179 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
179 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
WARNING: More spoilers cometh. 'Nuff said.
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Hokay. We're back. ["Huh? What?"] {For the last time, Mike, wake up.} ["I'm
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awake, I'm awake."] On with the review, now--
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This, folks, was blissful to the extreme. It had nearly everything anyone could
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wish for.
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For example, it's the closest we'll ever get to seeing: 1) a TNG-TOS crossover;
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2) a TNG "mirror" story on film; 3) a look at a more militaristic, "action-
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first, talk second" Federation. ["Yeah! A meaner, nastier, nation!"] All of
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these things would be interesting to see (particularly the first two, I think),
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but this is the closest we'll come.
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It has also opened up whole new lines for fan fiction. As a public service, we
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wish to provide a few springboards here:
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--the obvious; stories about what Mike has named the "war" universe.
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--if the other timeline continues in some form after the battle of the Enter-
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prises, it's likely that the Federation would fall within a month. (After all,
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it was probably six months before, and now the flagship has been lost.)
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So, stories about the fall of the Federation could now abound (particularly if
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you somehow ally them with the Romulans to fight the Klin oppressors--oh, this
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already sounds like fun!)
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--an interesting tangent: Wesley is 17 years old. The war is 22 years old.
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Therefore, everything about his life was altered. So, I put it to you: IS
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JACK CRUSHER DEAD? If not, we've got lots of story fodder there.
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--stories of the Ent-C just prior to this situation (and just after, with the
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impetus to design and build Ent-D).
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--an alternate history for Worf (including, if you wish, putting HIM at the helm
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of one of the K'Vorts attacking Picard).
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--or, rewriting the history of Ent-D from day 1.
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--etc., etc., and so forth.
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Even beyond that, I don't think I can find anything done wrong here. Can you,
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Mike? ["One thing...more a question. Why is Yar still only a Lt., especially
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in a military situation?"] Good point. More of a conversation piece than an
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error, though.
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The plot: hey, it was perfect. We had a much more grim tone, and a definite
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sense of desperation, far beyond the norms. Very nice. Now, I'm going to
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briefly turn things over to Mike, who wants to babble about the sets and the
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lighting:
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The Sets, etc.: Thank you, Mr. Goat-beard {Goat-beard?! Same to you, you git!}.
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It's amazing what the right crew can do to make old sets look new again. We're
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all very familiar now with the Ent-D bridge--so much so that we notice with
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ease the minor changes from season-to-season. The TNG crew have turned our
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impressions of that bridge set inside out, without making any obvious structural
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changes. The old streamlining and consolidation of control is gone, to some deg-
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ree, and enhanced in others. There is only one center-seat, but there are two
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extra stations that weren't there before. The aft stations, normally idle
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except when clearly being used for something specific, are constantly bright
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and active. The once bare panels on the sides of the bridge are now also active
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stations.
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More interesting is how much difference the changes in color and lighting make
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to the feel of the bridge. The normally spacious, almost cavernous chamber looks
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somehow claustrophobic, and, as one other reviewer has said, almost sub-
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marine-like--made so by the darker lighting--blue instead of white. The color
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scheme of the control panels is changed--sharper, brighter colors, more red and
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yellows. The minute I saw it, I thought, "This is no ship of exploration. No
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peaceful mission for this beast. This is a warship. Plain and simple."
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To add to this, there are subtle changes to almost every aspect of the ship.
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Picard's office has charts of fleet positions and telemetry all over it. The
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briefing room, rather than having a round table, has a raised desk, and the
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crew all sit facing Picard like a lecture room, in several rows. The corridors
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are somehow less plush, and while I don't really think the lights were any
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dimmer, they have a darker *feel* to them. Ten-Forward, usually a cozy, dark,
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cocktail-lounge-like room, is now the brightest spot on the ship {much like
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Vicki Vale's apartment was the one bright spot in all Gotham in Batman}. Again,
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it's not necessarily that the lights themselves are any brighter, but they
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*seem* that way because the room has less of the "cozy" accoutrements. Even
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the wet-bar is gone, replaced with a blank, light-grey wall with the ship's
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logo behind Guinan.
