‘THE NAKED NOW’ (TNG)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This was the first episode that my parents and I saw from watching ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’. It’s good that we started off with this one, as it transcends nicely from seeing the original TV series.
‘The Naked Now’ is clearly a sequel to one of my favourite episodes from the original ‘Star Trek’ series. That episode was ‘The Naked Time’ and it’s great that story is re-used for the ‘TNG’ TV series.
In this version of the same story, the Enterprise-D crew respond to strange messages from the science vessel called the SS Tsiolkovsky. Very soon, all the crew get killed when the airlock blows out.
It’s interesting to note that this episode begins on a starship close in orbit to a collapsing supergiant star. That was different in ‘The Original Series’ when ‘The Naked Time’ began with a very icy planet.
Many ‘Star Trek’ fans criticise this episode for being too similar to ‘The Naked Time’. This is understandable, considering the ‘TNG’ reused the same plot points featured in the original episode.
But for me, I enjoyed this episode very much and it helped me to engage with the ‘TNG’ cast. It also helped to establish the connection between the original and the ‘TNG’ shows in the same universe.
The downside I have with this episode is that they didn’t show any clips of ‘The Naked Time’ to establish the connection. It would have been nice to have seen clips of the episode for the nostalgia.
In the episode, Geordi La Forge is the first person to get infected with the deadly disease. He soon passes on to Wesley Crusher, which passes onto Tasha Yar, then to Deanna Troi, then everyone else.
One of the things I liked about this episode is that it establishes early on that the original Enterprise crew had this disease problem before. The Enterprise-D crew hope to cure themselves quickly here.
But as Dr. Crusher discovers, the disease has mutated since the last time. This raises the tension, as Beverly Crusher needs to find another cure for the disease before the Enterprise ship gets blown up.
Also, like with ‘The Naked Time’, the Enterprise ship gets taken over by Wesley Crusher, who locks everyone out of engineering. The computer chips get taken out to shut down the Enterprise engines.
Another criticism I have with this episode is that Data gets infected with the disease. This makes no sense, since Data is an android. Unless you really try to think hard Data is a bio-mechanical machine.
Aside from that, there are lots of character moments to develop the ‘TNG’ regulars. This includes Geordi’s longing for sight; Tasha’s sensual desires and Wesley’s desire to become a starship captain.
Captain Picard and Beverly Crusher also get infected and there’s a really lovely scene where the two seem to be falling for each other once infected. This adds to the romantic link between the two.
Eventually in the episode, Beverly has the answer and provides a new antidote for the disease. It seems to be more powerful just as the same as the original Enterprise crew to combat that disease.
There’s even more when Data tries to put all of the computer chips back into the Enterprise engines to start them up again. Wesley also drags the Tsiolkovsky ship out to prevent a meteor hitting them.
A note of interest is that the chief engineer for this episode is Brooke Bundy as Sarah MacDougal. Why they did not have a long-running chief engineer before Geordi came along is anybody’s guess.
For me, ‘The Naked Now’ is a great sequel to ‘The Naked Time’. It’s not a great sequel and it’s deliberately ripping off from the original. But honestly, I appreciate the link from ‘The Original Series’.
‘The Naked Now’ (TNG) rating – 9/10
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