See you in court

[Tomalak]

Watched 'A Matter of Perspective' again thanks to this thread, and remembered how enjoyably silly it is.

The "Oh crap, we're underrunning" pre-title sequence with Data critiquing Picard's painting is hilarious - sad than Jean-Luc never picked up a brush again, as far as I can recall.

Frakes is great here. There's a fun bit with Riker peeping into the ready room when Picard's having a private meeting concerning his potential extradition. It's also interesting that it's left open whether Riker really was flirting with Mrs Apgar. I suspect the truth was somewhere between their two accounts.

And it's quite like 'Wolf in the Fold' in that the Enterprise crew come up with some ludicrous scientific mumbo-jumbo to exculpate their friend, and the prosecutor immediately buys it and goes home without a second thought.

 

[Farscape One]

Watched 'A Matter of Perspective' again thanks to this thread, and remembered how enjoyably silly it is.

The "Oh crap, we're underrunning" pre-title sequence with Data critiquing Picard's painting is hilarious - sad than Jean-Luc never picked up a brush again, as far as I can recall.

Frakes is great here. There's a fun bit with Riker peeping into the ready room when Picard's having a private meeting concerning his potential extradition. It's also interesting that it's left open whether Riker really was flirting with Mrs Apgar. I suspect the truth was somewhere between their two accounts.

And it's quite like 'Wolf in the Fold' in that the Enterprise crew come up with some ludicrous scientific mumbo-jumbo to exculpate their friend, and the prosecutor immediately buys it and goes home without a second thought.

That scene in the beginning was funny. It also shows exactly how strongly Picard values input from Data. (And you are correct that we never see him paint again.)

 

[NCC-73515]

And that scene has one of the two best soundtracks (the other is the Evolution opening)

 

[Tomalak]

The episode score is great - Ron Jones, of course.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

(And you are correct that we never see him paint again.)

Four seasons later, he suggests (threatens) he'll enter the art contest for "Commander Riker Day". I wonder which art medium he'd choose?

 

[Farscape One]

Four seasons later, he suggests (threatens) he'll enter the art contest for "Commander Riker Day". I wonder which art medium he'd choose?

True.

And I wish that we saw that.

 

[kkt]

I like "The Measure of a Man" and "Ad Astra per Aspera." Those were both well written and superbly performed.

I find "Court Martial" rather contrived these days (Kirk is accused of murdering his ex-friend and the prosecutor is his old girlfriend!), and I've always found "The Drumhead" really obvious and overrated.

"A Matter of Perspective" is good cheesy fun.

I thought "Court Martial" was pretty contrived even when I first saw it in my early teens. What kinda court has one of the defandant's old flames be the prosecutor? If they could find Finney using just the internal sensors, why didn't they do that BEFORE the court martial and save everyone a lot of trouble? And I like books... but lawyers have largely given up the books by the 1990s, because it's so much faster to find what you're looking for online, if you subscribe to the right legal databases.

 

[Owain Taggart]

With all these Trek series happening as of late, I'm surprised they didn't go ahead and do a Trek Courtroom series with Samuel T. Cogley, or something along those lines.

 

[scotpens]

"Court Martial", the courtroom episode where I cared about the character on trial and believed his situation. Excellent performances by all involved.

Except that it doesn't work very well as courtroom drama. Samuel T. Cogley is supposedly an eccentric but brilliant defense attorney, but he never offers a defense! He doesn't even cross-examine any of the prosecution's witnesses. He just stalls for time so he can make a dramatic but irrelevant speech about rights -- specifically the right of the accused to confront the witnesses against him. The computer log isn't a "witness"; it's the prosecution's key piece of evidence which Cogley should have obtained a copy of during pretrial discovery.

Elisha Cook Jr. had a nice suit, though.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

What kinda court has one of the defandant's old flames be the prosecutor?

This assumes the court knows about every private relationship the prosecutor had, including one with the defendant. If Shaw never mentioned it and, as seen in the episode, she found doing her job more important than placing what would have been misplaced guilt on herself, there was no conflict of interest.

If they could find Finney using just the internal sensors, why didn't they do that BEFORE the court martial and save everyone a lot of trouble?

The pod was lost. That was a verified fact, and Finney was believed to be in the pod at the time, so in the period of the aftermath of the "loss", there would be no reason to run an internal scan looking for someone thought to be dead and lost outside of the ship.

 

[kkt]

This assumes the court knows about every private relationship the prosecutor had, including one with the defendant. If Shaw never mentioned it and, as seen in the episode, she found doing her job more important than placing what would have been misplaced guilt on herself, there was no conflict of interest.


