Subplots and Mini-Arcs
- Thread starter lordbaltimore1
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I like the Data/Pulaski arc. Some great character growth there within one season.
Picard's artificial heart arc. It's really gratifying how writers go back to previous material and "build" off of it to create one of the most powerful Picard episodes in the series. I mean, how do you portray someone who laughs at being stabbed through the heart and have that be in character for someone like Picard?
You mean Data's ability to shrug off blatant racism? Pulaski certainly never overcame it. She was still ripping into him for being a machine as late as Peak Performance.
I always thought what they were trying to do with that was to echo the Spock/Bones relationship...but sadly it went totally wrong and Pulaski comes across as downright rude most of the time. I´m not sure if the problem is the writing itself, if Muldaur just can´t play "goodhearted ribbing" or both?
I thought the Pulaski/Data relationship developed very well.
Data was treated as a machine by Pulaski at first (gosh, he was a machine!), but from Unnatural Selection onwards you could see a mutual respect. Watch episodes like Pen Pals and Peak Performance. If Muldaur had stayed on in season 3, we would have seen a further development Im sure.
Was sad to see her leave. Well, we actually never saw her leave unfortunately.
Data was treated as a machine by Pulaski at first (gosh, he was a machine!), but from Unnatural Selection onwards you could see a mutual respect. Watch episodes like Pen Pals and Peak Performance. If Muldaur had stayed on in season 3, we would have seen a further development Im sure.
Was sad to see her leave. Well, we actually never saw her leave unfortunately.
I too like this aspect, but I don't think it was necessarily planned. It's just that TNG had a much tighter sense of continuity than TOS. It's quite surprising to rewatch season one and be reminded how tight the continuity is. Those scenes in "Coming Of Age" where Remmick questions the crew about events that have taken place over several episodes gave a really great sense of these being real people whose adventures really take place in some kind of consecutive time-frame. It definitely ads to the rewatchibility factor.
Comparatively, TOS pretty much just had the Organian Peace Treaty, which got dredged up in the Klingon episodes, along with the Vulcan stuff that just got built on with each new addition to Spock's character. Both of which were for their time surprisingly effective pieces of continuity, but TNG definitely had a richer vein running through it's seven years.
TOS would occasionally make direct reference to past episodes, though. Kirk, for example, advises Spock to use the same telepathic trick that he used in "A Taste of Armageddon" on the Kelvans in "By Any Other Name." In the same episode, he also indicates that the Enterprise had already visited the Galactic Barrier, a reference to "Where No Man Has Gone Before."
TNG did this more, though. (And DS9 did it more than TNG).
TNG did this more, though. (And DS9 did it more than TNG).
I dunno, it just always rubbed me as petty at best. Don't get me wrong, she was a breath of fresh air in that she wasn't drama free like the TNG crew so often is, but yeah... doesn't mean she was my favorite character. I would've liked seeing her back in a guest role now and again. Wesley and Yar both got their guest shots after they left. Heck, Muldar was technically in more episodes than Crosby was I think.
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