Overrated or Underrated

[LMFAOschwarz]

... (The crystalline entity) had ALREADY demonstrated that it was intelligent and evil! The lives of millions and safety of entire planets outweighs the life of the miserable Crystalline Entity.

Was anything said in the episode about sensor scans or something regarding what the thing was made of? I remember thinking once that maybe the entity might actually be a machine of some sort?

 

[Spectre Of The Fun]

Was anything said in the episode about sensor scans or something regarding what the thing was made of? I remember thinking once that maybe the entity might actually be a machine of some sort?

I know I thought in Datalore Tasha made a single comment about it as a potential mechanism. This being early in its appearance when the are scanning it and trying to figure out what it is. However I didn't see that. As near as I can tell they are satisfied quickly that it is alive and not a machine. If it were a robot that would change the moral implications of killing it wouldn't it?

 

[NCC-73515]

Then it would be like the planet killer. No sentience, just destructive to refuel itself.

 

[Farscape One]

The planet killer was an actual weapon designed to do exactly that.

I think the better question would be if the Crystalline Entity was an artificial construct and was sentient like Data, would the morality of kiling it be the same?

 

[Tenacity]

The Crystalline Entity was a killer, who had killed many.

 

[TV's Frank]

Honestly? I would've only changed one thing but it would've made all the difference to me. I think Soren should've fought harder at the hearing. Especially when it was ruled that she had to be "corrected" to become "normal" again. I would've had her scream at the top of her lungs at the end, impassioned, and then when they try to take her away, it would become physical and she'd struggle as she's hauled away. Then she's "cured" (it repels me to type that sentence), off-camera, as happened in the episode and you still get the same result at the end of the episode. The only difference is, Soren would've put up more of a fight. She would've fought it up right up to the end.

Her being "cured" should feel as horrible as what happened to Jack Nicholson's RP McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest after Nurse Ratched was done with him. Who RP was was gone. Who Soren was would've been gone. Even though Soren, unlike RP, would still have her mental facilities intact, it would feel just as bad. She wouldn't be who she was anymore and she'd be an unquestioning sheep following the rules of society instead of fighting against them. I think the ending shouldn't be tragic so much as horrific.

The thought of me being changed into something I'm not and would've fought my entire life against would be a true horror. It would be someone's worst nightmare. It's a direct assault on someone's personhood. On Soren's womanhood. So that's why I think there should've been more resistance on Soren's end at the end of the hearing.

I think the rest of the episode leading up to it was pretty good, especially considering that it came out in 1992. So it really is just that one thing I would've changed.

Thanks for that great repsonse, Garth, your viewpoint does indeed make sense, I can see how a performance shift cold have made the "cure" that much more evident and powerful.

 

[Qonundrum]

"The Measure of a Man" is vastly overrated. *ducks*

"The Royale" is underrated.

^^this, to both. "Royale" is unusual but each viewing has it growing on me.

"Measure" is great but it gets a little over the top.

Other underrated episodes would include "When the Bough Breaks". The ozone hole was the big concern in 1987 (with measures already going on to improve the problem, which proved successful) but it's covering so many other topics and it's all the more brilliant in doing so subtly for the most part.

 

[Qonundrum]

As the years have gone on, I've found The Defector to be in my top 3 episodes of the series, yet it doesn't get the recognition from the Trek fan community. I think it served as everything TNG was about, working for a peaceful solution rather than going in guns blazing, and it was probably the best use of the Romulans in the series, maybe second to Face of the Enemy. Also, it was what I wish Nemesis was based on. Heck, if Star Trek: Picard addresses Admiral Jerok's letter home to his family, I will be greatly impressed.

In terms of other underrated episodes from each season:

Season 1: Lonely Among Us
Season 2: The Royale
Season 3: Transfigurations
Season 4: First Contact
Season 5: Ensign Ro
Season 6: Suspisions (I know this episode isn't well liked, but I thought it helped make the Ferengi more 3 deminsional. Before Nog wanted to join Starfleet, you had another Ferengi who believed more in science than profit and he too wasn't taken seriously at first)
Season 7: Thine Own Self

As for overrated episodes, over the years I've come to find The Inner Light to be overrated. I just can no longer get over the fact that Picard was mind raped.

Picard was mind-raped and the episode, from recollection, has the probe seeking out just one person and then *zap* it ceases to operate instead of finding as many people it can interface with, share the memories, and hand out free flute pez dispensers with afterward.

Good choices for the underrated list too, IMHO. Transfigurations is not the best episode ever made but it makes for an interesting allegory, albeit superficially...

"The Outcast" is underrated until the last five minutes. The last five minutes deserve all the panning it gets as a cop-out ending.

Trek is known for trying to tackle big issues and come up with softball answers, sometimes none at all. Sometimes the issues ostensibly being talked about come across far differently.

Update: I rewatched Datalore and Silicon Avatar tonight. I still don't like this it's a whale, we're cuttlefish, let's talk to it business. In Datalore we hear Lore specifically mention that he earned the "gratitude" of the Crystalline Entity for delivering the Omicron Theta colony. He tells it that it can now recognize him as Data. Doesn't that take considerable intelligence on the part of the CE? Maybe we viewers know that and not Picard but Picard watched Lore speak English to it and the CE modified its behavior consistent with a plan to trick the Enterprise into lowering its defenses. This thing needed to go as surely as the Dikoronium Cloud Creature in Obsession (another warp cable menace to entire planets and weak shielded spacecraft).

It was a very wimpy correlation to try to justify the forced plot points, and the plot became decidedly one-note (including ignoring the fact he states the engrams are an amalgam and not complete, Data speaking on the behalf of a dead person and the number of times he stated the word "believe" (and melodramatically!), merely confirms how rotten the episode became) that Dr Marr was completely and solely wrong. Typical season 5 forced one-sided preachiness... The sad part is that I'm more likely believing of it as a bona fide life form that can exist in space (just don't ask how it travels at warp speeds) and the crystal morse code tapping was very clever, but compared to other season 5 stories this one is remarkably tame despite its crafted preachfest...

But when Lore stated the CE was grateful... oh dear, do I ask if the Entity was being duped the same way I'm grateful to the stranger who told me where the nearest McDonalds was? Or like in the story where the pizza delivery person arrives but I don't have the money but am grateful I can pay another way, which rarely happens...? Either which way, sometimes it is nothing more than instinct and there is zero ability TO reason because not all species are sentient and conscious as such. Or incompatible; the Vervoids from "Doctor Who" exemplify this completely.