Skin of Evil - Armus

[SRFX]

I got the feeling that Starfleet or the Enterprise put a warning bouy in orbit to stop people ever coming to or entering that System.

General Order 47? :P

I actually quite like Skin of Evil, mainly because I think Armus is a really cool creature. Having him scream in pure rage as Picard basically flips him the bird and beams off is excellent.

However, watching it with a friend recently, he pointed out that it's not a very Star Trek way of dealing with him - and I have to agree. I don't like Data saying he should be destroyed, and I don't like him being marooned on that planet for all eternity.

Picard should've requested a ship be sent to collect him for study in the hopes he can be rehabilitated - or at the very worst, humanely euthanised.

 

[Tallis Rhul]

One small problem...no, two small problems...

1) Humane euthenasia isn't a very star trek way of dealing with him either.

2) Away team beams down to collect him for study. 3 seconds later they're all dead. He's not going willingly...

I think dealing with it in the 'Talos IV' way is perfectly star trek!

 

[BillJ]

I got the feeling that Starfleet or the Enterprise put a warning bouy in orbit to stop people ever coming to or entering that System.

General Order 47? :P

I actually quite like Skin of Evil, mainly because I think Armus is a really cool creature. Having him scream in pure rage as Picard basically flips him the bird and beams off is excellent.

However, watching it with a friend recently, he pointed out that it's not a very Star Trek way of dealing with him - and I have to agree. I don't like Data saying he should be destroyed, and I don't like him being marooned on that planet for all eternity.

Picard should've requested a ship be sent to collect him for study in the hopes he can be rehabilitated - or at the very worst, humanely euthanised.

Back when Next Gen still had some balls.

EDIT: What do you mean re-habilitated? He was a 'Skin of Evil', name kind of says it all. Send a ship? So he can take it over and spread chaos all through the universe!

 

[SRFX]

Fair points (this is the way I always used to see it). I guess it depends how you view Armus. I kind of see him as an allegory for a seemingly un-redeemable criminal (who actually is, with some work and effort).

If you see him as the literal embodiment of evil then yeah, screw him. Leave him on the planet forever. But if that's the case, then this isn't a very Star Trek story - it's just another sci-fi episode. Star Trek usually has something say at the end, and in the case of Skin of Evil it seems to be "bad evil guy is bad."

 

[BillJ]

Fair points (this is the way I always used to see it). I guess it depends how you view Armus. I kind of see him as an allegory for a seemingly un-redeemable criminal (who actually is, with some work and effort).

If you see him as the literal embodiment of evil then yeah, screw him. Leave him on the planet forever. But if that's the case, then this isn't a very Star Trek story - it's just another sci-fi episode. Star Trek usually has something say at the end, and in the case of Skin of Evil it seems to be "bad evil guy is bad."

It did have something to say: Sometimes you just have to let go...

 

[Tallis Rhul]

"bad evil guy is bad."

It's a lesson I've learned well over the years. Avoid black talking pools of goo at all costs, or at the very least you'll end up with a large dry cleaning bill.

I think what you're saying is right though, it's not an episode with a moral... much like a lot of DS9, VOY and ENT, which were deliberately made more action adventure.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

IIRC, Picard stated the moral, all things are enslaved that serve things evil.

You don't humor Armus, you let him rot on that planet. He doesn't want redemption, he wants revenge on those who abandoned him and if he can't get that...he wants sadistic amusement.

 

[Maurice]

I'll never understand why people need to interconnect every single piece of Trek.

Hear, hear!

 

[HairOfTheDog]

Unless you partially redid the episode, I don't think having Armus as a shapeshifter was possible. Armus was able to telekenetically manipulate objects in a localized area.

Everything we've seen on DS9 tells us the Founders, while having the ability to change form, do not have such powers.

 

[Anwar]

They can travel at warp speeds on their own power. That's saying something.

 

[Amaris222222]

They can travel at warp speeds on their own power. That's saying something.

The Founders can travel independently at such speeds? I was not aware of that...

Do you have a reference for this factoid? Out of curiosity.

 

[QuasarVM]

I liked the mystery of the Armus character as it was -- no need to tie it into the Changelings...

