93 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
93 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
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WARNING: The following post may contain spoilers for this week's TNG, "Pen
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Pals". Proceed with caution, or face the consequences.
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You're still here?
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Anyway...
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If you can get past the first ten or fifteen minutes of this show, it's worth
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it.
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It looked absolutely awful through the first act, and I was surprised to see
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Melinda Snodgrass's name as the writer at that point. (Melinda, for those who
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may not know, wrote "The Measure of a Man", for which I am eternally grateful.)
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However, Melinda ended up getting her second wind and recovering nicely.
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Here's a quick synopsis for those who desire it:
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Plot One: The Enterprise is exploring a system that is very unstable, geo-
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logically speaking. Data, having adjusted the sensors to pick up additional
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output, picks up a cry for help from one of the residents of the planet below.
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He starts a conversation with her, but does not say who he is (in keeping with
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the Prime Directive). As the situation gradually worsens on the planet below,
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Data starts trying to convince Picard and the rest of the ship to help save
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Sarjenka (the child he's "met"). They end up doing so, almost against their
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will; they just gradually find themselves in deeper and deeper. Eventually,
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thanks to geologic information from Wesley's mineralogical team (see Plot Two),
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they manage to stabilize the planet.
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Plot Two: Wesley is put in command of the mineralogical survey--his first
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command assignment. There are a few problems: the team members (particular-
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ly one Ensign Davies, who's very willing to run the mission for Wesley), and
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Wesley's general misgivings about commanding strangers who are older and more
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experienced than he.
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Okay. Back to random ramblings.
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I skimped a bit in my synopsis, deliberately. It's necessary to see this one in
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order to appreciate it: both the bad writing in the beginning and the wonderful
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touches in the second two-thirds of the show must be seen/heard/tasted/smelt/
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otherwise sensed to be believed.
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I originally disliked the Wesley-in-command plot, simply because it didn't look
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like it was going to be handled well. As it happens, though, Melinda did a
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pretty good job after all. Wesley is quite believable when he's doubtful
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about whether he's ready for this, and "what makes my judgment more important
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than anyone else's?" was a very good question. (It also made a great deal of
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sense for him to be asking Riker rather than Picard, given Wesley's hero-worship
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of Riker.) Bad start, good finish.
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The Data plot also looked disappointing at first, partially because Data's
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getting overused, but mainly due to the bad writing. Again, though, Melinda
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did a quick recovery and gave us some nice moments. Seeing Picard point over
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his head when asked "How deep are we in now?" was fun, as was Riker's quote
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to Chief O'Brien when he's coming in to beam down Data (see my sig.). One
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thing that was rather remarkable during the "do-we-help-or-is-it-interfering"
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argument that we've seen before was the person who leapt to Data's defense
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when Worf suggested that Data was following his emotions too much here. I
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never thought I'd see the day when Katherine Pulaski, when hearing a disparaging
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comment like that, would say "Does that make them any less relevant?" about
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Data. Wow.
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Characterization was pretty good all round, though I was a little disappointed
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in Troi (so what else is new?). Picard has a couple of small scenes in the
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holodeck, riding an Arabian horse, and rather well (or so my horse-rider
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friends said, anyway). They helped. Wesley was pulled off much better than I
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expected, and I personally am thinking of starting the Chief O'Brien Fan Club.
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(At least give him a first name, anyway.) He's only getting a small part in
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any given show, but he's starting to steal most of the scenes he's in. Time
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for an O'Brien centered story.
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Anyway, here's my summing-up:
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Plot: 7. Both plots got a 7 this time.
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Plot Handling: 8. Both started as a 5, but went up to 10s by the episode's
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end, and the second two-thirds' weighting gives it an 8.
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Chracterization: 9. Quite good.
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Technical: 7. Quite nice, but I object to the suddenness of the planet's
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stabilization. If it's had earthquakes and eruptions for so long, it's
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not going to calm down in a few minutes.
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TOTAL: 7.75---> 8. Not bad. Not bad at all.
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Next Week:
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Q comes back. YAY!!! From all appearances, this could be very, very good.
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Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy Major)
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BITNET: H52Y@CRNLVAX5
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INTERNET: H52Y@VAX5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU
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UUCP: ...!rochester!cornell!vax5.cit.cornell.edu!h52y
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"O'Brien, take a nap. You didn't see any of this. You're not involved."
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"Right, sir. I'll just be standing over here, dozing off."
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