By Anonymous on Friday, January 15, 1999 - 03:26 pm:

I wonder how Ira Graves could have influenced Dr. Noonien Soong if Soong was clearly a great deal older than Graves. Graves would therefore not be Data's "grandpa" as he had stated.
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Monday, April 19, 1999 - 09:38 am:

If Data wanted Geordi and Deanna to see his beard, then why did he face the mirror instead of facing them? Why did Data ask Deanna to come? In the episode Data's Day he makes a statement that he and Deanna don't interact a lot because she deals with emotions and he lacks them. However, in this episode, while wearing a Commander Riker style beard, he feels it necessary to invite her to see him with it. Hmmm, you don't suppose...?

Why did Graves pretend to be Data? Clearly his personality was in control so it could not have been a mental battle with Data's personality. It is mentioned that Graves hates authority, so to pretend to be an android who is only a Lt. Commander, would mean that Graves would have to be doubly servile. First to the higher ranking officers, but also to Humans, whom Graves ranks above a 'mere machine.' The only possible explanation would be that he wanted his funeral to be memorable with someone as brilliant as himself giving the eulogy, but then wouldn't that be the perfect time to reveal that he has cheated death and found a way to survive? With Graves' ego it would have been more natural for him to boast of his accomplishment right after transferring himself into Data's body, but then the rest of the episode would have been Data's friends trying to get Graves to return control to Data, instead of his friends wondering what's gotten into him when he acts so strange.

Why was Wes at the funeral? Deanna and Dr. Selar were probably there because they were among the last people to see him alive. Geordi is there to beam the coffin into space. The Captain and First Officer were there presumably because of their rank and to honor his scientific achievements. Wes didn't know him and while he may know something of Graves work, would that be enough to get him a place at the funeral? If Graves was a genius, then other higher ranking members of the crew would also be familiar with Graves work, but we didn't see any of them at the funeral.

Why do they just beam the coffin into space to become a space hazard? Is there some kind of beacon on it to warn ships that it is there or is it close enough to a star to be pulled in and burned up?

Graves, in Data's body, tells Wes, "When you get to be my age" Wes responds that chronologically Data isn't that much older than him. Oh, really, Wes is 16, maybe 17 years old, while Data was found by the Tripoli 27 years earlier. At the very least Data is ten years older than Wes.

When they were flashing the images for Data to look at, one of the pictures appeared to be Remmick just before he was zapped by Picard and Riker in Conspiracy. Did those theater loving 'beetles' record their actions???

This is the "hands down" BEST episode of Season Two.
To know it, is to love it, and to love it, is to know it. Those who know it, love it, and those who do not know it, love it from afar.

Speaking of the funeral, why do they have apparently the whole service in the transporter room? Wouldn't a place like the Observation Lounge be more appropriate? (I can't see them having the funeral in Ten-Forward because of the small amount of people attending.) They could still do a site to site transport to get the torpedo/coffin into space.

I can't remember, but did Graves specify he wanted a small funeral? It seems to me that if he was such an influential scientist, more people from across the Federation would attend. (Then they could use Ten-Forward!)

Given Graves' ego, he would probably want the biggest funeral possible.

Given that Wesley was the one who kept coming up with irksome repetitions of Data/Graves gushy eulogy ("To know him is to love him is to know him..."), I think we can guess exactly why Wesley was at the funeral... He read the script!

Regarding Dr. Graves' funeral, why wasn't the transporter technician/chief there. If Wesley were allowed to attend, then it wouldn't be that strange that the transporter operator remained.


Picard: Your sevice is not required Mr. O'Brien, you did not see any of this funeral.

O'Brien: Right Sir. I'll just stand over here dozing off until you're finished.

Isn't there a theory that Dr Ira Graves was (at least partly) based on the Great Bird of the Galaxy himself - Gene Roddenberry?

Y'know, I read somewhere that they originally had Patrick McGoohan in mind to play Dr. Graves, and "The Schizoid Man" was already a reference to McGoohan's "The Prisoner" episode of the same name. Anybody else hear that before?

Most of the images that were on the viewer were from "Star Trek II-The Wrath of Khan" A great deal of them were from "The Genesis Summary" segment. I was waiting for Dr. Carol Marcus to pop up.

Spectre: Isn't there a theory that Dr Ira Graves was (at least partly) based on the Great Bird of the Galaxy himself - Gene Roddenberry?

