Star Trek: Where Silence Has Lease

Episode: "Where Silence Has Lease"

Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Season 2, Episode 2

Original Air Date: November 28, 1988

via Memory Alpha

Curiosity kills the cat, and sometimes puts the Enterprise in great peril as well.  Data picks up an unusual reading, an area of total emptiness - no matter, no energy, nothing.  As the ship moves closer to check it out, our heroes are caught in what is essentially the mouse trap of a superior being, Nagilum.  The entity is curious as well, planning to kill half the crew just for sport.  Having no intention of subjecting his crew to prolonged suffering, Picard goes all in, setting the ship to self-destruct.  Is it a bluff?  Probably.  We still have over five seasons to go.

Most of the story is fairly tedious, I feel - just one more superior being putting humanity to the test.  As in The Motion Picture, there is way too much time devoted to shots of worried crew members staring at the view screen.  But it is a decent development episode for Picard and also for the Pulaski-Data relationship, one of the more important themes for Season 2.

Jean-Luc Picard is a bona fide badass.  His calm in facing down Nagilum is one thing.  His ability to sit back and be philosophical about impending death while the self-destruct clock is ticking is quite another - Macbeth-worthy.  Regular readers have already likely caught on but I am firmly in the Picard camp for the Kirk v. Picard debate.  This is the sort of episode that clarifies that choice for me.

I have difficulty warming to Dr. Pulaski and her dismissive attitude towards Data is the reason why.  Witness the following exchange:

PULASKI: Isn't this impossible, sir? I'm not a Bridge officer, but. Increase by one thousand, Mister Data. By ten thousand. It does know how to do these things, doesn't it?
PICARD: Commander Data knows precisely what he is doing.
PULASKI: Forgive me, Mister Data. I'm not accustomed to working with non-living devices that. Forgive me again. Your service record says that you are alive. I must accept that.

I realize Pulaski eventually comes around to respecting Data but their early interactions remind me of an old pearl of wisdom: if someone is kind to you but rude to the waitress, she is not a nice person.  In other words, Pulaski is only considerate when she has to be.  This may be oversimplifying the situation but it still rubs me the wrong way.

Acting Notes

via The Disney Wiki

Earl Boen (Nagilum) was born August 8, 1941 in Pueblo, Colorado.  His biggest role was Dr. Silberman in the Terminator franchise.  He is the only actor besides Arnold Schwarzenegger to appear in each of the first three films.