The Captain's Trauma: The Podcast Episode Four Extra

Main characters in Star Trek are often subjected to hardships that in TV land only last the 44 minutes or so of a single episode but The Next Generation was bold and ambitious and took on the subject of trauma with both hands.

After Picard’s assimilation by the Borg at the end of season three/beginning of season four, most shows would have just moved on after the ‘rescue’ but in the next episode Family we get into the actual rehabilitation of the central character.

The story is interesting because it deals with some of the issues that people traumatized in combat deal with as they try to find themselves again.

In the story Captain Picard, in a very typical manner of someone traumatized by combat, believes that his injuries are healing.  Deanna Troi who serves as his counsellor of course, challenges him on his belief that he has recovered and his choice of where he wants to go to find himself again.

When Picard goes home it is not the confident starship captain who returns, but a man unsure of himself and where he fits in life.  His encounter with the Borg has changed him and he contrary to assurances to Counsellor Troi is still wounded. 

Only in The Next Generation could the writers be allowed the time to explore this, what I always loved was they resisted the temptation to always make episodes ‘thrilling’ or ‘action packed’. On the contrary, these episodes were nearly always the strongest, and gave us so much to experience (and enabled us to truly relate to these characters). Also, we are never given the easy option of a quick fix for the Captain, as in our own reality, he has to learn to ‘adapt’ ironically to his new mental state.

And as the years of The Next Generation continued we occasionally revisited Picard’s condition, naturally whenever the word ‘Borg’ was mentioned and when dealings with them became necessary. We even see a very stubborn and almost regressively childish Picard as he refused to even acknowledge Hugh the partially un-assimilated Borg (I Borg).

In this episode Picard becomes even annoying one might say, as we are able to see Hugh’s transition but he refuses to entertain the idea that such a thing is possible. We have come to admire and respect Picard for years, but in this episode he demonstrates prejudice (however understandable). In the way that true prejudicial attitudes work, Picard has labelled all Borg as ‘evil’ and beyond help. It seems he has forgotten that they are all victims of a terrible abuse just as he was himself.

But Picard has to form this ‘protective shell’ around himself; he feels that if he begins to feel any compassion or sympathy for one of these creatures, he will be exposing himself to what is now his greatest fear.

Picard always come through, the writers of The Next Generation always show that he is a truly extraordinary man, and whilst he never conquers his problems, he always progresses and pushes through to a point of resolution (no matter how painful)

Then a curveball of sorts for Picard’s life occurred (The Inner Light), in this episode he experiences a whole raft of psychological challenges. After being hit by a nucleonic beam form a mysterious space probe, Picard passes out on the Enterprise and we see him awaken as a man named ‘Kamin’ on another planet and another reality.

This episode is very popular favourite for good reason; the exploration of actually experiencing another reality, another existence is handled beautifully.

We see the passing years of Kamin’s life on the planet of Kataan and again there are similar challenges presented to this man as have been laid before Picard as we know him. He has to experience responsibility for the community, and frustration of not being believed by his people.

It was interesting that Kamin is often shown as being ridiculed and written off as being senile of mad when he tries to advise everyone of the planet’s coming crisis. There is also the anger and feelings of helplessness associated with Kamin’s fight against bureaucracy. These challenges echo our Picard’s own struggles in his position as captain, but also demonstrate perhaps a secret fear that he won’t be heard.

Maybe one could even say that Picard fears being powerless, he is accustomed to being the voice of authority and reason and Kamin’s situation is very much the opposite. Of course we actually see the decades pass for Kamin and his eventual death, but unlike Picard this man has had family, a home-life and a great degree of genuine happiness.

It reminded me of Picard’s brother in Family, he was almost living THAT life, a life he has often envied.

After Kamin’s death and Picard’s return to the Enterprise, it is revealed that only 20 minutes have passed for the captain, but he has not been unaffected, indeed Picard is left again with the enduring trauma and mental effects to deal with.

So on one hand it could be viewed that Jean-Luc has suffered yet another exhausting experience that would damage his mental health further. But, he does seem to have retained a certain serenity and introspection from his life as Kamin. Is it possible that all of this time and room for him to ‘breathe’ whilst living a peaceful family life allowed Picard to partially heal from the Borg trauma?

