The Dauphin
Wesley find's lovvvvve on the next episode of Starrrr Trek TheNextGenration!
This one is kinda fun. I wish they spent more time with Wes courting Salia and getting to know each other and doing more teen stuff. Especially since Geordi picks this damned moment to do cleaning of the warp pipes so they have to begin the journey on impulse. It wasn't an emergency, this couldn't wait for the diplomatic ferry handoff?
The chocolate mousse thing was a little corny, and Wil Wheaton has a manner about him that's too damned "aw shucks" for my taste. But when he urgently calls security, Wil finds his balls.
The Space: 1999 style morphing creature scenes are good fun. They looked like ass in 1989 and they still do. Worf is really all talk now. He's choked by creaturized Anya and does nothing. He literally waits until she's in old lady form before starting to take a swing. You'll never get to sto'vo'kor with that habit.
Meanwhile, Anya is so shitty at her job, she continually allows Salia to sneak out. It;s not like she's going out the window to the driveway, there's like on door that goes "pssssshhhhh!" when it opens.
The "this is how you woo a person Wes" scenes are funny.
Once Salia is outed, Wes has a fit but comes around and brings her more ice cream at the transporter. The reveal of her true form is 100% Roddenberry and Riker allowing Wes to give the "energize" order was nice.
Mixed bag. Some fun stuff, campy creatures and smart performances. But they don't add up to a significant whole. Still, props for giving me Space: 1999 vibes at a time when the show wasn't so easy to watch.
It's fine. 2.5/5
A fun but not perfect episode, great points all around.
I recall liking how it was Salia who set the stage for Wesley violating orders rather than him hounding her. Ditto for when Salia revealing herself and Wesley was annoyed. Which led, of course, to this lovely moment:
ANYA: I would not have harmed the boy, I only wanted to frighten him.
The Guinan/Wesley scene was poignant as well, especially the ending culminating with:
GUINAN: There'll be others, but every time you feel love it'll will be different. Every time, it's different.
There's also the Anya/Worf subplot that sadly amounts to little, except hints and promises and exposition. The acting, and both actors excel with their dialogue, definitely elevated some often-generic dialogue, including but not limited to:
ANYA: The third moon is within range of this ship's transporter, I shall go there. It was my home before we went away.
SALIA: I'm going to miss you.
ANYA: I know.
(Salia goes to the door, and it opens)
SALIA: I am ready now.
(Salia leaves and Worf enters)
WORF: I will escort you to transporter room six.
ANYA: You will be happy to see me leave.
WORF: No. You are a worthy opponent.
ANYA: Thank you. At heart, we are very much alike.
WORF: Yes, we are.
ANYA: Perhaps we shall fight again. On the same side.
WORF: It would be an honour. Shall we go?
But "leave the audience wanting more" prevailing, if they had somehow followed up, would it be a letdown? Not sure, though the acting would have lifted it up regardless.
The story does feel less than the sum of its parts and it's got some good parts. Even the opening had a nice bit of sci-fi flair:
SALIA: That's a superconducting magnet, isn't it?
WESLEY: Yes It's an SCM model. How did you know that?
SALIA: Study, for the last sixteen years it is all I could
ANYA: Please, Salia, walk ahead with me.
SALIA: Better be careful. Those can rip the iron right out of your blood cells.
A terrific reminder that outer space is not a nice place, whether it's about a magnet, or... magnetic attraction. Probably 3/5 in my book, it depends on how I feel. It's almost an underrated gem at times, yet doesn't quite make it there.
Contagion
Here's a perfect example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. We get a kick ass teaser when we get to see the horrifying result of a catastrophic warp core breach on a Galaxy Class starship. I mean, this is a really breathtaking scene; watching the saucer rapidly disintegrating after the star drive section blows up was just a gut punch. Especially since Picard's friend was the captain and he apparently had no idea this was seconds from happening. The music is amazing here, which shows that the underscore really helps and Dennis McCarthy is in good form.
^^this.
The opener was a belter and despite limited screentime, Thalmus Rasulala conveys an engaging screen presence that always makes you wish he had more screen time and, indeed, an episode or two prior to this to help build up their friendship more. The use of captain's logs helps immensely as well.
If anything, given this is (
checks wristwatch laid broken on my second-favorite wrist) late season 2, it's not entirely likely that it's due to a design flaw in the first place. Arguably not impossible, but the story's attempt to deflect by adding emphasis on a design flaw is just a tad too much. That said, Geordi's exposition accompanying a screen diagram of what needs to take place for a warp core breach is perfectly detailed, even if this becomes a trope or meme a dozen or more times during the remainder of the series' run, turning something deemed 'improbable' into plot checklist items for the draaaaaaaaaama, on Staaaaaaaaaar Trek the Next Generation,
Having them give us an extra hook of an approaching Romulan ship was gilding the lily and lets the air out of the moment. I get the Romulans were a tension point, but they weren't necessary. The idea that an Iconian probe was fighting with the Enterprise computer and knowing they were facing the same fate as the Yamato should have been more than enough jeopardy. The rest of the episode should have been about the Iconians. Tell us more about the legends. Let's see some of them.
^^this
Excellent points!
As much as I love the Romulans, they weren't really needed in this episode - but not feeling like an afterthought either, oddly. There's an attempt at tension, but all we get is Troi doing a fourth joke worthy of "The Simpsons" where the only thing she doesn't do is mug the camera while drily stating "In another time and place, this could be funny" (Even though I can't think of too many in the audience genuinely giggling over the exchange that ends up with Riker lamely demanding some rocks to hurl at the Romulans, which rendered the scene blowing chunks - if I got the 80s slang vernacular correct.)
