Star Trek: TNG S1 Ep19: Coming Of Age

Coming Of Age: The transition from childhood to adulthood for a young person.

 

"I failed Captain. I failed you and I failed the Enterprise."

-Wesley-

"Ridiculous, did you do your best?"

-Picard-

"The only person you're truly competing against Wesley is yourself. You have to measure your successes and your failures within."

-Picard-

"Only fools have no fear."

-Worf-

 

I was actually shooting for the colors on Wesley's shirt here.

Alternative rock band Foster The People is perhaps one of my favorite new artists to arrive on the music scene in the past few years alongside Of Monsters and Men. Perhaps it's their ability to create a future sound while sounding entirely retro. That's no small trick. I'm fairly enthusiastic about their sophomore effort, Supermodel (2014). The lead single is a light, breezy, catchy, accessible and deceptively sneaky little grower called Coming Of Age. It doesn't grab you by the throat like Pumped Up Kicks (2010), but it grows with you like Star Trek: The Next Generation does in good time.



The Coming Of Age concept is always a favorite for young and old. The Wonder Years (1988-1993). Stand By Me (1986; also with Wil Wheaton). Freaks And Geeks (1999-2000). The Man In The Moon (1991). You remember them all and you love to re-experience it all over.



This crucial rite of passage to maturation and the understanding of the changes that go along with it have forever fascinated the human race.  Even as adults we enjoy film and television that takes that risk in attempting to make sense of this special period in a person's life and we embrace it all over with elated abandon.  We never grow tired or old of experiencing all of that newness again. Seeing and experiencing things, even aboard a starship, through a young person's eyes like Wesley Crusher is somehow always cherished no matter how old we grow.

With his whole life ahead of him young man Wesley Crusher takes on the challenge of gaining acceptance into Starfleet Academy in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season One, Episode 19, Coming Of Age as he hopes to become part of Starfleet Academy.





Franchise mainstay Mike Vejar has stood behind the camera on some memorable episodes of all four franchise arms of Star Trek as well as Babylon 5 (1993-1998). He has a terrific visual eye for a shot, but can he help inject life into Season One's run of flagging scripts?

The Crusher story is just one component of the Coming Of Age installment along with Picard and crew under scrutiny by Starfleet officers in the form of an investigation that will have a ripple effect and ramifications later in the series. Picard has no knowledge of the meaning behind the investigation, but must cooperate with Starfleet with the review headed up by old friend and colleague Admiral Gregory Quinn.



Upon recently viewing both Season Two and Season Three of ST:TNG, Season One's deficiencies are notable. First, the scripts and dialogue are lacking in areas like logic and flow.  The dialogue is sometimes less than convincing in quality and leaves a strong cast with weak material. Second, there is still a subtle difference in chemistry between cast members here versus Season Two and beyond. The rhythms are off, no doubt partly due to the sometimes poor dialogue they are forced inhabit combined with what direction the creators wanted to take these characters.



I shouldn't be too hard on Season One and I do appreciate certain aspects of this debut season as the team, actors and writers alike, iron out the wrinkles.  To make a fair comparison, as the writer here at Musings Of A Sci-Fi Fanatic, sometimes looking back at some of my earlier entries can put a wince in my face and some wrinkles on my forehead. And I don't need any more of those. I'd like to think, like Star Trek: The Next Generation, there has been plenty of growth and improvement in my own approach here. Getting it right out of the box is a rare achievement, and just so we understand I'm not casting stones (more like water balloons), because I had plenty of growth ahead of me and still do.



I have to give the nod to Star Trek: The Original Series, Stargate Universe and Firefly for achieving geek nirvana from the start. Others like Babylon 5, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Stargate SG-1 certainly needed a little fine-tuning. Your humble blogger is part of that latter group. But, we're in good company.




Fittingly, Coming Of Age, moves the series that much closer to its groove. Patrick Stewart moves much closer to the qualities of his role that would become exemplary and a pleasure to watch in the coming seasons. He is in fine form here offering his seasoned and steady wisdom without coming off stuffy. He and the rest of the cast are much more in command of their roles, and while still a little bumpy, are indeed moving in and out of one another's sphere of influence within the show with a more natural, even effortless flow.




Coming Of Age also does a fine job of balancing two tales and a touch of mythology in the history of Picard, Dr. Beverly Crusher, Wesley Crusher and Wesley's deceased father placing a focus on the difficulty of choices and hard decisions in the world of Starfleet.  As a result, Wesley is enlightened and grows as a result like all of the best stories that discover a truth in the maturation process. Coming of age for Wesley is also coming to terms with certain realities regarding those he loves and respects.