Not completely of course, but I do wonder if through Kamin, he was afforded a certain extra fortitude to deal with future Borg-related challenges.

It wasn’t just the Borg that provided the catalyst for the many psychological challenges of Jean Luc, he was to be tested again (Chain of Command). In these episodes after a failed secret mission, Picard is captured and tortured by the Cardassian, Gul Madred and against the laws of treaties and such, Madred proceeds to put the Captain through sadistic personally motivated torture.

Interestingly, it isn’t the actual torture , sleep deprivation and such that concerns us, after all we know that Jean-Luc Picard is a man of strong stuff, he has survived the Borg, so what can a petty minded despot really do to him?

No, as a viewer by this point we actually feel that it is the lasting effects that concern us, what will happen afterwards?, will this finally break Picard?

The back and forth between Madred and Picard goes on for a couple of days, and as we all know Picard is finally defiant and resolute (never giving in on the subject of ‘the four lights’). But at the end of the story, we again look in on Picard being counselled by Deanna Troi and his startling confession that he actually nearly gave in to Madred in order to end the suffering.

What is remarkable about this piece of writing is that we, as viewers expected him to reveal this. Far from demanding unreasonable heroism from Picard, we are proud of his humanity, enthralled by his honesty and strength.

Torture, captivity, ridicule, fear, physical abuse and violation have been part of Jean Luc Picard’s Starfleet career. The writers of The Next Generation never gave up on him as a person but also never shied away from the ‘curve’ of mental illness, how it evolves and changes over time, creating both weaknesses and new found strengths.

It culminates of course with a sort of ‘acceptance’ a kind of breakthrough point for Picard after the ‘victory’ over the Borg queen in Star Trek First Contact. Now of course Picard is not alone in being put through the gauntlet of trauma and experience featured in Star Trek as a whole.

Listen to the full discussion as part of our fourth podcast available HERE right now!

Check out our podcast notes from episode four for more suggested episodes.

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Top 25 - 20 years on

Once upon a time there was a magazine called Starlog.

It was the one stop source for all things science fiction and fantasy while also being maturely written and superb value for money (in the 1990's at least).

On one of my numerous loft searches for Star Trek material for SKoST I uncovered a gem of an issue of the now sadly defunct publication which featured the Top 25 episodes of The Next Generation as voted for by its readers. Published (as it states) during the sixth season when it was rumoured that those 26 episodes would be the last produced, it omits the end of that season as well as series seven from final selection. Now I find it a bit weird that this article should rear it's head from the loft just as The Best of  Both Worlds plays on the big screen ahead of the blu-ray releases of The Next Generation season three and four and just after startrek.com asked fans to rate their favourite installment from a list of seven from all 178 episodes.

Now a few weeks ago the startrek.com result was announced and putting the two together it's actually interesting to see a few shifts have occurred over the course of just under 20 years. We have to look at this second poll from the website slightly differently because there were only six episodes to pick from, one of which wasn't even made when Starlog published the above article.

Now  I actually put this piece on the backburner due to some minor movie that came out recently called Star Trek Into Darkness and it got lost in the drafts section of SKoST but someone must be telling me to publish it as this week a piece showed up on startrek.com talking about Starlog magazine. I don't think I can ignore an invitation and timing like that twice so let's take a more detailed look at what we've got here before I have to wait for something to do with countdowns or The Next Generation's 30th anniversary to hit the publish button.

from startrek.com

Now, discounting All Good Things..., it's the switch of numbers one and three that provides most interest. Remember the first survey (Starlog) was conducted in 1993. These were the days before the Borg-centric juggernaut of Star Trek First Contact, pre-Voyager, in the early days of Deep Space Nine and also pre-DVD let alone blu-ray. It seems that over 20 years, The Best of Both Worlds has withstood the test of time well to the point where it now tops the table. I would say that all those factors above have helped it climb to this position but both these polls have massive flaws which fans will no doubt be screaming at this post right now. Firstly the Starlog piece was written pre-season seven and half way through the '92-'93 series. The startrek.com poll only gave a choice of six which somewhat limits the choice.  When we compare the positioning of The Inner Light, Darmok and The Measure of a Man between the two results however they would be in exactly in the same places 20 years apart! 

