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Old 03-14-2018, 01:43 PM
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March 14th, 1988, "Coming of Age"

Fiver (by Derek)
Transcript
Memory Alpha

The Episode

Let's get this out of the way up front: This whole premise of "only one person from this group can get into the Academy at this time" is ludicrous. Period. It opens plotholes and is clearly just here for cheap drama. Wesley just happened to be here! There doesn't seem to be a reason why all of these candidates have to be in the same place. Whatever the screenwriters intended Mordack was badly written and his acceptance really does look like filling a quota. This. Is. Badly. Written.

T'SHANIK: You do not look as if you meet the age requirements.
WESLEY: Uh, I'll be sixteen next month.
OLIANA: Happy birthday.

Yeah, about that...why is the age requirement so strict? The age of maturity is different for different species, and there will always be outliers like Wesley.

REMMICK: Yes. To the best of your knowledge, has the Captain ever falsified a log?

Why would Riker know? Is it his job to fact-check the logs?

RIKER: If you want to discuss anything about Captain Picard, you bring him in here and ask him face to face.
REMMICK: You are required to answer my questions, Mister Riker, unless you're trying to cover something up!

Is Remmick supposed to sound intimidating? If so, it didn't work.

REMMICK: So, you are saying Captain Picard had no control over this vessel. He handed it over to Kosinski, who took the entire crew to the edge of the universe.
LAFORGE: No, sir. That's not what I'm saying. Now, Kosinski was sent by Starfleet to improve our warp drive system. Captain Picard was ordered to take him aboard.
REMMICK: According to his own logs, his Bridge crew didn't think highly of Mister Kosinski's theories, yet the Captain allowed him to access to the engines anyway.

The captain was ordered to cooperate with Kosinski, and at the time the chief engineer believed that his work could do no harm. Furthermore, Kosinski did not take the crew to the edge of the universe, the Traveller did.

REMMICK: Do you believe the captain is emotionally and psychologically fit for command of this starship? There is nothing in his history or his personality that would suggest mental lapses?
TROI: Nothing.
REMMICK: Not even the Ferengi incident with his old ship, the Stargazer?
TROI: He was being controlled by a mind altering machine, Commander. Without his knowledge.
REMMICK: I would call that a mental lapse.

Remmick was using the term to imply a fault on the part of Picard, not an external influence. If external influences mattered, I don't think any Starfleet captain could hold their job very long.

REMMICK: Captain, you are completely responsible for that boy's life.
PICARD: Mister Remmick, either get out of my way and keep quiet, or I will have you removed from the Bridge.

I hate Remmick. He's acting like one of those smug ambassadors in TOS, but doesn't have the rank to back it up.

REMMICK: Very original, Captain. But how did that child acquire access to a shuttlecraft?
RIKER: Kurland is a highly qualified Enterprise Academy candidate, fully trained in many areas including shuttles.

That didn't answer Remmick's question, Will. Not in the slightest.

CHANG: It's important to know how you candidates deal with other cultures, other species.
MORDOCK: Then it was a test.
CHANG: Yes. Not all tests are announced, or what they appear to be.

I'm reminded of that old urban legend about divinity students being waylaid by a fake beggar on their way to a test, not realizing that the beggar was the test. Ugh.

REMMICK: You're an android, correct?

What an idiot. Of course Data is an android, it's part of the public record. What did this question achieve beyond making him look like an idiot?

REMMICK: Just how did this contaminant get aboard the ship?
WORF: By accident, sir.
REMMICK: Meaning Captain Picard has no standing procedure for this type of situation?

What situation? "Accident" means unpredicted. You can't have a "standing procedure" for everything because you can't predict everything! Remmick should be focusing on things that might have actually been judgment lapses on Picard's part.

REMMICK: You don't like me very much, do you?
WORF: Is it required, sir?

Great response, although a better one is "have you given me a reason to like you?"

REMMICK: I spoke to officer after officer, at length. I pried into the ships log reports. And yet I could find nothing wrong. Except, perhaps, a casual familiarity among the Bridge crew, but mostly that comes from a sense of teamwork, and the feeling of family.

And if that's a crime, I want no part of Starfleet. Even Vulcans have a sense of teamwork. If you don't want that, go join the Borg, you jerk.

PICARD: Mister Crusher? Why aren't you in your dress uniform for Admiral Quinn's farewell dinner?
WESLEY: I didn't think that would be appropriate.
PICARD: Why not?

"Because I'm an Acting Ensign who shouldn't be going to officer's dinners and doesn't even have a real uniform, much less a dress uniform, sir."

PICARD: Wesley, you have to measure your successes and your failures within, not by anything I or anyone else might think. But, if it helps you to know this, I failed the first time. And you may not tell anyone!

Why would he have to? It's in Picard's public record if anyone cared to look it up.

The Fiver

Picard: Good luck on your test, Wesley. I hope you get into the Academy and never have to visit this ship again.
Wesley: Thanks, sir. But I'm sure that even if I get into the Academy, I'll still want at least one episode a season anyway.

I would've thrown in a reference to his contract, but this still works.

Oliana: Hi. You must be Wesley. I've heard a lot about you.
Wesley: Are you a love interest for me this episode?
Oliana: Not after what I've heard about you.
T'Shanik: I'm also not a love interest; you won't get one until next season.
Mordock: And I'm your rival, so forget about any male friendship between us.
Wesley: Sigh.

"It's gonna be one of those days..."

Remmick: Would you say the Captain was irresponsible to let Kosinski into Engineering?
La Forge: No, why would I?
Remmick: Because that incident resulted in Wesley being made an acting ensign.
La Forge: That is a good point.

Yes, it is.

Remmick: So would you call the Captain sane?
Troi: Of course not. His name's Jean-Luc.
Remmick: What about the time he was mind-controlled by the Ferengi?
Troi: His name was still Jean-Luc.

Hehe.

Memory Alpha

* First episode after Hurley took over from Roddenberry as showrunner.
* Remmick meeting with Yar isn't shown, but it must've happened. I wonder what they would've had to say to each other!

TNG Companion

Larry considers Wesley to be much better written this time. Wesley’s sixteenth birthday party was shot but cut for time.

The tale of this first appearance of the shuttlecraft, initially named the Copernicus III by Probert, is another uncanny echo of the original Trek. In both series, the building of a full-scale shuttlecraft was put off for budgetary reasons until writers made the craft and integral part of a story so that it had to be built.

Nitpicker's Guide

* Phil is also confused as to why Wesley didn't get in. In particular he points out that Worf and Data wanted Ishara Yar to apply for the Academy, and she can't possibly know as much about the technology as Wesley.
* If both Quinn and Remmick are being controlled by bluegills, why wouldn't they take the opportunity presented by all of these one-on-one meetings to take control of the senior staff?


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