The Naked Now
Next Generation Episode #3
Teleplay by J. Michael Bingham. Story by John D. F. Black and J. Michael Bingham. Directed by Paul Lynch.
Stardate: 41209.2 First aired: 5 October 1987
The Enterprise is scheduled to rendezvous with the science vessel USS Tsiolkovsky which has been investigating the collapse of a star. As they approach, they detect a hatch being blown, killing the entire crew. The Away Team that is sent over discovers a ship-side party had been taking place. When they return, Geordi falls ill, and infects Tasha and Wesley. Riker and Data discover that Kirk's Enterprise encountered a similar situation, as the crew succumbed to the Psi 2000 virus, and gave into their passions. Wesley takes control of the ship and Tasha seduced Data. Discipline on the ship begins to collapse - and so does the star the Tsiolkovsky was investigating. One of the engineering crew has dismantled the computer - and Data uses his abilities to fix it, while Wesley buys some time by pushing the Enterprise away from the star with a repulsor beam. The Enterprise moves out of danger, and Beverly begins to administer the cure to the crew. This episode was the first Next Generation segment made after the two-hour series opener, "Encounter at Farpoint" (TNG). The basic story was written by John D. F. Black in May 1967 during the original Star Trek series, as a possible sequel to "The Naked Time" (TOS).
Guest Cast
Brook Bundy as "Sarah MacDougal". Benjamin W. S. Lum as "Jim Shimoda". Michael Rider as "Transporter Chief". David Renan as "Conn". Skip Stellrecht as "Engineering Crewman". Kenny Koch as "Kissing Crewman".
Quotes
"Fully functional" - Data can deal with Tasha's attentions
Trivia
A story that's a sequel to the original series' The Naked Time.
While Encounter at Farpoint wasn't a true 'pilot' (the series had already been commissioned), and this episode started filming only ten days after the first, a few changes were made - mostly to Troi, who was given a unique outfit and a more severe hairstyle, as well as having her 'telepathic' abilities downgraded to 'empathic' ones. The Riker-Troi romantic subplot was also downplayed. Troi was clearly a problem character for the writers early on: she didn't appear in four episodes (Hide and Q, Datalore, 11001001 and Heart of Glory). Marina Sirtis has since claimed that there was talk of writing her out.
The ship's Chief Engineer here is Sarah McDougal. The first season would see a number of different engineers; the second season would see Geordi promoted to the role.
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