DVD, Smallville S6 (Crimson)
An example of the worst excesses of the series that I had vainly hoped had been left in the past. We've had Halloween- and Christmas-themed episodes and this time it's a Valentine's-themed one. All kinds of things happen, some major revelations come out, but most of the time it doesn't matter that it feels like some weird alternate universe because most of the people that experience the events are either in the know about the cause or, helpfully, don't remember. At first it seemed like it could have promise even though I did groan internally at the template that had been used so many times before. This time it's Lois who comes under the influence of Kryptonite, it just happens to be the red variety, it just happens to be lipstick that makes her fall in love with the first man she sees, and it just happens that Clark strays into vision despite the place being full of other blokes (and that he had already stomped off as if leaving - so he comes back just to wander around a bit before he leaves properly? It doesn't make sense!).
So Lois wears girly clothes and acts all girly and infatuated with Clark and he doesn't immediately suspect something's up? There have been little moments played in recent episodes that suggest that the inevitable Lois and Clark attraction could happen, even on this series where the USP was that the Superman friendships/enmities were not as expected with Lex initially a good mate and Lois finding Clark an idiot while he finds her irritating in return. Once she stopped living on top of the Kent's they became more friendly, but even at this stage it's hard to envision the expected course of events and Clark's destiny to fall for Lois. So there's some fun in that idea, especially as it seemed to be that Clark was going to reveal his true self, which he did. The leap across from one building to another wasn't the best way of him showing off his powers, I felt, and didn't look as good as the first time he did it way back in Season 2. Also, I had no expectations that the writing would be brave enough for Lois to learn Clark's secret at this point and not forget everything in the usual get-out clause, and in a way I was glad the episode didn't go in that direction because it would have been a waste of what should eventually be a defining moment.
Someone who did get closer to discovering Clark's secret was Lana, surprisingly. She's already onto the fact that Chloe's protecting him in some way and he would never tell her, and they leave it hanging when she confronts Chloe about just giving her a confirmation that she's protecting a secret for Clark. So did Chloe answer the question? I thought she was going to say "we all have secrets, Lana" and leave it at that, but we never heard her answer. Lana must be pretty dim not to have put all the pieces together long ago, so the 'shocking' revelation that she's in the possession of the bent screwdriver that Lex tried to stab Clark with isn't the huge twist of anticipation it should be. Maybe if it had been done back in Season 3, but it's been so long that if she didn't suspect anything I worry about her. The more important question is whether Lex realises the screwdriver bent against Clark, though Mrs. Kent arrives, Green Kryptonite in hand in the nick of time to make Clark seem hurt. But it's another of those things that make no sense. Lex should be pressing charges, not pulling a gun, and why would he just leave the barn when Mrs. Kent asks him to? It's all ludicrous.
Red Kryptonite, when used in the right way can be a good source for a story, but too many times it's been Clark revealing his 'true feelings' about people, causing trouble and then trying to explain it all away and apologise. You can get away with doing that once or twice, but they went back to the Red K mine one to many times beyond the ability of anyone to satisfactorily explain his actions away. It's fortunate that most of the guests at Lex and Lana's engagement party were grey-haired old people that looked as if they'd come from hire-a-posh-guest.com - Clark even makes the point (after kidnapping Lana), that she didn't know most of the people there. She didn't seem too impressed with the garishly designed baby room presented by Lex, but it looked more extravagant in a disturbing way, than cute. That she's this prize between them is a bizarre turn of events and I really couldn't care less about who loves who by this time as it's all meaningless.
At least Jimmy's along for the ride, but even he goes uncharacteristically emotional at the end, accusing Chloe of always loving Clark more than him, a fine example of the scenes that permeated the episode with extreme soap sensibilities. It's bad enough that Lex and Lana's 'love' and wedding is dragging on for so long (I don't care by now if they do or don't get married so long as it doesn't take up so much time), but if all the characters are going to be whinging and crying it makes me wonder if the standard set this season is slipping again. I thought that Green Arrow's exit might start a decline and while it's too early to know, this was certainly the low point of the season so far. I suppose I should be grateful that Lionel wasn't around to smooth talk Mrs. Kent, but there was no mention made for why he didn't attend the engagement of his son. Since he's become almost a mentor to Clark this season it's strange he hasn't had scenes like that recently.
Just to remind us that this is a fantasy series and not a teen soap (and I really needed reminding), Lex has a disconcerting conversation with a doctor that checked Lana was okay after Clark's rough handling - it sounds like the pregnancy may be some kind of experiment the way they were talking, which adds a sinister layer to that storyline. Could it be a Kryptonite-infused baby Lex wants to use against the world/for himself? I didn't appreciate the addition of the weird girl who first started the trouble by giving Lois the lipstick. She never got any comeuppance and seemed removed from the story as if she was going to have more to do in the future. Somehow she knows about Clark and Lois' future together (as it should be in Superman lore), so unless she's an avid comic fan she's a bit of an enigma. Could she be from the Phantom Zone, just another freak-of-the-week or something else entirely? Only Jimmy actually meets her, when he gets the antidote to the lipstick. I hope she's not the shape of things to come.
This fell into the same category as the vampires and witches, it was just a crazy story where all this silly stuff happens. With the more intelligent stories of Green Arrow and Clark's missions together so fresh in the memory it's hard to go back to the kinds of story which don't make sense or have much basis in the reality of the series, stretching too far beyond what's credible. And I'm not talking about Red K lipstick or people leaping tall buildings in a single bound! It's the awful soap aspects that strangle the performances and narrow the breadth of story potential along with the lack of continuity with massive resets while continuing detail-heavy storylines. But that's often been the series' problem.
**
Monday, 31 October 2011
Bar Association
DVD, DS9 S4 (Bar Association)
The old Quark returns after seemingly becoming softened by the Federation (cloying and bubbly and if you get enough of it you begin to like it!), but to be fair he was in a very bad mood due to having no customers thanks to the Bajoran Time of Cleansing - then again, last episode he was complaining about his customers so he can't have it both ways. It was an important episode in the scheme of things, a turning point for Rom, but I don't think it's one of the better Ferengi-centred stories. It's not that there aren't moments of comedy (Quark's Ferengi employees grovelling to Brunt or the Nausicaan heavies throwing darts into each other), but it's certainly a more serious Ferengi episode than usual, especially seeing Quark with his broken eye socket.
Rom is often funny just by dint of who he is and the way he speaks, but it's not laughs he gets this time, it's respect, in himself and for himself, so much in fact, that he leaves Quark's employ to strike out on his own. But only as far as the station's diagnostic and repair team, night shift. It's still a big move for a guy that only had ambitions to take over the bar when Quark died. And he doesn't want him dead, not any more anyway. Back in Season 1, before we knew Rom he came across as another typical nasty Ferengi, harsh, cruel and totally out for himself, willing to try and kill Quark by pushing him out of an airlock (the threat Quark suggests is the action Brunt will take against them), but since then he's been allowed to grow into a sweeter more varied person who cares about his family - one reason to leave the bar is so Rom can get on better with Quark. I suspect it was Nog's belief in himself and controversial decision to join Starfleet that inspired Rom to stop putting up with Quark's exploitation and began his first step towards the atypical Ferengi he would become. With such extraordinarily different choices made by he and Nog it makes me wonder what Mrs. Rom was like.
It doesn't stop Quark from being devious as usual, but this time he's concerned not only with profit, but how far the FCA will go to stop Rom's illegal union, working with Brunt at the same time as appearing to hear Rom's demands. His solution to the problem, using holographic versions of himself is a fun image, but does that mean he has holo-emitters in the bar itself, not just the Holosuites? Brunt's second appearance doesn't have the weight of the first one in which Jeffrey Combs was given the space to excel himself. This time Brunt is a threat, especially packing two mean-looking Nausicaans, but he doesn't have the range of 'Family Business.' Not that it mattered as he'd have many more chances to prove what an invaluable recurring character he was. The other important comeback was for Dabo girl Leeta, made clear that she and Bashir are still together after half a season of no mention. She'd only been in it a couple of times, but with Rom leaving the bar it was a prudent move to remind us of another semi-regular that would be there to interact with Quark. As it turned out Rom still had plenty of interaction with Quark and Leeta didn't show up again until next season, but it was good to have her back.
Another change that was less easy to see in good or bad light was Worf's move to the Defiant as his place of residence. It may have seemed as if the Klingon was symbolically moving away from DS9 as if he wasn't going to be around for long, but that turned out not to be the case and actually it made perfect sense for him to want the environs of a starship around him. You just wonder what would happen if he overslept, had duties on DS9 and realised the Defiant had been taken off to the Gamma Quadrant for a mission! Not that that was likely as Worf was beginning to be the main commander of the Defiant - he'd found his place. After many happy years on the Enterprise it was good that he had another ship to suit him, and it does suit him. Formidable, manoeuvrable, powerful and fast, he and the ship had a lot in common.
His love of fighting is turned into another scene with Jadzia, carrying on from 'Sons of Mogh' they continue to debate the comparative merits of the mek'leth to the bat'leth. Dennis Madalone is the man to bring back the Dopterian race, one of several (along with Lissepians and Kobheerians which also get mentioned) which were commonly seen or talked about in the first couple of seasons. If you look in the background it's often possible to see these kinds of aliens wandering the Promenade - this time I thought I saw a Paradan (one of the aliens from 'Whispers'), and another in a recent episode. The Pakleds are noted as is the rare appearance (for 'DS9') of a Vulcan, whose ethics Bashir guesses won't allow her to cross the picket line and enter Quark's. He and O'Brien have some friendly scenes together, happily they seem to have patched up any differences they had in 'Hippocratic Oath' and are best of friends again, watching the people pass or enter Quark's, joking about a cyst on the back of O'Brien's neck, and taking part in another epic Holosuite adventure, this time a Celtic battle of some kind. Look out for O'Brien as he crosses the camera towards the stairs wearing his bulky period garb - the shadow of a boom mike flits across!
It would be churlish of me to wish the bar staff were as well rounded as the recurring characters of the series, it was groundbreaking enough that they had recurring characters that were built up so much, but even so it would have been nice to get to know them so they were more than background or extras - Broik even gets a rare mention of his name. There shouldn't be any complaints when they were willing to push the envelope as much as to allow Rom, not one of the main cast, to carry the episode. Quark shoves him up against a wall just as he did to Quark last season when Nog's wellbeing was at stake. This time it's Rom's wellbeing as well as Quark's. It often strikes me that the corridors of the station are so dark they resemble back alleys and I'm always expecting someone to jump out of one. It should be reassuring that Odo keeps watch on most of them, but he can't scour every centimetre of the station all the time as Worf came to realise.
The brawl between Worf and O'Brien, in which Bashir ended up getting shoved across a table is one of the more comical scenes of the episode and it has nothing to do with Ferengi. It would have been nice to see it happen, but the imagination fills in the gap very nicely. Although it was based on a scene from 'Fort Apache' it certainly is reminiscent of the 'TOS' classic 'The Trouble With Tribbles' in which Chekov, Scotty and others are lined up for a telling off by Kirk after a similar bar fight. The other connection is that both Bashir and O'Brien, who were getting an earful from Sisko, would later appear in the line-up being shouted at by Kirk! Sisko knows how to handle his men and certainly knows how to handle the Ferengi, Quark in particular. He originally got him to stay by using blackmail and now the Captain hangs the backdated rent and power supply costs above him as incentive to sort out the union quickly, something I'm sure he's used before and probably would again.
Although Quark may have lost out to Rom and the union, as well as being pushed around by the bully Brunt, at least something good comes out of the ordeal: Rom becomes his own man leaving Quark to concentrate on his business. Though he probably didn't see it at first, having Rom as part of the official station personnel could be lucrative… His encounters with Brunt weren't over for the season, but that wasn't until the end. Another good episode, and another one about two brothers, although it was more of a functional episode that was also enjoyable, but not much more, it shows the pieces that would be key to the last three seasons were slowly being moved into place and the dynamo winding up throughout the season that would power the following one at full speed.
***
Tapestry
DVD, TNG S6 (Tapestry)
Shades of 'It's A Wonderful Life' and 'A Christmas Carol' and for the same reasons they worked, this story does too - the themes of regret, of second chances and of the paths not taken are romantic in the old-fashioned sense of the word and speak as strongly now as they ever have. Especially good advice for jobseekers in the current state of the world: stand out from the crowd, take risks sometimes and grab hold of the opportunities that are presented. It's difficult to encapsulate what makes the episode so special or boil it down to the things that work, but in no particular order: Picard reliving his youth, allowing us to see some key moments of his early life, the friends he knew, the thoughts he had, the impulsive, unguarded officer, the Kirk-like maverick always up for a scrap no matter the odds, standing up for his friends and looking forward to an exciting life ahead in Starfleet.
It's one of the strangest Q episodes they ever did. For a start it doesn't even include Q in the title, almost unheard of! For another there's no way to be certain it really happened and even if it did, if it was really Q. Any powerful being could have used Q's image as the recognisable face Picard would react to, but if it was Q why was he so willing to help Picard see the error of his ways? Why did he only appear in Picard's experience and not afterwards when he's revived? If nothing else it made me wish the young Riker and the young Picard could have met. In some alternate timeline somewhere they did - what a story that would make!
There's plenty of story going on in this one not to need any wishful thinking. As well as seeing some of Picard's early career, we also see his Father (a Tom Paris situation, with Papa Picard never satisfied by his son, that's the impression), and get a running commentary from himself on the way he acted back in those days. There are few Picard episodes that go so deeply into his psyche, into his regrets and wishes. Q does him a huge favour by allowing this other life to pan out, almost like 'The Inner Light' did, only this time it's really Jean-Luc's own life. The part of the story where Picard lives in the present as the risk-averse, reliable, dependable Lieutenant Picard is both amusing (Riker racking his brain to say positive things about this older man!), and terribly sad. That his drive had left him as a result of not living out the misspent or wild youth is very believable, and it's all credit to himself that he did learn and grow from his experiences to become the most well-rounded captain of 'Star Trek.'
His exploits against the Nausicaans, as well as being something that had been spoken about as early as Season 2 (and it shows the age of the series that they were beginning to almost nostalgically look back at the early concepts and backstory as it approached the end of its run), also calls to mind Captain Kirk. At the start of the series those two captains seemed to be about as different as a couple of leaders could be, but over time it became more and more apparent how similar they were at different times in their lives, culminating in the ultimate demonstration of that in 'Star Trek: Generations' when they drop everything to fight side by side. Kirk was known as a stack of books on legs in his Academy days, quite the opposite to Jean-Luc, and yet he learned to temper his intelligence with backbone and physical reactions, while Picard tempered his hotheadedness with restraint and calm. They're both thinkers and both able to act decisively and that's very clear from the episode.
There are some fun trivia spots in this episode: Picard and his friends are seen wearing the 'TOS' film-era uniforms which Jack Crusher had also worn so we know they were used for decades. Dom-jot, the sport which had been mentioned or would be mentioned many times (especially by Jake and Nog on 'DS9'), is seen to be a snooker/pool/alien game. Not in the same league as Tri-dimensional Chess or Dabo, it's still gone down as one of those much referenced future games. Incredibly, for how much they hate each other, there were examples of both Selay and Anticans in the bar crowd standing together, but maybe this was a time when the races were getting along, or these were very open-minded examples! The surly Nausicaans debut, though they are portrayed as sub-idiot Klingons, only there to suffer/inflict a beating. The look was another brilliant design from Michael Westmore, their personality clear from the protruding fangs, deep-set, skull-like faces and explosion of unruly hair. They wouldn't change much in any of their appearances, but at least some of them spoke better English in future!
