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This is the one where Riker, Data, and Worf get stuck in an alien version of a casino hotel from a pulp novel. Stinks to high heaven.

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I loved that "Micky D" tribute there...

I believe it's "amoeba," not "ameoba," as you spelled it.

The revolving door is especially hilarious because you can see Riker's shadow as he goes around. Setting aside the problems with the script, I wonder how a professional production can end up so sloppy. The whole decomposition bit was another amateurish mistake.

I do think the writers deserve some sympathy for Fermat's Last Theorem, though. Sometimes, that kind of shit just happens when you're writing sci-fi.

This episode makes the TOS gangster episode look like Shakespeare.

This also gives us the fact that Data has the 'skill' to cheat at rolling dice. How could he get away with that? I can understand a Jedi getting away with it but Data has to roll the dice a certain way to make this work.

RedImperator wrote:The revolving door is especially hilarious because you can see Riker's shadow as he goes around. Setting aside the problems with the script, I wonder how a professional production can end up so sloppy. The whole decomposition bit was another amateurish mistake.

I do think the writers deserve some sympathy for Fermat's Last Theorem, though. Sometimes, that kind of shit just happens when you're writing sci-fi.

It gets better.

memory alpha wrote:The debris of the Charybdis beamed aboard the Enterprise features the NASA "worm" logo. NASA retired this logo in 1992 (just a few years after this episode was filmed), replacing it with the traditional "meatball" logo.

They just can't get a break.

Isolder74 wrote:This episode makes the TOS gangster episode look like Shakespeare.

This also gives us the fact that Data has the 'skill' to cheat at rolling dice. How could he get away with that? I can understand a Jedi getting away with it but Data has to roll the dice a certain way to make this work.

The patrons are all idiots. It is designed to be comfortable for the astronaut- they probably didn't bother preventing cheating in order to give him a way to make money as otherwise the house always wins.

Isolder74 wrote:This episode makes the TOS gangster episode look like Shakespeare.

Are you saying A Piece of the Action isn't a good episode?

Uraniun235 wrote:

Isolder74 wrote:This episode makes the TOS gangster episode look like Shakespeare.

Are you saying A Piece of the Action isn't a good episode?

no, but you can't say it is the pinnacle of writing either. It is still ham. Good ham but still ham.

This also gives us the fact that Data has the 'skill' to cheat at rolling dice. How could he get away with that? I can understand a Jedi getting away with it but Data has to roll the dice a certain way to make this work.

Data squeezed the dice so he could control how they landed. Since he did it by closing his hand around them, nobody would see him doing it. It's like a combination of loading the dice and that dice position shit some people claim they can do to improve the odds. Also, the reason nobody notices what Data's doing is that the book the simulation was based on wasn't written to be an accurate portrayal of a casino. Otherwise, you'd see security take Data to a back room and the management threaten him with a circular saw to the hand.

CDiehl wrote:

This also gives us the fact that Data has the 'skill' to cheat at rolling dice. How could he get away with that? I can understand a Jedi getting away with it but Data has to roll the dice a certain way to make this work.

Data squeezed the dice so he could control how they landed. Since he did it by closing his hand around them, nobody would see him doing it. It's like a combination of loading the dice and that dice position shit some people claim they can do to improve the odds. Also, the reason nobody notices what Data's doing is that the book the simulation was based on wasn't written to be an accurate portrayal of a casino. Otherwise, you'd see security take Data to a back room and the management threaten him with a circular saw to the hand.

Yet the place is run by a mobster named mickey D!

You'd think they would be emptying a Thompson sub machine gun into Data! This is a mob casino, you'd think they'd looking into winning streaks.

Isolder74 wrote:

CDiehl wrote:

This also gives us the fact that Data has the 'skill' to cheat at rolling dice. How could he get away with that? I can understand a Jedi getting away with it but Data has to roll the dice a certain way to make this work.

Data squeezed the dice so he could control how they landed. Since he did it by closing his hand around them, nobody would see him doing it. It's like a combination of loading the dice and that dice position shit some people claim they can do to improve the odds. Also, the reason nobody notices what Data's doing is that the book the simulation was based on wasn't written to be an accurate portrayal of a casino. Otherwise, you'd see security take Data to a back room and the management threaten him with a circular saw to the hand.

Yet the place is run by a mobster named mickey D!

