Infamous Star Trek Episode Infuriated Writers To Create Another Episode
It may not fit with the idealized future of Gene Roddenberry, but we’re big fans of the truism that we can create all things through the spite that strengthens us. This was certainly true of three influential Star Trek writers who were motivated to create a killer episode based on their intense hatred of a completely different episode. The Next Generation writers Dennis Russell Bailey, David Bischoff, and Lisa Putman White ended up hating the season 2 episode “Samaritan Snare” so much that it ended up motivating them to write the season 3 episode “Tin Man.”
Bailey Hated Samaritan Snare
Speaking for himself, Bailey was quoted in Captains’ Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages that “Samaritan Snare “was the most abysmal piece of Star Trek ever filmed.” He had a fairly epic list of grievances, all of which inspired himself and the other writers to later pen “Tin Man.” But the summary of his gripe with this season 2 adventure is that “it always resorted to idiot plotting to make the story work, and that offended me a great deal worse than some of the awful shows which were done on The Original Series.”
Before we dive into more of Bailey’s beef with “Samaritan Snare” and how it influenced the writing of “Tin Man,” you may need a quick refresher on the episode that he hated so much. “Samaritan Snare” is a memorable episode in which the Enterprise-D crew encounters the Pakleds, a relatively primitive race who request help only to later reveal that all of their advancements come from stealing the technology of others.
There’s also a B plot where Picard and Wesley Crusher are traveling to a nearby starbase where the captain can receive heart surgery and the young man can belatedly complete his Starfleet Academy entrance exams.
Issues With The Episode
According to Dennis Russell Bailey, “Samaritan Snare” insulted the intelligence of everyone watching and making the episode because “none of the plot could have happened if all of the characters hadn’t suddenly become morons that week.”
The future “Tin Man” writer theorized that someone involved in the production “must have been aware of how hokey it was because they wrote obvious questions into the script which they chose not to answer.” The first such instance that he cites is that Worf is understandably skeptical about sending unknown aliens the ship’s chief engineer to help with “a little problem.”
Bailey noted that this question is “never answered” and that it was silly to bring it up in the episode without actually addressing it. While he didn’t explicitly add this to his list of “Samaritan Snare” grievances, the writer was likely annoyed because Geordi La Forge gets kidnapped by the Pakleds, a major crisis that could have been completely ignored if someone listened to Worf. While the Klingon security officer doesn’t play a huge role in the later episode, it’s worth noting that all of Worf’s thoughts and suspicions in “Tin Man” are treated quite seriously.
In Bailey’s eyes, another issue with “Samaritan Snare” is that Deanna Troi tells Riker that the chief engineer is in danger and to bring him back only for the commander to ignore her. It would be out of character for Riker to ignore his Imzadi’s recommendations in any episode, but the writer was particularly annoyed that “no one even responds” to her warning. Perhaps in response, Troi plays a huge role in “Tin Man,” an episode where her heritage helps her interface with controversial mission specialist and fellow Betazoid Tam Elbrun.
For as annoyed as Bailey was by the Pakled plot of “Samaritan Snare,” he particularly hated the Picard B plot where Picard decides to head to a starbase “where it turned out that no one was qualified to handle the operation if it went at all wrong.” Picard’s surgery was meant to be an “absolutely routine procedure” that “went wrong for no reason that was mentioned, except that it had to go wrong to have the climax” (Dr. Pulaski performing the surgery).
At Least We Got Tin Man Out Of It
By contrast, “Tin Man” has an ambitious climax involving Romulans, a supernova, and a majestic space entity, and it feels fully earned by what came before.
It’s rare to see Star Trek writers speak so openly about the episodes they hated, but anyone whose personal warp core runs on spite rather than dilithium can understand where Bailey is coming from. Plus, he channeled his annoyance into crafting a killer episode, which is quite the feat. There was one feat, however, that was beyond any of these writers: getting Patrick Stewart to say “Tin Man” without emphasizing the wrong syllable (and hearty greetings to any Friends of DeSoto who just heard the Greatest Generation sound drop in their heads).
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