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"11001001" is an episode of the first season of the American
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation''. It was first broadcast on February 1, 1988, in the United States in
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. It was written by Maurice Hurley and
Robert Lewin Robert Lewin (23 December 1918 – 17 May 2004) was a Polish art dealer and philanthropist. Biography Born Boruch Lewin in Warsaw, Poland, Lewin was the son of a Polish-Jewish banker Jacob, and Yochewet. With the rise of Hitler's anti-Jewish ...
, and directed by Paul Lynch. Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet crew of the Federation starship ''Enterprise''-D. In this episode, members of an alien race called the Bynars hijack a nearly evacuated ''Enterprise'' while retrofitting the computer in space dock. Make-up supervisor Michael Westmore created the look of the Bynars, who were four women in extensive make-up. The musical score was scored by Ron Jones. Reviewers praised the Bynars themselves, and the response to the episode was generally positive, with one critic calling it the best of the season. It was awarded an
Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series.


Plot

The
Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...
''Enterprise'' arrives at
Starbase The concepts of space stations and space habitats feature in science fiction. The difference between the two is that habitats are larger and more complex structures intended as permanent homes for substantial populations (though generation ship ...
 74 for a routine maintenance check. Captain
Jean-Luc Picard Jean-Luc Picard is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, most often seen as the captain of the Federation starship . Played by Patrick Stewart, Picard has appeared in the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (''T ...
( Patrick Stewart) and Commander
William Riker William Thomas "Will" Riker is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' universe appearing primarily as a main character in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation''. Throughout the series and its accompanying films, he is the ''Enterprise''s first ...
( Jonathan Frakes) greet Starbase Commander Quinteros (
Gene Dynarski Eugene "Gene" Dynarski (September 13, 1933 – February 27, 2020) was an American actor. Three of the most popular projects that he has been involved with were two Steven Spielberg films, ''Duel'' and ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', and ...
) and two pairs of small humanoid aliens known as Bynars; the Bynars heavily rely on their computer technology and work in pairs for best efficiency. Much of the crew take shore leave while Picard, Riker and a skeleton crew remain aboard. Riker is intrigued by the Bynars' claimed upgrades to the
holodeck The Holodeck is a fictional device from the television franchise ''Star Trek'' which uses "holograms" (projected light and electromagnetic energy which create the illusion of solid objects) to create a realistic 3D simulation of a real or imag ...
and starts a program in a jazz bar. The program includes a woman named Minuet (
Carolyn McCormick Carolyn Inez McCormick (born September 19, 1959) is an American actress who played Dr. Elizabeth Olivet in the ''Law & Order'' franchise. Life and career McCormick was born and raised in Midland, Texas, and graduated first in her class from ...
), by whom Riker is fascinated, both as a beautiful and charming woman, but also by the level of sophistication in her responses. Riker shortly returns, and Picard walks in on him kissing Minuet, and he too is amazed by the simulation. Meanwhile, the Bynars discreetly create a catastrophic failure in the ship's warp core. Lt. Cmdr.
Data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted ...
(
Brent Spiner Brent Jay Spiner (; born February 2, 1949) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the android Data on the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', as well as four subsequent films. In 2019, he reprised the role for ...
) and Geordi La Forge ( LeVar Burton) are unable to locate Picard or Riker and, assuming them to already be on the Starbase, order an emergency evacuation. They set the ship to leave the Starbase and warp to a safe location before it would explode. However, once they are clear of the dock, the failure disappears and the ship sets course for the Bynar system, the planet Bynaus orbiting Beta Magellan. Data, La Forge, and Quinteros realize that the Bynars are still aboard the ship, but there are currently no other working vessels to follow them. Back on the ''Enterprise'', Riker and Picard leave the simulation to find the ship empty and at warp to the Bynar system, with the ship's controls locked to the bridge. Fearing that the Bynars have taken over the ship for nefarious purposes, they set the ship to self-destruct in 5 minutes and then take the bridge by intra-ship transporter beam and find the Bynars there unconscious. After canceling the self-destruct, they find the Bynars have uploaded massive amounts of information to the ''Enterprise'' computers, but they are unable to decode it. Realizing that Minuet was purposely created by the Bynars as a distraction, Picard and Riker ask the simulation about what is going on as the ship nears the orbit of Bynaus. Minuet explains that a star near the Bynar homeworld had gone supernova and the EMP it emitted would knock out their computer systems, killing the Bynars. They had used the ''Enterprise'' to upload their computer information for safekeeping and then planned to download it back to the Bynar computers after the threat of the EMP had passed. With Data's help, Picard and Riker download the data, and the Bynars recover. They apologize for their actions, having feared that Starfleet would refuse to help, though Picard notes they only had to ask. As the ''Enterprise'' returns to Starbase, Riker returns to the holodeck to thank Minuet but finds that without the Bynar data, the simulation has regressed to the expected norm for the holodeck, and while Minuet still exists, she is not the same as before. Riker reports to Picard that Minuet is gone.


