Star Trek: The Next Generation
"The Naked Now"
Air date: 10/5/1987
Teleplay by J. Michael Bingham
Story by John D.F. Black and J. Michael Bingham
Directed by Paul Lynch
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
A deadly incident on a research vessel prompts the Enterprise to investigate why the crew went crazy and ended up accidentally killing themselves. The away team brings back a virus from the research ship which has the effect of severe alcoholic intoxication. Dr. Crusher must race to find a cure before the Enterprise becomes a victim of a similar disastrous event caused by drunken behavior.
The plot, let's face it, is a transparent excuse for the crew to act weird and play out the series' various would-be sexual-tension entanglements in comic form. Why doesn't Beverly detect the disease and quarantine Geordi from the outset? Because "our instruments don't show it!" that's why. How conveeeeenient.
It's probably a bad sign when you're cribbing from original series storylines by Episode 2 (see TOS's "The Naked Time"). Also probably a bad sign that you're playing the sexual tension games so early, before we've had time to learn who these characters are. Picard/Crusher, Riker/Troi, Data/Yar — that's two-thirds of the regular cast tied up in these games already, in Episode 2. The Data/Yar coupling I suppose is interesting, solely for the informative value: Data can get drunk and have sex.
And yet, there's a certain memorable quality to this episode, despite its campy, overplayed comedy. A fragment of a collapsed star is careening toward the ship, which can't move because some fool has pulled out all of the control chips from a console. Data must race to put them back in. Wesley, the boy wonder, has the dubious distinction of taking control of the ship and putting it in danger before then saving it, while everyone else looks on helplessly. No wonder the character is so loathed. Ron Jones scores the show as if it were an episode of TOS.
Ultimately, the show is too goofy for its own good, but it's at least not boring.
Previous episode: Encounter at Farpoint
Next episode: Code of Honor
66 comments on this review
Sun, Feb 10, 2008, 5:01pm (UTC -5)
"Tasha...help me to not give into these wild feelings!"
"But Geordi my job is security! No, you're right...helping people is better!"
or...
"The virus leaves you with a severe lack of judgement...and I find you very, very attractive!" (Crusher to Picard)
Just pure cheese
Wed, Oct 1, 2008, 2:38pm (UTC -5)
PICARD: Data, DOWNLOAD this information to medic immediately.
DATA: Aye sir. DOWNLOADING.
This line makes no sense. Data is working on a bridge acces panel. He should be UPLOADING data to sickbay, not the other way around.
It's not surprising that Trek's writers were still clueless how to even write regular computer terminology, let alone the more complicated technobabble.
Fri, May 7, 2010, 7:56pm (UTC -5)
Voyager never did this with its many ripoffs, of course I guess it would've been silly to have references to past Trek series in almost every episode.
Fri, Mar 23, 2012, 11:57pm (UTC -5)
Starting off pretty good, the ep derails around the first/second act when the crew starts to go bonkers. The Data/Yar sex scene was utterly pointless and stupid, I'm sorry. Low point of the ep.
Not that the rest of the ep fared much better. The acting from most of the cast was really subpar this time around. Especially when Riker near the end says "I can't take it anymore" when his control starts to break--completely unconvincing. And don't forget Wesley saving the ship at the end singlehandedly--no wonder why they keep replacing chief engineers each week, a drunk teenager can do stuff better than they can!
I guess it's a good thing that the ep never becomes boring, and it is structured quite effectively, but the execution leaves much to be desired. The point when Crusher cures the disease comes off as anticlimactic. I wished they'd spent just a few more minutes showing her working frantically in the lab while resisting the disease. That would have improved the ep quite a bit, IMHO.
I'm going to go ahead and call this a fail. 1.5 out of 4.
Mon, Apr 9, 2012, 11:35am (UTC -5)
This one is a fail.
What annoys me the most is the fact that's just the second episode proper, and they were already making fun of the series?? (and while they were at it, ripping off the original series)
It was too soon to jump in the comedy bandwagon. The same episode, played much later, would have been better (Maybe after "The Battle" or some other pseudo serious ep of Season 1).
