Um...
This episode feels loosely like an episode of 90s Trek except the scriptwriters' drinks were laced with whatever it was the 1960s Batman show writers drank because this episode feels like a glossier yet less colorful production from Batman, where Catwoman is now replaced with Q and Batman with Janeway.
Combined with the more superficial aspects from the hippie movement, "Make love not war" and such, this episode took an iffy idea from "Death Wish" about the big bold continuum and slam dunked it into the gutter of Styx, since Greek myths tell of its gods boinking humans and creating offspring that would(n't) save the world. Granted, Apollo was reall-- wait, he's from TOS and not VOY... No, the episode really wants anyone to believe that these two random individuals will bring on the stork, and everything will be strawberry fields forever as a result.
Going back to "make love, not war", what makes Q so sure that Q and Janeway's to-be kid would stop the Q civil war? Well, no reason apart from cheap laughs, but just coast with it for this 45 minute magic carpet ride. Indeed, for what Q suggests would be something the lot of them would have to do since they're all not going to huddle around the shiny newborn all at once to be distracted from their mutual hatred in the way the Capulets and Montagues hadn't... or rather couldn't, for one fantastically horrid little reason, but that's another story...
And two point five decades on, it's hard to chuckle at this one. While the post-opening credits scenes work hard to improve matters, the pre-credits setup was positively horrific and hideous. Q's known for being cruel and insipid thanks to DS9 showing him as being more than a prankster TNG created him as, but the intent of rape and impregnation since she's clearly not consenting is shockingly bad. Nor is Janeway's jaw-drop indicative of a comedy slaptick reaction but that of outright horror.
Thankfully, as the post-credits scenes begin, Janeway has some first rate retorts or I would have turned off the set and I'm pretty sure a lot of people had switched channels already.
Regardless, Q is now reduced to a hollow shell of his former self, being the butt of jokes. Flanderization strikes again.
Even more so, since Q by the end states he doesn't know how to copulate.
Janeway has to go on and on about instilling virtues and traditions and the rest of it. Which, oddly enough, is one of those few times when sci-fi actually describes a "HOW to do it" with any semblance of accuracy or sincerity, as opposed to showing up at the door and saying "We were just like you but are now advanced, so spack off." For more of this, see TNG season 1 - particularly "The Neutral Zone".
Ditto for the Continuum. The idea of exploring Q's own stomping grounds is about as high concept as it gets. What do they do? Show a desert plain in the episode and then for this sequel they show off some 1860s trinkets that Paramount kept in the costume and set storage department. How is this justified, you ask out of understandably abject boredom?
Why not have Dark Helmet turn to the camera, look into the lens, and asks if everybody understands the plot?
P.S. "Spaceballs" is coming out on 4K blu-ray next year in all that extra definition, HDR, and on-disc bandwidth that you won't see in streaming, especially on anything larger than a 40" set and you're two inches away staring at individual pixel clusters to count the compression artifacts and other issues. You'll thank me later for this pedantry-laden news.
Until then, get "Beetlejuice" because its 4K mastering was given proper attention and looks fantastic. Just don't say his name thrice!
(that clip is not in 4K but it does the comedy a lot better than TQatG...)
Okay, I'll try to focus and get back onto the topic. Obviously this episode is not one of the greatest. Rewatching it today, it's almost on par with "The Outrageous Okona" except "Grey" is actually funny in (a couple of) spots, mostly due to Suzie Plakson being a solid counterpoint that the story desperately needed.
Maybe there's depression afoot, since I used to chortle over the immortal scene:
Yet it felt flat this time. I should check my temperature, I must be ill...
Also, it's almost as if they had chemistry for Chakotay and Janeway brewing here but put that into the garbage disposal so they could rush the last-minute rewrite shipment of Chakotay/Seven instead, which felt so badly contrived and pointless... not that Chakaneway or Jankotay or whatever modern colloquialism would be constructed for these "ships" nowadays (and just as cool "Reylo" too!
) would have worked out, but it'd be the sort of tension that makes for better drama than "Show me this thing you call love", which was just as ticky-tacky when shown on the little boxes in the 1960s too...
