Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) The Naked Now (1987) User Reviews

Star Trek prime reference

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 17 May 2020]

The Enterprise answers a distress call from from a ship studying the affects of a red giant star about to go supernova. When they get there, the crew is all dead and the ship looks like a wild party happened.

The same thing happened on Star Trek prime in an episode and to my knowledge this second episode is the only one in the whole series that mentions Captain Kirk and his crew.

As it was with Dr. McCoy, responsibility falls on Dr. Crusher ad she's got a problem with Wesley showing abherent behavior an effect of the disease.

Even Data is affected which was unusual. Later on he's imperious to various maladies that strike the human crew.

Look for Wil Wheaton to make one of his strongest performances in the series history.

Fun episode that is elevated by hilarious moments.

[thevacinstaller · 7/10 · 28 February 2021]

This is not a great episode by any means but I did genuinely let out a belly laugh during the drunk dial scene between Dr. Crusher and Picard.

I don't have strong positive or negative feelings towards Wesley Crusher. He is clearly established as being special in this episode.

I also enjoyed Denise Crosby's performance as a sex crazed Tasha Yar who makes Data a man (?)

I did not like it when they brought out a 137 year old (!) Dr. McCoy in encounter at farpoint and it was a bit much to directly reference TOS again in this second episode. Not a deal breaker by any means but could have been done with some level of finesse.

I did not feel any real sense of danger or suspense for the safety of the enterprise but that could due to the fact I have watched it before ---- although I tend to still find that suspense present in masterclass episodes of trek.

I cannot possibly give an episode of TNG where Picard is put into an uncomfortable position by sexual advances anything less then a 7 out of 10.

The continuing starting troubles of the new starship Enterprise...

[robert_s01 · 6/10 · 15 September 2008]

This episode was clearly intended to establish "The next Generation" by creating a link to its predecessor "The Original Series". To fans of the latter the scenario is quite well known and it might be fun to watch the new crew deal with the problem in their own way and exploring the new characters giving in to their hidden desires while infected.

To me, this show will always be remembered as the one that started the enervating and ridiculous career of "super brain" Wesley Crusher-Roddenberry (for it was Gene Roddenberry's intention to create Wesley after some of his own childhood experiences and actually as someone for the show's younger audience to identify with). To me that character was one of Star Trek's darkest hours and every episode giving him a bigger part I just can't stand because he's able to ruin even some good scripts.

Interestingly it's Patrick Stewart who obviously has some difficulty getting into his character here. I don't know if it is intended but all his scenes as the infected Captain are horrible because of his overacting of an overly stiff and inhibited Captain trying to be funny. But when you're really drunk, you don't have to act like you are you just behave differently and Stewart isn't able to deliver that. Riker greatly improved his performance to the pilot and the others do quite well also. The role of Troi, who was just awful in the beginning, was greatly reduced to some lines but even that reduced part seemed too much for Marina Sirtis, who isn't able to bring her character to life. Her lines just sound like read from the script without emotion (just like in a bad school play).

All in all this second episode of The next Generation couldn't help to start off the season.

Finally some remarks I wanted to add:

• Why is Riker sitting on a console while talking to Data on the bridge, ordering him to do research? Are those 24th century Computers multi role furniture as well? If you are sitting on your computer keyboard it certainly would't do it much good

• When Geordi is confined to sickbay, why doesn't his leaving set off an alarm or is recognized by a nurse or other medical personnel(where are the nurses anyway? Well, I surely know that it's a budget problem).

• When LaForge visits Wesley in his quarters, why doesn't he recognize that his communicator is missing?

• When Data informs the captain of his research results, the computer graphic shows a model of the Constitution class-refit version of the first Enterprise. But the incident happened during their first five year mission (first season of TOS) before the refit.

• Where does this hissing sound come from when the "disease" is spread?

• When Wesley simulates Picard's voice and orders the chief engineer to the bridge, why doesn't she acknowledge the order. Had she done it there wouldn't have been any problem with leaving engineering unoccupied. Everyone who is ordered to report to somewhere acknowledges the order. That's Starfleet standard procedure and clearly visible in multiple episodes

• The greatest flaw of all: Why is Data affected by a biochemical compound based on water and carbon. He is an android that means robotic and hasn't any organic parts (like the Borg for example)

• Last but not least, how does Weley regain reason when he has the idea to turn the tractor beam into a repulsor beam. That's surely a rather complex thing to do and he does it before he is "cured" by the hypo spray.

