the number blocks. Crusher has discovered that they are DNA sequences of different kinds from different parts of the quadrant. They can't imagine why he was involved in such a strange scavenger hunt. When she tells the computer to combine them all together they form a strange pattern grid that Beverly can't identify. But Geordi doesn't think it's a natural pattern. He thinks it's an algorithm of a computer program that was designed four billion years ago and hidden in the DNA sequences of lifeforms scattered throughout the galaxy. None of them understand why such a thing would exist, but they now realize that it's something either very profound or very dangerous, explaining why Galen was being sought by renegades. They still have nothing to go on until Picard remembers Galen mentioning that he was "in the neighborhood" of the planet Kurl and Beverly suggests that he was collecting DNA samples. They discover that there's only one other planet in the system that can support life, Loren III, so they head there. I can't help but notice how all these places have the suffix III, indicating their third planets from their suns... a nice touch. At Loren III they encounter two Cardassian ships. Their leader, Gul Ocett claims to be on a scientific mission and lets Picard politely know that he's outnumbered. I don't think that when they created Cardassians they ever expected to use them again or that they'd become such a big part of the franchise. So, they didn't consider women when designing the makeup, and the makeup is not flattering at all for a woman's face no matter how beautiful the actress is. But this actress pulls it off better than most and even seems fairly pretty. She's one of the only ones who ever does though. She's also the only female Gul we ever see. In DS9 it's established that women are more of the scientist and engineers and not as interested in the military. Probably because it was hard to create a beautiful lady Cardassian to occur regularly.  A Klingon vessel uncloaks as well and Ocett is just as surprised as the Enterprise. Threats are made all around, but Picard calms everyone down and invites them on board the Enterprise to talk. He takes a chance by revealing the purpose of Galen's work - the DNA, the algorithm, the intergalactic scavenger hunt to put all of the pieces together. They speculate on what it could be. The Klingon, Captain Nu'Daq thinks it's a weapon of course while Ocett thinks it's the key to an unlimited power source. Picard points out that unless they cooperate and share their information nobody will ever know what it is. Really, it's worth watching the whole episode just to hear Ocett suggest that for all we know it could be a recipe for biscuits. I don't know why but that line makes me laugh every time I hear it. This episode, for as serious and intense as this plot was, injected just the right amount of humor at just the right times.

Ocett and Nu'Daq put their piecs of the puzzle in the computer and they find that there are still pieces missing. They're still huffy about it, but agree to wait on board while the computer analyzes the data and attempts to fill in the blanks based on what's there already. While they're waiting we see Nu'Daq's humorous attempt to  dominate Data in an arm wrestling challenge. Data defeats him handily and is also impervious to the Klingon's headbutt that only ends up knocking Nu'Daq a little silly. So he changes directions and tries to flatter Data into giving him the first look at their analysis. That's also funny since Data, having no filter, calls it a bribe to his face and he leaves frustrated. Then they're all back in Beverly's lab to learn the next location on the journey. Once the Rahm-Izad system is named, Ocett disappears back to her ship which fires on both the Enterprise and the Klingon ship. But the Enterprise crew expected this since Geordi discovered that the Cardassians were tampering with their defensive systems. So they "play possum" by behaving as if they are more damaged than what they really are. They also sent the Cardassians in the wrong direction and welcome Nu'Daq to come with them to the real destination in the Vilmorian system since his ship was really damaged in the attack. When they get there they're confused because none of the planets support life, but then they see that the second one is showing a dry ocean bed indicating that it once supported life so they go down to start investigating. This creates the most obvious snag in the episode - if it doesn't support life anymore, how can they be down there without life support suits? And how can there be lichen and things like that to examine with their tricorders? But it's a good episode, so we can look past that.

Riker then warns them that they have company and says that he's going to beam them up but Picard stalls him so they can collect a sample from the lichen. That's long enough for Ocett to beam down and hold them at phaser point while she begins to collect a sample. Then we're surprised again as a Romulan Commander beams down and stops them all. He explains that they'd been monitoring communications between the Cardassians and the Yridians and that they were there when Galen's shuttle was destroyed. Ocett threatens to destroy the lichen and the group is at a stand off. Picard and Beverly were standing a little away from the group though and he discovers that this ocean bed is only partly fossilized. He gives a whispered suggestion to Beverly to scrape up some of it and put it to be analyzed and she sneakily does just that. While the others are making their final threats before it comes to firing on each other, they combine her analyzer with the tricorder and the program is triggered. It altars the tricorder to emit a holographic projection. He points it to the middle of the conflict and a hologram appears. It's an ancient humanoid with a smooth and featureless face. Of course, we all recognize her now as the actress that played the main Founder from DS9. I don't know if they were going off of Odo's featureless form to design her and, of course, they couldn't have predicted how the story of the Founders and the Dominion war would unfold back then, but I would've though they'd have tried to make the Founders look a little different from this ancestral being since the two stories aren't directly connected. Still, it's obvious that the entire concept was based on this progenitor character and that's why Star Trek just continued to improve through DS9, staying original and fresh. The hologram begins to speak to whoever is present telling them that life had formed on her planet long ago and when they traveled the stars they discovered that they were alone in the universe, so they seeded their DNA in the primordial worlds of the galaxy hoping to influence their evolution to produce a body similar to theirs. They didn't do it for vanity but as a preservation of their existence. She adds that her species hoped that everyone that was seeing this had come together in peace and fellowship and only asks that her people be remembered before the message fades. Everyone just stands and stares for a minute before Nu'Daq breaks the awkward pause by voicing his frustration that this was the only result of all the hunting. Ocett breaks in with disgust at the idea that Cardassians and Klingons could be related in any way, and everyone disembarks feeling a little let down.

Except the humans. Later Picard and Beverly talk about Galen and how they wish he could've been there to see the result of his labors and lament that the message of peace fell on deaf ears. After she leaves, Picard gets a transmission from the Romulan Commander who has decided to concede that perhaps they aren't so different after all. He's clearly uncomfortable and the conversation is very short and just trails off into silence, but Picard is pleased and he looks at his figurine again, perhaps thinking that Galen's discovery wasn't made in vain.

It seemed unusual at the time that they picked the Romulan to be the one to be more opened to the possibility of a connection between the races. But eventually, in DS9, the Romulans would join the war against the Dominion on the side of the Federation after a little finagling on the part of Sisko and Garak, so the continuity holds up. Several fans thought that this should've been in two or three parts, but I think this one episode is fine. I agree that the thrill of the hunt was the best part and I could've watched more of it, but it was better to wrap it up quickly. Any more and the anticlimactic, One Tin Soldier (Coven) ending would've been a lot more frustrating to watch. It's a good little episode that deserves fours stars.