Picard's fighting skills, seen both in the young version and in 'our' Picard performing the same actions were well-choreographed scenes that had been in the imagination since it was first mentioned how he came to need an artificial heart, on telling Wesley the story (there's a similar scene at the end when he begins regaling Riker with another Nausicaan-themed tale), and managed to live up to the legend. The moment he's stabbed (they seem to like having people stabbed through the back on 'TNG' - it happened to Wesley in an early Q episode and someone else in another, I think), was graphic in some ways, though you don't actually see the wound on impact, but it's strangely moving to see Picard break out in laughter at his unfortunate demise as he looks down and sees he's been impaled. What should be a moment of terror and pain is transformed into something much more, transcending above the act to become about his life. That's the best I can do to explain it.
It's hard to see Picard being treated as an underling on the Enterprise - Worf has little time for his strange behaviour, Data shows concern for a troubled officer, and Riker and Troi are taken aback by his 'sudden' desire for more responsibility. At that point, and especially after the attitude Q had displayed throughout, it's easy to assume this could be for his own amusement, to bring the proud Picard low. For him, living out a dreary existence in which he didn't push himself, was worse than death, yet Q doesn't appear there to gloat and enjoy the moment, which makes me think this was a genuine gift to Picard. In his own bizarre way Q seems fond of the Captain and almost thinks of him as a friend and perhaps he always wanted Picard to succeed and understand that he has succeeded in life.
I think the moral of the story is that we should examine our own lives and not look back with regret, but understand why we acted a certain way and that we are different people at different ages. The tapestry of life will always be made up of mistakes, victories and losses, but it is what we learn through those experiences that make us who we are today - the sum of our past and the instrument of our future. Outside influences play a part, but it is how we react to life, and the end result that matters most, not dwelling on things that didn't work out or living off past glories. Because, as Picard found out, if you tug at just one thread of that tapestry, it's liable to unravel.
****
Shades of 'It's A Wonderful Life' and 'A Christmas Carol' and for the same reasons they worked, this story does too - the themes of regret, of second chances and of the paths not taken are romantic in the old-fashioned sense of the word and speak as strongly now as they ever have. Especially good advice for jobseekers in the current state of the world: stand out from the crowd, take risks sometimes and grab hold of the opportunities that are presented. It's difficult to encapsulate what makes the episode so special or boil it down to the things that work, but in no particular order: Picard reliving his youth, allowing us to see some key moments of his early life, the friends he knew, the thoughts he had, the impulsive, unguarded officer, the Kirk-like maverick always up for a scrap no matter the odds, standing up for his friends and looking forward to an exciting life ahead in Starfleet.
It's one of the strangest Q episodes they ever did. For a start it doesn't even include Q in the title, almost unheard of! For another there's no way to be certain it really happened and even if it did, if it was really Q. Any powerful being could have used Q's image as the recognisable face Picard would react to, but if it was Q why was he so willing to help Picard see the error of his ways? Why did he only appear in Picard's experience and not afterwards when he's revived? If nothing else it made me wish the young Riker and the young Picard could have met. In some alternate timeline somewhere they did - what a story that would make!
There's plenty of story going on in this one not to need any wishful thinking. As well as seeing some of Picard's early career, we also see his Father (a Tom Paris situation, with Papa Picard never satisfied by his son, that's the impression), and get a running commentary from himself on the way he acted back in those days. There are few Picard episodes that go so deeply into his psyche, into his regrets and wishes. Q does him a huge favour by allowing this other life to pan out, almost like 'The Inner Light' did, only this time it's really Jean-Luc's own life. The part of the story where Picard lives in the present as the risk-averse, reliable, dependable Lieutenant Picard is both amusing (Riker racking his brain to say positive things about this older man!), and terribly sad. That his drive had left him as a result of not living out the misspent or wild youth is very believable, and it's all credit to himself that he did learn and grow from his experiences to become the most well-rounded captain of 'Star Trek.'
His exploits against the Nausicaans, as well as being something that had been spoken about as early as Season 2 (and it shows the age of the series that they were beginning to almost nostalgically look back at the early concepts and backstory as it approached the end of its run), also calls to mind Captain Kirk. At the start of the series those two captains seemed to be about as different as a couple of leaders could be, but over time it became more and more apparent how similar they were at different times in their lives, culminating in the ultimate demonstration of that in 'Star Trek: Generations' when they drop everything to fight side by side. Kirk was known as a stack of books on legs in his Academy days, quite the opposite to Jean-Luc, and yet he learned to temper his intelligence with backbone and physical reactions, while Picard tempered his hotheadedness with restraint and calm. They're both thinkers and both able to act decisively and that's very clear from the episode.
There are some fun trivia spots in this episode: Picard and his friends are seen wearing the 'TOS' film-era uniforms which Jack Crusher had also worn so we know they were used for decades. Dom-jot, the sport which had been mentioned or would be mentioned many times (especially by Jake and Nog on 'DS9'), is seen to be a snooker/pool/alien game. Not in the same league as Tri-dimensional Chess or Dabo, it's still gone down as one of those much referenced future games. Incredibly, for how much they hate each other, there were examples of both Selay and Anticans in the bar crowd standing together, but maybe this was a time when the races were getting along, or these were very open-minded examples! The surly Nausicaans debut, though they are portrayed as sub-idiot Klingons, only there to suffer/inflict a beating. The look was another brilliant design from Michael Westmore, their personality clear from the protruding fangs, deep-set, skull-like faces and explosion of unruly hair. They wouldn't change much in any of their appearances, but at least some of them spoke better English in future!
Picard's fighting skills, seen both in the young version and in 'our' Picard performing the same actions were well-choreographed scenes that had been in the imagination since it was first mentioned how he came to need an artificial heart, on telling Wesley the story (there's a similar scene at the end when he begins regaling Riker with another Nausicaan-themed tale), and managed to live up to the legend. The moment he's stabbed (they seem to like having people stabbed through the back on 'TNG' - it happened to Wesley in an early Q episode and someone else in another, I think), was graphic in some ways, though you don't actually see the wound on impact, but it's strangely moving to see Picard break out in laughter at his unfortunate demise as he looks down and sees he's been impaled. What should be a moment of terror and pain is transformed into something much more, transcending above the act to become about his life. That's the best I can do to explain it.
It's hard to see Picard being treated as an underling on the Enterprise - Worf has little time for his strange behaviour, Data shows concern for a troubled officer, and Riker and Troi are taken aback by his 'sudden' desire for more responsibility. At that point, and especially after the attitude Q had displayed throughout, it's easy to assume this could be for his own amusement, to bring the proud Picard low. For him, living out a dreary existence in which he didn't push himself, was worse than death, yet Q doesn't appear there to gloat and enjoy the moment, which makes me think this was a genuine gift to Picard. In his own bizarre way Q seems fond of the Captain and almost thinks of him as a friend and perhaps he always wanted Picard to succeed and understand that he has succeeded in life.
I think the moral of the story is that we should examine our own lives and not look back with regret, but understand why we acted a certain way and that we are different people at different ages. The tapestry of life will always be made up of mistakes, victories and losses, but it is what we learn through those experiences that make us who we are today - the sum of our past and the instrument of our future. Outside influences play a part, but it is how we react to life, and the end result that matters most, not dwelling on things that didn't work out or living off past glories. Because, as Picard found out, if you tug at just one thread of that tapestry, it's liable to unravel.
****
Face of The Enemy
DVD, TNG S6 (Face of The Enemy)
The original, but not the best. That distinction goes to a 'DS9' episode, 'Second Skin.' It used the same idea of a character waking up in the guise of another race, but in that story it was Major Kira who became a Cardassian spy and had the commanding presence naturally, the fact that she had become her worst enemy making for a more dramatic variation. It also had further twists and was a bit more satisfying. With Troi as the character in another face it was less intense, her quiet and caring persona and job as a counsellor made it difficult to create the illusion of her being in control, made more difficult by Commander Toreth's strong presence and personal hatred of the Tal Shiar, meaning whenever there were scenes between them it was always the Commander who retained the authority even if she didn't get the last word. Troi warmed to the role and did a spectacular job under the circumstances, but it's a shame Marina Sirtis had to shout and bawl to show her authority. If it had been some other character their inherent strength and confidence would have come out naturally without volume.
I wouldn't complain too much however, for this is a proper Romulan story in the mould of 'Balance of Terror,' 'Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges,' 'Message In A Bottle' or 'Babel One/'The Aenar' from the other series'. It begins with a surprise, though it wasn't dark enough to hide that Troi looked like a Romulan, but if it was come to fresh with no knowledge and seen on an old TV or video at the time of release it probably was vague enough to maintain the mystery. It then turns into a spy adventure with Troi told she's on this mission, like it or not, and has to play out this other identity to survive. Oddly it made me think of the TV series 'BUGS' and the way they could be thrust into difficult situations like this and have to think on their feet and it had almost a similar feeling of tension to it. There's the constant threat Troi could be discovered and the way she handles each situation is a credit to her. Beverly had already had a play at black ops and now Deanna got to prove her mettle undercover in the same season. As her character had been somewhat lost in the shuffle so far this season it's refreshing to see her star in such a bold story.
That it incorporates intrigue from both Romulan and Federation perspectives makes it a rounded episode, even better when it becomes a link to Ambassador Spock and his continuing mission on Romulus. It would have been terrific if they could have had Leonard Nimoy back for a cameo, but he wouldn't have done it for a small role as he's mentioned before, so the mention of his name had to suffice. I think this is the first episode to reveal the Tal Shiar and though 'Second Skin' was the better episode it certainly stole a lot of ideas - that story was about a plot to reveal a prominent official as a member of the dissident movement by trapping him using Kira as his false daughter, and here it's about saving members of the Romulan dissident movement, so all these police state races have their underground movements opposed to the harsh rule of the government and secret services.
We've seen so much on the Obsidian Order and the enmity between the them and the Cardassian military so it was a treat to see into the Romulan version of the conflict. Commander Toreth was actually quite an honourable sort, bitter about the death or disappearance of her Father at Tal Shiar hands, but disapproving of destruction without proper cause, caring strongly about the safety of her ship and crew and her responsibilities to them. It helped to have the excellent Carolyn Seymour under the V-ridges. She'd previously played the first female Romulan seen on 'TNG' in Season 2 ('Contagion'), Mirasta Yale ('First Contact'), and would go on to the most chilling role of the holo-character Mrs. Templeton in Captain Janeway's Victorian holo-novel. She wasn't the only actor involved who had played multiple roles: Scott MacDonald was also in 'DS9' and 'Voyager' (most notably as the Jem'Hadar Goran'Agar) and does an admirable performance as the contact keeping Troi on her toes. I'd forgotten he gets blown away at the end as I felt sure his character came back on 'DS9,' but I'm thinking of Proconsul Neral of the 'Unification' two-parter.
Though we don't get as good a look round the majestic Warbird as we have on Klingon ships it was undoubtedly a treat to be aboard and the external views showed the model in its best light. The other side of the story was about a human who had defected to Romulus or at least blended in to live there, only coming to the realisation he belonged with the Federation later in life. I'd have liked that story to have been delved into far more as his situation was quite unique and compelling. It shows that there's more going on sometimes than we realise and that even humans can choose to live on the enemy's side, something that Worf would know all about. Not sure about those hair braids he's wearing this episode, though - they look far too girly, though the ponytail suited him down to the ground and would be his permanent style for the rest of his appearances.
This was another episode I saw on video years ago, long before I'd had the context of seeing the majority of the series in order, and the steady tension still impresses me as it did then. It's the kind of thing you really want to see in Trek, but so rarely do: spies and secret missions with instant death possible at any time, having to use wits to survive and adapting to the circumstances at a moment's notice. It doesn't have the pace of a modern spy thriller, but the characters are well defined and it's a strong starring role for Troi who gets to play out a completely different role than usual and proves herself an invaluable member of the Enterprise crew. If we didn't know that already.
***
The original, but not the best. That distinction goes to a 'DS9' episode, 'Second Skin.' It used the same idea of a character waking up in the guise of another race, but in that story it was Major Kira who became a Cardassian spy and had the commanding presence naturally, the fact that she had become her worst enemy making for a more dramatic variation. It also had further twists and was a bit more satisfying. With Troi as the character in another face it was less intense, her quiet and caring persona and job as a counsellor made it difficult to create the illusion of her being in control, made more difficult by Commander Toreth's strong presence and personal hatred of the Tal Shiar, meaning whenever there were scenes between them it was always the Commander who retained the authority even if she didn't get the last word. Troi warmed to the role and did a spectacular job under the circumstances, but it's a shame Marina Sirtis had to shout and bawl to show her authority. If it had been some other character their inherent strength and confidence would have come out naturally without volume.
I wouldn't complain too much however, for this is a proper Romulan story in the mould of 'Balance of Terror,' 'Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges,' 'Message In A Bottle' or 'Babel One/'The Aenar' from the other series'. It begins with a surprise, though it wasn't dark enough to hide that Troi looked like a Romulan, but if it was come to fresh with no knowledge and seen on an old TV or video at the time of release it probably was vague enough to maintain the mystery. It then turns into a spy adventure with Troi told she's on this mission, like it or not, and has to play out this other identity to survive. Oddly it made me think of the TV series 'BUGS' and the way they could be thrust into difficult situations like this and have to think on their feet and it had almost a similar feeling of tension to it. There's the constant threat Troi could be discovered and the way she handles each situation is a credit to her. Beverly had already had a play at black ops and now Deanna got to prove her mettle undercover in the same season. As her character had been somewhat lost in the shuffle so far this season it's refreshing to see her star in such a bold story.
That it incorporates intrigue from both Romulan and Federation perspectives makes it a rounded episode, even better when it becomes a link to Ambassador Spock and his continuing mission on Romulus. It would have been terrific if they could have had Leonard Nimoy back for a cameo, but he wouldn't have done it for a small role as he's mentioned before, so the mention of his name had to suffice. I think this is the first episode to reveal the Tal Shiar and though 'Second Skin' was the better episode it certainly stole a lot of ideas - that story was about a plot to reveal a prominent official as a member of the dissident movement by trapping him using Kira as his false daughter, and here it's about saving members of the Romulan dissident movement, so all these police state races have their underground movements opposed to the harsh rule of the government and secret services.
We've seen so much on the Obsidian Order and the enmity between the them and the Cardassian military so it was a treat to see into the Romulan version of the conflict. Commander Toreth was actually quite an honourable sort, bitter about the death or disappearance of her Father at Tal Shiar hands, but disapproving of destruction without proper cause, caring strongly about the safety of her ship and crew and her responsibilities to them. It helped to have the excellent Carolyn Seymour under the V-ridges. She'd previously played the first female Romulan seen on 'TNG' in Season 2 ('Contagion'), Mirasta Yale ('First Contact'), and would go on to the most chilling role of the holo-character Mrs. Templeton in Captain Janeway's Victorian holo-novel. She wasn't the only actor involved who had played multiple roles: Scott MacDonald was also in 'DS9' and 'Voyager' (most notably as the Jem'Hadar Goran'Agar) and does an admirable performance as the contact keeping Troi on her toes. I'd forgotten he gets blown away at the end as I felt sure his character came back on 'DS9,' but I'm thinking of Proconsul Neral of the 'Unification' two-parter.