All in all a typically Roddenberry TNG-script with a clearly stated anti-alcohol attitude, much too moralistic and clumsy (don't get me wrong, I usually like Star Trek's moral edge but Roddenberry's pointed finger I just can't stand).

These are the continuing starting troubles of the new starship Enterprise...

A great future by making a connection with the past

[russem31 · 7 April 2006]

ST:TNG:03 - "The Naked Now" (Stardate: 41209.2) - the 3rd episode in the series (if you consider the pilot "Encounter At Farpoint" being a 2 part episode), this is one of those crossover episodes from the original series to bring a sense of "Star Trek" to this new series. In this episode, the crew becomes infected with a intoxicating element as it happened in the original series aboard Kirk's ship in the 1966 episode "The Naked Time". You get to see the characters, well, OUT of character (to see how a conservative Picard let's down his emotional defenses, i.e. expressing his love for Dr. Crusher - which will become a key focal character interaction as the series progresses). Oh and look out for the "interaction" between Data and Tasha - an event that Data will recount during his discussion 9 years later with the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact!

Silly and Heavy Handed

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 26 July 2014]

My heart sank a bit when I saw this recently. It was only the second offering and I would imagine those who thought that the pilot was setting up an intellectual kind of science fiction was suddenly thrust into a kind of 1950's space commando movie. Wesley Crusher is a loose cannon whose character should have been eased into the series a little at a time. Let him earn his stripes. When one considers the expense and seriousness of these missions, for him to be playing around with such dangerous stuff seems awfully careless. He becomes a cause of trouble and then goes into the solution mode. The Enterprise is affected by a viral condition that causes irrational behavior. One would think that there would be some sort of fail-safe in operation. The fact that the crew is still around for the third episode is a credit to incredible chance and luck. I believe that the series is only strong when the interplanetary forces are at odds and invention is at the fore, coming from those carefully trained in their duties and experiences.

Not bad but should have been much later

[whatch-17931 · 6/10 · 14 February 2021]

This episode is a sequel to TOS The Naked Time. Although The Naked Time was a very early episode as well, it featured deep character development, most especially with Kirk and Spock.

When Kirk was infected, his fears of losing the Enterprise were laid bare- and indeed the ship was in imminent mortal danger. When Spock was infected, his fears of losing control emerged, and indeed he HAD lost control.

That's pretty good stuff.

The Naked Now, however, pretty much just showed everybody drunk, with little character development. To the extent there was character development, it was mostly bad. Picard looked terrible, like a doddering old man, while Riker looked heroic. Also, the first Wesley Saves The Day episode.

The Naked Now would have been received much better if it came way later in the season, mainly because this early, we didn't know these characters well enough to contrast their behaviors.

Geordi's behavior when Yar finds him is chillingly effective though because we know what it portends when he asks her to not let him give in to the crazy ideas he's having. It's frightening because Yar doesn't know just how dangerous he is at this point.

UNDERSTANDING OF WHERE THIS VIRUS CAME FROM:

[mrcrystal-47234 · 7/10 · 26 November 2020]

The Unresolved Case Pre-Dates Back To The Virus That Had Killed Everyone On Psi-2000 And Infected Almost The Entire Crew Of Captain James T. Kirk.

WITH: Lt. Joe Tormolen. NOT: Following Directions Completely When On An Away Assignment To Psi-2000.

Dr Crusher --- MD and lioness.

[amusinghandle · 7/10 · 21 December 2023]

If an episode can make me laugh then I consider it a overall success. The worst thing a trek episode can do is make me feel boredom or be tied down by horrendous pacing. This episode clips along from one scene to the next and the lifted plot from TOS is elevated by the wonderfully awkward scenes. My favorite scene by a mile is when Dr. Crusher is about to pounce on Picard like a hungry lioness --- It's just deliciously hammy and Picard's stutter laugh and whispered 'not now Doctor' cracks me up. I also loved his little skip he did when coming into sick bay ---- that had to be improvised, right? There's no way Fontana wrote, "And now Picard enters sickbay and does a little skip before talking with crusher..."?

