Imaginary Friend.... why all the hate?

[JesterFace]

There's this another thread about an episode that gets a lot of hate. Why is it so disliked?

I want to ask the same thing about 'Imaginary Friend', why all the hate? I like this one.

The scenes with Clara Sutter and her imaginary friend may not be for everyone.... But when they run into Worf, that's a funny scene.

In the end of the episode Picard's discussion with the alien lifeform is fantastic as he tells the alien how she sees the ship in a unique way, from child's point of view. And at least this once the "alien of the week" understands and agrees with him.

 

[Swedish Borg]

Well, personally I find that episode just awful. The story is boring, filled with all sorts of clichés. Plus I've known a lot of kids and I've never heard of an "imaginary friend"... Where does that come from? Plus I don't think kids should go to shrinks to be "deconstructed", it's bad enough that adults go there (however it's their business) but I think childhood should keep its magic and its mysteries. Like Pink Floyd say "Leave 'em kids alone!!!"
Anyway, I find everything about this episode just awful, Picard, for someone who claims that he dislikes kids and asked Riker to keep him away from them is awfully smug in this episode as if he knew anything a child-rearing!!! The smart thing for Picard would have been to shut his camembert-box and let someone with a little experience speak in his place. I have dozens of other objections but I think I'll stop before I say something unkind...

 

[at Quark's]

I mainly find the episode boring and unimaginative. That said, it's been years since I've seen it, so perhaps I should give it a rewatch.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It's just kind of boring. The whole resolution of the entity who thought the adults were being cruel because it didn't understand the concept of childhood was kind of interesting I guess. But episodes about children's feelings are inherently saccharine and simplistic and it was one of those episodes where addressing the threat is entirely done by reading numbers off a screen.

 

[dupersuper]

Yeah, I've always got the impression it got more "meh" than hate.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Plus I've known a lot of kids and I've never heard of an "imaginary friend"... Where does that come from? Plus I don't think kids should go to shrinks to be "deconstructed", it's bad enough that adults go there (however it's their business) but I think childhood should keep its magic and its mysteries. Like Pink Floyd say "Leave 'em kids alone!!!"

I think not giving your kids help they need when insisting imaginary people are real would cause more damage long term than letting them "keep the magic and mysteries"

That said, Next Gen's (all of Berman-era Trek, in fact and now sadly Discovery S3 too) treatment of mental heath is atrocious. Another poster once said Troi's only good moment as a counsellor ever was Picard season 1, episode 7. And they were right.

 

[Swedish Borg]

I think not giving your kids help they need when insisting imaginary people are real would cause more damage long term than letting them "keep the magic and mysteries"
....

I think kids should be allowed to have their fantasies. Hell, adults have their fantasies too but they're not as vivid and fertile as kid's. Anyway, kids should be allowed to keep their fantasies without a "well-meaning" so-called specialist sticking their stupid nose into it and basically ruining it for the kid. Just like someone who keeps explaining jokes will ruin them for everyone else. There are things that need to be left alone to keep their magic. Sooner or later the Kid will grow up and learn to adjust his thinking on their own. How do you think children managed to exist for millennia before the first shrink came along?

 

[F. King Daniel]

How do you think children managed to exist for millennia before the first shrink came along?

It's only in recent times we have statistics for suicides.

 

[Swedish Borg]

It's only in recent times we have statistics for suicides.

Yeah, and guess what? These suicide rates are higher where people are generally wealthier (and can afford more shrinks)...

Looks like a self-defeating proposition, doesn't it?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Yeah, and guess what? These suicide rates are higher where people are generally wealthier (and can afford more shrinks)...

Looks like a self-defeating proposition, doesn't it?

I'm gonna guess you don't personally nor are close to anyone with mental health issues. And walk away from this.

 

[Nerys Myk]

How do you think children managed to exist for millennia before the first shrink came along?

They probably burnt the imaginative kids at the stake, stoned them or sent them to convents or monasteries to get the demons out. The luckier ones were seen as prophets with a connection the gods.

 

[Swedish Borg]

I'm gonna guess you don't personally nor are close to anyone with mental health issues. And walk away from this.

