My next randorewatch (by the seashore) is the season 2 entry, "Where Silence Has Lease".
This is how one redoes an old episode - using parts that work but not copying it then dumbing it down with superficial fluff (e.g. "Naked Now")
Good grief, is this story directed first-rate of what? I looked it up. Winrich Kolbe, one of TNG's more robust and august directors, makes his premiere in this story. (He also had his hand in a few Knight Rider episodes but in TNG he really ups his ante.) Wide shots, close-ups, background details, lighting, you name it - everything is no less than magnificent.
As usual, Ron Jones used with some innovation and inventiveness very cinematic sounds, pulling every ounce of emotion out of the scenes he composes and in iconic ways that still feel fresh to this day. This episode is also one of his more low-key endeavors, in part due to the core subject matter being discussed... I'll get to that later...
The Pulaski/Data rivalry season-long sub-arc starts out with a bang in this one. Later episodes clearly show her adapting to Data and even showing full support and camaraderie.
Frakes and Dorn are integral to this story's success and they simply shine.
Worf had a couple moments that, on paper, seem almost iffy involving needing to be calmed down but the acting somehow makes it more than the sum of its parts on parchment. Indeed, Worf is often correct in his assertions - up until the photon torpedo recommendation. He's being too aggressive just because of folklore that fits and it's amazing Picard or Troi didn't belch out "Correlation is not always synonymous with causation." Though it's still possible the folklore had a shared origin with Nagilum's domain and it's left to fans, if they choose, to tie it together. Still, this is another early example of fleshing out some Klingon lore, which season 3 would really delve into, and is rather nicely done...
The teaser shows the holodeck scenes out of context. SHAME!! (But it is a teaser and this one lives up to the concept...) The scene feels rather cinematic, and combined with a style that feels loosely like something TOS might have done if it had holodecks.
I adore how Riker asks the obvious question of "Hey y'all, was there any time in TOS when they had a big black void too?" and Data goes on and on about how nothing even remotely close happened. Season 1 often used TOS as a crutch with silly references. Almost drunkenly at time, in a proverbial sense. Season 2 features quite the proverbial hangover by introducing scenes such as this denial. I'll get back to this in a moment, but it's suffice to say the episode pulls it off...
The episode, despite being very lax in plot for its first half, really nails the tone and maintains interest and attention ever so deftly. It's truly impressive.
Nagilum's machinations and tricks are not unlike something Q might do, and Picard and Troi are written in a way that eschews the possibility of Q being the culprit. Nicely handled... especially as this isn't fun and games but the most austere if not heinous lab experiment. Season 2 was loaded with dread, danger, and utter bleakness in its own ways...
So a tangent about plot references and inspiration - all shows do this at some point. The goal is to make it feel authentic and making it its own. WSHL easily succeeds on this part, with one teensy exception and you know I'll bleat on that in a moment. Knowing that previous TNG stories had references from Doctor Who and TOS from the writers as "easter eggs", let's whip out the Bert&Ernie Calculator and start counting the proverbial rubber duckies:
Geordi's line of "keep the cheese, I just want out of the trap" may be a 20th centuryism and sticks out of place in some ways and yet doesn't fall flat. Possibly because it ties into the lab rat metaphor being used in this story, which in of itself was also a metaphor about moving cheese since the cheese was the starfield opening and closing as reported by Ensign Notwesleycrusherrightnow...
Which reminds, why did Wesley step away? Did he eat two pounds of muenster cheese two days before and it was stuck in there all that time until just now and he ironically couldn't hold it in any longer and finally had to go-go-go? Or did Nagilum contact him prior to the void appearing since he also contacted Picard after letting the ship go... Wesley returns by the story's end anyway so whatever he did to get around that in order to let hapless Haskell to die in horror and pain instead, well, it worked... typical Wesley Wunderkid... maybe he went out to get some Wunder Bread...
So without in-universe explanation, it's easy (and fun!) to have a field day coming up with several silly ideas (by the seashore) as to why Wesley would sneak out of a scene that many fans would otherwise get to say is their all-time favorite in the show. But from a production perspective, my guess is they just needed an actor with better if not actual or any "death acting" skills since Ensign Haskell* puts on a death scene that looks suitably chilling given the scope of the episode's themes. Then Nagilum states dispassionately he wants to see every method in which a human can die, which by his own estimate and based on the Elmo calculator is about 700 people, since the full complement was 1400 as said in one of the episodes. But they needed a generic crewmember to be Nagilum's walking petri dish... amazingly he wasn't wearing a gold shirt, since TNG's highest body count is from gold shirts... the use of red couldn't be a hark back to TOS... not when the start of the episode goes out of its way to force the opposite.