Production

The name "11001001" is a
binary number A binary number is a number expressed in the base-2 numeral system or binary numeral system, a method of mathematical expression which uses only two symbols: typically "0" (zero) and "1" ( one). The base-2 numeral system is a positional notatio ...
, a concatenation of the names of the Bynars (One One, Zero Zero, One Zero, and Zero One). The episode at one point was called "10101001". It was originally intended that this episode would take place prior to " The Big Goodbye", with the Bynars' modifications causing the problems with the
holodeck The Holodeck is a fictional device from the television franchise ''Star Trek'' which uses "holograms" (projected light and electromagnetic energy which create the illusion of solid objects) to create a realistic 3D simulation of a real or imag ...
seen in that episode. Instead it was changed to the Bynars aiming to fix the holodeck to prevent those problems from recurring. The Bynars themselves were played by young women. Gross; Altman (1993): p. 163 Children were considered for the parts, but the production team thought that it would be too troublesome because of the limited time they could work each day and the need to hire teachers. Each actress was required to wear extensive make-up, which was created by make-up supervisor Michael Westmore. A large single-piece bald cap was made from the same mold for each actress, which required some customised trimming to get it to fit properly. To cover up problems with the seams of the cap, some fake hair was added on the Bynars' necks. Westmore; Nazzaro (1993): p. 59 Each actress also controlled the flashing light inside the apparatus on the side of the headpiece through a battery pack attached to the waistband of their costumes. To disguise their voices, the pitch was lowered in post production. It was originally planned to add subtitles over the Bynars' conversations between themselves. Nemecek (2003): p. 48 The image of the
Starbase The concepts of space stations and space habitats feature in science fiction. The difference between the two is that habitats are larger and more complex structures intended as permanent homes for substantial populations (though generation ship ...
orbiting a planet was re-used from '' Star Trek III: The Search for Spock''. The score was created by Ron Jones, who incorporated jazz themes composed by John Beasley. The episode was written by Maurice Hurley and
Robert Lewin Robert Lewin (23 December 1918 – 17 May 2004) was a Polish art dealer and philanthropist. Biography Born Boruch Lewin in Warsaw, Poland, Lewin was the son of a Polish-Jewish banker Jacob, and Yochewet. With the rise of Hitler's anti-Jewish ...
. Hurley was pleased with the outcome of the episode, praising the work of Westmore on the Bynars' makeup and the performance of Jonathan Frakes. Frakes enjoyed the episode too, saying, "A fabulous show. Those were the kind of chances we took first season that when they worked, they worked great. It was a very chancy show and I loved it." Director Paul Lynch also thought that the Bynars were "great".
Carolyn McCormick Carolyn Inez McCormick (born September 19, 1959) is an American actress who played Dr. Elizabeth Olivet in the ''Law & Order'' franchise. Life and career McCormick was born and raised in Midland, Texas, and graduated first in her class from ...
appeared as Minuet and subsequently became a regular cast member in '' Law and Order''. She returned to the role of Minuet in the
season four A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...
episode "
Future Imperfect "Future Imperfect" is the 82nd episode of the American science fiction television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation''. It is the eighth episode of the fourth season. Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Star ...
".
Gene Dynarski Eugene "Gene" Dynarski (September 13, 1933 – February 27, 2020) was an American actor. Three of the most popular projects that he has been involved with were two Steven Spielberg films, ''Duel'' and ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', and ...
had previously appeared as Ben Childress in '' Star Trek: The Original Series'' episode "
Mudd's Women "Mudd's Women" is the sixth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by Stephen Kandel, based on a story by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Harvey Hart, it first aired on October 13, ...
" and Krodak in "
The Mark of Gideon "The Mark of Gideon" is the sixteenth episode of the third season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by George F. Slavin and Stanley Adams and directed by Jud Taylor, it was first broadcast on January 17, ...
".


