When Lieutenant Jenna D'Sora breaks up with her previous boyfriend, she finds herself drawn to Data. After seeking advice from his friends, Data decides to explore the possibility of that relationship, creating a romantic program to govern it. Meanwhile, the Enterprise is passing through a dark matter nebula, where a strange phenomenon is causing parts of the ship to phase out of reality and back. What begins as a series of unexplained annoyances soon becomes a life-threatening situation.
It's quite surprising that it took almost four full seasons before the writers thought to craft a romantic storyline for Data. (Though an early third season episode included a woman with a small attraction to Data, the romance was far from central to the plot.) Still, credit writers Joe Menosky and Ronald D. Moore for seizing upon the idea and creating this truly well-done script. It may be that for a fan-favorite character like Data, they could hardly have missed, but that also means they could have easily phoned it in, missing out on the special touches they included. The script has both tender moments and funny ones. The different angles Data tries to work the relationship are all cleverly realized. There's even the subtle inclusion of several contractions -- sure to rile the nitpicky fans, but a very smart device for showing lines of dialogue Data has simply worked verbatim into his program. ("Honey? I'm home!" "You're not my mother!")
Best of all, the writers don't just make the episode about Data. He goes to every major character one by one (except, sadly, Dr. Crusher) for advice, giving each character, each pairing, a fun and distinct moment. Guinan is visibly thrilled at the prospect of Data in a relationship. Geordi acknowledges that his track record doesn't make him a good source of information. Troi is understandably concerned for the emotions of the other person in a potential relationship. Worf plays the threatening father figure. Riker, predictably (but humorously), is the horndog encouraging Data to go for it. And Picard brilliantly caps the entire sequence with the wry "I would be delighted to offer any advice I can on understanding women. When I have some, I'll let you know."
In a more subtle sign of the good writing, Data's romantic entanglement grows quite naturally out of a friendship. We see how good Data has become at friendships over his lifetime, how attentive and supportive he is. It seems inevitable that some woman would eventually misconstrue that. It also seems as though, given enough practice, Data could probably learn to be a good boyfriend too. He's simply too inexperienced at it right now.
Brent Spiner gives an outstanding performance in this episode. He very cleverly contrasts the more natural movements and speech patterns Data normally employs with new, highly robotic ones incorporated as part of the "boyfriend subroutine." He also hilariously mimics a doting lothario and a quarreling spouse, in turns. Playing opposite him is a solid guest star, Michele Scarabelli. She must convince us that a woman would fall for Data, and does it wonderfully. And here again, the script helps in making Jenna D'Sora a woman who would believably fall for Data; she's essentially a woman who has been drawn to "bad boys," who decides to give the "nice boy" a try for once. (Although where all these "bad boys" come from in the cleaned-up Gene Roddenberry future is a question best left unexamined.)
Helping bring out these strong performances is first-time director Patrick Stewart. He followed in the footsteps of Jonathan Frakes, becoming the second Next Generation actor to step behind the camera. In a later interview, he would call the days shooting this episode "seven of the most exciting days of my career." He was grateful to have no big action for his first time out, instead getting a story that allowed him to focus on structure and performance. He was also apparently quite satisfied with the finished product; when a "Captain's Log" DVD set was assembled, in which each of the five TV series captains was asked to select his or her favorite episode, Patrick Stewart chose this one as his.
If there's one weak part of the episode, it's the sci-fi B plot, which largely plays out as the afterthought it surely was. Particularly odd is the moment where Picard inexplicably but firmly demands to pilot the shuttle himself in leading the Enterprise out of the nebula, and the totally false moment of jeopardy that ensues. Still, this subplot takes up very little screen time in the episode, and thus takes very little away from it.
Other observations:
- Data's relationship isn't the only one included here. Miles and Keiko O'Brien are back again, this time playfully fighting over a pile of dirty socks on the floor.
- Data's musical interests have branched out here. We've seen him play the violin before, but here he plays the oboe in a woodwind quintet.
- I believe that this is the first time that Data's cat Spot is referred to by name. But it was only a midpoint on the inconsistent evolution of the character. Spot would change breeds in his next appearance, and change from male to female still later.
- Composer Jay Chattaway took an appropriate approach to representing Data musically in this episode. Much of the score was played on an Electronic Wind Instrument, a synthesizer that is played by a musician blowing into a traditional, woodwind-like device. The result is a sound that's neither wholly synthetic nor wholly real.
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