You'd think they would be emptying a Thompson sub machine gun into Data! This is a mob casino, you'd think they'd looking into winning streaks.

Why? That would defeat the purpose of the simulation if it killed the person who it was there to entertain.

Samuel wrote:Why? That would defeat the purpose of the simulation if it killed the person who it was there to entertain.

That person is already dead. By that logic, the hotel should have vanished already. The person it was meant to entertain is dead why keep it going?

If you pay attention Data and co are suddenly the three foreign investors that are suppose to buy the hotel at end the of story. Talk about taking it way too literally!

Even at the height of the mob days in Vegas, Lucky Luciano was not going to walk out onto the casino floor and spray a patron with a Tommy gun. That's stupid. Maybe if they were sure you were cheating, they'd drag you into a back room and beat you senseless, then kick you out (with a warning to leave town before you wound up in a hole in the desert), but spraying bullets on the casino floor would be the most retarded fucking thing imaginable (Mickey D murdering someone in plain sight was scripted, and only proves the source novel was terrible--a rare win for the episode, as far as I'm concerned)..

As for how Data got away with cheating, several things: first, all of the casino employees are NPCs with limited programming. They act out the novel, and have a limited range of reactions to live "players". They're probably not programmed to deal with cheaters, especially people cheating in unlikely ways (i.e., a pit boss might come drag you away if he caught a player stealing chips or pulling an ace out of his sleeve, but it's practically impossible to cheat at craps at a casino with even basic security). Second, players go on lucky streaks all the time--casinos depend on them to generate publicity and excitement. Especially in craps, lucky streaks generate more money, as more players are drawn to the table and start betting. And third, this is a half-assed simulation based on a shitty novel made by aliens with no other exposure to human culture. How would they know how a casino would react if a player starting hitting seven after seven at the craps table?

Isolder74 wrote:

Samuel wrote:Why? That would defeat the purpose of the simulation if it killed the person who it was there to entertain.

That person is already dead. By that logic, the hotel should have vanished already. The person it was meant to entertain is dead why keep it going?

If you pay attention Data and co are suddenly the three foreign investors that are suppose to buy the hotel at end the of story. Talk about taking it way too literally!

The hotel would not have vanished upon it's purchase by the "trio of foreign investors": the hotel manger is left in charge to run the place and life, such as it is in the Royale, goes on. But the "investors" can leave whenever they please. In fact, since their departure and their delegation of managerial leadership is in the text of the novel, that provides the escape clause for Riker, Data, and Worf —who were outside elements to begin with and thus also fulfilled the role of the "trio of foreign gentlemen". Col. Ritchie, unfortunately, was alone in the simulation, which was created specifically to house him, and was probably programmed in to be recognised only as a "guest" in the hotel, so he could not fulfill the end-condition and thus remained trapped in the text of a horribly crappy novel for the rest of his miserable, lonely life.

Chuck this is the second time I have accused someone of this this week, so I don't want anyone thinking its my psychology term of the week, but were you projecting a little with that bit Riker read at the end there?

Actually, it's drinking from the wrong grail that makes you turn into a skeleton. Looking into the Ark of the Covenant makes your face melt and/or explode.

Isolder74 wrote:

Uraniun235 wrote:

Isolder74 wrote:This episode makes the TOS gangster episode look like Shakespeare.

Are you saying A Piece of the Action isn't a good episode?

no, but you can't say it is the pinnacle of writing either. It is still ham. Good ham but still ham.

It's a fucking comedy episode, what the hell do you expect? It's leagues beyond any comedy episode that TNG or beyond ever attempted.

CDiehl wrote:

This also gives us the fact that Data has the 'skill' to cheat at rolling dice. How could he get away with that? I can understand a Jedi getting away with it but Data has to roll the dice a certain way to make this work.

Data squeezed the dice so he could control how they landed. Since he did it by closing his hand around them, nobody would see him doing it. It's like a combination of loading the dice and that dice position shit some people claim they can do to improve the odds. Also, the reason nobody notices what Data's doing is that the book the simulation was based on wasn't written to be an accurate portrayal of a casino. Otherwise, you'd see security take Data to a back room and the management threaten him with a circular saw to the hand.

Actually he said that the dice were "improperly weighted", meaning they were already loaded and he simply fixed them so they would role naturally. That was also the meaning behind Rikers parting comment for them not to let the casino switch the dice on them.