Episode of the Week: 3x25 "Transfigurations"

[Jeyl]

Sorry for the delay. Our episode opens with the Picard making a log entry regarding the Enterprise being on a "routine assignment" to explore an uncharted system. Cut to Ten Forward, we learn that Geordi has officially dumped the "every time you touch me" Enterprise from "Booby Trap" in favor of Christie, the girl dumped Geordi in the teaser portion of that same episode. It's continuity nods like this that make me want to give the writers huge props for remembering things from previous episodes, until this exchange...

Geordi: Don't stare.
Worf: Why not?
Geordi: Because she'll see.
Worf: Good. You must let her see the fire in your eyes.​

First time I heard this exchange, I actually thought it was funny since it made Worf look totally oblivious to Geordi's situation. But the following exchange kind of destroys that notion.

Geordi: But what would I say?
Worf: Words come later. It is the scent that first speaks of love.
Geordi: Thanks, Worf. That helps a lot.​

All they had to do was cut those next two exchanges and it would have been perfect.

Moving on, the Enterprise finds a crashed ship with a severely injured alien and we finally get to see Beverly Crusher put her expertise to good use. She uses Geordi's mind to help stabilize the alien, which of course causes something to go from the alien into Geordi's head. On a side note, the make up done on this alien is quite.... graphic to say the least. The left side of this guy's face not only shows his cheek ripped open showing his teeth, but you can also see his exposed brain... and his arm is gone! Was Peter Jackson a guest in the make up department when this episode was being made?

After being named John Doe, he starts to show some interesting abilities. Not only did that Geordi brain thing make him get lucky with Christie, he also heals O'Brien's broken shoulder! Unfortunately, that's about all the respect I have for Doe because I'm not a fan of one-shot characters who the female characters have a special attachment to and just leave. It also doesn't help that his attire looks like he swiped it off from a background extra from Star Trek: The Motion Picture because his outfit shows more details of his anatomy than his injured make up did. Another unfortunate side effect of making him "special" was introducing the "Aliens will always kick Worf's butt" schtick. Worf's death in the hanger is so hilarious that every time Worf talks about Honor and Glory, I play that clip back in my head of him falling over the rail wailing all the way down.

So a bunch of aliens show up, demand Doe to be beamed over so they can kill him, Doe says you can't stop the people from evolving, they leave and so does Doe. You know, for an episode that spans more than a month, it sure ends on a very abrupt note. He turns into energy, goes through the ceiling window, the end. It just feels kind of rushed.

It's a pity that Doe had to leave that very moment because, unbeknownst to him, leaving the Enterprise has cursed everyone he helped with his powers. Geordi's newly found confidence in building a relationship will be long gone after this episode (as well as Christie), Beverly will still be Beverly, and O'Brien's shoulder will constantly dislocate throughout TNG AND DS9!

CONCLUSION: An overall forgettable episode. It's kind of sad when the writers choose to stick with schticks like O'Brien's shoulder and Worf getting his butt kicked over and over again by aliens rather than genuine character moments like Geordi's love life. *looks at watch* Oh, good. They're almost here.

STINGER:

 

[jimbotron]

Very forgettable. That's not helped by the fact it precedes arguably the best episode of the show. When doing a run of the show, I generally skip it because I want to get to BOBW.

 

[Use of Time]

Cool concept but the episode itself was very sluggish.

 

[BillJ]

Cool concept but the episode itself was very sluggish.

This.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

It's a S3 episode that I've revisit the least, not because it's the worst of the season, it's just unremarkable. The only fun part of the episode is in Ten Forward where Gerodi, Data and Worf are sitting together, the first two are technobabbling off while Worf looks irritated "Less talk, more Synthehol!" And of course Geordi finally mans up and gets laid with that girl he had been pining for the whole season. And Worf taking credit!

 

[The Old Mixer]

Occasionally they do give Geordi or another character lines that seem to forget Geordi's condition. Last night I was watching "Realm of Fear"...at one point Geordi tells Barclay that he looks a little pale. Given what we know of Geordi's vision, I imagine that he might detect all sorts of tells that would indicate the same physical state, but "looking a little pale" seems kind of ordinary and shallow for his visor to be picking up.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Occasionally they do give Geordi or another character lines that seem to forget Geordi's condition. Last night I was watching "Realm of Fear"...at one point Geordi tells Barclay that he looks a little pale. Given what we know of Geordi's vision, I imagine that he might detect all sorts of tells that would indicate the same physical state, but "looking a little pale" seems kind of ordinary and shallow for his visor to be picking up.

That's so true. They didn't do nearly as much with Geordi's perspective on the wold as they could have. First Season's Heart of Glory had that bit I liked about Geordi seeing the weakened metal on the other ship. I would imagine an engineer would benefit tremendously by being able to selectively see bands of the energy spectrum. Heck, he's probably even learned stuff like being able to tell the temperature of a heat source at a glance!

 

[jimbotron]

In The Masterpiece Society, he's able to see that lady was making up stories about a crack in the bio-dome. Yet in Disaster, he doesn't notice the heat coming from the wall in the cargo bay. Beverly only notices after she touches the wall.

I'm so glad Burton was able to make it work. From an acting standpoint, covering his eyes for 99% of his screentime is a huge disadvantage.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

Yeah, whenever his vision was used I thought it was refreshing because it really is something he would only pick up on. Like in "The Masterpiece Society", he knows the crack on the biodome is bullshit because he can see there is none. In "Up the Long Ladder" he can detect when humans can lie. At least in FIRST CONTACT he has telescope vision when tracking down Cochrane, something he references in "Hide and Q" when he says "I could see the freckles on his nose if he had any".

 

[T'Girl]

In The Masterpiece Society, he's able to see that lady was making up stories about a crack in the bio-dome. Yet in Disaster, he doesn't notice the heat coming from the wall in the cargo bay. Beverly only notices after she touches the wall.

Geordi has stated that the visor causes him pain, possibly the more advanced features increase the pain and so he sees "normally" unless there's a reason go beyond that.

What the Duras sisters were seeing through his visor in Generations might be what Geordi actually sees the majority of the time.

 

[The Old Mixer]

But it's been established more than once that he doesn't see normally...most dramatically when he breaks down in front of Tasha in "The Naked Now"; when Q-powered Riker briefly gives him normal sight; and in Insurrection. Also, when the others are using the VISOR-cam in "Heart of Glory", he seems surprised that the others don't see some of the things that he does.

 

[MikeS]

Very forgettable. That's not helped by the fact it precedes arguably the best episode of the show. When doing a run of the show, I generally skip it because I want to get to BOBW.

I was about to call this episode "The episode I always fast-forwarded through on the BOBW VHS tape". As a result, this is only the third time I've seen it!

On a side note, the make up done on this alien is quite.... graphic to say the least. The left side of this guy's face not only shows his cheek ripped open showing his teeth, but you can also see his exposed brain... and his arm is gone! Was Peter Jackson a guest in the make up department when this episode was being made?

I'd rather that than the Tasha Yar "death-splat" from the first season!

 

[MakeshiftPython]

Yeah, Geordi's thing is "I see way too much", never understood why that was a negative from his perspective but I never had to see the entire EM spectrum so I can't say.