Changes: Final Mission (episode)

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On his way to Starfleet Academy, Wesley Crusher must care for an injured Captain Picard after their shuttle crashes on a desert moon.

Summary

Wesley Crusher comes running onto the bridge and apologizes to Captain Picard for being ten minutes late for a summon. Picard chastises the young man, then, smiling, tells the young ensign that a position has opened in this year's class at Starfleet Academy and that Wesley has been granted the posting. He would be leaving in two weeks, and will have to work hard to catch up with his classmates.

In the interim, Picard is to arbitrate a mining dispute on Pentarus V, and he opts to bring Wesley along to observe. The USS Enterprise-D rendezvouses with Captain Dirgo's shuttle, and Picard and Wesley depart with Dirgo to Pentarus III. On first meeting Dirgo, Wesley quietly makes a rude comment to Geordi on Dirgo calling himself a Captain -- though he holds no formal rank and commands only a mining shuttle. Dirgo makes it clear he heard it and says the ship has over 10,000 hours of flight recorded and means a lot to him and his people. Shortly before their departure, the Enterprise receives a distress signal from Gamelan V – they are receiving critical levels of radiation from a "space barge" which is entering their atmosphere. The Enterprise speeds off under Riker's command to assist.

Meanwhile, Dirgo's shuttle suffers a mishap, and has to crash land on Lambda Paz, a desert moon of Pentarus III. Dirgo tells Picard that since the mining shuttle had very little space, he depended on the replicator for supplies, leaving them only with a medicine pouch. Picard decides they must head towards a mountain to find shelter, to which Dirgo objects but then admits he has no better alternative. After leaving a directional marker on the ground so that a rescue party may find them, they start their walk. Dirgo is seen secretly drinking clear liquid from a bottle. During their hike, Wesley notes some strange energy readings in the direction of their travel. When finally in a cavern in the mountain, the bottle falls from Dirgo's jacket, and is revealed to be an alcoholic beverage called dresci. Saying that it will serve better as a disinfectant or coolant, Picard takes the alcohol from him and orders it to be kept under guard in the medicine box.

(This alcohol incident was copied from a real incident that happened in Shackleton's Antarctic expedition as reported in a television reconstruction.)

They find a section with an increased level of the energy readings, and investigating, the trio find a strange fountain of water in it. The fountain is protected by a force field, and attempts by Dirgo to fire at the field with his phaser unleashes a sentry energy weapon which knocks the weapon from his hand and encases it in a selenium-fiber shell. In the commotion, a landslide begins over Wesley, but Picard pushes him out of the way, suffering a broken leg, fractured arm, and internal bleeding in the process. Weakened, Picard tells Wesley that he has to take charge, and deter Dirgo from any further rash attempts to breach the force field. But clearly, their need for water is greater than ever.

Nenebek shuttlebay — The mining shuttle *Nenebek*

Dirgo runs out of patience and tries to convince Wesley to make another attempt to breach the force field. This attempt results in Dirgo being encased in the shell, and apparently killed. Wesley struggles to figure out a way to disable the force field, while keeping Picard conscious and comfortable. During some tense and emotional exchanges, Picard tells the boy that he envies him, saying "your adventures are just beginning." He urges Wesley to seek out Boothby, the "wisest man at the Academy." Wesley asks what he teaches, to which Picard answers, "He's the groundskeeper." Wesley confesses that everything he has done to succeed on the Enterprise has been to make Picard proud of him. Picard tells him that he's always been proud of him.

In the Gamelan system, the Enterprise-D manages to slingshot the leaking barge directly into Gamelan's sun by tractoring it through an asteroid belt, narrowly avoiding lethal radiation exposure to the crew in the process. They rush back to the Pentarus system to participate in the search for the now overdue shuttle. They begin with the class M moons of Pentarus III, which have not yet been searched.

On the moon, Wesley jerry-rigs his combadge and tricorder to interfere and possibly disable the energy sentry. He succeeds and disables the force field around the fountain. He brings water to Picard in one of the shuttle's survival kit cases.

Wesley is woken some time later by his mother, who informs him that Picard is all right and his vital signs are stabilized. As Picard is carried out on a stretcher, he grabs Wesley's hand and confesses, "You will be missed."

Background Information

Story and production

Corey Allen directing Final Mission — Director Corey Allen instructing Wil Wheaton

Dennis Tracy on location — Stand-ins Dennis Tracy and Randy Pflug on location

Wil Wheaton and Patrick Stewart, Final Mission — Wheaton and Stewart filming "Final Mission"

This episode was created expressly with the purpose of providing an appropriate way for Wil Wheaton to leave the show. Wheaton had asked to leave The Next Generation so he could pursue offers to appear in feature films. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion 2nd ed., p. 149)
Michael Piller commented, "There had been a lot of very bad feeling around here about the way Tasha Yar was sent off. So we were determined to give Wesley a send-off that had real value and something that stayed with us. We finally decided that he would go to the Academy, which I think was Gene's idea [and] the most reasonable and easiest idea, which also keeps him alive for future episodes." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 212)
In the original story, Wesley and Picard crashed on an ice planet. On the suggestion of Rick Berman, this was changed as it was believed that a desert planet could be created more realistically. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 212)
This episode was previously titled "Turnabout". [1]
Jeri Taylor recalled, "That's the episode I probably put more work on than any all year long, because it was a combination of a very delicate kind of interpersonal story, and the dreaded technical story which is the garbage scow in space. So I had this supertechnical thing going on at the same time as this delicate kind of interpersonal story." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 212)
The shuttle Nenebek was named after Larry Nemecek. Jeri Taylor related to Nemecek years later that she had one of his TNG Concordances on her shelf, and simply altered two of the letters in his last name. Template:Brokenlink
Two days of location shooting were done on the El Mirage Dry Lake Bed in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles to portray the surface of Lambda Paz. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion 2nd ed., p. 149)
The fountain was created on Stage 16. Rick Berman recalled, "We had huge optical problems with the fountain. It was a nightmare. It was something we built and it didn't work. Then we were going to do it optically and that didn't work. So we had a lot of technical problems." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 212)
First UK airdate: 1 June 1994

