So Altec & Straleb are both part of the Coalition of Madena in the Omega Sagitta system. The proper name for a star in the constellation Sagitta is Sagittae.

The Enterprise is supposed to be intercepting the Erstwhile, but the scene shows the Enterprise traveling in a straight line while Okona's ship turns to come up behind the Enterprise. Also who was controlling the Erstwhile? When the main viewer first shows Okona he is facing away and bent over working on his ship. I suppose that could be where his controls are, but it seems like an uncomfortable way to fly a ship.

Why did Riker make such a big deal about Wesley lining the ship up right, when all they are doing is grabbing it with a tractor beam? If they were attempting to dock then I could understand the fuss, but many episodes have shown tractor beams capable of grabbing objects anywhere around the ship.

Mr. Comic comes from the twentieth century and he is telling Data some jokes, then we see Data telling Guinan a joke, "A monk, a clone and a Ferengi..." Since we only first hear about the Ferengi in the 24th century, where would a 20th century comic learn of the Ferengi? (Watching Star Trek perhaps?) I suppose Data could have updated a joke to include a Ferengi, or Data was just telling a 24th century joke in the style of Mr. Comic.

In the discussion about going to yellow alert, it is Riker who tells Picard about the regulation, but if it is an "old regulation," then why doesn't Picard know it?

The Straleb ship was said to be similar to the Altec ship, but they didn't look all that similar.

I don't have the show on tape so I couldn't double check, but it seemed as if Okona's ship and the Altec ship, had the same design, but their bows and afts were reversed. At the beginning, Okona's ship turns to come behind the Enterprise, then we see a side view when the Enterprise has it in a tractor beam, later the Altec ship comes up in front of the Enterprise and locks phasers on it. Those events would seem to indicate that both ships are facing the Enterprise, but the shot of the Altec ship shows it facing the same direction as Okona's ship. Unfortunately, we never see Okona's ship after it's in the tractor beam, so I couldn't tell for certain.

Just after Okona agrees to surrender, the lights on Picard's chair are on when Picard sits, but off when he gets up. (Maybe that is the real purpose of the lights! To let people know when the Captain is sitting in the chair? In the next episode, Loud As A Whisper, there is a scene where Riker is sitting in the Captain's chair, but only one light is on, apparently to tell people that it is just the First Officer who sits there.)

Several times in this episode Picard uses a gesture to tell Worf to mute the main veiwscreen. So why in the next episode will Worf react to sign language as if he is unfamiliar with "gestural language?"

In the Next Gen guide Phil comments on going to Guinan about humor stating that Whoopi Goldberg is a comic but not Guinan.

How do we know?? We see her humor streak in a few episodes ("The Dauphin" comes to mind). She is an old woman apparently, she hangs out with Uncle Turkel ("The only one with a sense of humor"). I think she would be as good as any.
Think of his options- Riker would have been alright, even Pulaski, but what about Geordi, Troi, Worf and Wesley? His options are very narrow. (I will grant that Geordi has said some very funny lines but it is not in his nature to have that humorous streak Data is looking for).

The scene where Data and the comic imitate Jerry Lewis is great especially when Data tries to talk with the teeth still in.

Trivia note: Brent Spiner has only watched a handful of TNG eps- this is one of them because it is one of his favourites. (This comes from a convention apparently, if someone wants to correct me on it go ahead).

IIRC the funniest comedian told jokes about some specialized branch of mathematics.

You don't suppose the punchlines were some variation of "I demand a recount!", do you?

To bad Pulaski wasn't in this episode! She missed a golden oppertunity to make fun of Data's lack of humor! Would of been ther fourth episode in a row for her to question his lack of abilitys, his name, or his skills!

Does anyone know who the actress is who was the transporter person and the first woman seduced by (or to seduce) Okona? She is very beautiful, but her name did not seem to show up in the credits.