But with respect to Gene, was to know him really to love him? I can see the possible resemblance in looks and personality, but yeah...

Peter Stoller: Y'know, I read somewhere that they originally had Patrick McGoohan in mind to play Dr. Graves, and "The Schizoid Man" was already a reference to McGoohan's "The Prisoner" episode of the same name. Anybody else hear that before?

I heard that too... I think it was in the Encyclopedia as well. This from a period in Star Trek's lifetime when they anticipated Sean "Sha Ka Ree" Connery for the role of Sybok in Star Trek 5, which I think was in the process of being made at the time.

I agree with some of the sentiments here - this is one of the best episodes of the season, right up there with "The Measure of a Man", "Q Who?" and "The Emissary". Speaking of the latter, I remember a wildly inaccurate season 2 Starlog interview (I think it was Starlog) with Michael Dorn, which stated that in "The Schizoid Man" his character was to fall in love with a female Vulcan (presumably Dr. Selar). While said Vulcan was indeed present in this episode, love would not blossom until "The Emissary" when the Vulcan "mysteriously changed" into a half-Klingon half-human diplomat! (I know, I know, so sue me...)

John A. Lang: Most of the images that were on the viewer were from "Star Trek II-The Wrath of Khan"
Luigi Novi: Well, 5 out of 29 were. More like just under a sixth. (pick, pick, pick!)

Wait til this guy encounters the J’naii
Great Line: "Women aren’t people. They’re women." -Graves, ogling Selar and Troi.

Insert your own "the writers" + "mental illness" joke here
The use of the word "schizoid" in this episode’s title is an obvious reference to the two personalities that Troi says are in Data, but aside from possibly being insensitive to people with this disorder, schizophrenia has nothing to do with multiple personalities, a common misconception. The condition of having more than one personality is known as multiple personality disorder, or MPD. Schizophrenia is characterized by the inability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Common traits among schizophrenics are hallucinations, feelings of paranoia and persecution, delusions of grandeur, and the phenomena of "hearing voices."
Hey, Graves, you see that Betazoid babe I came down here with? You do the math.
After being asked if he knows what "desire" is, Data gives Graves the dictionary definition, and when Graves pushes further for a firsthand knowledge of it, Data says he doesn’t know what desire is. That’s not true. Doesn’t Data desire to be human?
She’s also in the wrong career. She gets almost nothing to do on this show, but would RACK UP working for The National Enquirer!
In the previous episode, I noted how thoughtless it was of Troi to speak out loud about Worf’s private emotions in front of everyone without his permission, and without speaking to him first in private. In this episode, Troi again brazenly informs Brianon of Graves’ feelings for her, which is his business, not Troi’s or Brianon’s, and which he has every right to keep to himself. Unlike in the prior episode, where I allowed for the argument that Troi at least had some cause, given the conceivable threat to the mission in that episode, there is absolutely no cause for Troi to do so in this one. She is invading Grave’s privacy by telling Brianon this.
Wish I could get the cable guy to give me this kind of attention
The Constantinople must have been practically right next to Grave’s World, and its repair needs must have consisted of nothing more than applying some scotch tape. The stardate Pulaski gives in the beginning of the opening teaser is 42437.5. After the Enterprise returns to Grave’s World in the beginning of Act 3 following their aide of the Constantinople, the stardate Picard gives in his log is 42437.7, a difference of only .2 stardate units. Since 1000 stardate units equal one Earth year, then 2.739 equal one Earth day, and a lapse of .2 sdu, therefore, is just over one hour!
Postmortem flatulence?
After Graves’ casket is beamed into space, it is seen floating away. Where did the momentum come from? It would have plenty of momentum if they shot it out of a photon torpedo tube, as they did with Spock’s torpedo casket at the end of ST II, but instead, they used the transporter.
Now he’s pointing out everyone’s age? No wonder people hate this kid!
After Graves, in Data’s body, mouths off to Wesley about his advanced years compared with Wesley’s, Wes says that chronologically, Data isn’t much older than him. Wes was born in 2349, since Beverly said he was 17 in Evolution (2366). Data was created in 2335, according to The Star Trek Chronology, making him 14 years older than Wesley, which is the same age as Commander Riker, according to The Icarus Factor.
Well, Riker feels that Picard acts like a prick too
When Picard brings Brianon to the bridge, Graves/Data makes a sarcastic remark under his breath. Picard asks him to repeat the comment, Graves/Data dismisses the comment as "nothing," and then Picard, who probably didn’t hear to clearly, lets it go initially. Wesley, sitting next to Graves/Data, presumably did hear it, and asks him what he’s doing. But Riker was standing right over Graves/Data as he made the comment. Why didn’t he react?
She’s giving him the Nitpicker’s Guild entrance exam
I can understand why Troi gives Data the psychotronic stability exam, and I understand why she wants to gauge his psychological reactions to the images on the screen, and why some of the images are from Grave’s memories and some are from Data’s but what does the Genesis Device from ST II have to do with either of them? These are the images from the exam in order:
----1. Some field of moss
----2. Unverified; Looks like an energy matrix or possibly a molecule
----3. Waterfalls
----4. Brianon
----5. Fire
----6. An Earth-like planet moving away from the viewer
----7. A dorsal view of the Enterprise
----8. Graves
A shot of Troi, and then Data
----9. Two Starfleet officers kissing
----10. The newborn Ian Andrew Troi from The Child
----11. Some type of lattice-structured object, possibly the Crystalline Entity, or some type of cell
----12. The United Federation of Planets’ Starfleet Command insignia
----13. Tasha Yar’s funeral hologram
----14. The pond with plant branches from ST IV, when the Bounty first arrives in 1986.
----15. Graves’ corpse in the torpedo casket
----16. Brianon
----17. The Genesis Planet
----18. Picard
Shot of Data, and then Troi
----19. Part of the Genesis Effect demonstration from ST II
----20. Commander Remmick from Conspiracy
----21. Dr. Pulaski
----22. A Romulan Warbid from The Neutral Zone
----23. Geordi without his VISOR
----24. Commander Riker
----25. The molecular matrix of the Genesis effect from the demo in ST II
----26. The Reliant exploding at the end of ST II
----27. Graves’ corpse
----28. Data
----29. The Genesis Effect spreading across the planet from the demo in ST II

