Star Trek: The Next Generation — 3x09 — The Vengeance Factor

Aired 1989-11-20

SpaceOpera.com rating:3

Average reader rating:3.75

Synopsis

Picard mediates a violent dispute.

Remarkable scenes

The away team's fake escape from the ambush by vaporizing the metal alloy into smoke.
Worf: "Your ambushes would be more successful if you bathed more often!"
The negotiations. Tense but progressive.
Riker killing Yuta.

Review

Riker falls in love then finds out his lover is a mass murderer. Texas justice ensues. Nice if that's what you're into, but I found it largely unremarkable, predictable, and dull.

7 reader comments

In this episode, Worf makes the comment about bathing more often to the ambushers. But in "Conspiracy," he says, "swimming is too much like … bathing." I guess being with humans has changed Worf ;)
Riker stuns Yuta twice and then kills her!! I know he warned her twice, but did he have to kill her? The second time he stuns Yuta, she barely manages to get up. Stun her a few more times, or get the guards to grab her, or transport her back to the Enterprise, but don't kill her!
by DSOmo | 07/19/2007 at 7:02 pm

So…Riker spends most of the episode trying to charm little blondie. Then, when she comes to his room and wants to give him pleasure, he stops her and says I want you as an equal!?! Yeah, right… Oprah and Phil Donohue were probably high-fiving each other when they saw that. Sometimes TNG is so unrealistically lame and pro-social, it makes me sick.
by thaibites | 12/15/2010 at 12:08 am

I think it's generally agreed the ending of this episode was a horrible waste of a potentially good story. I was very interested in the idea of a clan based society setting aside its differences and making peace, but not before some of its members wandered off to become intergalactic nomads. That peaceful society is now trying to incorporate the nomads, who obviously live very different lives. And the intrigue involved in the Acamarian ruler's personal aide secretly seeking a vendetta made for a superb twist.
But in the end, it leads to a scene in which everybody is standing around while Yuta tries to kill Chorgan, and Riker repeatedly stuns and then kills her. I can think of several better endings, and I'm not a paid, professional writer. Have a bunch of people subdue Yuta and take her away. Or, if her death is to be a significant part of the plot, have Chorgan or one of his band of warriors kill Yuta, thus endangering the peace process and ending the episode on a question of whether the Gatherers will ever return to Acamar in light of what's happened. Something…anything…but what actually happened.
by MJ | 02/23/2011 at 12:06 am

Mostly I thought the episode was entertaining, though not exactly inspired. But the secret revelation at the end was very odd. I was expecting Yuta to have been raised in the tradition of revenge, that would make sense. Where did this weird "genetic modification" thing come from? Somehow, in order to exact an exotic revenge scheme, they have discovered a way to greatly extend lifespan. Forget revenge, wouldn't everyone want that? It is like inventing time travel just to restart the warp engines! And I totally agree with DSOmo that there was no reason for Riker to kill her. Apparently the writers wanted her dead, and no one was going to stop them.
by Christopher Alexander | 04/14/2011 at 4:01 am

This episode had a vaguely interesting plot but the execution was dismal. I thought the Gatherer characters were obnoxious - no matter what their role was in the story at any given time, I just did not like seeing them on screen.
The chemistry (or lack thereof) between Riker and Yuta was really awkward and unconvincing.
I think 2 is more appropriate.
by Percivale | 09/03/2011 at 3:50 am

This episode isn't all that bad. The plot itself is somewhat formulaic, but the dialogue and character development are pretty good, so I give it a 7/10. It's certainly not an eye-roller, like some of the more terrible TNG episodes.
That said, this is another one of those 'world divided' episodes where two groups of people from the same planet are completely different, except that one group no longer lives on the planet.
The 'leaders' of both factions are portrayed quite well -- Nancy Parsons, in particular, does a good job as the Sovereign of the more 'civilized' sect, and Joey Aresco's Brull is interesting and fairly well-developed (for a one hour show).
It's certainly entertaining, at any rate, even if you've seen it before. The dialogue is snappy enough to keep you interested.
by Dave Edsons | 12/05/2012 at 6:23 am

This watch-through, I found this ep pretty dull. The character of Yuta was wasted. She had potential. Agreed that Yuta's death was abrupt and unnecessary. They probably could have cut a bunch of the Yuta/Riker scenes and had a more satisfying ending. Knowing how it turns out, it's pretty weird watching them interact throughout the episode knowing he ends up killing her!
I like that once Riker saw how … let's just say, girl got issues, he stopped pursuing her sexually and just hugged her. That was nice. I, too, would be pretty instantly turned off finding out a potential lover was just trying to please me but wasn't actually into it herself. Ick. I do kinda feel sorry for Yuta. She probably does feel powerless to change her destiny. She's clearly not happy.
I will continue to be salty at Trek weapons being able to vaporize a whole person in seconds. The amount of energy that would have to release all at once would practically leave a crater. But here: no remains, no ashes, no smoke, no bright light, no wave of heat, no meat vapor cloud, no nothing. Just poof! 60 or so kilograms of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, calcium, etc, whisked out of existence. This isn't specific to this episode, but it's doubly annoying given how pointless the death was. Grr!
Sometimes this show feels like it holds up decently three decades later; sometimes it feels very 80s. The whole getup of the Gatherers felt very 80s. Not that that's a bad thing! ;)
by Azalea Jane | 08/04/2021 at 8:19 am