A Fistful of Datas
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 9 November 1992
- ON
- First-run syndication
- STARDATE
- 46271.5
- DIRECTED BY
- Patrick Stewart
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 234
WRITTEN BYTeleplay by Robert Hewitt Wolfe and Brannon Braga; story by Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Worf reluctantly joins his son for a Wild West holodeck adventure, but an engineering experiment gives the outlaws a dangerous advantage: they all start to look, and shoot, like Data.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
With time to spare before a rendezvous, Geordi and Data test whether Data's brain can act as a backup for the ship's computer. Meanwhile Worf gives in to Alexander's pleading and joins him and Troi in an Old West holodeck adventure set in Deadwood, with Troi playing a mysterious stranger. They arrest the outlaw Eli Hollander, whose father Frank vows to free him. Then the experiment goes wrong: Data and the computer swap information, the holodeck safeties fail, and the characters begin taking on Data's face and abilities. Frank, his gang and even saloon owner Annie become Data, making the game genuinely deadly, and Worf cannot simply end the programme. He, Troi and Alexander must play the story out to its finish to escape. They defeat the gang and reach safety, Data is restored, and Worf is later caught practising his cowboy moves alone.
- 01Directed by Patrick Stewart. The title plays on Sergio Leone's western A Fistful of Dollars, itself based on Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo.
- 02Robert Hewitt Wolfe's first script for the series. He later became a producer on Deep Space Nine.
- 03Troi was originally written as Annie the saloon owner, not the mysterious stranger Durango.