As one of the very first eps of TNG ever, it's an epic fail.
Mon, Jun 18, 2012, 12:10am (UTC -5)
I'd ave to say, the review here is on the money. The episode is of course, a blatant rip off of 'The Naked Time' but it does at least acknowledge that fact! Thus is one of the more tolerable Wesley episodes, although the assistant Chief engineer and the first Chief engineer are very badly played. The dialogue is also, at times, excruciating. However, thus us Frakes' best episode for some time (probably until 'Hide and Q', and as a while the episode is at least mildly entertaining -that said, in the current era many have pointed out, TNG would've been pulled after Season 1with current TV execs pullin the strings. Who's to say, based on this and subsequent offerings, it'd have even made it to episode 25?
A 2 star episode once again. Reasonable but too many flaws to overlook.
Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:29am (UTC -5)
Tue, Oct 23, 2012, 4:29pm (UTC -5)
Now, beyond that, a lot of what's done in the episode is stupid. Data getting drunk is clearly just ridiculous. It would have made more sense to have Data man ops for the length of the episode and not involved Worf at all (at this point in the series, it wasn't odd to not have one of the secondary characters appear in an episode).
Still, I'll take this over "Code of Honor" or "Haven" any day of the week. It's campy and dumb, but at least it's somewhat entertaining.
Tue, Nov 13, 2012, 8:35pm (UTC -5)
"Naked Now" turns everything into a brainless foreplayfest, and given how early in TNG's run this was, they really missed out on an opportunity to hit a home run...
1 star, mostly because of LeVar Burton's performance as the compromised Geordi is the closest thing this episode got to making use of how people feel and act without the social protocols and graces. It's the one thing the story got right. Riker getting Data down to Engineering would be the other moment... Jonathan Frakes plays it all straight, thankfully!
Tue, Nov 13, 2012, 8:37pm (UTC -5)
And Yar seeking affection from an android? Indeed, what did Dr Soong intend when deciding to make Data anatomically correct and "fully functional"? He's not a mobile fire hydrant meant to extinguish burning buildings...
Tue, Nov 20, 2012, 9:14am (UTC -5)
I love that there was a "core?" flying at the enterprise, and a drunk data had to put the chips in something to save the day! Who cares that it is stupid.
And Jammer, Jones didn't score this like it was TOS, he scores like it is Star Wars!
I say this all the time, but I would take this innocent, bombastic fun style of season 1 episodes any day over the monotonous, boring, endless, tiring, methodical style of season 7 any day of the week.
Fri, Jan 11, 2013, 7:38pm (UTC -5)
The worst thing: nearly everything else.
It was important to character exposition but served little actual value otherwise.
Tue, Jan 29, 2013, 7:11am (UTC -5)
I think Wil Wheaton made a good point when he talked about "The Naked Now." We barely knew these people at this point, so were we really supposed to truly *know* that this was out of character behavior for them, or were we just told that it was so and just shrugged and went with it?
Mon, Mar 11, 2013, 11:07am (UTC -5)
I also don't like the fact that in order for the events of the episode to even occur, the crew has to act incompetent rather than than professionals. Their scans showed no life signs. Likely causes are 1) aliens boarded and killed crew 2) contagion 3) severe mechanical failure aboard the science vessel. The crew detected no signs of an alien, therefore 2 or 3 were pretty likely. So as such, the crew should have boarded in environmental suits. In the TOS episode, Spock and a red shirt DID wear an environmental suit, and for the Enterprise crew to not take such a simple precaution makes them look like amateurs. Two star episode, at best.
Mon, Mar 18, 2013, 4:29am (UTC -5)
Still, it's a bad idea to show the crew acting "out of character" this early -- I particularly love the crew talking about how they know Geordi is acting unusually because there's nothing in his file about being sad he can't see, because they clearly have not had time to find out any of this. The gender politics of the episode are also deeply weird -- all three female characters are distracted by sex and are the pursuers of all three of those relationships, whereas the male characters are actually given individualized desires (Geordi's sight, Wesley's desire to control the ship, the assistant chief engineer's desire to play with those chip things). It is nice to see women as the sexual aggressors, though.
