In the nineteenth episode of the second season of The Next Generation, THIS IS A HORRIBLE MESS AND I LOVE EVERY SECOND OF IT. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
Oh my god, HOW DID THIS EPISODE EVEN COME TO PASS? There is no central conflict here beyond LWAXANA TROI NEEDS TO GET LAID AND FIND A HUSBAND, SO THE ENTIRE CREW CONSPIRES TO AVOID HER. And it is a beautiful conflict, a chance for The Next Generation to entertain the notion that it’s an absurd sitcom set in space, not a super serious rumination on galactic exploration and morality.
And I love it. It’s refreshing, exciting, and a whole lot of fun. I don’t know that it’s a strong story – the entire Dixon Hill segment is tonally strange within the narrative – but ultimately? I don’t care. This is an experience, and I think the people making this show knew that. Lwaxana Troi was going to waltz in, cause chaos for forty minutes, and then leave.
I’m perfectly fine with that.
So, let’s talk about this trainwreck. It’s called “Manhunt.” The people creating this show did not want to commit to anything other than the most literal, single-word description of the events that would follow it. This episode’s sole plot that acts as the glue that holds it all together is Lwaxana Troi hunting for a man. That’s it. Oh, sure, there are the Antedean dignitaries (one of which was apparently Mick Fleetwood???? WHAT THE FUCK), and Picard gets to be Dixon Hill for a while, but who cares? There’s a living legend on the screen this whole time, and she spends the bulk of this episode making a mockery of the official, disciplined nature of life on the Enterprise. Oh, are there policies to be followed? Is there an accepted and unspoken social decorum to be obeyed? Well, Lwaxana Troi cares not for any of these things. She wants Captain Picard, and she’s going to get him.
I think there’s a part of me that thinks there’s value in writing a post about how Lwaxana’s sexuality is treated by the story versus Riker’s. It was on my mind since we just got an episode featuring his pursuit of a woman, and it was far more normalized than what we see here. Part of that is in the writing, and I must admit that part of Lwaxana’s fun is her sexual freedom. And I wouldn’t want to divorce that from her character! She has to be straightforward for her to be as funny as she is. Still, why is it that we are expected to laugh at Lwaxana pursuing sex when we aren’t asked to do the same for Riker? (Well, I’ll still laugh and roll my eyes. YOU CAN’T STOP ME.)
I had this in mind as I watched her try and utterly fail to win Captain Picard over to her side. (Her side being MARRIAGE, GOODÂ GOD.) Granted, there’s a context for her behavior in “Manhunt,” one that explains why she’s more over-the-top than usual. Which is a weird thing to say because by default, Lwaxana Troi is over-the-top. Deanna describes the Phase as something akin to human menopause, except it’s more like a period of sexual maturation, marked by a rapidly increased sex drive, one that can even blur telepathic abilities in Betazoid women. Thus? The manhunt.
But I would be remiss in my duties as a television commentator if I did not devote a portion of this review to the passive aggressive beauty that is the scene where Picard skillfully deflects all of Lwaxana’s advances through his use of Data. Once he realizes his dinner with his senior officers was nothing but a misunderstanding, what does he do? He finds the one way to destroy the sexual atmosphere that Lwaxana Troi has created. There is no better way to do such a thing than to have Data act as a living embodiment of a Wikipedia abyss. (You know, that thing that happens when you go on Wikipedia to look up one thing, only to find yourself on the page for some obscure, useless thing two hours later and questioning your life’s purpose.) His info-dumping is adorable and absolutely the least sexual thing imaginable.
And Picard’s face during all of it is a beautiful thing to witness. Gods all bless this episode.
I feel very weird about all the Dixon Hill stuff. I definitely like it when Picard gets to do this because Holodeck adventures are SO LOVELY. But it just feels so out of place, doesn’t it? Picard spends a few minutes tweaking with the settings of the specific program he’s in, and I simply don’t see the point. Was all of this a chance for the writers to come up with a way to distract Lwaxana? Ultimately, that’s the point of it, right? Lwaxana is attracted to Rex because he’s a computer creation, but it’s kind of a cruel solution, is it not? Okay, maybe not cruel, but it feels… tacked on. Like the whole assassin twist at the end involving the Antedeans. Where did that come from?
So, there might be an uneven end to this episode, but goddamn, it was so much fun. I eagerly look forward to seeing Lwaxana again on this show.
The video for “Manhunt” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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