I liked this episode an awful lot. I actually like the B story better than the A story in this one. I mean, I love Data, don't get me wrong. And it's a neat little story although amnesia plot devices are a little on the clichéd side. But Troi's bridge officer testing was just another example of the reach and impact that The Wrath of Khan had on the franchise, furthering my opinion that Star Trek wouldn't have survived without it.
It begins with Beverly in command on night watch. Her log tells us that they've just met up with Troi's shuttle craft and that she's returned from a class reunion. She orders an ensign to send word to Data that they will be delayed in picking him up. Troi reports in surprised to see Beverly in command since it's usually Data that takes the night watch. Beverly tells her that he was sent to retrieve radioactive material from a probe that went off course and crashed into a planet. It's inhabited with a pre-industrial race, but the probe touched down well away from their civilization, so there shouldn't be a risk of interacting with the people. She and Troi chat about her reunion and Troi asks Beverly why she decided to apply to become a full Commander since it wasn't necessary for her job as CMO. Beverly proudly tells her that she wanted to stretch herself a little and that it's not often any doctor gets to command the ship. Of course, we've seen Crusher in command action in the Descent two-parter so there's no need to go off on some "girl power" rant. Her confidence and ability is established on its own. This gets Troi thinking about her own career though. There's no response from Data, but there seems to be no need to worry since the radioactive material can interfere with the signal. The Enterprise goes about its business unconcerned. Meanwhile we see Data wandering around on the planet, Barkon IV, disheveled and disoriented, carrying a container marked "radioactive." A town elder is walking his daughter home from school when Data walks up to them looking very confused. At first when the man, Garvin, tries to speak to him and tell him his name, Data can only mimic him. The girl, Gia, giggles from a hiding spot and Garvin runs her off. Finally Data recovers his senses enough to confirm that he doesn't know his name or where he's come from. When he asks Data what the container says he reads it out - "radioactive," but he doesn't know what it means. He wonders if it's his name, but Garvin doesn't think it likely, so they open it to examine the metal inside.
Troi goes to visit Riker in his quarters where he's playing his trombone. He speaks to her in blasts of his instrument as they share their close rapport they've always had with each other. She tells him that she wants to take the bridge officer's test and become a full Commander. He wonders why and she tells him that there were several factors including the crew evaluations they'd been doing a month earlier (presumably Lower Decks) as well as the events that happened in the episode Disaster when she was in command on the bridge and completely out of her league. He tells her frankly that he's the one that will be judging her performance and that he won't be easy on her, but she's undeterred. On Barkon, Garvin has taken Data into his home and the local healer woman, Talur, is checking him over. She decides that he's simply malnutrated and needs a good diet of meats, butter, and cheese. When they all wonder why he looks different she points out with pride that she's advanced beyond their ancestors that would've thought of him as a demon or a ghost and without hesitation decides he's an "ice man" from the mountains where it's colder. Gia comes in and together, she and Garvin give Data the name "Jayden" since he doesn't know his own name. They take him to town to the black smith so he can take a look at his metal fragments. The smithy is a jerk who is impersonal towards Data and decides that the warm metal is good enough to make jewelry out of. Garvin convinces him to sell his metal since he'll need money to live on, so they agree on a price but Data doesn't want to sell all of the fragments since they might provide a clue as to who he is. Then a large anvil falls from it's rotten wooden support onto the leg of the smith's apprentice. Data lifts the anvil off with ease which makes everyone react a little fearfully. But Garvin assures him that he's done nothing wrong. That evening at supper, Garvin is starting to feel ill so Talur sends him away for fresh air while Gia tells Data of how her mother died and went to a place where there's no pain; a kind of Heaven essentially.
On the Enterprise we see Troi in engineering dealing with some sort of disaster with the engines. She's giving the kind of technical orders that she couldn't have dealt with in earlier episodes, so we see that some time has passed and that she's been studying. But for all of her commands, the systems keep shutting down until there's a flash and the holodeck simulation ends. Riker sardonically congratulates her on destroying the Enterprise, but she doesn't find it funny. She doesn't know what she's doing wrong and Riker says that he can't tell her which only frustrates her more. She doesn't understand what kind of a test it is in which she's not allowed to know how to improve her performance, but he tells her to study up because the next time it'll be harder. He remains very authoritative with her in spite of their familiarity with each other which is a testament to their friendship and the fact that neither is taking this personally. On the planet Data is sitting in a session of Gia's school where Talur is teaching them about the four elements that make up life and how they're all found within each other, similar to Earth's own older teachings of air, water, earth and fire. It all sounds ridiculous and once again I'm impressed with their tolerance levels... their apparent willingness to take a few jabs at primitive science the way that they always have at religion displaying its folly as well. Data tries to speak up to contradict her on the basis that her teachings are based only on observation, not empirical data. She brushes him off in a condescending manner citing his memory loss before dismissing the children. Gia wants to understand why he thinks the way he does, but he can't explain. Then they hear Garvin arguing with the smith over the price of the metal fragments. The smithy is trying to short change him and Data tries to defend Garvin's original asking price. The smith tells him to stay out of it declaring his memory to be unreliable as well. But Garvin has a weak spell. Talur sees that he has a fever and after his hair starts to fall out in her hand, she rushes to get him home. She prescribes plenty of air and herbs for the burning lesions on his skin and fever. Data takes her magnifying glass suspecting that he can make it magnify objects even more and asks Garvin's permission to begin his own investigation of his illness. He asks Gia to come with him to the village for supplies. While they're there, the blacksmith begins to rabble rouse and tell the crowd that nobody was sick until Jayden came. Data now knows that the illness is spreading and leaves with Gia quickly as everyone is now eyeing him suspiciously.
