Jammer's Review
Star Trek: The Next Generation
"The First Duty"
Air date: 3/30/1992
Written by Ronald D. Moore & Naren Shankar
Directed by Paul Lynch
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
The Enterprise returns to Earth so Picard can deliver the commencement address at Starfleet Academy, but upon arrival the crew learns that cadet Wesley Crusher and his flight team, an elite group on campus called Nova Squadron, has been involved in an accident during a flight exercise that has resulted in the death of one of their team members. An investigation has been opened to find out what caused the deadly crash. As we follow the courtroom-like proceedings of the hearing (and the young cadets' ominous conversations behind closed doors), it becomes clear there is more to this accident than they have claimed.
After years of being a punch line on this series because of his ridiculous tendency to always be a step ahead of the adults on the show, at long last we finally have a believable episode where Wesley Crusher isn't so goddamned perfect. (Though it's still so unthinkable that Wesley could do something wrong that his mother doesn't even consider, for one second, the possibility that he has lied when the evidence clearly indicates that he might have. She instead believes the evidence must surely be false.) No, here Wesley is a grounded human being looking at the real possibility of his future going up in smoke.
"The First Duty" is in the storied tradition of the courtroom drama, and on that level it's effective. The facts are clearly laid out, the evidence is sensibly and logically presented, and the parts where the cadets get caught up in the inaccuracies (i.e., lies) of their story generate real suspense, especially with the intimidating Admiral Brand (Jacqueline Brookes) overseeing the proceedings. You see, the rest of Nova Squadron doesn't want to come forward with the whole truth, so Wesley finds himself caught uncomfortably between his conscience and his comrades. The leader, Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill, whose character here would later be slightly retooled into Tom Paris on Voyager) makes a convincing-sounding argument that the team should be placed higher than any individual on it. (His argument, of course, leaves out the part about being willing to sacrifice their integrity — not to mention the reputation of the dead pilot — but I suppose no cover-up is perfect.)
Enter into this fray Picard, whose own forensics into the matter (at first to help clear Wesley) lead him to discover what Nova Squadron was actually trying to do and now is trying cover up. This leads to a tense confrontation between Picard and Wesley where he lays out what he knows and tells Wesley that he must come forward with the truth. It's a classic Picard speech that draws a moral line in the sand and says, hey, there is no gray area here. It's the sort of earnest speechifying that makes TNG uniquely what it is — and it works powerfully here.
In addition to its solid storytelling, I like how "The First Duty" adds to the canvas of the TNG universe. I believe this is the first time we actually see Starfleet Academy, and it comes across as a real place inhabited by real people — right on down to Boothby (Ray Walston), the curmudgeonly old groundskeeper who remembers Picard from his academy days and offers useful tidbits of wisdom and insight — about mistakes made in the past, as well as the present.
Interestingly, I remember hearing or reading somewhere (not sure where; maybe it was a BSG commentary track) that Ron Moore's original script for this episode had Wesley not coming forward with the truth, and instead the incident was covered up. That ending was rejected by the bosses, but what a fascinating alternate episode that might've been — and a very different one. Whether it would've been better or worse, I can't say. But I can say that the actual version of "The First Duty" is a standout TNG outing and a captivating morality play, and easily the best Wesley Crusher episode ever made.
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29 comments on this review
The Kolvoord Starburst is very cool--and watching them piece together how it really happened was awesome. Joshua Albert's father did a wonderful job, and meeting Sito Jaxa here was great. I had actually seen "Lower Decks" before seeing this one, so realizing the continuity was there was nice.
The entire supporting cast was great--but I hate the loss of continuity with Locarno. Every time "Locarno" was onscreen, there was a "clunk" (not Paris) in my brain.
Anyway, amazing episode, in my top ten easily. FOUR STARS.
Agreed about the Paris/Locarno thing. I basically imagine they are the same character.
So they were trying to screw Moore and Shankar? Berman...figures.
Yet I had no problem with Gul Dukat being Gul Macet and 3 or 4 other characthers within Trek.
Oh, great episode easily a 3.5.
There's a hint even in Tom Paris' name -- Locarno is a town in Switzerland.
If anyone is interested on the changes from the original script, there's a detailed discussion on the Memory Alpha page for this episode, including quotes from Ron Moore and Michael Piller about the ending.
As for Locarno/Paris, an alternative explanation offered by the producers is that they thought that Locarno as a character was irredeemable.
As it stands, this is the episode which makes me frown at the whole Sisko/Eddington arc in DS9--first duty is to the truth becomes first duty is to the uniform. Yeah, I think Picard should have stuck around that station to supervise, dismiss and eventually incarcerate Sisko. But hey, instead he got a medal!