Probably 1.5 stars from me, though I might go up to 2.
Fri, Jul 25, 2014, 5:11am (UTC -5)
Wesley: It was an adult who did it!
Those two quotes can sum up most of this episode.
Wesley I liked. He is a bright kid who for some reason (through most of season 1) is surrounded by professional adults who act very stupidly: Why would the assistant engineer leave him in charge (It was before the infection took hold of him)? Why would his mother not notice her son sweating buckets after she knew about Geordi's and Tasha's condition?
Wesley being a very smart kid made sense for him doing all the things apart from the last 'saving the day' act. That just range false. I also loved this being a carefree Wes, drunk, happy and naughty. Much more enjoyable that his anxious to please everyone demeanor in later episodes.
The other good thing besides Wesley was Data's "If you prick me would I not leak." Love the Shakespearean paraphrasing. Also, that small part foreshadows great episodes to come in the future.
Small thing: both here and on Haven, Deanna calls Riker 'Bill'. Doesn't really suit him and I'm glad they changed that.
I didn't watch the show in episode order so for me it wasn't the second episode and the first time seeing it was quite amusing. But the unsophisticated humor fades very quickly after a couple of viewings. I found myself now laughing derisively at it rather than with it.
Tue, Aug 5, 2014, 11:21am (UTC -5)
Mon, Sep 8, 2014, 7:25pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Oct 15, 2014, 10:18pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Oct 15, 2014, 11:38pm (UTC -5)
Either would have kept them off a planet and put the crew into an intense situation similar to -- but not exactly like -- what TOS crew faced.
Mon, Dec 29, 2014, 6:05pm (UTC -5)
That being said, their were some genuinely amusing moments in what is, at best, a pedestrian episode. Namely the classic Tasha/Data scene. The ones involving Beverly/Picard were great (more-so the ones that take place in sickbay). Also Picards numerous reactions as everything just seems to fall apart around him. And Wesley actually being utilized quite well rather than being a plot device.
Sure it's oft-campy to the point of being almost absurdly so, but as Jammer said, at least it's not boring. Nope. It sure isn't. And there's definitely worse episodes of Star Trek than this. I don't think I'd rate this as high as it's rated here, though. It's worth a peek but you won't miss out on anything if you skip it. But I did grin a little more than I cringed. That's got to count for something, right?
2 stars.
Mon, Dec 29, 2014, 10:48pm (UTC -5)
DPC had the same objection earlier, but at the time nobody noticed. The series didn't establish how mechanical Data was until "Datalore." In fact, IIRC the previous episode stated that, short of a medical examination, Data was indistinguishable from organic beings. Like a Blade Runner replicant, perhaps, and therefore plausibly susceptible to illness and intoxication. If anything, the later revelation that he was full of wires & blinking lights was kinda dopey.
Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 9:08am (UTC -5)
Data also stated somewhere in season 3 or 4 that he regularly eats and drinks regular meals / beverages as some sort of lubricant. Also Lore and he drink champagne in "Datalore". No word on whether he processes his food into robo-poop, though (might be included in his being "fully functional"...). Still, his biology can't be all too human, since we know from "Data's Day" that he doesn't require sleep. Which brings me to the question: What does Data run on, anyway? I don't remember ever seeing him ingesting any sort of energy source.
Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 10:47am (UTC -5)
Plot-onium.
Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 7:15pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Aug 9, 2015, 6:33am (UTC -5)
Thu, Jan 21, 2016, 6:36pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Feb 9, 2016, 12:07am (UTC -5)
Oh well, Tasha had a great mid section at least :)
Thu, Mar 17, 2016, 3:51pm (UTC -5)
"And what I want now is gentleness. And joy. And love. From you, Data."
Not the best choice, honey. Love the reply, but it made it even more eyebrow-worthy:
"I am programmed in multiple techniques, a broad variety of pleasuring."
Oh dear.
