113 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
113 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
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#: 155142 S2/Star Trek
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18-Nov-87 17:12:38
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Sb: #No "Justice"
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Fm: Joel Rosenberg <AsstOp> 76167,1577
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To: all
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The following messages were received by me from a source I feel is reliable,
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but about whose identity I won't speculate on here, much less reveal -- and
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it'd make me more comfortable if you all wouldn't, either. I've added a
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comment or two in [square brackets]; but that's just me.
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The major point of them, it seems to me, is that despite the evidence of
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"Justice", the production team at ST:TNG is not *all* a bunch of bozos.
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"I have a major problem with the contact made with the people on this planet.
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If we just pop on down there and say "howdy" out of a clear blue sky (no pun),
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isn't this violation of the Prime Directive? [I'm not impressed by this
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argument.] When Picard orders Rivan beamed aboard the Enterprise so she can see
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the "god," he is also interfering with the beliefs and mythos of this society.
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[Yup.] Unless my understanding of the Prime Directive is faulty, this contact
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is a direct violation of it."
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"Pg 6 - The entire business of the Edos being hedonistically sexually
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oriented serves no purpose at all. This only appears in Pgs. 6-9 and is
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forever dropped in the script after that. Since it is not a plot motivator and
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is totally ignored in 90 percent of the script, I suggest we drop it here."
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"Pg 12 - Here we have another mysterious object larger than the Enterprise
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and presumably some threat to it. We've done this before. [Again and again .
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. . ] As it turns out, the thing also poses a test of our people and their
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values. We've done that in other scripts in this series. The thing challenges
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our people to defend their actions. We've done that before in this series,
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too. I feel we must find a different angle on this outside threat to our
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people or the audience is going to get tired of the same story themes."
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"Pg 27 - Again, we have a situation where phasers are apparently set on
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"kill," rather than "stun" as we had them in the original series. I feel it is
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an implied step back in our people's development if the phasers are always set
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on "kill" and have to be ordered to "set to stun" instead of the other way
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around." [I strongly disagree here, for obvious reasons.]
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"Pg 29 - Picard's line "Once we've dealt with this..." implying he has a way
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to deal with the god machine/people, sounds to me like he's whistling in the
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dark. Picard doesn't even know what that thing (if it is a thing) out there
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is. He doesn't know what danger it represents...or if it represents a danger
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at all. Deal with it? How? And, in point of fact, by the time we get to the
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end of the story, he hasn't really dealt with it at all."
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"Pg 31 - A general note. Why don't we ever see any other security people?
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Again, as on previous occasions, the away party consists of the entire bridge
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complement of ranking officers. There is no logical reason for all of them to
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be on hand here. Furthermore, some of them don't get to contribute much to the
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script. They just stand there."
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"Pg 33 - Liator asks if they (humans) execute criminals and Picard responds,
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"No...not any longer, that is." However, earlier, our people threatened to blow
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away the Mediators with phasers on kill. Maybe we're not so civilized in the
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24th Century after all."
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"Pg 35 - Geordi has one line. In the entire act, this is his only line. The
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line is redundant. Earlier on the page, Liator says clearly, "God is said to
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be somewhere up there. Protecting us." Five speeches later, Geordi says, "This
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'God' watches over them?" I feel this is a terrible waste of a good actor. If
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Geordi must be in the scene, he should have something to contribute. In the
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matter of contribution, the use of a subplot would give Geordi and other
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characters more to do, rather than to stand around in scenes where they seem to
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have no real purpose."
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"Pg 37 - Again, by taking Rivan from her home world to the Enterprise and
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exposing her not only to its technology but to the actual visualization of her
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"God," Picard is violating the Prime Directive. And this violation is not "for
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their own good" -- the way Kirk used to rationalize it. This is for Picard's
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ends."
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"Pg 39 - Picard says at this moment he has an entire crew to consider (as
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opposed to Beverly's concern for Wesley). I find this a peculiar attitude to
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take since the entire rest of the crew is safe aboard the Enterprise, and the
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Edo lord has not for one moment actually threatened the Enterprise. [Maybe
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he's read further on in the script and knows how powerful the Edo lord is.]
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Were I Beverly at this moment, I would not only point out this fact,I would
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pull out my phaser and blow that cold hearted and illogical bastard away."
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"Pg 41 - Data reveals our people are being judged again. This theme has been
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done ("Encounter at Farpoint," "The Last Outpost," and comng soon to your
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screen in "Hide and Q.") Since we always come out as the nice guys, I feel
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we're overdoing it and not giving our audience any surprises. How about if we
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really screw up and don't pass the test for a change? (I *am* serious.)"
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"Pg 51/52/53 - The entire ending is a cop out and a cheat. Picard pulls
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Wesley out of there via transporter, which is not playing the game by the rules
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of Starfleet or the planet. Then he opens a hailing frequency and asks the Edo
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lord to give them a signal as to what they should do -- remove the colony from
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the adjoining solar system or go on as before. In response, the Edo lord just
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sort of fades away -- which is absolutely no answer at all. We are left with a
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great deal of dissatisfaction -- both with what Picard did and with how the
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great "threat" under which he has been laboring has been dissipated. Perhaps
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the key word here is "dissipated." All the complex problems of this script have
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been handled in less than satisfactory ways, and the force of the script has
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dwindled accordingly. The climax and resolution simply need more strong
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impact. If Picard carries out what is in fact an unacceptable act to resolve
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the Wesley problem, he should have to pay for it in some way. The fact that he
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is willing to do so for the sake of saving the boy's life then points up his
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strength of character and honor. Maybe just once, it is a victory to *not*
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pass the test."
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[I like those last three sentences a lot.]
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