TNG Flashback: Coming of Age

"Coming of Age" isn't one of The Next Generation's better episodes -- nor even one of the first season's better episodes. But in a number of ways, it had its heart in the right place, and may possibly have signaled a moment (after a string of disappointing episodes) where the show started to show hints of what eventually would be good about it.

The Enterprise delivers Wesley Crusher to a planet where he'll be tested for entrance into Starfleet Academy. While in orbit, Admiral Quinn -- an old friend of Captain Picard's -- beams aboard the ship with special investigator Remmick, who has instructions to comb over everyone and everything aboard, looking for "something wrong" on the ship.

There isn't a lot of action in this episode. Indeed, when they cut together the 30-second trailer to promote it, they focused heavily on a tiny element buried in the heart of the episode just to create an apparent threat: another young man aboard the Enterprise, after being beaten out by Wesley for the chance to test for Starfleet admission, steals a shuttlecraft and attempts to run away. He manages to stall the shuttle out, nearly dying before Picard guides him successfully out of danger. It takes only a few minutes of screen time, but from the trailer, you'd think it was the major A-plot of the entire episode.

The lack of action here is because the episode was trying to pursue a few laudable goals. First, it was being very character oriented. The Admiral's real motive in coming is to offer Picard a promotion. He believes Starfleet may be threatened by a conspiracy (from within or outside, he isn't sure), and he wants someone he can trust serving as commandant of Starfleet Academy. To this end, the story follows interrogations of nearly all the main characters, showing us just how they feel about Picard's leadership. Their reactions to Remmick are interesting too. Riker, Geordi, and Troi all get rather belligerent, making the situation worse by making it appear there is something to hide; meanwhile, Data is dispassionately logical, Worf uses diffusing humor, and Dr. Crusher tells Remmick off with a smile and without raising her voice. We also get insight into Picard himself, who considers but declines the promotion, preferring to remain captain of the Enterprise.

Second, this episode is the first major effort of the series to have significant continuity. During Remmick's interviews with the crew, four different earlier episodes are mentioned in some detail. Even more importantly, the episode sets up a conspiracy storyline that the writers intended to pay off later. (They did end up addressing it in the penultimate episode of the season, though not in quite the way they'd intended here -- as I'll cover when I get there.)

Between the character focus, the strong effort at continuity, and other touches (such as an opener that not only has no log, but starts right up with a scene between Wesley and his friend Jake without fully explaining the context), this show really tries to live up to its title, as though the show itself was "coming of age" into a more sophisticated incarnation.

But it's not there yet. There are a lot of holes in the episode too. For starters, the guest cast is weak for the most part. In his portrayal of Remmick, Robert Schenkkan is particularly bad, taking too much relish in behaving like a jerk. The other students testing with Wesley are fairly wooden too, save John Putch, who as Mordock made enough of an impression to be brought back for a similar character in the second season. But worst of all are the actors in Wesley's "psych test." I suppose you could argue that was on purpose, as they're meant to be Starfleet officers pretending to be in danger for Wesley's testing scenario. But even using that logic, you'd have to say they were convincing enough to fool Wesley in the moment. That, I'm not buying.

The whole premise of Wesley's testing here is weak too. Four candidates are being tested, but in a pure set-up for story tension, only one of them will be selected -- as though somehow, the whole sector gets to send only one student to the Academy, and that Starfleet would stupidly turn away brilliant prospects just because they happen to be in the wrong galactic zip code. And yet, at the end of the episode, that's exactly what happens. Wesley and two others fail to get in, even though the officer who has been testing them says it's Starfleet's loss that they're not being admitted, and that they should all reapply later. Quotas.

Wesley's failure itself is an interesting plot development, when you actually think about it beyond the necessity to keep Wil Wheaton on the show. Later on, Wesley would indeed join Starfleet Academy, subsequently be reprimanded for bad behavior, and drop out. As I noted in an earlier episode review, a truthful story was ultimately told with Wesley, of starting out with one career aspiration only to discover a different, more appropriate path. There's no way the writers here in the first season could have planned any of this, but it could be taken as an early warning sign that Wesley was never a "fit" for Starfleet, given his failure to gain admittance here. (Although Picard does confide in Wesley at the end of the episode that he failed his first time too.)

Other observations:

• This was the only episode of The Next Generation directed by Mike Vejar, but he'd wind up directing literally dozens of episodes for the next three Star Trek series.

• When Picard talks young Jake through saving his stolen shuttlecraft by bouncing it off the planet's atmosphere, there are a whole host of logical holes in the scenario. Somehow, he's out of tractor beam range even though he just left the ship. Somehow, he's out of transporter range, even though his shuttle is between the Enterprise and the planet, and people use transporters to beam down to planets all the time. Somehow, only Picard is able to think of how to pilot the shuttle to safety, even among all those pilots (and Data) on the bridge.

• This is the first episode in which a shuttlecraft makes an on-screen appearance. And they clearly blew the budget building it, because the station on the planet has several really fake-looking set extension paintings in the background.

• There's a lot of solid acting among the regulars in this episode. Michael Dorn does well with an unusually articulate scene for Worf, in which he advises Wesley about dealing with fear. Wil Wheaton does a good job of selling the moment where Wesley realizes the nature of his greatest fear. Jonathan Frakes makes a fun but subtle acting choice in the scene where Remmick interviews him, sitting down by stepping over the chair in an aggressive manner. And Patrick Stewart is great in giving his pep talk to Wesley at the end of the episode. (For someone who says he isn't good with kids, Picard always seems to do well with them.)

• Composer Dennis McCarthy delivers a rare score I actually enjoyed. It has some appropriately unsettling music leading up to Wesley's "psych test." It also makes liberal use of his recurring "Picard theme." Originally, before it was decided to reuse Jerry Goldsmith's theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture as the theme for The Next Generation, McCarthy (acting as composer for the show's first episode) wrote his own theme that was ultimately discarded. He then reappropriated that music as a leitmotif for Captain Picard, using it in episodes throughout the first season, before finally giving into producer Rick Berman's desire for "musical wallpaper" without any recognizable melodies and retiring the theme.

While this episode did mark a turning point for the show, it still had a ways to go before becoming consistently good. The episode itself is only a mixed effort. I grade it a C.