Thu, Mar 17, 2016, 3:53pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Jun 28, 2016, 3:29pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 11:54am (UTC -5)
How this show survived almost two seasons of this is a testament to the stoic nature of star trek fans.
What kind of a last name is Yar anyway?
Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 5:13pm (UTC -5)
What's always struck me is how much more expressive Data is early on, drunk or not, than he would later be. I guess eventually a writer or producer must've questioned why an android would be smirking all the time. Also can't wait until I get to the part of the series where they stopped thinking having Data misunderstand a human expression was hilarious. I know there's at least one more in my future ; "combusting the late evening petroleum" or some such. Screw you, early Data.
Mon, Jan 23, 2017, 12:14pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Feb 3, 2017, 9:18am (UTC -5)
I had major issues with the following plot points:
- Data can get "drunk" and hyposprays can fix it
- They never initiated a ship-wide quarantine to stop the spread
- Data obviously could have put all the chips back in. They kept cutting back to him and he seemed to be putting the same ones in
- The sun explodes and expels a single "sun chunk" that happens to be going straight at the Enterprise? Pleaaaase.
- They had to do the fancy tractor beam reversal, why? Just use the normal tractor beam to move the other ship in the way of the "sun chunk"
Fri, Feb 24, 2017, 8:47pm (UTC -5)
Perhaps I'm re-watching the series through a different lens than most. I remember watching them for the first time when they came out in the late 80s. I was in college and my Geek friends and I would get together each week to eat, drink, and watch the new episode. I had grown up on reruns of TOS and was giddy with a new series all my own! In both the pilot and the first few episodes, all of us just gobbled up the throw backs to TOS like candy! They were just what we needed to get hooked! I can see if I were watching this for the first time today how bad the episode would seem, but at the time we loved it.
It's also interesting watching it today and realizing that the cast is still new to each other and settling into their roles.
Wed, Mar 1, 2017, 10:20pm (UTC -5)
Worst line in all Season One goes to Data:
After the Tsirkovski explodes, Data says, "Captain, what we have just heard is..... Impossible! That last sound was an emergency hatch being blown."
You might say it. I might say it. The word "impossible" is an acceptable hyperbole. But this is Data. He is so ultra-literal that he refuses to understand the phrase "needle in a haystack" until Riker clarifies "I should have said, a *proverbial* needle in a haystack." He is so precise with language that he finds it necessary to correct his commanding officer regarding the victims being "sucked out" vs "blown out" into space.
So when our Data describes a sound as being "impossible", it had damn well better be impossible. That was a truly crappy dialogue choice, and I have no idea how all the writers and actors let it pass without protest.
In other notes:
--Tasha looked pretty fine in her drunken midriff-baring get-up with the little curl on her forehead.
--Data didn't seem infected when Tasha approached him. I got the feeling he complied with her wishes because he thought it was part of his job. When propositioned by one's chief of security, a Starfleet officer must immediately disrobe and obey....
--As I remember, in the second Q episode Riker gives Geordi the gift of normal sight and Geordi immediately turns to Yar and says "You're as beautiful as I imagined." Was there an intention for a Geordie-loves-Yar plot early on? I got that vibe here when he puts his hands up to her face.
--What possessed Riker to think that a previous reference to "taking a shower in one's clothes" would shed any light on their current situation? Showering in one's clothes is not pathognomonic of any particular illness or toxic substance. (I did it myself once, cold sober, when preoccupied with a difficult new computer system being installed at my workplace. ). It signifies only nonspecific cognitive changes: confusion, poor concentration, impulsivity, etc. In 29 centuries of written records on earth, surely lots of clad showering incidents have been described?
-- Why does Worf remain unaffected through it all? I credit his Klingon constitution. A warrior does not give in to any intoxicant but blood wine!
Sat, Mar 4, 2017, 1:05am (UTC -5)
And then after they established he was a walking pile of bolts, it always severely annoyed me how in the first season they were always taking Data to sickbay and having Crusher do stuff to him. Hello, he's a robot. Have engineering work on him. Glad they fixed that in later seasons.
Sun, Mar 26, 2017, 2:02am (UTC -5)
borusa: "What kind of a last name is Yar anyway?"
