The Arsenal of Freedom 

The Enterprise encounters a planet long dead, but technical equipment still functions for the purpose of selling off its arsenal, along with self sufficiency.

Director:

Les Landau

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (created by), Richard Manning (teleplay by)

Stars:

Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Patrick Stewart	...	Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes	...	Cmdr. William Riker
LeVar Burton	...	Lt. Geordi La Forge
Denise Crosby	...	Lt. Tasha Yar
Michael Dorn	...	Lt. Worf
Gates McFadden	...	Dr. Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis	...	Counselor Deanna Troi
Brent Spiner	...	Lt. Cmdr. Data
Wil Wheaton	...	Wesley Crusher (credit only)
Vincent Schiavelli	...	The Peddler
Marco Rodríguez	...	Capt. Paul Rice
Vyto Ruginis	...	Chief Engineer Logan
Julia Nickson	...	Ensign Lian T'Su
George De La Pena	...	Lt. Orfil Solis (as George De La Peña)

Storyline

The Enterprise encounters a message from a planet offering to sell them arms. The messenger, essentially a holographic image, invites them to the planet below. There, the away team led by Commander Riker comes under attack from a myriad of weapons leading Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher to also beam down to the planet. They too are attacked and Dr. Crusher is seriously wounded. Aboard the Enterprise, Lt. Laforge is left in command for the first time in a crisis situation. He not only has to deal with being under attack from these unknown weapons systems, but also deal with a colleague who feels he should be given command of the ship.

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Plot Keywords:

saucer separation sequence | drone attack | mysterious attack | salesman | weapons system | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Mystery | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original closed captioning for this episode replaces the term "Erselrope wars" with "Romulan wars." The home video corrects this.

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Goofs

The Enterprise is scanned for language, but then a probe later has to generate a hologram to personally ask for the ship's specifications.

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Quotes

[Riker and Yar are faced with the imminent threat of a deadly weapon]
Lieutenant Tasha Yar: We could split up.
Commander William T. Riker: What good would that do?
Lieutenant Tasha Yar: Confuse it, delay it, something.
Commander William T. Riker: It would still get us; it would just take a little longer.
Lieutenant Tasha Yar: It might give one of us time to get out of range.
Commander William T. Riker: Out of *range*?
Lieutenant Tasha Yar: Forget I said it. These devices wiped out an entire planet. I don't think it has a range.
Commander William T. Riker: Then what does that leave us?
[Yar bites her lip]
[...]

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Connections

Featured in No Small Parts: Vincent Schiavelli (2014)

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Soundtracks

Star Trek: The Next Generation End Credits
Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage

User Reviews

One stop shopping for weaponry

Answering a distress call on a planet long considered devoid of intelligent life, the Enterprise discovers it has triggered some kind of alarm system where a humanoid played by Vincent Schiavelli appears and offers the Enterprise all kinds of weaponry.

Schiavelli is just a hologram, but he does get some interesting lines in. It seems as though way back when this planet had a war of annihilation and his people sold both sides the weapons that did the job.

A few close calls for some TNG regulars as Patrick Stewart looks to get away from this place without triggering off weapons that are for sale like in a department store.

Some thought provoking ideas in this TNG story.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 April 1988 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

46 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1