“I don’t know, you tell me, you’re supposed to be wise!”
“Suspicions” is emblematic of exactly how bland and unmotivated Star Trek: The Next Generation had become by this point in the run. You want to know what I mean when I say “beige storytelling?” Compare and contrast: the last time we had a Beverly Crusher mystery episode, we got the exemplary “Remember Me.” Here, in spite of a murder investigation, a man who comes back from the dead, and a shuttlecraft scuffle wherein Beverly ninja-kicks an alien and then shoots a pie-sized hole in his stomach, we have an episode so boring I could scarcely be bothered to keep watching it. The gas is officially out of the tank on Next Gen. The rest of our tour will be run on fumes, momentum, and the occasional muffler bang.
It’s an extra shame because “Suspicions” is Beverly’s only true stand-alone episode this year, and it features at least one interesting idea: a Ferengi scientist, which even the scientist himself admits is a bit odd. In situations like these, though, I reflect upon the fact that in its inclusive, liberal schematic for the future of the human race, Star Trek ended up a sort of weirdly racist show anyway: humans are multi-racial and evolved as fuck, but every alien species we meet on the show is defined by a single characteristic, in an unwitting caricature of how racists see other races. Vulcans are logical aristocrats, Klingons are war-crazed lunatics, and the Ferengi are greed-driven monkeys. Each of these cultures becomes a single, faceless stereotype as soon as it’s introduced, and when any character comes along who steps even marginally outside the paradigm, a huge deal is made out of it. I doubt the show knew it was doing so, but Star Trek was teaching racial profiling right alongside its more intentional lessons of inclusiveness.
(Of course, some Star Trek cultures – the Romulans and Cardassians, most notably; and by exception, the Borg – don’t fall prey to these tendencies, and provide richer, more holistic views of societies with different moving parts.)
Anyway. There isn’t much else to talk about here because as I mentioned, “Suspicions” is astonishingly dull, and seems to only become more so as it goes along, sinking into voiceover narration as Beverly picks up the story, and concluding with an incredibly lame joke. The average episode of Murder She Wrote had more dramatic intrigue and mystery-story credibility. I have a “suspicion” for you: The Next Generation should have closed up shop a couple of years before this.
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 Six is in stores. Season Seven will conclude the blog in early 2015 – you can pre-order the final season now.