Ukrainian. She was named for Babi Yar, the location of a WW2 massacre. A location is not necessarily a valid surname, though. (The character was originally called Macha Hernandez.)
Sun, Apr 9, 2017, 9:51am (UTC -5)
Sun, Jul 30, 2017, 5:09pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Nov 10, 2017, 10:09pm (UTC -5)
Way, way too early for an episode of this nature. And I remember at the time thinking: "Oh my God. All they are going to do is recycle old series scripts."
Not that it was a great episode, but something along the lines of "Symbiosis."
Mon, Dec 11, 2017, 12:15pm (UTC -5)
> "This line makes no sense. Data is working on a bridge acces panel. He should be UPLOADING data to sickbay, not the other way around."
If I connect my phone to my PC and instruct the PC to start streaming a movie, the PC is downloading the movie from netflix/youtube/whatever. The phone is just giving it the instruction "Go download this file". Depending on the ship's infrastructure, the data might have been downloaded from the central computer to the bridge but data then makes the same information available in medical.
Pedantic, yes, but in response to previous pedantry!
Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 5:06pm (UTC -5)
Some good comedic moments from Data -- not buying the logic of how he gets infected though. Picard especially and Crusher are pretty funny too when under the influence. Yar/Data and their looks after being cured is good -- the 2 develop a good relationship.
Wesley takes on the role of Riley locking himself in engineering. At least he didn't sing "I'll take you home Kathleen..." The boy genius thing is ridiculous here -- how he immediately turns the tractor beam into a repulsion beam -- well, if the TOS version could cold-start the engines, then I guess I'll let this one slide.
"The Naked Time" had a wonderful performance from Spock who grieved for his mother. It was such good acting to see him fighting off the emotions while trying to tell Scotty how to restart the engines. We don't get anything near to that quality here.
2 stars for "The Naked Now" -- just too similar to the TOS original. Are there any other 2 Trek episodes from different series that are this similar? The crew gets to act wacky and generates a few chuckles -- so it's not boring and we do get some insights into the fundamental desires of some of the crew members.
Sat, Feb 10, 2018, 1:27pm (UTC -5)
Poor D.C. Fontana! The concept was ripped off from her former TOS colleague John D.F. Black and then gets tossed a teaser and first act from Roddenberry and was told to finish the script.
I know Wesley was conceived as a brilliant Mozart of engineering skill, but this kid was written to be hated. It was ridiculous how he made trained adults with years of experience looks like boobs - a procedure the damn Chief Engineer declares would take weeks of laying out new circuit pathways, he achieves by pushing a few buttons? Kid was toast from the start.
I did love custome designer William Ware Theiss's one-fingered salute to the censors of the past with Tasha's seductress look exposing both her navel and undersides of her breasts - two no-no's during his tenure on TOS.
Wed, Mar 7, 2018, 10:04pm (UTC -5)
Fully functional and programmed in multiple techniques?! Kill me now.
Sat, May 19, 2018, 1:38pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Jun 8, 2018, 12:59am (UTC -5)
Next the Enterprise gets the party bug. Hijinks ensue, then Data fucks Tasha, lol. I don't think people realize how epic this is, on the second episode nonetheless. lots of laugh out loud moments in this one for me, "there once was a woman from venus....". Great episode! Five stars.
Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 11:33am (UTC -5)
I just read a tidbit about the Yar character yesterday and there was a person who did not know why Denise left the series. She and Roddenberry both said she wanted to do movies. She was offered a part and took it in PET SEMETARY and she did a few more movies that were forgettable. She made the rounds on various t.v. shows and so on. But when she was on talk shows she would always tell how she was the illegitimate daughter of one of Bing Crosby's sons of which I no longer recall his name. That sort of thing could ruin a person as far as the Hollywood crowd goes. Shove it down the throats of those who don't like you. Gene R himself sheepishly said he wished he had not let her go and he said the same thing about Grace Lee Whitney who by the way died in 2015.
