Post by Admin on Aug 6, 2013 17:01:59 GMT
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Data plays cards for a bit before Riker and Worf decide they've had enough and try to leave. But using the door brings them back inside the casino. They're unable to leave! The "people" are oblivious to their requests for information about a way out, and even shooting the walls doesn't make a dent! Data's scanner then notices human DNA elsewhere in the building. With nothing better to do, the team follows it and finds the dead deceased corpse of S. Richey, one of the occupants of the NASA vessel, who was stuck in the hotel alone for 38 years.
Richey's journal reveals that his crew were accidentally killed by aliens, who guiltily placed him – the only survivor - in a replica of what they believed to be Earth society after misinterpreting a poorly-written book on board Richey's craft. Regaining contact with the Enterprise, Riker and Co read the rest of the novel and eventually find a loophole that should allow them to exit: the book dictates that foreign investors buy the hotel. Riker, Worf and Data will become those investors!
And from that point on the plan goes off without a hitch. They win the money they need, using Data's android cheating skills, and then leave. Er, someone probably should've taken another pass at this screenplay. It's also a shame Richey didn't think of this, really. Well, I guess they are Starfleet's finest!
TNG WTF: Picard tells Riker to take a "minimal away team". So naturally he takes along Worf (chief of security) and Data (chief of science). Presumably that counts as minimal purely because the Chief Engineer and cabin boy didn't tag along too.
TNG LOL: Riker describes the landscape on the planet to Picard, and mentions an "antique revolving door". Picard's reply? "Revolving door? Number One, proceed with caution!" Yeah, those revolving doors are pretty dangerous. We can only imagine what his response would've been if Riker had seen a paternoster.
Also, you have to laugh at Colonel Richey's book review: "filled with endless cliché and shallow characters... I shall welcome death, when it comes." We'll call that a one star, then?
Mistakes and Minutiae: I may be wrong, but the appearance of the NASA logo is possibly the first example of a familiar, real-world brand turning up in Star Trek: TNG. There's no room for product placement in the 24th century!
Also, Picard tops and tails this episode with a chat about Fermat's last theorem puzzling humanity for 800 years. Of course, since this episode was made, a proof has been proposed. Probably not Fermat's "remarkable" one, since it uses maths unavailable to him at the time, but even so.
Time Until Meeting: 4:49. Pretty early, even by TNG standards. I guess they wanted to get to the planet as quickly as possible.
Captain's Log: I remembered enjoying this episode, and on a rewatch it didn't disappoint. It's good fun, despite being a very thinly-veiled holodeck malfunction story (a period setting, semi-interactive narrative, and a crew cut off from their support mechanisms).
In fairness, there isn't much peril to the story – the crew is stuck in the hotel and could end up dying there! You know, at the end of their natural lifespan! It seems like there should've been some more immediate threat (perhaps from the "actors" in the hotel?) just to make things a little more tense. Other than that, it's a nice little mystery with an interesting resolution.
As usual, though, it's Brent Spiner who steals the episode with Data's Rat Pack-style flourishes at the gambling table. It doesn't make a huge amount of sense that he'd be capable of them when you think about the trouble he has emulating most human behaviour, but it's so immediately funny that you can't help enjoying it.