Though we don't get as good a look round the majestic Warbird as we have on Klingon ships it was undoubtedly a treat to be aboard and the external views showed the model in its best light. The other side of the story was about a human who had defected to Romulus or at least blended in to live there, only coming to the realisation he belonged with the Federation later in life. I'd have liked that story to have been delved into far more as his situation was quite unique and compelling. It shows that there's more going on sometimes than we realise and that even humans can choose to live on the enemy's side, something that Worf would know all about. Not sure about those hair braids he's wearing this episode, though - they look far too girly, though the ponytail suited him down to the ground and would be his permanent style for the rest of his appearances.
This was another episode I saw on video years ago, long before I'd had the context of seeing the majority of the series in order, and the steady tension still impresses me as it did then. It's the kind of thing you really want to see in Trek, but so rarely do: spies and secret missions with instant death possible at any time, having to use wits to survive and adapting to the circumstances at a moment's notice. It doesn't have the pace of a modern spy thriller, but the characters are well defined and it's a strong starring role for Troi who gets to play out a completely different role than usual and proves herself an invaluable member of the Enterprise crew. If we didn't know that already.
***
Sons of Mogh
DVD, DS9 S4 (Sons of Mogh)
Kurn's first, only and final appearance on 'DS9' marked the end of Tony Todd's contribution to the series, though not quite to Trek in general, and a great shame it was. In my opinion, and anyone who's seen 'The Visitor' will attest, Todd was one of the great Trek actors in the league of Jeffrey Combs, Marc Alaimo and Wallace Shawn (who all happen to be mainly 'DS9' names), and his character, the Klingon brother of Worf was a great part in 'TNG.' I don't recall whether I was shocked or surprised at the final solution to Worf and Kurn's dilemma, but at the time I first saw it I tended not to think in those terms and just accepted whatever twists and turns the writers came up with. Now I wish there had been a furtherance of Kurn's story as it seems likely he'd have become suspicious.
He wasn't the stereotype of the idiot thug Klingon, but a more intelligent variant, worthy of calling Worf his brother, but unique in the way he was connected to such a human Klingon, but had been raised fully in the ways of the warrior - a suggestion of the way Worf might have been with a full upbringing by his people. The race have never been known for their tact and subterfuge (General Chang notwithstanding), and in the short time Noggra had to sort out the details of his apparent son 'Rodek' I don't believe he'd have been able to create a completely solid backstory for Kurn's new identity. Somewhere down the line he'd have realised things didn't add up. They should have done a follow-up where a half-crazed Kurn returns to 'DS9' and kidnaps Worf to learn the truth, knowing instinctively that the Starfleet Klingon he met in the infirmary had some answers. I believe there were plans for another Kurn story, but with so many other plots to take up (there never being a shortage of threads with which to weave the future), any ideas they had sadly never came to fruition.
Though it seems to be all about Kurn, the title is correct in giving equal billing to both sons of Mogh - the impact Kurn's dishonour is just as strong on Worf who's responsible for their once-proud house collapsing. We heard from Gowron that all Worf's lands would be seized and his family's status brought low, but there was never a mention of how the rest of his family experienced this, Kurn the man on the front line in these momentous events. It was right and fitting that he should come to the station an almost broken man, in spirit at least, and take the only way out he sees for himself. In that way he's just as selfish as Worf in doing what he feels is best for himself, but while Worf was acting on principle, Kurn is after personal honour which has been stripped away.
More Klingon culture is revealed through the Mauk-to'Vor ceremony - basically fratricide and the quick and easy way out (for a Klingon) to get to Sto-Vo-Kor. It seems to me that it would have been much more honourable for Kurn to build up his honour again in battle or in personal missions than 'giving up the ghost.' It's also hard to see how Worf thought he could get away with murder on a Starfleet-run station right under his commanding officer's nose. If he'd taken a leave of absence and gone off to some planet he might have gotten away with it, but as Sisko says, there's a line where alien cultures cannot cross. I think Worf simply pushed any rationalities to one side in a (perhaps) misguided attempt at feeling Klingon again. His brother wanted this, and he, being a Klingon, felt duty-bound to honour that. But like Dax when she went off on the revenge mission with the three old Klingons, it was done without too much forethought and thankfully came right in the end, or as right as such a bad situation could become.
I well remembered Kurn taking on jobs around the station after the death ceremony failed, but one thing I thought happened, didn't - as a Bajoran security officer Kurn allows himself to be shot by a Boslic, but we didn't actually see it. I was probably thinking of the moment when Kurn shoots the Klingon on the ship when he and Worf are undercover, one of the defining moments of the episode: Worf realises how much of his Klingon-ness he's lost when Kurn could see the intention to kill in the officer's eyes from three metres away, yet Worf didn't see it right in front of his face. This was only a temporary lapse, the episode heightening the personal struggle of Worf's two cultures while the larger, empires at loggerheads of the Klingons and Federation looms in the background. Anyone watching this far might have been confused, but in the first episode Gowron stood down from his attack so the Federation wasn't at war with them, though clearly they aren't on good terms.
I'd completely forgotten the B-story of O'Brien and Kira discovering a field of cloaked mines. It's nice to see that pairing, especially in the light of events at end of season as they were to become a lot closer. Here O'Brien helps give the episode a feeling of calm and peacefulness, his large crinkled forehead going about its business without a flinch, even when a large enemy ship appears and comes towards the little Runabout. The Yukon gets no introduction as the replacement for the Orinoco which was destroyed in 'Our Man Bashir,' only O'Brien's log to tell us this is a new ship, but at least there was that. When I say the episode is quite calm I don't mean visually - it opens with Worf and Dax fighting in the Holosuite, Worf demonstrating the effectiveness of the mek'leth as opposed to the bat'leth, even slicing Jadzia's sword in two. It's a nice scene, returning to the chemistry that began their meeting in 'The Way of The Warrior' continuing their enjoyment of fighting. I don't quite know where the closeness comes from as, apart from her introduction to Worf there's been very little going on when they appear together, but here they're quite personal.
Klingon anatomy has always been one of those things that have been kept under wraps ready to serve the story if need be, as in 'Ethics' where we saw Worf had an exoskeleton on his back, but for the first time we see a Klingon chest when Kurn bares it so Worf can plunge the knife in, and it looked as fearsome and rock hard as the forehead ridges, perhaps more so! The reasons for not showing alien anatomies was to give future stories more possibilities and because it was difficult enough doing a forehead prosthetic, so a full-body would take even longer. Since almost all races wear clothes there's no need to see underneath, but it does make you wonder what Ferengi or Cardassians look like. The only action figure of Kurn in the Playmates range is taken from this episode and bizarrely has his chest fully bared so children can recreate their favourite brother killing brother scene! It may not have been a positive episode in some ways, but 'DS9' was never a children's show and it does at least distinguish between that ritual and suicide. Though I thought the whole point of 'Ethics' was that Worf wanted to commit ritual suicide so there may be a little inaccuracy or crossed wires somewhere…
Worf's interaction with Odo takes another turn as he becomes indebted to the constable for giving Kurn a job as a deputy. It was interesting to me that Odo calls it his 'detachment' rather than the station's security as if he's yielded some responsibility to Starfleet and the rarely seen Eddington. His choice to do this and fit in better would cause him regret in one later episode this season as he might have seen it coming if he'd kept all security to himself. I like the fact that Dax, familiar with Klingon ways, stands up for Worf in front of Sisko, and later O'Brien, not as knowledgable, but one who knows the man, also tries to put in a good word for him. It seems Worf has a few friends, despite his desire for solitude as vocalised to Odo recently. Bashir feels comfortable making a joke about how ugly/uglier Worf is in his undercover get-up and Worf shows how much he's relaxed into station life by noting that he got it. Kurn and Worf's mission onto the damaged cruiser seemed a bit flawed to me. Surely the Klingons would have known at least Worf was on the station and he doesn't look that different. The Mogh family scandal must have been well known to most Klingons, I'd have thought, but they find it easy to get the files on the mines - then again they wouldn't have known Kurn was on DS9 and he was the one who used security codes and knew about the false file directories.
The detonation of the minefield is a good visual moment, seeing the Birds of Prey decloak and clear out as mines burst in a shower of yellow, though it wasn't as impressive as the mines of the end of Season 5/beginning of Season 6, which looked much more spectacular on destruction. One thing I noticed was that people seem to sleep with their arms up in the air! First Kurn does it when he's asleep in Worf's quarters (he moans for something for his head, then complains the bed's too soft and comfortable - maybe secretly he enjoys a plumped pillow!), and then Kira does it when she's dozing on the Runabout! It also shows how little sleep she gets as she mentions she doesn't have seven hours when she's on the station. Doesn't look bad for it though.
There was a question in my mind about the Boslics. The dialogue indicated that the ship Kurn checks cargo for was full of Boslics as Odo makes a joke about how many Worf's brother has killed (another person comfortable enough with Worf to have a laugh!), and later it's said Kurn took a shot from a Boslic, but we don't see a single Boslic in the episode, the aliens look more Tellarite than anything else. How do I know? Because the only Boslic we've seen is the freighter captain that occasionally turns up with 'special' cargo for Quark. Unless all the women of the species look different to the men, they should have had smooth foreheads with a line down the centre and a shock of purple hair. Worf also uses the name of a Vulcan from 'Enterprise' as his false identity: Commander Soval!
I still haven't quite made the case for this being a peaceful episode. I think it's in the wistful, haunting background score that had come in this season. It speaks of things that cannot be avoided, of great sadness and loss and underscores Worf's final scene as the man without a family, finishing with that brilliant shot of Worf coming out of the Infirmary and walking off into the unknowing crowd on the Promenade. It was also in the fact that it was mainly a personal thing and there's not a lot of threat in the wider environment. Things with the Klingons don't go too badly and O'Brien and Kira are never really in danger or meet resistance. It wasn't quite true Worf had no family as Alexander was still around, but I think what he was saying is that he no longer has a family name, or one that other Klingons would accept. He's come full circle to the complete rejection by his people and it would take someone special to reinstate him and return him to his rightful warrior path. But that was not to be for another season.
***
Labyrinth
DVD, Smallville S6 (Labyrinth)
Clark wakes up in a strange alternate reality which inevitably all takes place in his own mind. No sci-fi/fantasy series should be without this premise and probably none of them are, but such a curious change of events bears much repetition and it did give us a chance to skitter through a little of the series' past. There are all kinds of influences apparent that came together to create Clark's delusion of being Kal-el from Krypton and it does draw you in right away with these mental patients laughing at the notion of his abilities - he has no secrets left and no powers either. There's mention of Whitney (he's not been heard of for a long time!), Nell (she was mentioned only last episode), the incident that began the series when Clark saved Lex on the Loeb bridge, only now, in this version it seems he caused Lex to have an accident. The old Lana, the sweet and gentle and kind version from days of yore is back and as nice as she used to be as if the events of the past five and a half years never occurred. And most striking of all is that they really didn't occur and for the duration of the series Clark's been experiencing it all from inside a mental hospital!
There's a constant humming in the background, a throbbing that makes it much more like a horror story, the way they always have that in those kinds of films. Though it's not a horror of gore and grisliness, but of psychological confusion. The difficulty with these types of story is being able to sustain the mystery and confusion that makes the situation so compelling, and while there is some strong imagery, such as the security men running through the snow after Clark, the strengths of the premise begin to erode as there's nowhere for the story to go except for Clark to confront himself and come to the realisation that what he knows is true, just as the audience knew from the start. There was the slight chance it could have been 33.1, but this level of weirdness was far more likely to be Phantom Zone-related so that wasn't exactly a big surprise.
It is interesting to see different versions of most of the characters, but I felt it was all over so quickly we never got to play with them enough, perhaps just about the involvement to make the story worthwhile, but if it weren't for one thing it would seem a bit pointless. That thing is the revealing of the mysterious stranger who saved Clark in 'Static,' played by occasional 'Star Trek' guest star Phil Morris. His presence in the 'dream' and in the real world where his eyes glow red and he flashes off into the sky is one thing that reminds us there are still some interesting questions to answer. In other ways, the halfway point of the season is marked by something of a brief rapprochement between Clark, Lana and Lex, though I felt the Lana card had been used so many times it had almost lost all meaning. It's almost like you just want her to marry Lex, move away and let Clark move on! But no, he realises he still holds her above all others which could be his weakness, as Chloe points out, especially as he almost sacrificed everyone to fall into this false life with a false Lana. Crucially he didn't, and as usual made the right choice, the opposite to what Lex would have done, I'm sure.
This was a marvellous opportunity to bring back old faces like Whitney or whoever, play with the series' backstory and completely take apart the world they had built up, but as often happens in the series it didn't go far enough. Even so, it was a standout episode for the intensity of the mood it generated and for reminding me about Shelby the dog whom I'd almost forgotten about it appears so infrequently, but it was not a classic. It was however, nice to end on the realisations as he talks to Chloe after the event (I was still waiting for it still be inside his head - in fact maybe the series from this point on is all an alternate reality!), and for there to be a civil conversation between him and Lana in the Talon, and even a lack of malice in the brief interaction between Clark and Lex, but the second half of the season feels like it's been reset ready for whatever developments take place. And that has happened many times before.
***
Clark wakes up in a strange alternate reality which inevitably all takes place in his own mind. No sci-fi/fantasy series should be without this premise and probably none of them are, but such a curious change of events bears much repetition and it did give us a chance to skitter through a little of the series' past. There are all kinds of influences apparent that came together to create Clark's delusion of being Kal-el from Krypton and it does draw you in right away with these mental patients laughing at the notion of his abilities - he has no secrets left and no powers either. There's mention of Whitney (he's not been heard of for a long time!), Nell (she was mentioned only last episode), the incident that began the series when Clark saved Lex on the Loeb bridge, only now, in this version it seems he caused Lex to have an accident. The old Lana, the sweet and gentle and kind version from days of yore is back and as nice as she used to be as if the events of the past five and a half years never occurred. And most striking of all is that they really didn't occur and for the duration of the series Clark's been experiencing it all from inside a mental hospital!
There's a constant humming in the background, a throbbing that makes it much more like a horror story, the way they always have that in those kinds of films. Though it's not a horror of gore and grisliness, but of psychological confusion. The difficulty with these types of story is being able to sustain the mystery and confusion that makes the situation so compelling, and while there is some strong imagery, such as the security men running through the snow after Clark, the strengths of the premise begin to erode as there's nowhere for the story to go except for Clark to confront himself and come to the realisation that what he knows is true, just as the audience knew from the start. There was the slight chance it could have been 33.1, but this level of weirdness was far more likely to be Phantom Zone-related so that wasn't exactly a big surprise.
It is interesting to see different versions of most of the characters, but I felt it was all over so quickly we never got to play with them enough, perhaps just about the involvement to make the story worthwhile, but if it weren't for one thing it would seem a bit pointless. That thing is the revealing of the mysterious stranger who saved Clark in 'Static,' played by occasional 'Star Trek' guest star Phil Morris. His presence in the 'dream' and in the real world where his eyes glow red and he flashes off into the sky is one thing that reminds us there are still some interesting questions to answer. In other ways, the halfway point of the season is marked by something of a brief rapprochement between Clark, Lana and Lex, though I felt the Lana card had been used so many times it had almost lost all meaning. It's almost like you just want her to marry Lex, move away and let Clark move on! But no, he realises he still holds her above all others which could be his weakness, as Chloe points out, especially as he almost sacrificed everyone to fall into this false life with a false Lana. Crucially he didn't, and as usual made the right choice, the opposite to what Lex would have done, I'm sure.