Turns out that Tasha is totally into synthetics. Hey --- I'm not judging. Just know that society as we know it is completely over when we create human like robots.

How did the virus end up on the Tsiolkovsky? *shrugs*

Wesley (the mozart of engineering visualization) saves the entire ship by using the Tsiolkovsky as a galactic Q ball to slow down the asteroid. Picard totally brushed him off and just shot him with the antidote but he did get an approving Riker nod and a manly handshake of appreciation from Data.

Meanwhile, Worf is wondering what's up with these crazy humans --- he's doing just fine in the space recliner.

I feel there is camp/cult appeal to this episode despite it being a rehash. I think I like it more than the actual writer of the episode who refused to have her name attached to it.

"The Naked Data and Tasha"

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 19 November 2014]

This was the first "Official" mission for the Enterprise-D.

To tell you the truth, I cringed when I first saw this. I agree with some of the other reviews, that this is a poorly adapted "rewrite" of "The Naked Time" from TOS. Or so it seemed when I first saw it.

Getting that out of the way, this episode does introduce a few interesting things. First off, that Data is "Fully Functional" and that when you prick him, he leaks.

Season 1 and particularly this episode, was more of an exploration for the writers and actors - I like revisiting this to see the depth and scope of Trek and how it progressed. The 90's was the decade of Trek, as three major shows occupied our TV screens, two of them very successful as they were syndicated.

This episode, as well as being a continuation of the same odd chemicals that affected Spock, Sulu and Chapel (And O'Reilly in Engineering) is also an exploration of various forms of intoxication, particularly alcohol inebriation.

The Mechanism by which these molecules brought this drunken effect, not being explained in the original series episode, does not need to be explained here, other than it has to do with Gravitational effects. So, while the 1701-D crew fights off delirium, we also get to see a star explode and huge chunks of Solar Surface approach the Enterprise. Watching this in the recently remastered HD makes that experience much more enjoyable, the Stellar Explosion is perfect and the Cosmic Debris, highly detailed.

And, revisiting this reveals that Wesley did not really "Save" the Enterprise, but he had an idea that contributed to their escape from impending vaporization.

Any awkwardness with the characters can be explained as a Crew who did not know each other well, as well as actors who were defining their roles for the first time. And this Episode introduced the nice outfit that Troi wore for the rest of the season.

If these early episodes had any drawbacks, they had to do with Gene Roddenberry trying to see how much of The Original Series they could safely implant here. Some of it did not work, some of it did. Eventually, he had to hire a whole new stable of Writers to bring us the 24th century rendition of Starfleet and the state of that Universe. The Klingons are allies. The Romulans are ??. The Ferengi are mentioned. At this point, we have an ideal universe, and ideal universes are not very exciting to write about. Eventually it came to be that Earth was ideal, but the universe outside was not, and starting with Season 1's "Conspiracy" episode, that starts getting explored.

There was a young woman from Venus

[snoozejonc · 4/10 · 13 May 2021]

Near a collapsing star the crew catch a virus that makes them act intoxicated.

This is a poor episode and the only positives I can take are the performances of the actors.

The story is almost an exact remake of the original series episode 'The Naked Time', just with worse character moments. The original series episode was entertaining, but this one unfortunately doesn't do it for me.

Data, Picard, Wesley C, Beverly C, Geordie, Troi and others become fairly annoying when infected with the virus and like other reviewers have stated it does not work so early into the series. The only character who pulls it off is Tasha Yar because you get some insight into her past. The fact that Data is infected is probably the biggest implausibility and it's difficult to suspend disbelief when what you're watching is not particularly interesting. What irritates the most is seeing Enterprise hindered by this type of problem.

The visuals are good with some nicely framed shots and interesting technical scenes in the engineering room, especially as data reconnects the control chips. Also Wesley's handheld tractor beam contains some decent effects. My favourite images are rather macabre in the scene with the frozen bodies.

