Star Trek: The Next Generation
"The Vengeance Factor"
Air date: 11/20/1989
Written by Sam Rolfe
Directed by Timothy Bond
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
The Enterprise is pulled into mediating an agreement involving the Acamarians and their renegade subculture of "Gatherers" (a better word would be "pirates"), who broke off from mainstream Acamarian society a century ago and now live as criminal exiles. Acamarian leader Marouk (Nancy Parsons) reluctantly agrees to try to bring the Gatherers back into her society now that Acamarian life has given up its warlike ways.
Picard attempts to get everyone to sit down together at the negotiation table, but it won't be easy. The Gatherers open fire at the first sight of anyone that comes near their camp. The leader of this particular clan of Gatherers is Brull (Joey Aresco), who agrees to the negotiations. But there's also a murderer going around killing very specific Gatherer individuals, taking revenge (we eventually learn) in a long-ago blood feud. The killer, unbeknownst to everyone but us, is Yuta (Lisa Wilcox), who is Marouk's personal servant and also a young woman that Riker attempts to romance.
"The Vengeance Factor" is a borderline incoherent mess, with a plot that — okay, it does hold together, but it's a really rough road to get there. There are too many characters and not enough investment in any of them. There is no clear line of drama, making it very difficult to become involved in the story. We get dull negotiation scenes, then lackluster romantic scenes, then halfhearted character scenes. The story initially makes much of Brull, an obnoxious vulgarian who is at first menacing and then kind of likable, and then he becomes irrelevant to the story and disappears. The "romantic" scenes between Riker and Yuta are awkward and ineffective. They serve only to set up the final act, in which Riker is tragically forced to kill Yuta to stop her from carrying out the story's titular vengeance factor. The story's message is acceptable. Its execution is not.
Previous episode: The Price
Next episode: The Defector
45 comments on this review
Mon, Oct 15, 2012, 11:02pm (UTC -5)
I couldn't agree more with your review, the whole show was so..uninteresting.
I just felt apathetic. Those people were there doing stuff I didn't care about, and the Enterprise crew was almost like an unwelcomed third party.
The Vengeance Factor can also boast of some really bad guest-actors.
Now I want my 45 minutes back :/
Mon, Nov 26, 2012, 4:29pm (UTC -5)
And Picard was watching her vaporised and he looked passive like watching a boring soap opera...
Worst episode of this season so far and totally forgetable.
Tue, Dec 11, 2012, 11:24pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Dec 17, 2012, 7:49pm (UTC -5)
What struck me more is how transparently Riker hits on Yuta throughout the episode. How often does he get this personally involved? Only a few episodes later his indiscretions (admittedly not all his fault likely) get him put on trial for murder.
On the other hand, that does provide the immortal line - You're a dead man, Apgar! A dead man!
Mon, May 6, 2013, 2:53pm (UTC -5)
I think the suggestion is that Riker couldn't stun Yuta -- that he tried and kept putting the phaser to different settings in order to stop her, and she just kept coming forward like a Terminator. This is implausible but I assume that it's covered under the same genetic procedure that makes her not age, as she unsubtly exposits in the final scene. Of course, that doesn't explain why Riker didn't consider any other options, like asking O'Brien to beam Yuta up or simply telling the other leader to move. Hell, the fact that the leader sits there staring dumbly makes me feel resentful that she didn't kill him, if that is his level of intelligence/self-preservation.
This episode also is one in which Picard's abilities are exaggerated to the point of parody. Because Picard is annoyed with the Gatherers' raiding parties, enough's enough -- he's going to singlehandedly end a century-long feud in a couple of days, *and does*. Stewart is game, of course, and Picard's diplomacy is entertaining as ever, but it's flatly ridiculous that all it takes is for Picard to decide that the Ackamarians should take the Gatherers back because it's inconvenient for the Gatherers to be hanging about raiding starbases (and for Yuta to be killed) for all the problems to go away.
