Masks

DVD, TNG S7 (Masks)

Seeing Data perform his superhuman abilities is a joy, and here we see him mould clay into perfect shapes at incredible speeds. But more impressively we see Brent Spiner perform his abilities, when he's tasked with recreating several personalities from a long-vanished culture. This race's technological interference was both more and less invasive than the one in 'The Inner Light,' and suggests Picard's experiences there were what kept his mind open in this situation - though there's less personal damage, apart from Data experiencing thousands of minds, the ship changes physically around them! This was a concept to be proud of, and one that could have been difficult to pull off. While I felt the production design could have gone further (for instance, the scene in Engineering when it starts to change), as I was watching I thought they should have made cosmetic changes to the actual sets, and then they did, altering a whole deck! It starts slowly with small artefacts appearing around the ship, including in Troi's quarters. When Beverly suggests it was left by a secret admirer, Troi shows no concern that a mystery person may have sneaked into her quarters, which she presumably keeps locked!

The alteration to the ship continues apace, with large Aztec-like stone blocks, jungle creepers and obelisks, until we see a deck completely change before our eyes into an alien temple. They said that deck was clear of people, but I hope they also evacuated the one above, because the temple had quite a ceiling to it. Mind you, Picard and the others weren't affected when it changed so it's likely no one else would have been. If we'd had people trapped inside stone sculptures or in the floor (like 'In Theory'), there would have been a greater fear factor, but as it was it stayed in the realm of the intellectual, with Picard slowly working it out. Spiner's performances as the four or five characters he plays (the grinning Ihat, a Masaka-worshipper, weak old man, frightened child and Masaka), gave him his passport to show off his range, and created a sinister discomfort to his interactions at first, though that isn't played up so he fades away to a shadow sitting in his quarters when he could have been used much more. You only have to look at the superior 'Voyager' episode 'Infinite Regress' to see how much better it could have been if Data had remained the sole focus.

The solution was too easy, and a repeat of Picard's tactic with the Borg in 'The Best of Both Worlds' - send them to sleep. The episode came to nothing, and to Data it was all a dream, so there was no learning experience, we don't find out why this alien library is floating though space, or what any of it really means. For that matter, it was a bit harsh to blast this 67 million year old comet which had travelled across the galaxy. They couldn't have known for sure it had anything to do with the odd happenings. Although it did go pretty far with the design, and the work that must have gone in behind the scenes looks to have been immense, I still would have liked to see more: they tease us with Riker saying the Observation Lounge has turned into a swamp, but I wanted to see it. It is a flawed episode, but even though the story never goes anywhere it looked beautiful, with a series of golden glows taking the place of the usual harsh lighting, and even the sound playing upon the strangeness of the content with panpipes emphasising an ancient and exotic culture. The CG and effects were strong, though the comet didn't look as good as the one in the 'DS9' opening credits, and considering this was created over a year after, they could have done better.

There are questions left unanswered, such as how Data's head closed up without any tampering from Geordi after he'd been giving Data a diagnostic, or how Picard knew Masaka was female when there didn't appear to be any clues. Data could easily have snapped his cranial panel back on when we left that scene, but no explanation for Picard, except his knowledge of ancient cultures. What would have made it more intriguing would have been to make it an actual technological library from an ancient Earth tribe, but that would open up a whole torpedo tube of snakes! If you watch this as an oddity with some excellent production design, and skillful acting from Spiner (I wonder if his voice was digitally altered in some way - most of the time it sounded like he was changing it himself, but as Masaka it sounded manipulated), then you won't be disappointed, and its clear, clean, colourful visuals look fantastic, but don't expect anything more than that.

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