Masks?

[LMFAOschwarz]

No one ever talks about this episode. But to be honest, I'm not sure what I can say. I haven't seen it in many, many years, but the main things I recall are the ship vaporizing some comet with a probe or something inside. I remember thinking that was pretty cool. Next, I remember clay masks and plants and stuff all over the ship. Several people were speaking through Data, one was some old guy that was cold. I remember being confused. I'm confused now.

Does this episode make sense, or do I just not remember it well enough?

 

[shapeshifter]

Sucks?

I thought it did, anyway. I remember seeing the previews and thinking, Oh boy, that is going to be great! They sure fooled me.

 

[Mojochi]

It was clearly a vehicle for Spiner as an actor. The rest of the plot is ultimately sophomoric, & the premise is one of the weakest sci-fi concepts they'd ever had

In more recent times, some of the cast, like Marina Sirtis have stated they regret not being more vocal with the writers about their character development, because the actors who did collaborate in those ways, like Spiner, or Picardo on Voyager were very often given more spotlight to showcase themselves

That can work out extremely well in some cases, like The Offsrping or Data's Day, & it can also backfire sometimes & you get Masks or Fistful of Datas, which was another hack job made just so Spiner could break away from playing such a stagnant character

I confess I don't begrudge him that too much though, because Spiner's origins were in comedy acting, and his longest job ever was playing the straightest straight man of all time. In some ways, it must have been torture for him. lol

 

[Zippo and Flask]

It was clearly a vehicle for Spiner as an actor. The rest of the plot is ultimately sophomoric, & the premise is one of the weakest sci-fi concepts they'd ever had

In more recent times, some of the cast, like Marina Sirtis have stated they regret not being more vocal with the writers about their character development, because the actors who did collaborate in those ways, like Spiner, or Picardo on Voyager were very often given more spotlight to showcase themselves

That can work out extremely well in some cases, like The Offsrping or Data's Day, & it can also backfire sometimes & you get Masks or Fistful of Datas, which was another hack job made just so Spiner could break away from playing such a stagnant character

I confess I don't begrudge him that too much though, because Spiner's origins were in comedy acting, and his longest job ever was playing the straightest straight man of all time. In some ways, it must have been torture for him. lol

I've always felt the character of Data was superbly acted by Spiner. In my humble opinion, I never cared for his take on the other characters he played (that I've seen) for which he was required to do comedy acting, with a notable exception made for Bob Wheeler.

 

[wulfio]

I enjoyed seeing Spiner playing different characters. Brothers was probably one of my favourite Data episodes.

 

[MikeS]

Fistful of Data's is not generally liked? I am constantly surprised on these boards. I thought it was fun.

 

[Last Redshirt]

The only reason why I didn't write the episode off as just another generic TNG episode was Spiner's acting, which was superb as usual.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I just recently rewatched Season 7 for the first time in years and years, and this episode struck me as one that you'd have to be stoned to appreciate.

 

[Salinga]

Spiner talking about "Masks" (at minute 47):

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtif-1edUu4&t=47m46s[/yt]

 

[Makarov]

For some reason I have a memory of being a kid and watching Masks thinking it was a great episode. I think it was on TV late at night when I should have been sleeping since it was a school night. I need to watch this episode again and see if it compares to my nostalgic feelings about it.

 

[Melakon]

I just recently rewatched Season 7 for the first time in years and years, and this episode struck me as one that you'd have to be stoned to appreciate.

It's another one by Joe Menosky, who freuently wrote weirdass scripts I liked for their concepts. But he must have been stoned when writing this one.

 

[Mojochi]

I've always felt the character of Data was superbly acted by Spiner. In my humble opinion, I never cared for his take on the other characters he played (that I've seen) for which he was required to do comedy acting, with a notable exception made for Bob Wheeler.

I can't disagree with that, though I do like him playing himself in his web series, & I do like him as Lore & Soong too

 

[Trekker4747]

No one ever talks about this episode. But to be honest, I'm not sure what I can say. I haven't seen it in many, many years, but the main things I recall are the ship vaporizing some comet with a probe or something inside. I remember thinking that was pretty cool. Next, I remember clay masks and plants and stuff all over the ship. Several people were speaking through Data, one was some old guy that was cold. I remember being confused. I'm confused now.

Does this episode make sense, or do I just not remember it well enough?

Masks? Oh, you mean that episode where they spent the rest of the season's production budget on Spiner chewing scenery for an hour?

Terrible, terrible episode, and my problems with it just BEGIN with Spiner's scenery chewing.

 

[varek]

As LMFAOschwarz says, "Masks" is a somewhat confusing episode. In some ways, it presages the Borg's takeover of the Enterprise-E in First Contact.

From some of the actors' and crews' interviews, most of them didn' seem to like that episode, for one reason or another. Sometimes for several reasons: it was so unusual; it was exotic, but had no real purpose (moral); they didn't have adequate time to prepare for it; etc.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Masks_(episode)

I always wondered if they could ever really get the ship clean after those contaminating incidents.

 

[T'Girl]

Masks is one of extremely few Trek episodes that I will turn off as soon as I realize what episode it is. I've seen it only twice.

 

[RoJoHen]

For reasons beyond my comprehension, I have always really enjoyed "Masks."

And I don't even like Brent Spiner!

 

[wulfio]

Love that anecdote about filming masks.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

I love Masks. One of my favourite S7 episodes.

 

[RAMA]

No one ever talks about this episode. But to be honest, I'm not sure what I can say. I haven't seen it in many, many years, but the main things I recall are the ship vaporizing some comet with a probe or something inside. I remember thinking that was pretty cool. Next, I remember clay masks and plants and stuff all over the ship. Several people were speaking through Data, one was some old guy that was cold. I remember being confused. I'm confused now.

Does this episode make sense, or do I just not remember it well enough?

Its been the topic of more threads than most episodes. Here was the mother of Masks threads, where I explain pretty thoroughly just why it didn't suck, and is in fact one of the best episodes of STNG:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=140025&highlight=Masks

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I love Masks. One of my favourite S7 episodes.

It's one of mine as well. It's just very weird and a bit creepy and I like that. I think that makes it stand out amidst a lot of mediocre to awful season 7 episodes.