“The Most Toys”
Written by Shari Goodhartz
Directed by Timothy Bond
Season 3, Episode 22
Original air date: May 7, 1990
Star date: 43872.2
Mission summary
There’s a tricyanate contamination on Beta Agni II, and the only cure is more cowbell hytritium, a rare and volatile element that only one man in the universe seems to have: Kivas Fajo, a space trader. On the last transport to the Enterprise, Data uses his thumbprint to confirm the transaction and the datapad zaps him. Fajo’s men (and woman) plant fake Data elements on the transport, launch it out of the shuttle bay, and blow it up. Stunned, the Enterprise crew believe that Data’s been destroyed, but have to high-tail it to Beta Agni II if they want to decontaminate that water supply in time to save the planet.
Data awakes on Fajo’s ship, in a room that feels more like a museum gallery than a man’s quarters. It turns out Fajo is something of a collector of rare and valuable objects, of which Data is to be his prize specimen. Data makes his obligatory Trek speech about how slavery is bad, but Fajo insists that escape isn’t possible and he better get used to life as a dancing monkey for his wealthy friends. Data half-heartedly attempts to escape by pushing on the door and attacking Fajo, but there’s like 25 minutes left so he’s not going anywhere.
Fajo’s right-hand woman, Varria, doesn’t seem to be in a much better position than Data. She tells the android that Fajo is a cruel, abusive man who will ensure that Data never escapes. She gives Data clothes that her boss wants him to wear, but Data refuses until Fajo comes in himself and splashes some acid on the Starfleet uniform, making a nasty hole that even Garak couldn’t fix. Data then tries to passively resist, by refusing to “perform” for a friend of Fajo’s. But this doesn’t end well, as Fajo decides to show off his Varon-T disruptor, which tears apart the body in the most excruciating manner possible. He threatens his lovely assistant with it until Data complies with Fajo’s wishes.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise crew is struggling to cope with Data’s “death.” La Forge and Wesley divvy up his things (including that wretched Yar hologram), Picard accidentally calls out the wrong name on the bridge, and Worf has to take another dead colleague’s place. To make matters worse, La Forge knows that something isn’t right, but his friends just assume he’s in denial about the whole thing. But when they finally get to the contaminated planet, they find that the contamination is a little too artificial, and the amount of “cure” they have is strangely precise. To Wikipedia! The database says that Fajo is a collector of “rare and valuable” objects–like Data. They put out an alert to Starfleet outposts and hope that someone has seen him recently.
On Fajo’s ship, Varria is not at all amused at Fajo’s earlier threat to her with the Varon-T and decides to help Data escape. She unlocks the Varon-T stored in the display room and arms herself, and they head to the escape pods. She tries to set off the escape sequence but there are guards everywhere, and though she is able to take them out she is ultimately stopped by Fajo himself, armed with another Varon-T and not afraid to use it on Varria. He kills her, and her screams echo in the escape pod loud enough to rouse Data who jumps out at Fajo and grabs the Varon-T that Varria had dropped.
DATA: You will surrender yourself to the authorities.
FAJO: Or what? You’ll fire? Empty threat and we both know it. Why don’t you accept your fate? You will return to your chair and you will sit there. You will entertain me and you will entertain my guests. And if you do not, I will simply kill somebody else. Him, perhaps. It doesn’t matter. Their blood will be on your hands too, just like poor Varria’s. Your only alternative, Data, is to fire. Murder me. That’s all you have to do. Go ahead. Fire. If only you could feel rage over Varria’s death. If only you could feel the need for revenge, then maybe you could fire. But you’re just an android. You can’t feel anything, can you? It’s just another interesting intellectual puzzle for you. Another of life’s curiosities.
DATA: I cannot permit this to continue.
At that moment, the Enterprise beams Data aboard. O’Brien detects a discharged weapon on transport, but Data says it must have been a transporter error.
Tossed in the brig for murder and theft, and with all of his goods confiscated and to be returned, Fajo is sulking when Data visits him.
FAJO: Oh, have you come to see me to repent? Is this your final satisfaction? Want to see me beg for mercy? You’re not going to get any of that from me.
DATA: I expected nothing.
FAJO: Our roles are reversed, aren’t they, Data? You’re the collector now. Me, I’m in a cage.
DATA: So it seems.
FAJO: Just don’t count me out too quickly. I had you in my collection once. I can have you there again.