This was a marvellous opportunity to bring back old faces like Whitney or whoever, play with the series' backstory and completely take apart the world they had built up, but as often happens in the series it didn't go far enough. Even so, it was a standout episode for the intensity of the mood it generated and for reminding me about Shelby the dog whom I'd almost forgotten about it appears so infrequently, but it was not a classic. It was however, nice to end on the realisations as he talks to Chloe after the event (I was still waiting for it still be inside his head - in fact maybe the series from this point on is all an alternate reality!), and for there to be a civil conversation between him and Lana in the Talon, and even a lack of malice in the brief interaction between Clark and Lex, but the second half of the season feels like it's been reset ready for whatever developments take place. And that has happened many times before.
***
Aquiel
DVD, TNG S6 (Aquiel)
This was one episode I saw relatively early in my Trek viewing career. Someone lent me the video featuring this and 'Face of The Enemy' and anyone who's watched the pair can probably guess which one I preferred. I didn't watch 'TNG' very often growing up, I saw the occasional episode just 'to see how bad it was' since I only knew 'TOS' well and had begun to enjoy 'DS9' and possibly 'Voyager,' and my impression of the series, or the one people gave me, was that it was slow, boring and didn't have much to recommend it, and though I often found that wasn't the case (with the episodes I did catch mainly good ones: 'Conspiracy,' 'Remember Me,' 'Frame of Mind,' 'Phantasms'), my impressions were proved true watching 'Aquiel.'
It's not that it's particularly bad, it's just that the pieces that might have been used to craft a tense, exciting and thought-provoking outcome were left as minor building blocks which weren't used to build something good. The episode starts out as a murder investigation, beaming over to an empty relay station, and while the set looks very good and makes for a good environment, there's little of the brooding atmosphere a chiller needs. So the Klingons are added, and aside from having a weak name (Morag doesn't conjure up images of fear, more like cows grazing), they don't play a big part with only Picard's expert manoeuvring around Torak to enjoy, throwing in the fact that he was Arbiter of Succession and can get Gowron's ear quite easily. I'd like to know how they smuggled Aquiel aboard as you'd think that as soon as an injured Starfleet officer that was missing, presumed deceased, came aboard in the company of Klingons, the Transporter Operator would be on the blower right away to inform the captain! I recognised Wayne Grace's name right away, he was a Legate in 'Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night' on 'DS9.'
The investigating of the investigation isn't very dynamic, and though it's probably more true to life that it consists of trawling through data rather than crawling around in Jefferies tubes, it doesn't make for an exciting story. That story changes to become Geordi in Harry Kim mode, falling for an image of Aquiel before he's even met her, just as he did with Dr. Brahms, and then pushing himself into the realms of unprofessionalism, beginning to show a defiant tone in defence of his newfound friend that borders on insubordination. If he'd displayed that kind of spirit to Captain Jellico of 'Chain of Command' you can be sure he'd have been relieved of duty in the blink of an eye! Fortunately, Riker is more level-headed and even tries to give La Forge some friendly personal advice which is also rebuffed, but it's nice to see the characters caring for each other.
So we've gone from murder investigation to Klingon story to romance and then it becomes a bit of a horror, just for good measure. This dipping in and out of genres far from making a good mixing pot of ideas seems like jerky transitions. The most interesting aspect of the story was the coalescent life form and its ability to take over a new body each time - the hand in the pile of goop in sickbay was a good effect, though it's hard to reconcile that with the tiny amount of residue shown on the deck plating that it originated from. It's a good effect anyway, as is the dog becoming the mound of goop that attacks Geordi. Yes, it was the dog all along (why did its name, Maura, sound so similar to the Klingon's, Morag? A subconscious blind for the audience?), but it kindly allows La Forge time to notice it before it goes for him, giving him time to kill it after a panic-stricken series of acrobatics around the room!
I think the main problem, apart from a lack of necessary impetus or a corresponding boil of tension, is that there's little reason to care about Aquiel beyond Geordi's interest in her. The Haliians aren't explored in any depth and she's more of an annoying character than anything, doing everything she can to incriminate herself. She even chooses not to accept Geordi's help to work on the Enterprise, so she can't have been that enamoured of him, though of course her sentiment of wanting to do the hard work herself is laudable - it still sounds more like an excuse not to stay somewhere Geordi is, unfortunately, but he was better off. It's usually the case that if an episode concentrates its attentions on a guest star, especially one that doesn't come across that well, it doesn't work: we want to see the main characters and their interaction is what makes the series.
**
This was one episode I saw relatively early in my Trek viewing career. Someone lent me the video featuring this and 'Face of The Enemy' and anyone who's watched the pair can probably guess which one I preferred. I didn't watch 'TNG' very often growing up, I saw the occasional episode just 'to see how bad it was' since I only knew 'TOS' well and had begun to enjoy 'DS9' and possibly 'Voyager,' and my impression of the series, or the one people gave me, was that it was slow, boring and didn't have much to recommend it, and though I often found that wasn't the case (with the episodes I did catch mainly good ones: 'Conspiracy,' 'Remember Me,' 'Frame of Mind,' 'Phantasms'), my impressions were proved true watching 'Aquiel.'
It's not that it's particularly bad, it's just that the pieces that might have been used to craft a tense, exciting and thought-provoking outcome were left as minor building blocks which weren't used to build something good. The episode starts out as a murder investigation, beaming over to an empty relay station, and while the set looks very good and makes for a good environment, there's little of the brooding atmosphere a chiller needs. So the Klingons are added, and aside from having a weak name (Morag doesn't conjure up images of fear, more like cows grazing), they don't play a big part with only Picard's expert manoeuvring around Torak to enjoy, throwing in the fact that he was Arbiter of Succession and can get Gowron's ear quite easily. I'd like to know how they smuggled Aquiel aboard as you'd think that as soon as an injured Starfleet officer that was missing, presumed deceased, came aboard in the company of Klingons, the Transporter Operator would be on the blower right away to inform the captain! I recognised Wayne Grace's name right away, he was a Legate in 'Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night' on 'DS9.'
The investigating of the investigation isn't very dynamic, and though it's probably more true to life that it consists of trawling through data rather than crawling around in Jefferies tubes, it doesn't make for an exciting story. That story changes to become Geordi in Harry Kim mode, falling for an image of Aquiel before he's even met her, just as he did with Dr. Brahms, and then pushing himself into the realms of unprofessionalism, beginning to show a defiant tone in defence of his newfound friend that borders on insubordination. If he'd displayed that kind of spirit to Captain Jellico of 'Chain of Command' you can be sure he'd have been relieved of duty in the blink of an eye! Fortunately, Riker is more level-headed and even tries to give La Forge some friendly personal advice which is also rebuffed, but it's nice to see the characters caring for each other.
So we've gone from murder investigation to Klingon story to romance and then it becomes a bit of a horror, just for good measure. This dipping in and out of genres far from making a good mixing pot of ideas seems like jerky transitions. The most interesting aspect of the story was the coalescent life form and its ability to take over a new body each time - the hand in the pile of goop in sickbay was a good effect, though it's hard to reconcile that with the tiny amount of residue shown on the deck plating that it originated from. It's a good effect anyway, as is the dog becoming the mound of goop that attacks Geordi. Yes, it was the dog all along (why did its name, Maura, sound so similar to the Klingon's, Morag? A subconscious blind for the audience?), but it kindly allows La Forge time to notice it before it goes for him, giving him time to kill it after a panic-stricken series of acrobatics around the room!
I think the main problem, apart from a lack of necessary impetus or a corresponding boil of tension, is that there's little reason to care about Aquiel beyond Geordi's interest in her. The Haliians aren't explored in any depth and she's more of an annoying character than anything, doing everything she can to incriminate herself. She even chooses not to accept Geordi's help to work on the Enterprise, so she can't have been that enamoured of him, though of course her sentiment of wanting to do the hard work herself is laudable - it still sounds more like an excuse not to stay somewhere Geordi is, unfortunately, but he was better off. It's usually the case that if an episode concentrates its attentions on a guest star, especially one that doesn't come across that well, it doesn't work: we want to see the main characters and their interaction is what makes the series.
**
Ship In A Bottle
DVD, TNG S6 (Ship In A Bottle)
Reality within reality is something I've always found fascinating. Something unsettling, but that draws the imagination, just as Professor Moriarty was drawn to life. I'd forgotten most of the details of the story, including the trickery, remembering only that Moriarty returned and demanded existence and is given it in the form of a miniature universe to explore. It's a poignant moment when he and his Countess ride off in a shuttlecraft to explore the unknown, I almost wish they really had found a way to get out of the Holodeck as it's something to ponder on: two fictional characters living out lives far beyond anything they were created for. But then, that's what can make Holodeck stories special. Any chance to see Data as Sherlock Holmes again, is a welcome one, though presumably for the last time, as after the problems with the Conan Doyle estate who weren't happy with the series using their characters without permission, it seemed clear the setting would never be used again. Back in Season 2 'TNG' was only a little start-up, but by Season 6 it had become the 'in' thing so I suspect it was easier to get the Conan Doyle estate onside this time.
Right away I guessed they were still on the Holodeck when Moriarty walks out the doors. We've seen holo-characters leave before, such as in 'The Big Goodbye' though they dematerialised shortly after, but it wouldn't be until 'Voyager' and its stolen 29th Century technology that an artificial character could walk free of constraint. I didn't remember that was what happened, but I'm always suspicious when it comes to the possibility of false reality so I was watching from the perspective that it was a trick and nothing contradicted that. Even so, it was a chilling moment when Data sidles up to Picard and lets him in on the secret. I think it could have been more exciting if the fake Enterprise personnel had then come after them and chased them through the bowels of the 'ship,' but this was definitely a cerebral episode, not an action-adventure so it may not have suited the tone. Also, I'm not sure if Moriarty knew that they knew that they weren't off the Holodeck…
The events throw up many questions about artificial intelligence, the nature of reality and how 24th Century technology works: Geordi claims that items in the Holodeck aren't real, so that if an item is taken out it will simply disappear as it has no physicality, but we've seen all sorts of things taken in or out of the 'deck and I was always given to believing that it was a bit of both - most things were just 'background' objects, but as soon as someone picked it up they became real, physical, replicated matter. It also seems somehow wrong to trick Moriarty into this false life, even though he pulled the trick first, and Picard seems inordinately gleeful at how things have turned out! Surely they should continue to look into the rights and wrongs of Holodeck life and the Federation should deeply examine the ethics of these beings that could be created in the event of accidents. It wasn't really until 'Voyager' that the issues of holographic rights came up, which makes the Enterprise crew seem a little callous and uncaring about the ramifications of switching on (and off) their fantasies each week.
The B-story, or B-situation as it never became much of a story, existed purely to provide the jeopardy Moriarty needed to make his control of the Enterprise seem dangerous, and was a spatial phenomenon that didn't quite live up to the concept we were fed early in the episode of two planets crashing into each other - two gas giants no less. The shot of the planets approaching looked great, but the ending shot of the explosion seen from a safe distance was a bit lacklustre and something I imagine they'll change for the new version of 'TNG' if they do it like the 'TOS Remastered' project.
Moriarty was obviously intensely crafty as he could create almost perfect replicas of Geordi, Riker and the crew, yet he was still simple-minded enough not to be suspicious of Picard's capitulation. I suppose it was because of the roundabout way the 'solution' of turning off the Heisenberg compensators was discovered and relayed so that it allayed all suspicion, but I'd have thought he would be cleverer than that. Still, it was nice to have a sequel to a Season 2 episode, if not quite a mention of Pulaski who's mentioned merely as 'the hostage,' and the return of the same actor to play the role of the villain.
It was useful to have Reg Barclay along as he became the organ through which the writers could explain the backstory to for those that hadn't been paying attention or weren't around for the earlier episode - the last shot where he wonders if real life is a Holodeck is a nice moment, though it doesn't have the power of 'Far Beyond The Stars' similar pondering on the nature of existence, and even if he was still in a Holodeck asking the computer to end the program had been proved not to work. So maybe the whole of Trek after that was false? What they should have done was have Moriarty return to plague the USS Voyager since Barclay seemed to take ownership of the mini-Holodeck prison and became a recurring character on that series!
***
Reality within reality is something I've always found fascinating. Something unsettling, but that draws the imagination, just as Professor Moriarty was drawn to life. I'd forgotten most of the details of the story, including the trickery, remembering only that Moriarty returned and demanded existence and is given it in the form of a miniature universe to explore. It's a poignant moment when he and his Countess ride off in a shuttlecraft to explore the unknown, I almost wish they really had found a way to get out of the Holodeck as it's something to ponder on: two fictional characters living out lives far beyond anything they were created for. But then, that's what can make Holodeck stories special. Any chance to see Data as Sherlock Holmes again, is a welcome one, though presumably for the last time, as after the problems with the Conan Doyle estate who weren't happy with the series using their characters without permission, it seemed clear the setting would never be used again. Back in Season 2 'TNG' was only a little start-up, but by Season 6 it had become the 'in' thing so I suspect it was easier to get the Conan Doyle estate onside this time.
Right away I guessed they were still on the Holodeck when Moriarty walks out the doors. We've seen holo-characters leave before, such as in 'The Big Goodbye' though they dematerialised shortly after, but it wouldn't be until 'Voyager' and its stolen 29th Century technology that an artificial character could walk free of constraint. I didn't remember that was what happened, but I'm always suspicious when it comes to the possibility of false reality so I was watching from the perspective that it was a trick and nothing contradicted that. Even so, it was a chilling moment when Data sidles up to Picard and lets him in on the secret. I think it could have been more exciting if the fake Enterprise personnel had then come after them and chased them through the bowels of the 'ship,' but this was definitely a cerebral episode, not an action-adventure so it may not have suited the tone. Also, I'm not sure if Moriarty knew that they knew that they weren't off the Holodeck…
The events throw up many questions about artificial intelligence, the nature of reality and how 24th Century technology works: Geordi claims that items in the Holodeck aren't real, so that if an item is taken out it will simply disappear as it has no physicality, but we've seen all sorts of things taken in or out of the 'deck and I was always given to believing that it was a bit of both - most things were just 'background' objects, but as soon as someone picked it up they became real, physical, replicated matter. It also seems somehow wrong to trick Moriarty into this false life, even though he pulled the trick first, and Picard seems inordinately gleeful at how things have turned out! Surely they should continue to look into the rights and wrongs of Holodeck life and the Federation should deeply examine the ethics of these beings that could be created in the event of accidents. It wasn't really until 'Voyager' that the issues of holographic rights came up, which makes the Enterprise crew seem a little callous and uncaring about the ramifications of switching on (and off) their fantasies each week.
The B-story, or B-situation as it never became much of a story, existed purely to provide the jeopardy Moriarty needed to make his control of the Enterprise seem dangerous, and was a spatial phenomenon that didn't quite live up to the concept we were fed early in the episode of two planets crashing into each other - two gas giants no less. The shot of the planets approaching looked great, but the ending shot of the explosion seen from a safe distance was a bit lacklustre and something I imagine they'll change for the new version of 'TNG' if they do it like the 'TOS Remastered' project.
Moriarty was obviously intensely crafty as he could create almost perfect replicas of Geordi, Riker and the crew, yet he was still simple-minded enough not to be suspicious of Picard's capitulation. I suppose it was because of the roundabout way the 'solution' of turning off the Heisenberg compensators was discovered and relayed so that it allayed all suspicion, but I'd have thought he would be cleverer than that. Still, it was nice to have a sequel to a Season 2 episode, if not quite a mention of Pulaski who's mentioned merely as 'the hostage,' and the return of the same actor to play the role of the villain.
