Title: Samaritan Snare
Airdate: 5/15/1989
Plot Summary
While Picard and Wesley make a trip to Starbase 515, Wesley for Academy testing and Picard for a surgery, the Enterprise receives a distress call from the Packleds. There Geordi goes over to the ship to help them with repairs. But the slow minded Packleds end up trying to kidnap Geordi and hold him hostage in exchange for more knowledge from the Enterprise.
Make It So
Picard is just a big baby about his heart surgery. He kinda acts like he started out in season 1, he’s already loosened up since then. Still, he does allow his walls to come down a little with Wesley and we get a real neat story of how Picard wasn’t always this disciplined. The lesson was learned so well, he became too rigid. This does start to flesh out his character a lot and gives us a nice little bit of backstory.
Number 1
Riker comes up with a pretty good plan with Data and Worf to fool the Packleds. We’ll talk more why he needed it in the first place later.
Fully Functional
Data has a bit of an ego, basically restating exactly what Riker said but better and he lets him know it.
Today Is A Good Day To Die
Worf is completely right at every moment in this episode and he’s completely ignored. This really cemented the idea that Worf is always making excellent suggestions and always dismissed. It’s near criminal how they ignore him and everything he warned them about turned out correct.
Phase Inducers
Poor Geordi gets thrown around a lot thanks to a couple of phaser stuns. LeVar Burton looked like he did the actual stunt for at least one of those, if not both, and it looks painful. Good for him taking it for the team. He picks up with what Worf, Data, and Riker are laying down and ends up building and dismantling a photon torpedo.
Counselor Cleavage
Deanna also gets a nod for warning about the Packleds and getting mostly ignored as well.
Doctor Not Bones
Pulaski makes Picard get this surgery. Either she does it or he goes to Starbase 515 and have them do it. Picard options for both.
Shut Up, Wesley
Wesley respects Picard but he is dreading taking a long car shuttle trip with him, especially since he’s clearly grumpier than usual. But it turns out to be a great trip.
Enlisted Man
O’Brien is able to beam Geordi out of the Packled ship directly onto the bridge.
Canon Maker
Picard’s artificial heart is introduced here and will be a thing referenced here and there but also become a key plot point later on. In fact, so will the fight with the Nausicans.
Canon Breaker
The shuttle that leaves the shuttle bay and the shuttle we see Picard and Wesley in space are not the same shuttle. Whoops!
Why doesn’t the shuttle have warp? It has nacelles, and it’s been established that most shuttles have limited warp capability.
Wesley has no idea why Picard is coming with him until Picard tells him everything. Then when they get to the base, Wesley is supposed to make sure Picard actually goes in to the hospital, as instructed by Pulaski. So he knew something.
A Little Bloody Nose
No deaths, though not for lack of trying.
Technobabble
When Geordi is on the Packled ship, Riker opens communication which Geordi taps his badge to answer. But then there’s a visual communication. Now it’s been established that badge communicators are strictly audio only. Only ships or a desk station, something like that can do full zoom calls. I almost put this under canon breaker, but really there’s no reason that the badge couldn’t do something similar to a cast to another device that has video capabilities. Heck we can do that now. So well done for a little prediction on future tech.
Please Repeat Your Communication
“He is smart. He can make us go.” – Typical Packled mantra.
Library Computer
The Packleds were never seen again until Lower Decks.
The Nauscians were named after a writer’s favorite Miyazaki movie, Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind.
I Know That Guy:
Lycia Naff makes her final appearance as Sonya Gomez.
Christopher Collins plays Grebnedlog. We saw him as the Klingon captain back in A Matter Of Honor.
Leslie Morris plays Reginod. He seems like someone that I’ve seen in a ton of stuff, but no. He had some bit parts in The Terminator, Tango and Cash, and Cobra but that’s about it. He was out of acting by 1991.
Daniel Benzali plays the lead surgeon. He would go on to have roles in various series that usually only lasted one season like Murder 1. He also was in Roger Moore’s last outing as Bond in A View To A Kill.
Tzi Ma played the Biomolecular specialist. He had a lot of work and is probably most known for a recurring part in the series 24.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
Oy. This episode isn’t the worst thing to watch but parts of it are. The A plot requires Riker to be a complete and utter retard. Worf is telling him not to send Geordi. Deanna comes up to the bridge and says to get him out of there. Just beam LaForge back and sort it out later. But no, Riker just thinks it’s no big deal. Stop offering this guy Captaincies, he’s clearly going to get everyone killed.
The whole Packled plot is ridiculous. Not sure how these aliens with down syndrome were able to steal from far more warlike races like the Romulans. No way the Romulans would’ve fallen for their crap.
Then you have Picard acting like a child about his surgery, basically being totally ungrateful at Pulaski saving his life, and just grumping about everything. Grow up.
Still the entire episode is saved by Wesley, of all people. He acts like a teenager would with a cranky authority figure. He ends up breaking down Picard’s defenses a little by telling him he knows Picard doesn’t like kids and he would’ve been a good father. I think that opened up something in Picard’s mind that would later become a thing with him, especially in the movies.
That gets us this wonderful little story Picard relates to Wesley about his misspent youth and it’s just great. In fact all the moments with Wesley and Picard in the shuttle are really great. It’s just all the contrivances to get him there, plus a terrible story that seems to be designed to make you wonder if Riker is as dumb as a box of rocks that really weighs the rest of the episode down.
