123 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
123 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
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WARNING! The following post contains spoiler information on this week's TNG
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episode, "The Price". Those who haven't seen the episode yet risk summary
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spoilage if they continue.
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Last chance to escape.
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Hmm.
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Well, it was better than I expected. It wasn't even all that bad. It wasn't
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GREAT, mind you, but it wasn't bad.
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Unfortunately, it had a number of plots, somewhat intertwined. I'll try to
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separat them out here for the synopsis.
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PLOT ONE:
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(Note...owing to sudden brain-death, I've forgotten nearly all the
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names of the races and guest characters involved. So sorry.)
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A race which has relied on other races, including many in the Federation, for
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help in survival for centuries has finally obtained its own natural resource.
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They've discovered a STABLE wormhole. If it's truly stable, it could take
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ships to the Gamma quadrant (normal travel time: 90 years or so) in a minute
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or two. They plan to hear several offers and then choose. Several different
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races are involved in the negotiations, which are taking place aboard the
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Enterprise. The Federation, naturally, has a negotiator there. So do one race
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of mostly scholars. So do (gasp!) the FERENGI! And then, there are the
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Chrysalians. We don't actually see them...just the negotiator acting on their
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behalf, one, er...damn. Forgot his name. Something or other Rol. The various
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negotiations are quite interesting, particularly because there's no certainty
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as to just how stable this beastie is.
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PLOT TWO:
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Counselor Troi falls for this Chrysalian negotiator...hard and fast. A conflict
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of interest quickly develops (no surprise there), when she discovers that he's
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1/4 Betazoid, and is using his empathic powers to manipulate the other negotia-
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tors over to his side.
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Other Plots:
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--Data and Geordi head a shuttle into the wormhole to check its stability. A
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Ferengi shuttle comes along as well. It turns out the hole is only stable on
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the end originally discovered. The other end is a bitch, and the Ferengi
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shuttle actually gets stranded.
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--Riker ends up having to take over negotiations for the Federation when the
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regular negotiator is poisoned by the Ferengi, though no one knows about the
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poisoning but the Ferengi. (The poison was a collection of DaiMon Gaz's own
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body toxins--harmless to him, but inducing a potent allergic reaction to anyone
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he shakes hands with.)
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Anyway, enough on the synopsis. Let's have some comments.
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Well, I'm not really sure what to say. It had some very nice scenes, and some
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good elements. It also had some horrible scenes, and some stupid bits. Very,
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very tricky to rate.
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I despised the "Deanna falls in love" plot itself, but it had some nice side
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effects. For example, there's one scene between Deanna and Beverly, occurring
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while they're both stretching in some gym or other. Here's as much of it as I
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can recall:
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"Sorry I'm late."
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"You seem awfully LIMBER this morning."
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"Oh, yes. (says whathisname's name)"
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She goes on to say that she's worried about it going too fast. Bev says that
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it happened to her once too.
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"It happened that way with you and Jack?"
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"No...this was another fella, before Jack. Fell in love in a day, lasted a
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week. But what a week."
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Bwahahaha. We always knew Bev had an interesting past. Besides, didn't most of
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us always want to see a little "girl talk" between the two of them? This scene
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alone brought up Troi's plot considerably.
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God knows Matt McCoy's performance didn't. Ugh. He may well have been attrac-
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tive, but how anyone could fall in love with a block of wood is beyond me.
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The negotiations were an interesting change of pace. I thought they could have
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been handled better, but it was nice to see something like this. In addition,
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it was this type of situation for which the Ferengi were born. They were
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splendid. Besides, I've always liked their ships.
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Riker didn't have much to do (albeit more than Picard), but didn't do so badly.
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His poker skills came in handy. In fact, early on, when the normal negotiator
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talks to him, he's impressed. "Do you play poker, Cmdr. Riker?" "Poker...is
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that a game of some sort?" Hee.
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There really isn't all that much to say. In some ways, this episode was vaguely
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like a Twinkie: sort of fun going down, but leaves a nasty feeling in the pit
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of your stomach. I thought most of the regulars were handled well, but the
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episode seemed somewhat...well...purposeless, particularly when the wormhole
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turned out to be a pig in a poke.
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I guess that's about all for now. Time for some ratings.
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Plot: 6.5, rounded down. The negotiations themselves get an 8.5, but Troi-in-
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love only gets a 5. (And THAT was due mostly to Bev's input...'twas a
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3 earlier.)
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Plot Handling: 5.5. The negotiations get a 7, Troi gets a 4.
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Characterization: 8. Competent, but no more. I did like Riker's poker in-
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stincts at work.
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Technical: 9. I didn't find any real fault with the wormhole, and damn, it
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looked mighty pretty.
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TOTAL: 29/4---> 7.2, again rounded down. All right.
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NEXT WEEK:
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Not a rerun, as I originally guessed. The Enterprise is trying to settle a
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long-running feud between two clans on a planet. Sounds vaguely "Loud As a
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Whisper"-like, but doesn't look nearly as 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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"Yes."
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--Lisa Colleen Hazard, 11/9/89, 10:37 pm, Ithaca, NY
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