It was useful to have Reg Barclay along as he became the organ through which the writers could explain the backstory to for those that hadn't been paying attention or weren't around for the earlier episode - the last shot where he wonders if real life is a Holodeck is a nice moment, though it doesn't have the power of 'Far Beyond The Stars' similar pondering on the nature of existence, and even if he was still in a Holodeck asking the computer to end the program had been proved not to work. So maybe the whole of Trek after that was false? What they should have done was have Moriarty return to plague the USS Voyager since Barclay seemed to take ownership of the mini-Holodeck prison and became a recurring character on that series!
***
Justice
DVD, Smallville S6 (Justice)
I didn't like this story as much as I hoped to, it just wasn't very well written with some bad lines and a bundle of stuff happening without the brains to back it all up, but this was disguised by some great images. We've seen it all before, but it's still great to see Clark and his mates in the Justice [name not completed] walking away from the explosion of a LutherCorp facility like The Magnificent Seven (or five, to be precise). I'd long been waiting for the reappearance of Aquaman, The Flash (or the more modern, audience-friendly 'Impulse' as he's nicknamed here), and Cyborg to bring to life the picture on the back cover of the Season 6 DVD box set, so it was far from a disappointment to see them. I just felt it was all too rushed. Like the introduction of the Green Arrow, which occurred slowly over the course of several episodes, I expected to see each of these returning characters given at least one episode of their own to make their comeback, and I imagined we'd see them all come together over the course of the season. Instead it happens in the space of one episode and we learn that Queen's been working with them for around six months without telling anyone, not even Clark.
Then again I should think he's glad he didn't tell 'Boy Scout' as they nickname him in the 'heist' rescue mission, as Chloe worked out who Green Arrow was, and though it wasn't CK's fault, he no doubt contributed thanks to his constant dealings with Queen. Oliver doesn't seem that upset that Chloe learned his secret, yet he can't bring himself to let Lois in on it, so maybe there's something about Chloe that people just feel comfortable confiding in her, or not worrying what she'll do with the knowledge. Lois, on the other hand, doesn't come across well in this story. There's always going to be smooching and pouting to please the teen audience, but Lois really seemed like a spoilt brat! All she's concerned with is having Oliver's full attention, and okay, so she doesn't know he's doing good works when he's off leaving her in the lurch, but even so, she seems so uncharacteristically needy and possessive. That Queen/Arrow seems to be written out at the end of this story also means the previous episode which was written so well and moved a lot of pieces around, was a bit pointless - they went to all that trouble to hide Green Arrow's true ID from her and now he's off anyway.
I can't say I really liked Bart, but it's always good to have a character return, although at first I thought it was a different actor - the great thing about it was that all three of the Justice League, as it will one day be called, were played by the same actors as before. Does that mean they couldn't get a starring role on some other TV series in the meantime, or were their other commitments the reason why they were written in and out in the space of one episode? It worries me that the most interesting elements of the season may have been ditched in favour of the Phantom Zone arc - Clark's hunt for the Zoners would seem to be more serious than Lex' strange plan to build up an army of meteor freaks or 'gifted' people all over the planet, so he could have used his friends with that. Either way, when they try and do these global stories it doesn't work nearly as well as the tighter, community-focused ideas, such as Green Arrow and Clark's growing friendship. The series doesn't have the budget to do amazing and believable world-spanning stories, they should stick to what worked.
An example of something that I wasn't impressed with was near the beginning when Clark chases Bart around. Who wants to see a helicopter shot of the city with little red and blue blurs dashing around like pinballs, it's extremely pointless. Even when they got to ground level the 'clever' shot centred on a street basketball match wasn't very inventive: it's just Clark running through the match at super-speed before it carries on. We've seen much better on the series before so it stood out as weak. It's also a disappointment that there was no confrontation with some of Lex' minions so the team would have someone worthy to battle instead of the usual oafish guards. The sequence where they go off and do their stuff as a team was good, even though it was all staged and not very believably set up. It shows that Lex really has crossed the boundary, if we didn't know it already. He professes to be doing it for the sake of democracy to his Father, but Dad doesn't buy it and neither does the audience. At least Lana was written out of this one so she wasn't around to add further turmoil (she'd gone off to buy a wedding dress with Nell, an extremely rare mention of her Aunt who hasn't been seen since Season 2, I believe).
Lionel continues to confuse me. In earlier episodes he's seen poring over Kryptonian symbols, and sometimes he seems like he's got his ulterior motives, even that he's going along with Lex, not to mention that he used to be into experimenting with meteor rocks and people, so his cries of foul on Lex seem to be double standards. Yet, although he's sometimes appeared to be all for Lex' experiments and plans, this time he's against them and once again he covers for Clark. But he's not as convincing a character, and hasn't been for much of this season at least. He seems weak compared with Lex' definite strides into evil and I so miss the subtext they used to play. It's become fairly basic so Lex just talks like a big, bad villain and Lionel sort of wanders in and admonishes him, but there's no depth to them any more.
Ultimately the unsatisfying parts are mostly forgotten thanks to the sight of Clark working with these others, but they really shouldn't have gone off to take out other LutherCorp facilities. Clark should have asked for help with defeating the Zoners, then they could have sorted out Lex, but at least there's hope they'll hook up again in the future. I just hope the loss of the Green Arrow doesn't weaken the season, which has been a pleasant surprise and a bit better in general than the series had been last season.
***
I didn't like this story as much as I hoped to, it just wasn't very well written with some bad lines and a bundle of stuff happening without the brains to back it all up, but this was disguised by some great images. We've seen it all before, but it's still great to see Clark and his mates in the Justice [name not completed] walking away from the explosion of a LutherCorp facility like The Magnificent Seven (or five, to be precise). I'd long been waiting for the reappearance of Aquaman, The Flash (or the more modern, audience-friendly 'Impulse' as he's nicknamed here), and Cyborg to bring to life the picture on the back cover of the Season 6 DVD box set, so it was far from a disappointment to see them. I just felt it was all too rushed. Like the introduction of the Green Arrow, which occurred slowly over the course of several episodes, I expected to see each of these returning characters given at least one episode of their own to make their comeback, and I imagined we'd see them all come together over the course of the season. Instead it happens in the space of one episode and we learn that Queen's been working with them for around six months without telling anyone, not even Clark.
Then again I should think he's glad he didn't tell 'Boy Scout' as they nickname him in the 'heist' rescue mission, as Chloe worked out who Green Arrow was, and though it wasn't CK's fault, he no doubt contributed thanks to his constant dealings with Queen. Oliver doesn't seem that upset that Chloe learned his secret, yet he can't bring himself to let Lois in on it, so maybe there's something about Chloe that people just feel comfortable confiding in her, or not worrying what she'll do with the knowledge. Lois, on the other hand, doesn't come across well in this story. There's always going to be smooching and pouting to please the teen audience, but Lois really seemed like a spoilt brat! All she's concerned with is having Oliver's full attention, and okay, so she doesn't know he's doing good works when he's off leaving her in the lurch, but even so, she seems so uncharacteristically needy and possessive. That Queen/Arrow seems to be written out at the end of this story also means the previous episode which was written so well and moved a lot of pieces around, was a bit pointless - they went to all that trouble to hide Green Arrow's true ID from her and now he's off anyway.
I can't say I really liked Bart, but it's always good to have a character return, although at first I thought it was a different actor - the great thing about it was that all three of the Justice League, as it will one day be called, were played by the same actors as before. Does that mean they couldn't get a starring role on some other TV series in the meantime, or were their other commitments the reason why they were written in and out in the space of one episode? It worries me that the most interesting elements of the season may have been ditched in favour of the Phantom Zone arc - Clark's hunt for the Zoners would seem to be more serious than Lex' strange plan to build up an army of meteor freaks or 'gifted' people all over the planet, so he could have used his friends with that. Either way, when they try and do these global stories it doesn't work nearly as well as the tighter, community-focused ideas, such as Green Arrow and Clark's growing friendship. The series doesn't have the budget to do amazing and believable world-spanning stories, they should stick to what worked.
An example of something that I wasn't impressed with was near the beginning when Clark chases Bart around. Who wants to see a helicopter shot of the city with little red and blue blurs dashing around like pinballs, it's extremely pointless. Even when they got to ground level the 'clever' shot centred on a street basketball match wasn't very inventive: it's just Clark running through the match at super-speed before it carries on. We've seen much better on the series before so it stood out as weak. It's also a disappointment that there was no confrontation with some of Lex' minions so the team would have someone worthy to battle instead of the usual oafish guards. The sequence where they go off and do their stuff as a team was good, even though it was all staged and not very believably set up. It shows that Lex really has crossed the boundary, if we didn't know it already. He professes to be doing it for the sake of democracy to his Father, but Dad doesn't buy it and neither does the audience. At least Lana was written out of this one so she wasn't around to add further turmoil (she'd gone off to buy a wedding dress with Nell, an extremely rare mention of her Aunt who hasn't been seen since Season 2, I believe).
Lionel continues to confuse me. In earlier episodes he's seen poring over Kryptonian symbols, and sometimes he seems like he's got his ulterior motives, even that he's going along with Lex, not to mention that he used to be into experimenting with meteor rocks and people, so his cries of foul on Lex seem to be double standards. Yet, although he's sometimes appeared to be all for Lex' experiments and plans, this time he's against them and once again he covers for Clark. But he's not as convincing a character, and hasn't been for much of this season at least. He seems weak compared with Lex' definite strides into evil and I so miss the subtext they used to play. It's become fairly basic so Lex just talks like a big, bad villain and Lionel sort of wanders in and admonishes him, but there's no depth to them any more.
Ultimately the unsatisfying parts are mostly forgotten thanks to the sight of Clark working with these others, but they really shouldn't have gone off to take out other LutherCorp facilities. Clark should have asked for help with defeating the Zoners, then they could have sorted out Lex, but at least there's hope they'll hook up again in the future. I just hope the loss of the Green Arrow doesn't weaken the season, which has been a pleasant surprise and a bit better in general than the series had been last season.
***
Chain of Command, Part II
DVD, TNG S6 (Chain of Command, Part II)
Tom Paris, yes, Jadzia Dax, okay, even young Nog, but when did Commander Riker become famed for his piloting skills, I don't remember it ever coming up before? His butting of heads with Captain Jellico, though not on a par with the other big confrontation of the episode, showed his concern for his true captain, and that Jellico really wasn't much of a captain. He just wasn't a people person, although he had other qualities that meant he wouldn't back down and always put all his effort into what he did, while not being a respecter of persons. I expected some kind of development with his character, a key or a clue to his personality and how he'd managed to keep operating when the crews he commanded must have felt like mutiny.
Although he stands up to the Cardassians as much as in Part I, and also displays the ability to swallow his pride when he's forced to ask Riker to pilot the shuttle, which shows he could bend if he deemed it absolutely necessary, but at the same time didn't consider what people thought to be of great consequence to him, there was never a moment when his behaviour came to have some meaning and he finishes the two-part story in much the same way he started, breezily bidding goodbye and charging off to his next assignment. I pity those on his next ship! If this had been a 'DS9' episode - I hate to point this out, but I have to - he'd have learned something from his experiences on the Enterprise and gone away a better man for it. He may not have become the captain the crew wanted, but he might have seen things from their point of view, but he remains as stubborn and blinkered as when we first saw him and manages to rival many of the Admirals for his difficult behaviour, something captains rarely do.
In contrast, that other captain, Picard, changes dramatically through the course of the episode. He's degraded, stripped of his clothing and identity, left to rot, forced to answer questions he can't give an answer for, and then, in what I consider the nastiest scene on the series for a while, his captor allows him to eat a Taspar egg. I thought Madred was going to go on and say that as a child he'd eaten the egg and then been in terrible pain for weeks afterwards, almost dying in agony as the creature was poisoned or took up residence in his gut or some other such terrible thing, but it turned into a small victory for Picard who was able to get to Madred and throw him off balance a little. Garak would never have been surprised! It's no wonder I should think such a horrible turn might be about to happen as it's a disgusting thing to see this dull, grey/black creature slopping around, seen briefly inside the egg, then Picard so hungry that he swallows it anyway.
There was no mention of the Obsidian Order so this must have been a military operation, which would also explain why Gul Lemec can just walk in and demand Picard's release from Gul Madred, who doesn't even quibble about it. I was unsure about several points beyond Riker being a renowned pilot: Lemec gives up a bit easily and how would the Enterprise be able to enforce Picard's release once Lemec's ship had left? Did Picard really know the information Madred wanted? If he did, he was the type of man that would have held out to the end, as he did, the chilling final scene testament to how close he came to giving in and allowing his will to be bent by his torturer, who tries to the end.
There are some interesting moments aside from the torture, which puts Picard through at least as much humiliation and pain as his Borg trauma, though without so much of the aftereffects. We hear of the First Hebitian civilisation, an aspect of Cardassian history that wasn't really touched on in 'DS9' I recall, though Garak actor Andrew Robinson incorporated those details into his novel. We also see Madred's daughter, but unlike Jellico in Part I, this doesn't humanise his character, but rather makes him more chilling - he lies to her about human parents and their lack of love and has obviously poisoned her mind against his enemies and desensitised her to atrocity and violence.
I didn't get why Jellico relieved Riker after one outburst. I felt there needed to be more explored with that situation, but we simply see Data in red who has become First Officer, and of course he shows no emotion about the change, the only reaction coming in subtext from Geordi who clearly isn't happy with the situation, but there's no actual mention of all this and at the end Data's back at his usual post in his usual colour, Picard's back, Jellico leaves and there's no resolution to all that's happened. This is probably because the emphasis is heavily on Picard's time with Madred and those scenes are strong, his complete loss of strength and control in the moment of torture almost rivalling his loss of emotional restraint in 'Sarek,' but not quite. I also felt there wasn't quite the needed resolution for Picard either - a scene with Beverly seems called for rather than Troi, as though she's the counsellor, Crusher did leave her captain behind, and he chose to stay and take the pain even on the chance that she would have to endure what he'd been through.
I'd also question why there was no repeat of the handing over ceremony, which takes place quite abruptly. I can see why it was done that way as they were rushing to conclude the episode, but it was a story that needed more time for thoughtfulness after all that had happened. I'm not even going to go into the question of how they laid mines on all these Cardassian ships without being detected, but although there were all these blank spaces in terms of explanation, the episode was good thanks to Stewart's performance and succeeded in setting up the Cardassians as villains to rival any before them.
***
Tom Paris, yes, Jadzia Dax, okay, even young Nog, but when did Commander Riker become famed for his piloting skills, I don't remember it ever coming up before? His butting of heads with Captain Jellico, though not on a par with the other big confrontation of the episode, showed his concern for his true captain, and that Jellico really wasn't much of a captain. He just wasn't a people person, although he had other qualities that meant he wouldn't back down and always put all his effort into what he did, while not being a respecter of persons. I expected some kind of development with his character, a key or a clue to his personality and how he'd managed to keep operating when the crews he commanded must have felt like mutiny.