Why are there 5 images from ST II? And another from ST IV?
Sure he does. It’s most of the characters on Star Trek Voyager that don’t.
Right after the exam scene, Troi goes to see Picard in his ready room and tells him there are two distinct personalities within Data, one dominant, and the other recessive, and that the dominant one is growing and gobbling up the recessive one. Does Data really have a discernible "personality" that can be detected by an electronic psychological exam?
He didn’t want to be "floating away" when the transport was complete
Why doesn’t Picard beam Data/Graves out of Engineering into the brig at the end of the episode?
You just know these guys were hell when they were made hall monitor in grammar school
In Act 5, when Picard confronts Graves on the upper level of Engineering, Graves says the altercation that resulted in two unconscious engineers began when they told him he wasn’t supposed to be there. Why would two engineers tell (who they believe to be) the third-in-command of the ship that he couldn’t go to the upper level in Engineering?

I guess we may assume that the "mind" of Dr. Graves is totally gone with the destruction of the Enterprise-D in "Generations"

After Graves’ casket is beamed into space, it is seen floating away. Where did the momentum come from?

Just a thought. The transporter must be able to add or subtract momentum from a beamed object. Otherwise if you beamed to or from a moving ship you'd go splat against the bulkhead. (They usually only match speeds for transport when at warp.)

I don't remember the scene, Luigi. The question is, is there a good reason to impart the casket with momentum?

BILC

Only if they're shooting it toward a star, which wasn't indicated in the episode. Why the transporter, rather than the torpedo tubes?

Just to elaborate more on Luigi's comments about the term "schizoid" - it could refer to the phrase "schizoid personality" which refers to introspection, emotional coldness, being detached from others, having a complex fantasy life, and being solitary. In extreme cases it can be a problem, leading to the person feeling insensitive, suspicious, cold and callous to others. Thus one has to draw the line somewhere between what is normal and what is a disorder - this is a highly controversial area of topic, even among many psychiatry academics.

Multiple personality disorder is classed as a "dissociative symptom" i.e. apparently unexplained psychiatric symptoms. It's a type of "hysteria" and, as Luigi rightly stated, nothing to do with schizophrenia-type disorders at all.

