The Big Goodbye
- Episode aired Jan 9, 1988
- TV-PG
- 45m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
4.2K
YOUR RATING
Captain Picard and some of his crew are caught in a deadly trap in the holodeck as the result of a ship-wide scan from an alien race.Captain Picard and some of his crew are caught in a deadly trap in the holodeck as the result of a ship-wide scan from an alien race.Captain Picard and some of his crew are caught in a deadly trap in the holodeck as the result of a ship-wide scan from an alien race.
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe only episode of any Star Trek series to win a Peabody Award.
- GoofsOnce the crew members realize that the safety protocols are not functional, Data should immediately use his superhuman speed and strength to disable all the armed men. Even if he were shot with the small-caliber 1941 weapons, he would not suffer any major damage.
- Quotes
[last lines]
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Lieutenant, take us out of orbit.
Lieutenant Geordi La Forge: Aye, sir.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: And Mr. La Forge...
Lieutenant Geordi La Forge: Sir.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: [gangster accent] Step on it!
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation to the Next (1988)
- Soundtracks(You Came Along From) Out Of Nowhere
by Edward Heyman and Johnny Green
[Playing in background of Dixon Hill's office]
Featured review
"The big goodbye" introduces us to the first holodeck adventure, in this case Captain Picard posing as private investigator Dixon Hill. This episodes creates some sort of standard pattern, repeated several times on TNG as well as DS 9 and Voyager. After entering the holodeck something goes wrong and the characters have to deal with the program under different circumstances beyond playing a game (represented by the failure of the holodeck's safety program).
This concept is used to expand Star Trek's possibility and enabling a kind of genre-mix. Picard's Dixon Hill stories are examples of 1940s crime fiction and their representation on the screen are referred to as Film Noir often having the stereotype antihero in the lead (see for example Chandler's Marlowe stories or Polanski's all time classic "Chinatown"). Star Trek never focuses on the story (mostly it's a simple "how-do-we-get-out-of-here" scenario) but enables the actors to take a different approach to their characters. Those Holodeck "games" are commonly used for recreation and reflect the private interests of the crew members. Therefore the technical aspect is always neglected and from that point of view the stories are never sound (but did Star Trek ever had a technical, scientific point to it, I mean besides some utopic concepts?).
"The big goodbye" shows a relaxed Patrick Stewart, a McFadden that hardly ever looked better in a Star Trek episode (at least the early ones) and Data has some great scenes, too (although I find it hard to believe that pulling the lamp's plug out of the wall would have really surprised him, for the fact that he'd done research on that period and its customs). Wesley continues turning peaceful Trekkies into potential murderers (why didn't they take him to the holodeck and let the gangsters finish him off?) but all in all this one's fun...
This concept is used to expand Star Trek's possibility and enabling a kind of genre-mix. Picard's Dixon Hill stories are examples of 1940s crime fiction and their representation on the screen are referred to as Film Noir often having the stereotype antihero in the lead (see for example Chandler's Marlowe stories or Polanski's all time classic "Chinatown"). Star Trek never focuses on the story (mostly it's a simple "how-do-we-get-out-of-here" scenario) but enables the actors to take a different approach to their characters. Those Holodeck "games" are commonly used for recreation and reflect the private interests of the crew members. Therefore the technical aspect is always neglected and from that point of view the stories are never sound (but did Star Trek ever had a technical, scientific point to it, I mean besides some utopic concepts?).
"The big goodbye" shows a relaxed Patrick Stewart, a McFadden that hardly ever looked better in a Star Trek episode (at least the early ones) and Data has some great scenes, too (although I find it hard to believe that pulling the lamp's plug out of the wall would have really surprised him, for the fact that he'd done research on that period and its customs). Wesley continues turning peaceful Trekkies into potential murderers (why didn't they take him to the holodeck and let the gangsters finish him off?) but all in all this one's fun...
- robert_s01
- Sep 17, 2008
- Permalink
Details
- Runtime45 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content