Masks (TNG episode)
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| Star Trek: TNG episode | |
| "Masks" | |
 |
|
| Episode no. | 169 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 269 |
| Airdate | the week of February 21, 1994 |
| Writer(s) | Joe Menosky |
| Director | Robert Wiemer |
| Guest star(s) | Rickey D'Shon Collins as Eric Burton |
| Year | 2370 |
| Stardate | 47618.4 |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "Thine Own Self" |
| Next | "Eye of the Beholder" |
"Masks" is an episode from the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The episode opens with Counselor Troi supervising a class of children sculpting clay. Data is also in attendance, but his first attempt - sculpting an exact replica of a PADD - prompts Troi to tell him to exercise his imagination more by sculpting "music." He then sculpts a treble clef (perfectly) which prompts her to tell him "It's a start."
Data is then called to the bridge to investigate the appearance of a rogue comet that they determine has been on its present course for over eighty-seven million years. They begin a full intensity sensor sweep, causing a strange transient effect on the ship (a "sensor echo"). They adjust for the effect by lowering the intensity of the sweep, resulting in a longer scan time.
Troi and Dr. Crusher enter Troi's quarters after attending one of Worf's martial arts classes and discover a strange object. After they leave the object suddenly displays a strange materialization effect, producing a compass-like marking.
Data has returned to the sculpting class again, and his sculpture now is drastically different: he has produced a ritualistic mask. Troi recognizes the symbology on the mask and asks if Data put the object in her quarters, which he did not. One of the children then asks for help with his console, which is being overlayed with alien ideographic symbols.
Data, La Forge, and Commander Riker [1] investigate the mystery from Engineering, determining that the sensor sweep is likely the cause and that they should burn away the outer shell of the comet to determine what is inside. Data informs them that he "understands" the ideographs that are now infecting every display in an arrangement reminiscent of the compass design and reads several of them, ending with a large sun symbol that he interprets as meaning "death."
After they burn off the gaseous shell of the comet, they discover an immense structure inside, and that it's been using the sensors as a carrier wave to introduce information into the computers. Data intuits that it is an informational archive, though he doesn't know how he knows this. He and La Forge leave for Engineering to perform a diagnostic on his systems. The bridge crew tentatively continues the scan.
Riker and Captain Picard investigate several artifacts that have begun appearing on the ship similar to what was in Troi's quarters, determining that they are ritualistic and only deceptively primitive. Picard notes not only is the compass-type design prominent, but also the sun design and a smaller U-shaped design that he cannot interpret.
During Data's examination in Engineering, his exposed positronic circuits are suddenly coated with an impenetrable layer and he displays the compass symbol on his forehead. He speaks in a different voice, his personality abruptly different, stating that "Masaka is waking." Picard interrogates Data in his quarters. He now displays a personality calling itself Ihat and gives cryptic clues about his queen Masaka. During this time his personality changes to another.
La Forge explains to the bridge crew that the replicators not only created the objects appearing on the ship but also nodes in Data's positronic net that are allowing several personalities to emerge into Data's brain. Picard decides to keep the scan on the archive active to determine a way to shut it down while he interrogates the various personalities in Data's body. These include Ihat, a young boy, and an old man who identifies himself as Masaka's father. They indicate that not only is Masaka dangerous, but that only one named Korgano can control her.
Picard is called to Ten-Forward, where he discovers that large portions of the ship are now being transformed into not only artifacts, but also large structures and even living plants. The sun symbol and the strange U-shaped symbol are seen more and more often as they investigate. Picard decides with regret to destroy the archive, but La Forge and Worf's attempt to manually launch a torpedo is balked by what is assumed to be the presence of Masaka.
The bridge crew debates as to the archive's true purpose and how to deactivate it. La Forge announces that while he can't shut down the beam that is now holding the ship, he has been able to gain access to the archive. Picard goes to talk to the personalities inside Data again in an attempt to reach Masaka to stop the transformation of the ship. The Ihat and old man personae tell Picard that to get to Masaka he must "build her temple," and they give the pictogram that will activate the transformation.
Once the temple has been created, Picard, Troi, and Worf investigate the temple, discovering both the sun symbol and U-shaped symbol in greater and greater prominence all around the temple, and for the first time they are paired. In one case the U-shaped symbol is largest and the sun-shaped smaller. They realize that the symbols represent Masaka and Korgano as the sun and moon relate to one another. While they are discussing this, Data enters wearing the mask he had made in the sculpting class earlier. Masaka has taken precedence in his mind and as Ihat and the old man said, she came once her temple was created. However, she will not even acknowledge the others as being in the room. Picard says they must find someone that she will listen to.
La Forge finds the U-shaped symbol representing Korgano in the database and input it into the transformation program, but instead of removing Masaka or creating Korgano it creates another mask. Picard realizes that he must take the role of Korgano to Data's Masaka. Picard as Korgano goes to Masaka's temple and in the ensuing dialogue between them persuades her to rest so that they can "begin their hunt again" the next day. When Masaka "sleeps," the temple disappears and the ship returns to its original state.
In the episode's coda, Data shows Picard the mask he had made (prior to the transformation of the ship, which is why it survived), and Data informs him that he believes that he carried literally thousands of personalities. Picard tells Data that he had an experience that "transcends the human condition." He had been an entire civilization.
[edit] External link
- Masks article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
- Masks (TNG episode) at StarTrek.com