Reception

"11001001" aired in
broadcast syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...
during the week commencing February 7, 1988. It received Nielsen ratings of 10.7, reflecting the percentage of all households watching the episode during its timeslot. These ratings were lower than both the episodes broadcast both before and afterwards. For their work in this episode, Bill Wistrom, Wilson Dyer, Mace Matiosian, James Wolvington, Gerry Sackman and Keith Bilderbeck were awarded an
Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series. ''
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'' ranked it No. 6 on its list of the top 10 ''Star Trek'' episodes for the magazine's celebration of the franchise's 30th anniversary in 1996. Several reviewers re-watched the episode after the end of the series. James Hunt reviewed the episode for the website " Den of Geek" in January 2013. He was surprised by the episode as he "went in expecting something that was typically season one awful, and got something that was actually a lot of fun". He thought that the theme of symbiosis between man and machine was "interesting", stating it was the best episode up until that point in season one and one of the best of the season overall. Zack Handlen watched the episode for ''
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'' in May 2010. He too was surprised by what he found. Handlen said that "last time I saw it, I thought Riker and Minuet's interactions were cheesy as hell. They didn't bother me so much now, because they don't go on very long, and there's something hilarious about a man trying to seduce a computer simulation designed to respond to his seductions". But he said, "I had fun with this, which I wasn't expecting", and "thought this was solid". He gave the episode a B grade.
Keith DeCandido Keith Robert Andreassi DeCandido (born April 18, 1969) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and musician, who works on comic books, novels, role-playing games and video games, including numerous media tie-in books for properties such ...
reviewed the episode for Tor.com in June 2011. He described it as "one of the strongest first-season episodes", and the Bynars as "one of the finest alien species ''Trek'' has provided". He also thought that turning off the auto-destruct with two minutes to go instead of mere seconds neatly avoided a cliché, and gave it a score of seven out of ten. Michelle Erica Green for TrekNation watched the episode in June 2007. She thought that it came "very close to being a really good episode". She also thought that Picard and Riker's actions were the "most boneheaded joint behavior by the top two officers", in that they got distracted by a female character on the holodeck and didn't notice the ship being evacuated. Jamahl Epsicokhan at his website "Jammer's Reviews" described "11001001" as "easily season one's best and most memorable episode". He thought that it was the "season's most solid sci-fi concept" and that the series was "firing on all cylinders, with everything coming together, from plot to character, to sensible use of technology and action". He gave it a score of four out of four. In 2011, this episode was noted by ''
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'' as one that explores the implications of advanced technology, especially the connection between people and technology. They compare this to the later episode " The Nth Degree". Also of note, they point out the modifications to the ''Enterprise''-D holodeck, allows it to pass an impromptu
turing test The Turing test, originally called the imitation game by Alan Turing in 1950, is a test of a machine's ability to artificial intelligence, exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. Turing propos ...
by the character Commander Riker. In 2012, ''Wired'' magazine said this was one of the best episodes of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''. In 2020, ''
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'' ranked Minuet, the holographic lady featured in the show, as the seventh best holodeck character of the ''Star Trek'' franchise.


Home media release

The first home media release of "11001001" was on VHS cassette, appearing on August 26, 1992, in the United States and Canada. The episode was later included on the ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' season one
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
box set, released in March 2002, and then released as part of the season one
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
set on July 24, 2012.


Notes


References

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External links

* * * {{Star Trek holodeck stories 1988 American television episodes Emmy Award-winning episodes Holography in television Star Trek: The Next Generation (season 1) episodes Fiction about supernovae