Let me add this piece: In the same area where I found the above (Yar) I also found this about Jennifer Lien (Kes)....someone in the know said that Jerry Taylor who is the mother of Alexander Enberg (Vorik) approached Jennifer to date her son (Enberg) and Jennifer would not do it. That took place just before her final ep, the Gift. >> And Enberg, in his early forties, had a stroke and was in a coma for a short while.
Back to NAKED NOW. TOS'S Scotty actor did not like this episode either. He said how he and others figured TNG would not make it and guess what(?)... way down the line he appears on the show and has to be "beaten" up mentally by Geordi LaForge! That makes me angry enough to bite nails in half every time I watch it. For a long while I hated Geordi. He was very overblown egotistically and it showed.
Sun, Nov 18, 2018, 2:59pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 10:55pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 5:43am (UTC -5)
By far the biggest problem was having a goofy episode where everybody was out of character was way out of place as the first episode after the pilot. We didn’t know these characters at all, and making Picard look like a confused old man while Riker saves the day was awful.
Even Wesley as wunderkind wasn’t that bad the way it played out here, and while developing Wesley in that way was horribly dreadful, it was season wide and not specific to this episode.
This episode could comfortably fit in seasons 3-6 with a 3 star rating.
As for whether it’s “funny”... Trek very rarely does comedy well, so whatevs. There are funny bits here and there but Voyager’s Tinker Tenor is the only Trek episode setting out to be funny that really succeeds, imho.
Sat, Feb 16, 2019, 12:10pm (UTC -5)
Such fun, such juvenile fun! They are all just barely being held back from clawing at each others clothes. Isn't Starfleet big enough to find crew that haven't done it or fantasized about doing it?
This episode was better than the last one for showing the whole ensemble in action.
Wesley is unsufferable. I think he gets better before worse again if memory serves
Tue, Mar 5, 2019, 5:52pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Mar 24, 2019, 1:03am (UTC -5)
I've been doing a limited re-watch of this with my Wife, who has never seen them before (cutting out the stinkers, as she'd have no patience for 'em).
Watching back in the day, yes it was a cute episode, but without some sort of indication of what the crew members were about and how they acted, it was mildly difficult to realize how much they were out of (normal) character.
So I left this one until the end(ish) of season one, and it made it better, because we'd seen how the characters interact and how they are portrayed.
She isn't a fan quite yet, but was mildly amused. :D
*Mild, mild spoilers after this*
Other than Wesley not being an acting bridge officer yet (hey, grab the prodigy when you can), it makes it more enjoyable to view. In my humble opinion of course.
*Spoilers done*
Have a Great Day... RT
Fri, May 31, 2019, 3:16pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Jun 9, 2019, 6:23pm (UTC -5)
Also, the 1st non-pilot of the series is a really dumb to have an "everybody is forced to act out of character" episode, since we don't know what anybody is like IN character at this point.
Sat, Jul 6, 2019, 1:19am (UTC -5)
Very obvious theme about the need to balance intellect and emotion, self-control and indulgence.
You hold things in too long, build up too much internal pressure, they'll blow out the hatch all at once, the second you open it. (I know, you're thinking they get sucked out. Correction!! Common mistake, though.)
But if you indulge your every whim, indiscriminately, well - you'll freeze if you let ALL your heat out.
I liked the reference to TOS, it was part of a lot of references to history and the past. Just a lot about . . . build up (over time) and release, all with a red giant collapsing in the background.
Not bad, but the boring kills this ep.
Sun, Jul 7, 2019, 7:47pm (UTC -5)
I like your analysis of this episode regarding not letting things build up, the dangers of over indulging.... This episode infamously starts a series of Wesley precociously saves the day by making a calculation a computer can't (???) but on theme it's worth noting that Wesley's bubbling talent is partly something that normally has to get subsumed into pranks and actually applying his gifts to something important is only allowed by the boozy release valve. Similar maybe for Tasha's going after Data, where the idea is probably that her default oppositional mode is allowed to be suspended when she allows herself to indulge in a little tenderness outside the security chief job description. That Picard doesn't really let his guard down even with Crusher even while infected should say something about how much integrity he has and/or how deeply locked in he is.
