The Neutral Zone
Two unrelated plot strands with very different tones of content drive this episode.
However, since each strand manages to contribute something archetypal, and since
both can easily co-exist problem-free with the other, this turns out to be,
not just a decent episode, but one of the better episodes of TNG's first season.
Personally, I've always really liked this episode.
Frozen to the Future
Dominating the first part of the episode is the tale of thawing out of cryogenics
three characters who are from about the same time period as the audience. It was
a bit of a gamble that sci-fi often takes to assume that the required advancements
to make such a thing possible were only about ten years away from the late 1980's
when this was made. I certainly haven't heard that any real progress has been made
on the problem of cells breaking open during the freezing process, or on the financial
feasibility of launching cryogenically paused people into space.... not that that makes
it impossible, but it does impact on whether these particular characters will have
heard about it and been able to sign up for it as indicated in their backstories.
The three frozen guest characters cover a good range of types that might opt into such
a thing, and make interesting examples of our century for the 24th century regular characters
to discover. However, I'm still left with the impression that these characters were
intended to be bigger and bolder in concept, and ended up being much more subdued.
Some opportunities seem to have been passed over here - perhaps most obviously
between Data and his new guitar-plucking pal Sonny. Luckily, all three guests remain
watchable, understandable, and make pleasant viewing.
Working in their favour is the archetypal nature of their situation, both with the
more general fish-out-of-water aspects and with the Rip-Van-Winkle specifics. In fact,
I often think this episode doesn't do half-badly as a surrogate pilot for
Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Roddenberry's entire future universe is first seen
from the perspective of the three guests from our time. Indeed, the animated series "Futurama"
successfully launched itself with a pilot story based on very similar ideas.
Nicest of all, the episode manages to use this situation to shine a rare spotlight
on one of the healthiest components of Roddenberry's future universe, as a man
from our time who was previously obsessed with money tries to get a handle on what
it means to live in a society that doesn't have money to pursue. His most poignant
questions come at the end of the episode, and get some nice answers. It would have
been nice to get even more, but this will do for now....
Romulans Back in the Zone
A lot of this episode's mystery and tension comes from its second major strand,
which gradually takes over more and more towards the end. The Enterprise urgently
investigates a set of Federation colonies destroyed along its borders with
the Romulan Neutral Zone, and the preparations for some sort of confrontation
with the Romulans fuel much speculation about them. Thus, they are nicely built up
and successfully re-introduced into the TNG series here.
It does though seem a bit at odds with a few other season one episodes,
beginning with Angel One,
in which reports of off-screen events indicated Romulan encounters
that could have made much of this episode's rediscoveries moot.
Well, where there are any contradictions, I prefer the version in this
episode to be the better, more definitive deal, especially as the Romulans
actually show up on screen this time.
Marc Alaimo is of course an interesting choice for the lead Romulan of the episode.
He does a nice job of making some rather bizarre and understated threat seem quite dangerous.
Of course he later went on to play Gul Dukat on
Deep Space Nine,
where he often did more of the same to great success.
Composer Ron Jones does quite well with this one, coming up with an interesting theme
for the situation with the cryogenic trio, but also more memorably in coming up with
a wonderful tension-building theme for the Romulans. Two thumbs up!
Revealed for the first time is a brand new vessel for the Romulans, who had unfortunately
been seen using borrowed Klingon ships last time we saw them in
"The Enterprise Incident" (TOS season 3).
Well, good that they have their own ships again now, but I never was too enamoured with
the design that they got. Ships with great holes in them just don't seem very smart.
Oh well. At least they had a bit of colour.
Oddly, the episode climaxes not on any real battle or diplomatic victory or plot cleverness,
but simply on the re-introduction of the Romulans and some measure of cautious cooperativeness.
To the episode's credit, the production manages to make this work quite satisfactorily.
For those who are bothered by not really getting the answer to the main mystery at hand,
you can jump straight to the late season two episode
"Q Who" for the next chapter of that plot strand.
Well, TNG's first season may have been one of its most problematic and hit-and-miss,
but in that run, "The Neutral Zone" has always been one of the better episodes in my book.
It's good clean Trek with some nice highlights. Their mission moves forward with
a nice variant of Jerry Goldsmith's main theme, and TNG continues to improve during
the following seasons....