 

[Anwar]

Didn't Laars travel through space under his own power?

 

[Maurice]

Unless you partially redid the episode, I don't think having Armus as a shapeshifter was possible. Armus was able to telekenetically manipulate objects in a localized area.

Everything we've seen on DS9 tells us the Founders, while having the ability to change form, do not have such powers.

I rather like the concept sketch of Armus as a huge face in the black goo...it's a tad ID Monster, and much better than what we got.

 

[Jbarney]

"Skin of Evil" is one of my favorite episodes from the first season, in part because the crew comes across a villian that can not be reasoned with. Armus really worked for me as a concept, but I don't think what we saw on screen was as good as it could have been. Still, some of his actions were really lightening rod type decisions.....throwing the visor to the ground, Data refusing to help Geordi so Armus won't get any pleasure out of it....

Interestingly enough Data actually says in this episode something we see replayed in "The Most Toys". That was the episode with Kivas Fatjo, the guy who was a collector and tries to add Data to his collection. At the end of the episode Data basically would have killed Fatjo if it had not been for the transporter.....

Well, if you remember in "Skin of Evil" Data does make a moral judgement about Armus....he specifically stated that he thought Armus should be destroyed. As the series developed I think we all see Data as innocent and childlike. These are two instances where he is a little more complex than the andriod we came to love.

 

[Myasishchev]

Didn't Laars travel through space under his own power?

Yep. Which may've been pushing it, but it was pretty cool.

Fwiw, I think the notion of Armus as a shapeshifter is pretty good. I never much bought into his "I'm the sum of evil" origin story anyway, it sounds pretty much exactly like what a self-loathing asshole slime monster would come up with after being stuck on a planet for decades/centuries/however long.

And I did like the episode. There's a weird, creepy atmosphere that TNG sometimes excelled in, twice in season 1 with both this and the fan-favorite "Conspiracy." After that, I think "Remember Me" has that same kind of "WTF is going on?" vibe, and it greatly enhances these kind of episodes.

 

[ThereR4Lites]

I've always loved this episode. Armus was just so deliciously evil and Picard got to flex his superior wit and intelligence.

As for all this talk of a changeling story. You're nuts! Fruitier than a Tarkanian Bat! The episode clearly explains Armus' origins and I think its a damn good explanation. The dude is pure concentrated evil and hate, all that is bad of a race. The fact that hes a slimy dark pool of grossness suites him. Shapeshifter... no. They can't create forcefields and teleport things, which Armus does several times. Armus was wrapped up in a neat little package and left to rot, lets leave him that way.

Now a really cool idea would be to explore what happened to that race that purged themselves of all evil and hatred. I think that this was mentioned in an earlier post.

 

[EmperorTiberius]

Watched the episode today, and in retrospect it would have been cool if Armus had been a changeling like Odo, one of the 100 that the Founders sent out. He felt abandoned, maybe he was mistreated by another race that found him, wasn't able to discover his full shape shifting abilities, and then he turned into pure evil.

I'll never understand why people need to interconnect every single piece of Trek.

Same here. Universe is a big place, often times, especially authors, make it to be no bigger than a small city on 21 century earth.

 

[Kegg]

If you see him as the literal embodiment of evil then yeah, screw him.

I do see him as this. Remember, he was created literally so he could permakill a main cast member, which had not been done in Star Trek at this date (TWOK retroactively not counting because of TSFS).

So who kills one of your heroes? How about an embodiment of pure evil? Eh, works for me. It raises all sorts of questions, like the ability to quantify evil in such a way you can actually purge it from your species (what if there are some things that species' society considers evil which we don't, and vice versa?) but for all intents and purposes Armus was handed one of the blackest hats ever worn on Star Trek.

He's interesting because rather than building that up overmuch... he's just petty and bored and even killing doesn't amuse him much.

 

[FordSVT]

The only part of her death I didn't like was the silly cartoony black splotch on the side of her face.

Yeah... it looked like someone painted a big brown Gak Splat on her cheek.

It didn't even look like paint, more like a piece of black vinyl or plastic cut out and glued to it.