This Week In Star Trek: TNG -- The Most Toys

 

We're back talking about Star Trek! Despite the title, this likely won't be a weekly feature, more of an occasional and random look into certain episodes that interest me upon rewatching them (or in particular cases of the original series or Deep Space Nine... seeing them for the first time). 

There will be spoilers of course. 

For this debut, we're looking at The Most Toys, a late season 3 episode of Next Generation and really a point in time where that show really found itself (to which this episode is no exception).  

It begins with our lovable android, Data, seemingly dying in a shuttlecraft explosion. Now that's a teaser! Of course it happens to be a sinister plot, with Fajo (trading goods to the Enterprise to help with a biological disaster) faking Data's death so that he can add him to his collection of rare unique items. 

This episode works so effectively within its two plots: the Enterprise crew coping with the loss of Data (and La Forge's insistent disbelief that such an accident could happen). There's a great scene with Geordi and Wesley Crusher (yeah I know!) where they're in Data's quarters looking over his belongings and reminiscing about their fallen android friend's human-like pursuits. It's played with a sad subtlety that really captures the tragedy these characters feel. Likewise there's another scene with Troi and Worf in a turbolift where she points out how this is the second time Worf has replaced a fallen comrade at their position, to which he says "the best way to honour them is to perform their duties as well as they did". Even the normally unemotional Picard has a short moment quoting a bit from Hamlet. It's just stellar, stellar character stuff.

What really makes this episode hum along though is the Data-Fajo plot. Saul Rubinek has a long list of credits as a versatile character actor, and he gives Fajo this compelling mix of wide-eyed childlike energy with cold deceptive cruelty. Although he gradually understands Data is a more complex being than he initially thought (talking to him in their first scene together as a pet owner would) never once does he consider him anything more than a plaything, a possession meant only to entertain himself and impress others. Rubinek's excellent performance, across from the always reliable Brent Spiner, truly elevates this story to incredible heights.

As for Data, this is in many ways a spiritual sequel to The Measure of A Man for him. Where in that episode he was fighting for the right to be considered an individual and not property, here he is fighting for his own right for self-determination. Fajo tells him he can have "anything he wishes" and Data replies simply: "I wish to leave". He will not accept an existence wherein he cannot do what he, as a thinking individual with the rights of liberty and freedom of choice, is treated with such limitations. His method of dealing with Fajo progresses from simple diplomacy, to non violent resistance, to the controversial conclusion where Chief O'Brien has to deactivate a discharged phaser just as they beam him back to the Enterprise (it's always just in the nick of time, eh).

Overall... this episode is just fantastic. Perhaps the greatest knock is how Fajo's plan doesn't quite seem flawless (like how the faked biological disaster should be easily detected and is) but it's very forgivable considering the overall excellence of the story. Great character moments, great explorations of the themes of captivity and what it means to be a person instead of merely an object, and just a stellar performance from the guest actor. Truly a Warp 8 on the scale of quality.