Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 36: The Dauphin [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a stellar episode of the second season. The Enterprise beams aboard a beautiful woman who is destined to rule an alien planet. Wesley Crusher has a chance encounter with her and falls in love with her, much to the disapproval of the girl's caretaker. This episode gets especially suspensful when Wes learns that the woman he's fallen in love with isn't what she appears to be.

This is one of my all-time favorite episodes of TNG. Wesley falls in love with Salia, a beautiful girl on her way home to rule over a planet. Ignore the silly monster costumes and enjoy the genuine heart and emotion of this episode dealing with first love!

As humans move out into the stars and encounter other species, we will take our basic functions with us. Even though we may move around in giant ships faster than the speed of light, our bodies will still require that we eat, sleep, perspire, excrete waste and teenagers will still experience hormonal overload. In this episode, Wesley meets what appears to be a teenage girl (Salia) who smiles sweetly at him, immediately setting the glands working.
However, the girl is being ferried to a planet where she is to assume the throne and rule the planet. Two groups have been engaged in an ongoing war and it is hoped that the new monarch will be able to unite the planet in peace. Of course, the smitten Wesley has no idea how to approach her and he seeks advice from Worf, which is hilarious. His description of the Klingon mating ritual is wonderful to behold and of no use to Wesley. After experiencing that dead end, Wesley seeks out Commander Riker, who enlists the aid of Guinan. Their dialog over the table is some of the best in all of the Star Trek episodes. Clearly not to be taken seriously, the frustration on Wesley's face is superb.
Wesley finally manages to meet Salia, when she seeks help in using the food synthesizers. Unfortunately, her guardian (Anya) strongly objects and this is when Wesley learns that Salia is not human. This is devastating to his young heart, and he spends some time moping around licking his emotional wounds. To his credit, he manages to overcome his sorrow and sees Salia off in the transporter room. Worf and Anya also have a clash, and yet in the end, they clearly reach a level of mutual understanding and respect.
One aspect of TNG that I consider to be a dramatic improvement over the original series is the emotional activity between humans and other species. If we ever encounter other intelligent species, there is no doubt that passionate emotions will be involved and that will eventually lead to sex. In many ways, the first interspecies sexual activity with extraterrestrials may be even more traumatic to the collective human psyche than the existence of the other species. It may take some time before sex between species is not considered bestiality, as it is a near certainty that the extraterrestrials will have far less biology in common with humans than humans do with dogs, sheep and goats.
I rank this as one of the better episodes, because it deals with the emotional trauma of a human able to maintain an emotional attachment to a member of another species after learning that she is not human. Hopefully, this is a harbinger of the future and will not always be nothing more than a theme in science fiction entertainment,

I'm not a big fan of Wil Wheaton as Ensign Crusher and I've always thought the show would do better without him (and did do better after he left). However, I have to offer praise for his performance in this episode. He actually acts like a teenager with overactive hormones with a need to explore, for the first time, what love is. It reminded me a lot of when I was his age.

The highlight of this episode is the humor. Worf explaining Klingon flirting rituals is humorous!! Then there is a scene where Jonathan Frakes (Riker) and Whoopie Goldberg (Guinan) are flirting with each other for a moment. I actually had to laugh out loud at this.

There was nothing really memorable about this episode and it doesn't stand out as a favorite, but I would recommend it regardless.