Data's Day
What would a family season be without a wedding!
You know it’s a Data episode because the log entry in the teaser is given by Data... and of course, it’s also called “Data’s Day”, but we don't discover that until after the credits. What’s all this talk about a wedding, then? Why, it’s none other than Miles O’Brien getting married to an entirely new character who we are assured he is very much in love with and has known for far longer than we have. Isn’t TV writing wonderful? You can make up anything at all, as long as it's cheap, and this episode is cheap as silicon chips! After the credits, we get to meet Ambassador Silly Hat, and she’s all kinds of suspicious, but who cares, it’s all about Miles and Keiko’s wedding and Data’s delightful inner monologue. Even disintegrating the Ambassador on the transporter pad isn’t enough to ruin the Chief’s big day!
Words
“Begin day watch”
My wife tells me this is one of my favourite episodes, and begorrah I suppose it is in a weird and domestic kind of way... it’s just packed full of all those little details that just don’t appear anywhere else - and of course, it has O’Brien as a key character (the first time he’s given a major role in a storyline). Ironically, my least favourite aspect of the plot is the Romulan skullduggery (despite my love of Romulans). It rather falls flat and was only there because Rick Berman insisted there had to be some jeopardy (even though “Family” showed that this wasn't the case at all, but whatever, I’m not going to complain about getting to see a Warbird).
The idea of a ‘day in the life’ episode was pitched by Harold Apter during the third season, but it took the writing team a long time to decide who to do it with. Picard and the ship itself were long considered front runners, before Data eventually won out since, as co-writer Ronald D. Moore put it: “he's the only one who's up 24 hours a day” (Wouldn’t the ship also be up 24 hours a day? Oh well, never mind). This premise also provides a great opportunity for hearing Data’s inner monologue, which is one of the many delights of the screenplay.
Likewise, a shipboard marriage had been floated for a long time - Michael Piller had even suggested marrying off Picard at one point. Originally, O’Brien was going to be wed to a new conn officer who was intended to replace Wesley (which reading between the lines must have been Mary Kohnert’s short-lived Ensign Tess Allenby, whose final episode was last week). Piller was resolutely opposed to this plan, however:
I was against that because I felt that O’Brien was too good a character and potential benefit to the show to make him another star’s supporting character. I felt he would always sort of be a sounding board for someone else to talk to and I didn’t want to waste him on that. So we never did get around to replacing Wesley and O’Brien emerged on his own.
A more magnificent thing never happened in the history of Trek!
I do like that we get a repeated name check of Bruce Maddox from “The Measure of a Man” here, but I still think it a shame that they didn’t get the actor in for a brief communication on screen. It doesn’t seem that this was even considered.
Acting Roles
Over and above all else in this episode is the magnificent sequence where Gates McFadden’s Dr Crusher teaches Brent Spiner’s Data how to dance.
This is all absolutely on the level! McFadden was a choreographer before she tried her hand at acting, most famously on my sister’s favourite movie of all time Labyrinth (yes, she choreographed muppets - not many people can claim that!). Apparently, in the original screenplay by Harold Apter, Data was going to recreate the disco number from Saturday Night Fever, which gave the writing crew a giggle. Although that was impractical, “dancing was then in the air”, as Moore recalls. The rest is history - although I note that McFadden and Spiner largely adlibbed this scene, which in itself is exceptionally rare in TNG. Classic!
Our main guest star outside of the Enterprise crew is Sierra Pecheur’s T’Pel AKA Sub-Commander Selok AKA Ambassador Silly Hat.
The performance is fine, but suffers from the usual Vulcan problem. Because Vulcans are supposed to suppress their emotions, you don’t get an interesting performance unless you can mess them around, and this story doesn’t allow for that. Even when she’s revealed as a Romulan, she still doesn’t have any emotion to show. All rather disappointing - apart from the silly hat, of course. Respect to her for having to endure two sets of make-up, though, as the Romulan latex is rather more demanding than the Vulcan eyebrows and ears.
We have another Romulan too in the form of Alan Scarfe's Admiral Mendak.
It’s a bit part, but he acquits himself well here (he basically single-handedly generates the presence of any threat in this story) and they get him back as another Romulan in a future episode, as well as popping up in Voyager.
In terms of the regular cast, there's something for everyone here, more or less, and they’re all having a great deal of fun with it. But there’s so much fun going on in the lower decks too! As well as April Grace cropping up again in the transporter room in Act I…
…we also get to meet the ship’s barber (see below for image). According to the screenplay this isn’t Mr Mott, the Bolian barber we meet later in the show’s run, but rather V’Sal, who sounds like he was once going to be Vulcan. However, I note that the screenplay doesn't even consider V’Sal as Bolian, but rather just as “an alien barber”. Personally, I think it’s just as plausible to say that this is indeed Mr Mott but played by Shelly Desai instead of Ken Thorley as in later episodes, although this barber is certainly more jolly. Do you really think the Enterprise-D has two Bolian barbers...?
But of course, this is all overshadowed by the introduction of Rosalind Chao’s Keiko, here appearing for one and only time as Keiko Ishikawa.
Chao is brilliant in this role, which she will get to enjoy for many years and over eight TNG episodes and nineteen DS9 episodes. However, this was not a career-making role for her so much as it was just a great opportunity. The role that made her acting career was Soon-Li on M*A*S*H*, which she reprised in After M*A*S*H* for thirty episodes (she married Corporal Klinger). Still, her appearance here really is the major event, especially in retrospect.
Well, that and the debut of Spot.
This is the first version of Spot, the cat-like animal that Data keeps as a pet even though it has strange powers to change sex and colouration throughout TNG. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Models, Make-up, and Mattes
Say hello to the beautiful upgraded Bolian make-up!
I mean, this is a huge step up from the Bolian captain appeared in “Conspiracy”, and all for a throwaway role. Brilliant.
Sound Stage 16 gets a break from being Hell Planet to host the Arboretum, which... erm... is okay, I guess.
It’s always a problem when you use an interior set and fill it with plants, because it just draws more attention to the fact that you’re inside with plants and not outside. But it’s nice that Keiko gets her own location.
But of course, the SFX star of the week is the first appearance of a proper Ambassador-class Federation starship (since the one in “Yesterday's Enterprise” was battle-scarred and not re-usable).
It’s only supra-fanonically ‘Ambassador-class’, however - the script just has “another starship”, and on screen there’s no name at all. Still, it’s hard not to enjoy a new studio miniature when it arrives, and it caps off what is a genuinely fun romp for everyone.