First off, kudos to Stewart and McFadden who pretty much steal the show with every scene each is in as they're carrying the bulk of this episode.
There's some good banter between Worf and Geordi too, as well as Geordi taking command for the 3 seconds he's not in his favorite hangout of Engineering because they didn't hire the 18th temporary chief engineer by that that point, but it's starting to gel as to why Geordi would go from Helm to Engineering - he can pilot a ship but he's got the technical expertise to keep the ship from going *boom*. That and season 2 ended any potential for that stupid joke about "blind guy steering the ship, muh-huh muh-huh har-har" once and for all.
There's eye candy for almost everyone.
And while the lengthy speech to Beata about "revolution vs evolution" at the end itself redefines "groan inducing cringe" to new levels, Frakes really belts it out amazingly well. There's no camp, wink or nod, they play it straight. With dialogue season 1 put out on a regular basis, that's no easy task! especially when I was expecting a Beatles bubblegum song to pop up in the background.
The incidental music, much as the case for season one, is probably up there with the acting as to why people kept watching and thus getting the show renewed. This show was well cast and well scored, no matter how variable individual episodes were. And this was early on in the show's run, so issues are inevitable.
The production is clearly trying hard to do an alien world and culture and with a verve that season 1, despite its foibles, succeeds at carrying at with for this episode. There are far worse episodes this season where they weren't trying, but season 1 did have a few shakeups behind the scenes.
Last but maybe not least, they did take some care in the casting to find actors who weren't as muscular for the inhabitants of the planet but found meatier ones for Captain Ramsey and his crew.
There are times I really want to roll with the proceedings and just enjoy it for all its looney tunes antics, yet ultimately cannot... But I'm not sure where the episode stumbles the worst - so, let's count 'em out:
(1) Despite Yar whipping out the tricorder to scan for listening devices, Riker asks remarkably loudly if any such devices exist -- long before Yar had completed the process! After the scan was completed, she should be the one to say "It's safe to talk, there are no listening devices, thank you for not raising your voice and risking our secrecy and mission beforehand." Was TNG hastily commissioned with some of these scripts? Or was this a rejected script from "Get Smart" where Max - I mean Will - stumbles on in to break protocol. No wonder he compliments Yar's abilities to Beata later but, again, it's all by-the-numbers template scripting at best.
(2) Why would Mistress Beata be turned on by the stereotyped traits she otherwise hates for her species and promptly subdues for every male on the planet? Especially as this is not human colony, this is - at most - alleged as an parallel Earth development situation. The episode trying to make a statement trips over itself and unconsciously delivers the opposite! (Actually, this may be intentional, given Riker's lengthy speech to her at the end but that feels more by-the-numbers if not completly accidental than Riker figuring out anything. )
(3) Snowballs survive outside the holodeck?? (Early season one and the show still finding itself but "The Big Goodbye" states simulations cannot leave the holodeck...)
(4) Quazulu Eight - was this field trip in the holodeck? So now the holodeck creates viral outbreaks too. Otherwise, for such a field trip on some planet that took place (how long ago??), were there no adults or anyone else getting sick so quickly after exposure? (Granted, the idea of an airborne virus having a sweet smell to encourage inhaling for propagation is sorta cool, but it's in this bizarre episode that suggests it spreads and activates very quickly, the plot holes are bigger than Mistress Ariel's hair.)
(5) Data states the Odin is a freighter and, because it's not a starship, is not subject to the rules of the Prime Directive. *mic drop* Say whaaaaaaaaaaaa? That's a convenient rule for the Federation to have. Why didn't Kirk and the gang haul themselves around in a freighter then and be saved all of those dramatic moments revolving around the PD.
(6) The guards look like backup singers/models for a Robert Palmer music video. Which reminds me, it's intermission time:
(I feel fairly certain that they borrowed that backdrop for TNG season cast photos too...)
(7) We're alluded to, via verbal infodump, other goofy outfits Riker had to wear on other planets. At this juncture, I'd rather want to see him wearing the feather outfit on Armus 9 than the goofy pastel costume (with 80s angles to reveal that hairy chest that no 70s open-shirt get-up would begin to outdo
.) This costume alone is leagues worse than any shoulder pad engulfing the room. Never mind the smell of all the hairspray... or those well-used spandex Federation uniforms by season 2, eww... but at least we get to see Troi and Yar giggle. Seriously, for all the talk of 24th century evolution, this scene has a superiority complex and would be out of place in TOS. Might work in "The Orville" though, this episode has almost the same feel at times.