I would have loved to see this 25 episode poll redone now or even just after season seven concluded. It's amazing to think that when this was produced in Starlog we had no concept of how The Next Generation was going to end or that there would be four motion pictures to follow, the second of which would have no doubt been a massive influence on the change in position for The Best of Both Worlds as would the one-night-only cinematic release of the HD version on April 25th. Are these factors that now make it preferable to the also classic Yesterday's Enterprise? Has this episode been over-watched? Has its impact lessened since 1989/90 that much that it has dropped not only from favourite but also past The Inner Light? This has always been a stalwart list topper since 1993 undoubtedly due to Patrick Stewart's performance - indeed this could also be applied to The Best of Both Worlds.

There are two more points that this raises - is The Best of Both Worlds really the best episode The Next Generation produced and also what happened to Yesterday's Enterprise? Have we fallen a bit out of love with what was once classed as the pinnacle of The Next Generation? I don't think it's quite that serious but The Best of Both Worlds is getting a lot of press at the moment so maybe letting the dust settle and doing a recount might be in order; perhaps even wait until the end of the blu-ray release of all seven seasons, then take a vote. I wonder as well if we view The Best of Both Worlds with some sort of fluffy love and reminiscence of the "good old days" of the Borg before they were (maybe) overused and revamped for Star Trek First Contact and Voyager.

I actually look at the Starlog piece and wonder which episodes from those that missed the deadline would have been included and which would have lost out had this been actioned 18 months later in the gap between All Good Things... and Star Trek: Generations? I suspect that installments such as Rascals, A Fistful of Datas and The Host would have missed the cut while we might have seen at least a couple of additions such as Second Chances, The Pegasus and of course All Good Things... which would probably have made it into at least the Top Ten. I'd even question the inclusion of Deja Q in the top echelons let alone the fact that it made it into the chart in the first place - what happened to Unification for example? 

The cutoff point for "votable" episodes was Tapestry which meant that Birthright (a rewatched episode I found was better after 20 years) and all beyond were excluded. So what would I have changed at this point? Well, I would have included Conspiracy (not one first season episode made the cut, note) and possibly Unification II. It's hard to try and "avoid" thinking about the final season in line with a "best episodes" chart and while this doesn't tick all the boxes it's a nice slice of Star Trek history and a snapshot of opinion of one time in the life of the franchise. If we redid this poll today I'm not sure that I, Borg would rate so highly either potentially due to the large number of episodes they were featured in during the seven years of Voyager. Will some of the "lower ranked" stories here carry as much weight in our Star Trek-filled hearts in the future? Even now I wouldn't choose Remember Me over something like the brilliant Tapestry. As noted that was the last episode aired before the vote which could account for both its inclusion and its lowly ranking as not everyone might have seen it by the close of the vote. One more flaw to add to the list.

I'm surprised there's no Chain of Command or Conundrum for instance but for now I'm refraining from announcing my favourite episodes and the order of preference because that's something I have lined up for the end of season seven before I start my much anticipated run on Deep Space Nine. Anyway, to conclude, both polls are flawed but brilliant snapshots into how The Next Generation has fared over three decades. On the whole the episodes that we loved then are the same today but would they still be in similar positions come another 20 years? Something tells me the top three would certainly be unchanged as not only great episodes of The Next Generation but Star Trek as a whole. They have aged well and clearly carry a lot of affection from us, the fans. While I didn't vote in the Starlog chart of 1993 i did for the one carried on startrek.com. My choice.... Now that would be telling however if you've followed this blog since I started you'll already know the answer....

You can access a PDF of the Starlog document here

All Grown Up: Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Five

I've always considered there to be two eras to The Next Generation - the pre-Piller years of '87 to '89 and the remaining five seasons from '89 to '94.  Of the latter, season five is the one I approach with the most trepidation and following my re-watch over the last couple of months I still hold the same view.  