Performances of most cast members are pretty strong considering they have poor material to work with, however LeVar Burton really struggles to convince, particularly in his sickbay scene.

Fun and entertaining!

[gritfrombray-1 · 10/10 · 25 April 2007]

When the majority of the crew are infected with a Psi2000 type virus they all start acting weird and/or jumping into bed with each other! I was a tad irked that such a young show was stealing ideas from it's predecessor at such an early stage but I'm glad to see how wrong I was to be worried! These guys were working well together and we are only on the second episode!! Patrick and Brent are brilliant in this when infected and are genuinely funny. The final solution to their impending jeopardy is a brilliantly conceived idea and gave Wesley a nod at such an early stage of the show. In a nutshell, a fun episode that escapes from all the usual tech babble and just has a little fun!

Good, but I missed a moral of the history.

[patrick-raphael · 7/10 · 29 October 2018]

The better part of Star Trek is the moral in the episodes, the reflection, and just show to us a funny history is not enough, because the Trekkies need more.

Wesley is captain (the horror!)

[ThunderingTim · 3/10 · 28 February 2017]

I love TNG but this episode is COMPLETELY out of place. The timing, the scheduling of this episode makes no sense whatsoever. I'll try to keep to my usual format:

Plot (SPOILERS!)

The Enterprise finds a missing ship but the clearly unwell crew manages to kill themselves before an away party can help. When visiting the doomed ship, the team gets infected by a virus, and then bring it back aboard the Enterprise. Crew member after crew member succumbs to this virus, causing them to act drunk and disorderly, and slightly sexual. Events get out of hand with a planetary fragment on a collision course, a sick and drunk Wesley in control of the ship and even Data affected. Luckily Dr. Bev finds a cure, everybody is saved, and Wesley and Data get them out of the fragment's path.

Good Stuff

....................well........... I guess the episode has a good premise...? The frozen ghost ship is appropriately eerie. Patrick Stewart is always a joy... That's all.

Things I despised

It's not bad writing but bad timing. How can you have an episode with the main characters acting completely out of character, before we even get to really now them? For all we know things are always this loose and intoxicated. They use a sound effect whenever someone gets the virus because otherwise we might not catch on. This is an episode that, like the much, much better Genesis, would benefit by being paced in a later season. You can not let your cast act different than normal when the "than normal" part consists of only one previous episode.

This crew is somewhat dull and awkward and the virus doesn't help. The despicable Tasha Yar hip-shakes her way to Troi's quarters in a scene that is unnecessary. Then she seduces Data. It might sound fun but it isn't, because at this point the viewer barely knew either of them. Data shouldn't be affected; he tell's Picard that he too is a being of flesh and blood even though that's exactly what he's not! Him falling on the bridge is supposed to be funny but it's illogical and cringe worthy.

Gates McFadden and Whil Wheaton couldn't act if their lives depended on it and having them get so much screen time exposes their limited ability. Dr Crusher flirting basically consists of seeming out of breath and moving her eyes. Wesley gets the worst and most pedantic lesson about intoxication since sliced bread was invented.

Honestly, if a drunk teenager with fake voice app can commandeer the Enterprise this is the easiest to hijack ship known to mankind. Your telling me there isn't a code Picard and Riker could use in unison to regain control in case of a hostile (no matter how inadvertently) take-over? And what's with the barely intelligible and seemingly mental ill engineer who helps Wesley. So this virus makes Yar a total nympho and it makes him disabled? How does this thing operate?

Conclusion

I like TOS and they could have pulled this episode off. If I'm not mistaken the script was intended for TOS. TNG might have pulled this off in, say, season 3 or 4, but certainly not season 1, and certainly not the very first real episode (the first being the pilot). It's cringe worthy, you can guess the middle and final part before main titles, Wesley isn't in trouble, we get another Picard- Dr Bev moment that will never be truly utilized, it ends sickly sweet, giving us a hint at how TNG will wrap up most episodes. But above all, because the actors simply didn't get the chance to become comfortable with their characters BEFORE making them act out of control, everything feels fake and the usual Stewart/Spiner acting talent cannot save this thing. You end up rooting for the planetary fragment to abort this show before it gets worse (which is exactly what happens next episode). 3/10 because it's not the worst and I don't absolutely hate it.

a brilliant intro

[ozq · 2 February 2006]

When the crew of the Starship Enterprise find a ship adrift in space, they need to find out not only what killed the crew, but what appears to be affecting their own crew as well....

