TNG Episode Spoiler: Star Trek: The Next Cliche: "Legacy"
Phil Kernick
Episode: Legacy (44215.2)
Review by Phil Kernick <ph...@ringo.ssn.flinders.edu.au>
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The Enterpreise has a new shiney yellow badge on the side that says
"Federation Automobile Club" - well if it doesn't, it should have. We find
ourselves hurtling through space to help a disabled frieghter.
Unfortunately our mechanics weren't quite quick enough as it explodes just
as they get there. Luckily an escape pod was dropped in time, so there will
need to be an away team...
Actually the escape pod may not have been as lucky as they first thought,
because the planet they dropped onto was Turkana Four, Tashy Yar's
birthplace. Tasha used to tell stories of the rape-gangs and really bad
fashion sense of the locals, so Riker orders all phasors set on maximum
stun.
The city... wait a minute, singular? There is one major city and that is
it? They gave up the federation 15 years ago and can't manage as much as an
extra building on the surface. Oh well. The city has been destroyed above
ground and the inhabitants live in structures going 3km down. The people
are divided into two warring factions, the Alliance who are holding the
ship-wrecked crew hostage, and the Coalition who are the ones the away team
find. How convenient. The citizens are all implanted with proximity
detectors, so no major raids into each others territory are possible.
The team return to the Enterprise to discuss the situation with Picard, and
during their deliberations a message arrives from the planet. It is Hayne,
the leader of the Coalition, and he has a young woman with him. She claims
to be Ishara Yar, Tasha's sister. Hayne wheels out the old line that "the
enemy of my enemy is my friend", and that it is in his best interest to help
them get the captured crew members back. What a complete crock. Still, the
Feredation guys think it is a good idea and they beam Ishara on board.
She is clearly quite taken with Data, much as her sister was, and asks if he
was built for fighting. He comes to the support of the Enterprise-isn't-a-
battle-wagon team saying: "The Enterprise is not a ship of war, it is a ship
of discovery". The crew are still not convinced that she is who she claims,
and Dr Bev takes a DNA sample for comparison. As they discuss possible
resuce plans, a message from the planet is sent up. It is from the hostages
and they say that if their captors demands are not met in 20 hours, they
will be killed. Fine, we only have 35 minutes left so that should be plenty
of time.
The great plan they come up with is to use Ishara as a diversion as her
implant will set of all of the detectors. While the Alliance are busy
chasing her, Geordi will patch a booster into a scanner on the pod, allowing
the crew to be located. It works well until Ishara gets hit, and then Riker
comes to her rescue, phasors blasting. I think he should have been wearing
a large stetson and riding a horse. They never really stood a chance though
as they had green phasors which are clearly no match for the Federations
orange ones.
Picard calls Riker into see him: "You took some unnecessary personal
risks... well cone". I wonder if they are really as chummy as we are lead
to believe. We can't dwell on this for too long as Ishara is back in new
clothes - or should I say, hint-of-clothes. She is wearing a skin tight
blue jump suit that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination. I think
this is supposed to distract the viewers form the amazing plot holes.
They manage to locate the crew, but they are held 2km underground and the
transporters can't go though that much granite. Geordi says that if they
phasor a tunnel down 1.6km them they can safely transport in. Doesn't he
think that this might be a complete dead giveaway that something was about
to happen? Probably not.
Ishara is to lead the team, but to do so she must have her implant removed.
The problem is that if she does so she is going to suffer a radical
mastectomy due to the explosives in it. She tells Data that she wants to
join StarFleet and that she wants to be his friend. To prove she really is
Tasha's sister she gives him a big kiss. I bet Riker is jealous. She asks
Data if she can tell Hayne of her plans, and he says to use the observation
lounge. "It's working" she reports. What a complete surprise.
The impant is successfully removed and a looks like a small yellow throat
lozenge. As they are ready for the attempt, the phasors are fired and the
rock just diappears. It doesn't explode out the hole as superheated gas or
anything, it just subsides like it was a sand hill. Clever stuff. They
beam down and locate the hostages.
As they are about to leave Ishara runs away. Deceit! She manages to find
the Alliance fusion generator and sets it to explode so that her troops can
crush the them once and for all. She tells Data that she never cared about
the crew and that she will kill him if she has to. Interesting
metaphysically - is Data alive anyway? Data shoots her and Riker curses
because he was just too late to do it himself. Her phasor was set to kill.
Data restores the generator and they all beam back.
Hayne demands the return of Ishara, and Picard complies, much to the
disapproval of Laughing Boy. As she is about to beam back, Ishara tells
Data that she wasn't always lying to him, and that she really did want to be
his friend. How touching. Data ends the episode staring at the lozenge and
once again looking whistful.
Roll credits...
Lets play spot the really major plot flaw. If Ishara no longer has a
detector then she can still infiltrate the Alliance and do the same thing.
Far more importantly, we can assume that people are not born with the
things, and so in the last 15 years there will now be teenagers who can
manage the same thing. Despite this, it wasn't too bad.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993, Phil Kernick.
Permission is granted for anyone to do anything with it except
claim it as their own or make any money from it.
--
_-_|\ Phil Kernick "The Teutonic reputation for
/ \ Flinders University brutality is well founded...
\_.-*_/ E-Mail: ph...@ringo.ssn.flinders.edu.au they have no word for fluffy."
v Phone: +61 8 201 3037 -- Black Adder goes Forth