5.14 – Conundrum
Conundrum is an episode with an implausible premise that is almost entirely unwatchable in repeated viewings. There are a few bright spots in terms of theme. But it is a long, ridiculous process just to get to the few relevant ideas.
In this episode, it seems that some alien space craft has a beam that is capable of doing *all* of the following: penetrating the Enterprise shields; removing long-term personal memory, but not long-term professional and skills memory — from *every* race of being on board ship, including Data; rewriting the computer; and destroying computer files. All of this from a race (Satarrans) whose technology is comparable to another race (Lysians) whose technology is “centuries” behind that of the Federation.
Are you getting all this? There may be a quiz, later.
At any rate, once the ship and crew have been zapped by this eraser beam, they are suddenly joined by a gentleman by the name of MacDuff, who just so happens to hold the rank of Commander. I can see why the crew, with their memory erased, would not question MacDuff — but the audience? I guess the writers held a fairly poor view of their audience when they assumed that the appearance of MacDuff would be accepted without question. I mean, I completely accepted MacDuff when I first saw the episode. But I was a very naive 17 when I first saw it.
The whole point of this charade is for the Satarrans, whose agent is disguised as MacDuff, to induce the Enterprise to attack their mortal enemies, the Lysians. The Satarran beam has somehow reprogrammed the main computer to tell the crew that they must, under the cover of radio silence, enter into Lysian territory and destroy the Lysian Central Command.
Of course, as the Enterprise continues its mission, encountering very feeble resistance, the crew, starting with Picard, begin to question their orders. And when they arrive and find the Lysian Central Command to be inhabited by over 15,000 souls, and virtually defenseless, their inner consciences take over and they abort their mission. An enraged MacDuff decides to fire the weapons anyway. He attacks Worf and when Riker uses a phaser on him (since when do Bridge Officers carry phasers?), MacDuff is revealed to be an alien.
Along the way, we get some amusing scenes as the crew deals with their amnesia. Data thinks he is a bartender. Worf thinks he is in command and gives orders to Picard (who accepts them). Riker and Ro Laren spend an evening together (said Ro Laren, “What makes you think you are going to get any sleep?). And so on.
The episode gets credit for those scenes, as well as the ones that show us how, even without all the facts, our conscience can still guide our actions. The problem is that while the scenes are entertaining, and somewhat informative, they hold absolutely no resonance because the main premise is so implausible.
And to make matters worse, once you have seen Conundrum, and know who and what MacDuff really is, the episode creates absolutely no suspense. All in all, if you can get past the premise, you can enjoy the first viewing, somewhat. But after that, there is little reason, if any to see it again.
Conundrum is a sub-par episode. It’s premise stretches the limits of plausibility. And it’s story loses all measure of suspense upon repeated viewings. There are a few scenes worth watching. But on the whole, this one can be easily looked over.
Topics: Ensign Ro
Filed under: TNG Reviews
While I enjoy reading these reviews very much I have to disagree with the premise of this one. I do not believe the audince is meant to “unquestioningly” accept the alien sabateur as you state.
In fact, in the very first scene he is introduced the computer identifies him as holding rikers position. While riker is identified as the “2nd” officer (not fist). From the moment of his introduction thi is obviously fale. The following scenes fair little better, with his manipulations bein carried out openly in front of the camera.
In fact, I think the writers would be shocked if you did NOT suspect him… what with his camera glances, etc. It is clear he is involved…. the question is how and why.
When you remove this false “nit”, the episode is actually very enjoyable, exactly for the scenes you specified actually.
What is still a problem of course is the beam… from a technologically inept race it is silly… but no more silly than any other episode of star trek. I can understand your rating for reasons like these (as iv seen in your other reviews). But please don’t rate based on a false perception we are not supposed to see the deception
. We are supposed to.. we watch the characters reactionsto it.
Regarding your comment about bridge officers not carrying phasers: It’s true they normally don’t carry phasers, however, this is not a “normal” episode. The crew is led to believe they are at war, so it’s hardly surprising that side arms are routinely carried (as in “Yesterday’s Enterprise”, in which everyone is armed).
This is an enjoyable episode, however, I totally agree the basic premise – that a race far behind the Federation in weapons technology would be so advanced in other areas, is extremely implausible.
Interesting, you gave a high rating to the “The Inner Light”, an enjoyable episode with an implausible premise – that a society with 1950s space level technology would be advanced enough to compress an entire life (of an alien life form, no less) into about 20 minutes. (Granted, a culture could be somewhat advanced in some areas, less advanced in others. However, in both these episodes the alien cultures are way more advanced in some areas than others.)
One final problem with this episode is why MacDuff did not make himself Captain, rather than First Officer. Perhaps he felt he could not “pull off” impersonating the Captain, but could “pull off” pretending to be the First Officer.