The Royale (25 Mar. 1989)

When the Enterprise is advised by a passing Klingon vessel that there is strange debris in orbit around a nearby planet, they investigate only to find a piece of a NASA spacecraft ... See full summary »

Director:

Cliff Bole

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (creator), Tracy Tormé

Stars:

Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Patrick Stewart	...	Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes	...	Commander William T. Riker
LeVar Burton	...	Lieutenant Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn	...	Lieutenant Worf
Marina Sirtis	...	Counselor Deanna Troi
Brent Spiner	...	Lt. Commander Data
Wil Wheaton	...	Wesley Crusher
Diana Muldaur	...	Doctor Pulaski
Noble Willingham	...	Texas
Sam Anderson	...	Assistant Manager
Jill Jacobson	...	Vanessa
Leo Garcia	...	Bellboy
Colm Meaney	...	Chief Miles O'Brien
Greg Beecroft	...	Mickey D (as Gregory Beecroft)

Storyline

When the Enterprise is advised by a passing Klingon vessel that there is strange debris in orbit around a nearby planet, they investigate only to find a piece of a NASA spacecraft emblazoned with the US flag. The planet below has severe weather and an unbreathable atmosphere except for one small area that appears to be inhabitable by humans. Riker, Data and Worf beam down to the surface only to find a single revolving door leading them to the casino floor in the Hotel Royale. They soon find that they are trapped there and cannot exit. As they explore the hotel, they find the remains of a human, dead for several centuries. They also find his diary and a cheap pulp fiction novel that seems to be the story taking place in the hotel itself.

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Plot Keywords:

24th century | casino royale

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Release Date:

25 March 1989 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This episode, airing in 1988, predicts that Fermat's Last Theorem would have gone unsolved for 800 years as of the mid-24th century. It was actually solved in 1993 by Princeton University Professor Andrew Wiles.

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Goofs

After beaming the ship debris aboard, Riker immediately picks it up. But the metal would still be as cold as space (-270 Celcius [-454 Fahrenheit]) which would freeze the skin off of his bare fingers.

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Quotes

[Picard and Riker are discussing Fermat's Theorem]
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: I find it stimulating. Also, it puts things in perspective. In our arrogance, we feel we are so advanced. And yet, we cannot unravel a simple knot tied by a part-time French mathematician, working alone without a computer.

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Connections

References The Questor Tapes (1974)

User Reviews

A fun episode with some good laughs

Ever since I saw this episode when it first aired, this has always been one of the favorite episode of ST:TNG. Now, when I was younger, I don't think I got a lot of the humor, but now when I watch it I laugh my head off. The plot is fairly clever and it's always hilarious when we see the members of the Enterprise try to interact with obsolete technology.

The plot revolves around Riker, Worf, and Data become trapped in a sort of simulation based off a "second rate" novel that is set in a 1920's gangster era hotel/casino. The characters they interact with are caricatures and I think the actors and actresses playing them have a good time with that. It's obvious that the writers had a fun time making the most cliché'd version of the hotel that they possibly could. For example, there's a rich Texan playing blackjack and loudly giving advice to anyone who will listen, because there's ALWAYS a rich Texan acting just like that in these kind of novels. There's a gangster named (of course) "Mickey D". And when we find out the opening line of the novel is "It was a dark and stormy night" we know it's probably even worse then we can imagine.