Force of Nature

DVD, TNG S7 (Force of Nature)

There's a reason I couldn't remember this one. I was trying to think: 'Force of Nature,' 'Force of Nature,' but I just could not recall what it was about. I thought it might be the one about Data's Mum, but if someone had said "the one with the cap on warp speed" I'd have realised which story. And then I'd have been in the dark again as it didn't all flood back. The blankness in my memory is the blankness of the episode. For it was this season's episode where grey aliens come aboard with their grey motives and everything's grey. At its heart the story is a valid argument against taking technology for granted, about what damage may unwittingly be committed by the unwary user. The biggest flaw, above and beyond the dullness factor, is that the ramifications of the bold decision to reduce the speed of warp travel to a paltry Warp 5, was never, to my knowledge, followed up on, making the episode exceedingly pointless.

It's not a complete waste of time, as Geordi and Data's friendship is at the fore, providing us with some lovable scenes between the three of them - Spot being the third character, and he/she/it gets centre stage like never before, so much so that I was waiting for the Spot-inspired solution to the problem of the episode. Indeed, the teaser was so mundane (in a homely kind of way), that I felt certain the episode would feature Spot at the centre of the plot. Instead such scenes are revealed to be merely filler, as enjoyable as Geordi and Data's (and Spot's!), interactions are, they don't make a weak episode strong.

The conceit of the story, that starships must travel much slower to reduce the damage being done to space, and that races must agree to this new directive (Warp Prime Directive, anyone?), could be a fascinating way to go, and I'd love to see a series set further into the future where the predicted problem had become a reality, leaving vast swathes of the galaxy cut off, warp travel only available to a privileged few. Sadly, as I mentioned before, they quickly realised how ridiculous it would be to have the Enterprise crawling around the galaxy. What had seemed like a brave new idea, undermining the very stage the Trek world had been built on, must have been seen as the difficult story element it was: unwieldy and unnecessarily altering the series forever. What if the Cardassians didn't agree to limit warp speed? Or the Romulans? They'd have advantages over the Federation and it would become an arms race of travel as the 'good' guys would have to keep up with the 'bad' guys. It could quickly become an intolerable situation. So instead of taking the leap, they played it safe and we have to assume everyone found a way to modify their engines to make damage negligible. Cop out, but probably a wise one for the franchise.

I wonder what the analogy of warp travel was supposed to be for? Was it nuclear power or some other energy or was there no real thought to a situation in the modern world? In that case it was just a badly thought out story with grey-clothed aliens who were unsympathetic and dull. I mean look at them. The sister was so grumpy and highly strung there was not the slightest reason to care when she 'sacrifices' herself. Compare and contrast with Gideon Seyetik from the 'DS9' episode 'Second Sight' and see it done properly. Equally, her brother showed barely a hint of emotion over her death, and the bridge crew weren't very sympathetic either. Where was Deanna to comfort him? Riker and Data make detached comments and Picard forcefully asks for help, and he's not able to suggest anything helpful, anyway. It shouldn't be a surprise that when humanity got to the stars, even space would be fouled up with their impact on it, but it's hardly in line with the usually positive galactic view of the series.

If only Geordi had had Guinan to talk to when he went to Ten Forward. A scene with her would have enlivened things. Instead, the episode limps along, not even the semi-subplot of Geordi's competitiveness with his rival on another ship actually went anywhere. Not seeing the Fleming was a bad editorial choice, and after we'd already seen two or three ships in the episode there was no reason to withhold it. To look on the bright side, the spatial phenomena was beautiful to look at, and the appearance of a Ferengi, post-Season 1 of 'DS9' clearly showed how much had been taken on board about the race already. DaiMon Prak was very much a 'DS9' specimen (also in a literal sense, since the actor had played one in 'The Nagus'). Seeing what appeared to be a different Ferengi vessel also gave the episode a little spice, though not enough to make the difference, and as soon as Riker said the Ferengi weren't likely to let them beam over, I mentally added, 'neither would the budget.' The very definition of a modern major average. There really is very little to remember.

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