There is a part of me that likes the concept of Starship Mine. Unlike most other “hijack” episodes, this one is fairly plausible, even if it borrows heavily from 11001001. The problem is one of pacing and character. The episode takes too long to go anywhere, and the minor characters are simply annoying.

While the Enterprise is docked for a baryon sweep, a group of entrepreneurs decide they want the highly toxic waste from the warp drives to sell on the black market. For starters, their characters aren’t particularly enjoyable to watch — petty thieves rarely are.

But with that said, their plan would have succeeded, with very little fuss from anyone, had Picard not decided on an impromptu return to the ship to gather up his saddle. In that respect, the biggest deficiency for the episode is the fact that the whole scheme would have been without any drama whatsoever — save for happenstance.

But of course, Picard does return to the Enterprise to retrieve his saddle. The contrivance for this plot point is actually rather well done. The commanding officer of the starbase is one Commander Hutchinson, a man who would have been right at home with Jerry Seinfeld because of his ability to spend a great deal of time talking about, essentially, nothing. And Picard is desperate to avoid the inane babble and banter from Hutchinson.

Who wouldn’t?

So after learning that there are horses and riding trails on the planet, Picard hustles back to the Enterprise and, more importantly, away from Hutchinson. As a character, Hutchinson is supposed to be annoying to the crew of the Enterprise. The problem, however, is that his quirks very quickly become old hat and, in short order, his presence becomes a burden.

What makes the scenes with Hutchinson enjoyable — and, to be honest, what makes the episode itself enjoyable — is Data. Data has recently written a subroutine that will allow him to engage in “small talk” with the people around him. His attempts, and subsequent conversations with Hutchinson, are highly amusing. Better yet, they hearken back to earlier TNG episodes in which Data was struggling to do his best to be more “human.”

Outside of the Data scenes, Starship Mine just doesn’t move very well. The thieves on board the Enterprise are pedestrian at best. Picard’s discovery of, and subsequent quest to foil, their treachery never really reaches a sense of urgency that would have propelled the episode forward. And because of that, the episode becomes plodding and disinteresting.

That isn’t to say that it’s all doom and gloom. Picard’s resourcefulness, including his ruse that he’s the barber, planting explosives in ten forward, and using a bow and arrow (because phasers won’t work during a baryon sweep) are all ingenious and fun to watch. But because they are spread out across such a large swath of the episode, and because the crime is relatively devoid of urgency, these ploys don’t quite carry the weight they ought to.

One last item of note has to do with the events on the space station. When LaForge notices some hidden weapons, Hutchinson is killed and his reception guests suddenly find themselves becoming hostages. Riker, Dr. Crusher and Data use LaForge’s VISOR to retake control of the station and rescue Picard — just in the nick of time.

The space station plot is marginally better than the Enterprise plot in terms of pacing. But considering that it’s a bit more simplistic (aside from the technobabble regarding LaForge’s VISOR), the sequences don’t fare much better.

Starship Mine is, at best, a middle-of-the-road episode of TNG. There’s some action and some character exploration from Data. But the plot is too sparse to really make it a classic.

Filed under: TNG Reviews