Hollow Pursuits...
- Thread starter Jaespol
- Start date
When I got the DVDs I was watching this series with a friend of mine who was seeing many of these episodes for the first time. When Barclay was struggling over the anti-grav unit and Riker was barking at him he said, "Ok something is going on here because everyone is acting out of character."
I just say we've never seen them deal with this before. Wesley is a kid so can -mostly- be forgiven for his nickname. Picard's use of it was a simple slip of the tounge, and Geordi was just flustered over his "help" seeming so useless.
Yeah they're all sort of acting jerky, but Barclay was a lot to deal with.
I always laugh during the scene where Troi is trying to calm Barclay down. She dims the lights, tells him to close her eyes, she's got her boobs hanging out, she starts talking in a sultry soft voice and she acts all surprised when he freaks out and bolts.
I mean, the guy probably had to change his shorts. I know I would if I were him at the room. She all but mounted him right then and there.
Aside from Troi's line -through stifled laughter- "Well, you are quite tall. Some may find it intimidating."? None.
Holo-Riker is shown to be short -probably done with forced prespective- and he also has a "squeaker"/less deep voice.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Hollow_Pursuits_(episode)#Act_Four
I think they just used a young boy and gave him Riker's voice in ADR, but then he really didn't sound like the real Riker.
I can see points that both sides present, but really what it comes down to is the fact that Barclay was not doing his job. Even if his job is one that can be taken up by others in engineering pretty quickly, I don't think its realistic that the command crew of the Federation Flagship should have to devote time to him dealing with his problems. Unless its Troi who is professionally seeing him, Geordi or Riker involved in his periodic evaluations, or Picard reading one of his reports, the guy should be treated no differently than any other member of the crew.
The one thing I think the rest of the crew did that was off the mark was to go into Barclay's holodeck program. But even then, he should have been working.
I thought that the crew's behavior in this episode was in character, and it's good to see some of the characters acting like jerks for a change 
One of the reasons I always liked Worf on TNG was that he was capable of just being a dick from time to time, without feeling like he needed therapy afterward.
I loved TNG, but the show did overplay the "everything and everyone is perfect" vision of life on the Enterprise. This episode was part of a general shift away from that, which is good. Thematically, this episode had a lot going for it as well. In world with holodecks there's no doubt that Barclay's problem would be a MAJOR problem, but then of course you realize that it is applicable to our world as well.
One of the reasons I always liked Worf on TNG was that he was capable of just being a dick from time to time, without feeling like he needed therapy afterward.
I loved TNG, but the show did overplay the "everything and everyone is perfect" vision of life on the Enterprise. This episode was part of a general shift away from that, which is good. Thematically, this episode had a lot going for it as well. In world with holodecks there's no doubt that Barclay's problem would be a MAJOR problem, but then of course you realize that it is applicable to our world as well.
The first time I saw this episode, it felt a bit forced, too (though I've always liked it - mostly because Reg is one of my absolute favorites). But on subsequent viewings...
You know, Riker really could be a pretty rigid guy - the kind of guy who thinks that since ___ doesn't bother him, it shouldn't bother anybody, and if it does bother someone, that's because that person is flawed. If he lived in the 21st century instead of the 24th, I really can see him, for example, wondering why anybody would need to take a day off from work for a bad cold. "I never get colds," he'd say. "You need to get more exercise and take vitamin C. You'd feel better if you got back to work and had something to take your mind off of it."
I can hear him saying that, with a hearty buffet on the shoulder, and I can imagine wanting to kick him in the ankle.
And I agree with those who have said that Geordi really didn't act out of character - he acted like the nice guy he is, he just didn't quite know what to do with his problem child/needy subordinant.
So I think my first impression was wrong. And Flemm and others are right: It's great to see TNG crew acting like humans instead of paragons.
You know, Riker really could be a pretty rigid guy - the kind of guy who thinks that since ___ doesn't bother him, it shouldn't bother anybody, and if it does bother someone, that's because that person is flawed. If he lived in the 21st century instead of the 24th, I really can see him, for example, wondering why anybody would need to take a day off from work for a bad cold. "I never get colds," he'd say. "You need to get more exercise and take vitamin C. You'd feel better if you got back to work and had something to take your mind off of it."
I can hear him saying that, with a hearty buffet on the shoulder, and I can imagine wanting to kick him in the ankle.
And I agree with those who have said that Geordi really didn't act out of character - he acted like the nice guy he is, he just didn't quite know what to do with his problem child/needy subordinant.
So I think my first impression was wrong. And Flemm and others are right: It's great to see TNG crew acting like humans instead of paragons.
I saw this one ast night and it's pretty bad. The main mystery/threat was totally contrived to bookend the weak Barclay character piece. Barclay's really only crime was not being part of the click. And Picard, who is above clicks as the cool teacher, forcing the cool kids to play with the new nerd. Barclay is an aspergers case who probably would thrive as an engineer today if it wasn't for TNG's world of holier than thouw, perfectly adjusted ubermensches harassing him to be "normal".