This episode was actually the first one filmed, and it's certainly a rather intimate one to begin with! Probably why the cast became so tight knit over the 7 year run.

There's humour abounding and several scenes now considered "classic". It was the first ever episode I watched of Star Trek (I never saw Original as a kid) and what an introduction! It led to a love of both the series and Data in particular.

Definitely one not to miss!

"We shall make a fine crew...if we do not give in to temptation."

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 9 July 2023]

The Enterprise-D probes the mysterious fate that befell the crew of a starship called the Tsiolkovsky. Although their time is short, as they are in the vicinity of a super red giant star that is due to collapse, the Enterprise-D crew will have their hands full. The party that boarded the Tsiolkovsky bring back with them a strange contaminant that affects many of the crew members - Data included, oddly enough. It makes these individuals behave as if they are drunk. Certainly, their inhibitions are greatly lowered.

Written by famed 'Trek' scribe D. C. Fontana, based on a story by her and John D. F. Black, 'The Naked Now' is overall quite silly, with an awful lot of comedy, although things finally start getting really tense as the Enterprise has to avoid being struck by debris from the star. Some tension is derived from the fact that the affected crew members have to struggle mightily to control themselves - especially Beverly, as the starship doctor, who works hard to find some sort of antidote. (The script references an incident from the original 'Trek' series (on the episode 'The Naked Time'), and what Kirk & others did to combat the problem.) Wesley creates some huge problems as he too is not unaffected, but at least at the end he plays a large part in the outcome.

This first "official" mission for the Enterprise-D *can* get too goofy and comical for its own good, but this viewer would be lying if he said that he didn't have some good laughs watching it. The oddest touch: a scene with Tasha & Data which she swears they must never mention again.

Guest starring Brooke Bundy ("Firecreek"), this second episode was directed by Paul Lynch, whose feature credits include such Canadian shockers as the original "Prom Night" and "Humongous".

Seven out of 10.

"I'm still not thinking straight."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 14 August 2023]

Following an auspicious and fairly compelling pilot to the series, this episode fell a little flat with its rework of a chapter from the original series titled "The Naked Time". It even had Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) referencing James T. Kirk from that earlier story in the second tribute to that earlier series in as many episodes. The pilot of course had a hundred thirty-seven-year-old Dr. McCoy show up as a visiting admiral aboard the Enterprise-D. This one almost played for a certain amount of silliness when the Captain himself got infected with an intoxicating stimulant, doing that little hop skip as he entered Dr. Crusher's (Gates McFadden) quarters while she was trying to come up with an antidote. I thought it was too early in the series for her son Wesley to make the save with his repulser ray against the star mass hurtling toward the ship. I also couldn't make sense of Commander Data (Brent Spiner) being affected by the odd, invisible contaminant aboard ship; how does that work against an android? What I did think was pretty cool though, was when Picard first commented on the infection on board by stating "Fascinating". Whether it was intentional or not, it immediately brought to mind Science Officer Spock from the late Sixties "Star Trek".

Interesting, but Not Good

[rcyoung-02426 · 6/10 · 23 April 2023]

The Naked Now, is the sequel to the Original Series episode, The Naked Time. Much like the original series episode, this one is full of cheese.

To be fair it is a good cheesy Limberger quality, because it's a hilariously bonkers episode. However in a show purported to be more high quality in comparison to its predecessor, this one just doesn't feel right.

The best way The Naked Now works, is if we already know and love the characters. This being the second episode of the new series, we haven't really gotten a chance to know the characters yet, which can lessen the impact of the episode for some.

However it should be noted that its predecessor, The Naked Time, was the fourth episode of the Original Star Trek, which is still beloved by fans. Still, the humor in this episode seems too broad, and inappropriate for this cast, which is why it is not as beloved.

Not now, Doctor!