Ah, I answered my own question - it was Teri Hatcher as Transporter Chief Lt. Bronwyn Gail [B.G.] Robinson. No wonder she looked good.

The post as chief of security gives some neat privileges. When Worf goes to collect Okona, after the Straleb's and Altec's show up, he just storms into the quarter where Okona is. If it's the crewmembers quarters he goes into, it's extremely rude just to waltz right in, and it also has to be illegal. If it's Okona's quarters it really wouldn't make any difference, it would still be rude and illegal.

After Okona agrees to go see Picard and leave the room Worf gives the crewmember a quite angry/disapproving look. Why, she didn't do anything wrong.

My copy of this episode is pretty lousy in terms of quality, so I could be wrong, but when Data has his first conversation with Guinan the camera pans along the bar. Just before we see Guinan and Data I could swear I saw Keevan (the Vorta from Rock & Shoals) siting having a drink. Does this mean the Dominion already know about the Federation and have begun their infiltration?

Gerry, I recognized Teri Hatcher as the transporter chief right away -- well, when I saw the episode tonight, not when it first aired. That was way before Lois and Clark, and the Radio Shack ads.

Again, since it's been several years since I've seen this episode, I now have a bigger TV. I noticed on the Holodeck readout, you can see the name of the comic Data picked was Ronald D. Moore. Sorry, Mr. Piscapo.

P.S. At the beginning of the episode, Worf goes to go one of the back stations on the bridge to see the information readout on Okana's ship. That's a pretty ineffecient place to be if he were suddenly ordered to fire phasers or raise shields or anything else trivial like that.

Picard makes a log entry talking about archaic (sp?) morality. What is so archaic about expecting a father to take responsibility for his baby?

Oh my God! Rene is really Dan Quayle!

I think what Picard was alluding to was the perception of a daughter as "property" of a father, and that a father was "dishonored" if his daughter became pregnant out of wedlock, or that she herself were dishonored if she were to raise the child herself, or that an illegitimate child is to be pitied and shamed.

There's nothing wrong about believing that a father take repsonsibility for his baby, but I would say that taking responsibility for one's child would mean financial support and moral upbringing. Since Debin is the leader of Altec, I doubt he's hard up for cash so much that he needs Okona's money, and since Debin no doubt thinks Okona is a rogue and scoundrel, why would he want his grandchild to be raised by him? At the very least, I could understand if he wanted Okona to be around to provide an emotional rapport for the child, but he never mentions any of these things, and seems to regard marriage in and of itself as the most important thing, which I believe is archaic.

I don't know if you watch Friends or not, Rene, but Ross (David Schwimmer) pulled the same thing with Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) after finding out she was pregnant with his child following a drunken tryst. She asserted that she wasn't in love with him, and didn't want to marry him. Is it have been right for two people to marry who weren't in love? Can't they provide a loving environment for the child outside of marriage?

I thought it was great when Teri Hatcher strained to look at Okona and the console underneath her shook.

Guess it isn't grounded, or nailed, or taped or stapled or anything.

Or maybe Okona can really make the earth move by just standing on it!

Eww. Friends. No thanks :p

As for what Picard meant, I guess you could be right.

And sorry for taking so long to respond...Just noticed the post now

Don't sweat it, buddy.

Happy Holidays.

DELETED LINE: "Live from New York, It's Saturday Night!" Data when the comic (Piscopo) shows up. Now THAT would be a funny touch to the show!

Picard's crew lacks certain discipline.
Okona beams aboard, seduces & sweet talks some beautiful yeoman and shows up later IN HER QUARTERS. The yeoman is wearing a red hot dress with a slit in the leg. Wouldn't this call for some kind of diciplinary action? (If something happened, that is)

Why? There's no rule against fraternising with civilians. (Not sure if Voyager moved the goalposts here.)

At one point Okona thought he was in trouble over his behaviour with the crewwomen, and Picard specifically said that Okona was free to fraternise with the crew.