The story also foreshadows events to come in the form of ST:TNG, S1, Ep25, Conspiracy. In fact, the investigation plot of this episode feels a bit awkward and slightly unreasonable and without merit - a "charade" as Picard calls it. Still, the discomfort of that piece of the show, which would normally leave me uneasy with the script, based on much of the qualitative Season One evidence to date, can be logically explained to a degree when linked to the upcoming Conspiracy story. Coming Of Age, taken on its own, doesn't quite measure up concerning the investigative portion of the story. It just doesn't sit quite right, but given forthcoming events definitely makes a good deal more sense.



Admiral Gregory Quinn's "I see conspiracies everywhere" is a little easier to swallow in keeping with old friend Picard, but seeing episodes down the road does have a way of putting some of these earlier ST:TNG entries into context.



Wesley faces adversity, especially after his successes at the opening of the episode whereby Wesley is accepted to take the Starfleet exam while another friend is not. Adversity is another way in which we grow. Picard, too, suffers his own adversity. How both young and old respond to those challenges, and the rewards they provide any of us, is how we all handles with transitions in our lives. Either we have the character to deal with them and grow are we do not learn.



Coming Of Age offers a nice presentation of those lessons even if not the most sound or enthralling of ST:TNG entries. Like the process itself, Coming Of Age demonstrates the series growing pains, but also highlights a series moving from weakness to strength.

One of the show's great strengths, for me, is the wisdom often imparted through the calming voice of Picard as a man of reason. It is indeed a quality bestowed on this Captain that is truly one of the great highlights of the show and one that really shines with each new entry as we go. Unlike the earlier, preachier installments, Picard discovers his humanity and demonstrates the beauty of our flaws and how we learn from them. Coming Of Age is a terrific example of the new Picard.




One scene in the final minutes between a disappointed Wesley and a sagely Picard recognizes Picard's own failings offering Wesley comfort. Wesley, in a way, is comforted in the knowledge that Picard too failed entrance into Starfleet Academy his first time. This gives Wesley perspective and understanding and, in turn, provides him with a source of strength and inspiration.  It is a beautiful moment essentially lifting Wesley up, like all young people need, and reinforcing in them of their ability to overcome failures and grow and improve through belief from within. Picard is also a splendid role model in this entry providing father-like guidance to young people that are not his own children.  And that is how it should be.

After viewing Season Two, and seeing a more mature Number One sporting facial hair, another form of growth with the coming of age of the series, I thought perhaps the series pivoted with the growth of that beard, but viewing this entry again one begins to realize that's not so and Season One continues to show maturing signs of life even without Commander William Riker's beard.




"Then shall we continue with our mission?" asks Picard of Wesley. "Yes sir," speaks a bold Wesley Crusher confident in his future despite setbacks.

It would appear there is some hope to mine the allegorical beauty that is ST:TNG's trek into new frontiers as the series itself is coming of age too.



Coming Of Age: C+.
Writer: Sandy Fries.
Director: Mike Vejar.

Science Fiction Non-Fiction: George Takei (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"I can't imagine Star Trek: The Next Generation taking away....  They're really apples and oranges. Our fans love us. They may love The Next Generation, too, but there's an intrinsic loyalty to our generation because we were the originators. I understand from the fans The Next Generation has greatly improved. I'm glad to hear that."

 

-George Takei, formerly Sulu on Star Trek: The Next Generation, commenting on not watching much Star Trek: The Next Generation and the talk of comparing Star Trek: The Original Series to ST:TNG (Starlog Magazine #146, p.62)-

Cliff Bole (1937-2014)

I've been positively up to my neck in Star Trek viewing of late alternating heavily between Star Trek: The Next Generation and Stargate Universe.

I missed this story originally, but sadly, director Cliff Bole (1937-2014) passed away several days before the great Harold Ramis (1944-2014).



Bole is notable as a major directing force behind many of our genre favorites. He directed for The Six Million Dollar Man (12 episodes; 1974-1978), V (3 episodes), Star Trek: The Next Generation (25 episodes; 1987-1994), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (7 episodes; 1993-1999), Star Trek: Voyager (10 episodes; 1995-2001) and The X-Files (4 episodes; 1993-2002) not to mention my other childhood favorites like Charlie's Angels (6 episodes; 1976-1981) and Fantasy Island (20 episodes; 1977-1984) and a whole lot more.