Although he stands up to the Cardassians as much as in Part I, and also displays the ability to swallow his pride when he's forced to ask Riker to pilot the shuttle, which shows he could bend if he deemed it absolutely necessary, but at the same time didn't consider what people thought to be of great consequence to him, there was never a moment when his behaviour came to have some meaning and he finishes the two-part story in much the same way he started, breezily bidding goodbye and charging off to his next assignment. I pity those on his next ship! If this had been a 'DS9' episode - I hate to point this out, but I have to - he'd have learned something from his experiences on the Enterprise and gone away a better man for it. He may not have become the captain the crew wanted, but he might have seen things from their point of view, but he remains as stubborn and blinkered as when we first saw him and manages to rival many of the Admirals for his difficult behaviour, something captains rarely do.
In contrast, that other captain, Picard, changes dramatically through the course of the episode. He's degraded, stripped of his clothing and identity, left to rot, forced to answer questions he can't give an answer for, and then, in what I consider the nastiest scene on the series for a while, his captor allows him to eat a Taspar egg. I thought Madred was going to go on and say that as a child he'd eaten the egg and then been in terrible pain for weeks afterwards, almost dying in agony as the creature was poisoned or took up residence in his gut or some other such terrible thing, but it turned into a small victory for Picard who was able to get to Madred and throw him off balance a little. Garak would never have been surprised! It's no wonder I should think such a horrible turn might be about to happen as it's a disgusting thing to see this dull, grey/black creature slopping around, seen briefly inside the egg, then Picard so hungry that he swallows it anyway.
There was no mention of the Obsidian Order so this must have been a military operation, which would also explain why Gul Lemec can just walk in and demand Picard's release from Gul Madred, who doesn't even quibble about it. I was unsure about several points beyond Riker being a renowned pilot: Lemec gives up a bit easily and how would the Enterprise be able to enforce Picard's release once Lemec's ship had left? Did Picard really know the information Madred wanted? If he did, he was the type of man that would have held out to the end, as he did, the chilling final scene testament to how close he came to giving in and allowing his will to be bent by his torturer, who tries to the end.
There are some interesting moments aside from the torture, which puts Picard through at least as much humiliation and pain as his Borg trauma, though without so much of the aftereffects. We hear of the First Hebitian civilisation, an aspect of Cardassian history that wasn't really touched on in 'DS9' I recall, though Garak actor Andrew Robinson incorporated those details into his novel. We also see Madred's daughter, but unlike Jellico in Part I, this doesn't humanise his character, but rather makes him more chilling - he lies to her about human parents and their lack of love and has obviously poisoned her mind against his enemies and desensitised her to atrocity and violence.
I didn't get why Jellico relieved Riker after one outburst. I felt there needed to be more explored with that situation, but we simply see Data in red who has become First Officer, and of course he shows no emotion about the change, the only reaction coming in subtext from Geordi who clearly isn't happy with the situation, but there's no actual mention of all this and at the end Data's back at his usual post in his usual colour, Picard's back, Jellico leaves and there's no resolution to all that's happened. This is probably because the emphasis is heavily on Picard's time with Madred and those scenes are strong, his complete loss of strength and control in the moment of torture almost rivalling his loss of emotional restraint in 'Sarek,' but not quite. I also felt there wasn't quite the needed resolution for Picard either - a scene with Beverly seems called for rather than Troi, as though she's the counsellor, Crusher did leave her captain behind, and he chose to stay and take the pain even on the chance that she would have to endure what he'd been through.
I'd also question why there was no repeat of the handing over ceremony, which takes place quite abruptly. I can see why it was done that way as they were rushing to conclude the episode, but it was a story that needed more time for thoughtfulness after all that had happened. I'm not even going to go into the question of how they laid mines on all these Cardassian ships without being detected, but although there were all these blank spaces in terms of explanation, the episode was good thanks to Stewart's performance and succeeded in setting up the Cardassians as villains to rival any before them.
***
Chain of Command, Part I
DVD, TNG S4 (Chain of Command, Part I)
Commando missions, a new captain for the Enterprise and the possibility of new hostilities with the Cardassians all add up to quite a mix. I prefer it when a two-parter isn't flagged up by the title having a 'Part I' attachment as it keeps the surprise going if you've never seen it before, but on the other hand at least you engage with what is a fairly fast-paced story for 'TNG' and don't stop to question why things aren't getting resolved as time ticks away. This doesn't have the draw of some earlier two-parters such as the Borg encounter, but it certainly doesn't stand still or make the series look old and tired. Captain Jellico is a perfect example of this, his character summing up the episode: brisk and breezy, energetic, takes no prisoners - everything that Picard isn't (until pushed), including an inability to connect with the crew and a personality that steamrollers over his officers at warp speed. Almost before the crew realises what's happening he's moved in and made himself at home, with a level of sympathy afforded him thanks to his mostly friendly way of giving his orders (until a hint of a problem brings out his steeled control that brooks no nonsense whatsoever), and his child's drawings to make him human. It would be interesting to make Shelby First Officer if she were still around - they'd probably work well together, and if not it would serve them right to have to work together!
It's always fascinating to see two captain's on the same ship as they so rarely get to speak to someone on their level. Ironically Picard is too whacked out to have much to do with his successor, the best he can do being to advise Jellico to give his crew time, something the latter claims not to have. It's not something I imagine he ever has much of since he's forever dashing around, his sprightliness and energy belying his age, only pausing to infuriate the Cardassian delegation by making them wait. He certainly seems to know how to handle Cardassians, putting Gul Lemec on the back foot with his intimidation tactics, though one query I had while watching, which was answered before the end, was how anyone wouldn't know Picard had been captain of the Enterprise until recently, or not recognise him when he's hanging out in shady alien bars. Cardassian record-keeping and intelligence being what it is, they of course did know everything that was going on. Picard should feel honoured they think so highly of him that they want him captured.
The crux of the story, Picard's necessity for being on the commando mission, is a bit flimsy - so many episodes have seen Riker reminding Picard he can't go on the Away Mission because he's the captain, and Worf's stepped forward to protect his captain numerous times, but here it's Picard who's ordered to take on this black ops undercover mission, when he's not a trained expert and is one of the most recognisable captains in Starfleet! But that doesn't matter because we get him training for a strenuous mission with Worf and Crusher, and then they're off abseiling down underground rock faces, flitting through caverns and getting buried in rock falls - how is it that Crusher didn't become her namesake, i.e., crushed? I also felt that Picard should have been the one leaping in to pull the rocks off her instead of hanging back and letting the sensible choice, Worf, do the lifting. He should have been almost half-crazy with anxiety that she was okay, but I suppose the mission came first. It's alright though as she repays him by forcing Worf to escape instead of trying to go back for Picard at the end!
Jellico upsets a lot of people, changing duty shifts and the way the ship runs, and it seems unsurprising that the orders came from Admiral Nechayev, who would go on to be a thorn in both Picard and Sisko's sides. She was a good Admiral because she more than held her own with the burly men around her, even when Riker's belligerently towering over her she's the one in control, but she's a spiky person that was never going to be a loveable type. One of Jellico's orders is to force Troi to wear a standard Starfleet uniform. This is something I've wondered about: why doesn't she wear the same as most of the crew? I can understand for her job as Counsellor she would wear comfortable clothes, less restrictive and more casual to help create a serene and relaxed atmosphere, but I'm with Jellico that she should wear a uniform on the bridge! She actually started out wearing a skirt uniform in the pilot episode, but I don't think she's worn official garb since then.
David Warner, best known for playing St. John Talbot in 'Star Trek V' and Chancellor Gorkon in 'Star Trek VI,' doesn't have much to do in this first part, though that would quickly change for Part II, though his presence, like Jellico's, is immediately commanding and icy. I wonder if he's a member of the Obsidian Order? A lot about the Cardassians didn't get revealed until 'DS9' came along, but this is only the second time the race had appeared so it's good that they were beginning to gear up for the new series by reminding audiences about this race they'd created in Season 4. Lemec is no Dukat, but he does the archetypal sneering well enough and continues the reptilian mannerisms begun in 'The Wounded.' The episode would have been improved by Chief O'Brien's presence, but they may have felt he could have taken away from the other story lines.
The scene when Picard and his officers go to the alien bar is quite fun, though the shots we get of it are so small you don't get the sense that this is a thriving waterhole. You can spot a Mizarian on the way in, and the Ferengi Beverly charms into helping them seems to be in conversation with a Bajoran until they interrupt. He was quite recognisable as another Ferengi, Krax, in 'DS9' episode 'The Nagus' which would have been shot only a few months later. John Durbin, who played Lemec would also appear in 'DS9,' but not until Season 5 ('A Simple Investigation'). The handing over ceremony shows that ritual for the first time, I believe, and was seen again in 'Star Trek XI'. It's a nice moment if slightly depressing for the crew, but you can just catch Jellico saying that wearing the dress uniform reminds him of his Academy days. In a rare 'Stargate' crossover Ronny Cox, the actor who played him, would go on to be better known as villainous Senator Kinsey from the first season of 'SG-1' onwards. There's certainly novelty value in grouping Picard, Crusher and Worf and sending them off on a mission, and the cave set doesn't restrict things too much, but even though there's a lot to like I wouldn't say this was a classic. I think most people would cite Part II as the biggie, but that remains to be seen.
***
Commando missions, a new captain for the Enterprise and the possibility of new hostilities with the Cardassians all add up to quite a mix. I prefer it when a two-parter isn't flagged up by the title having a 'Part I' attachment as it keeps the surprise going if you've never seen it before, but on the other hand at least you engage with what is a fairly fast-paced story for 'TNG' and don't stop to question why things aren't getting resolved as time ticks away. This doesn't have the draw of some earlier two-parters such as the Borg encounter, but it certainly doesn't stand still or make the series look old and tired. Captain Jellico is a perfect example of this, his character summing up the episode: brisk and breezy, energetic, takes no prisoners - everything that Picard isn't (until pushed), including an inability to connect with the crew and a personality that steamrollers over his officers at warp speed. Almost before the crew realises what's happening he's moved in and made himself at home, with a level of sympathy afforded him thanks to his mostly friendly way of giving his orders (until a hint of a problem brings out his steeled control that brooks no nonsense whatsoever), and his child's drawings to make him human. It would be interesting to make Shelby First Officer if she were still around - they'd probably work well together, and if not it would serve them right to have to work together!
It's always fascinating to see two captain's on the same ship as they so rarely get to speak to someone on their level. Ironically Picard is too whacked out to have much to do with his successor, the best he can do being to advise Jellico to give his crew time, something the latter claims not to have. It's not something I imagine he ever has much of since he's forever dashing around, his sprightliness and energy belying his age, only pausing to infuriate the Cardassian delegation by making them wait. He certainly seems to know how to handle Cardassians, putting Gul Lemec on the back foot with his intimidation tactics, though one query I had while watching, which was answered before the end, was how anyone wouldn't know Picard had been captain of the Enterprise until recently, or not recognise him when he's hanging out in shady alien bars. Cardassian record-keeping and intelligence being what it is, they of course did know everything that was going on. Picard should feel honoured they think so highly of him that they want him captured.
The crux of the story, Picard's necessity for being on the commando mission, is a bit flimsy - so many episodes have seen Riker reminding Picard he can't go on the Away Mission because he's the captain, and Worf's stepped forward to protect his captain numerous times, but here it's Picard who's ordered to take on this black ops undercover mission, when he's not a trained expert and is one of the most recognisable captains in Starfleet! But that doesn't matter because we get him training for a strenuous mission with Worf and Crusher, and then they're off abseiling down underground rock faces, flitting through caverns and getting buried in rock falls - how is it that Crusher didn't become her namesake, i.e., crushed? I also felt that Picard should have been the one leaping in to pull the rocks off her instead of hanging back and letting the sensible choice, Worf, do the lifting. He should have been almost half-crazy with anxiety that she was okay, but I suppose the mission came first. It's alright though as she repays him by forcing Worf to escape instead of trying to go back for Picard at the end!
Jellico upsets a lot of people, changing duty shifts and the way the ship runs, and it seems unsurprising that the orders came from Admiral Nechayev, who would go on to be a thorn in both Picard and Sisko's sides. She was a good Admiral because she more than held her own with the burly men around her, even when Riker's belligerently towering over her she's the one in control, but she's a spiky person that was never going to be a loveable type. One of Jellico's orders is to force Troi to wear a standard Starfleet uniform. This is something I've wondered about: why doesn't she wear the same as most of the crew? I can understand for her job as Counsellor she would wear comfortable clothes, less restrictive and more casual to help create a serene and relaxed atmosphere, but I'm with Jellico that she should wear a uniform on the bridge! She actually started out wearing a skirt uniform in the pilot episode, but I don't think she's worn official garb since then.
David Warner, best known for playing St. John Talbot in 'Star Trek V' and Chancellor Gorkon in 'Star Trek VI,' doesn't have much to do in this first part, though that would quickly change for Part II, though his presence, like Jellico's, is immediately commanding and icy. I wonder if he's a member of the Obsidian Order? A lot about the Cardassians didn't get revealed until 'DS9' came along, but this is only the second time the race had appeared so it's good that they were beginning to gear up for the new series by reminding audiences about this race they'd created in Season 4. Lemec is no Dukat, but he does the archetypal sneering well enough and continues the reptilian mannerisms begun in 'The Wounded.' The episode would have been improved by Chief O'Brien's presence, but they may have felt he could have taken away from the other story lines.
The scene when Picard and his officers go to the alien bar is quite fun, though the shots we get of it are so small you don't get the sense that this is a thriving waterhole. You can spot a Mizarian on the way in, and the Ferengi Beverly charms into helping them seems to be in conversation with a Bajoran until they interrupt. He was quite recognisable as another Ferengi, Krax, in 'DS9' episode 'The Nagus' which would have been shot only a few months later. John Durbin, who played Lemec would also appear in 'DS9,' but not until Season 5 ('A Simple Investigation'). The handing over ceremony shows that ritual for the first time, I believe, and was seen again in 'Star Trek XI'. It's a nice moment if slightly depressing for the crew, but you can just catch Jellico saying that wearing the dress uniform reminds him of his Academy days. In a rare 'Stargate' crossover Ronny Cox, the actor who played him, would go on to be better known as villainous Senator Kinsey from the first season of 'SG-1' onwards. There's certainly novelty value in grouping Picard, Crusher and Worf and sending them off on a mission, and the cave set doesn't restrict things too much, but even though there's a lot to like I wouldn't say this was a classic. I think most people would cite Part II as the biggie, but that remains to be seen.
***
Monday, 10 October 2011
Hydro
DVD, Smallville S6 (Hydro)
This should have been called 'Secrets' or 'Lies' or something of that nature because it's full of delightful developments in so many ways. First I'll get the bad out of the way: it ends quite limply with Lana agreeing to marry Lex, while admitting her love for Clark. I don't know where that love came from as she practically hated him last season and they've barely spoken civilly since. It was good to see a fairly calm scene in the barn, although it was a step back to the bad old days of Lana fluttering her eyelashes, Clark never vocalising his deep, dark secret and Lana walking off in disgust. It was a gentler version of that, probably because they both knew exactly what was going to happen. Clark had one final chance to take the prize but he was never going to let her in on the secret again, not after it caused her death last season and led to him having to use the last crystal or whatever to restore time, which in turn led to Jonathan's death. So it's been nothing but sorrow for Clark to go down the Lana path, but it's surely behind them now.
On another path Clark gets a taste for Lois for the first time, literally, in a fantastic scene in which he plays the Green Arrow in order to fool her, since she'd recently managed to put two and two together (or more precisely scratch and scratch), and at last, shows some journalistic quality that she could actually suspect Oliver of being the man in green! It's been a long time coming, but her breakthrough is expertly thwarted by one easy operation from Clark and Oliver. The addition of Jimmy made it even better, as he supplies her with Green Arrow photos and helps set up the operation, while Clark's setting up both sides! Absolutely hilarious to have Clark as Green Arrow, but even more is the confusion that Chloe now believes Clark is him for real!
