Title: The Child
Airdate: 11/21/1988
Plot Summary
An energy being decides to visit the ship and see what it is to be human, so it puts itself into Deanna, making her pregnant and give birth in a couple of days, then grows to about 8 years old in another couple of days. Deanna loves the child and names it Ian, even though this is friggin weird.
Of course it just happens to do this when the enterprise is hauling the most virulent horrible diseases ever created and Ian’s radiation signature is causing one of them to about to break containment. He leaves by dying, converting his body back to an energy being, and thanking Deanna for his time with them explaining he meant no harm.
Meanwhile Wesley is pondering his future now that his mother has left the ship to take a position heading up starfleet medical.
Make It So
Picard has to deal with his new chief medical officer who he finds a bit off-putting. He’ll get to like her eventually. I think.
Number 1
Riker grows his beard! And all starts to fall into their proper places in the universe. He also is the one who poses the obvious question to Deanna about who the father is… clearly he’s a little jealous. Well Riker, make a damn move then.
Fully Functional
Data is Deanna’s midwife and apparently does a pretty good job of it. Good for him.
Today Is A Good Day To Die
Worf is now in gold and has his silver bandolier that he would wear for the rest of the run, as well as in DS9. His forehead also looks slightly different and would look this way the rest of the show as well. He has the most… well not shocking moment, but certainly took me by surprise by suggesting Deanna get an abortion immediately. He’s wrong, but he’s not wrong for the suggestion in this particular case as chief of security. Still makes my skin crawl to agree with him though.
He’s still lieutenant junior grade, figured he would get a promotion as security chief, but no. Worf also takes the responsibilty to “tuck Wesley in at night.” Well that’s equally funny and disturbing.
Phase Inducers
Geordi also is now in gold and has been promoted to Chief Engineer. This was a perfect move for this character and gives us a proper engineer which the show was sorely missing.
He works with the scientist on the disease transport containers.
He was stepped up in rank to full lieutenant, two solid pips. Before he was lieutenant junior grade.
Counselor Cleavage
Troi has one weird week. She gets pregnant, gives birth, has a baby, a 4 year old, and an 8 year old within the same week. The doctor is astonished that after the birth, Deanna is so thoroughly healed that she can’t find any evidence that she was ever pregnant.
She’s heartbroken that Ian dies but is comforted when he reverts to the energy being and telepathically communicates with her.
She also moves to her purple and gray jumpsuits that she would wear through season 6.
Doctor Not Bones
Gates McFadden takes a year off, mostly because Maurice Hurley was an idiot. He and Gene decided to bring in an older, crankier doctor to try to replicate the Bones/Kirk dynamic. But it really fell flat because Picard isn’t Kirk. Crusher and Picard had a chemistry that this new doctor, Kate Pulaski, couldn’t replicate.
Diana Muldaur plays Pulaski and she’s perfectly fine. She had trek experience from the Original Series, but she just never quite fits in with this crew. I don’t believe it had anything to do with her acting but more about you can’t just plug and play actors and think you’re going to get the same result.
Pulaski neglects to check in with Picard on her arrival but she seems to have a good excuse, given Troi’s condition. She’s also racist against androids.
Shut Up, Wesley
Wesley is in a new gray uniform that he would wear well into season 3. He really wants to stay on the Enterprise but mostly assumes he can’t because his mother left to become head of starfleet medical. Guinan basically has to tell him “Well, have you asked to stay?”
Guinan?!
Whoopi Goldberg, who had been a huge fan of Trek and Uhura in particular, joins the crew as the bartender in Ten-Forward. I named the heading as it seems everytime she might use the comm to contact someone else on the ship, they are always surprised it’s her.
She has a habit of giving good advice when a crewmember needs it most. She’s an El-Aurian, though that wouldn’t be known for some time to the viewers. We do know she’s extremely long lived and has a mysterious and deep friendship with Picard.
While we do find out how she meets him, we never find out how he meets her. It’s a lot of time travel bullshit, don’t ask. Anyhow she’ll appear here and there enough that I’ll give her own heading as she’s more than a guest star, but not quite a cast member.
As much as Whoopi Goldberg has become an insufferable corporate lefty stooge, she’s really great in this show.
Canon Maker
Not only do we have Worf and Geordi in their proper places, but O’Brien is now the new transporter chief where we’ll see him most of the time. Still doesn’t have a name yet though.
We introduce ten-forward, a meeting place for the crew that includes and bar and restaurant, though I think the food is just from the replicators. Guinan is the bartender and runs the place. The reason it’s called ten-forward is because it’s on deck 10 in the saucer, and in the most forward part of the saucer.
The views must’ve been spectacular. Indeed, when the ship goes to warp, we get to see it like Rose on the bow of the Titanic.