International Titles:
Deutsch: "Die Neutrale Zone" | (The Neutral Zone)
|
Français: "La Zone Neutre"
Español: "La Zona Neutral"
Italiano: "La Zona Neutrale"
Season One Rankings:
- Encounter at Farpoint
(This IS Star Trek, rising to be the best we can be,
showcasing our extraordinary abilities and gifts, solving mysteries,
seeking out and helping the unknown, which in today's case is
particularly spectacular visually.
Nothing else in season one can quite top this.)
- Where No One Has Gone Before
(I heartily approve this grand spectacle of time/space/choice navigational philosophy.
There's something important here that transcends its "packaging".
And this is where to go to get a worthwhile [and correct] impression of Wesley.)
- The Neutral Zone (Two tasteful plots working well together,
posing worthy questions and delivering many favourite moments.
An easy winner.)
- Hide and Q (Surprisingly coherent, and with worthy questions to pose.
Action and production value quite decent and plentiful,
though it still seems to be missing "something".)
- Home Soil
(A nice exploration of both terraforming and a very alien ecosystem,
with good planetside action and production value. Plus some good
commentary on interplanetary society. A more charismatic voice effect
for the alien creature[s] could have lifted this tale up another good notch.)
- The Arsenal of Freedom (Mostly just a darned good, enjoyable action story.
I'm not quite sure why the away teams were what they were, but most of the
characters get a good outing here, especially Geordi. We can see
why his promotions will come fast...)
- Symbiosis
(This one explores a nice variety of ideas and delivers many good scenes,
while leaving the audience with something deep to ponder. Though the
premise is flawed, and honesty has yet to permeate the writers' concept
of the Prime Directive, the episode still manages to turn out better
than many of its season one neighbours.)
- Conspiracy (This episode was quite well made and is free of any truly dull
or misfiring scenes. However, I no longer enjoy dwelling on its primary
subject matter. Better to take a healthy warning from it once than
to regard it as great and watch it over and over. And it will definitely
lose some points for its concluding gross-out factor.)
- Datalore (This is THE important and intriguing primer for Data's origin story,
which many future stories will plunder for springboard ideas, and the
visuals are all here, ensuring that it's a can't-miss-episode, for sure.
The first 2/3 are wonderfully explorative... alas the last part plays out
an all-too-predictable conflict without any truly worthy twists or point to it.
Lore's dialogue is dull and rehashed, and the crew's responses to Wesley
are abysmal. Still, the ending moves quickly, and the story as a whole
is very worthwhile.)
- We'll Always Have Paris
(Well, the "romance" lays an egg, but by far the bulk of the
screen time is instead spent on a temporal mystery-action plot that
works remarkably well, and remains tasteful and intriguing.
This one's better half overcomes its harmlessly dull bits
to give it a healthy ranking.)
- The Battle
(The crew finally appears to be on form, and this adventure is nicely told...
but it's a bit repetitive and not quite as ambitious as some other episodes.)
- When the Bough Breaks (A dramatic premise that sounds cheesy at first
is actually fleshed out into a solid Trekkian outing, satisfying with
good planet-side production value, and a sensible way of working through conflicts.
Nice! Unfortunately the score continually
pops out of this one and interrupts our suspension of disbelief,
usually just to say "Hey look, this is all about kids!" But are we also
to believe that the little girl has just composed one of the main themes
we heard back in "Where No One Has Gone Before"? Better inspired music
would have been welcome.)
- The Last Outpost (A fairly satisfying adventure, with a nicely realized planet & effects,
though the episode's camera work somewhat underplays the silliest of the Ferengi antics.
Also underplayed are the bits of dialogue allowing the Curse of the N-word
to set precedent for forcing Ferengi females to remain offscreen forever,
curtailing many worthy story possibilities for the franchise long-term.)
- 11001001 (A very pleasant, but confused and aimless outing,
with many musical and visual highlights.)
- Heart of Glory (TNG's first Klingon adventure boils down to a clumsy way
to get the basic Klingon mindset across for the audience,
yet it has some moments, and ticks a lot of boxes for good Trek adventure
along the way.)