And you'd be wrong because I am close to someone with mental health issues and it turns out... it's INCURABLE!!! Imagine that.

 

[Swedish Borg]

They probably burnt the imaginative kids at the stake, stoned them or sent them to convents or monasteries to get the demons out. The luckier ones were seen as prophets with a connection the gods.

I've never met a kid that wasn't imaginative but when a kid tells me something imaginative I leave it alone I only draw the lines when they use their imagination as a pretext to commit bad acts. IMO as long as a kid doesn't do anything reprehensible they can imagine whatever they want.

 

[Trekker4747]

There's this another thread about an episode that gets a lot of hate. Why is it so disliked?

I want to ask the same thing about 'Imaginary Friend', why all the hate? I like this one.

The scenes with Clara Sutter and her imaginary friend may not be for everyone.... But when they run into Worf, that's a funny scene.

In the end of the episode Picard's discussion with the alien lifeform is fantastic as he tells the alien how she sees the ship in a unique way, from child's point of view. And at least this once the "alien of the week" understands and agrees with him.

I tune into this show to see adults going on space adventures and conflicts, not to watch a little girl play with her imaginary friend. When her story intersects with the main characters and they get to play in the episode too, it's just not very good. This is just a tedious episode. I can watch it and "like" it on some scant levels, but it's not one of TNG's best.

 

[Weyoun 251]

And you'd be wrong because I am close to someone with mental health issues and it turns out... it's INCURABLE!!! Imagine that.

That is a very, very, absolutist view.

For one thing, there is a huge difference between incurable and untreatable - there are a number of conditions (there is definitely a better word for what I mean) where the nature of them mean that one can never cure them but through appropriate treatment - including, but not limited to, the use of "shrinks" (as you insist in calling them) - the symptoms can be improved significantly.

Removal of the stigma around mental health - in both adults and children - and the ready provision of well funded and well trained mental health services are vital.

 

[flandry84]

I remember thinking at the time that the show was running out of steam.The story was a bit obvious and felt lethargic.

 

[Swedish Borg]

That is a very, very, absolutist view.

For one thing, there is a huge difference between incurable and untreatable - there are a number of conditions (there is definitely a better word for what I mean) where the nature of them mean that one can never cure them but through appropriate treatment - including, but not limited to, the use of "shrinks" (as you insist in calling them) - the symptoms can be improved significantly.

Removal of the stigma around mental health - in both adults and children - and the ready provision of well funded and well trained mental health services are vital.

I disagree there isn't anything a shrink can do that a good friend can do better (except maybe the prescription of drugs) and a friend will not cost you two hundred bucks an hour!!! At least not any kind of friend I'd care to meet.

 

[Weyoun 251]

I disagree there isn't anything a shrink can do that a good friend can do better (except maybe the prescription of drugs) and a friend will not cost you two hundred bucks an hour!!! At least not any kind of friend I'd care to meet.

I'll have to say that my personal experience is massively different although it is likely that the way a counsellor in England operates is different to your experience. Not least the price!

I feel that the dismissive nature of your comment is potentially inflammatory although I don't think, based on other posts of yours that I've seen, that you intend it that way

 

[NigellaDeanna20]

I've never disliked this ep. Just wouldn't be one of my faves personally.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I have relatives who had imaginary friends as children.

And while I don't recall having an imaginary friend per se, if my childhood imaginings were any more fertile, I'd be "Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings" (and I don't mean the Mike Myers parody from SNL).

I'm with "dupersuper" and "NigellaDeanna20" on this: not hated; just a little on the unremarkable side.

 

[JesterFace]

I tune into this show to see adults going on space adventures and conflicts, not to watch a little girl play with her imaginary friend. When her story intersects with the main characters and they get to play in the episode too, it's just not very good. This is just a tedious episode. I can watch it and "like" it on some scant levels, but it's not one of TNG's best.

I think that going through "the kids at play" scenes aren't weak enough to ruin the good stuff in this episode. Discussions with Clara and her imaginary friend are needed to make this episode work? Some say it doesn't work.... But I like this episode. If nothing more this episode is worth watching because of the scene near the end where Picard confronts the imaginary friend / alien lifeform and explains the situation.