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In an upcoming run of podcasts, we’ll be revisiting episodes we’ve already covered. Let’s see if we have any new perspectives! Modi Operandus makes his dramatic return to the podcast to hash out “The Game” from TNG’s fifth season.
The Wikipedia plot summary for “The Game”:
William Riker visits Risa and is introduced to a video game by Etana Jol, a Ktarian woman with whom he has become romantically involved during his vacation on the pleasure planet. Riker, upon his return to the Enterprise, distributes replicated copies of it to the crew of the starship.
Cadet Wesley Crusher, on vacation from Starfleet Academy, is visiting the Enterprise and notices everyone playing the game (and trying to convince him to play as well). Doctor Beverly Crusher, Wesley’s mother, secretly switches off Lieutenant Commander Data and sabotages his circuits, because he would be immune to the game’s addictive properties. The game addicts people who play it by stimulating the pleasure centers of their brains when they successfully complete each level.
Wesley reports to Captain Jean-Luc Picard his suspicions that the game is dangerous. However, Picard is already addicted. Eventually, Wesley and his new girlfriend, Ensign Robin Lefler, are the only people on the ship who have yet to become addicted to the game. Wesley and Robin discover that Data’s injuries were in fact sabotage, and begin working on a plan to stop the spread of it. Wesley meets Robin in engineering, where he learns that she has come under the influence of the game, presumably having been captured by the crew and forced to play. Riker and Worf pursue Wesley, as he is the last non-addicted person on the ship. Wesley evades them for a time, but they eventually trap him in an access tunnel and take him to the bridge, where he is restrained and forced to play it.
Data, having been examined and repaired by Wesley and Ensign Lefler before they were forced to submit to the game, frees the rest of the crew from their mind-controlled state by flashing pulses of light in their faces from a handheld lamp (a “palm beacon”). The crew is then able to discern the purpose of the device: It rendered them extremely susceptible to the power of suggestion, compelling them to aid the games’ creators, the Ktarians, in an attempt to take control of the Enterprise and eventually the Federation. Picard captures the Ktarian vessel, captained by Etana Jol, responsible for distributing the games, and has it towed to the nearest spacedock. Wesley and Lefler bid each other a reluctant farewell as he returns to Starfleet Academy.
Our original podcast for “The Game”.
In this episode of the podcast, long-time friend of the show Modi Operandus returns to give some new thoughts about “The Game”. Plus! He and Wes discuss Brannon Braga’s first foray into Star Trek, mind-wiping Picard, and the metaphor of male virginity.