Sun, Aug 4, 2019, 11:45pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 10:49am (UTC -5)
Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 5:46pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Feb 11, 2020, 4:59pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 8:11am (UTC -5)
It is very funny to see Wesley in full-on Obnoxious Brat Mode. His sort-of-inebriation makes him more tolerable than some of the times when he is not intoxicated.
The speed with which TNG Enterprise gets through its Chief Engineers is outdone only by the rapidity with which Voyager uses up its complement of 38 photon torpedos.
Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 10:31am (UTC -5)
That’s not to say “The Naked Now” is bad. It’s just not good either. It’s entertaining with lots of lightheartedness but given this is the first adventure with these characters outside of the pilot, we’re not ready to see them acting out of character just yet. We’re given insight into their feelings, yes, but we spend most of the episode watching all the women pretty much get horny while the men get annoyed and frustrated. Fun but inconsequential.
🖖 🖖 1/2
Wed, Jul 1, 2020, 2:07pm (UTC -5)
As someone who watches the show mostly for the hypotheticals/moral dilemmas and not so much for character drama, I expected to hate this episode, but I actually rather liked it. A smiling, biologically vulnerable, and perhaps quietly emotional Data who is so tantalizingly close-but-not-quite-there in human terms is more interesting to me than the Data at the conclusion of “In Theory,” where the writers seem to definitely proclaim that Data is merely a computer we love to anthropomorphize (it is also annoyingly inconsistent with his behavior in other episodes). On top of that, this was my first introduction to Tasha Yar who seems like someone with an interesting background who I would’ve liked to get to know better — with her tough exterior and vulnerable inside she’s far more interesting than either Troi or Crusher. Her seeking out Data reads more genuine and compelling than the random coupling we see in “In Theory” — imagine we’d had a storyline about Tasha’s mixed feelings about having, well, _feelings_ for a robot, and how much more that could have propelled Data’s story too, instead of the rather limp one-off we get in “In Theory.” It seems clear that originally the writers were envisioning a long-term storyline as with Troi/Riker and Crusher/Picard and I think that could have been more fun to watch than either of those two couples.
I’m glad the show ultimately moved away from Geordi’s eyesight being a source of consternation for him though — I always thought it was nice how his eyesight is a non-issue for most of the series, with neither Geordi nor others making much of a big deal about it. Geordi is just Geordi: excellent engineer, endearingly unlucky in love, and all around nice guy. We are aware he is blind, and it’s not hidden from us or without its challenges, but that’s not the most prominent or deepest part of his character.
Riker gets a nice turn to shine here — his ability to keep in control after being infected is both a comment on his strength of character and on how different he is from his colleagues: he seems to be the only member of the crew who’s not really hiding anything and who wears his heart on his sleeve. His relative sobriety is perhaps also a tacit indication about how “out of control” everyone else really is. The contagion is repeatedly compared to a state like drunkenness, and it’s not altogether uncommon for genuine drunkenness to also provide a cover for knowingly engaging in behavior that will later be excused. Picard, Crusher, and Troi may be inebriated, but whatever logical part of them that’s left (and there is some since Crusher, for example, manages to concoct a cure, etc) also knows that they can say or do anything while infected and it won’t “count” against them later.
Most of the other characters (Crusher, Troi, Worf) are surprisingly consistent with their later characterizations given what I’d heard about the unevenness of season 1. The only person who comes off a bit more poorly in this episode is actually Picard, who, whether he’s dislikes children or not, seems too genuinely flustered by Wesley, and without the calm and cool so familiar in later seasons. I’ve never understood the Wesley hate, so his prominent presence in the episode is not a problem for me either.
All the complaints about cringe-inducing dialogue detailed in other comments certainly stand, though. I couldn’t watch Crusher’s horribly on-the-nose comments about Picard being attractive complete with the cliched unzipping of the top of her uniform without some definite squirming. But because I already knew the characters far better by the time I got around to this episode than I think most viewers did when they first viewed it, the episode overall mostly played for me the way it was supposed to: a fun way to watch the crew let their hair down.
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