He directed ST:TNG, Season One, Episode 25, Conspiracy which featured a race called the Bolians named after Bole. We'll be looking at that very episode sometime here in 2014.



Bole also had the reins on perhaps one of the best remembered and beloved of the ST:TNG franchise, often cited as the very best of the series, in Best Of Both Worlds (both parts).  Bole even handled the second part of ST:TNG episode Unification starring a returning Leonard Nimoy.



Bole's input behind the camera and his influence on shaping the look of Star Trek: The Next Generation was certainly significant.  His contributions to these wonderful series were indeed mighty.

Here at Musings Of A Sci-Fi Fanatic we say thanks for all of his influence and we are sorry to see him go.

Star Trek: TNG S1 Ep18: Home Soil

"Only life can replicate itself doctor, inorganic or not, it is alive."

-Data-

"We come in peace."

-Jean-Luc Picard.

"Ugly bags of mostly water."

-Inorganic life form referring to humans-

"You are beautiful to us. All life is beautiful."

-Deanna Troi-

So is it one step forward or one step back for the imbalanced inaugural first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation?

The one and only former General Gogol of the Roger Moore-era head of the KGB in James Bond, the late, great Walter Gotell (1924-1997) makes an appearance.  Gotell was splendid as the KGB head in some of my all-time favorite James Bond films beginning with Roger Moore's The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and ending with Timothy Dalton's The Living Daylights (1987).  Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983) and A View To A Kill (1985) combined for a total of six appearances over a decade.




In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season One, Episode 18, Home Soil Gotell plays Kurt Mandl, director of the terraforming planet Velara III.

From the opening shots alone it's clear he has no interest in Picard's away team, but even when Captain Jean-Luc Picard was less than his normally perceptive self he always has his trusty empath and body language expert Deanna Troi to break the situation down for him.




The away team (Counselor Troi, Commander William Riker, Geordi La Forge, Lt. Commander Data and Lt. Tasha Yar) are greeted with a fine reception. Home Soil breaks down the terraforming process nicely as well as the receipt of approval to mine a lifeless planet by The Federation as a policy.  A good bit of detail is established in the effort to terraform rather than simply skimming over the venture.  In fact, even later in the installment some of the scientific discussion is actually based in fact rather than mere techno babble demonstrating a rare turn toward hard science fiction.



Whilst on Velara III a member of the operation is attacked and killed by a laser drill.  Shortly after being beamed up to sick bay with Yar, Data, too, is attacked by the same device. Data survives destroying the laser-equipped drilling arm/mechanism and suggests the device was sentient operating with an artificial intelligence all its own. Why and How?  With everyone returned to the Enterprise-D an air of mystery builds in Home Soil.



Picard requests a work-up and psychological profile of the remaining terraformers now guests aboard the Enterprise while La Forge and Data are dispatched back to Velara III to investigate further.  Their investigation yields information that indeed the terraformers were potentially hiding the possibility of inorganic life within the planet to proceed with their mission.

Data returns with a sample for Dr. Beverly Crusher so that she might apply the scientific method in determining life.









One of the most interesting exchanges takes place between Picard and Mandl because the scene drips with tension. Picard suggests the possibility that Mandl, aware of the Prime Directive, is knowingly and willingly violating it. Mandl is defiant. "I create life. I don't take it."

Troi is given a significant role to play in Home Soil as she provides moments of psychoanalysis with her "gift." The exchange between Patrick Stewart and Gotell is something akin to two old giants of drama on full display.

It turns out Mandl has advanced degrees in computer engineering and artificial intelligence, but the real wild card of the three remaining survivors, which also includes Luisa Kim and Bjorn Benson,  is Kim. Kim is a visionary working in the abstract, but with little scientific background.  Number One is sent to work his charms.



"It's trying to communicate with us." It becomes apparent there is intelligent life on Velara III.  Notable is the fact that the life form, and not that it's a first on ST:TNG in any way shape or form, is that it is anything but a hairy or pointy-eared creature. Instead, ST:TNG offers us the kind of sparkling science fiction that would work beautifully in the abstract on Gene Roddenberry's original Star Trek or Gerry Anderson's Space:1999. Approaching these sometimes indefinable, ambiguous life signs or life forms makes for a great story and forces us to rethink our pre-conceived notion or understanding of the universe without the distraction of the kinds of aliens Star Trek is sometimes noted for. Mandl insists he was assured by the Federation prior to terraforming that no life existed.



