Can't Dream? Night Terrors vs Schisms.

[Maj. Dick]

When I first saw schisms, I didn't care for it because it was a very similar story to the Season 4 episode Night Terrors which was one of my favorites as a kid. Both are about characters not being able to have R.E.M. sleep and are horror themed. I now love both to almost the same degree. I feel like Schisms is more consistent in quality, but Night Terrors is comparable to Exorcist 3 and Nightmare on Elm Street for unsettling creepiness. Everyone dumps on Troi floating in a green void, but the rest of that episode is the best horror the franchise has ever done (The morgue scene is still perfection). Which episode do you prefer?

 

[Mojochi]

I feel like there's a tangible difference between the 2 themes. At its core, Night Terrors is about the terrifying madness of sleep deprivation, the slow descent into loosing control of your mind & grip on reality... and the episode does a marvelous job at putting us in there with them

Schisms is about the Bogeyman who comes in your sleep to do unthinkable things while you are vulnerable, leaving behind the trace of subconscious trauma. It really reaches its peak creep factor in the holodeck recreation.

Granted, both episodes are great Halloween fare, & my favorite depends on how you rate them. Schisms is a better overall execution, but if you're like me & just love to watch the actors do their thing, then Night Terrors is a better choice because you can revel in watching all the cast members totally nail every moment of mental decay, & it sustains the creep factor throughout multiple scenes.

I've never felt more hopelessness from that show than Picard confiding their dire circumstances to Data, who he knows may be their only hope, & the utter dejection he exudes at seeing Data fail to display an adequate level of emotional investment.

Data has "iced" a number of people over the course of the show, his last moments with Kila Marr & Kivas Fajo for example, but that one with Picard really hurt lol

 

[Oddish]

Why would Picard have been upset at that? He knew Data was incapable of emotion. And Data's android nature made him perfect for taking command in that situation.

 

[Mojochi]

Why would Picard have been upset at that? He knew Data was incapable of emotion. And Data's android nature made him perfect for taking command in that situation.

He wasn't upset. He was seemingly crestfallen that Data seemed to not echo the gravity of the situation in tone. Desperate people want to feel like you empathize. Data does not. I'm sure he knew Data understood, but he was exhausted, losing his mind and & stricken with despair... And Data's robotic response just wasn't very encouraging under the circumstance lol

 

[Oddish]

And Data's robotic response just wasn't very encouraging under the circumstance lol

Had I been Picard, I'd have been VERY encouraged. Maybe everyone else was unraveling, but Data was still Data.

 

[Qonundrum]

When I first saw schisms, I didn't care for it because it was a very similar story to the Season 4 episode Night Terrors which was one of my favorites as a kid. Both are about characters not being able to have R.E.M. sleep and are horror themed. I now love both to almost the same degree. I feel like Schisms is more consistent in quality, but Night Terrors is comparable to Exorcist 3 and Nightmare on Elm Street for unsettling creepiness. Everyone dumps on Troi floating in a green void, but the rest of that episode is the best horror the franchise has ever done (The morgue scene is still perfection). Which episode do you prefer?

"Night Terrors" for me (esp. the morgue scene... and especially the Guinan scene:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Now that scene even beats this one:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Or this one:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Or this one:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

!

But I do like the mystery and how it unfolds.


"Schisms" sorta works yet sorta doesn't. At least for me. It's better than a lot of season 6, though.

 

[Mojochi]

Had I been Picard, I'd have been VERY encouraged. Maybe everyone else was unraveling, but Data was still Data.

Really? because by himself he wouldn't have fixed this one. He needed Troi's telepathic communications to have any clue what to do about the problem & if he hadn't had that, if she'd been unable to make sense of them, they'd have all gone mad just like on the Brattain.

He's pretty amazing, but I doubt he could stop 1000 people from killing each other, unless he anesthetized the entire ship, at which point he'd just be alone until the ship died from having it's energy syphoned away by the Tyken's Rift, possibly the energy that powers himself as well.