DATA: Unlikely, sir. Your collection has been confiscated. All of your stolen possessions are being returned to their rightful owners. You have lost everything you value.
FAJO: It must give you great pleasure.
DATA: No, sir, it does not. I do not feel pleasure. I am only an android.
Analysis
I had no memory of this episode, not even as I watched it. Now I understand why. It’s dreadful. Completely irredeemably awful.
First, we have the greedy, inhumanly cruel merchant: space Shylock. This was on par with Watto in terms of horrendous anti-Semitic stereotypes. I clearly didn’t notice this the first time I watched it, but on this viewing my jaw was pretty much on the floor for all of Fajo’s scenes. He has slaves. He’s a cheating huckster. He has no moral qualms whatsoever, poisoning an entire planet and kidnapping a sentient being just to show him off. And like Shylock, even when he’s beat in the end and loses everything, he refuses to believe he’s done anything wrong. I don’t know enough of Saul Rubinek’s work to know whether he’s doing the Jewish schtick on purpose or if that’s just his style, but someone, somewhere, should have taken a step back and thought long and hard about what story they were telling. If you want to do Merchant of Venice in space, go for it, but please make Shylock sympathetic. As it is, this was probably one of the most uncomfortable viewing experiences I’ve had.
Second, this just makes absolutely no sense. If Fajo demands absolute obedience, he would never want an android that talked back. He’d just have him in the off position and weld him to that chair. The whole battle of wills is just absurd, because Data is much more dangerous to Fajo than Fajo is to Data. If it had been me, the first thing I would have done is go around the room and destroy each and every one of those priceless artifacts. And in any case, there’s no reason why Data can’t get out of that room. OK, so Fajo has an anti-positronic belt (SCIENCE!). Why can’t Data throw the sofa at him? I bet those shitty modern art sculptures would make fantastic projectiles. Can’t he hack the panels? Fajo uses the replicator in that room to REPLICATE ACID. Doesn’t that seem like something Data would pay attention to?
Third, I found the whole B-plot on the Enterprise emotionally flat. We know he’s not dead. And frankly, we already saw the ship react to the death of a crewmember, and it wasn’t done well that time either. But there’s no subtlety at all. Picard reads some Shakespeare, Riker comments on how everyone is feeling things, La Forge isn’t convinced… it just all felt too forced and insincere. If Data had truly died, that crew would have been devastated. They surely would have done more than divvy up his junk drawer together. Where’s the ceremony, the toast? What happens to Spot?? Where are the stories of the man that Data was, the unique and special being? They aren’t there because the show doesn’t really mean it, and that’s the absolute worst thing a show can do.
Lastly, I just cannot be made to believe that there is ANY moral dilemma here about killing Fajo. Fajo has just murdered someone before Data’s eyes, and threatened to kill every one of his lackeys to get obedience from Fajo. Killing him would be saving their lives. Killing Fajo is the absolute coldly rational thing to do. And even if for some wacky reason Data didn’t see it that way, I don’t understand how the writer thought she could reconcile the concept of Data as a pacifist in Starfleet. Data is a Starfleet officer. He absolutely will kill if he needs to, that’s part of his job description! He’s a military officer! Data should not have morals, he should have rational evaluation of life against life. And even if Fajo hadn’t killed Varria, I think Data was still justified in killing Fajo, because captivity–slavery–is one of the most truly evil human conditions. “The Cage” and “The Menagerie” made that so clear–why isn’t it just as clear here?
Nonsensical, immoral, boring, offensive… pick one.
Torie’s Rating: Impulse Power (on a scale of 1-6)
Thread Alert: Lovely to see that TNG anticipated the colorblocking trend.
Best Line: PICARD: Mr. Crusher, put us into close orbit. Mr. Data, scan … my apologies, Mr. Worf.
Trivia/Other Notes: Kivas Fajo was originally played by David Rappaport, the famous British dwarf actor. Unfortunately, Rappaport struggled with depression and attempted suicide after only a few days of filming. He was replaced by Saul Rubinek, a friend of the director’s who was in town filming Bonfire of the Vanities. Sadly, Rappaport successfully committed suicide only a few months later.
In the original script, Varria is pimped out to Data, and when he refuses she is so humiliated that it turns her against her captor. Thank god that didn’t make it into the final version…
The writer, Shari Goodhartz, intended for Data to have fired the weapon. The producers wanted to make the ending more ambiguous.
Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 21 – “Hollow Pursuits.”
Next episode: Season 3, Episode 23 – “Sarek.”
Yeah, there isn’t really anything good to say about this. I’d never heard that Rappaport was hired for this. I can’t decide if I’m happy for him that he didn’t tarnish his career with such a role, or sad that I didn’t get the chance to see what he might have done with it.
I had a very different reaction to this one. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. This is absolutely Rubinek’s schtick, and that nagged at the back of my mind a bit, but overall I thought he was great at playing an alternately quirky but malicious character. Watching Data handle the situation was fascinating, though I hoped he was going to come up with a brilliant way to escape, after studying all of the pieces in Fajo’s collection so closely. I’m with Torie on one thing, at least: In Data’s place, I would have started wrecking things, although perhaps he didn’t want to trash priceless artifacts.
I also hoped the crew back on the ship would do something amazing to help him out, but a timely beam out is pretty helpful. I did like how Geordi realized that something wasn’t quite right, which reminds me a little of a DS9 episode with a similar initial premise, “Armageddon Game,” where Keiko is convinced O’Brien is still alive because he was drinking coffee in the afternoon. (Though she was actually mistaken.)
Although I was impressed by Fajo’s plan to capture Data, right down to placing his component elements in the shuttle and equipping himself with a positron belt, I can’t quite figure out why he assumed they would send Data on the hitritium shuttle runs. If it’s a matter of them requiring precision, that’s one thing, but if it’s because they think of him as *disposable*, that’s problematic.
I initially was going to rate this episode rather high, but as I read Torie’s review, I bumped it down. As she points out, this episode is full of what I’ve heard referred to as “refrigerator door” questions—those things that pop into your head on your way to the fridge for a snack. Those are the main issues for me, because they gloss over a hell of a lot to make this premise seem even remotely plausible. In addition to Torie’s observations, I’ll note that Counselor Troi conveniently is not on the Bridge when Fajo lies about Data. If anything, wouldn’t she have felt immediately that something horrible had happened on the Bridge and maybe gone up to investigate?
But there are also some nice moments in this, particularly when Worf says “Data” in a subdued tone when his shuttle explodes. Giving away Data’s stuff only hours after he’s supposedly died does seem a bit cold, though. And was Worf actually promoted or just given new duties? A bit awkward when someone you thought was dead comes back and they have to say, “Oh, sorry, never mind. Get back to your old job.”
I also liked that Data understands people, or at least Fajo and Varria, well enough to know how to deal with them, despite not having human emotions of his own. And I didn’t think the ending was ambiguous at all and I applaud Data for his decision; however, I was more troubled that he lied about it after the fact. He isn’t Vulcan and he isn’t programmed to only tell the truth, but he is a Starfleet officer, and there would have been no shame or punishment in admitting that he was about to shoot a murderer who had poisoned a planet’s water table and kidnapped a Starfleet officer.
I’m going to give this one a Warp 3.
Wow, Eugene–feeling generous!
This episode just takes too many pains to be this off the mark. What story is being told here–is it the story of how Data reacts to captivity, of how the crew reacts to the loss of Data? The story of how Someone Poisoned The Water Hole! for an ENTIRE PLANET WHICH HAS ONLY ONE SOURCE OF WATER WHICH CAN BE POISONED BY A FOOTBALL-SIZED ROCK is certainly not a compelling or even plausible one; the episode should have treated this like the unimportant premise it is and instead concentrated on telling one of the two stories above.
As Torie was saying, from the way the show doesn’t really engage with Data’s death, it’s clear that wasn’t the story being told, either, so we’re left with how Data reacts to captivity. The answer, unfortunately, is “stupidly.” But more to the point, “unmotivatedly.” He’s emotionless (as he should be), USE THAT!
Here’s how to fix this script:
1) Cut the stupid planet crap. The Enterprise is on a mission, has to get goods from this trader, nobody really cares why. Data’s just coming back when they get an urgent call to go deal with a Romulan threat three days away at max warp (so they have to leave the scene, but you don’t waste time justifying it all).
2) With the saved time, you now have real reactions. Give us a funeral. Show different types of grief. Geordi can’t let go; Worf is sad but resigned; Riker is ashamed but trying to hold the crew together; Picard is unusually sorrowful, given that he’s done this before. Maybe Troi can do some actual counseling. Build relationships among the actual characters rather than trying to characterize the guest star we’ll never see again.
