The Naked Now (S01E03)
Airdate: October 5th 1987
Written by: J. Michael Bingham
Directed by: Paul Lynch
Running Time: 45 minutes
It is almost universally acknowledged that Star Trek: The Next Generation represents the pinnacle of the Star Trek franchise’s enduring legacy, its original broadcast era (1987-1994) widely revered as the undisputed golden age of the entire universe. Yet, this period of unparalleled success emerged from profoundly shaky foundations. Gene Roddenberry’s later creative stewardship, particularly during the fraught first season, introduced decisions that alienated significant swathes of the established fanbase and generated palpable friction amongst cast and crew alike. Nowhere were these early creative missteps more acutely felt, nor more emblematic of the series’ troubled inception, than in the very first regular episode produced after the pilot: The Naked Now. This instalment, far from launching the Enterprise-D on a confident trajectory, instead stumbled clumsily out of the gate, setting a problematic tone that the series would spend considerable time overcoming.
The most persistent and damning criticism levelled against The Naked Now is its staggering lack of originality. Written by D. C. Fontana, a veteran writer instrumental in shaping The Original Series (TOS), the episode functions overtly as a direct sequel to TOS’s first-season entry, The Naked Time. While The Naked Time had successfully utilised a polywater-based intoxication to explore character vulnerabilities amidst impending doom, The Naked Now felt less like a thoughtful homage and more like a tired, uninspired photocopy. The fundamental premise – a mysterious pathogen inducing disinhibition and erratic behaviour aboard a starship observing a stellar phenomenon – was lifted wholesale, robbing the TNG iteration of any sense of novelty or progression expected from a new chapter in the franchise. Critics were swift to condemn this as a creative bankruptcy symptomatic of the show’s uncertain early direction.
The plot itself unfolds with wearying familiarity. In 2364, the USS Enterprise-D is dispatched to investigate the loss of contact with the SS Tsiolkovsky, a research vessel monitoring the collapse of a red supergiant star. Initial hails yield only fragmented, disturbing transmissions hinting at manic behaviour. A subsequent boarding party discovers the Tsiolkovsky’s entire crew dead, victims of the same mysterious affliction. The contagion swiftly jumps ship; Geordi La Forge is the first Enterprise crewmember to exhibit symptoms – profuse sweating, escalating euphoria, and rapidly deteriorating judgment. It becomes chillingly apparent that whatever devastated the research vessel is now infiltrating the Federation flagship. The culprit is revealed to be polywater intoxication, a phenomenon perilously close to destroying Kirk’s Enterprise nearly a century prior. Doctor Beverly Crusher, herself succumbing to the effects, frantically races to synthesise a vaccine. Meanwhile, the situation spirals: her son, Wesley Crusher, infected and emboldened, impersonates Captain Picard’s voice to seize command of Engineering. Simultaneously, the distraught engineer James Shimoda (Benjamin W.S. Lum), in a childlike stupor, removes critical isolinear chips, crippling the warp drive – a catastrophic error as the dying star’s imminent supernova threatens to obliterate the immobilised Enterprise.
The episode’s structural flaws are compounded by deeply unpopular character choices. Its reliance on Wesley Crusher as the pivotal figure – first plunging the ship into peril through reckless insubordination, then miraculously salvaging the situation through precocious technical brilliance – ignited fierce resentment among viewers. To many Trekkies, Wesley embodied the worst kind of "Mary Sue" fantasy, seemingly inserted as Gene Roddenberry’s idealised alter ego, granted impossible competence and narrative centrality that undermined the established command structure and grated against the more ensemble-driven ethos of TOS. This perception significantly damaged audience goodwill towards the character from the outset.
However, the most vociferous and enduring criticism targets the episode’s pervasive, crassly executed "sauciness." Unlike The Naked Time, where intoxication manifested in diverse ways (suicidal despair, manic singing, irrational phobias), The Naked Now relentlessly channels the polywater’s effects almost exclusively into quasi-erotic misadventures and forced romantic tension. We witness a disinhibited Dr. Crusher making clumsy, alcohol-fuelled advances on Picard; Deanna Troi exhibiting flirtation towards Riker; and most notoriously, Lieutenant Tasha Yar initiating a sexual encounter with the android Data. While superficially titillating for a primetime 1980s audience, these subplots are executed with astonishing narrative clumsiness. The humour derived from the characters’ intoxicated states falls utterly flat precisely because the audience, encountering these figures for only the second time (after the pilot), lacked any meaningful connection to their sober personas. The inevitable comparisons to TOS only heightened the sense of derivative, unearned titillation, making the "jokes" land with a thud rather than a chuckle.
Consequently, The Naked Now was eviscerated upon release. Accusations of unoriginality were joined by potent charges of sexism, particularly regarding the portrayal of female characters (Crusher, Troi, Yar) primarily as objects of desire or instigators of sexual situations when intoxicated. The sheer absurdity of Data, a being explicitly defined by his lack of emotion and biological processes, succumbing to polywater intoxication was widely condemned as a fundamental violation of established character logic. The backlash was so severe that Fontana herself demanded her writing credit be removed under the pseudonym "J. Michael Bingham," a rare act of professional disavowal reflecting profound creative dissatisfaction. Similar sentiments were reportedly echoed behind the scenes by disgruntled crew members.
Yet, amidst the justified criticism, faint glimmers of merit emerge. Gates McFadden, an actress with strong comedic instincts reportedly frustrated by the initial lack of levity in her role, visibly relishes the rare opportunity to showcase Dr. Crusher’s intoxicated vulnerability and misguided romantic overtures. Her physical comedy and flustered delivery provide the episode’s most genuinely watchable moments. Furthermore, the Yar/Data encounter, however problematic in conception, undeniably became one of TNG’s most infamous and frequently discussed early moments. Its sheer audacity, coupled with the even more memorable epilogue where Yar tells Data that „it never happened” transcends the episode’s crass setup.
Ultimately, The Naked Now remains a significant misfire, a clumsy, unoriginal, and often cringe-inducing relic of TNG’s awkward adolescence. Its flaws – derivative plotting, poor characterisation, questionable sexual politics, and logical absurdities – are undeniable and severely hampered the series’ launch. Fontana’s disavowal and the audience’s scorn were entirely warranted. However, viewed not as a standalone piece but as a historical artefact within the broader, triumphant arc of The Next Generation, its status has subtly shifted. It is no longer merely a "worst episode" contender, but rather an endearing, if deeply flawed, piece of nostalgia. It captures a specific, uncertain moment before the show found its confident voice – a reminder of the messy, human process behind crafting what would become the franchise’s golden age.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
InLeo blog https://inleo.io/@drax.leo
LeoDex: https://leodex.io/?ref=drax
InLeo: https://inleo.io/signup?referral=drax.leo
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
BCH donations: qpvxw0jax79lhmvlgcldkzpqanf03r9cjv8y6gtmk9