Hollow Pursuits
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"Hollow Pursuits" is the 69th episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the 21st episode of the third season. It was first broadcast on April 30, 1990.
In this episode, the Holodeck fantasy life of a crewman aboard the Federation Starfleet starship USS Enterprise-D interferes with his ability to deal with malfunctions which threaten the ship.
Plot
The Enterprise in the process of transporting Mikulak biological tissue samples intended for use in combating an epidemic of Correllium fever on Nahmi IV. The transport of the samples is very delicate, and when they find one of the sample containers is leaking, they are forced to destroy it to prevent the contamination of the other samples. LaForge tells Riker he is concerned that one of his engineers, Reginald Barclay, has been underperforming, and notes that he is late to help with the sample transport. Unknown to La Forge, Barclay has been in the holodeck acting in a simulation of other Enterprise crew members, avoiding contact. La Forge requests that Barclay be transferred from the Enterprise but Picard recommends that La Forge take Barclay as a pet project.
La Forge works at supporting Barclay as their team works to investigate the failure of unconnected systems around the ship. Picard invites Barclay to a bridge meeting to review the investigation, but slips-up and accidentally calls him "Broccoli", a nickname given to him by the crew. Barclay later returns to the holodeck to seek refuge from the simulated bridge members. In talking to La Forge, Guinan suggests that Barclay is simply imaginative, and that La Forge keep a more open mind towards him. On her advice, La Forge visits Barclay on the holodeck, and discovers the exaggerated simulation of the bridge crew. La Forge suggests Barclay get counseling from Troi; Barclay attempts to take Troi's advice but ends the session short and returns the holodeck. La Forge shows Riker and Troi Barclay's simulation to show the extent of the problem.
Suddenly, the Enterprise mysteriously accelerates to warp speeds, and Riker, La Forge, and Barclay go to Engineering to discover the matter/anti-matter injectors have jammed; the ship will continue to accelerate until its structural integrity collapses unless the injectors are unjammed. The team is unable to come up with any immediate solutions that will work in the limited time they have, but Barclay realizes all the failures they have seen have been connected by a human element, one where one of La Forge's team has been present. This allows them to reduce the possible contaminates from 15,000 to two; the contamination that has been interfering with the systems is quickly discovered to be Invidium, which was used as part of the Mikulak samples. They are able to quickly repair the injectors, stop the ship, and schedule a trip to a nearby starbase to remove the rest of the Invidium contamination. La Forge commends Barclay for his contribution in saving the ship. Barclay returns one more time to the holodeck, and addresses the simulated bridge crew believing it best he leave them, and then deletes all but one of his holodeck programs.
Production
This episode marked the first appearance in the series of Engineer Lt. Reginald Barclay, played by Dwight Schultz, best known for his role as the insane pilot Murdock in The A-Team. The character was popular enough to be brought back a number of times on the show, in Star Trek: First Contact, and several episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.
References
- Star Trek The Next Generation DVD set, volume 3, disk 5, selection 2.