[thevacinstaller-03350 · 6/10 · 21 January 2023]

This episode finds success for what I imagine to be the most faithful of trek fans. It's so campy and awkward and clunky that you just can't help but find enjoyment --- My personal favorite scenes involved a hot and bothered Dr. Crusher hitting on Captain Picard --- I was laughing the entire time.

There must have been immense force from the trek fanbase to bring back Kirk/Spock and the TOS crew and we get a direct reference to TOS in this episode and the entire episode itself is essentially a sequel to the TOS episode.

Wesley crusher saves the ship by using space magic to invent a tractor beam to push off the other ship to buy the enterprise a few seconds before the asteroid hits the ship.

Unpopular Opinion: One of the Better Star Trek Episodes

[becca7931 · 9/10 · 6 March 2021]

Admittedly I am far from a Trekkie, in fact if it were not for this episode I would never have watched any of the rest of the series. This episode allows the actors to break character, although I am not sure why it happened so early on in the series. It would've been more welcome, I think, later on once the characters were more developed and fleshed out. One problem Star Trek has always had for non-Trekkies is that it takes itself so seriously. It is science fiction. Have some fun with it once in a while!

D-: Awkward rewrite of a TOS episode.

[garydiamond · 4/10 · 12 October 2009]

After a reasonably promising start our new Enterprise crew are thrust ever backwards into a clumsy rehashing of an old TOS episode that I wasn't too much of a fan of the first time around.

This episode easily takes the cake for "weakest episode of TNG", and if it weren't for the equally poor Voyager effort "Threshold" might well be considered the worst story ever written for the franchise. It shows us some of the problems the early seasons had: Picard changing from sympathetic and controlled to barking orders at people, Riker still too much of a Kirk clone for his own good and Wesley being the cocky kid genius that is about as welcome as Scrappy was to Scooby-Doo.

If you've seen the original episode "The Naked Time", you'll know what to expect. Crew finds virus, virus makes people giddy with joy and hijinx like they're drunk, virus spreads rapidly and is immune to old remedies. Embarrassing situations ensue.

Cringeworthy humour can work given the right script and actors (see The Office UK and Peep Show) but for all the strengths of the team, it falls flat here, with a lot of things unintentionally hilarious and some others painful to watch.

I think the scene with Data and Tasha sums it up; "it never happened".

A Retread of TOS Already?

[Samuel-Shovel · 3/10 · 4 June 2019]

In "The Naked Now", on the way to meet up with a ship studying a collapsing star, the Enterprise finds that the ship has all of its crew dead or sucked into space through an open hatch. Something seems to have infected them and this is confirmed when Geordi starts acting strangely, lamenting over his lack of eyesight and being very quick to anger. The disease soon spreads, getting the best of many if the crew. Data and Riker find evidence of this disease in the past (from an old TOS episode) but the cure from that episode doesn't work since the disease has morphed and changed.

The crew of the Enterprise reacts to the disease a tad bit different this time around. Basically, everyone but Wes and Geordi are horny. Data and Yar end up sleeping together (apparently Data can contract this disease as well?). Picard and Crusher do some terrible flirt-acting. Riker and Troi continue their "will they, won't they" introduced in the pilot. Wes locks himself in the engine room and declares himself in charge of the Enterprise. With the star collapsing soon, the Enterprise and its crew must find a cure so they can get back to normal and escape the star's destructive path or risk being destroyed.

So obviously this is a reference to one of the earlier episodes of TOS. And that episode was a good one. They used everyone's lack of inhibitions to show us the personalities of the Enterprise crew. Kirk showed us his passion for his ship and how he's forgone a family or love life for his career. Spock deals with the constant struggle he has with suppressing emotion. All of it combines to give us a better idea of how these characters work...

But here, there's not much character development to find. Just a bunch of riled up horndogs trying their best to maintain order on the bridge. Besides Geordi's self-reflection, there's not a lot to take away from this. I guess we learn about Data's anatomy?

As a follow-up to the pilot, it's a real rocky start and it doesn't get any better in Episode 3. It's interesting in the sense that TOS could never have done this plot back in the 60's as it would have been far too racy. It's almost too racy for the 80's. But regardless of when this was released, time has not done it any favors. This is just a bad episode.

Not as good as I remembered it...