Plot holes don't bother me all that much except in episodes where I'm already bored or annoyed. This is one of those episodes. The Ackamarians and Gatherers don't look to me like a society who have found out how to genetically engineer immortality, to be frankly honest; but more than that, the idea that Yuta's whole identity is based around the dedication to her vengeance mission, to the point where she has no idea how to make out with someone without single-minded servitude, doesn't really square with the fact that Yuta has somehow been hanging about Ackamar III for fifty years without killing other members of the clan. Are we to believe that Yuta seriously never had personal growth or whatever in the half-century when she was waiting around for an opportunity to kill the other gang members, presumably switching jobs and identities every few years so that others wouldn't catch on that she doesn't age? Was she just, what, waiting around for fifty years in the hopes that eventually Captain Picard would show up to suggest diplomacy?
For all that, I actually like some things about the episode -- Yuta herself has a certain tragedy to her, even if she's horribly underdeveloped. That ultimately she can't set aside her vengeance makes sense, especially when considering that she is the last of a massacred, genocided clan; it is not easy to put that aside and the episode represents a real truth that way. (It's funny to compare the hardline stance Yuta takes with the way Picard can talk Martouk and the various Gatherers out of positions they've held for centuries in a couple of minutes.) Brull is entertaining if ultimately pointless. Still, this is a bad show and near the bottom of season three. 1.5 stars.
Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 2:19am (UTC -5)
Sat, Jan 25, 2014, 9:15pm (UTC -5)
Honestly, one of the worst S3 eps (but not the worst).
Wed, Apr 15, 2015, 9:01am (UTC -5)
Mon, Apr 20, 2015, 5:07am (UTC -5)
Thu, May 28, 2015, 11:55pm (UTC -5)
Having gone back and re-watched it again now, I have to say that I can understand why the re-runs would often skip this one. "The Vengeance Factor" is DULL, DULL, DULL! Jammer absolutely nails it with - "There are too many characters and not enough investment in any of them. There is no clear line of drama, making it very difficult to become involved in the story."
First we have a story about an attack on a Federation outpost. We almost immediately then shift into a story about reintegration of cultural malcontents (a reintegration that Picard seems to force on them in many ways - that leaves a bad taste in my mouth) (also, the way the Enterprise crew and the Acamarians show open contempt for Gatherer society and cultural norms doesn't really speak well for integration, does it?). That then gets diverted into a romance plot for Riker. After that we're jack-knifed into plodding negotiation scenes that go nowhere. Finally the episode decides to actually have its title have a semblance of relevance and focus on Yuta's blood feud. Good lord, the only episode thus far that comes close to this level of warp-speed plot shifting was "Up the Long Ladder." Thankfully "The Vengeance Factor" isn't that bad. Still, couldn't they have just picked a plot and developed it instead of giving us all these half-hearted ones?
There is also the fact that I just don't care about the Acamarians and the Gatherers and that only increases the dullness. If this episode dealt with an established alien species (Andorians or Tellerites come to my mind) it would have been much more interesting. As it is, we've never seen these people before and we'll never see them again, so what's the point?
4/10
Thu, Sep 3, 2015, 1:49pm (UTC -5)
Riker cracks on to Yuta instantly, and in front of the Sovereign too, but the relationship has to move fast because it's the only bit of the episode that really has a pay off - as he guns her down at the end.
So this has a couple of nice moments but overall - 1.5 stars.
Sat, Sep 19, 2015, 8:56pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Oct 11, 2015, 12:13am (UTC -5)
Sun, Feb 28, 2016, 5:07pm (UTC -5)
Mon, May 30, 2016, 11:59am (UTC -5)
Mon, May 30, 2016, 9:30pm (UTC -5)
"When the away team's on the planet and Riker calls out for them to vaporise the noranium, he, Geordi and Data shoot the noranium but Worf clearly fires up at the Pirates. Classic Worf."
