Hero Worship

DVD, TNG S5 (Hero Worship)

Scheduling this episode right after one about the new arrival of a child to the Enterprise, and the emotional trauma he goes through, might not have been a good idea as this has a very similar direction to it, though this time it's Data who must react to the boy, rather than Worf and his son. It doesn't quite have the impact of similar tales 'The Bonding' and 'Suddenly Human,' and is a bit slow, especially in the first half. This doesn't reflect well on Patrick Stewart's directing ability, but I wouldn't say he was a bad director, just that he hadn't flowered into a great one at this time. Perhaps too, the story must bear some of the blame, and the best I could say was that it wasn't over-directed and didn't draw attention away from the story.

The teaser started as the episode meant to go on: at snail's pace. It really should have been dynamic, with the sense of danger in the air - at that point they assumed an enemy had attacked the Vico, and it could still have been nearby, but it takes them a while to beam over, and then the ship was a bit too bright, losing the drama of deep shadows, though the impression of being about to fall apart was certainly achieved. Data's rescue wasn't bad, especially the part where he and Timothy lurch out into the corridor and get beamed away, though the support strut did look suspiciously like it had been placed above them to fall down, rather than looking natural.

The anticipation rose a notch or two when mention of first Romulans and Klingons, and then Breen took the imagination to better places. They were described as being dangerous or likely to attack, adding to the infant mythology of the Breen, but for all that we never got to see them or even a ship because it was a naturally occurring disaster. A good idea, that leads to vindication for the boy in his own eyes, but I'd still rather have seen a first glimpse of a Breen ship, though I suspected that never happened until 'DS9.' Seeing the extensive damage to the Vico's hull was interesting as we don't often get to - I expect in a modern series they'd have shown a rip in the hull from inside the ship, perhaps in the place where Timothy was trapped, to up the tension.

Mainly because O'Brien has featured a fair bit, and I expect him to have the transporter room if there's a worthwhile sequence of dialogue going, it was odd that it was a different transporter chief. Once Timothy acts as an android and builds a friendship with Data, prompted by his kind move of turning back and building the model structure at super fast speed before he left the boy's quarters, things became more enjoyable and a little sadder. It forced Data to consider his own wish to be human, a question and a quest that has become almost unspoken in recent seasons, and helped to contrast his weaknesses in some areas. His friendship with Timothy reminded me of the later one in 'Star Trek: Insurrection' with the Ba'ku boy, Artim, and I half expected him to say 'bye' in return to the boy! The episode did pick up with these things, but felt in summary a weaker version of 'The Bonding' using the same or too similar ideas. A couple of things stuck out beyond the story for me: that 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' wasn't exclusive to 'Star Trek V,' and that Geordi didn't get his VISOR until after he was five years old.

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