The nit is that the yeoman (was it the same one?) gave us all that sultry look instead of being upset when Worf walked in on them.

But wait till Ensign Kent finds out. (Teri Hatcher of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, played the yeoman.)

I wonder what would have happened if Chief O'Brian had been working the transporter?

Picard's crew lacks certain discipline.
Okona beams aboard, seduces & sweet talks some beautiful yeoman and shows up later IN HER QUARTERS. The yeoman is wearing a red hot dress with a slit in the leg. Wouldn't this call for some kind of diciplinary action? (If something happened, that is)

Don't think that Starfleet has a rule aginst being a "fast/easy woman." And Okona is not in the chain of command (he's not even in starfleet)

Sophie Hawksworth: Not sure if Voyager moved the goalposts here.
Luigi Novi: If you mean The Disease, they only referred to aliens not cleared for copulation. Okona is human.

No, it's never established what race Okona is. He looks human, but so did the aliens from the other two planets.

The fact that Lt. Robinson and that other crewmen suffered no consequences after shagging him would mean that either he was, or that the alien relations rule in The Disease was put in place after The Outrageous Okona.

I found one nit on the DVD version of this ep that I dunno if it's been mentioned before, either here or elsewhere. If you show the subtitles the name Altec appears just "Altec", but whenever someone says the name it's pronounced as "Atlec". Did anyone else ever notice this? I think Debin pronounced it as "Altec" once but I wasn't sure. One good thing about the subtitles on these two sets (I also now have the third but just started S2) is that hardly any words are left out, unlike the S1 and S2 Buffy sets, which leave out quite a few words. I guess they're catering to deaf people, figuring they can't read as fast as hearing people speak, but that's just my supposition, I could be wrong.

Speaking of mispronunciations...I seem to recall that Phil mentioned something about Picard calling Okona "O'conner". Maybe remembering wrong. But he does, clear as day, same way he pronounces Data "Dater". I guess it's not a nit then?

What a guest cast--you've got "SNL" veteran Joe Piscopo and soon to be Lois Lane/Radio Shack shill Teri Hatcher, but there's also:

Bill Campbell (Okona), star of the late and mourned series "Once and Again" with Sela Ward.

Rosalind Allen (Yanar), who was on "SeaQuest" as Dr. Wendy Smith. You may also remember her from that one "Seinfeld" episode where she thinks George is a marine biologist.

Sorry, I don't remember her from SeaQuest or Seinfeld, maybe because I never watched those shows! lol

And how could you forget that Teri Hatcher is now the star of the huge ABC hit "Desperate Housewives"?

I remember Bill Campbell more from his starring roll in 1991's "The Rocketeer" than from some short lived TV series.

And along with Joe Piscopo, Teri Hatcher, Bill Campbell and Rosalind Allen, you also had Whoopi Goldberg in this episode!!

I wrote that entry before Desperate Housewives aired, I believe (June 2004).

Thank you for reminding me Bill Campbell was the Rocketeer; that was a fine movie that I keep forgetting about.

Nevermind Bill Campbell in "The Rocketeer". It's all about the incredibly beautiful Jennifer Connelly!

There is a great review of this episode over at The Agony Booth.

http://www.agonybooth.com/extras/trek/okona/

HMMM! Lois Lane from "Lois & Clark" is the Transpoter Chief in this episode....NAW! Just kidding. Same actress.

JohnA: what's a Transpoter Chief? The head cleaner?

I meant: "Transporter"

No a transpoter chief is the head coke head who goes round looking for trans.

The post as chief of security gives some neat privileges. When Worf goes to collect Okona, after the Straleb's and Altec's show up, he just storms into the quarter where Okona is. If it's the crewmembers quarters he goes into, it's extremely rude just to waltz right in, and it also has to be illegal.

It's not illegal. The right to privacy is much more limited in Starfleet when ship's security is involved. Tuvok read people's mail from home in 'Repression'. He would have the right to enter people's quarters to apprehend someone.

