The Masterpiece Society

DVD, TNG S5 (The Masterpiece Society)

"My eyelids feel like they have leaden weights attached," says Geordi at one point, and I had to agree with him. This story of the Enterprise putting its foot in it when trying to help a society has been done before, and better. For a story about genetic manipulation it's poles apart from most stories which deal with the subject, being as colourless and drained as the people of the colony. They wore bright clothes (ugly, ugly ones at that), they could play beautiful piano music and were highly intelligent, but like any society that was enclosed and isolationist, they were stagnant without even knowing it. Then the Enterprise dashes in to save them, introducing them to imperfection, freedom and the unknown, messing up their ordered civilisation with new ideas and the very concept of being able to explore the galaxy rather than remain part of an old experiment.

You could point out that it was a rather selfish experiment since they kept completely internalised, not interacting with the galaxy, not expanding their knowledge except to benefit their world. Great talent and brilliance wasted by the very desire to keep it great. Though Picard thinks his aid has been disastrous for them, I think it probably was good for them to have a choice and the people that decide to leave will create unknown situations for those that stay: they'll be forced to become resourceful to work around the 'missing pieces,' and only those that are serious about it will remain to continue the experiment.

The only moment that had any feeling was Troi's vulnerability when she makes her embarrassing confession to a forbearing Picard in the turbolift. Apart from that it suffers from the worst kind of sluggishness, with little character coming through from the guest stars, and a general impression of banality. There should be a great sense of urgency as this core fragment is getting ever closer (and it looked more like a complete piece than a fragment), yet instead we have the leader of the colony falling in love with Deanna and dreamily droning on. There were attempts at getting some issues going with the slightest degree of friction from Martin the naysayer, though for a perfected human he spends a lot of time frowning.

Geordi experiences some offence that he would have been aborted before being born if he'd been born in their society, but the idle thoughts don't go anywhere and remain a shallow pool with a few drops of water allowed to ripple the surface. Human rights, the duty to state or self, the importance of science as opposed to freedom, these are all subjects that come up, but not one is satisfactorily delved into, and that's the problem. Everything is slow, unresolved and lacking in dimension. Riker, who might have had something to say about Conor and Troi keeps his thoughts sealed, most of the main cast have little to do, and the episode is only notable for some of its guest stars who would go on to other (and better) roles: Dey Young in 'DS9' story 'A Simple Investigation' and Ron Canada in that series' 'Rules of Engagement.' Oh yes, and for the fact that this story of genetics was co-credited to one James Khan. One to miss.

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