They escaped by one of the thinnest margins ever in this one, & Data alone would not have saved anybody this time. If anything, as people went insane, his deadpan behavior during it would've been even more infuriating. They'd have maybe even outplayed him, just like they did in The Game, because they'd have begun suspecting him, just like all those crew in ten forward were going conspiracy crazy already.

 

[Oddish]

Night Terrors" for me (esp. the morgue scene... and especially the Guinan scene:

I love both those scenes, especially since it shows that yes, Federation civilians have the right to bear arms... though for me, Schisms edges NT out because of that truly awesome "I've been in this room before" scene on the holodeck.

 

[Qonundrum]

I love both those scenes, especially since it shows that yes, Federation civilians have the right to bear arms... though for me, Schisms edges NT out because of that truly awesome "I've been in this room before" scene on the holodeck.

That's what took me out of the episode. The camerawork is nice, but the computer somehow creates imagery based on very vague input and is 100% perfect each time. 1000000000000% perfect when the table changes from wood to metal.

But the scenes where they dimensionwizzle into the clicky alien realm brought me back in - those were gooooood. Wish they were related to the crawfish in "Conspiracy"...

 

[Yuri Nikolayev]

The thing that scared me most about “Schisms” was the clicking sounds the aliens made.

 

[Oddish]

"I've been in this room before."
"We've all been here before."
Click click click click click click click...

 

[CoveTom]

That's what took me out of the episode. The camerawork is nice, but the computer somehow creates imagery based on very vague input and is 100% perfect each time. 1000000000000% perfect when the table changes from wood to metal.

But the scenes where they dimensionwizzle into the clicky alien realm brought me back in - those were gooooood. Wish they were related to the crawfish in "Conspiracy"...

Yeah, I don't like the holodeck scene at all. It is totally unbelievable, for the reasons you mention. Like, absurdity levels of unbelievable.

 

[Oddish]

Yeah, I don't like the holodeck scene at all. It is totally unbelievable, for the reasons you mention. Like, absurdity levels of unbelievable.

I just head-canoned that when they asked the computer to change the table, it just summoned whichever of its 5047 tables was closest to the new parameters.

 

[Mojochi]

It's an intuitive system, the holodeck. Once they lowered the table, below what would be normal for a table to sit or work at, & then they asked for it to be inclined, it's reasonable IMHO for it to have begun surmising that this table was more in line with an exam table upon which a person would lay. So, that when they asked for it to be made of metal, it naturally called up a general purpose medical type exam table. They aren't that obscure, & it thinks as they expound & clarify. It's always been described as predictive. Is a table so unusual an item that it couldn't suss out a very close facsimile? I really don't think so, myself

 

[Qonundrum]

Yeah, I don't like the holodeck scene at all. It is totally unbelievable, for the reasons you mention. Like, absurdity levels of unbelievable.

The fun thing is, even the lowest-budgeted episode of "Doctor Who" is easier to suspend disbelief over, and I'm presuming it's a combination of budget and screen time limitations for this episode, but it still comes across way too quick'n'easy. Why not instead show an elapsed time sequence to show that they were all deliberating and agreeing on shapes, as that would take the same amount of time to show on screen yet feel far more satisfying as a result? Instead of being plot-by-numbers finger-snappingly perfect the first time around?

 

[DonIago]

^Because it would have cost more to film?

 

[CoveTom]

^Because it would have cost more to film?

I can't imagine significantly so. We're not talking about custom-made sci-fi props, here. We're talking about tables. Surely to goodness the Paramount prop department has a thousand different tables in storage they could have used. And just a hair more time with the actors on the stage, which I'm sure could have been made up elsewhere if it was that big of a deal.

 

[Oddish]

It would also have been more time-consuming. Going from that rectangular conference table to that "ve haff vays of making you talk" dissection/torture table would have taken hundreds of incremental changes.

 

[JamesRye]

I love Night Terrors, it's just great. I like the idea of dream communication and trying to convey technical information with symbols. It has a real nice, creepy tone throughout. It's one of the few instances, where the DVD version might be better than the blu-ray, because it has a weird greenish tint, that was obviously correct for HD.

 

[BillJ]

Two decent episodes, though I'd rather watch "Night Terrors", if forced to choose.