Worf was providing suppressing fire. Riker, Geordi, and Data needed to stand to make their shot at the noranium. If Worf wasn't firing at the Gatherers, the three would've been easy targets.
Also, this one's alright with me. We actually see Riker make some smart command decisions in spite of his libido and it basically saves the mission. 2.5 stars.
Mon, May 30, 2016, 9:52pm (UTC -5)
Again, Riker had a *chance* to take on a Kirk role in this episode and he passed on it so he could do his job.
Sun, Jul 10, 2016, 8:26am (UTC -5)
Although of course it's never spelled out, I just assumed that what ever the procedure that was done to Yuta gave her a flat affect as a side effect. I agree that Yuta didn't need to be killed. Also, since Crusher mentioned that there were so many ways to distribute the nano-virus (or whatever it's called) Yuta could have just coughed on him and killed him, although that's hardly melodramatic enough for this stinker of an episode. One star (two stars if it had been a season two ep because Dr. Pulaski would have somewhat elevated the material).
Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 7:09pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Nov 29, 2016, 9:45pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Feb 9, 2017, 4:51pm (UTC -5)
I always end up rewatching episodes, like this one. Another thing struck me. What, exactly, do these people offer? If a bunch of savage outcasts wanted to come back to your world after you'd made it nice and homely, you'd only allow it if you needed something. Some sort of mutual benefit. There doesn't appear to be one here. Basically Picard is asking one side to make all the concessions for absolutely nothing! In fact, worse than nothing - because it will cost money and probably lives to get these rockers back integrated.
Fri, May 19, 2017, 9:59am (UTC -5)
On the 'why the hell did Riker have to kill Yuta' thing, I noticed a couple of episodes later the order is given to set phasers to 'maximum stun', and the LEDs lit up exactly the same way. So unless Riker switched from 'stun' to 'kill' with a separate switch, and there are various degrees of 'kill' as well, the phaser was really on maximum stun, and I guess Yuta just vaporized due to a misunderstanding.
This is as good a time as any to have this out (and I can't imagine it hasn't been done elsewhere on this site): I've long had a problem with this simplistic stun/kill option on phasers (well, ok, they apparently have degrees of 'stun' (and possibly degrees of 'kill'?)), but you rarely hear anyone ordered to differentiate between settings other than stun vs kill. How many individuals with epilepsy, pacemakers, cardiac problems of any sort, or any number of unpredictable medical conditions have been 'stunned' with no effect other than being rendered briefly unconscious (which in itself ought to have more serious and unpredictable effects than it apparently does)? Someone can probably explain to me exactly what sort of energy these things deploy, but at 'stun' they seem to basically be Tasers on steroids (Phaser/Taser - surely a coincidence).
Fri, May 19, 2017, 12:12pm (UTC -5)
Fri, May 19, 2017, 1:35pm (UTC -5)
Oh - I had forgotten that! Thanks for the reminder. According to Memory Alpha, Starfleet type-II phasors have 16 settings, so "stun" is likely a verbal approximation for a specific range of lower settings. Here's Memory Alpha's rundown of specific phasor strengths, as mentioned in various episodes:
"Level one: lowest setting, Light Stun, capable of stunning most base humanoids for approximately five minutes. According to Starfleet regulations all phasers must be stored at this setting. Possesses enough force to break large urns. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual; TNG: "Aquiel"; TAS: "The Lorelei Signal")
Level seven: Capable of vaporizing noranium carbide alloy. (TNG: "The Vengeance Factor")
Level ten: Kill setting, capable of killing a biological organism. (TNG: "Aquiel")
Level sixteen: Capable of vaporizing rock to widen an opening in a lava tube partially blocked by rubble, or blowing large holes in walls. (TNG: "Chain of Command, Part I", "Frame of Mind")"
Based on this it would appear that 'heavy stun' would probably be in the 3-7 or 3-8 range, if level 7 can already vaporize certain materials, and depending on how durable the hide/exoskeleton of a given life form is. Level 7-8 might kill a more fragile entity, while 10 probably means it will kill the majority of life forms.
