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"Dark Page"

Totally Ok with your right to your opinion. I actually think "Shades of Gray" is better than its reputation suggests.

Of course I accept your opinion in this too...but I don't get it, it's a clip show interspersed with moments of Deanna and Pulaski cringing. What do you like about it?

Regarding "Dark Page", Lwaxana erases seven years of her life from existence, but what about everyone else she knew and had dealings with in that time. Did she sever all ties with anyone who would have acknowledged that Kestra existed?

I mean part of it is, that it's a tv episode and logic sometimes is sacrificed to accomodate that.

But in universe, the Betazoids seem to be weird about grief and sadness. I remember an episode were Troi said that when her father died the other Betazoids just kept pulling the thoughts of him out of her mind so that she wouldn't feel sad (which sounds like an extremely bad idea in regards to her mental health and her grieving process tbh)
Maybe the Betazoids who knew about Lwaxana and Kestra constantly felt Lwaxana's unresolved trauma in regards to Kestra and kept themselves in check, or wif we want to go wild, maybe Lwaxana broadcast some sort of mental shield that kept those in her surroundings from thinking about and mentioning Kestra.
If this caused them to behave weirdly around Lwaxana, then that might just have fed into her increasingly eccentric behaviour, maybe she felt people were keeping something back, but due to her own repression couldn't link it to Kestra, so she became increasingly louder and in-your-face.

You know for a species that, supposedly can feel each others emotions and thoughts, the Betazoids don't seem very smart when it comes to mental processes.
 
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Of course I accept your opinion in this too...but I don't get it, it's a clip show interspersed with moments of Deanna and Pulaski cringing. What do you like about it?

1. Pulaski. Still one of the best Trek Docs ever.
2. The clips. Some of them were actually pretty good.
3. Riker's scenes with Picard and Troi, where he's facing the very real possibility of death.
4. The ending, with Riker, Picard, and Data... it was actually kind of funny.
5. Given the time and budget, this was not going to be a good episode. But they did the best they could.
 
1. Pulaski. Still one of the best Trek Docs ever.
2. The clips. Some of them were actually pretty good.
3. Riker's scenes with Picard and Troi, where he's facing the very real possibility of death.
4. The ending, with Riker, Picard, and Data... it was actually kind of funny.
5. Given the time and budget, this was not going to be a good episode. But they did the best they could.

Of course we disagree about Pulaski, but fair enough.
 
Shades of Grey never bothered me. I guess a lifetime of sitcom watching had just prepared me to accept characters occasionally sitting down to some cheesecake to talk about old times.

I think if you watch it while keeping in mind that such a thing was part of the vocabulary of television back then, then it's easier to watch. Its often interesting to me to learn why such episodes happened, not just in TNG. Sometimes it was a budget saver, some times it was cast, writers and crew putting an 'easy' episode on the slate to give themselves a break during a punishing schedule... It was just as you say, talking about old times all misty eyed, but it happened all over TV at the time.

I think the episode is kind of an artifact and actually rather charming when viewed that way.
 

And I disagree with all the points they make. Plus, I don't know where the idea comes from that Pulaski was "cranky". From what I remember, she seemed to react to most things with a slightly amused smile.

My main problem with the character isn't even the way she treats Data in the first couple episodes. Instead the character is too "sober" for me. As I said in another thread, I don't think Pulaski had a romantic bone in her body, for example.
When she had her various marriages she probably already pencilled 'divorce by this date' into her electronic organizer.
 
Plus, I don't know where the idea comes from that Pulaski was "cranky"
Well there's this.
Instead the character is too "sober" for me. As I said in another thread, I don't think Pulaski had a romantic bone in her body, for example.
I agree. I didn't even buy the Kyle Riker connection, nor the developing friendship with Worf.. It doesn't play IMHO.

But that in itself wouldn't make her seem cranky. However, she is rather argumentative with Picard... often, & her behavior toward Data is at best intolerant. Plus, for what it's worth, the natural timbre of the actress' voice is sharp, much more so than say Gates McFadden's was.

So... Sober, often argumentative, somewhat intolerant, & sharp toned. She may not actually BE cranky, but it's easy to see how a viewer might think of her that way.

That said, a lot of those same attributes had her seeming like she was the better doctor of the 2 IMHO. Like an "all business" kind of person... no wedding dance lessons coming from her lol
 
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As I've understood many people find Lwaxana annoying sometimes.
Perhaps that's not who she really is but she is in some kind of "role" trying to hide her pain after losing a daughter.
She can't be herself in public?
Then when she is alone with someone like Timicin in 'Half a Life', that's more like what she really is.
 
I think if you watch it while keeping in mind that such a thing was part of the vocabulary of television back then, then it's easier to watch. Its often interesting to me to learn why such episodes happened, not just in TNG. Sometimes it was a budget saver, some times it was cast, writers and crew putting an 'easy' episode on the slate to give themselves a break during a punishing schedule... It was just as you say, talking about old times all misty eyed, but it happened all over TV at the time.

I think the episode is kind of an artifact and actually rather charming when viewed that way.
Shades of Grey never bothered me. I guess a lifetime of sitcom watching had just prepared me to accept characters occasionally sitting down to some cheesecake to talk about old times.

I disagree. I can still remember clip shows from my childhood, and any time a clipshow came on it was an instant disappointment for me. I always hated them.
So I know the context clipshow had in TV back then, and it doesn't make it any easier to watch.
 
I disagree. I can still remember clip shows from my childhood, and any time a clipshow came on it was an instant disappointment for me. I always hated them.
So I know the context clipshow had in TV back then, and it doesn't make it any easier to watch.

That's fair. I'm aware that I stand in a minority on that one. To be fair there is loads of stuff from my childhood that I absolutely know is crap, but I can enjoy it.
 
If clipshows in Trek were a regular thing, I might take issue with them. But this is one in over 800 episodes. I think I can live with it.

I'm not saying it's existence pains me or anything like that, I'm just refuting the arguments people make in favour of it being anything but useless filler.
Nit saying people have to agree with me either, it's just my perspective.
 
Of course it's filler. They had a tiny budget and a three-day shoot. It was never going to be a masterpiece like "The Visitor" or "Best of Both Worlds". But for what it is, it's not half bad.
 
^I choose to think of it as not half good lol

Honestly if they'd just made the bed stricken person Wesley instead of Riker, & the bedside, grief stricken person Picard instead of Troi, the episode writes itself... & it's a much better one, where you have a far greater wealth of clips to mine, cuz Wes was ALL over the early seasons, & a much heftier plot of the boy Beverly left behind, in Picard's care, facing death

Wheaton gets to just lay there not acting, & Stewart gets to do all the soul searching drama. Win, win, win, win.
 
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