“Is it true what they say about your birthmark?”
Wesley Crusher returns to the Enterprise in a goofy little episode that, as far as “Wesley Crusher saves the ship” shenanigans go, is quite probably the very best one. While Wesley’s busy making nookie with Ashley Judd, the entire adult crew gets hooked on a cortex-stimulating video game that turns them into the Stepford Wives. Given that Riker picks up the game on Risa from one of his fuckbuddies, it’s nearly an STD… which makes the first act scene where Troi has a near-orgasmic experience with a dish of chocolate ice cream while Riker is trying to pawn the game off on her all the more amusing.
In fact, watching the entire crew wander around in a dreamy delirium having mini-orgasms every time they level up in the game gives the whole episode a desultory vibe that it never shakes. (Case in point: there’s so much sex in the air that “Robin’s Laws,” the series of random mantras that Ensign Lefler carries around in her head, come away seeming like bedroom advice. “Law 36: You gotta go with what works. Law 17: When all else fails, do it yourself.”)
Lefler is played by Ashley Judd, and what’s rather nifty about the whole setup is that she has actual, visible chemistry with Wil Wheaton. Returning as Wesley, Wheaton gives his most charismatic performance to date – actually, his most charismatic performance possibly ever. He has an easy maturity about himself in this show that makes him a lot more likeable than he was when he was a regular member of the crew; and giving him a gal-pal with whom to solve a mystery makes it all the more Bobsey Twin adorable.
The final act, where Wesley is evading capture around the ship by way of carefully laid traps and shortcuts, is so much fun that I kind of wish it had been the whole episode. That would have been just as solid an idea for Wesley’s return appearance: Wes going Die Hard on an Enterprise overrun by game zombies, using his preternatural knowledge of the ship and its workings to continuously put one over on the rest of the crew. Ah well, it’s good while it lasts here; and the episode as a whole, if silly, is a lot of fun.
Blogging The Next Generation runs every Tuesday as I work my way through the episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation on blu-ray. Season Five is in stores now.