UNCUT - A Fistful of Datas (TNG S6E8) | Star Trek Journey 242

I hate this one slightly less than Rascals. S6 still has some decent episodes but Q Who, Rascals and this.. oof. I remember as a kid thinking TNG was getting boring. As an adult I can see I wasn't wrong. Thankfully it still has plenty of great episodes dotted about before the end.

Always got to ride into the sunset! This is a wonderful episode. Funny you mentioned Brent Spiners double! He's friends with my Aunt! One of the coolest 6 degrees of separation I have in my life! So happy you guys enjoyed this, it's absolutely a favorite. Almost fan fiction without the fan!

The closing shot is the Enterprise "riding off into the sunset." If you EVER do a Western movie, do "Support Your Local Sheriff." It's one of the funniest, best Western movies ever made!

Upon rewatch is this the best holodeck episode?

Thanks for reading my comment. upon rewatch, I enjoyed it far more than I remembered. Although I would still consider this only a 'decent' ep.

I'm surprised nobody has tried to compare this to Spectre of the Gun

Just one more episode and then both your minds be blown, there needs to be a S + 1-10 extra rating brought in to cover this sh*t bros.

If you’ve watched TOS, you’ve seen a western. It was quite the western in space.

A common way that westerns would end is with the heroes riding off on their horses into the sunset. A lot of films give a nod to this type of ending. I think one of the Star Trek movies you have already seen does this. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade also does this. So the ending was not done for plot, but rather motif.

So, I don't know how to say this but, I guess Barclay doesn't mind the bigger ladies?

Regarding what episode to show someone to say "This is Star Trek" I nominate "Measure of a Man". There are a lot of good episodes, but many require the context of having lived with these characters for a while to really understand them. But "Measure of a Man" has all the aspects that make Star Trek great while also being something you can just into without any context.

S6 is when TNG starts to just feel cozy. We know and love all these characters and also their mature relationships with each other. Episodes like this are like a warm hug, where we get to just enjoy visiting our beloved characters again. This was very much earned and I enjoy it!

always loved this episode.

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it and I guess Alex didn't quite catch it but you got Data basically as Cad Bane while portraying a Lee Van Cleef type character hat and all.

The. Boys Don't know about riding off into the sunset?

Worst part of later TNG they gave the actors more input so everyone on the bridge crew loved acting and putting on plays. What a coincidence. The actors made their characters actors. Forget doing anything you can imagine in a holodeck let's PUT ON A CRAPPY PLAY IN 10 FORWARD.

Computer, END PROGRAMM!!! Absolutely perfect Star Trek Comedy lol

I don't know if anyone mentioned in the original comments but I do like that Worf actually shows some scientific/tech ability in MacGyvering the shields with the communicator and telegraph machine. Of course that is a call back to the Eastwood scene where he wears a metal plate under his poncho to shield a bullet which is also referenced in Back to the Future 3

I love this episode, Worf, Data & Crusher were perfect. Aside from everything else that's been mentioned, it's great to see Worf actually beat some people up and not miss while shooting something!

Fuck I forgot how masterful this episode is.

I like how they missed the riding off into the sunset motif. Lol

This didn’t show up in my notification feed. Patreon glitch, or am I missing a toggle somewhere. (I’ve gotten everything else recently.)

I watched TNG on my gigantic 36" tube TV in SD back in the day. You could not tell stand ins were not the actual actors.

The ending shot was the classic “riding off into the sunset” from westerns.

I wonder how many cats Data has killed. Just gets a new one every time 😂

I was afraid you weren't going to like this very silly episode. But it's fun

Its not that I hate the idea of mixing scifi and westerns. Firefly was great. Its just the tonal clash that I hate. I'm glad the actors had fun chewing the scenery with the goofy accents and such. Stewart clearly enjoyed making this one. And I know western mishmash is a long standing Trek trope. But no. Just....no. Glad the guys liked it though. That's two episodes in a row I had to *cringe* all the way through.

Another note, the actual Deadwood is not a desert town, being in South Dakota, has trees and does not look like it was depicted. I suppose we could assume this was a fictional Deadwood located in Arizona.

So apparently it was over 100 degrees when they filmed this and all the actors were uncomfortable. They had to keep running to the air conditioning units, especially Spiner because Data couldn't be sweating. There were actually three body doubles used for Data. Dorn had it the worst in the heat with the Klingon makeup. They didn't have much time to shoot this one so the set was actually constructed the night before, and filming was done entirely in one day. Stewart loved the whole thing, and leading up to the episode rented two westerns a night to watch. There are two deleted scenes, one with Alexander as a "difficult" captive and one where Troi gives Worf a lesson in quickdraw where he accidentally shoots himself in the foot. An earlier idea for the title was "The good, the bad, and the Klingon." It also featured a subplot involving Alexander trying to set up Work and Deanna romantically which was scrapped for being too "sitcomy." In an early version of the script, Sirtis played the role of the dancing girl from the Saloon who had a bigger role (the women we saw in the early part when she looked at Worf and Alexander, the woman the bartender accussed Worf of cheating with). This was part of the setup of Alexander trying to set up Deanna and his father. In the scene where Picard plays the flute, the Mintaken tapestry from Who watches the Watchers can be seen unfolded on a chair in the background. There's a minor continuity era in that Deadwood is in South Dakota but in Worf's sheriff office there's a map of Arizona. This episode won an emmy for soundmixing (interesting category)

Absolutely love this episode!! No one can convince me that not all the actors were excited to dress up westernstyle and went around all day quoting some famous western!

