I don't care how stupid this episode is. It's unbelievably good fun. All the kids are pretty great in their roles, too.
Little Molly is ridiculously cute too (and has grown up confusingly fast!)
[8.6/10] Woe the fate of the Star Trek comedy episode. Sure, most folks appreciate “The Trouble with Tribbles” or “A Piece of the Action” from the 1960s show. But for a large contingent of Trekkies, their favorite franchise is Serious Business:tm:, and they bemoan any effort at levity.
What I love about “Rascals”, though, is that it offers the best of both worlds. The premise of the episode -- the latest mysterious spatial phenomenon turns Picard, Guinan, Ensign Ro, and Keiko into twelve-year-olds -- is inherently silly. But The Next Generation offers us the best of both worlds (so to speak). It finds pathos and meaning in the struggles an adult reduced to childhood would face, while also leaning into the unique fun of the setup. It’s the platonic ideal for how to balance whimsy, gravity, and tone to produce something fantastic.
Much of that owes to the talents of the child actors, and like all kid performances (and performances generally), to the director. In truth, the young performers who play the preteen versions of Ro and Keiko struggle a bit with some of the meatier material they’re given. But Isis J. Jones does a wonderful job conjuring the wry attitude and easy-going vibe of the (seemingly) inimitable Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan. The writing and the performance meld beautifully to make the Ten-Forward barkeep’s childhood self scan as real.
But no one in the young cast does better than David Tristan Birkin as young Picard. It’s no small feat to summon the presence and bearing of not only the show’s arguable protagonist, but also the finest actor ever to stroll the bulkheads. And yet, Birkin is up to the task. It’s a clever bit of casting to bring back the actor who played Jean-Luc’s nephew, Rene, from “Family” for the role. And Birkin does great work, capturing all the quirks and tics of Patrick Stewart’s performance in a way that makes him believable as a fifty-year-old officer and statesman in a twelve-year-old’s body.
That’s a good thing, because “Rascals” takes the idea seriously. Despite being kid-ified, Picard endeavors to treat things like business as usual, commanding his ship and giving orders while everyone else on the bridge just sort of stares at their new tow-headed captain. Beverly has to intervene and convince Jean-Luc to step back while everyone, including him, has time to adjust. He converses with Troi about the practical chances of anyone on a starship being able to take him seriously again, and what he might do with the time before he’d age into looking like a plausible commander again.
It’s emblematic of the approach the episode takes. There’s something undeniably goofy about hearing a dignified preteen scoff at the prospect of being “Wesley Crusher’s roommate at the academy” or geek out about archeology digs. But that’s the point. As funny as the situation is, it’s also a little tragic, or at least challenging, in the way it forces grown adults to have to grapple with how those they’re close to will perceive them. Picard’s still the same man he was before the transporter accident, but his appearance betrays him. As much as some folks yearn to be young again, an episode like “Rascals” examines the difficulties of an old mind in a young body with conviction.
Likewise, the episode smartly only includes one scene of grown-up Chief O’Brien interacting with young Keiko. There’s an awkwardness there that makes it worth treading lightly. And yet, the episode doesn’t flinch from how strange it would be for grown-up Miles, how hard it would be for de-aged Keiko, and what a strain this sort of peculiar occurrence would put in their family. It breaks your heart to see tiny Molly ask for her mommy and reject Keiko. It would be all too easy to play this premise for the wackiness of adults-as-kids, and instead “Rascals” goes the harder route of deconstructing it, coming out stronger for it.
Despite the introspection, this is still Star Trek, so we need some external threat and chance for action or at least mortal peril to interrupt the navel-gazing. So late in the runtime, the episode has the Enterprise stymied and boarded by Ferengi raiders. They hope, as always, to make a profit, but their plans stumble on the four crewmen who seem like children but have a little something extra up their sleeves.
Here too, “Rascals” does a nice job of balancing legitimate jeopardy and enjoyable levity. By this point, the Ferengi had mellowed into deliberately comical enemies, rather than mere accidentally comical enemies. Our heroes beating them with silly tricks and subterfuge is entertaining. At the same time, though, they threaten to enslave the crew, execute the children, and even make a legitimate point about the dangers of bringing kids on board a Starfleet vessel! (A point Trip and Reed would take up briefly on Enterprise.) They’re a little goofy as antagonists, but they manage to get the upper hand well enough, and their threat is real enough, that the stakes feel genuine.
Likewise, it’s a blast to watch Picard and company pull a Home Alone on the Ferengi invaders. Using Alexander’s RV car for distractions, beaming the bad guys into a veritable holding cell, and most of all pretending to be Riker’s son to get him to help out is an absolute hoot. The humor (Young Picard covering a slip of the tongue by proclaiming Will his “number one dad!”) and the drama (the Ferengi DaiMon strong-arming Riker using the life of his crew) both click without clashing, not an easy thing to pull off.
Even after the day is saved, the show finds the same balance in Guinan and Ro. Little Guinan skipping down the hallway or coaxing Ro into jumping on the bed is both cute and sweet. Beneath it, though, is a subtle exploration of Ro’s lost childhood. The pair help retake the ship in amusing ways, but also delve into the sense of play, joy, and innocence Ro never got to experience as a child given all the trials she went through.
You do have to turn your brain off for parts of “Rascals.” The technobabble behind how exactly our heroes are kid-ified and how the transporter can change them back is not terribly convincing. And like “The Counter-Clock Incident” from The Animated Series, for all its deconstruction, the episode barely considers whether someone might choose to stay young after everything.
But at the heart of the episode is an impeccable meddling of the abjectly silly and strikingly profound. To be a kid again would be both amusing and unmooring, spurring funny situations that would nevertheless be laced with real hardship. In one of its strongest hours, TNG embraces that dichotomy, leaning into the humor when it’s right, but not shying away from the real considerations underneath. They add weight to a story that might otherwise be dismissed as pure comedy Trek, instead elevating it into something wonderful for all fans at any age.
Did I watch this or was it just a fever dream?
Help Picard will be cute hahahahaha
guinan is so so cute
Oh my, the CUTENESS!!! Great casting.
The fact that they didn't use young Picard's voice for the opening intro is disappointing .,
I would have liked this episode a lot more without that stupid Ferengi take-over attempt. Not that the idea itself was the greatest they ever came up with but it would have been much more interesting to see more of how each of them would deal with the situation. I mean, there is a bit of that in here at first but it takes pretty much a backseat once the Ferengi show up. And it was clear they wouldn't suceed and that somehow the children would be the saving the day.
I have to say though, those kids did really well playing the younger versions.
Shout by Lee BottonVIP 3BlockedParent2021-08-06T14:32:45Z
Alright but I didn't enjoy how Picard's child character had such different inflections in his voice. The way in which he spoke was not similar, which, if his brain was the same, it would've been, just in a higher voice. I found that particularly annoying and obvious.