(8) When we see the big reveal of Mistress Ariel with her beige/silver clad big butch mulleted hubby (what, it's not one woman sharing six men who also share each other? Drat.), it turns into "Dynasty" on disco biscuits (aka "quaaludes"). Okay, bisco discuits were before my time and I had to look it up but millennials and younger will get a cheap trill over those wacky things their forefathers did back then. Same goes for that typo I'm not fixing...
(9) They could have easily made a statement about the ozone layer being thinned in the planet's atmosphere by all that hairspray used, but then the episode would be trying to say something about something. Even then they were switching to safer methods for hairspray and other propellants since the late-1970s so it wouldn't have been as big an issue anyway.
(10a) Where did Captain Ramsey get the time to re-dye his otherwise lush and alluring mane of hair? What happened that he now has to have that reverse-skunk dye job look?
(10b) Also, silver and beige is the most bizarre juxtaposition of hues ever devised. Something deemed bland next to something deemed lively/party? I'd include "camp" except this episode is playing it so sincerely and not being self-aware (much to its credit) and Studio 54 ended almost a decade earlier anyway...
(11) In the 1960s, sets were lit with bold loud color (but wasn't a trend for most TV shows). In the 1980s, sets were lit sparsely and with puke-inducing pastels like how everyone else does. TNG and TOS never tried futuristic hairdo attempts, so I'll concede every show still has trappings of the time in which it is made. But tat least TOS tried to not lackadaisically wallow in contemporary slang, which TNG season 1 almost bathes in regularly (but later seasons would thankfully and distinctly eschew. And no, I didn't just sneeze...
) But if there is a message about gender equality, it's as much heavy handed as it is existent. It's all presented as a male fantasy wrapped up in a very hollow plot. Even William T Riker, Agent 007-In-Space, isn't doing much for the name of the mission.
(12) When Beata states she's not going to answer the question, so early on in the episode, the audience already guessed prior to that scene survivors existed (thank the opening monologue involving the asteroid and escape pods, the story would be a lot different and possibly even harrowing if there weren't). I think the idea was to add intrigue but it didn't quite work.
So, overall, why not: 2/5, brownie points for the music and some banter and acting that rises above such a script laden containing such inanity that point #9 above is just a trippy coincidence. It's superficially fun but that's about it.
(On edit: Spelling, minor clarifications.)
There's some good banter between Worf and Geordi too, as well as Geordi taking command for the 3 seconds he's not in his favorite hangout of Engineering because they didn't hire the 18th temporary chief engineer by that that point, but it's starting to gel as to why Geordi would go from Helm to Engineering - he can pilot a ship but he's got the technical expertise to keep the ship from going *boom*. That and season 2 ended any potential for that stupid joke about "blind guy steering the ship, muh-huh muh-huh har-har" once and for all.
There's eye candy for almost everyone.
And while the lengthy speech to Beata about "revolution vs evolution" at the end itself redefines "groan inducing cringe" to new levels, Frakes really belts it out amazingly well. There's no camp, wink or nod, they play it straight. With dialogue season 1 put out on a regular basis, that's no easy task! especially when I was expecting a Beatles bubblegum song to pop up in the background.
The incidental music, much as the case for season one, is probably up there with the acting as to why people kept watching and thus getting the show renewed. This show was well cast and well scored, no matter how variable individual episodes were. And this was early on in the show's run, so issues are inevitable.
The production is clearly trying hard to do an alien world and culture and with a verve that season 1, despite its foibles, succeeds at carrying at with for this episode. There are far worse episodes this season where they weren't trying, but season 1 did have a few shakeups behind the scenes.
Last but maybe not least, they did take some care in the casting to find actors who weren't as muscular for the inhabitants of the planet but found meatier ones for Captain Ramsey and his crew.
There are times I really want to roll with the proceedings and just enjoy it for all its looney tunes antics, yet ultimately cannot... But I'm not sure where the episode stumbles the worst - so, let's count 'em out:
(1) Despite Yar whipping out the tricorder to scan for listening devices, Riker asks remarkably loudly if any such devices exist -- long before Yar had completed the process! After the scan was completed, she should be the one to say "It's safe to talk, there are no listening devices, thank you for not raising your voice and risking our secrecy and mission beforehand." Was TNG hastily commissioned with some of these scripts? Or was this a rejected script from "Get Smart" where Max - I mean Will - stumbles on in to break protocol. No wonder he compliments Yar's abilities to Beata later but, again, it's all by-the-numbers template scripting at best.
