What’s it about: Tasha Yar and that’s all you need to know to want to turn off. To Baldly Go: Everything about Picard at this stage is so stiff (get a room guys, that was the last episode) and Patrick Stewart sounds oddly robotic in his voiceovers and displays none of the charm he would in later years. He barks at Wesley on the Bridge like a little Hitler and thinks that Tasha is a rather lovely woman.
Security Chief: Tasha seriously needs to calm down a bit, one of Lutan’s guards tries to give the vaccine to Picard and she beats the crap out of him! Imagine kidnapping somebody as melodramatic as Tasha Yar, I’d return her and ask for a refund. Her characterisation is really uncomfortable; especially when Troi probes her mind to explore the sense of thrill she felt when Lutan claimed her as his own. When you think that Tasha was menaced by rape gangs when she was younger and now she enjoys being desired by an man who treats her as a prize. This is how an enlightened emancipated 24th Century girl thinks when a man treats her as property? And when Yar has a hissy fit I just wanted to tape her mouth shut: ‘Troi you tricked me!’ Was Yar conceived as a deliberately flawed character? She wants to embarrass Lutan’s wife for having the audacity to challenge her! She suggests there is no physical training anywhere that matches Starfleet training which is clearly a crock of shit, I can think of a dozen races that would gobble Yar up, chew her up and spit her out. Data looks forlorn at the thought that Tasha might love Lutan which leads to another cringeworthy admission that she is attracted to the sexist ruler. No wonder Denise Crosby wanted out, this is painful material. What complications is Tasha talking about when rejecting Lutan at the climax?
Boy Genius: Wesley is in the turbolift again just to get a little glimpse of the Bridge – that kid needs to discover pornography. An hour with Quark would sort him out. When Crusher asks to talk to Picard about Wesley it is all he can do to stop himself spitting on the floor. Nog has to work his butt off to earn the right to step into Ops and take a station and Wesley, just like everybody on this damn show, gets it handed on a plate.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘You can create people without a soul?’ is pretty much the punchline for every holodeck episode to come.
Dreadful Dialogue: ‘This is my first woman!’ – ouch!
Apparently women are ‘highly pleasant things but unimportant.’
The weapons are ‘razor sharp and split second lethal!’
The Good: The staging for the fight is impressive, especially the long shot of the arena with the planetary background.
The Bad: Since I am not a fan of TOS so I will place this observation in this category but everything about the arrival of Lutan screams of the Original Series. Tonally, visually and musically it is a tad over the top and camp. I don’t understand why the Federation has to kiss the butt of Lutan and his people when they have just handed over a sample. Would they really be held to a razors edge like this? Battle of the sexes so early in the series run? I seem to recall that Stargate had an episode not long after its pilot that handled similar, quietly insulting, themes.
There is a completely random scene thrown in between Geordi and Data about jokes that is pointlessly out of place. Orchestra: Every twist is punctuated by a ridiculously loud and dramatic sting that has the reverse effect of what it is trying to achieve - blunting the moments.
Result: The most Original Series episode TNG ever produced with its emphasis on a camp and faintly unbelievable alien culture and a dismal handling of sexism and race. There’s even a fake looking sky backdrop. In three episodes alone Tasha Yar takes her place as the least convincing regular character Star Trek has seen (yes that includes Neelix) and her dialogue in this episode is obscenely bad, so much so I was praying for her to trip and impale herself on her poisoned spikes. With its cod Shakespearean dramatics, overacted guest stars (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson doesn’t so much as chew the scenery but devour it whole) and overdone musical stings this is another embarrassment to sit through. My standards must have been very low as a child because I cannot imagine any age group sitting through this entire episode today unless they were a Trek completist. Painful and dull and it’s not even the worst episode of the season. ‘Why aren’t we warping out of here?’ says Picard at the conclusion but I was thinking that for 45 long minutes: 1/10
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