Wed, Aug 9, 2017, 8:27pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Aug 23, 2017, 3:31pm (UTC -5)
The final scenes are great.
As to the idea that Riker could have rendered Yuta unconscious -well I thought that it was made clear that she has been transformed on a cellular level to complete her task ( incidentally a very similar idea crops up in an episode of UFO from 1970) so disintegration was the only way to stop her.
4 stars from me.
Sat, Sep 9, 2017, 3:33pm (UTC -5)
Yuta's story was so tragic--feeling trapped by a misplaced allegiance to her clan that denied her a chance at her own happiness and path I enjoyed her and the Sovereign--ooh tough old broad she was.
Sun, Sep 24, 2017, 12:20pm (UTC -5)
Seriously, was this kind of sexist behaviour acceptable back in the 80s?
Mon, Oct 2, 2017, 11:22pm (UTC -5)
@digitaurus
I believe she Did want to sleep with him: *don't you want me to give you pleasure?*, or something along those lines. When he replied yes, but he wanted to give her pleasure in return, as equals, she said she could never feel pleasure again. They talk a bit more and then the ship is under attack and it is left at that.
She didn't refuse, quite the opposite.
Regards... RT
Thu, Nov 9, 2017, 5:22pm (UTC -5)
"Yuta, you're an excellent chef, but you speak in riddles." Who wrote that line? It's such a non sequitur. Is there some weird intergalactic law that chefs are forbidden to speak in riddles? If so, they'd better repeal it immediately. Yuta can't afford to lose her mystique. With this script, her character doesn't have much else going for it. xD
"Was I that obvious?"
"Yes."
Let me put it this way, Riker. If there were an Obvious Meter, you would be only a few notches below "huh-huhuhuhuh...hey, baby...huh-huhuhuhuh...wanna...do it?"
"Chorgan? This is Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterpri--"
*PEW PEW*
"Hahahahaha! FAAAA-aaaaarrrrm??"
On a more serious note: the entire final scene is wrongheaded. As soon as his friend got stunned by Riker's phaser, Chorgan would have IMMEDIATELY jumped to his feet and stepped back from the table, attempting to intervene. He would not just stay in his chair. But the scene requires him to so he can be a sitting duck for Yuta. Not even Picard gets up; he simply stares into space, perhaps daydreaming of France, as a woman is vaporized right in front of him. Didn't anyone involved in filming this scene realize how contrived it was? All Riker and the others had to do was physically get between Yuta and Chorgan and then restrain her. If that's not possible because of her genetically engineered abilities, show us. Have her throw aside everyone who gets in her way and corner Chorgan. Except even that wouldn't fly - because as William B mentioned, why use force at all when you can just beam her aboard the Enterprise far away from her target and subdue her there?
Now that I think about it, Yuta serving the Sovereign makes little sense. If your goal is to eliminate all remaining members of the Lornak clan, and all the Lornak are apparently Gatherers, why would you tie yourself to someone who resents the Gatherers and therefore is unlikely to come in contact with them? How long had she been a servant, anyway?
Poorly thought out as it is, Yuta's death does leave a powerful impression on me - something the episode had been lacking up to that point.
Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 5:07pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Mar 27, 2018, 4:21pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Apr 25, 2018, 4:42pm (UTC -5)
So-so for Season 3. This actually would have been a great second show after "Farpoint" on Season 1.
Tue, May 1, 2018, 6:22pm (UTC -5)
Riker's romance with Yuta was all kind of awkward, boring, and forced. It all served to set up the only half-decent scene in the entire episode when Riker kills her to prevent her from killing one of the main gatherers. But this scene could have been much more poignant if the actress playing Yuta was more emotive and we felt that the romance actually had substance.