Schizophrenia, on the other hand, is thought of as a severe psychosis (disorder of thought), with powerful delusions (persecutory ideas, "delusional perceptions" whereby a simple perception is interpreted as something wildly different, grandiose delusions about being God etc., feeling that someone is controlling their actions and thoughts) , and hallucinations (usually auditory and directed towards the person particularly in the third person - the so-called "voices in my head" and "hearing my thoughts out loud") to the point that it severely disables that person's social functioning.

Thus, strictly speaking, "schizophrenia" and "schizoid personality" are different terms in that a schizophrenic person could have a schizoid personality, as could a non-psychotic person. (And yes, this is the same difference between being psychotic and being a psychopath, but that's another story for another day.)

I suspect that they used the term "schizoid" in the popularly used, but inaccurate sense of having Multiple Personality Disorder.

That they probably did, as Luigi pointed out earlier. My point is that the three terms "schizoid", "schizophrenia" and "multiple personality disorder" are all categorically different.

She must have missed their ears

Shortly after they beam down, Graves' wife asks Worf "Are you a Romulan?". IMO it would have made more sense for her to mistake Dr. Selar(?), a Vulcan for a Romulan (I wonder how she would have reacted?).

Luigi wondered why Data's exam included scenes from the Trek movies. Isn't it obvious? Data obviously watched the old video logs from the original Enterprise and the Enterprise A (like the ones we saw in "Court Martial")

Either that, or Data's a Star Trek fan who prefers the Original Series cast.

Picard: ". . . a near-warp transport."
:: Is that something like "nearly pregnant?" You're either at warp or you're not. (In subspace or in normal space.)

And Data--your grammar! There's no such word as "thusly." "Thus" is already an adverb. You should know this welly.

A comment was made about Graves' final destruction along with the Enterpise-D. I must say, I doubt it. Remember that he was one of the Federation's (and possibly known space's) intellectual giants; Pulaski refers to him as the smartest living human. I'm not sure, since they don't state it well, but the ability to transcribe one's personality and memories into a computer, even as simple information (let alone Data) seemed like a huge leap forward. Would Starfleet or the Federation let this new technology, or the mind of so great a scientist, stay on a ship that has such a dangerous job? However, if such a thing did happen, it would have made for an interesting storyline. Combine Graves' program with the Holodeck, which with just official information could make a very accurate simulation of Dr. Brahms, and Graves gets his wish, to cheat death. They could have had Data continue to visit with his Grandpa and seek his advice on building more androids. Ah, missed opportunities. They could have a different actor play Graves, since he would probably select an attractive form for himself.

Also, someone referred to Kareen as Dr. Graves' wife. She was certainly not, since she was not aware that he had any feelings for her. He said that he had raised her since the deaths of her parents, so she would be his ward if not his daughter, which puts an especially perverse spin on his desire. I must agree, however, that it would have been funnier if Kareen mistook Selar for a Romulan. I think she'd arch a brow and say something like "I see no reason to stand here and be insulted."

Suzie Plakson was, of course, K'Ehleyr, but being the '90s sitcom junkie that I was, I remember her for playing the haughty lesbian gynecologist Dr. Joan in the last few years of "Mad About You."

W. Morgan Sheppard's gruff voice makes him an easy character actor to spot. He played the warden on the prison planet in Star Trek VI ("No witnesses!") and has a small but very noticeable role in "Gettysburg" as General Trimble (which he reprises in "Gods and Generals"). If you're a "Gargoyles" fan, he played Xanatos' father, Petros in a few episodes as well.

Barbara Alyn Woods can currently be seen on "One Tree Hill" in the role of Deb Scott, Nathan's mom.

"If you're a "Gargoyles" fan..."

Ah Gargoyles...home of the WORST Scottish accents I have EVER heard - bar none.

Can someone tell me data's exact quote about his beard in this episode. He says something like "It is a beard Geordi, a fine full dignified beard, one that portrays..." And i forget the rest, its one of my favorite quotes but i dont have the episode and i need some help. Thanks.

This is bizarre! I googled +"star trek" +"next generation" +"transcripts" and found a transcript of this episode here ... except that it bears very little resemblance to the episode that I saw! I guess this must be the original script before it was filmed. And there's no mention of a beard!

When Deanna gives Graves/Data the neuro test, there's a dead giveaway that something's wrong: Data uses a contraction!

