Absolutely agreed on Brent. He’s excellent at playing Data and… that’s it? Everything else he does is wall to wall ham and cheese.
DS9: Playing God Yay! A Jadzia episode! I love coming upon her kicking butt in Tonga. Dax is training Arjin, a Trill who wants to be joined. Meanwhile, Miles is trying to get rid of pests. Dax and her trainee go through the wormhole and pick up a mysterious thingamajig, which turns out to be a baby universe. Dax is worried that Arjin won't bring anything to being a host, as he's doing it to please his father and has no ambitions of his own. When she confronts him with her concerns, he blows up at her and stalks off. Later, he's drinking and Quark gives him a supremely unhelpful talk. The baby universe is expanding and will destroy the station. But, there also appears to be life in it, so if they destroy it in self-defense... Ah, moral dilemmas! A good episode. We get some nice insight into Jadzia, both who she was before joining and who she is now as Dax. Terry does a really nice job here.
TNG: Eye of the Beholder (a title that makes me think of a D&D joke...) We open with a suicide(!). Riker tries to stop him, but Lieutenant Kwan jumps into the plasma discharge in one of the warp nacelle tubes. Picard says he's never had to notify loved ones of a suicide before, so it must be rare. Understandably, everyone is fairly shook up. Deanna is tasked with investigating Kwan's last few days for a clue as to what happened. She talks to his girlfriend and his supervisor. While looking at the nacelle tube, she's overwhelmed by emotions. She goes back later and actually sees a vision from 8 years ago when Enterprise was being built. It seems to be through Kwan's eyes - he was somewhat empathic. Worf has an incredibly awkward conversation with Riker. Is this the beginning of the Worf/Troi thing? Whoa! There's a body in the wall! A murder mystery! Usually, I'd consider the twist ending a copout, but in this case, Marina kept me engaged in the episode enough that I didn't mind it. A nice spotlight episode for Troi.
One one of my favorites in this season. I love the idea of the imprinting in a environment and a follow up mystery.
We really must never speak of these dates again. Is that really so? I didn't think it was that disliked.
Yeah, even the cast and BTS folks weren’t satisfied with Masks. There’s some good ideas in it, but ‘Brent’s Genius’ reaches a breaking point. Due to a lack of time. He claims.
In all seriousness, other than Data what are some genius Spiner performances? Bob Wheeler on Night Court is pretty terrific. I think it falls apart a bit by relying on the "Loki" character because it's just "mean and evil Brent" which is too much like Lore or Borg Data or any other "bad guy" that they made Brent play. I really liked the old man. I watched Playing God and thought it was terrific. DS9 did a fair number of interesting Trill episodes. (And I'll take them over Klingon or, Prophets save us, Ferengi episodes any day.) The scene where Jadzia Dax speaks about Jadzia AND Curzon as separate people from herself is amazing. Jumping WAY ahead, I honestly don't think that Dax's story is complete without Ezri. That is, our experience of the Trill as an audience isn't complete without, well, getting to see the next Doctor Who. To paraphrase A Few Good Men, Terri Ferrel's story, while a (small) tragedy made a better show. I haven't been able to get through Eye of the Beholder. I just know that it's "The one where you see the inside of the nacelle". Reminder: 20 March – DS9: Profit and Loss 21 March – TNG: Genesis That month went FAST.
I don't think that necessarily means anything, actors often can't judge their performance or the edited episode till afterwards and lots of them don't watch the finished episodes.
The problems with Masks are documented. It was a very rushed production. I believe Spiner was creating the different characters for the episode literally a few hours before it was time to shoot. All power if you like Masks. I don’t have any strong feelings about it one way or the other. The general consensus from both fandom and those who worked on it is that it was a failure, but then I like Spock’s Brain so every episode has it’s fans. “Brent Spiner found this episode to be one of his most difficult acting assignments on the series. "I had some good stuff seventh season. I just wish they had been scheduled differently. I got the script for 'Masks' on the night before we shot it and I was finishing "Thine Own Self" the midnight before, so I didn't have the time to even absorb the script and digest it and figure out who these people were that I was playing…I think I said to Jeri at the time, 'Give me six months and I think I could give all the characters their due,' but as it was, I didn't know who these people were and so I was doing instant acting and just coming up with whatever I was coming up with because we had to put it to film."
Interesting to me because I recall both Brent and the episode being highly praised at the time. It's a real standout to me like I said. I'll reiterate that actors are often not good judges of finalized episides or their own work and most have never even seen a fraction of the final episodes. The episode reinforces the idea to me that Picard should have immersed himself in his archeological work after he retired instead of a farm he has little attachment to.
DS9: Profit and Loss Poor Quark! Three Cardassians come on the station and one is a woman Quark loved and still loves. They also happen to be dissidents, so the Cardassians want them dead. Garak is given the assignment to kill them and "maybe" his exile will stop. This is a nice, juicy episode, giving backstory to both Quark and Garak, as well as some really nice scenes for both Shimmerman and Robinson. Odo gets some good stuff in here too.
TNG: Genesis "Are we not men? No, we are Devo!" What a weird-ass episode! It starts off fine - Spot and Alyssa are pregnant, Barclay is being a hypochondriac (anticipating those who search the web for symptoms now), and Worf is frustrated by a weapons test malfunction. Picard and Data go off to pick up a misfired torpedo. People start gradually changing. Picard and Data come back and find everyone devolved. Some of the makeup is better than others. The whole thing is a bit off the rails. Enjoyable, definitely creepy, but not a top tier ep. Note: Gates McFadden directed this.
Finally finished Eye of the Beholder! The inside of the nacelle! Oooooh. Oh good, the Enterprise is a day late. We can get rid of that pesky climate change metaphor again. Worf: I too have sought visions in fire. Ok, I still don't think they're a couple, but this is a nice moment. Wait, so how was Worf talking to Riker part of Deanna's hallucination? I remembered why she was having the hallucinations. But I didn't remember that none of it was real. (Um. Spoiler?) Arguably a better than average episode. Seven episodes to go! (Less if you're on time.) I might catch up on the TNG episodes and circle back on the DS9? Dunno. I'm late for my own thread! Here's where we're (you're?) at. 20 March – DS9: Profit and Loss 21 March – TNG: Genesis 27 March – DS9: Blood Oath (Classic Klingons!) 28 March – TNG: Journey's End (Wesley!)
Profit and Loss Just going from memory this might be the best Quark episode. It's got everything that's good in a Quark ep and very little that's bad. (Zero Nagus.) This is helped by ALSO being a Garak episode. Almost none of Quark's relationships with other Ferengi are interesting because almost none of the other Ferengi are believable. But Quark can be. Sometimes. Garak is not only amazing, but here he's in the upper levels of amazing for the series. He's perfectly balanced (as all things should be.) Other plots will push him further in what we know, or think we know. His motivations will become clearer. But this is just far enough in every direction. And of course, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.
Genesis Barclay! Last Barclay? (Apparently yes.) He's so good. Did Ogawa have a kid in the movies? Doctor Selar: The most name dropped single appearance crew person on the Enterprise? "We've put the director into stasis so she'll be free not to appear in any more scenes." Whatever you want to say about Bragga, he knew how to get off of the beaten path. It was... OK? I hate it when what should be a run of the mill process produces SOMETHING NOBODY HAS EVER SEEN BEFORE. I mean, what if this happened on Earth? It's only weird because they're IN SPACE. See also, creating Moriarty by accident just by asking. Six episodes of TNG left.