Silicon Avatar

DVD, TNG S5 (Silicon Avatar)

To me, it seemed the story could end one of two ways: either Dr. Marr would find redemption through learning to work with Data and accept him, or she would ruin everything by destroying the Crystalline Entity, which is what she chose to do. Actually she saved Picard from a difficult decision. Had the entity proved to be an intelligent being, had they been able to communicate with it and learned that its insatiable appetite would mean it could never stop its destructive tendencies, they would have had to face whether they had the right to destroy it or not. At first thought it would be obvious - that it deserved to die for its behaviour, but if it was sentient who were they to make that decision, just as in Season 3 Picard couldn't punish Kevin Uxbridge for his annihilation of a species.

There was too much of an emphasis on Dr. Marr for my liking. I didn't remember what happened in the episode, I was impressed and pulled in by the busy opening and shock death of Carmen the colonist (played by Susan Diol, a few years before she showed up in 'Voyager' as Dr. Pel), but the story, a bit like 'Arena' in 'TOS' became something quite different to what it began as. In that old classic, they go to a colony, which has also been pulled apart, then chase the Gorn ship and it turns into a fight to the death on an alien world. In this, we have a crisis at a colony, then it becomes a personal vengeance story, 'Moby Dick'-style. Dr. Marr's hatred isn't immediately apparent, but long before she started on Data, right as she stepped off the transporter platform, in fact, I had an immediate dislike of her. Either I'm an exceptionally good judge of character, or her unbalanced persona was not subtle. She at first seems like a bit of an eccentric, perhaps one of those, like Dr. Pulaski that found it hard to relate to an android, but it quickly, shall we say, crystallises into anger against Data's brother, Lore, before revealing itself as guilt against herself for leaving her son on Omicron Theta, where the Crystalline Entity killed all the occupants, bar Data, Lore and Dr. Soong - only last season we learnt that Soong survived, so new facts about that event are always pleasing to learn.

Dr. Marr does seem to take over the storyline, though Data is shown in his best light through her persecution, but there's something creepy about the way she almost begins to believe Data is her dead son since he has some of his memories and can speak in his voice, though I don't think we can excuse her by suggesting she was mad, she was just eccentric and driven to wish her son would have been proud of her actions. She knew what she was doing. Data's abilities are one of two great moments in the episode, the first being the attack on the colony with some excellent effects in which trees and grass gets blasted away by the entity and the camera follows the fleeing people. The other is the touching scene in which Data reads a letter Dr. Marr's son wrote, in the boy's voice as his Mother listens sadly.

The story could very well have been about Riker's wish for revenge on the entity since it killed Carmen who he was becoming friendly with, and though Marr's Mother-son bond was a stronger motivation, it didn't necessarily have to focus so much on her. Picard's scientific detachment, though noble, does seem rather cold, suggesting the right of the entity to go around killing planetfuls of people! It wasn't quite that, he wanted to be able to communicate, but maybe if he'd been in the attack or his own family were killed, I wonder if he'd have remained so calm. I also noticed he called Number One 'Mr.' Riker at one point, which isn't his normal vernacular. It was good indeed to see the Crystalline Entity again (a space danger, like The Doomsday Machine), and to tie into Data's backstory, though I would have liked to see Lore again, instead of hearing his name. It makes you wonder if they'll run into every unvanquished foe before the series reached a conclusion, but I'm sure there were plenty that never were heard of again. To sum up, I would say, less is Marr.

**