“It is a cellular peptide cake. With mint frosting.”
Star Trek: The Next Generation answers the eons-old question “do androids dream of electric sheep?” with a resounding NO in “Phantasms,” wherein Data’s dream program gets its inevitable follow-up. A bunch of inter-phasic organisms are infesting the ship, which Data is subliminally picking up on and incorporating into his dreams. They appear as representations of people eating other people, which leads to what must be the all-time strangest sight gag that any actor had to perform on this series: Marina Sirtis as Deanna’s head sticking out of a blue-frosted cake body, while Data carves her up for serving.
There’s something interesting in Data as an evolving artificial intelligence. This has been present in the series all along, of course, but gains an added wrinkle here in the notion that his evolution might, at a certain level of complexity, begin to develop defects. Data is thrilled at the idea – Troi quips that he’s her only patient who’s ever been excited at the notion of developing a new neurosis – but because this is Star Trek, the problem must turn out to be something more germane (aliens attacking the ship) than ephemeral (Data is developing closely enough to humanity that has now begun to exhibit human psychological problems). Spiner is committed and assured throughout, and it’s a credit to his performance that Data has remained flexible enough an idea over all these years to allow for an outside-the-box premise like this.
I wish it had gone further, of course. Data has a psychotic break and stabs Counselor Troi in a turbolift, but the episode (necessarily?) makes short work of this in order to move on to the crisis at hand, rather than delving too deeply into the idea that (once again) the ship’s pet android is actually a really scary fella if you think about what he’s capable of. Weirdly, Riker and Worf disarm Data almost immediately, as though he no longer has the strength of ten men; and Troi suffers no lingering PTSD from the fact that one of her closest friends just up and impaled her in the shoulder for no reason. I know this is the future and we’re all evolved and shit, but I wouldn’t get in a turbolift with Data again for a while after that.
The script probably came in short on time, which is why there’s an excruciating runner about Picard being late for a party and his Admiral calling up occasionally to berate him, and another one about an ensign in Engineering who has a crush on Geordi. There’s also an amusing beat as Data begins his dream program by getting into bed fully clothed and pantomiming a yawn (for an audience of no one), and the even funnier scene where Worf is tasked with caring for Spot while Data is being kept under guard, which comes with the usual laundry list of pet-owner requirements. There’s a loose, “we’re just screwing around here” vibe to a lot of the B- and C-plot character beats throughout this season, which show how nicely – and dangerously – comfortable the series has become.
Blogging The Next Generation is winding down to the end, as I work my way through the episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation on blu-ray. The final season is in stores now.