From: myempire@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Matt J. Martin)
Subject: The Official Dorm-Rec Review of "Quality of Life."  (spoilers)
Summary: It's about time
Keywords: Data, Stud
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 18:02:30 GMT


  This episode is, by far, the best episode this season.  The ST writers finally
managed to recapture the magic that is ST.



  First of all, Troi wasn't in this episode very much at all, which pleased us
no end.  She said very little and the things she did say weren't all that 
stupid.  You know, we've said it before and we'll say it again, we hate Troi.
A lot.

  Geordi's beard is progressing well.  We were a bit skeptical at first, but 
it seems to be filling in quite nicely.  And you know, it's a shame that they
couldn't finish the card game.  Considering the odds against Crusher it should
have been an interesting game.

  This week, Crusher's bitchliness was transfered to the evil Mining Doctor who,
by the way, was one of the most annoying one-show characters we've seen.  First
she was evil to Geordi and kissed Data's ass, then she did a 180 and dug into
Data.  She obviously forgot ST tenet #17, Data is always right.  And throughout
the episode, she was a career minded, self-seeking opportunist, which would 
normally be considered a positive boon.  But in this episode, since she was
pitted against Data, this quality was just damned distrubing.

  We were pleased to see that the good Doctor Crusher was able to redeem herself
this week by taking butt-kicking lessons from Worf and giving well-refined
wisdom to Data.

  We saw a contradiction in the actions of the Mining Doctor when she proposed
that they cut the command pathways to keep the exocomps from protecting 
themselves.  To take away the exocomps' abilities to protect themselves is
to basically admit their sentience.  Yet, after that suggestion, she 
continued to maintain that the exocomps were mere machines.

  We were genuinely pleased when Riker came up with a very good suggestion to
ask the exocomps if they would accept the mission.  This represents a break
from his usual ethnocentric behavior.  Bravo!

  All in all, a very good episode.  Of course, it simply doesn't compare with
the likes of Yesterday's Enterprise or The Defector, but definitely a highlight
for this season.  We did notice, however, that the first half of the episode
moved rather slowly.  They were rather pedantic in getting to the thrust of the
plot.  Not to mention the idea of an unaccepted machine-come-alive is a rather
tired one.  But after everything this season, we'll take what we can get.

  The opinions expressed above are those of the Dorm-Rec alone and are subject
to change without notice. 

  					Affectionately,

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