- Angel One
(A decent story and plot with good production value and variety of location,
and some interesting ideas to debate. It also turns out to be much more of
a story for Troi than "Haven".)
- Haven (This very well-made episode with a feel-good resolution and some healthy comment
on society remains somewhat unsatisfying due to a simple fundamental flaw:
No one on the Enterprise crew has a proactive role in anything that plays out here today.
Supposedly this is Deanna Troi's big episode, but she is scripted to be a mere pawn
of the adventure's events from start to finish, never grappling with the decision
of either staying on the Enterprise or pursuing... well, she's not really in love
at all, is she? We get a dissection of the groom's feelings,
and even Riker's to an extent, but no one seems to care to ask
about Deanna's, least of all Deanna herself.
It's amazing how many of the final scenes Troi is in, without getting any lines
or anything to do - not even some response to what is going on. It's a non-story
for Troi. The guest stars really own this story, with Wyatt taking all the action
to resolve matters, and Lwaxana Troi being [despite two prior sequences of eccentricity]
the figure of wisdom who sees through the mystery and points Wyatt in the right direction.
Very odd. I think this one is better received for having its air date delayed until
later in the season. And the Curse of the N-word takes its toll on Betazed weddings today,
ensuring that the franchise will now never show a Betazed wedding on screen.
What were the writer/producers thinking?)
- Skin of Evil (There's a surprising amount of decent psycho-analysis and
effective strategizing on display here, elevating an episode with
strangely realized visuals and a somewhat unhealthy-as-entertainment antagonist.
The score also runs the gamut from a cheesy motif for the villain
to the first season's most standout cue for the episode's finale.
There's much to like and dislike here - this one does not play it safe.)
- Too Short a Season
(A decent basic premise leads to some good scenes and production value,
while struggling with make-up effects. Unfortunately, no character can have
any effect on the predetermined ending, and the tale turns out a bit pointless after all.)
- Coming of Age (We see our first shuttlecraft [but not the shuttle bay], and much production
value is put into Wesley's Academy tests for once. But though this is a very competent
episode with the crew in good form, and characters of later importance are introduced,
there still isn't anything going on in this episode of true significance or interest.
Why doesn't the academy admit more than one new recruit this year? Whose side are
Remmick and Quinn really on at this point? [Would the writer even know?]
Remmick's investigations are taxing to watch and not ultimately getting to the
really interesting point. Altogether a fairly pleasant but dud hour.)
- Lonely Among Us (A good slow-burn investigation episode [nearly on par with later seasons]
evaporates into hardly-credible intangibility in the last act.
Altogether not so satisfying.)
- The Big Goodbye (Well, the original holodeck malfunction episode is definitely overhyped.
Our characters spend so much time being amazed at the scenery that they don't
find much time to actually investigate any mysteries as a private-eye and company.
In the end they only get involved in a boring gunpoint standoff that lasts much
too long. Really, the scenery and the guest characters in and out of the holodeck
are not interesting enough to sustain my investment in the episode without a more
intriguing plot holding things together.)
- The Naked Now (A TOS concept that would have been
much more fruitful had it sprouted later in the series
gets an even more premature re-make on TNG. We won't find any great character depth
here as promised, rather just an off-kilter taste of who's got the hots for whom.
Plus, those who are habitually annoyed at Wes probably let this episode
imprint too great a false impression of him.
The Curse of the N-word works its way right into the title of this one.)
- Code of Honor
(It's a shame such good production value was wasted on this ugly display of
"Respect my ways while I trample all of over yours!"
No one wants to see that for 40 minutes. Sadly our TNG characters
are also still struggling to find their functions - both on the ship
and in the drama.)
- Justice
(Once more, great production value is wasted on a clunker.
This one bizarrely has more awkward moments and misfiring scenes
than any other episode so far. The Edo law is a completely retarded
contrivance, while the Prime Directive is grossly misinterpreted.
At no point does the episode work through the legal details to progress to a solution,
instead it stretches out exposition of a deadlock clash
and then just switches off when it has run out of time.
A very rotten handling of a first contact situation that could have
been more intriguing without such an unintelligent drama getting in the way.
Perhaps it was distracted by getting as close to the N-word as television
of the day would allow.)
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