A Collection of Episode Reviews Originally Posted on the MI6 Forums Between July 20 and September 14, 2010
"Time's Arrow, Part II"
A pretty lackluster conclusion to a pretty lackluster cliffhanger. While I enjoyed how well the time travel was done re: Data's head, and Mark Twain's inclusion afforded a nice scene with him and Troi addressing the militarism of Trek vs. Roddenberry's pacifist views, the episode falls flat because the alien threat is so vague and ill-defined. So you're telling me there are these aliens from another planet who need to eat our life force to survive (and only ours, substitutions are impossible) and decided that the easiest way to get it was invent time travel and 500 years into the past to get it? How does that make any kind of evolutionary sense??? And then we completely, totally and for all time stop their threat by photon torpedoeing one spot on one planet? Was that all the aliens? Did Riker commmit genocide and wipe out the whole species?? The problem is that the aliens were an excuse to do time-travelling fun, and thus ended up poorly written, leading to a very weak conclusion to the story.
"Realm of Fear"
Barclay episodes are always fun and this one is no exception. Dwight Schultz' performance is usually really great to contrast with the main cast. The only thing that doesn't work for me here are the "transporter monsters". For one thing, they are clearly cheesy muppets and aren't really that scary at all. For another -- why did the science crew look like creepy monsters while trapped? It doesn't make much sense.
"Man of the People"
This is probably the worst episode of TNG I have ever seen. Maybe it's just because Seasons 1 and 2 were so long ago and I don't remember them that well, but I can't really remember watching an episode of the show this bad. I was counting down the minutes until it ended. Just terrible. From the cliche set-ups of "Troi falls in love with visiting ambassador" and "warring factions must negotiate a peace talk" to the fact that its just terrible on all levels. The worst piece of boring, uninvolved tripe I've ever seen. When Beverly said she was going to kill Troi I hoped the death would be permanent. I'm truly sick of her character. Ugh.
"Relics"
The first really stand-out episode of season 6, and almost entirely thanks to the draw of James Doohan. In the early days of TNG, they refused to bring anything back from the old show for fear of seeming like they were leaning on it rather than standing on their own. Once they were through fourth season they felt they had proved they were doing just that, and were comfortable bringing Spock on. But the Spock episode was still a TNG episode, just with the Spock character featuring in a (pardon the expression) logical manner. This episode, this episode plays entirely off of TOS nostalgia, TOS references, this IS standing on the shoulders of TOS for ratings.
And it still works. Because for some reason the Man Out of Time story is a powerful story, because Moore does some good stuff with the concept of how old is too old to be useful.
But, as trevanian pointed out -- the Dyson Sphere concept is WOEFULLY underused.
"Schisms"
The best scene in this episode is the scene where they recreate their experience on the holodeck. That scene sticks with me. For the rest of it, the kind of eerie tension and sense of "off-kilter" weirdness the script wanted is undone by the general shooting style of TNG, which was left intact. The scenes where we are finally in the alien lair and far too well-lit and fall flat because they don't feel threatening. Finally, the ending, the way we resolve the problem, is too tech. Which brings me to the perfect point to finally discuss this:
I started noticing the technobabble in TNG getting out of control around midway through season 5. Before that it was fairly reasonable and I could always understand what they were trying to do. Now, each episode reaches a point in the final act where instead of talking to the aliens or reasoning through the problem, or giving a speech about morality or otherwise doing anything clever, we just have Geordi "reverse the polarity of the graviton field emitter, creating a reverse tetryon wave that will counteract the phase inverters, causing a resonance frequency that should knock out the subspace beam reactors," etc etc etc. and boom problem solved. We never learn anything about these aliens -- who they were, what they were after. We never confront them, either hostilely or with conversation. We just tech the tech and warp away. And a lot of the episodes end that way now and it feels meaningless and hollow. I can't even follow it anymore, have no idea what it means any more, even from the context! It's just a bunch of babble, and when Geordi starts speaking it I tune out -- I know in five minutes the problem will be solved and the episode over so I just stop paying attention. Its a bad habit the show's gotten into. A very, very, bad habit. It's frankly ruining the show for me.
"True Q"
Basically "Hide and Q" only much better done. The ending still cops out a bit though. The best things about this episode are twofold:
1) Getting Q away from jokes. Bringing him back to being threatening, powerful -- ABOVE Picard and the rest quite literally. Not playing games in Nottingham (fun as they were). I love the quiet malevolence behind the line "the jury is still out on that one", re: humanity's trial.
2) Q commenting on the show so far. Crusher being shrill, Picard's speeches being the only reason to watch, etc.
Amanda Rogers was a great character too, wish she had shown up again or been remembered at all during the Q arc on Voyager (that whole arc btw is based on a premise that this episode renders inaccurate)
"Rascals"
Somehow, an episode with two ridiculous premises (crewmembers turn into children and take back the Enterprise from the Ferengi) ends up being exceptionally well done, well explored, and good fun. Ron Moore actually does a great job exploring what this transformation means for each of the characters affected (Picard, Ro, Guinan, and Keiko) -- it really sells it. I was surprised that I enjoyed this one so much.