That makes perfect sense, given how often Jammer wrote about Voyager's aversion to storytelling risks. That show would've been much more interesting with a preening jerk at the helm instead of the Rebel Without a Clue viewers were forced to watch.
Interesting how the main critiques of this episode are of choices that *didn't* get made.
If that's the case, I'd say it is a pretty weak explanation. Why would he be irredeemable? At the end Locarno showed us he's not a completely rotten apple. Delta Quadrant is a perfect place for some redemption methinks.
They Voyager totally destroyed the Paris character turning him into a bad 1-line delivering chump.
I heard back in the day, that Voyager was supposed to be a less captain-oriented show, and Paris was supposed to have at least equal footing, if not the main character. They wanted to have him Kirk his way across the Delta Quadrant. But then that was shelved when Mulgrew came on board.
The first few Voyagers were quite Tom heavy I seem to remember.
Anyway, back to this episode.
I've been in Wesley's position at school (Nothing like the death of person, just a stupid gang-fight when we were 10, those happy days where everyone jumps in and no one really gets hurt).
There are times when you know that keeping quiet will win through, and other times, like this one, where owning up is the only answer. Plus of course there was the "permanent record" threat, and I was still young enough to take it seriously and wanted to join the airforce, so...
I did not find Brand intimidating at all.
Because Starfleet requires an expertise in militarism without condoning its use. It's akin to the man who owns a gun he never plans on using or, hell, the Jedi who fight in only the most extreme of circumstances. If you teach a child how to use a gun, but also to abhor it's use, you minimise the danger to that or any other child's life, for if he should need to use it, he can, but will (hopefully) never use it unless he needs to.
I will say though, I found the idea of spectacular air-shows in the style of the modern military to be beyond the purview of real Star Trek. I have no difficulty in chalking that one up to the writing credit.
Voyager was conceived as a ship running into Adventures of the Week (AotW) with a far less perfect crew than TNG's. The story of redemption is very much a Tom Paris thing. It would have been every bit as much a Nick Locarno thing. So yes, to this day it kind of irks me.
Those were more likely training shuttles than fighters. I took the whole thing to be simply a show of pride in their training and skills as pilots.
So if you follow that to its logical conclusion, if they had made kept the character as Locarno for Voyager, Moore & Shankar would have been paid residuals for every single episode of Voyager that featured the Locarno/Paris character. I agree it would have been cool, but I can also see why TPTB wouldn't have wanted to shell out all that residual money when instead they could just rename the character.
It's also all a bit hokey and simple but the drama is there and it builds well.
Ultimately the ending does feel a bit of a let off for Wesley and Co but I guess this is as raw and real as TNG was allowed to get.
If I recall correctly (and it's been many years), once Wesley confessed, Locarno took full responsibility, officially stating that the other cadets were only following his lead and that he deserved the brunt of the punishment (and they obliged). Of course, this makes the official story about Locarno being "irredeemable" an absolute joke.
"The royalties thing is more complicated than just one payment that they screwed Moore & Shankar out of. The WGA has rules on "character payments" that basically say that if you write an episode with a particular character, and that character gets used again in future episodes, you are owed a fee for the use of your character. "
That makes it worse, in my opinion. The WGA negotiated and fought for those rules for a good reason: to ensure that writers are paid for their work. The powers that be found Moore and Shankar's character so compelling that they even sought out the same actor for the role several years later, and then used the exact same backstory, but basically changed the name to avoid paying royalties. If they didn't want to pay for the character, they were more than welcome to invent one of their own... but either couldn't or wouldn't.
I agree in principle -- however, the creation of characters in a writer's room is MUCH more complicated process than who gets credit for the episode. The stories are usually all 'broken' by the entire room, meaning every writer contributes to how each scene will play out. Once that has been agreed to, only then do the writers go and write their draft. So Moore & Shankar, for all we know, may not have named *or* created the Locarno character.
It's also possible (but unlikely) that the episode was also rewritten by other members of the staff (like the Executive Producers/showrunners) after the writers have turned in their first draft.
What I'm getting at is that it's entirely possible that the character, name and backstory of Nicholas Locarno were created by Michael Piller and Rick Berman, who were running TNG at the time. So even though Moore & Shankar may have written the episode, the character might have been originated by the people who eventually went on to create VOY. And IF that is the case (and it's a big IF), then I would understand why they would change the character name to get around paying 7 years worth of residuals for a character that they created.
As I say, a pretty big if.
The second time I watched it, I got to the point where he threw Josh Albert's reputation under the bus and lost all sympathy for the guy.
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