This further underscores one of the problems with the overly smug nature of the crew in some of the previous entries. They aren't always right, and as the case here presents, they still have much to understand. The Federation got this one wrong and thus human beings are fallible. ST:TNG begins to get it right when it behaves by presenting us with questions and attempts to determine answers.  This sense of discovery is truly awesome.

In this case, the life form tests the crew of the Enterprise as it takes over the ship's medical lab.

Home Soil is an effective entry on a number of fronts building on an idea and seizing the opportunity to create a mystery and generate questions that all culminates in a satisfying conclusion.




Most of all, the concept of life in its infancy is genuinely moving on a science fiction level.  This is the kind of concept taken to much greater budgetary extremes and greater production effect in director Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012). But here on ST:TNG the story gets the essence of those great unknowns right. Working from the building blocks of a kind of inorganic organism gives science fiction fans the kind of origins experience that might one day culminate in the development of an inorganic form such as the replicators made popular in Stargate SG-1 and other examples explored within ST:TNG.  There is some truly bold science fiction vision here even if it doesn't always compute effectively on every note.



There are a few issues here that one must accept.  The terraformers are clearly zealots of a sort unwilling to perceive clear information on potential life forms. There is an excellent scene as Captain breaks down evidence that suggests the life form was making attempts to communicate, but that the terraformers were willing to turn a blind eye in the interests of their scientific passion.  Humans certainly make these errors in judgment based on their inability to put the facts before blind ideology and vision.  Think Dr. Nicholas Rush of Stargate Universe or Dr. Paul Stubbs from ST:TNG, S3, Ep1, Evolution. This is a recurring theme in science fiction. We see it in politics every day too.




Another issue I kept playing back to myself had to do with this volatile life form presenting problems for the crew. Isolation or containment seemed to be merely temporary and without understanding of the planet's life form or its potential destructive capability. This was an entirely unknown variable. BEAM IT DOWN! I kept thinking. Get it off the ship. Communication with the creature determines the terraforming has in effect been killing the life form and it has now declared war on humans. The techno-life form is growing too. And then finally, efforts are made to beam it away, but by that point it's too late because the sentient organism is reproducing and growing stronger interfacing with the ship's computers.



These minor quibbles aside Home Soil captures the essence of Star Trek: The Original Series as it certainly echoes the human conflict with the silicon-based Horta as penned for the classic The Devil In The Dark by Gene L. Coon even if Coon's story was more effective and more affecting. Home Soil might even have drawn some inspiration from Space:1999, Year Two, Ep4, All That Glisters. What made the mysteries and thrills of those aforementioned series work so well are beginning to have an impact here. While the pacing and originality may not quite be there as it was for the ST:TOS original, there are promising signs applied here on ST:TNG. The nuanced approach is beginning to work well for the new cast and crew without feeling like a mere copy of ST:TOS as it so glaringly seemed early in Season One with Code Of Honor (Ep4) or The Naked Now (Ep3). That essence serves as a foundation for generating the confidence required to really build something entirely special and original for ST:TNG as it continues to fill in the framework of its own identity here. And there's no Vulcan mind melds happening.

Make it SnOw Number One. 


Ironically, the life form informs the Captain and the crew, "You are still too arrogant," a self-satisfied complacency that really dissipates nicely throughout Season Two and acknowledgement of that complacency even recognized by Picard himself within the first half of Season Two. But if Home Soil and other positive steps forward are any indication, there is indeed a move toward humility for this fine crew that is boldly going in the right direction. It's also clear the crew is far less stiff than they appeared in the early going and relaxing nicely in their respective roles.  Picard submits the crew needs to learn more and take away from this lesson and better prepare while Mandl discovers the irony of his efforts to create life resulting in the death of other life on a grave miscalculation by the very human Federation. The even greater irony is how exactly Picard and others could prevent this from happening again when calculations were made by us - humans. Humans, particularly ignorant ones, whether ignorant by choice or through an unintentional lack of information, are doomed to make mistakes even with the wisdom of history - we will repeat it again. New variables, new circumstances present new miscalculations. To err is human. To inadvertently violate the Prime Directive is a reality.





Home Soil: C+.
Writer: Robert Sabaroff/ Karl Geurs/ Ralph Sanchez.
Director: Corey Allen.

*Prime Directive: A guiding principle of The United Federation Of Planets. To prohibit interference by Starfleet with the development of alien civilizations. To avoid imposition of Starfleet technology, values and ideals on other alien cultures or life forms.