From: cward@Think.COM (Christopher)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Re: Group Dynamics Review:  Time's Arrow, Part II (*SPOILERS*)
Date: 29 Sep 1992 18:24:42 GMT
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: godot.think.com

In article <1a5d76INN482@bigboote.WPI.EDU>, jtruss@cauchy.WPI.EDU (Free the Expo 67!) writes:
|> ...  Any comments are welcome.)
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|>      Spoilers follow (24 whitespace lines in case I screw up)...
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|>      Mark Twain was extraneous.  After being an interesting character
|> in Part I, he became (depending on which of us you asked) extraneous,
|> annoying, unnecessary, a bad plot device, or all of the above in Part
|> II.  It's been said before: he was little more than dead weight to
|> throw back through the rift so that Picard could be retrieved.
|> (Actually, he served as the only real time constraint on the crew's
|> activities in the 19th century.  I still don't understand why Riker
|> and Crusher were in such a godawful hurry, though I think having Worf
|> go trigger-happy was the proper response.)

I'll agree that Twain began to get on my nerves fairy soon into the 
episode but you had to know he would be integral to the final end
because it's his watch found with Data's head in Part I. 

As for the hurry to blow up the cavern on Devidia II - you got a group
of time traveling vampires that like humans for brunch (by the thousands).
A gateway for feeding on your ancestors is not something you want lying
around for very long.  Who knows where else or when else the gate could
go?  Considering how slow Star Fleet officers are to react, it was nice
to see them make a snap decision for a change.

|>      As for the "destroy them, they must be evil" mentality, it's been
|> brought up so much it's not worth going into yet again.  Suffice to
|> say that I can't see Picard condoning that activity.  Worf, yes.
|> Riker...*maybe*, considering the "loss" of his Captain.  But not
|> Picard.

Picard had this option "ready" but it was Riker who gave the command.  As
you may recall, Picard was on the receiving end of those torpedos when
they were launched.

|>      A comment no one has made yet (that I've seen) is that in the
|> first episode, the tone was much darker.  The aliens were a threat to
|> humanity and possibly the space-time continuum itself, and the writers
|> wanted to be certain we understood that.  In the second episode, they
|> tried to mix in heaping quantities of comic relief which didn't do
|> anything for the storyline at all.  In fact, the aliens themselves
|> were totally glossed over...what did they recieve, two (maybe three)
|> scenes?

Gee, finding Data's head and all that talk about death was really light
and bright, huh?  The scene in Part I where the aliens suck the life out
of the 49er leaving him a blue corpse on the street was a real riot.  No
one mentioned the darker mood of Part II because only Troi was darker in
TA2 than TA1.

|>      I wasn't that upset about the fact that the away team suddenly
|> acquired 19th century clothes out of nowhere (though I can't
|> understand for the life of me why they didn't dress up for the time
|> period *before* going in). 

Your group must be some of those people who keep wanting to see Star Fleet
Officers going to the bathroom.  Must every little detail be explained so
that ST:TNG becomes as moronic as every other TV show?  Use your imagination.
Perhaps they sold their communicators (like Data used his) to get their
clothes and perhaps downpayment on the rent but ran out of money for the
additional rent.  We really don't know how long they were there.  It was
at least several days.  Maybe they "borrowed" them.

Also, we know Data went back to the 19th century, Data knows he was 
transported back to the 19th century (when he got there), but the away
team really had no idea of where/when they were going.  

|>  How Beverly got a job as a nurse so
|> mind-numbingly quickly (or else snuck into the hospital so easily) is
|> also something I can't figure out.  I'd like to know...as a senior,
|> that could be useful knowledge in a few months. ;)

Gee, try being the chief medical officer on the flagship of the 24th
century Star Fleet and perhaps you could land a job as a nurse in 19th
century San Fransisco during a cholera epidemic.  Hospitals today are
easy enough for non-medically trained personnel to sneak into much less
a highly trained professional.  This is a real sharp crowd you hang with.

|>      Was it just us, or did they not even *try* to look for Data once
|> they got back to the 19th century?

It was just you.  Remember when Geordi mentioned that he had been using
his tricorder to send out signals that Data's brain could pick up?  For
the slower folks in the audience he also noted that the signals were weak
and could be blocked by just about anything.  Still it would seem that
Data and his 24th century stuff could be picked up by the tricorder.  I
guess they couldn't just parade around with their tricorders like they 
usually do.

|> [Andrew's comments deleted]
|> 
|>      What *was* the thing Data built?

Are you sure you watched this episode?  I only saw it once, three days
ago but it seems I can remember more than your "group".  Data explained
to Guinan that it was to track the time shifts.  In fact, SLC made a 
big deal out of overhearing this and Data lied to him telling him it 
was for shifting gears in a horseless carriage engine.

|>      The Guinan/Picard interaction was good.  At least, what there was
|> of it.  Am I the only one who thinks the writers' continuous 'teasing'
|> regarding Guinan's past is starting to get a little old?

No, there are lots of folks with little tolerance for intriguing
characters.  Sure you want to see her naked in the mysterious bathroom
spewing her guts out to Dianna covering her 500+ lifespan.  Her mystery
gives her a lot of potential.  With all the well defined characters we
have, it's nice to have a semi-recurring character with plenty of
mystery to give the writers elbow room.

|>      (Hmmm...considering the lack of text in the 'good' section, do
|> you get the sense that we aren't in for a stellar rating?)

I wouldn't give you one.

|> 
|> RATINGS
|> -------

It's not the best episode I've seen and not my favorite but I have to
say that I'm a bit taken aback by all the criticism.  When you have 
your first show aired, we'll see how you do.

|> Comments are always welcome...

Glad to oblige.
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