30th Anniversary TNG Episode Discussion Marathon

[Nate the Great]

April 30th, 1990, "Hollow Pursuits"

Fiver (by Marc)
Transcript
Memory Alpha

Okay, let's get this out of the way up front. I like Barclay, but not in this first episode. This level of incompetence on the part of our crew is just unforgivable. As someone who's struggled with social anxiety myself, the way our crew handled Barclay's situation is absurd. You don't get to serve on the flagship with this many issues, you just don't. Barclay should've been assigned to a low-stress post with continual counseling and medication experimentation until he could get his act together.

Second issue, recreating real, currently living people on the holodeck without their consent should be a crime. Except for actual criminal investigations, of course.


Third, it should not be Geordi's job to hold Barclay's hand. There must be over a hundred officers in the Engineering section, Geordi doesn't have the time for that. Aren't there assistant chief engineers to handle this sort of thing? Whatever happened to Shimoda anyway?

Fourth, "Broccoli?" Even if we argue that everyone is speaking English so this joke would work (a very iffy proposition, but moving on), that's just abuse. How did this get past Gene? He's always harping about perfect human beings, and this is not perfect behavior. Uhura herself said that in the future we don't fear words.

Fifth, I'd think that the computer is keeping track of everyone's holodeck usage and if it gets too high Troi is notified. This episode makes it sound like Barclay spends all of his off hours in there, this isn't healthy and never should've gotten this far.

Besides, are there enough holodecks that everyone who wants holodeck time can just have it without waiting in line? That's absurd. Someone on Reddit did the math, and the amount of holodeck time per person with 16 holodecks is 10 hours per month. Of course some people don't like the holodeck and a lot of the 1012 people on board are children who wouldn't get solo time, but still. Even if we say that everyone who wants holodeck time can have 20 hours per month, Barclay is burning that off every week!

Sorry, but I had to get that out of my system. Moving on, get ready for some serious discussion of Treknology nits, they just show up so often in this episode.

The Episode

(Deanna slinks in wearing an off the shoulder number, as Howling Mad Murdoch pours himself a slug from a bottle on the bar)

I never watched the A-Team show, it was before my time. I did enjoy the movie in a "it's not supposed to be brilliant, it's supposed to be fun" sense.

LAFORGE: I just don't know what to do with him. The guy's always late, he never gives his best effort, just slides by. I'm telling you, I can't deal with it anymore. I mean, how does a guy like that make it through the Academy?

Forget the Academy, how'd he get assigned to the Enterprise in the first place? Wouldn't Geordi have some say in who gets posted to his department?

RIKER: Mister Barclay, I'm tired of seeing your name on report. I don't know what you got away with at your last posting, but this is the Enterprise. We set a different standard here. Understood?

Exactly.