Star Trek: The Next Generation/Recap/S5/E06 The Game

Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode: Season 5, Episode 6 Title: The Game Previous: Disaster Next: Unification, Part 1

This episode begins with Riker on vacation, enjoying some time with a Rubber-Forehead Space Babe. During the course of their frollicking, she introduces him to a small headset device: a holographic video game, and an incredibly simple one at that -- just put the frisbee(s) into the tornado(s) to win. Riker notes the little jolt of pleasure the device gives him, his reward for winning. And as all good Trekkies know, devices which send pleasure signals directly to the brain are never a good thing, and the music takes an appropriately dark turn.

But not as dark as the turn we're about to take: It's the return of... Wesley Crusher! Wes is also on holiday from Starfleet Academy and has come to wreak havok -- er, visit all his friends on the Enterprise. At Picard's request, Wes makes it a working holiday and pitches in to help Enterprise complete a hurried exploration quest. And so down to Engineering Wes goes, where he's having trouble with the ship's sensors (this is the same kid who reprogrammed the tractor beam while drunk?) and is assisted by one Ensign Robin Lefler. To his credit, he doesn't throw it in her face that he used to fly this ship, and a friendship is seeded.

In the meantime, Riker is running around the ship and, in between dealing with the be-hastened mission, is trying to show The Game to everyone within earshot. Then, in turn, each person who receives The Game tries to shill it to everyone else as well. This cannot be good...

Indeed, at one point Dr. Crusher calls Data down to sickbay to assist her with a Techno Babble experiment, but while his back is turned she hits his hidden off-switch. Riker and Troi lock the sick bay doors... Later, she tells Picard that Data simply collapsed after a servo malfunction; but LaForge determines that Data's brain is still fully functional, but somehow unable to send control signals to his body. And then Riker gives him The Game...

Later on, Wesley is still having troubles getting the ship's Applied Phlebotinum to work right, prompting Ensign Lefler to give him some simple but obvious advice: "You gotta go with what works." This turns out to be Lefler's Verbal Tic for the episode: she has created a Long List of obviousisms called "Lefler's Laws" covering very nearly every conceivable situation. She then reveals that she knows more about him than he might think, and they make a date. And a romance is seeded.

On his way to said date, Wes barely scrapes past being "introduced" to The Game by his mother (who also prevents him from helping out with the disabled Data); he later discusses with Lefler how everyone is playing it and he wants to know what it's all about. Studying it, they find that it not only sends pleasure signals into the brain, not only that it's addictive, but that it also affects a person's ability to reason, making them 'open to suggestion'. Wes dutifully reports this to Picard; but, unbeknownst to him, the Captain is already under The Game's thrall.

Wes and Lefler also examine Data and find that someone has severed the connection between his brain and his body, rendering him inert (as LaForge had earlier reported). No one except Dr. Crusher and LaForge have the skill to do this, and the pair conclude that The Game is somehow behind all this, since Data would be the only crewmember who is not susceptible to its brainwashing effects. Sure enough, Worf and Crusher arrive with a pair of Game devices to force on Wes and Lefler, only to find them already playing. Fake out! Those were phony devices! And so the duo are free to continue their investigation cum resistance.

Meanwhile, a ship approaches and contacts Enterprise; it is Riker's Rubber-Forehead girlfriend who gave him The Game. This device is, in fact, her tool for gaining control of the Enterprise and its crew. But not just Enterprise; she gives orders that The Game be spread to various Starfleet/Federation installations as part of her "expansion" project. But first they'll have to deal with Wesley and Lefler, who they now realize are not really playing The Game.

Lefler is captured first (offscreen), and Wes discovers this when he meets with her and she tries to foist The Game upon him. And so, once again, it's up to Wesley Crusher to single-handedly save the Enterprise from the latest threat. He initiates a lengthy game of cat-and-mouse with the crew, but is eventually caught, brought to the bridge, and forced to play The Game. And that's it; he's captured. Wesley Crusher doesn't save the day after all.

Or Is It?

At that moment Data steps onto the bridge, lowers the lights and flashes a strobe light into everyone's eyes, bringing them back to normal (said strobe light gets flashed all over the ship, bringing everyone back to normal). Wesley reveals that sometime in the interim, he had repaired Data and played the cat-and-mouse to give Data time to circumvent the brainwashing. Enterprise captures the Space Babe's ship, and everything is back to kosher.