With Next Generation there was no need to travel back to Earth's past as in the original series story, "City on the Edge of Forever", or travel to a distant planet whose inhabitants mimicked 1920's gangsters like in 'A Piece of the Action'. All you had to do was visit the holodeck and punch in your preference for an out of time adventure. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) takes the plunge in this one, hoping he could find some relaxation before attempting to placate an insect-like race making contact with the Enterprise-D some twenty years after being disgraced by an improperly nuanced statement. It's a more or less fun story overall, made amusing by Data's (Brent Spiner) attempt to mimic Cagney's shoulder shrug and trying to emulate 1940's gangster speak. I couldn't reconcile how crew member Whalen (David Selburg) might have died by taking a bullet from henchman Felix Leech (Harvey Jason), especially when later it was demonstrated how Cyrus Redblock (Lawrence Tierney) and Leech both disintegrated when they left the confines of the holodeck simulation. But I guess one isn't supposed to think about stuff like that. I find myself in agreement with a handful of other reviewers here who felt that Gates McFadden absolutely 'crushes' it with her femme fatale portrayal, leaving almost nothing to the imagination as to where her relationship with the Captain would like to go. It was nuanced in earlier episodes, but this one takes it to another level. Eventually, Picard makes good with the insect mind Jarada and all's well back on board the Enterprise, making this one of the better episodes so far in the series up to this point.
Review of The Big Goodbye
"It was a nice place to visit,... but I wouldn't want to die there."
2 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers