TNG Deathmatch Episode 3: Code Of Honor vs Interface

Interface is a rare Geordi episode and – after six years – introduces us to his parents, played by Madge Sinclair and Ben Vereen, who are utterly wasted in this terrible, forgettable muddle. Geordi has often gotten the shaft from the show, being one of the lesser-developed characters – his main characteristic for a very long time was just “being blind”. In the first season he apparently had a thing for Yar, and it was mentioned that his VISOR gave him constant pain; that this last detail was mentioned once more in season two and subsequently ignored makes Geordi unique, in that he was the only character to get more development in season one than in any subsequent year.

 

There weren’t many Geordi-centric episodes: the best was probably The Enemy, followed by Identity Crisis, which gave us a great guest character in Susanna Leitjen and didn’t even try to manufacture a romance (refreshing). Then there’s the Leah Brahms episodes that turn Geordi into an MRA and expect us to be sympathetic. The Mind’s Eye is a great episode but the only reason it’s Geordi is because his VISOR makes it easier for him to be tortured. I haven’t done the sums but it feels as if Alexander got more episodes than Geordi did.

 

In Interface, he’s once again front-and-centre because his VISOR implants make him the ideal test subject for a special VR suit that enables the user to control a probe, seeing what the probe senses, exploring dangerous settings without sending a person into the fray. Except the suit does let Geordi get hurt – it translates the probe’s readings into sensory information and it ends up burning him. Why this level of immersion is necessary for information-gathering or equipment repair is unclear, and the uses to which the episode puts this gimmick aren’t worth suspending disbelief. Simply put, it’s boring, derivative, and – as I said – wastes its guest stars.

 

What I mostly remember Interface for, though, is the crew’s bizarre reaction to Geordi’s situation. Briefly, his mother’s ship has gone missing – no debris, no explanation, no nothing – and with only a minimal investigation, Starfleet declares the ship lost. Everyone basically gives up the crew for dead. Geordi’s own father more or less shrugs and says, “life goes on”. When Geordi is determined to keep looking, everyone acts like he’s some crazy obsessive; when he becomes convinced he’s seen his mother’s image on the ship he’s remote-exploring, everyone responds as if he’s delusional. Why?! This is Star Trek! These people should know better! Unless you see the body, nobody is dead – and even then, it’s not 100% guaranteed. Geordi himself was declared dead in season five and showed up at his own funeral alive and well. Why is everyone acting like he’s being irrational just because he thinks it’s possible she’s still alive?

 

Anyway, enough of that. It’s a boring episode and unworthy of further attention. Code of Honor, meanwhile, is nothing if not memorable. Say it with me: “You shall have no treaty, no vaccine and no Lieutenant Yar!”

 

Code Of Honor is infamous for giving us the Ligonians, all played by African-American actors. I’ve read that they were not originally conceived as such, and that the script specified only their servants should be black. This would have been interesting, if still questionable; it would have presented an alien society with race-based servitude and rampant misogyny, demonstrating those attitudes and that society as primitive. Instead, what we got is a weird disco-tribal-aesthetic and a story in which the society whose leader kidnaps a white woman is entirely black. (If I had a Picard facepalm gif, I’d insert it here.)

 

It would never have been a good episode anyway – I mean, it’s not as if the racism is the only thing wrong with an otherwise fine outing. The episode is goofy. It hinges on the weird idea that this apparently primitive society has nevertheless developed advanced medicines that Starfleet cannot replicate, which is hard to swallow. It ends in a campy deathmatch between Yar and Yareena (wow they got lazy naming that character) straight out of the original series. It features a bizarre exchange in which Troi “tricks” Yar into admitting that she finds Lutan attractive so she’ll “think honestly and clearly” about…about what, exactly? Whether or not she might voluntarily hand herself over to the guy who kidnapped her so that the crew can get the vaccine without further bother?

 

WINNER: Draw. They both suck.