The whole thing with the Acamarians and their Gatherer outlaws -- it was just presented in a way that made it hard to care about them. Contrast this with say "The High Ground" where we actually understand the terrorists and the policemen's viewpoint. Those felt like genuine people. In this episode, both parties are full of razor thin characters. The first thing I wondered when I saw Marouk, the sovereign, is if Louise Fletcher (Kai Winn) was playing her.
It would seem some of these clans are pretty advanced but they still can't get over this stupid vengeance idea. Yuta has this perfect virus designed to instantly kill a specific clan and she's been transformed into some kind of being that doesn't age. She says she hasn't been able to feel pleasure of passion (convenient since she doesn't know how to act it either). Found her whole deal farfetched. But Riker seemed disturbed at killing her as the episode ended.
Barely 2 stars for "The Vengeance Factor" -- forgettable episode although I did like seeing Picard taking charge as negotiator. He seemed to know the right things to say at the right time, as usual. Really felt like the immature TNG at work here.
Wed, Jun 6, 2018, 10:53am (UTC -5)
Thu, Jun 14, 2018, 8:49am (UTC -5)
Sun, Jun 17, 2018, 5:20pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Jun 19, 2018, 4:49am (UTC -5)
I probably liked this one more than I should have. When I saw it originally, I'm fairly certain I was just starting to really like TNG again. I'd stopped watching it for a bit after season one (heresy I know), but had seen an earlier season three episode that brought me back. Perhaps this one touched me because of the Guest Star Joey Aresco, who played "Hutch" on "Baa Baa Black Sheep", the somewhat real/fictional depiction of the United States Marine 214th squadron during World War II (the show later renamed Black Sheep Squadron, because it sounded like a kids show... go figure the parents couldn't figure it out after the dogfights...).
But I digress.
It really sounded like something weird and boring Starfleet would actually do. We'd heard many times about one Starship or another heading out to do some diplomatic work, and usually only in the Captain's logs... (while heading to a conference about the problems on Melba 2, and if they should be called "Toast", we encountered an Anomaly...).
Here is an actual weird, boring problem the crew has to solve or make better. Yes, it was started with something being stolen, but in the entirety of the known Galaxy... it's actually somewhat mundane. It is something they do all the time, and it just got a little hotter than they were used to. A few baddies stealing something? Really? Mundane...
For years when watching TOS, I'd yearned to see some "normal" stories. Something on K-7, or something that was just on their normal patrol and involved the "regular", day to day operations. Everything always seemed to be ship or Galaxy shattering... if they didn't get it just right, all was lost. In my re-birth of watching TNG, this was mundane, and perfect. Perhaps that is why I liked it so much. If they didn't get the result they wanted, no-one would care! The folks can duke it out until their sun goes nova! And we'll say we tried and then head out to taste some new variations on toast...
As always, your mileage may vary... but Two Thumbs up for Me...
RT
Thu, Jul 12, 2018, 1:56am (UTC -5)
Nicely stated, I really hadn’t thought of it that way.
Moving on, however... I just adore digitaurus up there with the fake outrage and not-so-subtle innuendo at how much more ‘enlightened’ they are. haha
Oh, InterwebZ... you never cease to amuse. ;-)
Wed, Oct 10, 2018, 3:27am (UTC -5)
@Prince of Space
Thank you for the nice comment, it was much appreciated. :)
Regards... RT
Sat, Dec 29, 2018, 10:21pm (UTC -5)
"Swimming is too much like bathing." [he says with a derisive sneer, about visiting Pacifica]
Worf in "The Vengeance Factor"
"Your ambushes would be more successful if you bathed more often!"
Wat?
Actually I guess this could be explained away neatly if one assumed that, while Klingons do not like immersing themselves in water, Worf is a proponent of the sonic shower, and he was using the term "bathe" in the generic sense of "cleanse" in the second quote. Maybe it's even Starfleet regulations that you have to use the sonic shower, who knows. It is amusing to think that Worf smelled the Gatherers coming though.