It's actually quite a job to keep track of who knows what, there are so many secrets zipping around. Okay, I think: Chloe knows (thinks she does anyway) that Clark is Green Arrow, because she doesn't know that Oliver is him, but Clark does. Lana now knows Clark has a massive secret that Chloe is also protecting, as if she didn't already guess over the years that Clark was special. Clark now knows Lana has Lex' baby inside (since Lex spitefully threw that info in his face when he went to declare his undying love for her on the spur of the moment), and that she still loves him. Lex knows that Lana loves Clark, but also him and she's going to marry him anyway, Lois 'knows' Oliver isn't Green Arrow, and Jimmy doesn't know anything as per usual. I think that about sums it up.
All these various secrets were probably beginning to clog up the writer's minds so they must have felt it was necessary to pull things back again and sort out all the jumble, and it does make for an enjoyable episode, but it really doesn't have much to do with the 'Hydro' of the title as she (Linda Lake, Daily Planet Reporter) is only there to reveal a few things to a few people. Played by Tori Spelling (whom I thought was a wrestler - maybe that's why they picked her as there's a proper cat fight between her and Chloe at the end), Lake, whose name must be ironic since she developed the ability to turn into water after crashing in good old Crater Lake, is a nasty piece of work and the bane of Chloe's life. She's also responsible for sneaking in another reference to Gotham which she can see from her office, apparently, so I really hope they're not teasing us and that some kind of Gotham crossover happens. The important thing is that she gets sploshed across Lana's windscreen at the end, but dribbles off and into a drain in a way that makes me think she'll be back, and as she knows Clark's secret that could be a problem.
There are a surplus of great scenes in this episode, which doesn't always happen, everything working well and a sense of family between the characters. I say everything, but there was a bit too much soap in places, such as the ending as I mentioned before, making the episode drag a little, but in general it was a good mix of revelation and meteor freak stuff. Even the usual pitfall of one character getting the wrong end of the stick, which seemed certain to happen since Lana's conversation with Chloe made it to the front page of the paper, was quickly and tidily sorted out. Lana was halfheartedly suspicious anyway as it was pretty unlikely Chloe would ever attack her by getting revealing comments about how she loves Clark onto the front page. Chloe's innocent and friendly attitude quickly belayed any hint of backstabbing so that was a nice change. At first I couldn't believe that the paper would care what Lana thinks of Farmboy Clark, but then I realised every aspect of Lex' life is of great interest so of course it would all be published.
Tom Welling was directing again, and after I saw his name in that capacity I didn't think about it again, which is a tribute really as I wasn't taken out of the story. I wouldn't have said it was especially good direction, but it's what happens in the story that matters and sometimes it's better if you're not thinking about how things are shot. They missed a trick by not having some sad song play over Clark and Lana's final meeting, but perhaps that had been overdone. I was expecting this to be about Aquaman until the moment the heavy gets drowned in the pool - clearly Aquaman wouldn't be doing that to rescue someone. But with the next episode entitled 'Justice' surely the formation of the Justice League of America is in the offing. This episode would certainly set up Clark and Queen working together since they've now got to the stage where they help each other out quite happily, and brilliantly.
***
This should have been called 'Secrets' or 'Lies' or something of that nature because it's full of delightful developments in so many ways. First I'll get the bad out of the way: it ends quite limply with Lana agreeing to marry Lex, while admitting her love for Clark. I don't know where that love came from as she practically hated him last season and they've barely spoken civilly since. It was good to see a fairly calm scene in the barn, although it was a step back to the bad old days of Lana fluttering her eyelashes, Clark never vocalising his deep, dark secret and Lana walking off in disgust. It was a gentler version of that, probably because they both knew exactly what was going to happen. Clark had one final chance to take the prize but he was never going to let her in on the secret again, not after it caused her death last season and led to him having to use the last crystal or whatever to restore time, which in turn led to Jonathan's death. So it's been nothing but sorrow for Clark to go down the Lana path, but it's surely behind them now.
On another path Clark gets a taste for Lois for the first time, literally, in a fantastic scene in which he plays the Green Arrow in order to fool her, since she'd recently managed to put two and two together (or more precisely scratch and scratch), and at last, shows some journalistic quality that she could actually suspect Oliver of being the man in green! It's been a long time coming, but her breakthrough is expertly thwarted by one easy operation from Clark and Oliver. The addition of Jimmy made it even better, as he supplies her with Green Arrow photos and helps set up the operation, while Clark's setting up both sides! Absolutely hilarious to have Clark as Green Arrow, but even more is the confusion that Chloe now believes Clark is him for real!
It's actually quite a job to keep track of who knows what, there are so many secrets zipping around. Okay, I think: Chloe knows (thinks she does anyway) that Clark is Green Arrow, because she doesn't know that Oliver is him, but Clark does. Lana now knows Clark has a massive secret that Chloe is also protecting, as if she didn't already guess over the years that Clark was special. Clark now knows Lana has Lex' baby inside (since Lex spitefully threw that info in his face when he went to declare his undying love for her on the spur of the moment), and that she still loves him. Lex knows that Lana loves Clark, but also him and she's going to marry him anyway, Lois 'knows' Oliver isn't Green Arrow, and Jimmy doesn't know anything as per usual. I think that about sums it up.
All these various secrets were probably beginning to clog up the writer's minds so they must have felt it was necessary to pull things back again and sort out all the jumble, and it does make for an enjoyable episode, but it really doesn't have much to do with the 'Hydro' of the title as she (Linda Lake, Daily Planet Reporter) is only there to reveal a few things to a few people. Played by Tori Spelling (whom I thought was a wrestler - maybe that's why they picked her as there's a proper cat fight between her and Chloe at the end), Lake, whose name must be ironic since she developed the ability to turn into water after crashing in good old Crater Lake, is a nasty piece of work and the bane of Chloe's life. She's also responsible for sneaking in another reference to Gotham which she can see from her office, apparently, so I really hope they're not teasing us and that some kind of Gotham crossover happens. The important thing is that she gets sploshed across Lana's windscreen at the end, but dribbles off and into a drain in a way that makes me think she'll be back, and as she knows Clark's secret that could be a problem.
There are a surplus of great scenes in this episode, which doesn't always happen, everything working well and a sense of family between the characters. I say everything, but there was a bit too much soap in places, such as the ending as I mentioned before, making the episode drag a little, but in general it was a good mix of revelation and meteor freak stuff. Even the usual pitfall of one character getting the wrong end of the stick, which seemed certain to happen since Lana's conversation with Chloe made it to the front page of the paper, was quickly and tidily sorted out. Lana was halfheartedly suspicious anyway as it was pretty unlikely Chloe would ever attack her by getting revealing comments about how she loves Clark onto the front page. Chloe's innocent and friendly attitude quickly belayed any hint of backstabbing so that was a nice change. At first I couldn't believe that the paper would care what Lana thinks of Farmboy Clark, but then I realised every aspect of Lex' life is of great interest so of course it would all be published.
Tom Welling was directing again, and after I saw his name in that capacity I didn't think about it again, which is a tribute really as I wasn't taken out of the story. I wouldn't have said it was especially good direction, but it's what happens in the story that matters and sometimes it's better if you're not thinking about how things are shot. They missed a trick by not having some sad song play over Clark and Lana's final meeting, but perhaps that had been overdone. I was expecting this to be about Aquaman until the moment the heavy gets drowned in the pool - clearly Aquaman wouldn't be doing that to rescue someone. But with the next episode entitled 'Justice' surely the formation of the Justice League of America is in the offing. This episode would certainly set up Clark and Queen working together since they've now got to the stage where they help each other out quite happily, and brilliantly.
***
Return To Grace
DVD, DS9 S4 (Return To Grace)
It's good to talk. Cardassians believe this wholeheartedly, and none more so than Gul Dukat. He bends Kira's ear right off throughout this episode, and we learn a fair amount about him, including that he'd previously been promoted to Legate with his military advisor role, which I hadn't realised before - he mentions the possibility of the reinstatement of this title which he's now lost. This is pretty much a sequel to 'Indiscretion,' the story in which Kira unexpectedly found herself getting along with the Cardassian who had formerly been responsible for overseeing the terrible Occupation of her planet. In that, she was forced to take him along for diplomatic reasons when he showed up at the station, and the same kind of thing happens here, Kira getting a surprise visit from him in her quarters, somewhere you would not have expected Dukat ever to set foot. But it's not the same Dukat we saw earlier in the season (and I'm not talking about any shapeshifter-related shenanigans - I'm sure even they would have a hard time figuring out an accurate impersonation after all the turns he's taken), he's lost practically everything and to some degree it was down to Kira who persuaded him not to kill his illegitimate daughter Ziyal, but to take her with him.
His Mother's disowned him, his wife's left him, taking his children, and another Gul has moved into her affections while he sits in a rust bucket Cardassian freighter reduced from military advisor to the Detapa Council to menial cargo captain of a transport which barely has any weapons at all. The Groumall isn't a rust bucket really, the first time we see it is the best, gracefully exiting the station's environs it looks beautiful like a frozen centipede, it's ribbed design almost undulating and the length giving it a majestic air. The inside is almost as interesting, with a bridge that features a curved ceiling like a tunnel and cargo bays that are high and narrow (a clever reuse of the station's Cargo Bay set). We don't get a sense of the size of it from the sets, unfortunately and it would have been nice to see Dukat and Kira actually walk the length of it which could have been achieved by cutting as they entered each bay, the existing set disguised to look like the next in sequence and so on, but it's not a problem. I preferred being on the Groumall to the Klingon Bird of Prey because we've seen that design so many times (and would continue to do so!), yet we've not seen a lot of internal Cardassian views.
Though he's lost everything, the professional military man Dukat shows his training and exacting standards. Never has a freighter been so smartly operated, Dukat the king of his castle, making the best of it. It could be an act for Major Kira in order to impress her, or perhaps so that Ziyal will have something to respect if she wasn't already enthralled by her Father for rescuing her and going against tradition to allow her to live with him, but more likely is that Dukat doesn't allow himself to get too downhearted because, as he states early in the episode, he plans to restore everything that's been lost to himself. That ruthless streak, maybe not even small enough to be called a streak, more like a state of mind, allows him to destroy the Klingon crew with one blast when he has them in his power, or idly plot revenge on Gul Marratt, sending him in his mind to Breen where he hears it's very cold. "…And we Cardassians do so hate the cold," he smiles. He's set on regaining his status and longs to be feared again by his enemies, quite a different sentiment to the side Ziyal tells Kira about: that he regrets the Occupation.
The major missing link of this episode is to see Dukat with his daughter, who comes across as an extra limb when the story is really between Dukat and Kira. There are barely any scenes with them together, and certainly none where it's just them, as Kira has with both Ziyal and Dukat. He's a different man around Ziyal, a softer person that allows his inner feelings to mould his persona, he's discovered how much he enjoys this aspect of his personality so he lets it run, yet more self-centredness in the guise of care, but we only see the pirate. He's not a pirate to begin with, but a man plotting and thinking, biding his time. It's Kira that changes his mind and gives him new horizons in which to operate. No one else could tell him all that she does and be listened to, but because it is Kira and he has such a connection to her, he takes notice. She appeals to his vanity, while also inadvertently feeding his delusion that she could ever come to feel affection for him. These things combine to spark his ambitions and under the cover of striking out against the Klingons for his people, he desperately wants Kira to join him, passionately invoking her to join his cause and return to the life that she knew as a terrorist.
Dukat makes some major errors in his recruitment drive. For one thing he constantly criticises her new boyfriend, calling Shakaar a lumbering field-hand, while attempting to aggrandize himself in her eyes and appeal to her former nature without realising how much she's changed. Bajor has hope and a future, Shakaar is First Minister, not only special to Kira's heart, but her people's political leader, and she has an important position on DS9 where her fire has been channelled into her work. She's not the angry former terrorist any more and his appeals could never work on her. Even if he'd made this offer a couple of seasons ago, perhaps even Season 1 if that had been possible, back when she was still a whirlwind easy to stoke up and had less ties, she could never have found the zeal for fighting the enemies of Cardassia that Dukat has. In a way he's become her - railing against his own shortsighted government, a powerless spoke in a defeated people, angry, righteous, needing to fight. He came far too late to ever snare Kira even if she could ever fully forgive the atrocities he presided over.
For a 'Deep Space Nine' episode that isn't set on the station and features the chase of a Klingon ship by a Cardassian one, this is severely lacking in excitement. The episode is much more geared to the summary of a gentle personal tale on a travelling freighter which it begins as, than what it ostensibly becomes: a piratical adventure against the odds. Too much time is given over to Dukat's musings, and usually I'd be only too happy to listen to his self-deluded ramblings, teasing and speeches, but there's nothing between. All we have are a couple of asteroids being shot at (like the bored Captain Klaa in 'Star Trek V' who blasts up an old Earth satellite. Another film's also referenced: in 'Star Trek III' Kirk switched crews with a Klingon ship before it was blown up, just as Dukat does here). I was complaining in 'Homefront' that there wasn't enough sense of progression in terms of travel and time passing, but it seems all of that was sucked up and injected into this episode instead! Even the attack on the Klingon vessel is nowhere near as exciting as it should be: Dukat and Kira beam over, shoot a couple of Klingons, fight a couple more, then fiddle with the console. They should have had Klingons pouring into the room with Dukat having to shoot them down before they can get to Kira as she works away, like in the Bond game 'Goldeneye' when you had to protect Natalya from soldiers advancing from several directions at once.
I did like the utter humiliation from the Bird of Prey as it sweeps menacingly over Dukat's freighter, displaying it's belly in derision, not even wasting a disruptor blast on an unworthy enemy, a far cry from Dukat's decorated military career. You actually feel sorry for him! They've manoeuvred his character from a basic baddie to someone that can be sympathetic thanks to his heroic actions of this season and the smoothing of his edges by giving him such a gentle daughter. This was Cyia Batten's second and final appearance as Tora Ziyal, and I can see now why she was replaced - her doglike devotion and gentleness worked wonderfully when she was a pitiful captive about to be killed by her own Father, but in this story a stronger, slightly harder performance was necessary, and she remains too meek and mild for someone who's willing to follow her Father into battle. When Kira and she butt heads ever so slightly over their feelings toward Dukat, she can't really stand up to the Major and just looks unhappy rather than making an impassioned case.
She does try to get into the spirit of things by learning some combat moves and wanting to try them out on Kira like an excited child that's just learnt a new skill, but wants to show it off to a friend who's already a master. Kira doesn't pull her punches because she doesn't want Ziyal to be disillusioned about what she may be facing. She tells her she'll have to hate the Klingons as much as she hated her Breen captors (in the second mention of that race in the episode!), but even then, I can't imagine Ziyal actively hating anyone, she was too compassionate and tenderhearted to feel that kind of bitterness or rage. Watching this one is a bit like seeing episodes from Season 1 in relation to the main characters - this is the 'Season 1' for Ziyal and Damar and they seem as unfinished and not quite there as the main characters did at first. It's really weird to hear that Damar's taught her some moves and to see him on the bridge interacting with Dukat, considering later developments. It's such a small role, but even the writer's could never have conceived how big it was going to become, and that's what I love about this series, often there can be a minor character that's gradually built up and up, further than you'd expect and it's one of the things that make it so special.
