Night Terrors

[startrekwatcher]

Just watched this nifty episode. It is a great ghost story don't you think?

 

[toughlittleship]

Is this the one where Sirtis' ass gets the majority of screentime?

 

[defconprime]

I like this one too. It's pretty fun to watch the crew lose it.

When I was a kid, something that drew me to the Original Series was how scary a lot of it was. Most of the time this was through elements that bordered on surreal, like Spectre of the Gun, Miri (earth double? even though it's never explained?), The Squire of Gothos, Who Mourns for Adonais?, etc.

So when TNG did scary or surreal episodes, I really got a kick out of them, and this is certainly a great example. Well, the flying towards the giant atom scene is kind of lame.

 

[Jack Bauer]

toughlittleship said:
Is this the one where Sirtis' ass gets the majority of screentime?

My favorite part of the episode.

 

[Good Will Riker]

startrekwatcher said:
Just watched this nifty episode. It is a great ghost story don't you think?

No, it's one of the worst, hokiest TNG episodes ever produced. I would be embarassed to show this to those who want to checkout TNG for the very first time.

If VOY did this episode, fans would be saying that this is just "typical VOY cheese." If it was a 1st Season TNG episode, fans would be crucifying it. So, no praise here from me.

 

[Tomalak]

It starts off quite well, promising to be a weird, creepy thriller. Unforunately it just end up with Sirtis strung up in front of a blue screen - and it's not as if anything interesting is happening.

The power struggle aspect was done much better in DS9's Dramatis Personae.

 

[mon capitaine]

I think one of the problems is that it's a little slow, and that because of it's 'lack of REM sleep' premise; it's deliberatly slow. Sleep deprived characters aren't nearly as much fun to watch as regularly functioning ones.

 

[Gertch]

I didn't like this one. I'd like to say why other than boring but it is, just plain boring. I was in full rem sleep the last time I saw it. Pass.

 

[SmoothieX]

Major league craptastic in my book. Slow and boring.

 

[euphorik]

Good Will Riker said:
If VOY did this episode, fans would be saying that this is just "typical VOY cheese."

almost. if VOY did this episode, fans would be saying "this might even have been a good episode if it weren't for the sickeningly lame series premise and totally annoying characters."

i always liked "night terrors," myself.

 

[Nebusj]

mon capitaine said:
I think one of the problems is that it's a little slow, and that because of it's 'lack of REM sleep' premise; it's deliberatly slow. Sleep deprived characters aren't nearly as much fun to watch as regularly functioning ones.

Yeah, that's the structural problem here. The mystery is fine and Troi meeting the klindesteron beademungen is interesting enough, and dream-deprivation is a cool enough science fiction concept. The trouble is the premise means all our regulars have to be cranky and irritable and sluggish, which makes it easy to start rooting for the aliens to just eat them already.

 

[Jack Bauer]

Troi just looked silly floating around like that. It just was done in too cheesy of a way and that helped doom the episode.

 

[votd]

Trois 'flight' did look very cheesy; but they were limited by what effects they could achieve. If they were to redo that whole telepathic contact scene today, what would you want to see?

 

[startrekwatcher]

I can't believe people are letting Troi's floating scene bother them that much that they are overlooking all the other wonderful stuff about the episode.

I've watched this episode dozens of time and never was I ever bothered by the floating. Yeah it's cute to harp on Troi's behind like some harp on her supposedly crashing the Enterprise in Generations but what about the creepy atmosphere or the resolution and character moments.

 

[Darth_Pazuzu]

defconprime said:
When I was a kid, something that drew me to the Original Series was how scary a lot of it was. Most of the time this was through elements that bordered on surreal, like Spectre of the Gun, Miri (earth double? even though it's never explained?), The Squire of Gothos, Who Mourns for Adonais?, etc.

Hey, don't forget about The Lights Of Zetar! Watching as a kid, I thought that one was pretty freaky.

Although nowadays, I don't really think all that much of either that one or Night Terrors. They both had rather cool premises, but the execution in both cases could have been so much better...

 

[Jon1701]

I've never minded this episode.

Its a bit slow and ponderous, but it is fairly creepy in places. Good Brannon Braga fair.

 

[toughlittleship]

Frakes said of this episode:

That was a yawner, wasn't it? That was a shitty piece of special effects work when Troi was flying with this clouds around her. That was well below our standard.

Michael Piller described it as "pretty boring, and the middle of that show sagged and was slow, boring and disappointing".

 

[startrekwatcher]

Brannon Braga didn't write this episode but I can see how you might have thought that. It definitely is the sort of episode that is right up his alley.

As for Frakes or Piller not liking it, that's fine. They are entitled to their opinions but I really enjoyed it and that is all that matters.

 

[DrTaylor]

I liked it. One moon circles... Riker's fear of snakes... all good times.

 

[Jon1701]

startrekwatcher said:
Brannon Braga didn't write this episode but I can see how you might have thought that. It definitely is the sort of episode that is right up his alley.

Whoops. Dont know why I thought that. He was an intern in Season 4, I bet he had his finger in the pie at some point.