This reminds, Nagilum is as methodical and clinical as Picard tends to be. Right down to how humans procreate. No wonder Nagilum took an interest. No, not in the 24th century version of dirty dancing but how they have similar personalities in more than just one way.
Earl Boen really nails it as Nagilum. Richard Mulligan an intended contender but that fell through but named the alien being in his apparent honor. Mulligan is an accomplished actor and I'll admit it'd be interesting to see his take on it, but Boen is a stalwart who gives the character what was needed with some aplomb.
Picard's ruminations on death, the core subject matter concept used in this story, is very poetic as he shares it with Nagilum, now going heavy duty and impersonating Troi and Data simultaneously.
Best line in the show:
Best discontinuity bit:
USS Yamato, with registry spoken aloud as "NCC-1305-E" becomes - as a model effect written on its hull - in a blu-ray screencap for "Contagion" as "NCC-71806". Also seen on a chart in "The Measure of a Man" as "NCC-24383". Oops.
Best contraction used in any episode:
Verdict: Highly recommended viewing, especially considering it's a filler and bottle show. Repeat viewings don't offer quite as much if viewed often enough... but given enough time between viewings, the style and claustrophobic feel of the episode are forgotten and at that point can reclaim a compelling viewing every handful of years or so. Not quite a classic, but not a clunker by any measure either. In other words, "missed it by that much."
Grade: A-
Be glad he doesn't whip out a lollipop to lick on because the episode would turn into a cringe-inducing musical...
This is how one redoes an old episode - using parts that work but not copying it then dumbing it down with superficial fluff (e.g. "Naked Now")
Good grief, is this story directed first-rate of what? I looked it up. Winrich Kolbe, one of TNG's more robust and august directors, makes his premiere in this story. (He also had his hand in a few Knight Rider episodes but in TNG he really ups his ante.) Wide shots, close-ups, background details, lighting, you name it - everything is no less than magnificent.
As usual, Ron Jones used with some innovation and inventiveness very cinematic sounds, pulling every ounce of emotion out of the scenes he composes and in iconic ways that still feel fresh to this day. This episode is also one of his more low-key endeavors, in part due to the core subject matter being discussed... I'll get to that later...
The Pulaski/Data rivalry season-long sub-arc starts out with a bang in this one. Later episodes clearly show her adapting to Data and even showing full support and camaraderie.
Frakes and Dorn are integral to this story's success and they simply shine.
Worf had a couple moments that, on paper, seem almost iffy involving needing to be calmed down but the acting somehow makes it more than the sum of its parts on parchment. Indeed, Worf is often correct in his assertions - up until the photon torpedo recommendation. He's being too aggressive just because of folklore that fits and it's amazing Picard or Troi didn't belch out "Correlation is not always synonymous with causation." Though it's still possible the folklore had a shared origin with Nagilum's domain and it's left to fans, if they choose, to tie it together. Still, this is another early example of fleshing out some Klingon lore, which season 3 would really delve into, and is rather nicely done...
The teaser shows the holodeck scenes out of context. SHAME!! (But it is a teaser and this one lives up to the concept...) The scene feels rather cinematic, and combined with a style that feels loosely like something TOS might have done if it had holodecks.
I adore how Riker asks the obvious question of "Hey y'all, was there any time in TOS when they had a big black void too?" and Data goes on and on about how nothing even remotely close happened. Season 1 often used TOS as a crutch with silly references. Almost drunkenly at time, in a proverbial sense. Season 2 features quite the proverbial hangover by introducing scenes such as this denial. I'll get back to this in a moment, but it's suffice to say the episode pulls it off...
The episode, despite being very lax in plot for its first half, really nails the tone and maintains interest and attention ever so deftly. It's truly impressive.
Nagilum's machinations and tricks are not unlike something Q might do, and Picard and Troi are written in a way that eschews the possibility of Q being the culprit. Nicely handled... especially as this isn't fun and games but the most austere if not heinous lab experiment. Season 2 was loaded with dread, danger, and utter bleakness in its own ways...
