You're getting dangerously close to ad hominem territory... Just an observation.
Imaginary Friend.... why all the hate?
- Thread starter JesterFace
- Start date
You're getting dangerously close to ad hominem territory... Just an observation.
Don't look at my bum: You bum lookers you...
.... I never knew that was a parody of an actual thing. I always thought it was just something bizarre Mike Meyers had came up with all on his own and now my world is shattered.
Well, not completely.
But, kind of stunned a bit.
Actually, "Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings," along other British imports, "Ludwig" and "Crystal Tipps," got U.S. airplay on Captain Kangaroo (the realCaptain Kangaroo, created by and starring Bob Keeshan), in the final seasons. They had, as I recall, supplanted Tom Terrific and Lariat Sam. The Captain Kangaroo airplay may very well be the only reason why Mike Myers and the SNL writing staff had even heard of it, or thought viewers would get their parody.
It’s horrifically boring, tepid, and uninteresting. The actress who plays the evil imaginary girl is grating. And, the cliché of the “invisible alien that only the little kid can see and none of the adults believe in” is painful. It’s just dull, even by TNG standards.
This is bottom-5 TNG material as far as my opinions go.
Otherwise it’s fine I guess.
This is bottom-5 TNG material as far as my opinions go.
Otherwise it’s fine I guess.
You are outright dismissing personal experience.
I have countered your point of view with a comment on what I have seen and was very clear to say that the language/dismissive nature could be deemed inflammatory by people as a friendly reminder that on a sensitive topic such as this it is important to be considerate of others experience.
This is very much playing the ball, not the man.
Speaking about the episode. The girl in the episode didn't seem like she needed to talk to a counselor. Well, I mean, before the alien thing. If she wishes to pretend that she has an imaginary friend then why not? Did she seem unhappy or unbalanced? Why was she consulting at all?
I'd chalk that up to this being an 80's / early 90's series, an era in which therapists were very 'popular' in TV shows. As I've heard someone comment once in a documentary 'only in the era TNG was made would they have put a therapist on the bridge' , or words to that effect.
Most kids have imaginary friends at SOME point in their lives. It's hardly indicative of the need for professional help. It's just something that kids do.
There was a time in the episode when Clara's behaviour was dangerous. Perhaps it wasn't the first time? So she had been seeing the cousellor because of that before the alien friend appeared. Clara's father told us that they had been moving from post to another very often so perhaps Clara had needed some help to adjust to new situations.
I sorta liked this episode at the time, even though it wasn't the pinnacle of the series. It's a return to the idea of the ship having families aboard, a la season one but done with Piller-era's refinements and not the usual "incorporeal critter that takes over kid uses kid to murder all the adults, moohahahaha" shtick.
It uses the ol' trope of "twilight zone mystery aliens" combined with the Trek staple of "aliens want to understand why humans do things the way they do". It's a bit on the soft side, yes, but if people want something truly worthy of reputations such as "bland" or "dumb", there are a few from seasons 5-7 that more readily qualify. "Imaginary Friend" isn't perfect and isn't a classic, but it's got a couple decent enough twists.
Back to good reasons - children have imaginary friends that adults either patronize or disregard offhand. One would think that, in Star Trek Land where incorporeal aliens exist very frequently, no adult would wave away something like this - especially by the 24th century where all of Kirk's documented captain logs (along with everyone else's) should have everyone as accustomed to incorporeal energy fritters as any of Pavlov's poochies would yet don't... but is that the reason the episode is so vehemently disliked? Probably not, but it'd have been a stickler for me at some point... but TOS and TNG are replete with examples, of which Troi of all people as she had her body taken over by such a fritter after x number of times she dealt with energy beings in the past. Nope, Clara is just a child and has schizotypal or whatever disorder can be flung at her like a banana cream pie. Unless Troi has her own disorder and she blocks those memo-
The fact it is returning to some of season 1's notions, after doing sequels and bringing back various characters in season 4 because they had nothing new to do, would be more than enough for some. Never mind this is the same season 5 that already reused season 1 effects such as the Edo ship in "Conundrum"... now comes this episode where they're dipping back into season 1 territory with "kids on the ship" after so many adult-themed episodes, of which not all were all that great (or haven't aged well), that alone might have been jarring for some as well...
But facing one certain fact: The only thing missing from this story that would have been easy pickin's for critics would be if Clara were to pull a Wesley and yelling "I'D BE LISTENED TO IF I WAS AN ADULT!!!" and let's be thankful for that... but it would have been fun if she ditched Calculus to play with the imaginary friend in Engineering to be bumping into all sorts of adults who thankfully weren't at battle stations (of which season 5 is mostly devoid of, so that helps...)
And not just after 2 months of adult-themed episodes, aired after the dismal "Hero Worship" no less, that'd have set people off back in the day as well. Not me; I remember liking "Imaginary Friend", but not loving it. But after a handful of dark scripts comes this fairly lighthearted romp...
I'm sure viewers Clara's age liked it, assuming the parents let them watch after episodes such as test tube babies vs coitus arguments, physical assault, an charismatic fun guy stealing items from around the ship, and other kid-not-friendly-at-all things and all... That, and I still loathed "Hero Worship"'s lame and barrel-scrapin' inanity. Still do, it's one of season 5's weakest. But that's another story...
