The Sheliak are a species of advanced murdering lawyers. They want to commit genocide, they really do, but they can certainly be talked out of it on a technicality. And that's our show, folks. Thanks for joining me here, and have a great night. Make sure you tune in next, blah blah blah.
Perhaps I left out some stuff. The Sheliak are not humanoid, and we are not able to understand their language, though they can understand ours. Troi explains this by holding up Picard's earl grey and pointing to it while saying a foreign word. He guessed that she said "cup." But she points out that she could have meant "glass" or "clear" or "dark" or "tea" or "hot" or "Dexys Midnight Runners." I'm not sure if she meant for this example to point out how complicated language can be, or how idiotic our own language is. Either way I think it's a bad example, because all of those alternative words could also be deciphered by a bit of pantomiming or adding context.
Oh there's also the part where Data is tasked with talking 50,000 people into giving up the planet they've called home for generations, and is given about 15 minutes to do it. Riker is a complete dick to Data, bossing him around and mocking his struggles at pulling off what is a very difficult task. Riker tells Data that he can't help him, but I fail to see why not. "Use that fancy positronic brain of yours, and carry out your mission!" he scolds. Oof, that wasn't necessary. Maybe offer a suggestion, Will? Or set up a teleconference or something? Both Riker and Picard are also dicks to LaForge and O'Brien, instructing them to get the transporters working through the planet's radiation, even though they know it's impossible. When they are finally relieved of this insane task, they aren't even given an explanation or thanked for their efforts. By the way, did you know that O'Brien is a concert-level cello player? Or perhaps it's an upright bass, I'm not sure.Picard, ever the experienced diplomat, is able to stall the Sheliak from killing the people with a series of well-quoted obscure lines in an insanely long treaty. He savors every moment, even ignoring a hail while gently strolling over to the ship's name plate and stroking its edge, inspecting for dust. It's fun to watch play out, but let's face it, the Sheliak were never going to harm the Enterprise or the people on the planet, so the tension is not really felt by the viewer anyway.
The real story that we can focus on here is Data's ability to improvise and use his imagination to do things that he wasn't necessarily programmed for. He tells Riker that his training is in Star Fleet command, not diplomacy. You know, telling people to run diagnostics, not convincing them to leave their homes. It's sort of the same as in the beginning when he tells the captain that he should attend the later concert, because he knows that he is not as proficient a player as the next act. Because Data is so in tune with his inadequacies, he lacks confidence. Yet, after several stalled attempts, he is in fact able to find a way to convince the people. In the same manner, he also nails the concert piece, bringing true feeling to the performance, while at the same time denying that this is possible. Picard points out that even if Data were technically just repeating the performances of a known players, he still brought his own flavor to it when he combined the two different artists performances into one. The result to the listener is a unique performance altogether (yet no mention of choosing the transporter chief to accompany him, which is obviously the truly bold choice here).
He also kisses a girl. Not because he cares for her, but because he could tell that that she was hurting and he knew the gesture would make her feel better. Once again, the difference is so subtle that it seems irrelevant to everyone but Data. He has grown so much, yet is unable to gauge his own progress. I wish this were a better episode, because exploring Data is always a good time. But while I've spent much time here expounding on Data's journey through sentience, unfortunately the episode does not. So much time is devoted to learning about the characters on the planet, and the truth is all of that time is wasted as they are irrelevant and gone after this episode. The Sheliak are sort of cartoonish in their depiction here. For what is supposed to be an advanced species, they come off as extremely one-dimensional. All of this makes for a rather Meh episode.Published February 2, 2020
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