Star Trek's Infamous Episode Provoked Writers To Create Another Episode
By Chris Snellgrove | Published
It may not fit the ideal future of Gene Roddenberry, but we're big fans of the fact that we can create all things though that strengthens us. This was certainly true of three influential Star Trek writers who were inspired to create a killer episode based on their deep hatred of an entirely different episode. The Next Generation writers Dennis Russell Bailey, David Bischoff, and Lisa Putman White ended up hating the season 2 episode “The Samaritan Trap” so much that it inspired them to write the season 3 episode “Tin Man.”
Bailey Hated the Samaritan Trap
Speaking for himself, Bailey is quoted in Captain's Logs: The Complete Voyage of the Unauthorized Voyage that “Samaritan Snare” was the worst episode of Star Trek ever recorded. He had an epic list of appeals, all of which inspired him and other writers to write “Tin Man” later. But the summary of his feelings about this season 2 is that “it was always resorting to the creation of an idiot to make the story work, and that annoyed me more than some of the bad shows that were done in it. The Original Series.”
Before we get into some of Bailey's “Samaritan Trap” beef and how it influenced the writing of “Tin Man,” you might need a quick refresher on the episode he hated the most. “The Samaritan's Trap” is a memorable episode where the Enterprise-D team encounters the Pakleds, an ancient race that asks for help only to later reveal that all of their advancements come from stealing other people's technology.
There is also a B-site where Picard and Wesley Crusher go to a nearby starship where the captain can get heart surgery and the young man can complete his entrance exams for Starfleet Academy.
Problems with the Episode
According to Dennis Russell Bailey, “The Samaritan Trap” insulted the intelligence of everyone watching. again making the episode because “no plot would have happened if all the characters hadn't been idiots that week.”
The future writer of “Tin Man” expressed the belief that someone involved in the production “must have known what it was like because they wrote obvious questions in the script that they chose not to answer.” The first such instance he mentions is when Worf is understandably hesitant to send the ship's chief engineer to unknown aliens to help with a “small problem.”
Bailey noted that this question “has never been answered” and that it was silly to bring it up in the episode without addressing it. Although he didn't explicitly add this to his list of “Samaritan Trap” complaints, the author may have been upset because Geordi La Forge was being kidnapped by the Pakleds, a major problem that would have been completely ignored if someone had listened to Worf. Although the Klingon security officer does not play a major role in the latest episode, it is important to note that all of Worf's thoughts and suspicions in “Tin Man” are considered important.
In Bailey's eyes, another problem with “Samaritan Snare” is that Deanna Troi tells Riker that the chief engineer is in danger and brings him back so that the administrator can ignore him. It would be out of character for Riker to ignore Imzadi's recommendations in any episode, but the writer was very upset that “no one responded” to his warning. Perhaps in response, Troi plays a major role in “Tin Man,” an episode in which her heritage helps her connect with controversial mechanist and fellow Betazoid Tam Elbrun.
As much as Bailey was annoyed by Pakled's “Samaritan Trap,” he hated the Picard B plot where Picard decided to go to an interstellar space “where it turned out that no one was fit to handle the job in case it went wrong.” Picard's operation was meant to be a “routine procedure” that “went wrong for no apparent reason, except that it had to go wrong to climax” (Dr. Pulaski performed the operation).
At Least We Got The Tin Man In It
In contrast, “Tin Man” has an ambitious climax involving the Romulans, a supernova, and a good space business, and it feels fully earned by what came before.
It's rare to see Star Trek writers openly talk about episodes they hate, but anyone with their warp core running without dilithium can understand where Bailey is coming from. Moreover, he channeled his anger into making a killer episode, which he certainly is. There was one thing, however, that was beyond any of these writers: getting Patrick Stewart to say “Tin Man” without stressing the wrong letter (and best regards to any DeSoto friends who just heard The Greatest Generation the sound comes down from their heads).
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