The Vengeance Factor

DVD, TNG S3 (The Vengeance Factor)

The opening reminded me of 'Star Trek: Generations' - an empty facility, immobile bodies, a dismantled mess. The Gatherers, sounding like an ancient race in the mould of The Original Series reminded me of a cross between Orions, Klingons and Borg, with the intelligence level of Nausicaans. The Acamarians were an unappealing lot with their slightly split forehead and severe hairstyles. The hair of the Gatherers wasn't any better. And a worse sin: they had swivel chairs like you'd see in an office, except draped with animal skins to hide the fact.

For a production that had such densely constructed, busy sets (in the Gatherer's settlement and their ship), the episode as a whole comes across rather bland and slow. Most of the characters get suitable tasks to perform, Riker showing off his charm, Picard his mediating skills, but anything that could have been interesting was kept to a minimum. Brull, the first Gatherer they deal with is a Han Solo-type pirate who could have been quite a personality from what we see of the way he interacted with the ship and crew, such as the scene with Wesley in Ten Forward. Likewise, the building plot of an ancient blood feud and climax of attempted murder didn't have a chance to do just that: build.

The ending, in which Riker is forced to fire on the would-be murderer, eventually vaporising her, didn't have quite the impact that it had on Riker himself. The leader who was about to die was an inconsequential guy who was rude and overbearing so we're not encouraged to care about his fate except from Riker's perspective, but the few words here and there in the space of the episode don't create the strong attachment that would make us upset at his tough decision. In the end it isn't a tough decision and he's just regretting having to do it, leading to an uncharacteristically moody final scene. I don't see why stun didn't work on her and I'm sure another alternative would have been simple to arrange: call the transporter room and have her beamed to a holding cell, or simply beam everyone else out of the room.

Warring factions trying to reconcile is a subject covered many times. 'DS9' Season 1 episode 'Battle Lines' had a much more action-packed, but no less poignant version. At first I was making comparisons with the sundering of the Vulcans and Romulans - a race divided because of wanting to live differently, but these new races didn't hold any of the richness of those well-established creations. If anything, Marouk, the leader of Acamar III reminded me of Kai Winn, and that is not a positive parallel to draw for a leader. I can see what moral stance the writers were trying to present, about finding common ground to defeat hate and mistrust, but too many threads were dangling instead of hanging together. Too many chefs kill the consumer. Or just the one in this case.

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