The cast of an 1885 school production of a Robin Hood opera

Disclaimer

In these posts, we discuss a non-“Free as in Freedom” popular culture franchise property, including occasional references to part of that franchise behind a paywall. My discussion and conclusions carry a Free Culture license, but nothing about the discussion or conclusions should imply any attack on the ownership of the properties. All the big names are trademarks of the owners, and so forth, and everything here relies on sitting squarely within the bounds of Fair Use, as criticism that uses tiny parts of each show to extrapolate the world that the characters live in.

Previously


I initially outlined the project in this post, for those falling into this from somewhere else. In short, we attempt to use the details presented in Star Trek to assemble a view of what life looks like in the Federation. This “phase” of the project changes from previous posts, however. The Next Generation takes place long after the original series, so we shouldn’t expect similar politics and socialization. Maybe more importantly, I enjoy the series less.

Put simply, you shouldn’t read this expecting a recap or review of an episode. Many people have done both to death over nearly sixty years. You will find a catalog of information that we learn from each episode, though, so expect everything to be a potential “spoiler,” if you happen to have that irrational fear.

Rather than list every post in the series here, you can quickly find them all on the startrek tag page.

Qpid

Off we go to Sherwood Forest


Captain’s log, stardate 44741.9. We have arrived at Tagus Three where the Enterprise is to serve for host of the Federation Archaeology Council’s annual symposium. I look forward to giving tomorrow’s keynote address with great anticipation.

Why would they have him giving the keynote address? He reads about archaeology in his spare time
oh, and I guess that his family does live in that castle. Currying favor with the wealthy military officer probably doesn’t hurt their funding.

TROI: Relax. You’ve written a brilliant speech.

Likewise, kissing up to the boss never hurt, I guess. This seems to have become a trend, with Troi.

PICARD: It will need to be. Tomorrow I’ll be addressing some of the greatest scientific minds in the Federation. Switzer, Klarc-Tarn-Droth, McFarland. Giants in the field of archaeology. Compared to them, I’m just an enthusiastic amateur.

See? Even Picard realizes the problem. At least, he realizes the problem now. In one more line, he’ll regain his confidence by remembering that he did skim some reports


VASH: Bring back any memories?

You remember Vash—and the statue—I assume, from Captain’s Holiday.

PICARD: I had no idea you were a member of the Archaeology Council. You are a member, aren’t you?

Did it never occur to him to look at the roster of the people he needs to deliver a keynote address to?

CRUSHER: I’m sorry I’m late. Oh. Excuse me. I didn’t realize you had company.

I don’t know that I have the patience to get into this weird love triangle, where we have almost no romantic indications between a couple of the triangle’s legs.

RIKER: Eternity never looked so lovely.

He really does go from zero to sexual harassment really quickly, doesn’t he?

RIKER: You’re Betazoid.

He acts like his transparent pickup line would take psychic powers to figure out.

WORF: Nice legs. For a human.

Good to see that we need to involve everyone in this toxic masculinity and objectification.

PICARD: A Captain does not reveal his personal feelings with his crew.

Speaking of toxic masculinity, please do not model Picard’s behavior. That way lies poor health and even poorer relationships.

PICARD: We all make mistakes.

Remember, the next time that Picard lectures someone about the sanctity of life, that he regrets saving Q’s life.

PICARD: It’s me.

Wow, Picard seems to think that he has undertaken some secret spy mission, watching for potential witnesses and walking past the room and backtracking to arrive where he wants to go, as if anybody cares about his love-life.

Also, the Enterprise guest cabins have windows with Venetian blinds that face into the corridor.

PICARD: Which no doubt you sold for a very impressive profit.

VASH: That’s what I do!

Wait, I thought that people no longer obsessed over the accumulation of things, as Picard lectured us in The Neutral Zone.

PICARD: Ladies and gentlemen, members of the Archaeology Council. Welcome. Mystery. It is the mystery of Tagus Three that brings us together today. It is a mystery that has invited more argument, more deduction, more speculation than the best works of fiction. And if you’ll excuse the conceit, I want to tell you about my detective story. For several years now, I have been trying to unravel the secrets of Tagus Three.

This “brilliant” speech kind of stinks, doesn’t it? It feels like it would fit maybe a junior high school event. And once again, I find myself asking whether the writers did a terrible job, or did they deliberately set up everyone heaping praise on Picard to expose that he doesn’t do this at all well, as Q hinted?

WORF: Sir, I protest. I am not a merry man.

Why nobody has ever had the sense to cast Michael Dorn in a sitcom, I’ll never know


PICARD: My feelings toward Vash are irrelevant. I would attempt to save any innocent life, as you well know.

Do we know that? He says it, here, but I don’t know that we’ve ever seen him risk himself to save anyone.

VASH: What kind of plan is that?

She does raise a valid point. He seems to want to treat this like a holodeck game, where nothing will hurt him and the story revolves around getting him to a successful ending.

Mostly, though, even though it has nothing to do with why I write these posts, I really need to point out the incredible comedic acting across this entire episode. Worf steals the show with his couple of lines, but Stewart and Hetrick do a great job on scenes like this. The episode mostly wastes time, since none of us came to Star Trek for an episode of some Robin Hood show, but they crafted it so well that you barely have time to notice.

SIR GUY: You have been found guilty of outlawry and high treason. Do you have anything to say before sentence is carried out?

Since I had so little to talk about in this episode, I might as well nitpick the detail that governments of the time would have considered “outlawry” a punishment, rather than a crime. Specifically, declaring someone outlaw set them outside the legal system, so that no action committed against the outlaw would qualify as a crime.

Q seems less omniscient than advertised, I suppose.

Conclusions

As much as I enjoy the episode, we don’t get too much new insight into the culture, other than the continued popularity of the Robin Hood legend.

The Bad

Everybody seems to want Picard’s favor, from a major archaeological society asking him to deliver a mediocre keynote address at an important conference, to his subordinates praising that work as brilliant. Even Crusher’s sudden jealousy at Picard having a social life might fit into this. He realizes that something seems wrong, but dismisses it as having read some papers giving him the same insight as experts, and drops right back to wanting to appear invulnerable and emotionless to his crew.

Picard, and by extension the crew in general, doesn’t seem to bother looking over the guest list for the conference that they have volunteered to host. He also believes that he made a mistake in saving someone’s life, even as he claims that he would always risk his life to save anybody.

Riker continues to try to seduce every woman who crosses his path, with everyone fully supportive of his actions, and echoing his objectification. He also believes that nobody could see through his clichés except a psychic.

The Weird

We continue to see that Picard’s prior speech about nobody caring about material belongings has no basis in fact.

Next

Come back in a week, when we get maybe our closest look into how the Federation’s pluralistic utopia really works, in The Drumhead.

Credits: The header image is Robin Hood Opera by Colin McAlpin at Wellingborough School cast photo by an unknown photographer, long in the public domain from an expired copyright.