67 – Captain’s Holiday

Grade: B+

Summary

Captain Picard spends a short vacation on Risa. Shortly after arriving, he meets Vash, a rogue archaeologist who is searching for an artifact called the tox uthat. It turns out that a pair of aliens supposedly from the 29th century are also looking for it.

Commentary

OK, in reality, this isn’t a great episode, but it really is a lot of fun to watch. And it came towards the end of the 3rd season, when this series finally started being consistently good. By this time, the characters are well-defined, the actors have a good idea of what their characters would do in each situation, and the special effects are a whole lot better. The writing has really improved as well.

But specifically about this episode, we meet another really great recurring character, Vash. In many ways, she’s very much the opposite of Captain Picard. She’s obviously very intelligent, like Picard, but unlike him, she’s undisciplined and impulsive, and she certainly thinks of herself before considering the “greater good.” But she certainly is one of the best recurring characters in this series. And that’s one reason this episode is one of the best up to this point in the series. I was really glad to see her appear again in future episodes so she wasn’t just a throwaway character.

Of Note

There was a great reference to the Original Series episode “Shore Leave” in this episode. Almost the exact same thing happens. In both episodes, the captains have to be forced to take vacations. In this episode, Dr. Crusher tells Captain Picard that someone on the ship has been neglecting his health and needs to take some time off. In Shore Leave, it’s Spock who tells Captain Kirk the same thing, almost word for word. This eventually becomes a Star Trek cliché – the captains always need to be convinced to take some time off.