Thine Own Self (S70E16)
Airdate: 14 February 1994
Written by: Ronald D. Moore Directed by: Winrich Kolbe
Running Time: 46 minutes
As Star Trek: The Next Generation approached its terminal bow in the seventh season, the creative resources and narrative opportunities available to the production team began to dwindle significantly. There were fewer chances to pay off long-standing narrative debts, to introduce new "cool" concepts that hadn't been seen before, or to deliver genuine fan service. In a bid to maximise the value of the final episodes, producers often resorted to stuffing as much of this remaining content into a single hour of television, even if it meant juggling multiple, disparate storylines. The result of such experiments was a mixed bag, often leaving episodes feeling rushed, tonally disjointed, or overstuffed. This strategy did not always yield success, not even when the script was written by Star Trek’s celebrated author Ronald D. Moore. The Season 7 episode Thine Own Self serves as a prime example of this, embodying the pitfalls of the final-season cramming strategy while still managing to deliver moments of genuine intrigue.
The narrative arc involving Data begins with a somewhat intriguing cold open set on Barkonia IV, a planet inhabited by humanoid beings who are at pre-industrial level of civilisation. Data has been dispatched to safely retrieve radioactive material from a crashed probe. However, an incident involving a power surge has affected Data’s positronic brain, inducing a sudden bout of amnesia. Stumbling into a local village, he is spotted by the magistrate Garvin (Michael Rothhaar) and his young daughter Gia (Kimberly Cullum). Data initially struggles with communication, but he gradually establishes a rapport with Garvin and forms a genuine friendship with Gia. They take him to their healer, Talur (Ronnie Claire Edwards), who happens to be the village's most educated person and an amateur scientist. Observing Data's pale skin and translucent appearance, she believes he is a humanoid from distant snowy mountains and dubs him the nickname "Ice-Man," while Gia christens him "Jayden." Data, oblivious to what the word "radioactive" actually means, begins giving away the objects he retrieved to the villagers. Consequently, they begin to succumb to radioactive poisoning—not only Garvin and Gia, but the general populace. This leads to a mob mentality where the "Ice-Man" is blamed for the sickness. Talur, however, recognises Data's intellect and assists him when he begins using the scientific method to quickly deduce that the objects are the cause of the disease and even find the cure. He administers the cure by dropping it into the village well, the easiest method of spreading it among the villagers. Data nevertheless gets attacked by a mob, impaled, and apparently killed. Days later, Riker and Dr. Crusher, while looking for Data, appear in the village surgically changed to look like Barkonians. They meet Gia, who shows them "Jayden's" grave. His body is beamed up, and Data is later repaired in sickbay. When he wakes up, he has no memory of his adventures as "Jayden."
The second storyline deals with Counselor Troi, who, after learning that Dr. Crusher obtained the rank of Commander despite not requiring it for her position as Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise, decides she must obtain it too. Partially inspired by her own brief experience of command of the Enterprise during a catastrophic encounter with quantum filaments a few years earlier, she applies for the test and goes through a series of simulations, each time failing. She gets further frustrated when Riker, who began calling her "Imzadi" and offering her casual affection, fails to provide her with the help or critical feedback she needs. It is only when, during a simulation, she orders LaForge to sacrifice his life, that Riker arrives and tells her that she passed. His reasoning is cynical but accurate: ordering friends and subordinates to death is a fundamental part of command, and Troi demonstrated she was capable of making that sacrifice.
Ideally, each of the two storylines could have worked significantly better if they had been utilised in separate episodes. This way, both narratives suffer from a lack of focus and development, as the hour struggles to balance the high concept sci-fi elements of Data's adventure with the character drama of Troi's career progression. The first storyline, based on the pitch of Data as Frankenstein's monster in the classic 1931 film, is more interesting and better made, mainly because of the use of somewhat exotic props, costumes, and studio sets. The script also mixes black humour with suspense, especially when it becomes likely that Data might cause a catastrophe very much like the real-life Goiania incident where radioactive material caused widespread sickness and death. The episode suffers from a lack of originality in some of the images—Data's entrance into the village feels derivative—and the predictable outcome, but it is mostly saved by the presence of Ronnie Claire Edwards, a veteran television actress who wonderfully plays a woman who is both ahead of her time yet hopelessly wrong in her scientific conclusions.
In contrast, the second storyline is probably more satisfying to fans who would love to see some of the major characters advance after years of being in professional or personal stasis—apart from the promotion, Troi gets minor hints about rekindling her romance with Riker—but it nevertheless feels rushed, uninspired, and not exactly memorable.
Ultimately, high production values and confident direction of Winrich Kolbe make this episode solid, but it is nevertheless a disappointment and a clear sign that near the end TNG producers began to have their creativity exhausted.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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