"A Fistful of Datas"
Worf, Troi, and Alexander team up for a Western homage episode with a holodeck malfunction plot. Oh joy. Yaaaaaaawn.
"The Quality of Life"
I was looking at my watch throughout this episode. It feels like we've gone through all of these motions before; the misguided scientist, proving a life-form's sentience, etc etc. It just fell flat. The only scene I really really liked was the opening poker scene.
And why? Because it showed our cast as real characters, not just mouthpieces for exposition. See, I like all of these people (except maybe Troi) when they are allowed to be people! Beverly betting all the men to shave their beards off is a great moment and makes me like Beverly -- but she's a bore when she's talking about running tissue sample scans.
Wish the producers would've allowed LeVar to rock the beard, after it appears in two episodes here thanks to his wedding at the time, as I recall. But I guess with the VISOR and the beard that kind've takes up most of his face, don't it?
I like the TNG characters (with the exception of Troi, and Alexander). But the show's plots feel like they are running out of gas.
"Chain of Command Parts I & II"
Maybe its just been a long time since I've seen a good TNG episode, but I think this may be the best TNG episode I've ever seen. Certainly the best since "Ensign Ro". Its the level of threat, the level of tension, the fact that the stakes are high and a bunch of technobabble from Geordi isn't going to fix it. Its just two hours of great television.
I like Jellico. I get the feeling I'm not supposed to, but I love they way he put the crew through their paces, shook up their comfortable routine, and starting running the Enterprise like a naval vessel. I like that's not just some ******* -- that he's a captain concerned with doing his job (gaining prestige is not his goal) and he puts up his son's pictures in the ready room and stuff like that. And I cheered when he ordered Troi into a standard uniform.
But of course the standout point of the episode is Gul Madred vs. Jean-Luc Picard, or more accurately David Warner vs. Patrick Stewart. The interrogation/torture scenes are just some of the best TV I've ever seen -- I love the intelligent writing and the great performances and the fact that the show didn't back down from showing, if not real torture, the real psychological affects of torture. I prefer that to most shows nowadays which don't skimp on the blood and gore, but show an unrealistic reaction where the hero just boldly resists all the way through and the nterrogator never uses guile or changes methods.
"Chain of Command" made me sit up and enjoy TNG again, enjoy these characters again. Of course I watched the DS9 pilot right afterwards.
"Ship in a Bottle"
We finally return to the character of sentient hologram Moriarty after everyone learned that the Conan Doyle estate had just been **** off at Paramount for the terrible Young Sherlock Holmes movie and had no problem with Star Trek at all.
And we do him far greater justice than we had in season 2. This episode actually explores the interesting quesitons the previous one took for granted and used only as plot devices. The holodeck within a holodeck had me making INCEPTION jokes, though.
I like the use of Barclay here -- makes me feel like his adventures with Trek's biggest sentient hologram, the Doctor, on VOY weren't totally random.
"Aquiel"
So this is supposed to be the worst episode of sixth season, eh? It's actually pretty good for the first act or so -- the murder mystery Laura homage, the not-that-great Starfleet officer Aquiel, I was enjoying it. Where things fell apart was in having Geordi continue to be head over heels with this girl and consummate the relationship after he finds out she's a liar and a poor officer and a murder suspect and etc. etc. That felt unnatural. And the ending was a total cop-out: rather than deal with the ramifications presented by any of the three suspects being murderers, instead its the magical space alien so that everyone can go home and be fine. Meh.
"Face of the Enemy"
BEST. TROI EPISODE. EVER. A fantastic fish-out-of-water story for her, plus Romulan intrigue! Such a good episode (I'm a sucker for Romulan intrigue). The best thing about the show was getting a peek at "the other side" -- day to day life aboard a Romulan Warbird. I actually was annoyed whenever we cut back to the Enterprise -- especially since the Federation defector character had a hideous case of manboob in the one-sy they had him in. Finally, my only real complaint about this episode would be the production design of the Romulan interior -- really? Light pastel colours and bright lighting? Ugh, it looked terrible. But Carolyn Seymour was sooo good as Commander Toreth. Pity we never got a real recurring Romulan villain (after attempts with Tomalak and Sela). However, mad props to this episode for continuing the Spock storyline, even if we don't actually see him.
Birthright, Part I
Ah, the big DS9/TNG cross-over episode. Maybe we'll see Picard and Sisko flare up again? Geordi fall for Jadzia? A battle of the two bartenders?
Ah, no. Bashir inadvertantly helps Data to dream. Huh.
Actually this episode is pretty good. I really like the dream sequences, indeed that entire B plot, because it moves Data closer to humanity. I've always felt that we should've seen actual real progress in that regard with Data, that by the end of the show he would be far more human than at the start. But I guess they got comfortable with the character of Data, the way fans reacted to him. Anyways, I like moving him forward, though I honestly cringe when they still have Data babbling on about the tech of it all when there are more significant metaphysical elements to consider.
