A Fistful of Datas

The Golden Age of Star Trek: we had the 6th Season of The Next Generation and the 1st Season of Deep Space Nice on our televisions, Generations on view in our cinemas and First Contact due out soon. This season of TNG contains some excellent stand-alone episodes and several spectacular two-parters, with only the occasional make-weight. Despite the length of time it had already been on the air, it still represents some of the highest standard of television Science Fiction ever broadcast.

Oh dear! The holodeck has broken down again. Let's all have fun with another ridiculous premise because fresh ideas are in short supply. Well, now I've got that out of my system I'm going to admit that I am as fond of this episode now as I was when I watched it with my young children giggling all the way through, first time around.

If you can get over the "pastiche of a pastiche" Sci-Fi/Old West genre mix and Marina Sirtis's dreadful Western accent, and if you can suspend your disbelief for long enough, you can enjoy some great jokes and entertaining performances. For anyone who can't, it isn't worth getting hot under the collar about. The Kirk-era Original Series was not above raiding other series' sets and costumes, after all.

Brent Spiner gets some of the best lines & costume changes but it is Michael Dorn, as the gruff Klingon gradually being sucked into this fantasy at the behest of his son, who's delivery is close to perfect.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.