I have to say this is the first episode that has the glimmering of weakness about it. While 'Paradise Lost' wasn't great, it still had enough to secure itself as a good episode, but this one is tricky to quantify. On the one hand it delivers Dukat's most featured performance so far, informs us on his continuing story and sets up so much for the future, but there's a feeling of dissatisfaction thanks to the action not balancing out the talkiness. Yet it is Dukat, and his monologues are entertaining, as are his constant advances at Kira, veiled as gushing compliments. It's interesting to see her stuck on this ship with a man she used to consider a monster, but has since been tempered with some goodness and rightness. Dukat would love nothing more than for Kira to think she could change his mind and make him a better person, evidenced by her agreement to help attack the Klingon ship, and if it served his purpose I'm sure he would have done almost anything to convince Kira of his noble intentions.
I think Dukat's anger against his government is genuine, but it comes from his innate belief that his people are, and should be seen, as superior to everyone else, so even his righteous indignation comes from a bad place. His charisma carries the episode and even though this feels a little weak compared to other 'DS9' episodes, it's still quite good in comparison with other series' such as 'TNG.' It's strange that there's no B-story to take us away from the ship, instead it goes from one scene with people talking on board, to another, and while Dukat is extremely watchable and stops the episode from becoming boring, it lacked impetus. It looks good, the lighting noticeably strong, probably because Director Jonathan West was usually Director of Photography so was more aware than most directors. One shot that stood out for me was the final frame which showed the full length of the upper part of the Promenade, something not seen often.
It ends like 'Indiscretion,' Dukat once again happily noting how his and Kira's lives have become intertwined, much to her displeasure. If anyone ever wondered why Kira gave so much thought to helping Ziyal she mentions in this episode it's because the girl reminds her of herself. She was the person that got Dukat to spare the girl's life and so she probably feels responsible, and at the back of her mind, wants to save her from Dukat and his way of life, though she can't deny he's been a good Father to her, and would never have guessed he would give up everything for her sake. Maybe on Dukat's side it's partly due to the memory of Tora Naprem, and because it means he has a personal connection with Kira, something he's thrilled about. Having Ziyal live on the station was quite a development and not something you'd see on the other series' too much, but they were happy to shake things up a little on 'DS9,' and while Ziyal's hardly the type to cause ripples, it leaves all kinds of questions about how she'll fit in, how Garak will react, not to mention what Dukat's status will is now. He's become an outlaw so will he be welcome on a Bajoran station which has a treaty with his people? That's an easy one to answer: he's never been welcome there, but he doesn't mind, and he has a legitimate claim on visiting now that his daughter's there. It's just sad that we're left to imagine Dukat's one-man battle against authority and the Klingons rather than see it in succeeding episodes.
***
The Quality of Life
DVD, TNG S6 (The Quality of Life)
Return of the Beard! As in last episode, Geordi's beard gets spotlighted as if the characters weren't allowed to change without tentative steps to gauge the reaction of viewers. That's probably so - by this point in the series it had become a cash-cow brand powering through the ratings and earning Paramount loadsamoney. The smallest alteration that might upset perceptions was probably frowned upon, but if there were going to be any, they had to be carefully laid out, not sneaked by without anyone noticing. The opening scene featuring Beverly playing poker with three bearded crewmates took advantage of the beard theme and went off on a whole for-and-against discussion on the merits of the humble beard! Geordi and Riker feel it stands for strength, while Worf says Klingons view a beard as a sign of courage, but Beverly believes it hides something and is merely a fashion statement like women doing their hair or nails. It's not the most important moral issue of the story, but it is good fun and leaves us hanging teasingly with the possibility that if Beverly had won they'd all have had to shave the beards off, and if they'd won she'd have turned into a brunette. If only the Captain hadn't interrupted, either way would have been a novel outcome.
The real issue at the heart of this story is no less than the meaning of life itself. That is, the definition of life rather than the purpose, and whether objects that can learn and operate independently can be considered alive. Thanks to Data we know that highly complex mechanical constructs can be sentient beings, but if every piece of technology was put in that class and given the ability to exceed its programming we'd be in big trouble - exocomps and the EMH were probably more trouble than they were worth as they needed constant attention and couldn't always be relied upon to do what was necessary since they had free will. Sorry Doctor, you were worth it really. That's what I began to think early in the episode: that these were mere cutesy-fied anthropomorphic buckets. I mean they didn't even look very cutting edge and sleek by Starfleet standards, but, like 'Star Wars' Droids, they had a character of their own and I came to forgive even their shamelessly sentimental waving arms/ears and blinky lights.
Actually, the idea of robots that can self-replicate their own tools is an inspired idea and no doubt the modern world is close to similar breakthroughs since tools can now be 'manufactured' on the spot by machines given the raw components, which is basically replicator technology even though it doesn't yet reach the molecular level. Initially I felt the aesthetics were flawed, but the little critters grew on me and by the time they were voluntarily saving the lives of Picard and Geordi I'd been won over, especially when one of them stays behind to ensure the rest survive. There were shades of Season 1's 'Home Soil' where life lay undiscovered until it made itself known against the science team who didn't want to admit to the possibility of life and lose their precious experiments, but in this story there were no threats from the boxy bots to show them in a bad light and it makes me wish we saw more of these things on starships carrying out work, not least because people love robots. On the subject of light, I've never noticed before, but Dr. Crusher has blinds in her office which clearly show a corridor behind her. This must surely be a new addition as I've always thought it was a solid wall there.
Data's insubordination is a big moment in the episode. Previously he's taken what Starfleet orders he's given even if they were stacked against what he saw as right - would he have given up his homemade daughter Lal if forced to do so and not having the get-out clause of her death? At that point I think he would have felt he had no choice, but now he's learned to stand up for life in the mechanical world like never before. Frakes does a good performance opposite Data's calm intractable refusal to return transporter control, and I expect carrying the weight of the ship and his Captain's life came more easily as he was carrying the production in real life as the Director. Something of the films 'First Contact' and 'Nemesis' came to me in the episode, mainly from Data and Picard's talk at the end where the android tactfully explains why he was willing to choose the exocomp's freedom over Picard's rescue, and Picard understands. There's a sign of the special bond they developed that stood out in those two films when Picard goes back for Data, then Data saves Picard at the cost of his own life. Maybe he learnt something valuable from those exocomps?
***
Return of the Beard! As in last episode, Geordi's beard gets spotlighted as if the characters weren't allowed to change without tentative steps to gauge the reaction of viewers. That's probably so - by this point in the series it had become a cash-cow brand powering through the ratings and earning Paramount loadsamoney. The smallest alteration that might upset perceptions was probably frowned upon, but if there were going to be any, they had to be carefully laid out, not sneaked by without anyone noticing. The opening scene featuring Beverly playing poker with three bearded crewmates took advantage of the beard theme and went off on a whole for-and-against discussion on the merits of the humble beard! Geordi and Riker feel it stands for strength, while Worf says Klingons view a beard as a sign of courage, but Beverly believes it hides something and is merely a fashion statement like women doing their hair or nails. It's not the most important moral issue of the story, but it is good fun and leaves us hanging teasingly with the possibility that if Beverly had won they'd all have had to shave the beards off, and if they'd won she'd have turned into a brunette. If only the Captain hadn't interrupted, either way would have been a novel outcome.
The real issue at the heart of this story is no less than the meaning of life itself. That is, the definition of life rather than the purpose, and whether objects that can learn and operate independently can be considered alive. Thanks to Data we know that highly complex mechanical constructs can be sentient beings, but if every piece of technology was put in that class and given the ability to exceed its programming we'd be in big trouble - exocomps and the EMH were probably more trouble than they were worth as they needed constant attention and couldn't always be relied upon to do what was necessary since they had free will. Sorry Doctor, you were worth it really. That's what I began to think early in the episode: that these were mere cutesy-fied anthropomorphic buckets. I mean they didn't even look very cutting edge and sleek by Starfleet standards, but, like 'Star Wars' Droids, they had a character of their own and I came to forgive even their shamelessly sentimental waving arms/ears and blinky lights.
Actually, the idea of robots that can self-replicate their own tools is an inspired idea and no doubt the modern world is close to similar breakthroughs since tools can now be 'manufactured' on the spot by machines given the raw components, which is basically replicator technology even though it doesn't yet reach the molecular level. Initially I felt the aesthetics were flawed, but the little critters grew on me and by the time they were voluntarily saving the lives of Picard and Geordi I'd been won over, especially when one of them stays behind to ensure the rest survive. There were shades of Season 1's 'Home Soil' where life lay undiscovered until it made itself known against the science team who didn't want to admit to the possibility of life and lose their precious experiments, but in this story there were no threats from the boxy bots to show them in a bad light and it makes me wish we saw more of these things on starships carrying out work, not least because people love robots. On the subject of light, I've never noticed before, but Dr. Crusher has blinds in her office which clearly show a corridor behind her. This must surely be a new addition as I've always thought it was a solid wall there.
Data's insubordination is a big moment in the episode. Previously he's taken what Starfleet orders he's given even if they were stacked against what he saw as right - would he have given up his homemade daughter Lal if forced to do so and not having the get-out clause of her death? At that point I think he would have felt he had no choice, but now he's learned to stand up for life in the mechanical world like never before. Frakes does a good performance opposite Data's calm intractable refusal to return transporter control, and I expect carrying the weight of the ship and his Captain's life came more easily as he was carrying the production in real life as the Director. Something of the films 'First Contact' and 'Nemesis' came to me in the episode, mainly from Data and Picard's talk at the end where the android tactfully explains why he was willing to choose the exocomp's freedom over Picard's rescue, and Picard understands. There's a sign of the special bond they developed that stood out in those two films when Picard goes back for Data, then Data saves Picard at the cost of his own life. Maybe he learnt something valuable from those exocomps?
***
A Fistful of Dollars
DVD, TNG S6 (A Fistful of Dollars)
It wouldn't be 'Star Trek' without the Wild West connotations, and this holodeck malfunction story pays tribute in part to the frontier style of storytelling that gave Roddenberry the idea for his wagon train to the stars. Foremost it is a novelty, and one that doesn't quite work on all levels, but at the same time it was inevitable that this theme would crop up eventually, and indeed it did on more than this occasion, though not as commonly as might have been expected (or as much as the Nazis!). Patrick Stewart's direction doesn't grab me, though he's allowed some rarer shots in keeping with the period nature, such as the must-have of seeing Worf's boots idly swaggering into town before we see more of him, and a nice long shot where the camera zooms out at the site of the prisoner transfer. Picard actually says the words Stewart would never have cause to utter in real life - "I'm not a good actor," but perhaps it could be amended with the word 'Director'? I think it's fair to say that his work as an actor far outshone his directorial contributions, at least on 'TNG.'
The chance of some R&R for the crew might have been better handled, as though we do get a very few scenes featuring Beverly and her acting group or Data and Spot (and best of all, Picard, trying to practice on his Ressikan or Kataanen flute when people keep interrupting him), but they tend to be purely for the purposes of demonstrating things are going wrong aboard ship. I'd have liked to have seen more of the other characters and what they were doing in their off-duty hours, but it's definitely a Worf episode, even if the big guy doesn't come across brilliantly. Somehow he's an expert engineer who can jury-rig a communicator into a personal forcefield, yet has trouble doing his normal job of security! He is operating in the Old West, but I would have liked him to demonstrate more of his skills where most of the time his actions are dictated by those around him.
The episode is saved from the unremarkable by Brent Spiner's brilliance in not one, not two, not even three or four, but five roles! Six if you include Data himself. While it doesn't match 'Brothers' for intensity and is much more a range of comedy Western stereotypes, it remains a delight to see him bend his words around with a twang, especially when Data takes on the accent! I didn't understand why Geordi was back to growing a beard, but I expect it was the actor's choice for some reason other than the series and the writer's threw in a line to accommodate it, but it still seemed out of place. My personal favourite of Spiner's roles in the story was the Hollander boy locked in the jail, putting on an air of false confidence yet also being a bit wary of Worf, and like Buck Hennessey in 'The Big Country,' he was just a snivelling coward in reality, lying to his 'paw' about how bad he'd been treated an' all.
The location looked great, a real change from the blackness of space or the usual planet settings we see, and there's even a nice hint of the old Westerns in the music, as well as the sight of the Enterprise heading off into the sunset at the very end, but Holodeck malfunctions can wear thin, and though I love 'em (any excuse for fancy dress or fish out of water situations), I don't think the setting was played up enough and became too much about solving a problem before it was too late. It wouldn't have killed them to simply have the characters having fun in the Holodeck, perhaps getting most of the main cast involved as they were in 'Time's Arrow.'
***
It wouldn't be 'Star Trek' without the Wild West connotations, and this holodeck malfunction story pays tribute in part to the frontier style of storytelling that gave Roddenberry the idea for his wagon train to the stars. Foremost it is a novelty, and one that doesn't quite work on all levels, but at the same time it was inevitable that this theme would crop up eventually, and indeed it did on more than this occasion, though not as commonly as might have been expected (or as much as the Nazis!). Patrick Stewart's direction doesn't grab me, though he's allowed some rarer shots in keeping with the period nature, such as the must-have of seeing Worf's boots idly swaggering into town before we see more of him, and a nice long shot where the camera zooms out at the site of the prisoner transfer. Picard actually says the words Stewart would never have cause to utter in real life - "I'm not a good actor," but perhaps it could be amended with the word 'Director'? I think it's fair to say that his work as an actor far outshone his directorial contributions, at least on 'TNG.'
The chance of some R&R for the crew might have been better handled, as though we do get a very few scenes featuring Beverly and her acting group or Data and Spot (and best of all, Picard, trying to practice on his Ressikan or Kataanen flute when people keep interrupting him), but they tend to be purely for the purposes of demonstrating things are going wrong aboard ship. I'd have liked to have seen more of the other characters and what they were doing in their off-duty hours, but it's definitely a Worf episode, even if the big guy doesn't come across brilliantly. Somehow he's an expert engineer who can jury-rig a communicator into a personal forcefield, yet has trouble doing his normal job of security! He is operating in the Old West, but I would have liked him to demonstrate more of his skills where most of the time his actions are dictated by those around him.
The episode is saved from the unremarkable by Brent Spiner's brilliance in not one, not two, not even three or four, but five roles! Six if you include Data himself. While it doesn't match 'Brothers' for intensity and is much more a range of comedy Western stereotypes, it remains a delight to see him bend his words around with a twang, especially when Data takes on the accent! I didn't understand why Geordi was back to growing a beard, but I expect it was the actor's choice for some reason other than the series and the writer's threw in a line to accommodate it, but it still seemed out of place. My personal favourite of Spiner's roles in the story was the Hollander boy locked in the jail, putting on an air of false confidence yet also being a bit wary of Worf, and like Buck Hennessey in 'The Big Country,' he was just a snivelling coward in reality, lying to his 'paw' about how bad he'd been treated an' all.
The location looked great, a real change from the blackness of space or the usual planet settings we see, and there's even a nice hint of the old Westerns in the music, as well as the sight of the Enterprise heading off into the sunset at the very end, but Holodeck malfunctions can wear thin, and though I love 'em (any excuse for fancy dress or fish out of water situations), I don't think the setting was played up enough and became too much about solving a problem before it was too late. It wouldn't have killed them to simply have the characters having fun in the Holodeck, perhaps getting most of the main cast involved as they were in 'Time's Arrow.'
***
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