Jeyl[/i] is having personal issues and is unable to at this time continue with the rewatch thread, I've volunteered to take over in his place until he's able to return. I will post future threads sometime during the day on Thursday given that's when we're starting. Any suggestions on input/formating will be welcomed.
He left off with season 4's "The Loss" which, according to DVD/BD order, puts "Data's Day" up next.
Data's Day takes place over the course of a "typical" day as chronicled by Data in a correspondence to Bruce Maddox (who tried to gain "ownership" of sorts over Data back in season 2, challenging Data's "rights" as a sentient being.) We begin as Data ends his "night watch" on the bridge and end with Data starting night watch at the end. Through the course of the day Data prepares for his role as Father of the Bride in a wedding service between Chief O'Brien and Keiko, Data learning how to dance in preparation for the wedding reception and having to try and act as a liaison between Keiko and O'Brien as the former gets wedding-day jitters. Meanwhile, the ship is transporting a Vulcan ambassador to Romulan space for diplomatic negotiations. Needless to say, everything doesn't go greatly as planned.
I've always found this to be an interesting episode as it the only episode, I believe, where the events in it are entirely narrated by a character giving us some insight into just how life aboard a starship may very-well be like. Made more interesting as the episode follows Data who gives us some insight into how he thinks of humans, human interactions and the various other events that happen over the course of the day.
Largely a "bottle" episode it manages to pull off the day's events pretty well. Probably least interesting is the marriage between Keiko and O'Brien as it seemed like a plot-point that wasn't much needed for a secondary character and a new character, though both would play larger roles in future episodes as well as in Deep Space Nine. Sometimes it can be nice to get to see some of the life of other characters other than the main ones but I'm not sure it was needed here.
The secondary plot centered around the Vulcan ambassador who turns out to be a Romulan spy is more interesting with a solution that comes probably too quickly and seems to me like something that should have been noticed as it was happening. We're often told how safe the transporters are and how very, very, unlikely accidents are given the transporters and all of the levels of redundancies they have. The crew seems to quick to accept this as a "transporter accident: when it initially happens, granted they were under some pressure from the Romulan commander to leave The Neutral Zone/Romulan Space.
Brent Spiner does a good job with Data in this episode but there's a few moments that strike me as "out of character" for a supposedly emotionless android. At one point Data stairs questioningly at the Vulcan Ambassador/Romulan Spy's headdress which it seems to me Data wouldn't do to a dignitary and at another point Data does a double-take at an alien woman getting her hair-died in the ship's salon. Quibbles, sure, but they stood out to me as odd.
The time-line in the episode also seems odd to me. It's his wedding day and O'Brien is on duty to run the transporters? He's Father of the Bride, and worked the night-shift, and Data is on duty? Worf, Riker and the rest of the senior staff are all attending the wedding and they're all on/off duty throughout the day? Granted, they're transporting a dignitary to a tense meeting and they're all officers on a ship with a militaristic sense of order but it seems to me things could have been planned better. All and all it seems like quite a bit happens over the span of 12 to 16 hours.
Some great moments:
Data and Crusher's tap dancing on the holodeck.
The "counseling session" between Data and Troi where Data admits he's thought about one day marrying.
Data having his FotB dance with Keiko during the wedding reception.
Picard welcoming the ship's newest passenger aboard. (A newborn baby in the ship's nursery.)
Great Line:
"I may be pursuing an untamed ornithoid without cause." - Data, suspecting he's on a wild goose chase trying to figure out the transporter accident that had supposedly killed the Vulcan ambassador.
He left off with season 4's "The Loss" which, according to DVD/BD order, puts "Data's Day" up next.
Data's Day takes place over the course of a "typical" day as chronicled by Data in a correspondence to Bruce Maddox (who tried to gain "ownership" of sorts over Data back in season 2, challenging Data's "rights" as a sentient being.) We begin as Data ends his "night watch" on the bridge and end with Data starting night watch at the end. Through the course of the day Data prepares for his role as Father of the Bride in a wedding service between Chief O'Brien and Keiko, Data learning how to dance in preparation for the wedding reception and having to try and act as a liaison between Keiko and O'Brien as the former gets wedding-day jitters. Meanwhile, the ship is transporting a Vulcan ambassador to Romulan space for diplomatic negotiations. Needless to say, everything doesn't go greatly as planned.
I've always found this to be an interesting episode as it the only episode, I believe, where the events in it are entirely narrated by a character giving us some insight into just how life aboard a starship may very-well be like. Made more interesting as the episode follows Data who gives us some insight into how he thinks of humans, human interactions and the various other events that happen over the course of the day.
Largely a "bottle" episode it manages to pull off the day's events pretty well. Probably least interesting is the marriage between Keiko and O'Brien as it seemed like a plot-point that wasn't much needed for a secondary character and a new character, though both would play larger roles in future episodes as well as in Deep Space Nine. Sometimes it can be nice to get to see some of the life of other characters other than the main ones but I'm not sure it was needed here.
The secondary plot centered around the Vulcan ambassador who turns out to be a Romulan spy is more interesting with a solution that comes probably too quickly and seems to me like something that should have been noticed as it was happening. We're often told how safe the transporters are and how very, very, unlikely accidents are given the transporters and all of the levels of redundancies they have. The crew seems to quick to accept this as a "transporter accident: when it initially happens, granted they were under some pressure from the Romulan commander to leave The Neutral Zone/Romulan Space.
Brent Spiner does a good job with Data in this episode but there's a few moments that strike me as "out of character" for a supposedly emotionless android. At one point Data stairs questioningly at the Vulcan Ambassador/Romulan Spy's headdress which it seems to me Data wouldn't do to a dignitary and at another point Data does a double-take at an alien woman getting her hair-died in the ship's salon. Quibbles, sure, but they stood out to me as odd.
The time-line in the episode also seems odd to me. It's his wedding day and O'Brien is on duty to run the transporters? He's Father of the Bride, and worked the night-shift, and Data is on duty? Worf, Riker and the rest of the senior staff are all attending the wedding and they're all on/off duty throughout the day? Granted, they're transporting a dignitary to a tense meeting and they're all officers on a ship with a militaristic sense of order but it seems to me things could have been planned better. All and all it seems like quite a bit happens over the span of 12 to 16 hours.
Some great moments:
Data and Crusher's tap dancing on the holodeck.
The "counseling session" between Data and Troi where Data admits he's thought about one day marrying.
Data having his FotB dance with Keiko during the wedding reception.
Picard welcoming the ship's newest passenger aboard. (A newborn baby in the ship's nursery.)
Great Line:
"I may be pursuing an untamed ornithoid without cause." - Data, suspecting he's on a wild goose chase trying to figure out the transporter accident that had supposedly killed the Vulcan ambassador.
Your filling in for him reminds me of the 80's, when Edward Woodward took ill, and Robert Mitchum took his place for a while starring in The Equalizer! 
