Television Review: A Fistful of Datas (Star Trek: The Next Generation, S6X08, 1992)

A Fistful of Datas (S06E08)

Airdate: 9 November 1992

Written by: Robin Hewitt Wolfe
Directed by: Patrick Stewart

Running Time: 46 minutes

The marriage between Star Trek and the Western genre is a curious, decades-long affair, born as much from pragmatic television economics as from any profound artistic synergy. The Original Series appeared during the zenith of the Western’s popularity on American television. It was perhaps inevitable that this cultural tide, particularly in the beleaguered third season when producers desperately pandered to prevailing tastes in a bid to stay on air, would eventually wash over the USS Enterprise. The result was Spectre of the Gun, an episode which, while hardly a classic, stands as one of the more surreal and conceptually intriguing pieces of early Star Trek, using a stark, artificial recreation of the O.K. Corral as a psychic punishment. Nearly a quarter of a century later, The Next Generation revived the genre in its penultimate season with A Fistful of Datas, an episode that, for all its surface-level homage, lays bare the creative exhaustion and formulaic tendencies that had begun to creep into the series by 1992.

The episode commences with the USS Enterprise-D arriving two days early for a rendezvous with a supply ship, leaving the crew at a loose end. Seizing the opportunity for recreation, Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge and Lieutenant Commander Data propose an experiment to test Data’s positronic brain as a potential backup for the ship’s computer core. Meanwhile, the perpetually stern Worf reluctantly acquiesces to his son Alexander’s request to visit the holodeck, where they participate in a simulation of the Ancient West town of Deadwood, playing the roles of sheriff and deputy. They are swiftly confronted by a holographic adversary, the troublemaking Eli Hollander (John Pyper-Ferguson). After overpowering him, they are joined by Counsellor Deanna Troi, a self-professed Western enthusiast who enters the programme to play a gunslinging stranger named “Durango.” The plot thickens when Eli boasts that his father, the local tycoon Frank Hollander, will secure his release.

Concurrently, odd malfunctions begin to plague the ship. More peculiarly, Data, while working with La Forge, begins to adopt an American Western twang in his speech and occasionally gestures as if he were a character from a dime novel. This peculiar behavioural shift is the first clue to a deeper systemic corruption. Back in Deadwood, Worf’s confrontation with Frank Hollander reveals the crux of the malfunction: Frank bears the exact likeness of Data. Furthermore, the holodeck’s safety protocols have been disengaged, a fact Worf discovers painfully when Frank’s bullet grazes his arm. All attempts to terminate the programme fail. In a tense escalation, Frank and his gang, who were also transmogrified into a Data lookalikes, abduct Alexander and demand Worf surrender himself. Troi deduces that the only escape is to “finish the story,” leading to a classic Western showdown. Utilising his Klingon ingenuity, Worf improvises a force field from a hitching post and metal plate, defeats Frank in a final gunfight, and safely extracts everyone from the now-stabilised holodeck.

A Fistful of Datas remains a deeply divisive episode among the fandom. To many hardcore “trekkies,” it serves as Exhibit A for the argument that the production staff was suffering from creative exhaustion in the show’s sixth season. The episode unabashedly panders to a general audience by delivering gimmicky, lightweight fluff instead of engaging with the philosophical or ethical dilemmas that represent Star Trek at its best. Its reputation was not aided by the fact that a similarly frivolous gimmick-centric episode, Rascals, had aired only a week prior, compounding a sense of narrative repetition. Furthermore, as with the majority of holodeck-themed stories, the plot is entirely contingent on a catastrophic system malfunction, a narrative crutch that had already grown tired. To inject stakes, a catastrophic malfunction must occur, transforming the safe simulation into a lethal trap. A Fistful of Datas does nothing to innovate beyond this well-worn template, relying on the same convenient technological failure to manufacture peril.

The script was the debut television credit for Robert Hewitt Wolfe, who would later become a prolific and respected writer on Deep Space Nine. This genesis perhaps explains the episode’s competent but unambitious structure; it is a serviceable genre pastiche that lacks the deeper thematic layering Wolfe would later master.

Of far greater significance is the episode’s director: Patrick Stewart. Eager to hone his skills behind the camera and intrigued by the challenge of directing a genre about which he knew little, Stewart approached the task with palpable enthusiasm. The result, considering the significant difficulties faced during production, is remarkably polished. Filmed on the exterior Western backlot at Universal Studios, the cast and crew endured intense heat. Michael Dorn and Brent Spiner suffered particularly, buried under heavy prosthetics and makeup—Dorn in his standard Klingon regalia and Spiner under the additional latex required to transform various holograms into Data’s visage.

Despite these hardships, the episode stands as a clear labour of love from all involved. The script pays direct tribute to genre classics, its central hostage plot lifted almost wholesale from Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo. Meanwhile, Stewart, as director, injects visual homages to Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, particularly in the iconic final shot of the USS Enterprise itself riding into a stellar sunset—a wonderfully cheeky and visually poetic conclusion. The cast visibly relishes the change of pace. Brent Spiner, in particular, is given a field day. Due to the holodeck malfunction imposing Data’s image on other characters, Spiner ends up portraying a multitude of roles, including the saloon owner Annie (originally played by actress Jay Garrett, who tragically died months after the episode aired), whom he performs in full drag with commendable comic commitment.

The episode also demonstrates a commendable attention to series continuity, using it to add texture rather than mere fan service. Captain Picard is briefly seen practising on his Ressican flute, a poignant artefact from the masterpiece The Inner Light, subtly reminding viewers of the character’s depth even as the main plot engages in frivolity. Furthermore, the presence of saloon prostitutes and other “non-family friendly” content within a Starfleet holodeck programme is given a clever, in-universe explanation: the simulation was designed by the socially anxious and sexually frustrated Engineer Reginald Barclay, a character detail established in earlier episodes.

A Fistful of Datas is undeniably well-crafted for what it is, buoyed by Stewart’s assured direction, Spiner’s comedic versatility, and a genuine affection for the Western genre it pastiches. Yet, it ultimately feels inconsequential, a symptom of a long-running series momentarily out of profound ideas. It lacks the surreal, budget-driven ingenuity of Spectre of the Gun and fails to reach the clever genre deconstruction or philosophical weight of The Big Goodbye. It is, in essence, a perfectly entertaining piece of television fluff—a “gimmicky” confection—that succeeds on the level of pure performance and homage but contributes little to the enduring legacy of The Next Generation beyond proving that even in the 24th century, the crew could still play dress-up.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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