That said, Carolyn Seymour is interesting casting (considering she was also the evil leaper's entertaingly wonderful sidekick in "Quantum Leap"), yet elevating the role into someone more memorable despite the stoic nature. Shame the character isn't used again to be built upon, even with the actress returning - as a Romulan - with similar sounding name, and only because Joanne Linville wasn't available to reprise her Commander role from "The Enterprise Incident".
Also, having Picard sit in the room, smell some stale air, and decide from that that the Iconians weren't aggressors by that alone seems almost dubious, given Picard's other intellectual abilities in other episodes.
What we end up with is a less goofy and brightly lit version of The Arsenal of Freedom.
Oh shliiiiiiiiiiiizz, I never made the comparison until now - thank you!
(Seriously!) On my next rewatch, I wonder if I'll like it less as a result. One season in and they're already redoing plot tropes - with just enough differences and idea juggling so that it doesn't seem so obvious. Better to do it with TNG stories than reaching back to TOS seemingly every third week, though.
There is one really good scene of Picard and Wes talking about the destruction of the Yamato and dealing with the deaths of over 1000 people. But it ends abruptly to make way for the jeopardy plot. The story winds up being episodic, going from sequence to sequence - all entertaining but also disjointed.
It was a poignant moment, about how Wes would be trained to put the emotions aside. It also begs the question "Picard? Or Yoda?"
Geordi being bounced around the turbolift was fun, but after tapping the console comms and failing to get through, he should have at least tapped his comm badge. Even Kirk resorted to communicators with the intercoms were down in Wink of an Eye.
"Mirror, Mirror" too from what I recall, to prevent the evil mirror crew from being readily picked up (but they were, anyhow.)
Really can't disagree, and I had to sit and spin to think of even a devil's advocate no matter how unconvincing so here it is: 80 years ago, cursive writing was the norm. Nobody uses it now, so get them to read a manuscript written in cursive and it's not necessarily recognizable. Or, better yet, clocks with hands as opposed to more modern digital numeric readout clock displays. Or, for whatever reason, Geordi wasn't thinking laterally during this emergency with the answer literally and right under his nose (that, or both comms systems were channeled through the same transceiver system - which seems unlikely.)
But then we'd have no action scene and that was a good one as it's another reminder that outer space is a dangerous place. Compared to later seasons where the ship is just a tame taxi service, even the subspace fabric being splodied and requiring the warp 5 limitation that was never adhered to anyway just didn't begin to convey the sense of isolation that even "Where No Man Has Gone Before" managed to do.
Pulaski get like one scene where she actually has to explain what a splint is to one of her staff. Come on....
Corny, but I found it fun nonetheless. I've had to explain jumpering DMA and IRQ channels when Plug'n'Play failed to someone younger and new to PCs even though we don't have to diddle with those anymore. That's the closest approximation and mostly for historical chuckles as it's a poor analogue to describing an archaic method of healing that still remains relevant as a contingency by comparison as Plug'n'Play works 100% (though if you switch USB ports on a printer, I recall it still has to reinitialize the port and you get a new numerical reference, so maybe it's 99%... I recall netowkr adapter #14 on my virtualbox session too... but it's not a direct parallel, nor can I think of any...)
Picard gets to say "time is something we do not have in abundance" which I am sure Spock said in the original series, but for the life of me, I cannot remember which episode.
I think Kirk had said it once or twice as well (Doomsday Machine and/or Paradise Syndrome?)
Carolyn Seymour is one-note as the first female Romulan we've seen since The Enterprise Incident. And it looks as if Romulans have gone for a unisex look for their people. She gets the same old bangs and stiff uniform as the two dudes we saw in The Neutral Zone. I'm gonna say this often, I hate this look for them. Romulans and Vulcans are supposed to be virtually identical, so there shouldn't be thick forehead appliances here. And in TOS, while Spock had bangs, all other Vulcans had individual hairstyles - except Surak. But you can rationalize that Spock was inspired by his hairstyle since he revered him so. Yet from TNG onward, Vulcans and Romulans all had the damned bangs. I get that they didn't want to shave the eyebrows of a one time guest actor, but there's makeup they could have used and just style their hair.
She was definitely better in "Face of the Enemy" with a meatier role. Still, from what I recall of the Evil Leaper episodes I'd swear she had more fun there...
Didn't Spock and Sarek both get this forehead treatment as well?
I'm amazed they didn't go all Cesar Romero and cake up the makeup to hide the eyebrows a la his mustache then line up some fake hair angled upward...
Anyway, Data has some good moments (his accidentally throwing Geordi is a fun if pointless scene). He gets to do a reboot and give Geordi the solution. Which is cool. I wish my computer did a restart and restore as fast ad the entire computer system of the Enterprise. Picard escaping onto the Romulan ship was also fun, but again, pointless.
Yeah, the ending quickly washes clean everything. And destructive computer viruses were more or less new for home computers, so it didn't come off as cliché as it might otherwise could have.
I feel badly about this one, it's got such a great opening and a fascinating premise. But the need to inject Romulans instead of fleshing out the Iconians knocks this down to a merely decent episode.
3/5 - that 3 is for the Yamato and the continuing idea that space is freaking dangerous.
I wish it was better, it clearly was on the right track but using the neutral zone to add tension really didn't do much of anything. 4/5 for me, only because of how strong the story overall is, despite its foibles. It's oddly very-rewatchable and the "space is a dangerous place" was a perfect theme to use with all the unknowns. This episode definitely explored exploration, just not as much as it could have. It's almost been TOS-like if it had explored the Iconians more.
Meaney, as with Burton, make Treknobabble feel authentic. Even when it's obvious the writers are having too much fun with the equivalents to ctrl-c and ctrl-v in their word processor du jour of the time...
