By 
Title: The Battle
Airdate: 11/16/1987
Plot Summary
Picard has an unexplained headache while in talks with a Firengi ship that wants to broker relationships between the Firengi Alliance and the Federation. Captain Bok is unusually friendly and even offers a gift with no expectation of payment, Picard’s lost ship the Stargazer.
Picard gets bigger headaches and seems to get lost in the past as he remembers what happened. The ship was attacked unprovoked and Picard was forced to destroy the attacker, using an interesting move where he made a millisecond warp jump, making it seem like the ship was in two places at once. It was so impressive, it was named the Picard maneuver.
Bok’s son was commanding that ship and was killed all those years ago. The Stargazer was too damaged and had to be abandoned. It was found by the Firengi and Bok has used it as a trojan horse where he’s snuck aboard a mind machine that makes Picard believe he’s back in the moment of the attack, now mistaking the Enterprise for the attacking ship. He starts to use the maneuver on the Enterprise, who has no defense against it as it’s never been successfully defended. Will they be able to stop Picard and save him from the mind control or will they either destroy his ship or be destroyed themselves?
Make It So
It’s not just all the mess of being mind controlled, Bok also doctors the log on the Stargazer to make it seem like Picard ordered the attack. While the crew takes it seriously, no one actually believes it.
Stewart’s acting is pretty great here, from pained to nostalgic to delusional thinking he’s back on the Stargazer.
Number 1
Riker has some interesting moments with the first officer of the Firengi ship, enough to earn the other first officer’s respect.
Fully Functional
Data figures out the log was doctored. He also is able to figure out how to defend the undefendable maneuver in about 23 seconds. Every ship should have a Data. The Firengi try to buy him but Riker deftly sidesteps the offer by explaining that Data is secondhand merchandise and they wouldn’t want him.
Today Is A Good Day To Die
Worf really doesn’t like the Firengi. He let’s his disgust be known at the beginning and I think they may have confined him to quarters for the rest of the episode.
Phase Inducers
Geordi does helm stuff and not a lot else.
Counselor Cleavage
Troi senses that Bok is full of shit. Thank you, very helpful.
Dancing Doctor
Beverly calls Riker “Number 1”, the only time I can recall anyone calling Riker “Number 1” that wasn’t Picard. She has a lot of trouble finding the cause of the headache, it wasn’t until they discovered the orange and silver sphere in Picard’s quarters that they begin to piece it all together. She does what she can for Picard’s headache, something that she’s really alarmed about since people don’t get headaches anymore. 6 more seasons would prove that wrong and her a lot less alarmed about it.
Security Chief Dead Meat
Yar tracks the Stargazer coming in, opens and closes hailing frequencies, and does a fine job of background decoration.
Shut Up, Wesley
Wesley comes all the from sensor control or wherever all the way to the bridge to let them know that the Stargazer is coming in. Picard rightly tells him to use the damn comm badge instead of wasting time on a turbolift.
We also see Wesley’s acting ensign uniform version 1.0. It’s gray with the three colors of the other uniforms in narrow stripes across the chest. He’d wear this most of the rest of the season.
Canon Maker
We see the Stargazer, a ship model that Picard has in his ready room. It will be referenced here and there throughout the series and become part of Picard’s history and lore.
The Firengi have lost the whips and the animal bouncing but still have the furs. Getting there. We do find out their captains are called “Daimon,” something that would stick throughout the entire set of series.
Bok will return with an equally ludicrous plan to get revenge in season 7. I want to go Scott Evil on him, “Just shoot him. Bang. Done.”
Canon Breaker
Troi can’t sense Firengi thoughts as it will be shown time and time again. Eh 1st season bugs.
The Stargazer is far too big relative to the size of the Enterprise. It should be slightly smaller than the original Enterprise refit.
A Little Bloody Nose
No one died. Except for Bok’s son 15 years ago at the battle of Maxia.
Technobabble
The Firengi have these mind spheres that can make a person think things or hallucinate or get stuck in their memory or something. How it works is a little vague. It blows up good with a phaser though.
I Know That Guy:
Frank Corsentino plays Bok. He would return to Trek in Voyager but did not reprise Bok when he came back in the 7th season.
Doug Warhit plays Kazago. He was one of the clerks in the bonded warehouse in Beverly Hills Cop and not much else.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
The Battle is kind of weird. I get a father wanting revenge for the loss of his son but they way he goes about it is truly nuts. And the fact that the Enterprise crew wasn’t on red alert thanks to all the warning flags makes them look a little dumb.
One, Bok offers the Stargazer as a gift to Picard even admitting that the ship killed his son. That’s like your victim’s father offering you the gun you shot his son with. Maybe he’s got a ulterior motive? If he didn’t tell Picard that and waited like a proper supervillain to explain everything when he thinks he has the hero just where he wants him, sure. But tipping his hand at the beginning?
Two, he offers it for free. It’s already pretty well known the Firengi are all about profit and his subordinates react in shock at Bok giving the Stargazer away at no cost. RED FLAG RED FLAG!
I suppose the mind sphere’s are ok and the idea that he wants Picard to destroy his new crew the way his son and his crew were killed I suppose is a good enough motivation but the execution is stupid and requires the crew to be stupid to let it get that far. Hey a big giant trunk, maybe scan it in case there’s a basketball sized weapon in there?
I will give it a tiny bit of credit for making the Firengi slightly more interesting in the form of Kazago. He works with Riker and takes Bok into custody and even does Riker the respect of letting him know. It’s a real bright spot in an otherwise not great episode.
I will also give Stewart a lot of credit for elevating a not great episode into watchable.
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