My time has come.

Wouldn’t DS9 hit on 4/20? Is my math wrong?

Ride off into the sunset, or in this case the Enterprise flying off into the sunset.

I had forgotten about the "riding off into the sunset" closing shot. Almost 2001-esque.

one of my favorite episodes... of the entire SERIES. All hail Brent Spiner.

Can I just say that Marina Sirtis looks AMAZING in her Old West getup?

You don't have to try very hard to get a cat to jump on your computer keyboard. Trust me.

Patrick Stewart knew nothing about westerns when he got the script and watched as many as he could, becoming a fan of the genre. Besides the shot of the ship riding into the sunset, the one of Alexander looking under the saloon doors is lifted directly from the film Shane.

11:20 Term you're lookin for is Greenhorn

Imagine being Brent Spiner and hoping you'd have a short work week on the bridge, then opening the script and seeing how many roles he was going to be playing in the California heat in full makeup.

Brent claims that Spot was the worst actor he ever worked with

I saw Marina Sirtis at a convention. She said that they originally were expecting to do 9 seasons but they cut it short to start making movies.

This episode always make me laugh. I never skip it. And Deanna looks great in that hat.

So as I started watching this reaction, the teaser scene where Picard keeps getting interrupted... I got interrupted three times by various things (doorbell, cat making trouble, phone call) and had to keep going back to restart and resync the episode and reaction from the top. I guess god has a sense of humor and is a Star Trek fan.

"We ate the Necco wafers" Very glad you enjoyed this one!

I'm just here to see the beginning of new channel lore, "did you know the enterprise rode off into the sunset like an old western?" This is one of those episodes that has made often answer the question, "what's star trek about?" With "everything."

I remember not liking this as a kid but I think the "next time on Staaarrrrr Trekkkk" trailer gave too much away and it didn't land for me like it should have since I knew what was coming. Now I like it a lot.

At the end, the Enterprise continued in that additional shot.... because it was riding off into the sunset.... a trope of Western movies from back in the day. Indiana Jones did the same thing with his dad, at the end of the 3rd movie.

I really like Westerns. I adore ST. I really despise them together. I’m sorry PIG is such a downer lol I just don’t like the ‘fun episodes’ I guess.

Deanna made a fine cowgirl

I love the fact that in a Patrick Steward directed episode, Picard tells Crusher "I'm not much of an actor"😄. I don't have a ton to add that wasn't said in the discussion. I can somewhat see the argument that "this isn't what star trek is about", but trek has always had goofy, low stakes episodes, like Shore Leave. The great thing with Trek is it's a canvas to tell any kind of story you like. Certainly different people will have their genres of stories they like and those they don't and that'll determine what episodes they like. For me though, Trek is supposed to be a positive vision of the future, and while I love episodes like Measure of a Man or Drumhead that show the characters taking a stand for what's right, part of a positive vision of the future has to be that people can still have fun. The malfunction aside, this is basically a story of a guy hanging out at a theme park with his son and coworker on his day off. I love that, and the fact that he was really getting into it at the end. Great use of Alexander, and it makes Worf seem like a much less shitty dad than some previous episodes. Brent Spiner obviously did the heavy lifting here. So many characters and versions of characters in one episode. That last scene in the saloon had to have produced a few good bloopers. I bet deep down part of Riker is going to miss "cowboy Data". While Spiner acting ranger was never in doubt, I appreciate that they gave Sirtis a chance to do something completely new here, and she definitely seemed to enjoy the opportunity. Troi always felt like one of the most underutilized characters in the show, but season 5 and especially 6 really felt like a turning point in that regard. I won't give it an S because it's not a definitive episode of TNG that I find myself thinking about years after I last saw it, but it's still a very well executed comedic episode. Solid A+.

I generally dislike the holders stuff but this one is delightful.

Ancient West, not the Old West

OMG loved this one. Another fun one. The Ancient West!

end shot was a nod to riding off into the sunset

Not sure this rises to the level of an S for me; but definitely an A - and one of the best of the 'goofy fun' episodes.

*sigh* come on, it's the enterprise riding off into the sunset. because it's a western.

I consider this episode to be a guilty pleasure. Riding off into the sunset at the end is the cherry on top.

Worf and Data should kiss. Anyway, what episode are we watching?

Obviously you don't know about the riding off into the sunset at the end of a western. No offense intended. I find it quite refreshing that you didn't get it.

What a shame that I'm heading out the door to an all-day meeting!!