TNG Flashback: The Battle

There are a few odd quirks in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Battle," but overall I would call it the best episode of the series to that point.

The Enterprise is summoned to meet a Ferengi vessel, whose captain makes a gift to Picard of his old starship, the Stargazer. It seems the Ferengi found the ship derelict after it was abandoned nine years ago in the aftermath of a battle with a Ferengi cruiser. Now the Ferengi captain is using a strange thought control device to force Picard to relive that old battle, and exact revenge for a personal loss on that day.

This is the second episode to feature the Ferengi, and the last episode until almost the end of the second season. I think you see the television production cycle at work in this. The writers were already putting this episode together before the disastrous first appearance of the Ferengi was filmed (or at least broadcast); it was too late to turn back. But that episode was so bad, making the Ferengi something so to be steered clear of, that I think the writers really overlooked the fact that in this episode, they aren't half bad.

Actually, the Ferengi of this episode are quite a lot like the way they'd ultimately be portrayed in Deep Space Nine. Profit motive is everything, and there aren't too many comic beats extracted from that. Instead, we see genuine confusion from DaiMon Bok's crew about his purpose here. We see that the Ferengi do have an ethical code of their own. And they don't hop around like monkeys the whole time. No, they are not "menacing" as such, but this is a story in which the Ferengi work well enough.

Another subtle but very neat aspect of the writing here is the incorporation of actual science into the science fiction. The climatic moment of the episode revolves around "the Picard Maneuver," a starship battle tactic invented by our captain -- and a tactic that actually makes sense, from a physics standpoint. A distant ship makes a brief warp jump, overtaking its own image as the light travels to the observer, and thus appearing briefly to be in two places at once. Not only this, but there are casual mentions of inertia keeping objects in motion in space, and trace particles even in what would be considered "empty space." It's all scientifically sound, and all just naturally woven into the writing in a way that's not about the science. Quite well done.

However other elements of the writing, also minor and casual, work against the episode. For example, the Enterprise is said at the start of the episode to be waiting for three days with the Ferengi vessel before anything actually happens. Really? If you knock on a door and hear someone inside call, "be there in a minute," how long do you wait before you just turn around and leave? And then there's Counselor Troi, claiming to sense deception in the Ferengi captain, even though episodes both before and after this one establish that Betazoids can't read the thoughts of Ferengi. And what about these "thought maker" devices? At least DaiMon Bok acknowledges they're expensive, but I'd still have to be worried about a universe where people can just go out and buy a mind control device.

But maybe the strangest little quirk of the writing is the notion of how odd it is that Picard would have a headache. I can't decide if everybody is reacting too weakly or too strongly to this. Dr. Crusher seems to say that people don't get headaches in the future. Don't even get them in the first place? Why is that, because of some inoculation or something? In which case, shouldn't she be instantly, majorly concerned that Picard has managed to somehow get one anyway?

Those are all just silly details that are fun to pick at, though. (Like the fact that DaiMon Bok beams off the Stargazer through its raised shields.) The majority of the episode is actually just filled with nice character interactions, well played by the main cast.

For example, I can't understand at all what ever led to Gates McFadden being kicked off the show for a year after the first season. Here we are, only eight episodes in, and at least half of those episodes have had moments of really nice interplay between Picard and Crusher. This one might be the best yet. McFadden shows Crusher's genuine concern, both in a personal and professional capacity, and even trades a few fun jokes with him. At this early point in the series, I might even go so far as to say that the Picard/Crusher relationship is the best developed one. They just have a really interesting and fun rapport.

LeVar Burton does well with a handful of technical/engineering moments thrown to Geordi in this episode. It makes you wonder why the writers never realized from the beginning that Geordi should have been the chief engineer. You want a regular cast member to be able to participate in these more technical plot elements. Who are you going to give those lines to? Worf? Tasha? Not likely.

Jonathan Frakes is pretty good here too. You really get Riker's sense of duty in this episode -- the undercurrent of skepticism below the overriding need to follow orders. Marina Sirtis is also pretty good in Troi's moments reacting to Picard's painful stabs of machine-induced memories; she isn't over the top, and conveys a reasonable confusion in trying to make sense of just what it is her empathy is perceiving.

But, not surprisingly, it's Patrick Stewart who steals the show. He does an excellent job of showing us the typical, confident Jean-Luc Picard at the outset of this episode. But it gives way to a just-as-believable self-doubt and uncertainty. You see his slow unraveling, and you see the physical pain he experiences at all sorts of intensities. About the only moment that doesn't quite ring true is his zombie-like "destroy the sphere" chant right at the end of the episode -- and I'm inclined to blame that on the dialogue, not the performance.

Other miscellaneous thoughts:

• The ghostly effects used to present the Stargazer crew in Picard's hallucinations are simple but effective. I also like that you don't see the crew speak, you only hear their voices... though it's possible that wasn't a stylistic choice. It may have been cheaper to not pay these extras to speak, and then dub their voices in later. (With some really bad voice actors, if I may say so.)

• A big dramatic moment comes at the end, in which a defense has to be devised on the spot to the Picard Maneuver. But it seems to me the only thing it has going for it is the element of surprise. If you know it's coming, can't you just not be fooled? The real ship is the closer one.

• Speaking of the Picard Maneuver, the warp effect shown on the Stargazer is not the standard Next Generation one, but rather the one used in the movies. Nice touch there in showing the age of the ship.

• Composer Ron Jones delivers another great score in this episode, though there are a few moments that seem a little off today due to the fake sounding synthesizers of the 1980s.

• When Picard blows up the sphere at the end of the episode with his phaser, there's a totally unnecessary stunt of him being thrown back by the blast. Do you have to set your phaser to "shock wave" to destroy something?

• Wesley Crusher is insufferable in this episode -- a point that Wil Wheaton himself once noted in reflecting on this episode. Of everyone on the ship, only Wesley notices that a low-range signal from the Ferengi ship exactly matches the brain scans of Captain Picard. Which might have gone by without annoying the audience, except for the obnoxious way in which he drops this knowledge on Troi and his mother: "You're welcome, ladies... Adults." Wow. "Shut up, Wesley," indeed.

"The Battle" is a pretty solid episode that holds up well despite a few minor flaws. I give it a B+.