A Matter of Perspective

DVD, TNG S3 (A Matter of Perspective)

'A Matter of Perspective' is a matter of taste. If you love that detective slant to a Trek story in the manner of the original's 'Court Martial' or the 'Voyager' episode 'Ex Post Facto', then you might enjoy this, but then again it's been done many times and therein lies its flaw. The story isn't bad, and has some reasonable visual effects, but neither is it a riveting watch and those same effects can sometimes look a bit poor - when Riker walks round his frozen holo-self it doesn't look quite right. We know that Riker will be found not guilty by the end, the enjoyment comes from seeing how Picard gets him off - rather like a Cardassian novel we get the same story over and over again and it isn't important what the outcome is, but how it's arrived at. Also like a Cardassian novel it's a bit boring.

Yes, seeing different points of view replayed is a good plot device, but the characters are so dull and about the only time something happens to pique the interest is in Riker getting beaten up by the little old man! Why Starfleet is willing for Dr. Apgar to have an entire starbase to himself is another matter, and if it was supposed to be the alien's own construction it should have been explained why it appeared so similar to the large starbases we're used to seeing in the films. There were three episodes that began with 'A Matter of' and both of the others were better than this.

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