Manhunt

DVD, TNG S2 (Manhunt)

Lots of fun things from Season 1 make their return, including actually seeing the planet Pacifica (mentioned in 'Conspiracy'), if only from space; Picard's chance to revisit the Dixon Hill holoprogram; and the chaotic Lwaxana Troi rampaging through the ship! It wasn't just old favourites, as we have a couple of new and very alien aliens right from the off in the Antedians. It was very rude of Wesley to comment on their food and interfere with it - they may have been in a catatonic state, but they were standing right there! And I always thought Wes was such a polite boy... When O'Brien's ordered to 'store' the aliens I assumed it was going to be in the transporter buffer like some kind of handy and infinite cupboard, but disappointingly they were only moved off the platform. The security guards carrying them off the pad would have been an interesting scene to see, unless they were simply beamed there.

I do love the long-frocked dress uniforms so it's always a pleasure to see those. They have such a historical design to them, paying homage to the sea captains of old. The main feature of the episode is the return of Captain Picard's personal nemesis Mrs. Troi. Many of the same jokes get another outing here, from her comments pretending to hear Picard's 'naughty' thoughts, the heavy suitcase (this time Riker's suckered into carrying it!), and Mr. Homn's alcoholic capacity. Lwaxana always precipitates funny scenes with her good-humoured, but disrespectful comments. And this time she's even more unpredictable, suffering from her condition, as she is. It must have been that condition which allowed her to see a holodeck character as real, when she must surely know what a holodeck is.

It's fascinating to see Picard chop and change the program at will, like playing with the parameters of a computer game, and is something we almost never see. I wonder why he didn't change the program to something more relaxing like the horseriding in the wooded area seen in 'Pen Pals'. Instead he tries to make do with the parameters of the Dixon Hill world. Data's enthusiasm for the program was sadly misplaced as he doesn't get to do much, but it was fun to see him as the 'South American' again!

Picard is much more able to deal with Lwaxana, or at least he's developed an art for circumventing her, much as his dealings with Q have become a little less naive. The man's learning. It was a shame we didn't get to see how LaForge dealt with the overzealous Mrs. Troi on this occasion. A nice touch was seen in the casting: the same actress was brought back as Hill's secretary from 'The Big Goodbye' and we also see the first role for Robert O'Reilly, later to be one of best known Klingons, but here a crazy-eyed scar-faced human holocharacter. And they bring in a celebrity in rocker Mick Fleetwood, but don't take advantage of the opportunity as he's never seen under all the makeup! The publicity department wouldn't allow it nowadays. At least when DS9 brought Iggy Pop into 'The Magnificent Ferengi' he had a more substantial and visual role.

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