TNG: Gambit

[bronnt]

http://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/t256.php

It's good to avoid tapping the "space pirate" well too often, but Gene's idea that there were absolutely zero space pirates doesn't work with the idea that the ship is working on the frontier. By its nature, the frontier is going to be underdeveloped, so it makes sense that there are lawless actors out there. Piracy itself is about as old as seafaring civilization. Piracy is still a plague on many parts of the world despite the massive capabilities of modern navies. Space pirates should, by all rights, be more common than the god-like entities the Enterprise keeps running into.

The one thing that bugs me with this story is that Galen isn't really that interesting as a villain. When they made this a two-parter, they had some time to write a villain would be clever and charismatic. Instead he's boring and fairly stupidly, being manipulated at every turn. Maybe they wanted to avoid making him too sympathetic, since a cool space pirate might end up overshadowing everyone else. I still think it would have been worth it see Picard trying to match wits with someone more formidable.

For example, Galen could have had the idea of damaging the life support on the Federation science station instead of destroying it, by reasoning that Starfleet would prioritize repairing the station over hunting the attackers. Instead of torturing the crew into obedience, he could be more of an inspiring leader. Picard would have to work to sow dissent amid a crew that does feel some loyalty to their captain. It would have helped prop up the really lame ending.

[Megabeatman]

Galen is actually Picard’s alias on the pirate ship. It’s a nice nod to his archeology professor from “The Chase.” The pirate leader’s name is Baran.

[FaxModem1]

Garan's whole deal is that he doesn't need to be charismatic, as he forces everyone to do his bidding by his little torture technology. It's kind of vital to the episode that the entire crew doesn't mind Baran dying because of how much of a terrible leader he is.

[RobbyB1982]

Galen, Baran, Garan....

I like that he's so forgettable that we're not even getting his name right.

[Madner Kami]

Galen, Baran, Garan....

I like that he's so forgettable that we're not even getting his name right.

lol

[FaxModem1]

Galen, Baran, Garan....

I like that he's so forgettable that we're not even getting his name right.

His ship is cool, and that he's a pirate is cool. Other than that, he's pretty much a villain of the week (and not the main villain of the story anyway).

Sidenote: someone working for Star Trek Online must have really liked this episode, as they modeled a unique ship, costumes, and buffs that come from this episode into it's own special lockbox, the Privateer lockbox. Which is rather fun if you want to role-play as a space pirate.

[TheNewTeddy]

I could tell by the way the vid started I was going to disagree, but, actually, as it went on, it turns out I agree with chuck.

Seeing Data in command was very interesting, and, I hope there is a lot about it spoken of in part 2. Chuck does clearly say that once things get going, the episode is good, but that getting to that point isn't the best.

I consider this one of my fav episodes, but in my mind/memory, data ends up in the captains chair far far earlier than he actually does.

I have my fingers crossed that part 2 of the review will be "data as captain was awesome, but they didn't take it far enough, and the rest sucked" as that's something I can agree with 100%

[bronnt]

Galen is actually Picard’s alias on the pirate ship. It’s a nice nod to his archeology professor from “The Chase.” The pirate leader’s name is Baran.

That's right. He's so forgettable that I can't even get his name right, yeah.

But honestly, making him memorable as a villain would have been a positive for this episode, I think. Richard Lynch is not a bad actor, so he could pull off something that had a bit more substance.

[rickgriffin]

I remembered during my TNG watchthrough I got to Gambit and I thought "Huh, I don't a whole two-part episode about space pirates!" then finally got to the end and was like "Oh, THAT one"

Given that most of my TNG experience prior to that was watching reruns on TV during a regular timeslot in college, ended up watching about 80% of the series that way, so I only remembered this episode from the ending bit, like the twist was the most memorable part of the episode and even then it's not THAT clever or thematic with the rest of the episode. On top of that, yeah, Data needed to be captain far more often than he got to be.

[SFDebris]

Galen is actually Picard’s alias on the pirate ship. It’s a nice nod to his archeology professor from “The Chase.” The pirate leader’s name is Baran.

That's right. He's so forgettable that I can't even get his name right, yeah.

But honestly, making him memorable as a villain would have been a positive for this episode, I think. Richard Lynch is not a bad actor, so he could pull off something that had a bit more substance.

I left this off for an upcoming TOS episode, but this criticism extends to all the raiders. The most personality among criminals this episode is the scum informant, and even that is still not engaging, he's just more than a mouthpiece for lines that advance the plot. If even the boss of the raiders is forgettable, how much more his underlings?

Though I suppose we should be grateful that they didn't give us Okana; a plain white cracker is still better than Okana any day.