Plot – Sex virus wipes out crew and infects the Enterprise causing much silliness. Wesley takes over the ship and saves the day. Just read that rather than watching the episode.
Character – Wesley Crusher gets his first real examination in this episode and it is absolutely worthy of discussion. He begins the series as a wide eyed, straight A student with ridiculously over emphasised abilities and a chance to pilot a Starship long before his prime. He’s essentially told time and again that he is extraordinary, that his aptitude is far in excess of his peers and that he can see things in different ways to other people his age. No wonder he ends the series a moody dropout who essentially throws his hand in with terrorists and then chips the universe off to explore time with a God. Nobody can live up to that weight of expectation. He’s just a child, and he faces the terrible ignominy that despite his impressive technical ability, he is still a human being. It doesn’t help that he is characterised in the most saccharine way possible throughout the first year. Truly, it takes until The Child and then perhaps into the third season for the character to become tolerable. Characters without flaws are irritating, child characters even moreso. Wil Wheaton is not to blame; he acquits himself rather well in the face of some overly simplistic characterisation and dreadfully stilted dialogue. It’s like Gene Roddenberry didn’t want to give the kid a chance.
This is Dr Bev’s first chance to really show her medical competence and prove her place on the Enterprise. She manages to let a sex virus works its way through the entire crew, her son holds the entire crew to ransom and essentially endangers the whole ship. Top job, Beverley. No wonder they brought in Pulaski.
Performance – Very often when actors are asked to behave out of character it is an excuse to either really enjoy playing the opposite end of where they character usually is or the result is a very extreme (and humiliating) performance. Who could forget Siddig El Fadil playing the villain in DS9’s The Passenger? Or Jolene Blalock turning into a sexual predator in Bounty? I don’t think anybody was very comfortable playing the intoxicated version of their usual character in The Naked Now, mostly because they haven’t had the time to figure out who their characters are yet. Levar Burton decides to go for broke and play LaForge as a snappy, sweaty rude boy who can suddenly see the beauty of the universe. Denise Crosby is the one actor that just goes for it and doesn’t care if she has egg on her face. The sequence where she walks along the corridor gyrating her hips and grabs an officer and snogs his face is so insanely over the top it is impossible not to laugh. Marina Sirtis seems a little embarrassed (strange given some of the things she would do later in the shows run) and so takes to hang onto Jonathan Frakes’ neck and keeping her face out of shot. One of the worst acted scenes in TNG’s run comes when Gates McFadden (‘Oh would I like to show you…but we don’t have time for that kind of thing!’) and Patrick Stewart (‘Not now Doctor…please!’) trying and focus on the investigation at hand and find themselves desperate to try and rip each other’s clothes off. ‘I’m a woman…I haven’t had the comfort of a husband. A man!’
Terrible Dialogue – ‘Captain, what we’ve just heard is impossible’ says Data about the emergency hatch being blown. Impossible, really Data? Perhaps unfortunate would be a more appropriate word.
‘Help me not to give in to the wild things coming into my mind’ ‘Geordi, my job is security!’ might be one of the strangest exchanges in any Star Trek episode.
'It was an adult who did it!’
Worst moment – Why does drunk automatically equate to sex mad? Tasha’s scene with Data has lasting consequences for the series and the character but they feature some highly questionable and troubling dialogue that shows that you shouldn’t be playing around with issues like abandonment and rape if you don’t have the ability to tell those stories in a sympathetic way. Tasha seems to suggest that being abandoned at five and threatened with rape throughout her teenage years means that the only man she can ever trust now is a machine. ‘What I want now is gentleness…and joy…and love’ is such an awkward line. The ‘how fully functional?’ line has been quoted ad nauseum but coming after Yar’s confessions about her past this all feels very mucky and yucky.
I wish they hadn’t done that – Rule one Wesley: when a man comes into your quarters drunk and sweaty you show him the door. You don’t invite him in and show him your science project.
There are illusions to The Naked Time but that was an episode of TOS that was at least four episodes into the run so we have had the chance to get a handle on the cast and they are playing the episode to the hilt. The Naked Now in comparison is awkward and embarrassed. Perhaps the comparison should never have been made.
Why in these early episodes does Patrick Stewart sound like he is recovering from a stroke when he is forced to make an intercom message?
There’s a very funny moment when Picard practically stares out to camera and explains to all the kids at home that alcohol can be very dangerous and impair your judgement. In reality he is talking to Wesley, but Stewart has to force himself not to look directly at the audience.
A reason to watch this episode again – I have a question. Why would you feature an episode with all of your major characters behaving out of character before we have even figured out who those characters are? For all we know Tasha Yar might be a space vamp who enjoys fucking androids? Or Geordi might be the ultimate poet in the universe. Or Dr Bev and Picard have a history and can barely keep their hands off each other. Actually, that last one is true. It does indicate that Gene Roddenberry doesn’t really have much of a clue about kick starting a television show in the 1980s and reveals his weird obsession with sex that feels especially out of touch with what will eventually become such a dry show in that regard. If you’re a horny teenager who gets off on the idea of a sex virus plaguing the crew then this might just the ticket but if you are looking for sophisticated science fiction that tackles tough subjects then this may not be the ideal first adventure out of dock for you. For all we know coming out of this episode the entire show might be pitched at the level of a sub grade sex romp featuring pre-pubescent teens taking over the ship. I had huge fun writing this review which may go some way to explaining just how truly abysmal this episode is. Everything is off kilter; the premise, the pacing, the characterisation, the dialogue. What is shocking is that it is nowhere near the nadir of season one. It’s entertaining but mostly because of how truly terrible it is.
½ out of *****
