Stardate: 42625.4
Original Air Date: March 27, 1989
Writer: Tracy Tormé (under the pseudonym of “Keith Mills”)
Director: Cliff Bole
“In our arrogance, we feel we are so advanced, and yet we cannot unravel a simple knot tied by a part-time French mathematician, working alone without a computer.”
The Enterprise enters orbit around the eighth planet in a previously unmapped Theta 116 Solar System. The crew diverted course to this location when a passing Klingon cruiser reported discovering pieces of a strange vessel in the upper atmosphere of Theta VIII (Geordi notes this planet has a “nasty” atmosphere –filled with nitrogen, methane, liquid neon, surface temperature of -291 degrees Celsius and winds of up to 312 meters per second leading to ammonia storms). Upon arrival, the Enterprise finds evidence of debris in elliptical orbit around the planet, and they soon recover a broken piece of debris that reads “NASA” on the side as well as a 52-star American flag (dating the debris to the mid-21st century). However, no Earth ship could have possibly traveled out this far by that point in time. And the damage indicates it may have been damaged by modern weaponry.
Meanwhile, a large facility is found on the planet surface below. Could there be a connection to the damaged debris found in orbit? Riker, Worf, and Data form a landing party and find a mysterious antique revolving doorway. Upon entering, they find a bustling hotel and casino filled with people a la Casablanca (known as “The Hotel Royale”), despite losing all contact with the Enterprise. They soon realize that all the people in the hotel are not actually alive. They do exist, but not as either man or machine. When the trio attempts to leave the hotel, they shockingly discover that the revolving merely leads right back into hotel –there is no escape. At the same time, back aboard the Enterprise Geordi, Picard, and Wesley struggle to locate the crew through the interference (interestingly enough, Counselor Troi is able to read the emotions of the landing party from afar).
In an upper hotel room, Riker, Worf, and Data find a decomposing human male corpse that died some 283 years ago. They also find the suit of Colonel S. (Stephen) Richey with an American flag with 52-stars dating to around 2033-2079 AD (he launched from Earth on July 23, 2037 for the third manned attempt to travel beyond the Solar System), and a novel entitled Hotel Royale by Todd Matthews (it is about a group of compulsive gamblers who become caught up in a web of crime, corruption, and deceit; told by a nefarious lothario Mickey D. to carry out the murder of a younger bellboy; and there is also a subplot of an older woman conspiring to murder her husband). A single journal entry is found beside Colonel Richey in which he describes how his exploratory shuttle was infected by a foreign alien species which killed all of his crew but left him alive for decades, perhaps out of remorse, inside the Hotel Royale.
It now falls to the landing party to participate in the strange, cliché-ridden, gangster story of the Hotel Royale (with characters like Mickey D., Rita) while they attempt to find a chance to escape. Ultimately, Data gambles in order to win enough money to buy the Hotel Royale, thus allowing the landing party to pose as “the foreign investors” as described in the novel. Only then are they permitted to leave. In the end, Picard reflects on Fermat’s unsolved theorem as a metaphor for this whole mysterious adventure.
My Thoughts on “The Royale”
“The Royale” is a pretty goofy episode –in some ways, it reminded me of the Season 1 episode “The Big Goodbye.” The premise of the Enterprise finding NASA debris is immensely compelling (reminiscent of V’Ger in Star Trek The Motion Picture and also the Season 2 TOS episode “The Changeling”), however it eventually comes to light as a satire of bad writing and mostly a filler episode. For example, why would the Enterprise so carelessly beam several key crew members down to a highly volatile, unsafe planet? And once down on the planet, why in the world doesn’t Riker immediately heed Data’s request to re-establish connection with the Enterprise instead of venturing deeper into the hotel?
Unfortunately, the true identity of the aliens behind the Hotel Royale is never revealed –how did they construct the Hotel Royale? What is the future of Theta VIII after this bizarre encounter? Do the characters simply continue to run this strange Hotel Royale simulation for all of eternity? Answers are never really given in the episode. Still, there is something I found charming about this episode. Maybe it’s because silly escapism can serve as a powerful antidote in our increasingly dark world today, but I still had some fun with this thin, somewhat clumsy, throw-away episode. Some commentators have even drawn comparisons (albeit very light comparisons) to The Twilight Zone. At the very least, “The Royale” offers an amusing chance to watch Data strut around in a cowboy hat while working the Blackjack tables.
Star Trek Trivia:
- Writer Tracy Tormé decided to conceal his name under the pseudonym of “Keith Mills” out of frustrations over revisions to his script.
- Early in this episode, Picard is found seated in his ready room quarters puzzling over French mathematician Fermat’s last theorem, an unsolved puzzle that was found scrawled in his notebook and has remained unsolved for 800 years. Notably, in 1995 (six years after this episode aired) Andrew Wiles published a proof of the theorem.
- The American flag from 2037 in this episode has 52 stars on it.
- Apparently, the resulting incongruity of this episode will later be revisited in a DS9 episode “Facets.”
- The surface temperature of Theta VIII (-291 Celsius) would make it below absolute zero.
- The opening line of the Hotel Royale novel is “It was a dark and stormy night” –a nod to the book being described as pitiful and cliché-ridden throughout the episode.
- The assistant manager of the Hotel Royale is played by Sam Anderson (1947-present) who is known for having appeared in shows like Growing Pains and Lost as well as films like Forrest Gump.
- Some of the other characters in the hotel are played by: Jill Jacobson, Noble Willingham, and Gregory Beecroft, and Leo Garcia.
- Apparently the name of the NASA craft was the “Charybdis.”