The best scene in the entire episode is the Ten Forward scene between Data and Worf that ties the whole thing together. Its wonderfully done.
Birthright, Part II
Part II is a good episode, and clearly the story they set out to tell in Part I, but it lacks Part I's resonance, possibly because its just Worf, and the Data plot isn't continued. But Worf's plot is still good. Its odd, because I agree with Worf and like Worf and his motives here, even though what he's essentially doing is taking a peaceful, integrated society and tainting it with his racism and hatred. It's like Anti-Star Trek. But I still agree, largely because the younger generation was lied to and denied a choice -- and truth and choice are the important things.
"Starship Mine"
Fun "Die Hard on the Enterprise" episode that nevertheless is devoid of substance. Although it's neat to see where "First Contact Picard" comes from, lol.
"Lessons"
Picard falls in love, again. Although this time they did give him an interesting and more believeable love interest, albeit a bit less fun than Vash. It would've been nice if Nella Daren had stayed on as a character for a bit, but the end of the relationship has a certain inevitability about it. She does make an interesting contrast with Beverly, both are science division redheads for one, although by this point in the show the sexual tension between Picard and Beverly is so cooled that you can believe that they're just friends who share afternoon tea or whatever. It is nice to get a call-back to "The Inner Light" and the flute however, and maybe see a hint of how that impacted Picard.
"The Chase"
Now THAT was an episode of Star Trek! Seriously, Roddenberry dies and THEN TNG does an episode like this? This episode IS Roddenberry practically. It feels like an episode TOS would do, only without all the silly campiness of TOS. It felt like TOS done TNG-style. It was good. So good. Just odd that the massive ramifications of this episode are never really followed up on. At all.
"Frame of Mind"
This was another really cool episode -- the best way to describe it would maybe be "Chris Nolan does an episode of TNG". In retrospect, I'd say INCEPTION ripped them off
. But seriously, it's a great show for twists -- is Riker crazy? What is real? What's going on? It's a great big fun risky episode that's not like the standard TNG show and I like that. It's as if with DS9 on the other channel they starting realizing they needed to do new things and shake TNG up if they wanted to keep viewers there. It pays off."Suspicions"
However, this one fell kinda flat for me. It's another attempt to do something different -- Beverly solves a murder mystery in an episode told in flashback with detective voice-over. But it just doesn't work. I'm not sure why, but I just never felt any drama or suspense in what was going on -- maybe because of the flashback format, maybe because TNG has never really done a convincing murder mystery story, I'm not sure.
"Rightful Heir"
They could show this episode in religious studies classes. I like the message it ultimately imparts: it doesn't matter whether Jesus actually walked on water, or when or whether he's coming back -- what matters is the teachings he gave us and the principles he invoked. All in all I like the episode for its examination of Worf's faith, strengthening of Gowron's character, and the fact that it actually changes things with the addition of the figurehead Kahless emperor, rather than hitting the reset button.
"Second Chances"
This is a super fun episode and honestly one of my favs. I wish more had been done with the Thomas Riker character other than just two episodes. Apparently so did Frakes: He wanted Will to die in this episode, and Thomas to be his new role, coming aboard as conn officer with Data getting the promotion to first! But yeah, there's some great stuff here about seeing things in yourself you're not comfortable with, and having to confront your past mistakes.
"Timescape"
Is this where it begins? Braga's last script was the excellent "Birthright" two-parter. Is this where his obsession with pointless high-concept temporal quantum flux anomaly shows begins? I mean, it does not bode well when the most interesting part of the episode is the eventless teaser that is just fillled with fun character moments for the crew (Riker trying to feed Spot, etc) and the main episode is just dull and lifeless and I just plain don't care.
"Descent" Parts I & II
Now that's a cool cliffhanger! I love the sense of impending dread that moves through the whole episode. What has happened to the Borg? Who is leading them? And why is anger the only emotion Data can feel?
And then Lore pops out! And Crusher's stuck in command! And Data's gone evil! And Hugh must lead the resistence!
All in all its a fantastic, exciting, high production quality episode that still manages to be an excellent character growth show for Data.
One of the strengths of the episode is the way it builds on things from the show's past -- going into the final season you need to start recgonizing and embracing your past, tying up loose strands so that things feel culiminated. Hugh, the Borg, Lore, metaphasics, the emotion chip, etc. This episode is the first time I felt Lore really worked as a villain. It felt like he'd finally come into his own. Before he was just this sort've goofy, hackneyed, evil twin character.
All in all, I wish they'd let Data install the emotion chip in this episode. Just so we could expand and explore new facets of Data going into the final season. As is, he puts it in during the first movie, we have a few laughs, and then find out in the other movies that he can turn it on or off and remove it and then they barely deal with it and its implications ever.
I mean, what if Data fell in love? Developed a grudge? Became obsessed? All those cool emotions that could be discovered and examined anew through his eyes.
The sixth season was uneven, but definitely came back from the drop in quality that plagued the majority of season 5. I think a lot of the season was adventurous and creative, sometimes paying off and sometimes not.
No comments:
Post a Comment