3) Meanwhile, Data is reacting in some unusual way. He’s not trying to escape–could he maybe considers some possible merit to staying? He makes the decision to capitulate to the hostage-taking tyrant when he threatens his other slave; why? Surely Data knows he’s not responsible for the actions of another person. Does his lack of emotion prevent him from understanding his captor? Is he in some form of shock? Why does he go into this kind of childish passive-resistance mode? All this stuff could be explored, but it has to be something other than a predictable clash of wills between an irresistible force (Space Shylock and his Ship of Hostage Slaves) and an immovable object (Data, whose will is literally determined by unalterable programming).
4) I think now you actually have to commit to either having Data escape on his own, or at least get a message out to the Enterprise. This doesn’t even have to shut down the “Data goes collabo” path, if he sends a message in such a way that the Enterprise is a while in receiving it…
Bunch more places you can go from there and I’m going on too long, but really the episode’s just trying to do too much without actually committing to any actual story (or at least none that aren’t on autopilot).
Slogs toward an intriguing conclusion, that Data actually discharged a weapon and lies about it; or that the readings are in error. Inscrutable and ambiguous, and therefore vaguely interesting.
But the rest is a dreary slog.
Torie makes the point that, at several million operations per second and superhuman speed and reflexes, Data should be a very hard thing to capture and control. His passivity is infuriating; and the fact that we, the viewers, in our boredom can think of five or six ways Data could make his captivity an unendurable hell for Fajo (without harming a hair on his head) and Data attempts none of these things, relying totally on a “passive resistance” that would make Gandhi cringe (no moral ambiguity at all about the imperative to take Fajo down) makes this episode fairly insufferable.
it would be fun to rework this episode into O Henry’s “Ransom of Red Chief,” where by the time the Enterprise returns Fajo is a sobbing, blubbering ruin, offering to pay any price to get Data off his wrecked ship.
All of this is true. I can’t help but wonder if the writer was trying to explore Asimov’s laws of robotics—although, again, rendered nonsensical by the imperative to cause no harm through inaction, which Data clearly does by standing passive while Fajo kills Varria.
All said, though, we’ve never been given indication Data is patterned according to Asimov.
As Torie mentioned, the writer wanted to make it clear that Data fired the weapon, but the producers balked. Via Memory Alpha, here’s what Shari Goodhartz had to say:
“I asked Brent Spiner whether he thought Data purposefully pulled the trigger or not, and he was adamant that Data did fire the weapon, which was my intent as well, but the powers-that-be wanted that kept ambiguous, so it was. If I had a chance to do it over, with all the experience I have behind me now, I would argue passionately for Data’s actions and their consequences to have been clearer, and hopefully more provocative.”
That’s from an interview with Marv Wolfman.
Hi. This will be my first comment. I found this website while my husband and I were doing our own “re-watch”, and have been trying to catch up. I’m a little a nervous since my comments differ greatly from everyone else’s, but here goes.
This is one of my favorite Data-centric episodes. With many of these TNG episodes, I tend to love them or hate them based on the overall theme of the storyline, instead of how it plays out (since the individual scenes can be so awful).
I like the idea that Data is evolving to the point that he might be able to override his own programming. He is programmed not to kill, which is why Fajo expects that Data won’t shoot him. Yes, Fajo is a horrible person, threat to the universe, etc., but shooting him as Data decided to do would still have been an execution of sorts, and a violation of his programming. The “correct” thing to do would be to arrest Fajo and have him tried by the proper authorities. The human side of us says that he was justified and “no jury would convict him” or whatever. But, he is just an android, right?, and should follow his programming and protocol. He doesn’t. He decides to murder Fajo. Then, he lies about it. He’s gone beyond his programming. Maybe he can’t feel outrage and disgust, but he can begin to think along the lines of a human that can.
As for why he doesn’t escape. I took his passivity as lack of concern for his situation. He is brilliant and stronger than Fajo and doesn’t need to rush an escape. He wants to get it right. He also knows Fajo won’t hurt him. The stakes only change when Fajo threatens another person. Probably the same reason Data doesn’t destroy the stuff in the room. First, Data is curious about the stuff and his situation. Then, he realizes Fajo would only punish someone else for it.