Rating: D-
This episode feels loosely like an episode of 90s Trek except the scriptwriters' drinks were laced with whatever it was the 1960s Batman show writers drank because this episode feels like a glossier yet less colorful production from Batman, where Catwoman is now replaced with Q and Batman with Janeway.
Combined with the more superficial aspects from the hippie movement, "Make love not war" and such, this episode took an iffy idea from "Death Wish" about the big bold continuum and slam dunked it into the gutter of Styx, since Greek myths tell of its gods boinking humans and creating offspring that would(n't) save the world. Granted, Apollo was reall-- wait, he's from TOS and not VOY... No, the episode really wants anyone to believe that these two random individuals will bring on the stork, and everything will be strawberry fields forever as a result.
Going back to "make love, not war", what makes Q so sure that Q and Janeway's to-be kid would stop the Q civil war? Well, no reason apart from cheap laughs, but just coast with it for this 45 minute magic carpet ride. Indeed, for what Q suggests would be something the lot of them would have to do since they're all not going to huddle around the shiny newborn all at once to be distracted from their mutual hatred in the way the Capulets and Montagues hadn't... or rather couldn't, for one fantastically horrid little reason, but that's another story...
And two point five decades on, it's hard to chuckle at this one. While the post-opening credits scenes work hard to improve matters, the pre-credits setup was positively horrific and hideous. Q's known for being cruel and insipid thanks to DS9 showing him as being more than a prankster TNG created him as, but the intent of rape and impregnation since she's clearly not consenting is shockingly bad. Nor is Janeway's jaw-drop indicative of a comedy slaptick reaction but that of outright horror.
Thankfully, as the post-credits scenes begin, Janeway has some first rate retorts or I would have turned off the set and I'm pretty sure a lot of people had switched channels already.
Regardless, Q is now reduced to a hollow shell of his former self, being the butt of jokes. Flanderization strikes again.
Even more so, since Q by the end states he doesn't know how to copulate.
Janeway has to go on and on about instilling virtues and traditions and the rest of it. Which, oddly enough, is one of those few times when sci-fi actually describes a "HOW to do it" with any semblance of accuracy or sincerity, as opposed to showing up at the door and saying "We were just like you but are now advanced, so spack off." For more of this, see TNG season 1 - particularly "The Neutral Zone".Ditto for the Continuum. The idea of exploring Q's own stomping grounds is about as high concept as it gets. What do they do? Show a desert plain in the episode and then for this sequel they show off some 1860s trinkets that Paramount kept in the costume and set storage department. How is this justified, you ask out of understandably abject boredom?
Why not have Dark Helmet turn to the camera, look into the lens, and asks if everybody understands the plot?
P.S. "Spaceballs" is coming out on 4K blu-ray next year in all that extra definition, HDR, and on-disc bandwidth that you won't see in streaming, especially on anything larger than a 40" set and you're two inches away staring at individual pixel clusters to count the compression artifacts and other issues. You'll thank me later for this pedantry-laden news.
Until then, get "Beetlejuice" because its 4K mastering was given proper attention and looks fantastic. Just don't say his name thrice!(that clip is not in 4K but it does the comedy a lot better than TQatG...)
Okay, I'll try to focus and get back onto the topic. Obviously this episode is not one of the greatest. Rewatching it today, it's almost on par with "The Outrageous Okona" except "Grey" is actually funny in (a couple of) spots, mostly due to Suzie Plakson being a solid counterpoint that the story desperately needed.
Maybe there's depression afoot, since I used to chortle over the immortal scene:
Yet it felt flat this time. I should check my temperature, I must be ill...
Also, it's almost as if they had chemistry for Chakotay and Janeway brewing here but put that into the garbage disposal so they could rush the last-minute rewrite shipment of Chakotay/Seven instead, which felt so badly contrived and pointless... not that Chakaneway or Jankotay or whatever modern colloquialism would be constructed for these "ships" nowadays (and just as cool "Reylo" too!
) would have worked out, but it'd be the sort of tension that makes for better drama than "Show me this thing you call love", which was just as ticky-tacky when shown on the little boxes in the 1960s too...Rating: D-
