It’s quite a quaint design, and one that really dates The Vengeance Factor. I’m surprised that most of the Gatherers don’t carry around long chains or lead pipes. They really do look like the production design department decided to go with “a space biker gang” in the most stereotypical manner possible. They are all stubble ( but not beards!) and scars and mullets and leather. Of course, the Gatherers are a wonderfully cheesy creation. Hold me, maybe not thrill me, but definitely kiss me and kill me… It’s not as big a deal as the subversions of the Roddenberry ideals in The Bonding, where Roddenberry’s stoicism was treated as unhealthy and repressive and the idea of having families on a starship was challenged, but it is another example of the show’s increasing willingness to do its own thing. Their presence demonstrates the third season’s willingness to break away from Roddenberry’s restrictive edicts, and to allow Star Trek: The Next Generation to find its own voice. Unaligned to any planetary government, a threat to local stability, stealing what they need to survive, the Gatherers are space pirates in all but name. “They’ve ransacked our research facilities, our trade routes have been disrupted.” “Their raids have made this sector unsafe,” he protests. Indeed, Picard’s complaints make it sound like the Gatherers have become quite the galactic nuisance.
Although the Gatherers are never explicitly identified as pirates of the galactic space ways, the episode clearly defines them as such. So The Vengeance Factor represents a sharp violation of Roddenberry’s edict. Far from perfect, and not among the high points of this third season, The Vengeance Factor still marks a sharp improvement from The Price. Although the ending is unbelievably forced, at least it is striking and effective. However, there’s something almost endearing about The Vengeance Factor, from its very eighties leather Mad Max reject space pirates through to the way that channels the optimism of Star Trek quite well. It’s a story where Yuta’s thirst for revenge keeps her young, and one that opens with Crusher tracking the acts of piracy back to the Gatherers using a blood stain on a shard of metal.
Something of a Riker-centric romance to compliment the Troi-centric romance in The Price, the episode is an exploration of vengeance and generational strife – the cost of feuds that last decades, even centuries. The Vengeance Factor is an ambitious little episode that never quite manages to follow through on its potential. This January and February, we’ll be finishing up our look at the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation and moving on to the third year of the show, both recently and lovingly remastered for high definition.
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