I guess I never noticed the stereotype of the Fajo character because I’m not familiar with those particular stereotypes. In fact, I was totally oblivious to it. I figured Fajo is just playing a narcissistic psychopath.
An utterly forgettable episode. If I’ve seen it since the original airing, I certainly don’t recall it. I don’t think I picked up on the stereotypes Torie is seeing, which to me says at the very least they aren’t on par with Watto. OTOH, this episode isn’t even worthy of enough attention for exploring that.
Pace RMS, the fact that Data exceeds his programming is interesting, but it’s barely touched on. Actually exploring that would have made a far more interesting story (and it’s a tragedy that they never really attempt that until Insurrection).
Possibly the best thing about this episode is that it makes the next one shine that much brighter.
@7 RSM
Welcome! Thanks for joining in. Don’t be nervous—we’re pretty civil here. Usually. :)
And it’s nice to have someone else who likes this episode. I had remembered this as one of my favorite Data episodes too, but leading up to my re-watch I worried my memory was faulty and it was actually going to be terrible. Obviously many people disagree, but immediately after viewing it again I was ready to rate this a Warp 4 or 5! Torie’s persuasive comments got me to knock it down, but I appreciate your perspective on this, and especially why Data felt no sense of urgency. He has plenty of time to wait for just the right moment to escape. I wonder what would have happened if he were still in Fajo’s collection when Soong sent the recall signal in “Brothers”…
Anyway, lots of plot holes, yes, and it could have been handled a lot better, but its still a fascinating premise and has some thoughtful touches that I think redeem it.
I remembered liking this more but, on revisiting it, I do see how weak the episode is. It reminds me a bit of a later, somewhat cleverer episode, the one where Matt Frewer plays a confidence man attempting to steal things (including Data) from the future. His plans fall apart, of course, and the appropriate poetic justice administered, but it’s done with a much lighter touch than here. This episode by contrast tries so hard to be serious, which now seems just a bit ridiculous given the slightness of the material.
The Shylock-ness of Saul Rubinek’s character somehow escaped me when I first watched this but now…ugh. And he’s wearing a yarmulke, too.
The only bit I really like now is how Data makes a fool out of Fajo by pretending not to work. Granted, the passivity of Data’s behavior is infuriating, and also (as you say) nonsensical for a Starfleet officer, but as an act of passive resistance it’s reasonably clever. You know…I think a lot of these Data-centered plots would have made far more sense if the character of Data weren’t supposed to be an officer. So many of the plots require him to act like he just rolled off a turnip truck, furnished with a simple, untested, programmed-in idealism and easily baffled by many human behaviors. And that’s all right, I suppose, just a bit nonsensical for someone who’s supposed to have lived among and worked with humans for years.
The ending is dire. The cheapest of cheap dramatic irony.
If anyone has the season 3 TNG Blu-ray set, it includes deleted scenes with David Rappaport playing a very different Kivas Fajo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA_Ll-9Xics
@4 Lemnoc
The problem with Data trying to do Red Chief is that Red Chief is too far from anything we’ve seen in Data’s character to this point. On the other hand. Data could have started a campaign of complaints – complaining about everything from the lighting and temperature, to the precise alignment of each of the items on display in that room. Somehow, it’s hard to see that as entertaining.
I have mixed feelings about this episode. One of the best things I see in its favor is that it set up a fun comic relief episode of DS9 during the build up to the Dominion War.
I do like “In the Cards” (DS9 5th season), but I don’t see how you can say it was “set up” in this episode just because they both feature baseball cards.
The card in “The Most Toys” was a Roger Maris; the one in “In the Cards” was a Willie Mays. Clearly not the same card.
FWIW, the only other baseball card seen on Star Trek was a Buck Bokai (first seen in DS9: “The Storyteller” and higlighted in “If Wishes Were Horses”).
My understanding was that it was to have been picking up on this one but they either got the cards mixed up, couldn’t get the original one again, or they switched it for creative reasons and figured no one would notice. Not that Star Trek fans would notice something like that.
Always nice to read the reviews and comments here. I agree with Torie up to a point:
Except, I think the coldly rational thing to do is to subdue Kivas and bring him to justice. We don’t just go around summarily executing people for being villains, today or in the 24th century, exigencies of war notwithstanding. If we’re realistic about the situation, Kivas is so overmatched by Data that neither this task or any of his other dilemmas in the episode should present him with substantial difficulty.