111 – Hero Worship

Grade: C+

Summary

Commander Data rescues a young boy, who is the only survivor on a destroyed ship. After the boy learns that Data is an android, he decides he’s an android also.

Commentary

Here’s a Data-centric episode that I don’t really care for too much. I’m not sure what it is exactly about this episode, but I can think of a few things. First of all, I didn’t care for how Data solves the riddle at the end of the episode. It seems that he solves it almost immediately in the last few seconds, just like he did in “The Game.” But at the same time, the last few seconds of the climax seem to take several minutes. By the time Data realizes what’s happening, the viewers have already figured it out. If you haven’t seen this episode, pay attention to the last few minutes and see if you know the answer before Data does. It really weakens the storyline that Data can’t figure it out very fast.

I was pleasantly surprised with the actor who played Timothy, the young boy whom Data rescues. I think he did a very good job in the role. It was fun to see Data interact with him and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being an android. In fact, I think he did the best job of any child actor I’ve seen in this series so far.

In general, however, this isn’t one of my favorites.

Of Note

It was during the filming of this episode that the actors found out about Gene Roddenberry’s death.

This is also the first episode that mentions the Breen. They’ll finally get some screen time in Deep Space Nine.