Last night, the Heroes & Icons (H & I) digital TV channel reran the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Game.”
Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) goes on shore leave and brings back to the Enterprise a highly addictive game in the form of a headset. You put it on, and you see a checkerboard with some tuba-like things on it, and some discs floating about.
The goal is to make each disc go into a tuba. Harmless, right? Except the game is highly addictive, and turns out to be a mind control device.
Cadet Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) is on leave from Starfleet Academy. Concerned about the game’s addictive qualities, he goes to see Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) in his ready room.
CRUSHER: There’s a game going around. It’s something that Commander Riker brought back from Risa. It’s a device that hooks around the ears.
PICARD: Yes, I’ve seen it.
CRUSHER: I did some preliminary tests on the game, and what I found leads me to believe that it may have some harmful side-effects. Specifically, sir, I think it’s psychotropically addictive.
PICARD: Addictive? What have you discovered?
CRUSHER: The game initiates a serotonin cascade in the frontal lobe of the brain. Now I know that’s nothing conclusive, but it could explain why everyone is so attracted to it. And at the same time, it stimulates the brain’s reasoning center. I don't know what that's all about.
PICARD: I’ll start an investigation immediately. Thank you, Mr. Crusher.
CRUSHER: Thank you, sir.
PICARD: Wesley? It’s good to have you back again.
Crusher leaves, and we see that Picard has the game, too. He puts on the device and the show cuts to commercial.
Maybe on a subconscious level, Crusher surmised Picard might have already been compromised. But on the other hand, Crusher might assume, just like the viewers, that Picard might consider the game silly and not worth his time.
I wasn’t expecting an episode that first aired on August 23, 1991 to feel relevant today. And it was something of a happenstance that I tuned in in the first place.
But as soon as I saw the scene quoted above, I thought of the whistleblower, how he or she or they tried to follow the proper protocols and go through the chain of command, while painfully aware that at least a few high level people had been already hopelessly compromised.
By the way, the Saturday Night Live season premiere is tonight. I don’t envy that show’s writers. So much craziness this past summer but they’ll probably have to limit themselves to this week’s craziness.