Thine Own Self

DVD, TNG S7 (Thine Own Self)

Data loses his memory on an alien world. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. I'm not going to praise this episode beyond measure or even suggest it's one of the absolute best of the season, but I do like it for being an unconnected tale about Data getting on as a new person with new people, while retaining much of his advanced knowledge, a bit like his time in the past of 'Time's Arrow.' See, it's not even something that had never been done before, but what is done, is done beautifully and simply. I like how trusting and open Garvin and his daughter are, and the way they accept this weird stranger into their home, so different from them. Not the most responsible action to leave one's daughter with a complete stranger, but something about Data's way tends to put those who have trust, at ease with him. Maybe his pacifistic nature (don't say that to the blacksmith after he was slapped into a wall with the flick of Data's wrist), his measured, level tone, and polite bearing. Whatever made them accept him, he has it in spades.

It was just another village set, just another wardrobe of medieval peasant clothes, but I liked all the decoration around this story and had no trouble accepting the reality of Data's situation even though it must have been all filmed on indoor sets. It was bright and good to look at, much like the one in 'Insurrection,' and even though these were aliens with only a couple of lines of face paint to differentiate them from humans, their alienness wasn't the issue, it was all about answering the question of what Data would do if he wandered into a new life, the most advanced machine in an age of misunderstanding. Talur is very forthright and convinced in her view of 'science,' but even though she and her people consider themselves quite advanced, they have superstitions, but they're reflected in different ways. They pooh-pooh demons, yet wholeheartedly put down Data as being a mythical 'iceman' from the mountains - they haven't reached the level of understanding which tells them the more they learn, the more they know they don't know. Starfleet is shown a lot more advanced, not just in technology, but with the whole idea of learning more and exploring the unknown because they know there's so much they don't know!

The little girl wasn't the best child actor on the series, but she did a reasonable job of striking up a friendship with 'Jayden' as Data is named. If I was criticising the episode, and I don't want to harshly, because it's a pleasant tale that doesn't set out to be anything more than an exploration of Data separate from the characters and environment we're used to seeing him in. But if I were, I'd say they could have built up the friendship more, to make the moment when she wants him to show his damaged face, more meaningful and showing her in a braver light (because Data looks at his most sinister in that scene, standing in a dark corner talking out of a hood!). It's the usual kind of result with these stories of a stranger in the midst of villagers - one of them takes a dislike to him (look at the Season 3 episode 'The Ensigns of Command'), and stirs up trouble, thus providing the catalyst for danger and tension. It was never a wise move of the blacksmith and his pal to take on a guy strong enough to lift an anvil without even straining. The attack gave us the biggest uncovering of Data's real, robotic face on the series. Not in the league of 'First Contact,' but very well done all the same, especially considering this was before CGI replacement. Yes, if you look carefully at it you can see it's a prosthetic attachment that's thicker than Spiner's face, but it's done in such an artistic, realistic way that it doesn't take anything away from the mastery of that craft. Whoever did that deserved recognition.

The secondary plot of the episode is totally unconnected, but again, I don't find fault with the episode, because I like watching it, both sides. You just accept it as two stories and enjoy it. And, just like Data's story, it is a situation for Deanna that we don't see very often, so there is a thematic link of that kind. She's had the experience of feeling she's not stretched enough, and, after seeing Beverly taking on bridge duty (a rare moment to see them having a scene practically alone on the bridge), wants to take the bridge officer's test. I really liked how she tied it back to the events of 'Disaster,' in which she was forced to take command, and struggled through the experience. It made the earlier episode a fascinating study in role reversal, but this ambition could have had more impact if she'd come to the decision shortly after that story instead of suddenly springing it on Riker two years later. The episode has an odd feeling running though it, not just because Data isn't Data, or seeing Crusher in the Captain's chair, or even Riker practicing the trombone in his quarters which turns into a bizarre musical conversation with Troi. It's all that, and no Patrick Stewart, not until the last scene in sickbay, at any rate. Where was Stewart? He's not normally so absent unless he's directing!

The actual test Deanna had to go through was rather stressful, but it had its wallop of an impact when we learn the answer is to send someone to their death. It's a shocking moment, and a heartfelt one, too, because, even though we know it's just a holographic Geordi, she's still sending him to die! They don't mention the Kobayashi Maru test by name, the famous no-win scenario, that all starship Captain's have to go through, but they do talk about the possibility of there being no answer, a test to see how the candidate responds to being in that position. I liked that it was a kind of stage on from that test, as if we know about that, but this is something different. Just as hard, but in another way. That the soft Troi could do that shows what steely roots she has in her. There could have been a conflict of interest having Troi ask Riker so informally about taking it, and then him informing her he'd have to judge her, but these people are above favoritism, and they both know it. It also shows how great a First Officer he is, that he can 'play' her like that, retain his distance and frankness as her superior, but also talk to her on her level. He even calls her Imzadi (beloved), but I think it's meant much more in jest or friendship than the serious connotation it used to have. He shows that there was no conflict of interest in the end.

I thought this ended with a scene in which Data says goodbye to the village, or the healthy people he's cured, and returns to the mountains, but it ended fittingly for a pre-warp civilisation, never knowing who the stranger really was, and burying him in the square. One day perhaps, they'll excavate in future generations to see if the legend of the iceman was true, and the myth will persist even though no body can be found. There's a poetic ending for you. I'm putting the villager's trust in the drinking water down to the shamefacedness they experienced after their tempers died down and they realised they'd killed this man, because it's a lot of trusting to do after they were so against him, to then drink water from a well he'd poured a mystery cure into. Maybe they were lazy, and couldn't be bothered to make the two day journey to the nearest river?

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