TNG: “Data’s Day” and “The Wounded”

Date: April 15, 2020

Season 4, Episodes 11 and 12

Musical Accompaniment: Coccolino Deep presents Eternal Sunshine

Interstellar News: It was very cold today, but all the blankets in the house are now clean and do not smell like dog or cat.

Favorite Quote from “Data’s Day”:

Data: Have you ever been an actual participant in a human wedding?

Worf: No.

Data: You would not consider it to be an honor?

Worf: An honor, perhaps. But human bonding rituals often involve a great deal of talking… and dancing… and… crying.

Data: Dancing.

You really have to listen to how Michael Dorn sells his lines, it’s fantastic.

“Data’s Day” begins with a log entry from Data to Commander Maddox who wants to know more about a typical day in the life of Data, especially his perceptions of friendship. Several things are happening aboard over the next few days namely O’Brien and Keiko plan to be married (Data standing in as the father of the bride), one of the crew is in labor, and a Vulcan Ambassador is beaming aboard for a secret mission.

Data tries to be helpful as Keiko wants to call off the wedding, but O’Brien does not react as he thought. Keiko also doesn’t react positively and poor Data is not only caught in the middle, but confused by pre-wedding jitters. Data is convinced that he should be able to help, he’s done the research and has even thought about maybe getting married one day himself. He even learns to dance, with the help of Dr. Crusher and the holodeck, and gets assistance from Worf to pick out the perfect wedding gift. The wedding eventually proceeds and Data doesn’t step on anyone’s feet.

The Vulcan Ambassador is all kinds of secretive and will speak only to Picard. They head into the Neutral Zone and meet up with a Romulan ship, apparently the Romulans are open to negotiating peace… nifty. No sooner does the transporter start there’s a malfunction and she dies in transit, a death that no one has ever heard of aboard a starship. The crew investigates and Data figures out the Romulans kidnapped the ambassador so they catch up with the Romluan vessel only to find out the Vulcan ambassador was really a Romulan spy. The Enterprise is allowed to escape and a new life is born to the ship.

I absolutely loved all of the parts of this episode except for those with the Vulcan ambassador in it. I will admit I did not see her being a spy until it was revealed, but everything else was just bland, boring, and stiff. It’s awesome that Data has a cat, that he tries to emulate human speech and just fails miserably, and that he did the damn research to see how to help build a successful marriage. Unfortunately people rarely follow logic when love is involved. I love the holodeck scene with Dr. Crusher, but Data needs to never smile like that again, reminds me of a certain Batman villain.

It’s quite sad that the main plot just doesn’t hold it’s weight (or maybe it’s the side plot) because nothing even happens… the Enterprise is free to leave and tell the rest of the Federation that they’ve been duped. I will note that I find it fascinating that Picard “hates” children but loves babies, or at least mystified by the miracle of life. I am totally the opposite where I start to like children around the age of 2. I’ll offer 6 Jokers for this episode: Romero, Ledger, Hamill, Nicholson, Phoenix, and Leto.

Favorite Quote from “The Wounded”:

Worf: The Cardassians have no honor. I do not trust them.

Troi: They’re our allies now, Mr. Worf. We have to trust them.

Worf: Trust is earned, not given away.

I laughed quite heartily at this line, it’s honestly the thing I would say if I were in a similar situation.

Picard’s Poetry: “If there is to be a lasting peace, Gul Macet, neither you nor I must allow any one man to undermine our efforts.”

“The Wounded” has the Enterprise interacting with some new allies, the Cardassians. They believe the terms of their truce has been broken as the Phoenix led an unprovoked attack and blew up a Cardassian research station, so a few Cardassians beam over as a gesture of good will so they can work together to find out just what is going on. They find the Phoenix as it annihilates a few more Cardassian ships and won’t reply to any hails. O’Brien has a frank conversation with one of the Cardassians and he and Keiko share comfort foods with each other. 

Maxwell, the captain of the Phoenix, is finally reached and he can’t answer any of Picard’s questions. The plan is for them both to return to star base 211… but the Phoenix rabbits in order to find another Cardassian vessel to prove that Maxwell was right and they are arming themselves for war. O’Brien beams over and helps talk Maxwell down, since he used to serve under him, and it’s clear Maxwell never dealt with the loss of his family from an attack by the Cardassians. Picard believes Maxwell was right and urges Gul Macet to keep the peace, or else.

So I’ll start with the obvious… every damn time they mention the word “Cardassian” I totally heard “Kardashian” and I am ashamed, though I have never watched even one second of their programming. I also love that there’s a bit from the last episode where they show O’Brien and Keiko getting to know one another through food and it’s adorable. It’s also nice to know a bit more about O’Brien’s past and I’m sad that it’s note all sunshine and rainbows, but it rarely is. It’s also quite a compelling story we are told: a captain has gone rogue… clearly something is wrong! Said captain believes the brand new allies are gearing up for war again… those bastards! Clearly he’s all torn up about losing his family to them, that must be it. Oh wait, they were gearing up for war and Picard is having none of it! Picard understands not only his duty to Starfleet but his diplomacy shines through as well when he sternly warns Gul Macet that there will be no tomfoolery on his watch. A very interesting episode indeed, and it earns an 8 from me… which you get if you add the numbers 1, 3, and 4 together, which is the number of days the O.J. Simpson trial went on for in 1995.

TA Out!