Cast

This episode marks Wesley Crusher's final regular appearance on TNG. He later appeared in the episodes "The Game", "The First Duty", "Parallels" (in an alternate timeline) and "Journey's End".
Nick Tate later plays Liam Bilby in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Honor Among Thieves".

Continuity

Wesley references his prior shuttle trip with Picard in "Samaritan Snare".
Before beginning their trek to the mountains, Dirgo distributes some phasers he scavenged from his damaged shuttle. The props used are Starfleet phaser pistols circa 2285, from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, which would make sense since Dirgo operated his shuttle with old and outdated equipment.
The groundskeeper for the Starfleet Academy, Boothby, is mentioned for the first time. He would later appear in the fifth season Next Generation episode "The First Duty" and later on in the fifth season Star Trek: Voyager episodes "In the Flesh" and "The Fight".
According to the graphic on Data's ops station, the shuttle Nenebek leaves through the Main shuttlebay. The Main shuttlebay was only seen once more in "Cause and Effect".

Reception

Michael Piller remarked, "I think Jeri did a wonderful job on the script and Corey Allen, who is one of my favorite directors, gave you the best pieces of film you can get. If it gets an A- instead of an A, it's only because the story itself, of two guys trapped on a planets and how do we get off, in general is not very original, and the story of the garbage scow was no great shakes either. But I think we handled it pretty well." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 212)
Rick Berman added, "That's one of my favorite episodes. I think it was very poignant and the acting on the part of our guest cast, Nick Tate, Patrick's work and Wil's, was just excellent. I thought it was just a terrific piece of drama." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 212)

Video and DVD releases

Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 42, 9 March 1992.
UK re-release (three-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 4.3, 4 June 2001.
As part of the TNG Season 4 DVD collection.

Links and references

Starring

Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes as Cmdr. William Riker

Also starring

LeVar Burton as Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf
Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data
Wil Wheaton as Ensign Wesley Crusher

Guest stars

Previous episode:
"Future Imperfect"

Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season 4

Next episode:
"The Loss"

@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 In the interim, Picard is to arbitrate a mining dispute on [[Pentarus V]], and he opts to bring Wesley along to observe. The {{USS|Enterprise|NCC-1701-D|-D}} rendezvouses with Captain [[Dirgo]]'s shuttle, and Picard and Wesley depart with Dirgo to [[Pentarus III]]. On first meeting Dirgo, Wesley quietly makes a rude comment to Geordi on Dirgo calling himself a Captain -- though he holds no formal rank and commands only a mining shuttle. Dirgo makes it clear he heard it and says the ship has over 10,000 hours of flight recorded and means a lot to him and his people. Shortly before their departure, the ''Enterprise'' receives a distress signal from [[Gamelan V]] &ndash; they are receiving critical levels of [[radiation]] from a "[[Unnamed Alpha and Beta Quadrant starships (24th century)#Waste ship|space barge]]" which is entering their [[atmosphere]]. The ''Enterprise'' speeds off under Riker's command to assist.
-Meanwhile, Dirgo's shuttle suffers a mishap, and has to crash land on [[Lambda Paz]], a desert moon of Pentarus III. Dirgo tells Picard that since the mining shuttle had very little space, he depended on the replicator for supplies, leaving them only with a medicine pouch. Picard decides they must head towards a mountain to find shelter, to which Dirgo objects but then admits he has no better alternative. After leaving a directional marker on the ground so that a rescue party may find them, they start their walk. Dirgo is seen secretly drinking clear liquid from a bottle. During their hike, Wesley notes some strange [[energy]] readings in the direction of their travel. When finally in a cavern in the mountain, the bottle falls from Dirgo's jacket, and is revealed to be an [[alcohol]]ic beverage called [[dresci]]. Saying that it will serve better as a disinfectant or coolant, Picard takes the alcohol from him and orders it to be kepot under guard in the medicine box.
+Meanwhile, Dirgo's shuttle suffers a mishap, and has to crash land on [[Lambda Paz]], a desert moon of Pentarus III. Dirgo tells Picard that since the mining shuttle had very little space, he depended on the replicator for supplies, leaving them only with a medicine pouch. Picard decides they must head towards a mountain to find shelter, to which Dirgo objects but then admits he has no better alternative. After leaving a directional marker on the ground so that a rescue party may find them, they start their walk. Dirgo is seen secretly drinking clear liquid from a bottle. During their hike, Wesley notes some strange [[energy]] readings in the direction of their travel. When finally in a cavern in the mountain, the bottle falls from Dirgo's jacket, and is revealed to be an [[alcohol]]ic beverage called [[dresci]]. Saying that it will serve better as a disinfectant or coolant, Picard takes the alcohol from him and orders it to be kept under guard in the medicine box.
 <i>(This alcohol incident was copied from a real incident that happened in [[wikipedia:Ernest Shackleton#Loss of Endurance|Shackleton's Antarctic expedition]] as reported in a television reconstruction.)</i>