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And now...HEeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEERE'S BUFFALO BREATH!
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A-hem. Thank you (I think).
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Characterization: Very, very nice. Guinan persists in being the most mysteri-
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ous being we've seen in a good long while (and it's a sure bet that she knew
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more than she was telling here), and her long relationship with Picard was
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openly mentioned, finally. Picard of the alternate timeline was perfectly done:
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ruthlessly efficient, and not letting his concern get in the way of doing ex-
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actly what was necessary to further the Federation's interest. Riker was far
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more hostile, which sort of makes sense when you consider that his primary
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function, protecting the Captain, is far more difficult in this timeline.
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Wesley seems more mature, having had to grow up faster. Data, on the other
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hand, is less human, having neither the inclination nor the time to pursue
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training in humanity the way we've seen him do. LaForge is all seriousness
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here, only letting his wit blossom in highly acerbic remarks. As for the
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guests, Capt. Garrett did a good job for the short time we saw her, and Castillo
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was wonderful. He actually managed to strike me as someone who's dedicated
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his life to the service, and is quite prepared to sacrifice his life for what he
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thinks is right. And lastly, there's Tasha.
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It was wonderful to see her again. The biggest problem with her presence in the
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first season was that it created an imbalance on the bridge, not Yar herself.
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(She simply left Worf nothing to do but snarl and make comments like "Nice
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planet.") Tasha, in those rare moments when she was properly written (like the
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beginning of "11001001" and her death and funeral in "Skin of Evil"), was a
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joy to watch. Here was no different. She fit in perfectly to the "war"
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universe: dedicated, efficient, devoted to the Fleet ["and eminently
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jumpable", saith Mike]. Wonderful though her funeral was in SoE, I didn't feel
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cheapened by this show. In fact, it hurt to see her leave to face a certain
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death for the SECOND time. To repeat J.L. Picard way back when, "Au revoir,
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Natasha." I, at least, shall miss you.
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If we want to round this out with a quick discussion of the special effects,
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they were FAN-Tastic. It was jarring, to say the least, to see a Klin ship
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literally shrug off phaser and photon blasts from the Federation flagship.
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Add that to the fact that we saw a real, hard-fought space battle (which,
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pacifist though I am, I'd really been looking forward to), expertly done, and
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you have a lot of fun. 'Nuff said. (Who is this 'Nuff guy, anyway?) ["And
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what did he say?"]
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Now, time for the ratings, I suppose.
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Plot: 10. Anything with that much potential for spinoff stories...
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Plot Handling: 10. ["Mmmph! Yes! Like that!"]
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Characterization: 10. Words fail me. ["and that's rare, lemme tell you!"]
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Technical: 10. The dispersal pattern Sierra for the photons made a great
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start, and the rest followed suit.
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TOTAL: Let's see...the average of 10, 10, 10, and 10. I'd say we have--
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eleven! Yes, dammit. This was, at least to me, the best damned episode of any
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Trek I have ever seen, so it gets an eleven. You agree, Mike? ["You see this
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knob here? It goes to eleven."] {Thank you, Nigel.} Th-th-th-that's all,
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folks.
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NEXT WEEK:
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A bloody rerun of "The Price". YAWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNnnnnnnnnn.
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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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"Captain Jean-Luc Picard--I'd like to say you've been like a father to me...but
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I've never had one so I don't know what it feels like. But if there was one
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person in this universe who I would want to be like...who I would want to be
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proud of me--it's you. You, who have the heart of an explorer, and the soul of
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a poet. So, you'll understand when I say--Death is that state where one lives
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on only in the memory of others, and so it is not an end. No goodbyes--just
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good memories. Hailing frequencies closed, sir."
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Mike Shappe (Uncle Mikey)
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mshappe@heights.cit.cornell.edu
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...!rochester!cornell!heights!mshappe
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"I find my thoughts are not for Tasha, but for myself. I keep thinking...how
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empty it will be without her presence....Did I miss the point?"
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"No, no you didn't Data. You got it."
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