The right to privacy is limted in any military when a ships security is involved.

I suppose technically speaking the ship's security was involved, there were alien ships "threatening" the enterprise so Okona was needed ASAP to resolve the matter.

ok so that was thin. I suppose in the end it comes down to: if Worf barged into your room, would you yell at him?

I. Hate. This. Episode!!!!

Why? Well, because of Thadius "Mr. Testostorone" Okona fraternizing with THREE different women aboard the Enterprise, and the episode promoting and flaunting promiscuity at the same time. I don't condone misogyny, but I ALSO don't condone promiscuity! And that goes for both men *and* women!

But if I had ever had the chance to make love to a gorgeous beautiful woman like Lt. Robinson (the way Teri Hatcher was in the late 80s/early 90s) I most certainly would! I am still a man, and even though I don't let my member do all the thinking for me, I still would not turn down the chance for some good lovin'!

Now that that's out of the way, the other thing I REALLY don't like about this episode is the whole "Data tries to understand humor" angle. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against Data trying to expand his programming, I just think that he went about it the wrong way, which resulted in some EXTREMELY annoying dialogue. His mugging for the camera the way Milton Berle or Frank Zappa would have done, and having that "I'm From Joisey!" third-rate hack Joe Piscopo as a mentor (!!), was almost TOO MUCH for me to bear!

And the actress playing Yanar was pretty, I thought, and the one thing about Okona that I didnt mind is that he didn't hit on her, as she was pregnant with Benzan's child, and that he was able to resolve the conflict between the two worlds. So maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all.

The point is, for the reasons I mentioned, they are why I dislike this episode so much. Maybe it isn't actually the VERY worst of TNG, but I still think it was pretty bad!

---

quote:

I remember Bill Campbell more from his starring role in 1991's "The Rocketeer" than from some short lived TV series.

---

"That 'short-lived' series actually ran three seasons and 66 episodes. A decent, if not great, run. And the series, and Billy Campbell's performance in it, helped me through a very rough time in my life. So, please don't casually dismiss it."


Well, Adam, you are certainly "entitled to your opinion", but wasn't "John-Boy" one of the few contributors to NC that was permanently banned? Why would his opinion still mean anything around here? And after all these years, why would you even care what he had to say about one of your favorite shows? It doesn't make sense to me why you'd still be making a big deal about this, that's all.

I thought for sure someone would have had something to say about my contribution to this episode. You know, how I dont condone misogny or promiscuity? I thought perhaps that might have sparked a lively debate at some point! But then again, this site is on "life support" as someone put it not long ago, and there are only diehard Doctor Who fans who actually post here on a regular basis.

I suppose I should not be expecting anything more than that at this point! You know what I mean?

/i{there are only diehard Doctor Who fans who actually post here on a regular basis}

The reason for that, I think, is that of all the shows here at NC that have their own sections, Doctor Who is the only one currently in production (all the other shows that are current are folded away in the Kitchen Sink). Since new episodes are being filmed, there will always be new, fresh materials for Whovians to talk about.

TNG, on the other hand, has been over and done with for almost twenty years now. Even the last TNG movie is now a decade in the past. TNG is, IMHO, old news.

Correct-O-Mundo, Tim my man. You certainly nailed it with that assessment of the situation at hand. And I'm glad you did!

Anyway, I still sometimes find things to discuss about TNG eps. Also, have you ever posted on the VGR board? I left a few there a few days ago.

Since Luigi no longer moderates that one, I can finally post on it again. That's a relief, let me tell you!

And TNG is STILL my very favorite of all the Treks!

Another reason I hate this episode is that they actually have a 24th century human use the extremely lame and annoying tactic of...well, I'll just let them say it:

"I'm Wesley. Wesley Crusher!"
"Hi, Wesley Wesley Crusher, good to know ya!" (or something like that)

And I just saw the Friends episode where Phoebe does the same thing to the guy that eventually freaks her out so much that she has to find a new grocery store, a new florist, a new dry cleaner, a new adult bookstore...you get the idea. Of course, after that, she meets The Most Positive Man In The Universe, played by Alec Baldwin. And dont even get me started on him!

