“The Dauphin” (2×10)
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I’d been forewarned that this was one of TNG’s all-time stinkers, but I found myself enjoying it far more than most Wesley-centric episodes. I think a big part of its bad reputation comes from the eight-foot-tall woodchucks in monster costumes barely better than what we got in the original series.
But story-wise, it really worked for me. I liked that there was no external antagonist; the whole episode is basically just a taxi ride from one planet to another. And I believed the central romance between Wesley and Salia, two isolated teenagers who had spent the vast majority of their lives without anybody their own age. Instead of being a Mary Sue, Wesley acts his age this episode, as a hormonal boy with the hots for a pretty girl. And he has the advantage of being a city boy who gets to be the first to show this country girl from the sticks all of the sights.
At the same time, even though their peers in age, in some crucial ways Salia is a woman while Wesley is still a boy. His mother protected his childhood after his father’s tragic death, and his status as a Federation citizen ensures an open vista of possibilities for his future. By contrast, Salia has been raised from birth to shoulder the weight of her world. Wesley offers a tempting escape, but she ultimately will not abandon her duty.
Jamie Hubbard was in her late twenties when she made this episode, and wasn’t especially credible as a 16-year-old acting opposite a Wil Wheaton who was actually the age he was playing. But Hubbard is tall and regal in a way that serves the character, and the nature of her actual physiology explains why she doesn’t look exactly like a human 16-year-old would. There have been a number of humanoid species in Trek that don’t even have bumpy foreheads or pointy ears to differentiate them from humans, but this was one of the few cases where the episode provided a decent explanation. I appreciated that these shapeshifters felt so different than the Changlings from DS9, some intermediate step in evolution between organic lifeforms and beings of pure energy like the Q.
And it was effective seeing Wesley react to the fact that the girl he had a crush on wasn’t actually the pretty girl she appeared to be. His behavior is superficial like most boys his age would be, and then to his credit he is able to expand his appreciation of what a pretty girl can look like.
The only thing that didn’t quite work was that Salia and Anya remained human even when alone in their quarters. Further distracting was the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance by Mädchen Amick when Anya was a teenage girl acting in friend mode rather than governess mode for Salia. Of course, they had to stay in human form to preserve the twist, but it didn’t make sense in story.
It was another good Whoopi appearance as Guinan, too. I had a ball with the flirt-off between Riker and Guinan, and laughed out loud when Guinan told Wesley to “beat it, kid” when he interrupted Riker’s latest over the top compliment. Someone with as many marriages as Guinan has had would know something about falling in love and moving on.
I also really enjoyed the dynamic between Worf and the governess Anya. Their respective duties put them at odds with one another, but you can tell they’re both enjoying clashing with one another. And his horny explanation of Klingon mating rituals was hilarious.
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