Of the "later" Piller years I find this to be the most uneven batch of episodes.  There are some out and out classics in here that would make it onto everyone and anyone's top list of TNG episodes and possible even a few that would challenge for some of the best installments ever but they are slightly tarnished by those they sit alongside and more-so than other seasons. 

So what's this season about? Originally I was going to call this blog Mortality and Morality as Sarek dies ("Unification"), Worf dies ("Ethics"), Geordi and Ro "die" ("The Next Phase"), Data 'dies' ("Time's Arrow"), everyone dies over and over again in "Cause and Effect" and that's just the main cast! You're hard pressed to find an episode where someone isn't on the verge of death or ending up on the slab during this year - and then there's the morality bit. The dangers of addictive gaming ("The Game"), homosexuality and conformity ("The Outcast"), mental rape ("Violations"), euthanasia ("Ethics"), enforced parenthood ("New Ground"), slavery ("The Perfect Mate") and dealing with horrific trauma ("Hero Worship") all get an airing this season but there seem to be chunks of these more serious and personal stories through the season providing that uneven keel and perhaps making it quite a hard series to access in some respects.

So what did I actually like about Season Five?  Quite a lot if I'm honest.  While it is uneven in places, it's still a cut above TNG's first two seasons. More importantly the fact that it's willing and able to tackle such difficult subjects through the year shows that TNG had really come of age. The first two years of the child learning to walk were distant memories, seasons three and four marked the show making itself stable, polishing the finish and then embarking on season five as a grown up; well experienced and prepared. However the placing of the more thought provoking episodes to the action-orientated installments could have done with a little bit more planning but on the whole it's a good effort.

The opening conclusion to "Redemption" was never going to live up to the hype of the previous season's cliffhanger but it's still an enjoyable start to the year. Commander Sela arrived and returned Denise Crosby to the Trek fold, popped up again in "Unification" - and then was promptly never seen again. It's OK but there was much better to come - virtually from the next episode when we encountered Picard in his trendy new captain's jacket and Darmok, at Tenagra of course. For me this was the real sign that TNG had grown up, as was the introduction of the semi-regular character, Ensign Ro in the eponymous episode. Semi-regular is perhaps a bit strong for Ro as she only made a series of fleeting appearances from here to "Preemptive Strike" right at the end of TNG's seventh year (mental note that I should do something about her in the future). The promised conflict wasn't to the levels that we would see from Major Kira in DS9 but her arrival did add a different edge that the Enterprise hadn't seen since its inception in 1987. It also introduced us to the Bajorans - a race whose actions and involvement with the fish-like Cardassians would affect the back stories of the two series that followed.

Indeed, as a year for "big" events such as the creation of the Bajoran back-story  they were pretty massive - and all I need to say here is Spock and probably "The Inner Light". The latter of which is, of course, rated as one of the great TNG moments. No question can be made of Patrick Stewart's performance here and no matter how many times I've watched it I still get a bit of a lump in my throat at the end. The story has everything that Picard can't have and all in less than 25 minutes. In the case of the former, what can we say - the return of a legend and finally a point where TNG became comfortable with its past. For more on this one, I would refer you to my recent blog on the seminal two-parter.

It was quite a season for returns in fact. The Crystalline Entity came back (and shattered), Sarek came (and went), Sela turned up (and went twice), Wesley came back (twice), Lwaxana appeared for her customary story and wouldn't be back until season seven (luckily); all that was missing was Q - but he would receive two installments the following year to make up for his notable absence. Another returnee who would be sticking around in the same "recurring" vain as Ensign Ro was Worf's son, Alexander. He would pop in and out over the course of the next two seasons and a few occasions on DS9. Alexander had the enviable ability to age at a phenomenal rate and also sadly gets lumbered with a heavy weight family stories this season. While they aren't my favourite installments by several country miles they do provide a lot of development for Worf as he becomes more comfortable with parenthood. Out of the whole cast he's probably the most used character this year however the shame is that the stories he is provided with are either Alexander related or honour related which is a shame because in other seasons we see much more to the character than these two facets which he becomes bogged down with in season five.