Anyway, why did they have one of the characters in Trek do that? The fact that they actually had a human in the future use that incredibly idiotic line in response to someone that said their first name twice when introducing themselves. I hate it enough when it's said in modern day shows that take place "today", but to have that happen on TNG? I can't believe that it did, and I REALLY wish that it hadn't.

And one more thing? Why did Billy Campbell take the role of the evil cheating husband who terrorizes his wife after she leaves him in "Enough"? Did he not want to get typecast as a nice guy or something? You know, like on "Once & Again"? I HATED that movie! It had a feminist agenda, as well as a "battered woman gets revenge" plot. Well, feminism is all well and good, but that movie was extremely uncomfortable to sit through, and I hope to never see it again.

And I really do wonder why Sirtis and Wheaton voted Campbell their favorite guest star from the entire TNG run. What was wrong with everyone else, why didnt they rate? And who was their *least* favorite? That's what I'd REALLY like to know.....

And one more thing? Why did Billy Campbell take the role of the evil cheating husband who terrorizes his wife after she leaves him in "Enough"? ....

And this has to do with the episode, how?

Oh for God's sake, what the hell is your problem, man?!

I was talking about him so I brought up a really bad movie he had done! Is that not allowed all of a sudden for some reason?

If it is, this is the first I've heard about it!

Try to be more flexible and openminded, dude, and dont be so friggin' by-the-book about the site rules concerning "staying on topic"!

If you can somehow manage that, I will be most grateful. Over and out.

Anyway, why did they have one of the characters in Trek do that? The fact that they actually had a human in the future use that incredibly idiotic line in response to someone that said their first name twice when introducing themselves. I hate it enough when it's said in modern day shows that take place "today", but to have that happen on TNG?

Well, Okona obviously did that on purpose as a joke. He seemed to like a good laugh, and that joke, lame as it may be, was almost irresistable in the situation and entirely in character. He is also not human, unless the people of Straleb and Atlec are descended from Earth colonists. Considering their level of development, they probaly are not. Regardless, they obviously belong to a society more primitive than the Federation, and that sort of idiotic humor might be perfectly acceptable to them.

Well, I'll be damned. I always thought Okona WAS human. I thought that he was a human member of the Federation, and as he was obviously not in Starfleet, he was able to live his own life and be as footloose and fancy free as he wanted to be!

Is there any evidence to support the idea that he wasn't human? I wonder about that!

The species he belongs to is actually never stated. There is no hard evidence for or against. It's just a general impression I have, from the level of technology these people use, the non-starfleet style of their spaceships, their clothes, their customs, etc. They don't even have phasers, a type of weapon used pretty much by every human inhabited world in the Federation.

There are really only two possible answers, as Francios suggests.

1. Okona is human, and comes from either Earth or a colony world. If that is the case, it is likely he's a Federation citizen (unless his colony seceded from the Federation for some reason). He seems to like living by his own rules, so Starfleet would not be for him (like Cyrano Jones and Harry Mudd, neither which would fit into Starfleet life).

2. Okona is not human, but one of the many humanoid species that populate the galaxy. As to whether he is a Federation citizen, or his home planet is a Federation member, your guess is as good as mine. It's never really stated.

Billy (or, if you prefer, William O.) Campbell will return as Okona in Nickelodeon's Star Trek Prodigy. Should I be holding my breath for a cross-over with Sponge-Bob? More here.

Of all the characters to bring back, I wouldn't have expected Okona to be on the list!

Heres more about Billy Campbell almost getting cast as Riker; Okona could be looked at as his consolation prize.

Instead of the ersatz Jerry Lewis played by Joe Piscopo, us Trek fans could have gotten the real article. Here's more on that.

LADY!