The "worst" the body horror got in FC was the guy with the amputated arm. Maybe the implant jutting out of Picard's cheek. But the eye we just see the drill press on it and that's it. (And Picard didn't even lose an eye when he was assimilated, so his dream was obviously going to a weird place in his subconscious.)
The transporter scene in TMP? The most "horrifying" part about that were more the screams we didn't see much. The most greusome TV trek got was probably the scene in Conspiracy and, for the time, it was pretty strong and was criticized at the time and felt to be too much for TV.
Today, for me, it looks kind of hokey but we can argue the "gruesomeness" in it is justified because it was a villain being killed to prevent the overthrow of Earth and our characters carrying it out seemed just as disturbed by doing it as the audience was watching it. Here, we see a character taking pleasure in carrying out a much more realistically and graphically portrayed virtual vivisection scene, doing it to an innocent character, and the scene itself more for the shock value of it.
I mean, would it really have changed things if we saw her going after Icheb with some kind of device asking about his implants and then we see her lunge at him and then we just hear some sounds, cut to Seven coming and to find his bloodied body and then giving him the mercy kill? Did we need to see the eye-gouge in such damn graphic detail?
You know, I've started rewatching Voyager on DVD this week, I've not watched through this series... In a long assed time. Many of these episodes I've completely forgotten. There's episodes I've been skipping because I *do* remember them, or the summaries of them just seem like a boring episode I don't care about. (Anything to do with Kazon, no thanks!) And... I think at this point I'm enjoying it more than I am Picard. I'm about half way into Season 2 and I know there's a long way to go but I'm just liking it more. And, really, I don't like Voyager that much.
I'm fully aware of all the problems this series has and I've got a bunch of them myself, but at least I can watch this and be entertained and like the people I'm watching and not ask myself why am I putting myself through all of this.
With Picard? The only reason why I'm watching is for Stewart/Picard and, really, even he's not giving me a whole lot since he doesn't even always act or feel like Picard. The Picard in my mind I can't see doing this flamboyant French act as part of an undercover operation. Didn't we see Picard carry out undercover operations several times and manage to do it by not coming across as a caricature that wouldn't fool anyone?
I'm done with this series. I'll keep watching and not a "hate watch" but more of a "I've gone this far... And, well, Patrick Stewart-watch."
As I said, every aspect of this series is just ugly.
Not everything necessarily need be bright and cherry like it was on TNG or, well, Voyager but does everything in it need to look like something out of Blade Runner or pretty much every other Sci-Fi series out there?
Characters need not always be "perfect" behaving and admittedly kind of assholes about it like in TNG but does everything then have to be cynical with characters acting with angst and hostility?
There IS a middle ground.