[thatguy_78757 · 12 December 2006]

I really liked that episode at the time, I taped it on VHS and kept it for many years... "The Naked Now" Where they contract the same virus as in the Original Series "Naked Time" and act drunk. Data and Tasha get it on, Wesley takes over the ship.

Its funny how interested I was in watching the characters develop. They eventually developed them so well by the end of the series that watching first season episodes like this seems so embarrassingly stupid and primitive.

I often wanted them to revisit planets/ideas from the original series on TNG- this is a good example of why it was a good idea that they didn't do that.

But I liked it at first, even if I wince at it now. They reference the events of this episode in at least 2 other later episodes and in the Movie Star Trek: First Contact (1996) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117731/

A truly awful way to follow up on the pilot

[MiraTheOwl · 1/10 · 8 April 2023]

This is where the badness of TNG season 1 really rears its ugly head. It was of course a fundamentally stupid idea in and of itself of having the second episode of the show be both a blatant rewrite of a TOS episode, and one in which all the characters you've yet to really introduce and endear to your audience act out of character, but furthermore, everything about the execution of it is bad. Many of season 1's hallmarks of annoyance like Wesley's being a smarmy little prick or Data being little more than a punching bag for easy jokes are brought into their true awful fruition here, and the script is full of contrivances: things like Data getting drunk or him finding out about what's happening to the crew by looking up information about people showering with their clothes on are just unfathomably dumb.

Quite possibly the worst of the whole series. Skip this one at all costs!

I want to kill Wesley Crusher!

[matt_boing_kpow · 2/10 · 15 September 2012]

I have recently decided to go through all the TNG episodes in order. Of course we all know the first few seasons weren't great. I got through Encounter At Farpoint okay, even though it was not the best of the Star Trek pilots.

This episode is your typical average opening season race against time to defeat an alien disease/infection before everyone on board dies! Specifically an homage to the original series', "The Naked Time" helps bridge the two series together.

It starts off okay establishing the weekly plot format. Marina Sirtis instantly improved from her over-acting in the previous episode and we learn more about the new crew and how they and the Galaxy-Class starship function. However, the nature of the disease in this episode requires the cast to act as if drunk, which never really works convincingly in drama, and predictably the performances, not helped by the poor script, become embarrassing! The longer the episode goes on, the worse it gets.

A major chunk of this episode is devoted to Wesley Crusher, who not only is a major part of the problem that the main characters have to get by in order to survive, but holds all the answers to their survival, thanks to Wesley's "genius!" I have no idea why Gene Roddenberry wanted to be represented by such a smug, snot-nosed, vomit-inducing, detestable character as Wesley Crusher! He is by far the most annoying and worst character in all of Trek, possibly in all of TV and Will Wheaton admits it! I know he's a kid, but at least Jake and Nog are likable and funny in DS9 and grow up to be quite respectable characters. I should not have to boo main characters we are "supposed to" like in any Star Trek.

I thought "Babel" in DS9 was bad (a similar type of episode), but at least that had some good dialogue, character interaction and progression. The Naked Now is dire on almost every front! Data contracting the virus is another major fail, and btw, space-mom Bev Crusher suddenly comes up with a cure at the end! And yet the captain still insists on giving Wes some credit for his genius despite the ship being full of highly qualified Starfleet officers who should know better! Yuk! The end moralising reminds me of the old He-Man episodes I used to watch when I was six years old!

If you're looking to watch random individual TNG episodes, avoid this one like the plague! If you're going through the series, this is one you will have to endure, and there'll be many more (especially the Wes-heavy episodes)! I can't wait for when TNG starts to get good at the end of the third season!

What Is It Like to See a Sunset or to Exude Eagerness to Run a Starship?

[Rizar · 12 September 2009]

"Naked Now" (Episode 2, Season 1, Air Date 10/05/87, Star-date 41209.2) sometimes gets a reputation as a guilty pleasure. But I found it filled with interesting and playful ideas that go beyond the couple scenes usually cited as representative examples (such as Data divulging that he is 'fully functional' in many sexual techniques, the tough security officer Tasha turning feminine, or Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher teasing about 'you will address me as...').