Brannon Braga is definitely one of the heroes of this season from a writing perspective. While "The Game" is a fair segment his real highlight is the mind-bending repetitive "Cause and Effect". Jonathan Frakes also deserves a fair amount of praise here for the direction here. It can't have been the easiest to work on especially as the whole episode effectively happens over and over again. Somehow Frakes comes up with something slightly different for each cycle to keep the audience attention and keep the story fresh each time. This is probably one of my favourites along with the classic "Darmok", Ronald D Moore's "The Next Phase" (which we would see a twist on in season seven) and "Conundrum" - if I'm not mistaken this was a few years before Buffy dropped Dawn into its fold without any explanation. It's also a wonderful occasion for the cast to play out of character and add a new "regular" for 30 minutes. Worf decides he's captain, Data mans Ten Forward and the mismatched Riker and Ro take their relationship to another level. If it had been made in the first two seasons it would have been an instant classic but dropping as it does in the middle of the fifth, it's overshadowed by others mentioned here. Still, one that is certainly on my "To Watch Again" list for the future.

I've mentioned it already but there are some highly moralistic episodes in season five, perhaps more than any other year of TNG. While this gets a bit of a drag later on, it's not the lowlight of the year. That honour has to be shared between two installments later in the year. First, "Cost of Living" , for the amusement park and mud bath sequences as well as the double hit of Lwaxana Troi and Alexander in the same 45 minutes. Way too much for me to deal with as I'm not a flag waver when it comes to Deanna's mother. I will watch them but it's against preference. I find this a particularly grating story that does damage to the character of Worf in some respects and is another Alexander/Worf family story where they have some issues to resolve in their father/son relationship. Writing this now I think this is why I'm not a great fan of this year. There's a lot of schmaltz and that goes for another story too.

Then there's the misfire that is "Imaginary Friend". While the story is solid enough I think the tragedy is that it is built around a young girl, Clara, who is not one of the cast and as such the emotional bond that has been built over years isn't there. In essence what happens to her isn't going to have much effect on the series on the whole. A nice little space filler but a shame when compared to some of the shows surrounding it. Kids are great; I'm happy to admit that, but the writers of TNG never really got to grips with them and in these two pieces it is very evident. Honestly, I feel a little sorry for Brian Bonsall getting lumbered with some of the scripts here in season five. Luckily he got "Rascals" and "A Fistful of Datas" in the following year which made up for it.

These are probably the only two episodes I could point to as being disappointing in the 91 - 92 season. My re-watch has discovered that "Unification" is a lot better than I remembered and "The Masterpiece Society" is a far better story than I thought aged 15. While we're mentioning that, it's also worth dropping in "Violations" - what a great story and so well played out. It's something a little edgy for TNG and the whole cast do a superb job with a great script from  Pamela Gray and Jeri Taylor. Not a bad result I would say considering this was a season I was not overly enthused to start watching again.

Getting later into the season the final four episodes are back-to-back brilliance; fast paced and jaw dropping sci-fi. The Borg are back; Geordi and Ro get to walk through everything in the budget-smashing "The Next Phase" and then there's the oft mentioned Picard-fest of "The Inner Light". However I must reserve my favourite moment of the entire year for the pre-credits sequence in the season finale, "Time's Arrow". While you just know it will be a cliffhanger and that there is absolutely no hope that the conclusion is going to do the first part any justice it contains one image that has stayed with me for many years and totally shocked me when I first saw a picture of it in the Star Trek Chronology (blast from the past!). It is of course Data's head on the ground in a cave under San Francisco. Apart from the face of Locutus on the Enterprise viewscreen at the end of season three I don't think that there's another image in TNG history that is burned into my mind as well as this one. I still get a chill seeing it now!

So what's next? Well, season six and the conclusion to Data's time-travelling predicament. Now I enjoyed season five but I have quite fond memories of its successor as all fans do. Will they be the same this time around and what episodes will cause a change of heart?

Oh - and what the HELL is going on with Riker's hair in Season Five?!