So a tangent about plot references and inspiration - all shows do this at some point. The goal is to make it feel authentic and making it its own. WSHL easily succeeds on this part, with one teensy exception and you know I'll bleat on that in a moment. Knowing that previous TNG stories had references from Doctor Who and TOS from the writers as "easter eggs", let's whip out the Bert&Ernie Calculator and start counting the proverbial rubber duckies:
- TOS had the big space cloud baddie from "The Immunity Syndrome" except TNG takes a vague basic premise and does something so wildly and cleverly-in-its-creepiness different that it becomes its own thing very quickly and doesn't detract
- "Fly stuck in amber" - a line also spoken in "Hide & Q" by Q (along with "where's your sense of adventure!" (Paradise Towers - Doctor Who, 1987) and showing Q is just the evil version of the 7th Doctor, which is rather awesome IMHO), the amber line must surely have been pinched from Doctor Who's 1980 outing "Meglos" - a somewhat rubbish story that also uses the same line but ironically to better effect.) This is by far the only reference that feels sappily shoehorned in (by the seashore)
- The bridge scenes with space folding in on itself is definitely inspired by MC Escher, which also inspired Doctor Who's "Castrovalva" (1982). Hardly a complaint, these scenes are spectacularly done and I was focused first and foremost in the situation in this script to care. For bad stories, all people do is rightly point out what they're cribbing
- Ditto for the probe they send out, which they depart in a straight line from, but return to it. The same localized "space folding in on itself" is eminently well used in this story, helped by top notch direction. I wish they didn't have the audio effect, which judging by the actors is something they cannot hear but exists solely for a reference point for the viewer
- "The Tholian Web" has crewmembers walking inside a ghostly ship (a very loose association at best since the last thing anyone needed to see was Riker putting his hand through a panel, the twist used in this episode is genuinely original as a result)
Geordi's line of "keep the cheese, I just want out of the trap" may be a 20th centuryism and sticks out of place in some ways and yet doesn't fall flat. Possibly because it ties into the lab rat metaphor being used in this story, which in of itself was also a metaphor about moving cheese since the cheese was the starfield opening and closing as reported by Ensign Notwesleycrusherrightnow...
Which reminds, why did Wesley step away? Did he eat two pounds of muenster cheese two days before and it was stuck in there all that time until just now and he ironically couldn't hold it in any longer and finally had to go-go-go? Or did Nagilum contact him prior to the void appearing since he also contacted Picard after letting the ship go... Wesley returns by the story's end anyway so whatever he did to get around that in order to let hapless Haskell to die in horror and pain instead, well, it worked... typical Wesley Wunderkid... maybe he went out to get some Wunder Bread...
So without in-universe explanation, it's easy (and fun!) to have a field day coming up with several silly ideas (by the seashore) as to why Wesley would sneak out of a scene that many fans would otherwise get to say is their all-time favorite in the show. But from a production perspective, my guess is they just needed an actor with better if not actual or any "
* first name: Eddie, who was never friends with Wally or the Beav...
This reminds, Nagilum is as methodical and clinical as Picard tends to be. Right down to how humans procreate. No wonder Nagilum took an interest. No, not in the 24th century version of dirty dancing but how they have similar personalities in more than just one way.
Earl Boen really nails it as Nagilum. Richard Mulligan an intended contender but that fell through but named the alien being in his apparent honor. Mulligan is an accomplished actor and I'll admit it'd be interesting to see his take on it, but Boen is a stalwart who gives the character what was needed with some aplomb.
Picard's ruminations on death, the core subject matter concept used in this story, is very poetic as he shares it with Nagilum, now going heavy duty and impersonating Troi and Data simultaneously.
Best line in the show:
Best discontinuity bit:
USS Yamato, with registry spoken aloud as "NCC-1305-E" becomes - as a model effect written on its hull - in a blu-ray screencap for "Contagion" as "NCC-71806". Also seen on a chart in "The Measure of a Man" as "NCC-24383". Oops.
Best contraction used in any episode:
Verdict: Highly recommended viewing, especially considering it's a filler and bottle show. Repeat viewings don't offer quite as much if viewed often enough... but given enough time between viewings, the style and claustrophobic feel of the episode are forgotten and at that point can reclaim a compelling viewing every handful of years or so. Not quite a classic, but not a clunker by any measure either. In other words, "missed it by that much."
Grade: A-
Be glad he doesn't whip out a lollipop to lick on because the episode would turn into a cringe-inducing musical...
