“The Big Goodbye” is episode twelve of season one of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Commander Riker is dictating his personal log. The Enterprise is heading to make a brief but necessary contact with the Jarada, a reclusive insect-like race with idiosyncratic protocol who require a precise greeting to be given by Captain Picard. The slightest mispronunciation will be taken as an insult.
The captain himself is in his ready room, going over the greeting with Counselor Troi. To a complaint about the spelling, Troi tells the captain that he spells knife with a ‘k.’ His reply is that he spells knife with an ‘n’ but he never could spell. The counselor thinks that the captain has done enough practising. He’s been looking forward to the upgrade to the holodeck and he has some time to use it. Dixon Hill. The program is installed and waiting.
Picard heads to the holodeck and activates the program, set in San Francisco in 1941. Dixon Hill is a private detective. The holodeck, the captain recounts, is useful for training but also enjoyable for recreation. Picard enters an office on the holodeck to be greeted by a woman, Hill’s secretary. She thinks his outfit is funny and wonders if he lost a bet. The secretary updates Picard on various things; there’s also a woman waiting in his office. Inside, there’s a woman smoking and Picard says he lost a bet, regarding his uniform and before she asks. She thinks someone is trying to kill her.
The woman thinks someone is trying to kill her. It could be her husband or her stepdaughter. To Picard’s suggestion of a lover, she agrees perhaps. Or it could be Cyrus Redblock. She wants Hill – Picard – to find out. She agrees to his price. Redblock thinks she has something he wants. She doesn’t. After the woman leaves, Picard calls for the exit, and tells the person who knocks on his door that they will have to call back. He isn’t dressed properly.
Picard is telling the senior staff – and Wesley – about the experience. Gushing about it. Dr. Crusher cleans the woman’s lipstick from his face. Picard says he is going again but will dress the part. Perhaps the doctor would like to come with? She seems quite thrilled at the prospect. She also seems rather less thrilled when Picard also suggests inviting a historian, Whalen.
Getting onto the actual topic of the meeting, the Jaradan rendezvous, there’s mention of a previous attempt failing badly. Even the slightest error in the greeting will cause offence. Data suggests watching the recording of the previous attempt. No-one else wants to. Afterwards, Geordi tells Data that, once you’ve seen the Jarada react once, you don’t need to see it again. Regarding Dixon Hill, Geordi compares him to Sherlock Holmes, who Data became fascinated with in “Lonely Among Us”. Data decides to do more research, and reads all the Dixon Hill stories.
Picard is now ready to enter the holodeck again, together with Whalen. Then Data arrives, dressed the part, and asks if he can come as well. They enter and get a paper; Data’s behaviour results in Picard saying he’s from South America. The newspaper vendor compliments him on his tan. One article in the paper is on a wealthy socialite being murdered, the woman who came to see Dixon Hill. Then two police detectives arrive; one seems to be a friend of Hill’s, the other thinks he’s guilty of the murder. She had Hill’s card on her.
The Enterprise is probed by the Jarada, which appears to affect the holodeck. A subspace message is received; it is time to honour them. Riker is not good enough. He’s a mere subordinate. They await the captain’s greeting with growing unrest. Riker dispatches Geordi to the holodeck. Which begs the question, why not use the comm system?
Dr Crusher is ready and outside the holodeck. She has some problems entering, when the doors malfunction, but gets in. She arrives at the precinct where the others are, telling Data she had problems getting in. Data is speaking in a rather over the top accent and using terminology that was likely more common in the novels of the period than in real life. The doctor is told that Picard is being interrogated regarding a murder, which she finds exciting. She wants to be interrogated too. Why should the captain have all the fun?
Outside the holodeck, Geordi contacts the bridge as he can’t get in. Riker is going to head to the holodeck too. Wesley wants to come with; the commander tells him his place is on the bridge until Troi reminds Riker that Wesley’s mother is in there too.
Everyone on the holodeck is having a lot of fun, and Dr Crusher gets hit on by the police desk sergeant. That is, they are having fun until they find out there’s something wrong. Dangerously wrong. Plus, the captain is needed out of the holodeck and on the bridge in order to not insult the Jarada.