The plot is not quite as important as the nuances and ambiance of the episode, as I'm finding is common in Star Trek. The Enterprise goes to investigate unknown problems on a starship, the U.S.S. Tsiolkovsky (which was studying a dying star). They find the remains of odd behavior and mass death on the Tsiolkovsky, but Geordi comes back from the away team with flu-like or intoxication-like symptoms. Riker and Data search for an explanation and find a previous situation involving a certain Captain James T. Kirk and his crew, who had also once started widely behaving as if they were intoxicated.

Geordi takes off his communicator after he gets intoxicated (implying that communicators are important for locating people on the ship), flees from medical, and spreads the intoxication. As most of the crew of Enterprise experience the intoxication, chaos reigns supreme while Dr. Crusher searches for a new cure to the mysterious intoxication (the old cure doesn't work since the cause mutated from before) -- explained briefly as brought on by forceful strings of water molecules that were shifted by immense gravity.

Though eagerness -- mixed with cleverness and perhaps genius -- is an immense enemy if its not on your side! Wesley Crusher gets 'drunk' with the chaotic molecules and smartly takes over the ship, the star outside is about to explode, and Wesley declares a new order that dessert must be served before and after every meal.

But I found many little gems here and there in this episode that help give immortal life to the Star Trek world:

(1) Data corrects Riker on a common mistake of saying 'sucked out' to space. No, many of the crew of the Tsiolkovsky look like they were 'blown out' to space. The more science they use, the less lofty they have to be!

(2) Data fears his comment that he was 'already mentioned in several biomechanical texts' was misunderstood by Dr. Crusher as boastful. Perhaps she will look through the texts and find he was right and therefore not boasting.

This makes me wonder about his quest to become more human. What form of human? Doesn't he know that boasting is very common to many humans! Perhaps he should forget his perfectionist tendency to never offend others and start acting more human. Or perhaps there are too many types of human for his quest to ever fully succeed.

After he gets 'drunk', however, he argues that he is more similar to humans than different (he has chemical nutrients, fingerprints, sexual functioning, and bleeding-like leaks). So perhaps he doesn't need to go on a quest to be more human, or perhaps he is too 'drunk' to remember his desire to be more human.

Though at one point Worf confides in Data that he also doesn't understand human humor, so perhaps Data is trying to become human beyond the understandable barriers of culture, species, life form.

(3) Wesley succeeded in a science project to create a small tractor beam. He also shows Geordi another one of his creations, a small voice mimicker that puts together recordings of the Captain's voice into new sentences so that Wesley can play the Captain giving various fake orders. Wesley moans about not being able to visit the bridge even when he knows everything about it. We also find that Wesley can 'see circuits in his head' to help solve a critical problem in engineering. He exudes a love for technology and science.

Wesley's eagerness comes fully alive after he gets intoxicated and turns his science project into a repulsor beam to take over engineering. He them plays the Captain's voice to the ship announcing Wesley the new Captain! Oh, the power of science when combined with the unbridled eagerness to run a ship!

Wesley outsmarts the Captain in argument, making a good point that a Captain merely gives orders and that it's actually other people who implement the orders, so (says Wesley with wide eyes) just give Wesley the orders and allow him to run the ship!

(4) Geordi is distraught over not having normal vision. He wants to see in 'shallow, dim, beautiful, human ways'. He argues that 'more sight isn't better sight'. He's 'never seen a rainbow or sunset' in the way humans do. We don't hear much more to get a full picture of exactly how much his sight is different. Perhaps he can see so many different wavelengths of light that he isn't able to narrow them into aesthetically pleasing forms.

This reminds me of Thomas Nagel's essay "What Is It Like to be a Bat" ('A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind') in which he argues that it may be impossible to fully understand what it is like to experience things the way a species like a bat does (since it's so different from us).

Geordi obviously doesn't experience things as differently as a bat but perhaps he is unable to know what it is like to see a sunset the way other humans can. In later episodes we are able to see how Geordi perceives the world through a visor video, but we are not able to make much of his video since we are not used to seeing the way he does.

And they say this episode has nothing to offer! It has many little subtleties about Wesley's eagerness for science, Data's quest to be human, and Geordi's desire to experience things like other humans.