Did kids like this episode at the time? Or by this time were kids too busy getting Mario to hook up with Princess Peach in Sonic's castle instead?
It uses the ol' trope of "twilight zone mystery aliens" combined with the Trek staple of "aliens want to understand why humans do things the way they do". It's a bit on the soft side, yes, but if people want something truly worthy of reputations such as "bland" or "dumb", there are a few from seasons 5-7 that more readily qualify. "Imaginary Friend" isn't perfect and isn't a classic, but it's got a couple decent enough twists.
Back to good reasons - children have imaginary friends that adults either patronize or disregard offhand. One would think that, in Star Trek Land where incorporeal aliens exist very frequently, no adult would wave away something like this - especially by the 24th century where all of Kirk's documented captain logs (along with everyone else's) should have everyone as accustomed to incorporeal energy fritters as any of Pavlov's poochies would yet don't... but is that the reason the episode is so vehemently disliked? Probably not, but it'd have been a stickler for me at some point... but TOS and TNG are replete with examples, of which Troi of all people as she had her body taken over by such a fritter after x number of times she dealt with energy beings in the past. Nope, Clara is just a child and has schizotypal or whatever disorder can be flung at her like a banana cream pie. Unless Troi has her own disorder and she blocks those memo-
The fact it is returning to some of season 1's notions, after doing sequels and bringing back various characters in season 4 because they had nothing new to do, would be more than enough for some. Never mind this is the same season 5 that already reused season 1 effects such as the Edo ship in "Conundrum"... now comes this episode where they're dipping back into season 1 territory with "kids on the ship" after so many adult-themed episodes, of which not all were all that great (or haven't aged well), that alone might have been jarring for some as well...
But facing one certain fact: The only thing missing from this story that would have been easy pickin's for critics would be if Clara were to pull a Wesley and yelling "I'D BE LISTENED TO IF I WAS AN ADULT!!!" and let's be thankful for that... but it would have been fun if she ditched Calculus to play with the imaginary friend in Engineering to be bumping into all sorts of adults who thankfully weren't at battle stations (of which season 5 is mostly devoid of, so that helps...)
And not just after 2 months of adult-themed episodes, aired after the dismal "Hero Worship" no less, that'd have set people off back in the day as well. Not me; I remember liking "Imaginary Friend", but not loving it. But after a handful of dark scripts comes this fairly lighthearted romp...
I'm sure viewers Clara's age liked it, assuming the parents let them watch after episodes such as test tube babies vs coitus arguments, physical assault, an charismatic fun guy stealing items from around the ship, and other kid-not-friendly-at-all things and all... That, and I still loathed "Hero Worship"'s lame and barrel-scrapin' inanity. Still do, it's one of season 5's weakest. But that's another story...
Did kids like this episode at the time? Or by this time were kids too busy getting Mario to hook up with Princess Peach in Sonic's castle instead?
I put "Hero Worship" on the same level as "Imaginary Friend," which is to say that it's one of the of the TNG episodes I'd turn off if it were on TV now. In fact, "Hero Worship" is probably even worse. Data episodes are typically pretty trying, but Data combined with kids is even worse (see also: Star Trek: Insurrection)
Kid's episodes are usually really bad. Take "Miri", boy did I find this episode annoying. With the dumbest kids ever, repeating bang bang on the head or whatever and beating the shit out of Kirk until inexplicable they changed their "minds" and became friendly and docile. What a piece of trash that episode was but it was golden compared to "And the Children shall lead"... That one really hit rock bottom and then some!!!
Yeah, Data plus Kids equals stupid squared...
Oh, brother. Lives have been saved. MORE people should get therapists for their children. Better to wait until they have a hard-set, full-on personality disorder? This is like saying, "I don't think tumors should be treated early. Let 'em grow and then deal with 'em later if you have to."
That's assuming that psychiatry is a science in its full right. It's not. It doesn't have ANY of the characteristics of true science, It's not falsifiable, there as many theories as there are therapists and there are no real proofs that it does any good. In fact, it's doesn't have more in common with science than a religion does.
You say people feel better talking to their psychiatrist? Well, others say the same thing about their priests. The difference being that a priest doesn't charge you two hundred dollars an hour.
I am not talking about the drug prescription part. That has real effects, especially against schizophrenia but, psychiatry has very little to do with that. Drugs have effects (not always good) and they're not related to any psychological theory.
Addendum:
My mom had terrible panic attacks and a couple people I knew had techniques for pushing through them without medication.
My mom tried once or twice but did not see any progress and kept taking the medicine (Xanax or whatever it is)
.... for years. These medications may have some short-term help in getting through what needs to get through, but my mom is suffering debilitating neuropathy that has doctors baffled and I am looking into long-term physical effects of anti-depressants.
Unfortunately, I know someone who's suffering from Alzheimer and they are still young (barely fifty!!!). I've talked to many specialists and aside from some token prophylactic measures, there's nothing that they can do at this stage of our common knowledge. My friend's malady is still in its early stage but that only means that they're terrified. One day they'll be too far gone to care...
My condolences
Is not focusing on the main cast necessarily a bad thing? It's something fresh and different.
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