This episode was suitably creepy and maybe even a bit chilling when I was a kid (Riker: 53 years and she hasn't aged a day). I actually didn't find it as boring as others, because of the settings and costumes, and the concept of the genetic modification used to execute the vengeance. It seems implausible now, yes. But this episode had something to it, in terms of mood, that worked for me.
I especially like Volnath's costume. It was cool looking, but in a very 80s way, like something out of Masters of the Universe. Or maybe like one of the bad guys from Farscape (who I only know vaguely because I haven't seen much of that show). Then again, it kind of looked like Volnath was doing Borg cosplay using parts he found around the encampment.
Brull was very 80s too, because of the damn mullet. His characterization was not very subtle. I found it annoying and unrealistic that he stole a guy's drink right out of his hand, in Ten-forward. Just to drive home to the audience that he's a dick? But a dick for no reason, because he was in a place where he could have ordered one himself for free.
Based on the dialogue, Wes' homework was something involving curved space-time as described by General Relativity, but Wheaton pronounced "Riemannian" (as in Riemannian Geometry) incorrectly.
Braka
Fri, May 19, 2017, 9:59am (UTC -6)
"This is as good a time as any to have this out (and I can't imagine it hasn't been done elsewhere on this site): I've long had a problem with this simplistic stun/kill option on phasers (well, ok, they apparently have degrees of 'stun' (and possibly degrees of 'kill'?)), but you rarely hear anyone ordered to differentiate between settings other than stun vs kill."
Braka, this is a strange complaint to have about the episode that explicitly mentions the existence of "setting 7" *in the dialogue* (when they vapourize the noranium alloy to create a smoke screen during the firefight with the Gatherers)
I know that not everyone was enough of a nerd to read the TNG Technical Manual the way I did growing up, but nonethless, it's *known* (established on screen) that phaser Type I has 8 settings, and that phaser Type II supplements this with 8 more settings, up to setting 16. It's also known that settings 1-3 are the stun settings (light, medium, and heavy) And they're consistent about this, see DS9 Homefront/Paradise Lost on finding the right stun setting to reveal a Changeling. Anything above setting 4 kills. I suspect anything above setting 6 or so starts to vapourize (but it's been a long time since I read the Technical Manual :p)
Braka, if you saw Riker charge up to the same set of LEDs in a later episode and call it "heavy stun", then the show's producers fucked up. Actually they fucked up here too, because he clearly charges the phaser up *all the way*: both rows of 8 LEDs are illuminated, meaning he was using setting 16, the highest setting. This, of course, is ludicrous, because if he had missed, or taken his thumb off the firing button a fraction of a second too late, he would have vapourized the entire table, and Picard, and Marouk, and Chorgan, and probably blown a hole through the deckplate of the ship. I have a whole rant on this in the thread for DS9 The Siege of AR-558, but it suffices to say that anything much above setting 6 is probably far too powerful to be practical for a sidearm.
The Vengeance Factor: let's say 5/10
Tue, Jan 22, 2019, 1:37pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Feb 13, 2019, 6:50pm (UTC -5)
It can work in fantasy because magic is generally supposed to act in a purposeful way, so immortality being an integral part of some otherwise horrible package deal makes sense--trying to devise some way to get the immortality on its own while weaseling out on the rest is liable to be a dangerous and foolhardy exercise.
In sci-fi OTOH nature is generally depicted as blind to purpose or intent, so it's never going to be plausible unless you can come up with a REALLY good reason why something like that doesn't immediately get seized on and exploited out the wazoo by everybody.
"But it makes you feel numb inside" just doesn't cut it, heck for Vulcans it would actually be a selling point.
Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 8:15pm (UTC -5)
A filler episode with a ridonkulous wild west ending. I did like Riker looking serious but not pompous.
I dunno 4/10?
Wed, Apr 3, 2019, 9:57am (UTC -5)
Totally ridiculous ending. As others pointed out, there were numerous methods to either restrain her, or get her target out of the way.
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