I'd say the fact that Barclay was allowing his fantasy life to take over and damage his real life made his character more than just the "new nerd". He had a real problem that needed addressing.
Unfortunately there are fans who allow their insecurities to leak through and perceived this story as an attack on THEM. It applies to anyone who gets too invested in fantasy/hobby life, like the more overeager World of Warcraft gamers.
Unfortunately there are fans who allow their insecurities to leak through and perceived this story as an attack on THEM. It applies to anyone who gets too invested in fantasy/hobby life, like the more overeager World of Warcraft gamers.
That's bordering on an ad hominem. I myself am not an aspergers case, but I have nothing against those who are. I just think that too often TNG people are perfect and look down on the "less perfect".
Think about it, if your Barclay and you're harassed by your fellow officers for so long, you'd retreat to.
You seem to be rejecting the show's premise. Naturally you are free to do that, but I don't see why you would. It is a perfectly plausible premise, especially by Star Trek standards
: Barclay is so absorbed in the fantasy worlds he creates that he has trouble relating to real people and trouble doing his (very demanding) job. That already happens today, mmo games being an especially obvious example. Certainly it would be a problem in a world where one can create far more vivid fantasy worlds on the holodeck.
I don't think there's anything in the ep that suggests Barclay was doing a great job until the crew began maliciously tormenting him, so why not accept the idea that his struggle with holo-addiction is at the root of his problems?
Actually, I think you are the one rejecting the premise of the show. After all, after Barclay is accepted and left to be a neurotic mess without fear of ridicule and nick names he abandons his fantasy world on his own. Picard is the only smart one in the entire episode. He tells Geordi if this guy is not measuring up maybe its as much your problem as his.
Barclay is able to confront his addiction in the end because of the intervention of the crew, the encouragement of Geordi, and the good advice of Picard. Both Riker confronting him and Geordi's support play a role in this. If Barclay had been "left to himself," it is unlikely he would ever have dealt with his problem.
There are also moments where the crew acts like jerks in this episode, but there is no reason to believe that if they had just left him alone everything would have been alright.
Barclay is not left to be a "neurotic mess," he has confronted his addiction. Naturally a problem of this kind could not be wrapped up in an hour, but that is a limitation of the show's episodic nature. Anyway, all indications are that he will continue to work to control his addiction with the support of the crew.
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Barclay's neuroses don't stem from the holodeck. I mean, I guess you could see it your way, but the "intervention" comes off more of a privacy invading disaster than a sucsess. The real turning point is after the holodeck confrontation where Barclay saves the ship and is taken seriously, maybe despite the horrible tension between him and the crew. Barclay doesn't need the fantasy world to empower him because he has been empowered in the real world.
With much help and encouragement from Geordi during that scene specifically to aid in that empowerment. That is exactly what Picard, Troi and Geordi (not to mention Guinan) have been working toward throughout the episode.
There are definite moments of insensitivity with regard to Barclay in this episode, but overall the crew helps to empower him.
I think one could definitely argue that Riker intruding into the fantasy world might have helped to dissipate its illusion of reality, but I agree this is entirely open to interpretation (which is not a weakness of the episode).
Basically the episode is about an individual coping with an addiction, and his crewmates learning to understand it, and to help him cope with it. We don't really know what is at the root of Barclay's addiction, though it's established that his neuroses began before he was posted to the Enterprise.
We could imagine that Barclay was doing great until his addiction crept into his life, or we can imagine that he was treated cruelly and therefore retreated to his addiction. The episode doesn't deal with the origins, it deals with the an addiction that has already entrenched itself in a cyclical pattern: retreating too often into a fantasy world causes Barclay to perform poorly at work and relate poorly to others, those people have a hard time relating to him, Barclay becomes ever increasingly self-conscious, which causes Barclay to retreat deeper into his addiction, and so on.
Actually, the episode does note that Barclay had an exemplary recommendation from his previous posting. They assumed the recommendation was just a way to get Barclay transferred, but we don't know for sure. He may very well have been doing a great job before having to deal with the Enterprise crew.
You're right, this is the conversation I was thinking of, and your comment refreshes my memory.
However, I believe the point stands: we don't know whether his descent into addiction is caused by the crew's difficulty relating to him, or whether his growing addiction produced a change in behavior on his part, which in turn led to difficulties on the job.
The episode deals with a cyclical pattern that is already in place.
I don't see why someone would just become addicted to something like VR if there wasn't something puching him into it. For your theory to work you would have to say that Barclay is a neurotic because of the Holodeck and leaving it would cure him. Judging from his other episodes it doesn't.
Riker, Geordi, and Wesley all had no idea Barclay was a VR addict when they started bullying him with nick names and such. And if Barclay's addiction to VR was solely his own problem then why was his fantasy life about torturing his crewmates? Obviously he's in the holodeck to get even for his treatment. That's about all I can possibly say on the matter.
In VOY we see that he was still using the deck for other things as well. I doubt it was all about revenge on his crewmates. That was just one particular set of programs. It was to get us empathize more with the immediate episode, it wasn't the basis for all of his problems.