When Talur comes over later Data shows her the way he's improved her magnifying glass and turned it into a microscope. With it he has eliminated the possibility of a contagious disease and now he's trying to find out what all of the sick people have in common. He considered the possibility that he's to blame but feels comfortable discounting himself because Talur isn't sick and she's spent a lot of time with him herself. Gia comes down with Garvin's supper which he didn't eat and Talur sees that she's getting sick too. Data notices she's wearing a pendant that the blacksmith had made from the metal that he'd been carrying with him and has his first lead. In Troi's quarters she's studying again on her computer console when Riker comes in to see her. He tells her that he's going to cancel the rest of her test because she's taken it three times now and is no closer to passing. She is defensively determined to take it as many times as she has to in order to pass but Riker firmly yet professionally has decided that she's just not up to it. She asks if it's a test to see how she deals with a no-win situation, but he assures her that it has a solution that he's not allowed to tell her. He leaves after telling her that no matter how he feels about her personally, his first duty is to the ship and he can't let her be a bridge officer if she's not qualified. She's really mad at first and then has an epiphany when she thinks about what he said about his first duty being to the ship. She goes back to the holodeck to start the bridge officer test again. Systems start failing one by one and at a critical moment she asks Geordi if he could make the necessary repairs to fix it all if he goes into a crawl space so saturated with radiation that he wouldn't be able to survive. He says that he could so she orders him to do it while he and the other holopeople looks shocked and dismayed, but willing to carry out the command. Riker steps in and ends the simulation and tells Deanna that she passed the test. She now understands that the test was to see if she would order someone to their death to save the ship and now wonders if she really is cut out for it since she hesitated so often. But Riker is satisfied that she now knows when to make the hard choices and takes her away for a bittersweet celebration of her promotion. Ah, my heart! So, not only did it reference the Kobayashi Maru from Khan, but it built on the concept. Spock volunteered to do what Kirk couldn't or wouldn't have asked him to do and now it's a requirement that commanding officers have the fortitude necessary to order someone to die to save the ship. The Kobayashi Maru is probably still there in the 24th century as a test of character, but now there's also a more grown up test of character to go with it. Because the show has grown up too. I love it so much!
In Garvin's house, Data is showing Talur his findings regarding the metal. He's set up a cloth saturated in lamp oil to light up when it comes into contact with an energy source. He then demonstrates that the metal pieces are giving off a source of energy from invisible particles. Talur finds it all a little unbelievable but he further demonstrates that when the case he was carrying is put between the metal and the cloth that it is no longer luminescent, therefore he has determined that the metal is dangerous and the box they were in was designed to protect people from the pieces. He sends her to collect all of the metal that has been spread throughout the village. She reluctantly agrees still thinking it's all very fishy and after she leaves, the blacksmith brings a lynch mob to the door to confront Data. He now has lesions on his face and Data tries to calmly explain that he is only indirectly to blame for the illness. But the smith doesn't listen and he and his men attack. A blow from one man's axe cuts into Data's face exposing a blinking computer panel which scares them all. He can't answer when they ask him what he is of course, and he leaves. Later when giving his metal back to Talur, the blacksmith is trying to convince Garvin that they need to kill Jayden before he kills all of them. Garvin won't believe that Jayden would intentionally hurt anyone so the smith and his mob leave to find him. Once Gia is alone, Data comes to her wearing a hooded cloaks so that he doesn't scare her. She insists on seeing him anyway and even though he looks a little scary, she stays. He knows he's close to finding a cure and needs more time. An hour later he goes to her to tell her he's found a cure and that her father is recovering. He gives her the medicine which is bitter tasting and asks her where the main water supply of the village is. After finding out that it's a well in the center of town he goes there to dump the medicinal solution into it, confident that it will work even in a diluted state. The mob catches up to him at about the time he reaches the well. He tries to tell them again that he's only trying to help and pours his solution into the well, but the blacksmith runs him through with some kind of metal pole. He receives a shock doing it and Talur arrives just as Data falls down apparently dead.
On another day, Gia is walking sadly through the town square when she is confronted by Crusher and Riker who are disguised as Barkonians asking if she or anyone else had seen a friend of theirs. She recognizes Data's description and points to a grave marker. She explains that they were calling him Jayden because they didn't know his name. She also tells them of how the people killed him because they were afraid of him even though he saved the village from the sickness caused by the pieces of metal. She tells them that the pieces are buried in the forest now and asks what Jayden's real name was, noting mournfully that he was her friend too. Crusher cradles a tricorder as she scans Data's grave site. She can't tell how much damage was done since he's been deactivated, but determines that he and the radioactive material could be beamed up without anyone knowing the difference. Later on the Enterprise, Crusher switches Data on and he sits up immediately wondering how he came to be on the Enterprise. He has no memory of his time on the planet except that when he was attempting to download logs from the crashed probe there was an energy surge that must have overloaded his positronic matrix. Looking down at his Barkonian clothes he concludes that he must have had an interesting time. Riker and Crusher don't know exactly what went on either so they give him the short version - that he saved a town from radiation poisoning and made a special friend in a young girl. Troi who was standing nearby casually asks to be excused for her watch on the bridge. Data asks her if she's been promoted in his absence. She happily confirms it and tells him that from now on, he can call her "sir" so he does.
One of my absolute favorites because of the bridge officer test angle. I loved Data's adventure too as long as one doesn't think about it too hard about it because even though amnesia stories work well, the fact that Data is the one with the amnesia makes it more difficult to pull off. You know - he doesn't remember that radioactive materials are dangerous but he's somehow retained enough scientific knowledge to understand that fire isn't an element as well as the skill to build a microscope and create a cure for radiation poisoning. None of this affects the believably for me and I have no complaints. I'm only pointing out the inconsistency since I can't deny it. But, it's a great, great episode. Four and a half stars.
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