4.09 Final Mission

Rating: 3

Wesley’s final away mission before leaving Enterprise to join the Academy becomes dangerous when the rickety shuttle provided by the participating aliens crash-lands on an inhospitable moon. Wesley is stranded with Picard and a stubborn, untrustworthy alien mining captain, and the ensign has no choice but to grow up fast and develop leadership capabilities. Meanwhile, the Enterprise cannot join the search for the missing away team until they successfully save a planet from severe radiation poisoning by ‘escorting’ an unmanned garbage scow.

Comments

This examination of Wesley’s coming of age before he leaves the show is a nice send-off. In addition, the shots on the moon are washed out and well done. It really does look hot and desolate there, and those distant mountains look oh so very far away.

Perhaps Picard’s choice of Wesley for this away mission is misguided. Even before leaving the ship, Wesley insults Captain Dirgo by commenting to Geordi, "Captain of a mining ship?" He says this well within earshot of Dirgo, who is offended and tells Wesley off.

The dramatic music as the shuttle careens out of control toward the moon reminded me of the theme from the 1960s television show Lost in Space.

Nits

Geordi says the alien shuttle has passed a maintenance and security check, yet later we find out that the shuttle had no emergency supplies, not even any water. Shouldn’t ‘emergency supplies’ be an item that would be checked?

After crash-landing in the desert, Picard rejects Dirgo’s suggestion that they stay with the shuttle, stating that it will become like an oven in there. Since the shuttle has to fly through space, insulated from extreme cold and the direct rays of the sun, wouldn’t it still be relatively sheltered and much cooler than walking across a desert in direct sunlight? They could stay and attempt to repair the communications equipment. After all, Dirgo says they are broken, but he didn’t seem to spend any time trying to fix them, and Wesley is the smartest teenager in the universe.

Marooned on the planet, Picard says, "Where there are mountains, there is shelter." I sort of thought he was going to say ‘water’, especially since they don’t have any.

Discovering a cave, Dirgo suggests that caves must be formed from water. Picard says not necessarily, and states that he believes the cave was formed by volcanic action. Meanwhile, we are looking at an obvious staircase carved into the rock. Did the lava do this?

After discovering that Dirgo is hoarding alcohol, Picard invites him to ‘lead the way’. Dirgo starts forward, but in the next scene, Picard is back in the lead.

Picard pushes Wesley out of the way as the cave collapses, then looks up and sees huge boulders heading toward him. Luckily, none of these boulders hit him or even go anywhere near him. He seems to only be hit by small rocks, pebbles, and lots of dust.

And of course there are many alternative ways of taking care of the garbage scow that are faster and safer, such as blowing it up, rapelling it, or just getting it outside the planet’s atmosphere and then coming back later to take care of it. Let’s face it, they didn’t really want to find Wesley. ;)

Memorable Moments

•    After the rescue, Picard and Wesley Crusher walk off hand in hand. Ahhh, now this was when the creators knew how to farewell a long-time character – Wesley saves Picard’s life and exits, stage right, amid cheers!

Quotable Quotes

Picard: Mr Crusher, what are you doing in such a filthy uniform?
Wesley: You don’t look so ship-shape yourself, sir.