"It was a waste of time then, and it's a waste of time now."

Disclaimer, exact quote may vary, but I clearly noted the contraction.

For some strange reason, Dr. Selar (Suzie Plakson) keeps one of her hands behind her back at all times.

Before Graves' casket is beamed into space, it rests on a platform. During the transporter sequence, the platform is beamed out along with the casket. However, after the casket is beamed into space, the platform is gone.

Perhaps the molecules for the casket where not reconstituted. Seems kinda wasteful to be using the transporter anyhow with that when you have a perfectly good torpedo tube to launch someone out of.

NOTE: Dr. Selar is Suzie Plakson's favorite character.

Do you have any proof to back up your claims? (links to interviews, articles, etc)

Yes...I asked her in person 10/6/07 at a Star Trek Convention

Sweet.

Doctor Selar is my favorite character that Suzie Plakson has played!

This is what I said about this episode on the "Things We'll Remember From TNG" board:

"Nyyeeaahh, OK. But why didn't the Federation send science vessels to Gravesworld to salvage whatever they could from his labs? That would have made sense, but it didn't happen, AFAWK. And that's not very good writing, IMO."

Also, here is one of my all time favorite Plot Oversights from Phil's NextGen guide:

"When Picard thinks Graves is dead, he bemoans the fact that Graves' research has been lost, saying 'Whatever scientific secrets Ira Graves was about to unlock has been lost forever.' Didn't Graves take notes? Graves' laboratory is filled with computers! Were they just window dressing? Scientists not only keep notes so that someone else can build on their research, they also keep notes so everyone will give them credit for their discoveries! I would think someone as egotistical as Graves would keep very detailed records."

And building on that observation, I still wonder why the Federation did not send science vessels to Gravesworld to salvage whatever they could from his labs. Kareen Briannon would probably have had no objection to this, I believe that she would have wanted Graves' scientific discoveries (that he had not already uploaded into the Enterprise computer before leaving Data's body) to be shared with others and to help anyone who may have benifitted from it.

Anyway, I have a minor nit that may have already been mentioned. At Graves' memorial, it appears as if his facial hair has been rearraged somewhat when he is lying in the coffin/torpedo case. It was different than when he was alive. I wondered about that, why would they have done that to his face, and who was it in the medical staff who performed these mortician duties? (I also wonder who prepared Tasha Yar's corpse and what they did with it, but that's neither here nor there.)

One more thing, regarding that 'pysch test' of sorts that Troi had the Ira Graves-possessed Data take. Apparently this was supposed to detect the seeds of criminal behavior in anyone who wanted to join Starfleet, much like what Picard mentioned in "Justice" so that there wouldn't be any potential risks of anyone like Ben Sisko, Kathryn Janeway, or anyone who ended up joining the Maquis becoming a Starfleet officer.

The problem with this is, it's one of those "Once it was introduced it altered Trek continuity and the creators regretted ever introducing it in the first place" kind of things. You know, like the "Warp Factor Speed Limit", and the "Voyager Only Has So Many Photon Torpedos And There's No Way To Replace Them After They're Gone", you know, those regrettable plots or lines of dialogue that ended up making no sense or being completely contradicted a few years later, when different people take over the franchise and they end up having everything happen that the creator of the franchise would not have approved of and never wanted to have happen! Oh well.

The writers and producers of DS9/VGR obviously never took into account these tests that potential Starfleet officers had to take so that they could prove that they weren't insane, treacherous, or in any way corrupt. It may have worked on TNG during the Roddenberry era, but in no way would that sort of thing ever gotten over in the the Bermaga era. And that is really too bad.

Back in the days I contributed to "that OTHER Trek-related message board", I had just posted a tirade about why the Federation and Starfleet in general seemed to be totally different in DS9 and VGR, compared to TNG and even the old days of TOS. Most of the responses I received were in no way sympathetic to my plight and they seemed to go out of their way to *defend* what Star Trek had become. And this one line that one of them told me, I will never forget:

"Once Gene died, we began to find out that not every Starfleet officer is a saint. Simple as that."

What a schmuck. NOBODY was EVER a saint in Starfleet. WHat a truly idiotic statement!

Anyway, just my opinions. Do with them what you will.

W. Morgan Sheppard is among a select group of actors who have appeared on bot Star Trek and Doctor Who.