In the eleventh episode of the second season of The Next Generation, THIS IS MESSED UP. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.
Trigger Warning: For discussion of death/grief.
I really do love a good mystery, and I love a slow burn thriller. This episode was a lot of fun to watch for a number of reasons, but goddamn, this was great from start to finish. LET’S DISCUSS, FRIENDS.
Death
Death in the science fiction genre is a strange thing. I mean, Star Trek gave birth to redshirts, the idea that there are always a disposable group of nameless characters who act to build tension and heighten the odds… in theory. I say “in theory” because those of us who enjoy this genre also are very aware of how it can become repetitious. So redshirts, for example, stop providing their intended purpose because we expect them to do exactly as they do. There’s no risk, there’s no chance, there’s no thrill.
I’d like to think that The Next Generation has been remarkably conscious of that. Aside from Tasha Yar’s death (I’M STILL MAD ABOUT THAT), the show doesn’t rely on needless, pointless death as much as The Original Series did. It’s still there at times, but even in terms of violence and action sequences? The Next Generation is a muted show, deliberately and intentionally. That’s why the cold open is so shocking. It’s not that death doesn’t happen; it’s that it doesn’t happen on the horrifying scale we see when the Yamato explodes. (Killing one of the only black captains in the process, I might add. MUST THEY ALL DIE???) It’s disturbing in its suddenness and in its cruelty. They died because their ship got sick. Though I do wish the scene was longer, I understood why Wesley was so messed up by this that he had to go talk to Picard about coping with death. The magnitude disturbed him, but so did the way people like Picard, Riker, and Geordi coped with it. It was such a strange concept to him, to see them react in a seemingly cold manner to something so horrific.
But Picard points out that just because they’re trained to deal with death in a specific manner doesn’t mean they aren’t dealing with it at all. And that range of emotional response is important to validate because everyone copes with death differently. There’s no “proper” response to it, you know?
Contagion
So, this show frequently uses the trope of the Enterprise breaking down to drive the plot, so I don’t think this is all that revolutionary or different. But the execution of this premise is so fascinating because the writers take the idea of the ship being infected to really upsetting places. On top of that, there’s some fascinating worldbuilding for these “Iconian” people that provides a commentary on colonization and war. It helps that there’s the background of the Romulan/Federation conflict amidst all of this, heightening the tension and providing a parallel story. Is this original for The Next Generation? No, not at all. But the varied forces at work make it interesting, and I think that’s something to appreciate.
At the very least, this episode is thrilling because the ways in which the “contagion” manifests is so fucking weird. Because the computer program that “infected” the Yamato and the Enterprise was without morality, it acted randomly and ruthlessly. I think that the writers took advantage of this by exploiting the crew’s reliance on the computer that ran the ship. A door doesn’t open immediately. An earl grey tea becomes a plant. AN ELEVATOR NEARLY KILLS GEORDI AND IT WAS REALLY SCARY AND WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON. Did Levar Burton do his own stunts here??? BECAUSE THAT ABSOLUTELY LOOKED LIKE HIM GETTING THRASHED BY THAT LIFT.
I mean, the escalation alone present in “Contagion” is ridiculous. We go from a potted plant to DEATH ELEVATORS. Oh, and then the Romulan ship constantly cycles through its weaponry. OH, AND THEN DATA IS ELECTROCUTED. OH, AND THEN THE PROGRAM TRIES TO REWRITE HIS PROGRAMMING. It’s so efficient, y’all, and I think that’s one of the reasons it’s so scary. You can’t reason with it at all because it’s a computer program, one that is written in a language that not even Data can read perfectly. And look, I found it pretty damn clever that one of the main solutions all of this was to just DELETE AND REBOOT. I mean, they’re all computers, aren’t they?
CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE DOORWAYS, TOO??? Oh my god, I want so much more. I think this episode is filled to the brim with futuristic technology, but that door just ruined me. How many of them are there around the galaxy? Like, are these similar to Stargates? Is there a doorway in all of those places, but it’s invisible? Oh god, I actually think they’re one-way doors, which is kind of fucked up when you think of it. How did the Iconians use them for travel? Were they for some sort of missionary program? THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS, and I adore that this episode made me think about these things.
Honestly, that’s one of the big reasons why I was drawn towards science fiction at a young age. This sense of wonder and excitement is a rare and beautiful thing, and when Star Trek does it right, it’s a goddamn treat.
The video for “Contagion” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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