The Perfect Mate

Picard decides it might be fun to be Riker this week, and gets romantically involved with a female metamorph with terrible judgement

The Captain’s log rambling about efforts to negotiate peace between two rival planets sounds like a refugee plot from season one, or even classic Trek (anyone remember “Elaan of Troyius”...?). But don’t worry, it’s much worse than it sounds. For a start, there are Ferengi being rather ineffectually played for comedy, and the sci-fi plot (such as it is) is about a rare female metamorph who can sense what what men desire, and is capable of imprinting on someone to become, as the title says ‘the perfect mate’. Are we having fun yet? Well I hope so, because other than some hand-wringing and sexual harassment, that’s basically the episode.

Words

“Have you had a chance to see the dolphins yet?”

Before we look at the screenplay and how it all fits together, I must draw attention to LaForge’s offhand remark about ‘the dolphins’. Yes, you heard that right, dolphins. Because although this is the only on screen mention of them, there is a supposedly a ‘Cetacean Ops’ area on every Galaxy class starship. Does that makes sense? Not really. Seems particularly harsh to the Dolphins if you ask me.

Anyway, who is this Gary Perconte who shares a story credit with René Echevarria and a teleplay credit with Michael Piller…? It turns out to be a pseudonym for Reuben Aaron Leder, who was a friend of Piller’s and a TV writer who’d been doing the rounds since the early eighties and wrote more than thirty episodes for Magnum, P.I.. Why isn’t his real name used? Because he wasn’t happy with the way his screenplay turned out. This marks the only occasion to my knowledge where a writer exercised their prerogative to take their name off the final credits of a TNG episode (something they are entitled to do by the terms of the standard writing contract).

It seems that Piller was less unhappy, although he acknowledged that the central relationship between Picard and Kamala was difficult to get working. As he later remarked:

In a long memo to René Echevarria, I said this show does not work if the audience, at least the men, do not fall in love with this woman too. She must be fully rounded, bright, engaging, with a great personality and the audience should say, ‘I see the problem for Picard’. If there's no magnetic electricity between the two of them and it doesn’t happen for me as a man watching her, then the audience will not accept for one second that Picard would even give her a second thought.

I find that statement in itself quite problematic, and I confess I am surprised that this episode has its fans. But somehow it does.

There are a few things here I do like, one of which is that the Prime Directive makes a rare late-season appearance. It comes out once again between Dr Crusher and Picard. The good doctor argues that the Enterprise has been turned into a brothel, while Picard sticks to the party line. I could have used more of this discussion and less of the other, to be honest, but never mind.

Four different endings were scripted. In one, Picard interrupts the ceremony in the manner of The Graduate, but it turns out to be all in his imagination. It was actually shot, but Rick Berman nixed it. Two others were written but never filmed, including one in which Kamala stops the wedding and decides not to marry anyone. Piller liked this option, but it too was shot down:

She says through Picard's influence she’s been enlightened and is going off in search of adventure, leaving both men standing there. I was overruled. I think that those who overruled me would say that her leaving was not justified by anything else in the script, but I would argue with that.

Berman seems to have ended up with quite a headache adjudicating the endings, and later suggested: “None of us will ever know which of the four would have been best.” He was ultimately happy with how it came out, largely because he was satisfied with Famke Janssen’s performance.

Acting Roles

Obviously Janssen's appearance here as Kamala is the focal point of the episode, and while we recognise her now as Jean Grey in the original X-Men movies, or the murderous Xenia Onatopp in Goldeneye, but at this point in time she'd done nothing. This is literally her second role in anything (the first being the largely unnoticed movie Fathers and Sons).

Those who like this episode enjoy her rapport with Patrick Stewart’s Picard. I can’t say I share this view. There’s not much chemistry between the two performers, and her scene with Riker is largely more interesting although no less eye-rolling.

I note that Janssen is one of only two performers to appear with Patrick Stewart as both Captain Picard and Professor Charles Xavier - a commendation to the first member of the crew who can name the other one in the comments!

Because Kamala is empathic, there’s no Marina Sirtis this episode. Mustn’t show up how useless Troi is, after all. There’s something for everyone else to do, though, even if in LaForge’s case it's just a matter of mentioning the dolphins.

There's a fair number of guest stars, including Tim O’Connor as Briam, the Kriosian ambassador.

If you think you recognise him, that's probably because you watched Buck Rogers in the 25th Century where he played the key supporting role of Dr Elias Heuer, pictured here… er… well, looking to the right.

His breakthrough role, however, came much earlier, as Elliot Carson in the sixties soap opera Peyton Place, for which he shot more than four hundred episodes. He does a fine job as Briam, and his is my favourite performance in this episode.

Then there’s Mickey Cottrell as Alrik, who gets one speaking scene with seven lines, and is mentioned far more than he appears.

Cottrell appears to work primarily as a publicist, and has more than three times as many credits in this capacity than as an actor. Of his appearances on screen, however, my favourite is as ‘Hammy Alien’ in the movie Ed Wood. They do get him back for Voyager, though.

Then there's the Ferengi.

Michael Snyder (right) only had seven performing roles, and half of them are Trek! He was ‘Starfleet Communications Officer’ in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, plays this Ferengi (Qul) and another one (Morta) in season six, but his absolutely unforgettable Trek role is as Crewman Dax in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - priceless!

But of course, overshadowed by the return of Max Grodénchik (left), who first appeared in Trek as Sovak in “Captain's Holiday”, and of course will go onto play Rom in DS9. For more on Grodénchik, follow the link back to his earlier appearance.

All in all, it's not a total bust for guest stars this week, but it just doesn’t matter, because the plot is dull and the whole thing feels like a refugee from an earlier era of Trek. You can’t imagine them making an episode like this today, and while I would also say that about a lot of awesome TNG episodes, that’s not what I mean in this case.

Models, Make-up, and Mattes

Not much for the SFX team this week, unless you count the holodeck wedding chapel (see above) or the space egg.

There’s a lot of make-up, though, and one aspect of it is rather interesting. Did Famke Janssen's skin markings in this episode seem oddly familiar? Well Janssen was offered the role of Jadzia Dax in DS9, and although she turned it down, it seems the production crew made some mental connections. When the original Trill make-up design from “The Host” turned out to, well, suck, somebody remembered Janssen's make-up in this episode (see above) and so they used that instead. Strange but true!

But we get some revisits to some existing studio miniatures, one of which is just a reappearance of stock footage of the Zibalian ship, Jovis, from “The Most Toys”, standing in here for the Valtese vessel.

What’s more interesting - and amusing! - is the Kriosian ship that collects Ambassador Briam. It appears in the establishing shot using stock footage from “Suddenly Human” of the Talarian observation craft…

But at the end of the episode, as it pulls away from the Enterprise, it’s suddenly the Talarian warship from the same episode.

Oopsie! It seems even the SFX crew fell asleep at the wheel this week.