{"id":3088,"date":"2022-07-25T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3088"},"modified":"2023-03-06T11:10:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T11:10:48","slug":"trekaday-037","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2022\/07\/25\/trekaday-037\/","title":{"rendered":"Trekaday 037: Half a Life, The Host, The Mind’s Eye, In Theory, Redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"

TNG S04E22 Half a Life<\/strong> (\"4.5). Troi opens the episode with a one-line personal log entry: \u201cMy mother is on-board.\u201d She\u2019s paired with a scientist from a reclusive race played by the marvellous David Ogden Stiers, who \u2013 surprisingly \u2013 seems very open to the maniacal advances of Lwaxana (because this-is-the-story-we-do-with-this-character). His project is to use the Enterprise<\/em>\u2019s photon torpedos to restart his world\u2019s sun and of course during the test-run things don\u2019t go according to plan. So far, so breezy, but this is actually going to be a meditation on assisted suicide, since in this society, inhabitants are expected to end their lives at the age of 60. I\u2019m reminded of William Goldman\u2019s horror on being told that the star of the film he was working on, Chevy Chase, wanted this version of The Invisible Man<\/em> to be an exploration of loneliness. Goldman was happy to explore the loneliness of invisibility \u2013 just not with Chevy Chase. Likewise, I\u2019m interested in a story about assisted suicide, I just don\u2019t know if I want it to centre Lwaxana Troi. But Majel Barrett is so good that in the episode\u2019s key scene, confessing her fears of her own mortality to her daughter, she is able to connect the character\u2019s previous chaotic enthusiasm to a new desperation about being left behind. Star Trek <\/strong>in general has a pretty poor track record with love stories (Edith Keeler works, and then there\u2019s\u2026 um\u2026 er\u2026) and this isn\u2019t Romeo and Juliet, but it is convincing, as relationships between guest characters in hour-long episodic television go. And, impressively, this is not another Federation-knows-best episode in which Star Fleet dismantles a centuries-old society in half an hour. It\u2019s really all about Barrett and Stiers who play this beautifully. Also, look out for an early appearance by Michelle Forbes who will be back with a vengeance next year. Gosh, I\u2019m tempted to give this one a five, but I think it just tops out at four-and-a-half.<\/p>\n

TNG S04E23 The Host <\/strong>(\"2). Data is a champion gooseberry when Crusher wants to get it on with her new squeeze, whom she met before the episode began. So, we\u2019re going to have another go at a love story are we? We\u2019re also setting up future shows (though not intentionally at this stage) as Beverly\u2019s beau is a Trill, but this incarnation of the species is more David Cronenberg body-horror than Terry Farrell\u2019s lithe Dax and the details of the joining don\u2019t remotely recall Sisko\u2019s cheerful references to Jadzia as \u201cold man\u201d. Roddenberry told a room full of fans in the early days of TNG<\/strong> that it was about time he put a gay character on the Enterprise<\/em> but by this time, he was pretty much an invalid and it was Berman\u2019s show. For the full details of what happened next and why, see this excellent YouTube video<\/a>. According to this story, Trills can\u2019t use transporters which makes little sense on its own terms and of course is contradicted over and over again in future episodes of the franchise. Gates McFadden was heavily pregnant while filming these episodes which is why you never see her in long shot.<\/p>\n

The crux of this episode of course is that Odan changes host mid-episode and the \u201cparasite\u201d (as it\u2019s called here) ends up first in Will Riker and then finally in a female body, which is incapable of giving Beverly the horn. While it\u2019s easy to argue that American prime time television in the 1990s wasn\u2019t remotely capable of engaging with the kind of gender fluidity which we take for granted (or at least some of us do) that ignores the fact that it wasn\u2019t necessary to bring the issue up at all, if the only way it could be grappled with is by reassuring middle America that there\u2019s no room for same-sex relationships on their television screens. I\u2019m all for episodes of TNG <\/strong>that are rip-roaring adventure stories and little more, and I\u2019m all for episodes which engage with big social issues, but I feel it\u2019s only fair to judge those latter episodes on how they deal with those issues as well as how they tell their stories, and this one is a disaster in terms of the message it seeks to deliver which is essentially \u201conly ever judge a book by its cover.\u201d The middle of the episode, with Riker as Odan, seems like a missed opportunity too. Make it Riker and Troi or Picard and Crusher then surely you\u2019ve got something? But since Crusher and Riker have never even looked at each other before, this is without nuance or depth, especially as we never see anything of Riker\u2019s reaction to his body being used in this way. Add to this McFadden\u2019s limited ability to sell the love story in the first place and we have a major disappointment, at least as bad as the idiotic Devil\u2019s Due<\/em> or the cloth-eared Suddenly Human<\/em>.<\/p>\n

TNG S04E24 The Mind’s Eye <\/strong>(\"4.5). Geordi is on his way to The Eye of Orion<\/span> Risa with a shuttlecraft computer which is happy to play parlour games with him but which takes its eye off the road and doesn\u2019t notice the Romulan warbird decloaking dead ahead. With more than a touch of The Manchurian Candidate<\/em>, Geordi is brainwashed and turned into an assassin while an android duplicate takes his place so he isn\u2019t missed during his shore leave. The deception effortless fools Troi, whose abilities as usual are helpless in the face of a situation seemingly tailor-made for them. (Dr Crusher gives him a complete physical exam and doesn\u2019t spot anything either.) Meanwhile, a Klingon emissary is on board the Enterprise<\/em>, so it seems we still aren\u2019t done with all that tedious business about Worf\u2019s family dishonour. Of more interest is the Federation\u2019s possible involvement in supporting a Klingon insurrection. \u201cThe Federation is not in the business of supplying arms to rebels,\u201d reassures Picard, who obviously hasn\u2019t watched TOS S02E19<\/em> lately.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unusual to see two such strong plotlines running side-by-side. TNG<\/strong> doesn\u2019t often do A and B plots and when it does, the B plot is usually there to complicate the A plot (by occupying the Enterprise<\/em> which would otherwise be riding to the rescue, for example). Here we have both the Federation\u2019s traditional enemies both involved in separate intrigues. The link is that the Romulans are the ones disrupting the alliance between the Klingons and the Federation. This puts Geordi in the curious position of trying to detect his own duplicity, and in a neat twist it is the seemingly-benign Klingon emissary who is actually Geordi\u2019s handler, and part of the Romulan plot. This is satisfyingly complex, thrilling stuff, with some great camerawork and Levar Burton does great work. It\u2019s just a shame that even after all this time, La Forge is such a thin character, barely on the level of Sulu. We only pay lip-service to the recovery needed from such a mental attack, but we do at least pay lip-service. And just whose voice was that emanating from the shadows on board the Romulan ship?<\/p>\n