The pod was lost. That was a verified fact, and Finney was believed to be in the pod at the time, so in the period of the aftermath of the "loss", there would be no reason to run an internal scan looking for someone thought to be dead and lost outside of the ship.

Yes, officers of the court do reveal possible conflicts of interest. And it clearly was a conflict of interest - she told Kirk how she would build the case as Kirk vs. computer, she recommended Cogley for his defense.

Seems like tracking down the pod for a body retrieval, if nothing else, would be normal procedure.

 

[Greg Cox]

With all these Trek series happening as of late, I'm surprised they didn't go ahead and do a Trek Courtroom series with Samuel T. Cogley, or something along those lines.

Pocket Books published a Samuel Cogley novel some years ago, "The Case of the Colonist's Corpse" by Dean Wesley Smith, done in the style of a vintage Perry Mason novel.

EDIT: Oops. I misremembered the author. As David cgc points out below: the book was actually written by Bob Ingersoll and Tony Isabella.

I guess I confused it with the "Captain Proton" novel DWS wrote.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

That scene in the beginning was funny. It also shows exactly how strongly Picard values input from Data. (And you are correct that we never see him paint again.)

Data must have resumed painting at some point, because he gifted Picard a painting he called "Daughter" prior to his death in Nemesis.

 

[David cgc]

Pocket Books published a Samuel Cogley novel some years ago, "The Case of the Colonist's Corpse" by Dean Wesley Smith, done in the style of a vintage Perry Mason novel.

Bob Ingersoll and Tony Isabella, not DWS. They also wrote a TOS comic where Satan prevents the Enterprise from saving a colony with a wacky adventure involving parallel universe duplicates.

Data must have resumed painting at some point, because he gifted Picard a painting he called "Daughter" prior to his death in Nemesis.

Picard never painted again, not Data.

I do remember someone jokingly referencing the earlier scene talking about Jean-Luc's dream in PIC where Data tells him to paint.

"I don't know know how."

"That is incorrect, sir."

"Really, Data? I know how to paint? What happened to my work being a 'haphazard melange?'"

 

[Greg Cox]

Bob Ingersoll and Tony Isabella, not DWS. They also wrote a TOS comic where Satan prevents the Enterprise from saving a colony with a wacky adventure involving parallel universe duplicates.

Oops. I knew I should have double-checked my memory there. Thanks for catching that.

Let me fix that now.

 

[Citiprime]

I like the episode, but I always thought a lot about DS9's "Rules of Engagement" makes no sense.

• If the Klingons are wanting Worf extradited, why isn't the Federation demanding the Klingon captains which attacked unarmed cargo vessels be turned over too?
• The Klingons have abrogated the Khitomer Accords and broken off diplomatic relations with the Federation. Under what possible pretense would any government entertain their extradition request after they created the incident by attacking supply ships?
• Are there no lawyers in the Federation at this point? Or are we going with the idea Sisko has a JD degree that he must have been working on while going through Starfleet Academy? I know (from a writing perspective) they want the main characters involved in important moments. But it strains credulity that with a major interstellar incident which could worsen relations with the Klingon Empire and cause the Federation to withdraw from a star system, the Federation and Starfleet wouldn't at the very least provide Worf with an expert in extradition law. Or assign someone form the JAG corps who has more expertise than a flag officer who doesn't practice law regularly.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Pocket Books published a Samuel Cogley novel some years ago, "The Case of the Colonist's Corpse" by Dean Wesley Smith, done in the style of a vintage Perry Mason novel.

Yeah, I remember that book and I enjoyed it quite a bit for just how unique a spin it was for a Trek book. Actually, that was my inspiration in thinking about it as a TV show concept. So, if we're apparently getting a Trek sitcom, then I'd say anything is possible at this point. And we all know how much Hollywood loves its law shows.

 

[Farscape One]

Data must have resumed painting at some point, because he gifted Picard a painting he called "Daughter" prior to his death in Nemesis.

I meant we never see Picard paint again. I guess I should have been clearer. Sorry about that.

 

[Greg Cox]

Seems like tracking down the pod for a body retrieval, if nothing else, would be normal procedure.

I think the assumption is that the pod (along with Finney's remains) were destroyed by the ion storm, or else lost in the trackless reaches of space.

Like a lot of Trek plotlines, it helps to imagine the Enterprise as an old-time sailing vessel exploring vast, uncharted seas. If man goes overboard in a storm, you're probably not going to be able to retrieve his body.

 

[Shawnster]

When you think about it, it strains credibility Finney could hide on the Enterprise for any length of time without being noticed or without help. Food, sleep, restroom.