Title: The Schizoid Man
Airdate: 1/23/1989
Plot Summary
The Enterprise receives a distress call from Grave’s World, home to Ira Graves a foremost scientist in the federation. It turns out he’s dying and really cranky about it. He finds Data extremely interesting and in a opportunistic twist is able to use a technology he’s been working on to transfer his consciousness into Data. Originally he just wanted to save his vast knowledge into the computer so it wouldn’t be lost, but this turns out to be far more of temptation than he thought possible. Unfortunately things go wrong. Will they be able to save Data?
Make It So
Picard is the first one to figure out what’s going on. He confronts Data/Graves and gets a nice backhand to the face for it. Fortunately the sight of Picard on the ground snaps Graves back to reality.
Number 1
Riker is the one who suggests the touch and go transport. He also teases Data at the end when Data has no memory of what he did as Graves, asking if he remembers wrestling with a Klingon Targ. Data thinks for a moment and then asks, “Did I win?”
Fully Functional
Data tries to grow a beard with hilarious results. He then discovers and spends a lot of time Graves on the planet. But once Graves takes him over, he pretty much takes a powder the rest of the episode.
Today Is A Good Day To Die
Worf has apparently done a warp speed transport in the past. When Kareen asks if Worf is a Romulan, he’s really offended.
Phase Inducers
Geordi is able to hold it together at the sight of Data’s beard but asks him if he damaged his face. Geordi’s expression tells me he knows damn well what Data did and is just tweaking him.
Counselor Cleavage
Troi does her best but can’t keep from laughing at the sight of Data’s beard. She also administers the test to Data/Graves and figures out that there are two personalities in there.
Doctor Not Bones
Pulaski needs to help a medical emergency so she sends Doctor Selar down to Graves’ World.
Shut Up, Wesley
Wesley for some reason doesn’t get wise to Data the way he did Lore. He does find him hilarious.
Canon Maker
While Doctor Selar will never be seen again on screen, she’ll be referenced a lot throughout the show, indicating she had a long tour on the Enterprise after this episode. It’s a shame, I would’ve loved to seen more of her. Not like that ya dirty bastich.
(Well maybe a little like that.)
Ira Graves supposedly taught Soong everything he knew. It’s hard to tell how true that was since Graves seemed to love to exaggerate, but certainly there was something there led to Data’s creation.
He also mentions Data has no aesthetic value at all. Given how we know he’s modeled after Soong himself, I assume that was a “Boom! Roasted, bitch!” moment on Soong’s looks.
I don’t think this is really a canon breaker but it appears that you can own a planet. They keep calling it Grave’s World. While you might say it was because he was the only one on it, I find that hard to believe as they have never before or since called any planet other than it’s official name, like Gamma IV, or Tau Ceti VI. I don’t see any reason why someone couldn’t have their own planet in this universe so calling it canon.
When Kirk was taken over by Janet Lester, they gave him some test which couldn’t figure out he wasn’t Kirk anymore. Here they give Data a test and figure it out pretty quicky. Progress!
Canon Breaker
The near warp transport seems needlessy risky. Stopping for a minute at best to ensure a smooth transport couldn’t have taken that much off their trip.
A Little Bloody Nose
Ira Graves dies but it seems to be more of a natural causes thing, so I’m not sure it counts. Ah hell, a death’s a death.
Technobabble
Apparently Graves figured out how to get his essence into an android body. Since Data’s brain is far more advanced than anything else out there, it makes sense that transferring into the computer would lose the essence of Graves and only retain the data. This is something that will come into play later and I don’t think it really contradicts anything from Elemetary Dear Data as that program was made from completely different stuff to create life, so to speak.
Data is able to contact the Enterprise on his communicator after it went to warp. That shows that those communciators must have a heckuva range. At those speeds, the Enterprise was probably out of the solar system already. Not sure that’s correct or a canon breaker but I’ll allow it.
Please Repeat Your Communication
“Well, well, well, what have we got here? Another lovely specimen of womanhood.”
“I thought you didn’t like people.”
“Women aren’t people. They’re women.”
Graves coming on to Troi, Troi gently pushing back, and Graves stating an obvious sexist truth.
Library Computer
There’s a great shot where we see Pulaski enter the turbolift and the doors close on the hallway. She waits a few minutes and the doors open on the bridge. There a no cuts at all. It’s pretty well done.
During the psychotropic imaging exam, tons of images are pulled from the Project Genesis demo tape from Star Trek II. Man they were bound and determined to use the heck out of that whereever they could.
I Know That Guy:
W. Morgan Sheppard plays Ira Graves. He’s pretty great. We already saw him (or will see him, depending on what order you watch these in) Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He’ll be back in Voyager and even in Star Trek (2009) as a Vulcan council member who was racist against humans.
Barbara Alyn Woods plays Kareen Brianon. She was a steady working actor on TV and is most known for a main role on One Tree Hill.
But the big addition to Trek is Suzie Plakson as Dr. Selar. She’ll go on to play the half Klingon K’Ehleyr, Hot Q in Voyager, and an andorian in Enterprise.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
Data gets taken over by someone else, similar to Kirk and Lester body swap. This really depends on Spiner’s acting which I find mixed. It’s not that his acting is bad per se, it’s quite good. But to me it doesn’t feel like Sheppard. It feels too much like Lore or just Data malfunctioning. Sure, his motivations and how he acts makes sense but some of it goes too far.
The funeral is just nails on a chalkboard to me. I get what they were trying to do but it just doesn’t work. Even Graves being alive wasn’t this narcissitic. He was mischivieous, playful, cranky, and brilliant. Spiner’s choices just don’t work that well for me. I know I’m in a minority on this one.
The story itself therefore just doesn’t execute as well as I would like. This also has some of the problems of Datalore, everyone on the crew has to be willfully blind to Data’s behavior. Granted, it’s not quite as obvious this time. But this time even Wesley is in the dark. Yes I know I complained vehemently that Wesley was too smart and made the rest of the crew look dumb, but that’s what you set up. He should’ve had a red flag go up a little.
Ok sure, the crew isn’t going to leap to “Oh he downloaded himself into Data.” That is crazy. But he does a lot of things that Lore did, like being condescending to Wesley and using a contraction. Also Graves just has zero self control. I know he loves Kareen, but running his mouth on the bridge is just stupid.
Then when Troi senses emotions from him, that should’ve been a big red flag that got everyone to mobilize and stick him in the brig until they figure it out.
I did like Graves coming to his senses and basically ending his own life rather than hurt anyone again. That was a very Trek-like ending.
This is another episode, along with Elementary Dear Data, that is still laying down the groundwork for Data’s status in the Federation. But we’ll get to that soon enough.
