Star Trek: The Next Generation's first season famously struggled before finding its footing in the second and third seasons. Part of its troubles sprang from the fact that it couldn’t escape from The Original Series, conceptually or in specifics. As a result, it felt 20 years out of its time and suffered accordingly. In the case of one of its weirdest episodes -- Season 1, Episode 3, “The Naked Now” -- it was more than just feeling out of step. It came dangerously close to ripping off a famous episode of The Original Series.

There are a number of reasons why “The Naked Now” didn’t work, and its placement shortly after the series premiere didn’t bode well for The Next Generation’s prospects at the time. In retrospect, it’s a bizarre reminder of how high the show eventually rose: caught halfway between what the first show was and what The Next Generation became. It can’t generate any energy on its own, yet it insists on drawing attention to the very thing it’s copying.

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The Original Series episode that started it all -- Season 1, Episode 4, “The Naked Time” -- embodied what fans affectionately refer to as a “crew goes bananas” mission. Spock and Lt. Tormolen beam down to a science outpost whose occupants have frozen to death. As it turns out, a compound in the planet’s water lowers inhibitions, causing them to disregard safety protocols and engage in various debaucheries. The Enterprise is infected, and Dr. McCoy has to develop a cure before a planetary collapse consumes the ship and its id-disabled crew.

It’s an enjoyable episode, overcoming its contrived beginning when Tormolen removes his HAZMAT glove to scratch his nose. Fans remember it best for the sight of a shirtless Sulu brandishing a rapier in the corridors. It served as an early example of threats to the Enterprise beyond evil aliens with ray guns. George Takei cites it as his favorite, and the first series returned to a similar notion in Season 1, Episode 24, “This Side of Paradise.” Other Star Trek series have nodded to "The Nake Time's" influence and similar “crew goes bananas” episodes, such as Deep Space Nine, Season 3, Episode 10, “Fascination.”

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However, TNG's “The Naked Now” doesn’t add anything to the idea, content to rehash the original instead. It tries to get around the duplicity by positing itself as a sequel of sorts. The Enterprise-D rendezvous with a science vessel whose crew perished in a mysterious manner, which turns out to be the same compound encountered in "The Naked Time." Again, the crew is infected, and they begin acting amorous, inebriated and otherwise devoid of inhibitions. According to Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Continuing Mission, Gene Roddenberry thought it would be a quick way to convey the main characters’ various motives.

The problem lies with the script. Screenwriter D.C. Fontana demanded that her name be taken off of it after copious rewrites. The Enterprise-D solves the dilemma simply by uncovering “The Naked Time” records in the ship’s logs and duplicating the cure. The connecting detail entails someone frozen to death while taking a shower fully clothed, an awkward and illogical place to begin any kind of scientific inquiry.

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“The Naked Now” retains the central narrative failing of “The Naked Time” -- an absurd disregard for basic quarantine protocol. Yet with details of the earlier episode quite literally a matter of Starfleet record, the lack of preventative measures for the exact same issue feels contrived in the extreme. Add to that odd non sequiturs like the artificial Data being affected by a biological contagion and a cringe-inducing narrative overreach from Wesley Crusher, and it’s no wonder Fontana had her name pulled.

Today the episode is best-known for Data’s campy line about being “fully functional,” as well as a clear sign that what worked in 1967 would not hold water in 1987. "The Naked Now's" placement as an early episode -- presumably to meet Roddenberry’s goal of getting viewers up to speed on the characters -- left the impression that TNG lacked original ideas. That was a perilous notion at the time when the very idea of doing Star Trek without Kirk and Spock seemed foolish. Thankfully, The Next Generation recovered, leaving “The Naked Now” another strange misstep in what became a steep learning curve.

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