Re: STAR TREK PHASE II: "The Child" Full Episode Now Released on YouTu
Finally got a chance to watch the episode and just finished.
The only real thought that comes to me is this: Too many lens flares.
The good:
The two principal guest actresses were superb. The color in this episode was as vibrant as ever. The visual effects were outstanding. The effect of Irska as a floating blob of light was incredible, well matched with the actors and integrated seamlessly. Cawley isn't substituting squinting for acting anymore, which is nice.
The actor playing Spock doesn't seem to possess the uncanny hint of arrogance Ben Tolpin had in Blood and Fire, but he does a good job nonetheless. At various points it felt like he was channeling Zachary Quinto too, which I guess could be a good thing as well.
The bad:
Much of what I'm going to say here falls under the story and logic department.
-McCoy bitching out Kirk during Act 1 via the intercom, and Kirk relenting. Firstly, entirely unprofessional. Secondly, even if McCoy was going to go off on Kirk like this (he did something similar at the beginning of "Enemy: Starfleet" except that time it was in person), it might be forgivable, but the fact that Kirk basically takes it (and likely in front of the rest of the crew) was disheartening. More to the point, the entire need for the scene - to have it made clear that Kirk = gonna kill the kid if he has to vs. McCoy = gonna protect the kid was done in such a lazy way that it necessitated this very scene undermining Kirk's status as captain and leader of his crew. Obviously, it's not a HUGE infraction, but there are at least a dozen other ways this could have been handled to achieve the same basic plot point without sabotaging Kirk by making McCoy all vitriolic.
-Even then, it didn't end there for McCoy. Later on, when Spock suggests scanning Irska, McCoy blows his lid again, even though McCoy should know that that she was inherently connected to whatever was going on. Just because he's the firecracker of the group doesn't mean he's the loudmouthed idiot. Again, his character was sabotaged here to get a point across and make Spock seem more Spock-like.
-The actress playing the communications officer had something along three lines in the entire picture and delivered them all horribly. That might be a subjective call, but I thought she could have done better.
-Though it's nice to see him, Xon has far too little to do in this (what I presume is his first episode (was he in "Enemy: Starfleet" ? I can't remember)... and maybe its just me, but in this outing he seemed to be channeling a little bit of Howard Wolowitz.
-I'm not sure if this could be fixed, so I'm stashing it under the "bad:" At various points in the story, characters start to run. That's fine, but on the bridge - which is seemingly a smaller space that we seem to perceive on screen, it's patently obvious how not-large the space is when McCoy bolts for the turbolift, and later Isel whips around the captains chair for the turbolift. It's just awkward. They're awkward doing it, and it's awkward to watch.
The alien ship looks like a better-rendered 2012 version of Babylon 5.
Lastly: While it is more evident than ever how far Phase II has come since its humble days with "Come What May", this episode was, from a camera standpoint, incredibly dull. Nothing but two shots, medium close-ups and over the shoulder work. But the time there's any energy or movement in the camera work (there's maybe one or two wide angles on the bridge in the entire thing), its just too little too late.
I get that P2 is trying to replicate the TV show in several ways, but previous episodes have managed to avoid this particular trope, so it was rather disappointing to not see more interesting things done with the camerawork. I'm genuinely trying to decide if I'm glad or disappointed that there wasn't even a nice soft-light glamour shot of Isel akin to the same soft-light glamour shots all the TOS women inevitably got each week.
The "could have avoided/fixed" if we'd done another revision to the script:
-A minor nitpick but the term "immaculate conception" is bandied about regarding Isel, and it is in fact used incorrectly here. The Immaculate conception refers to Mary's being born and kept free of sin until such time that she became impregnated with Jesus Christ. The biblical referent that McCoy should have used here was in fact "virgin birth."
-The Irska-Scotty scene at the beginning of the episode in his quarters is unseemly and awkward. I half expected him to mutter "Do you like gladiator movies?" or something of that ilk. I get why the scene is there though - to establish Irska's willingness to help him later as well as callback her knowledge of the ship's systems, but as shown it was clumsy. The entire issue could have been solved by setting the scene in the rec room or the ship's mess.
-The episode begins on the night shift. But then we're told 10 days pass between the end of Act 1 and the beginning of Act 2... yet we spend the entire episode on the night shift. Don't get me wrong, the "mood" lighting is great and as I said above, the use of color was inspired in this episode, but again, handing your script to someone to check for these kinds of inconsistencies will save a lot of grief later on.
-This is more an issue with production vs. the script, but a glaring one: At various points in Act 4, Peter Kirk is at the conn wearing his coveralls/pajama uniform, then suddenly racing to the transporter room with security in his duty uniform, and then again back on the bridge in the coveralls again. I'm not sure how much time is supposed to transpire between all these scenes, but given the ticking clock of the problem ("The impulse engines will explode within the hour...." it seemed rather sloppy to me that this kind of obvious mistake was made.
Don't get me wrong. I really liked the episode. As others have said, it is heads and shoulders more entertaining than the TNG derivative, and the improvement of the Phase II crew is in force more than ever. I think with a little reigning in on some things and a little more closer attention to story, the next episode could be dynamite.
Finally, thank you Phase II, for another fun outing.
-005