(2) Why would Mistress Beata be turned on by the stereotyped traits she otherwise hates for her species and promptly subdues for every male on the planet? Especially as this is not human colony, this is - at most - alleged as an parallel Earth development situation. The episode trying to make a statement trips over itself and unconsciously delivers the opposite! (Actually, this may be intentional, given Riker's lengthy speech to her at the end but that feels more by-the-numbers if not completly accidental than Riker figuring out anything. )
(3) Snowballs survive outside the holodeck?? (Early season one and the show still finding itself but "The Big Goodbye" states simulations cannot leave the holodeck...)
(4) Quazulu Eight - was this field trip in the holodeck? So now the holodeck creates viral outbreaks too. Otherwise, for such a field trip on some planet that took place (how long ago??), were there no adults or anyone else getting sick so quickly after exposure? (Granted, the idea of an airborne virus having a sweet smell to encourage inhaling for propagation is sorta cool, but it's in this bizarre episode that suggests it spreads and activates very quickly, the plot holes are bigger than Mistress Ariel's hair.)
(5) Data states the Odin is a freighter and, because it's not a starship, is not subject to the rules of the Prime Directive. *mic drop* Say whaaaaaaaaaaaa? That's a convenient rule for the Federation to have. Why didn't Kirk and the gang haul themselves around in a freighter then and be saved all of those dramatic moments revolving around the PD.
(6) The guards look like backup singers/models for a Robert Palmer music video. Which reminds me, it's intermission time:
(I feel fairly certain that they borrowed that backdrop for TNG season cast photos too...)
(7) We're alluded to, via verbal infodump, other goofy outfits Riker had to wear on other planets. At this juncture, I'd rather want to see him wearing the feather outfit on Armus 9 than the goofy pastel costume (with 80s angles to reveal that hairy chest that no 70s open-shirt get-up would begin to outdo
.) This costume alone is leagues worse than any shoulder pad engulfing the room. Never mind the smell of all the hairspray... or those well-used spandex Federation uniforms by season 2, eww... but at least we get to see Troi and Yar giggle. Seriously, for all the talk of 24th century evolution, this scene has a superiority complex and would be out of place in TOS. Might work in "The Orville" though, this episode has almost the same feel at times.(8) When we see the big reveal of Mistress Ariel with her beige/silver clad big butch mulleted hubby (what, it's not one woman sharing six men who also share each other? Drat.), it turns into "Dynasty" on disco biscuits (aka "quaaludes"). Okay, bisco discuits were before my time and I had to look it up but millennials and younger will get a cheap trill over those wacky things their forefathers did back then. Same goes for that typo I'm not fixing...
(9) They could have easily made a statement about the ozone layer being thinned in the planet's atmosphere by all that hairspray used, but then the episode would be trying to say something about something. Even then they were switching to safer methods for hairspray and other propellants since the late-1970s so it wouldn't have been as big an issue anyway.
(10a) Where did Captain Ramsey get the time to re-dye his otherwise lush and alluring mane of hair? What happened that he now has to have that reverse-skunk dye job look?
(10b) Also, silver and beige is the most bizarre juxtaposition of hues ever devised. Something deemed bland next to something deemed lively/party? I'd include "camp" except this episode is playing it so sincerely and not being self-aware (much to its credit) and Studio 54 ended almost a decade earlier anyway...
(11) In the 1960s, sets were lit with bold loud color (but wasn't a trend for most TV shows). In the 1980s, sets were lit sparsely and with puke-inducing pastels like how everyone else does. TNG and TOS never tried futuristic hairdo attempts, so I'll concede every show still has trappings of the time in which it is made. But tat least TOS tried to not lackadaisically wallow in contemporary slang, which TNG season 1 almost bathes in regularly (but later seasons would thankfully and distinctly eschew. And no, I didn't just sneeze...
) But if there is a message about gender equality, it's as much heavy handed as it is existent. It's all presented as a male fantasy wrapped up in a very hollow plot. Even William T Riker, Agent 007-In-Space, isn't doing much for the name of the mission.(12) When Beata states she's not going to answer the question, so early on in the episode, the audience already guessed prior to that scene survivors existed (thank the opening monologue involving the asteroid and escape pods, the story would be a lot different and possibly even harrowing if there weren't). I think the idea was to add intrigue but it didn't quite work.
So, overall, why not: 2/5, brownie points for the music and some banter and acting that rises above such a script laden containing such inanity that point #9 above is just a trippy coincidence. It's superficially fun but that's about it.
(On edit: Spelling, minor clarifications.)
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