Gambit (TNG episode)

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Star Trek: TNG episode
"Gambit"

Episode no.	156 (Part 1) 157 (Part 2)
Prod. code	256 (Part 1) 257 (Part 2)
Airdate	October 11, 1993 (Part 1) October 18, 1993 (Part 2)
Writer(s)	Naren Shankar Christopher Hatton (Part 1) Ronald D. Moore (Part 2)
Director	Peter Lauritson (Part 1) Alexander Singer (Part 2)
Guest star(s)	Richard Lynch Robin Curtis Caitlin Brown Cameron Thor Sabrina Le Beauf Alan Altshuld (Part 1) Bruce Gray (Part 1) James Worthy (Part 2)
Year	2370
Stardate	47135.2 (Part 1) 47160.1 (Part 2)
Episode chronology
Previous	"Interface"
Next	"Phantasms"

Gambit is a two-part, seventh-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

After hearing a rumor that Captain Picard has been murdered while on an archeological dig, the Enterprise crew sets out to find the smugglers who may have been responsible.

Robin Curtis, who played Lt. Saavik in Star Trek III and IV, guest stars as the Vulcan T'Paal. Sabrina Le Beauf, best known for her role on The Cosby Show, plays Ensign Giusti.

1 Plot
2 Trivia
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Riker, Crusher, and Worf investigate Picard's whereabouts in a musty bar, describing him as a "smooth-headed" human. They find a criminal who knows something; he says that Picard had been asking a group about some artifacts when a fight broke out and Picard was "vaporized".

Many of the crew members accept this as true, but Riker insists on finding out who killed Captain Picard. The crew begins by retracing Picard's steps, and this leads them to a planet housing one of the most ancient archaeological sites in the galaxy. However, the artifacts have been stolen by a group of mercenaries. While Riker, Worf, Geordi, and a few ensigns are exploring, a variety of humanoids beam down and attack the away team. They kill one ensign and capture Commander Riker.

Riker is taken on board the mercenary ship, which is commanded by Arctus Baran. Riker finds that a device has been implanted within his body which allows Baran to inflict pain on him, everyone on the ship has similar devices implanted in their bodies, which is how Baran controls his crew. Riker soon discovers that Picard is alive and in the company of these criminals, and is apparently doing business with them. Picard tells the crew that Riker is an officer with a history of insubordination who was once even relieved of duty. Picard secretly manufactures a warp drive malfunction, giving Riker a chance to prove himself to Baran.

Later, Picard visits Riker in his quarters. Picard reveals that he went to study an archeological site to find it had been ransacked. Tracing those responsible to a bar, Picard confronted them, but was captured and taken prisoner. Picard then revealed that the criminals had configured some of their weapons so that if they shot someone or something with one of these modified weapons it would instead activate the transporter and beam them away - which is why the people in the bar thought he'd been vaporized when shot. Picard managed to convince the crew that he was an archeologist named Galen - using the name of his mentor Galen, who was shown in the episode The Chase. Picard reveals that they are looking for specific ancient artifacts of Romulan orgin, and that Baran is having Picard search through the relics they've stolen for these specific artifacts.

Picard asks Riker to help him infiltrate the crew of the mercenary ship. As Picard and Baran had never gotten along very well, Picard asks Riker to befriend Baran to help learn more about his plans. Picard also asks Riker to play into the role of a less than perfect, insubordinate Starfleet officer who is ready to betray the Federation.

Eventually Picard is able to find the two specific artifacts, which are actually ancient Vulcan artifacts. These artifacts are part of an ancient Vulcan telepathic weapon, the Stone of Gol, which a Vulcan isolationist movement hopes to use to force Vulcan to leave the Federation. Picard manages to defeat the isolationists, and the Vulcan government assures Picard that all three pieces of the weapon would be destroyed.

[edit] Trivia

This episode was based on a spec script by an Iowa college student, Chris Hatton, who went on to sell a second spec script for the episode Thine Own Self.
The command of Enterprise switches to different "acting" captains in this episode. With Picard "dead", acting captain Riker appoints Data as first officer, although they do not change uniform colour. When Riker is abducted, Data rises to acting captain and appoints Worf as first officer, and Data even adopts all of Picard's command aura mannerisms. Riker resumes command when Picard "leaves him for dead", but at the end, on a humorous suggestion by Picard, Data arrests Riker.