The bar really adds something to show as it gives the characters a place to hang out and relax which allows for some great moments that you can’t do in the conference room or someone’s quarters. The holodeck is fun, but it’s like an amusement park. People after a hard days work don’t want to go to Six Flags, they want a beer.
Canon Breaker
Weirdly, there really wasn’t anything to break canon.
A Little Bloody Nose
Ian dies. Sort of? No one else.
Technobabble
Some diseases are so bad, they can break through force fields.
Picard has a nice hologram emitter on his desk, much like what’s in the conference room. I think he uses it once or twice more and then never again because special effects are expensive.
Please Repeat You Communication
“Da-ta?”
“It’s DAY-ta.”
“What’s the difference?”
“One is my name. The other is not.”
— Pulaski mispronouncing Data’s name and Data being miffed about it.
Library Computer
Originally Star Trek was to return to tv as Star Trek Phase II. This would bring back Kirk and crew minus Spock but adding Decker and Ilia.
This story would’ve had Ilia in the Deanna role for this. There would be one other episode that pulled an old script from Phase II and repurposed it for TNG. This one in particular was partly due to the writer’s strike at the time.
Really a nice opening shot on this one. First we get the Enterprise next to a Excelsior class ship looking nice. Then the shuttlebay and finally a really nice crane shot from Data at bridge station, over the arch and finally settling on a low shot of Riker in the captain’s chair. Quite nice.
The station they transport to is the Regula One station again. It’s not the station in earth orbit in The Motion Picture becuase it’s not positioned the same way.
The chairs for the helm and ops are now much more upright rather than the psuedo recliners they were before. This looks much better and the people sitting in them now seem more formal and down to business rather than some gamer leaning back with his controller.
For some reason, the shots on the bridge are horrific quality. I thought it was my copy but so many other shots are crystal clear. It turns out that they needed a video camera using tape rather than the normal cameras they use. It came out with a ton of noise and grain. There were several other places in this episode where that happened. The result is some shots are georgeous and some look like that old videotape you watched too many times in the 80s.
I Know That Guy:
Seymour Cassel plays Lt. Commander Hester Dealt, the starfleet scientist in charge of all these disaease. Cassel played in all sorts of stuff, I remember him in the 1990 Dick Tracy movie. He worked a ton with John Cassavetes and later on Wes Anderson. I like him as an actor but boy he just doesn’t look like someone who would pop up in Star Trek.
R.J Williams plays Ian at 8 years old. He was a child actor for a while but his big claim to fame is the founder of Young Hollywood. Apparently it’s quite successful in its own right. I can’t say I recognize much of what it produces, but it has partnerships with youtube, Hulu, TikTok, Apple TV, and the Four Seasons hotels. Pretty impressive stuff.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
We’re back, baby! We come to season 2 and now things are starting to look like the TNG we all know and love. Unfortunately we have an episode that has season 1 type writing. There isn’t anything particularly wrong with the plot, it’s just not compelling in any way. Deanna gets pregnant by a tiny ball of energy so it can do a Starman and see what being human is like. But we never really get to know the being other than as a child. It takes so long to get to a point we see Ian, at least at an age where a kid actor can be compelling. In the meantime, we have Wesley moping around, we have to take some time to get know Pulaski, we spend time with Geordi in his new position, and of course the introduction of Guinan.
There’s just too much going on in the B and C stories that we can’t get any traction with the A plot. They are already laying some groundwork for Picard butting heads with Pulaski, Wesley’s issue takes an inordinate amount of time to just get resolved by Guinan telling him “If you want to stay, just ask!” and of course the really stretched out time in getting all the diseases into the cargo containers and everything that goes with it.
So Ian comes to the ship, burns his finger, won’t say why he’s here, and then dies. It turns out, wouldn’t you know it, the one time the Enterprise is carrying all this dangerous cargo, he decides to visit and create himself a body that gives off bullshit radiation. What rotten timing. What if this happened a week later? Would he be going to the academy with Wesley in two years?
Some call it a rape but I think that’s a little much. Rape would have to include a guy and doesn’t always result in a baby. It’s a far more violent act and really requires a man, unfortunately. Agreed, this isn’t exactly something she wanted and certainly was a violation, but any more so than Picard being taken over by an energy being? My point is in that episode the being was just as much of a violation but no one called it rape.
What’s worse is that this should be a defining moment in Deanna’s life but it’s completely forgotten and never spoken of again.
It’s not all bad. It’s nice seeing the new sets and new roles for the cast. The intro to Guinan is excellent and Goldberg does a fabulous job. The character could’ve ended up being a bit of stunt casting and been a one and done but Goldberg seems like she’s always been a part of the Trek universe. We won’t talk about Picard season 2.
Season 2 will have some better episodes, some downright excellent episodes, but this is not a great start.
