Even quiet, and somewhat under-discussed episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation have oddly prescient qualities. During its nearly-perfect fourth season, TNG had several bangers, and also some episodes that flew under-the-sensors. During the week of February 11, 1991, one of those episodes was “Clues,” the 14th episode of Season 4, which, at the time, seemed like a fun head-scratcher. But today, the episode scans somewhat differently than it did back in 1991. What was then a strange story about a ship-wide mystery actually now reads as a kind of predictive tale that applies to 21st-century anxieties about what AI does, and doesn’t tell us about the truth.
Here’s why “Clues” is worth a rewatch now, and how Mr. Data (Brent Spiner) acts as an aspirational AI, with a big twist.