TNG S04E25 <\/strong>In Theory <\/strong>(\"2). While Geordi is (presumably) continuing to recover from his brainwashing, Data has a back-up friend-who-is-unlucky-in-love in the form of Michelle Scarabelli as Jenna D\u2019Sora. Unlike Geordi, D\u2019Sora wants to solve her problem by boning Data. He is fully functional, as we know. Data\u2019s tour of the regular cast to ask for advice yields little of interest, except some breezy misogyny. I can\u2019t get on board Data\u2019s decision to run this experiment. The whole thing feels ick and the hoped-for comedy which Data\u2019s cold-blooded romancing is intended to generate never got me to even smile, let alone laugh. There\u2019s an obvious opportunity here to investigate the nature of artificial intelligence \u2013 not a new area of exploration for the show, but a rich vein. Instead we get little more than the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz<\/em>. In an unrelated storyline, a nameless crew member gets gruesomely bisected and her death goes entirely unmourned, another weird decision in an episode primarily about whether or not Data has feelings. And speaking of weird decisions, there is no reason at all why Picard should be piloting that shuttle. Directed without error but without distinction by Patrick Stewart. I suspect giving a dog of a script to a leading actor who wants a go behind the camera is a deliberate policy.<\/p>\n

TNG S04E26 Redemption <\/strong>(\"3). Episode 100. This is its own show now, able to draw inspiration from its legendary progenitor but not stuck repeating it, or afraid to acknowledge it. It\u2019s also building its own mythos and that means its own version of the Klingons, who even as late as Star Trek III<\/em> were really just generic bad-guys. So, as I feared, Picard wants to disinter that obscure business about Worf\u2019s dishonor, which I can\u2019t clearly recall even at the rate of watching one episode a day. But first, Gowron needs to be installed on the Klingon throne, against the wishes of both Tony Todd and the Kleavage sisters. This is all pretty turgid stuff, and something has gone seriously awry with the plotting when we start with Picard in the Klingon Council Chamber, have the civil war threaten to start, the Enterprise<\/em> gets out of dodge (\u201cbrave Sir Captain ran away\u2026\u201d), but returns when the fighting is done, and then we go back to the same council chamber, having achieved I don’t know what. I also don’t quite know why I should give a shit about any of this, and there are endless scenes of Picard explaining why he isn\u2019t going to intervene and various Klingons explaining why he should. Whereas The Best of Both Worlds<\/em> was almost breathless as it raced to its climax, Redemption<\/em> feels as if it is treading water for much of its run-time, unable to play its final ace until the closing moments. And it\u2019s quite a final shot \u2013 but was it really worth all that shoe-leather to get there? Worf\u2019s apparent departure plays a little more strongly and I almost believe it won\u2019t be re-set (but not quite).<\/p>\n

TNG S05E01 Redemption II <\/strong>(\"3.5). Again, we start with a recap of what happened \u201cLast time on Star Trek The Next Generation\u201d, we build once more to the final revelation of Denise Crosby as a Romulan and then need a new thrill-packed teaser to take us into the opening titles, where Kurn\u2019s ship (with Worf now on board) is under attack. Then suddenly it\u2019s two weeks later. So again, where the previous two-parter was an action movie which barely let the inter-season three month gap break its stride, here the narrative continues in a stuttering, halting fashion with only a bit of stunt casting marking it out as anything very special. And Picard\u2019s next plan is a thrilling traffic stop. Whoop. Yay. \u201cSpace the final frontier\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Of more interest is the decision to put senior Enterprise <\/em>staff in command positions on various vessels, including Data as captain of the Sutherland<\/em> (although Picard mysteriously is a dick about whether the android officer is going to get a ship or not). Finally, this turgid storyline, full of people with bumpy foreheads intoning gibberish in darkened rooms, begins to feel big enough to warrant its two-part season-spanning scheduling. And doesn\u2019t Denise Crosby make a fabulous villain? It\u2019s almost worth not having had her on the bridge these past three years to have her back now as the ruthless Sela. Weirdly of course, we know that Tasha Yar was sent back in time by this crew, but Picard and co have forgotten all about it, because that loop in time was closed by their actions, so all of this exposition has to be doled out to Picard, and again the middle of this episode feels languid, patient and relaxed, when surely it needs to be tense, claustrophobic and fast-paced. Picard barely breaks a sweat, a far cry from his massive crisis this time last year. Data\u2019s journey from complete inability to inspire his crew to hero of the hour is more interesting and probably deserved an episode of its own (should he have snapped at Hobson though?) and some aspects of the cat-and-mouse game between Picard and Sela do work, but overall, even though this is better than part one with several strong sequences, it\u2019s still a big disappointment especially compared to the amazing Best of Both Worlds<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Season 4 wrap-up<\/strong><\/p>\n