From: dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Schaumann)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current,rec.arts.startrek.misc
Subject: Re: A Lament.  A big damned Lament.
Date: 6 Nov 92 00:59:17 GMT
Reply-To: dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Schaumann)
Followup-To: rec.arts.startrek.current
Organization: University of Arizona

Let's be careful about spoilers, please!

Spolers for "Rascals" follow!




























In article <1992Nov5.003518.44419@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>, gimble@kuhub (David Caruso II) writes:
>My opinion about "Rascals" and more:
>
>	This episode was one of the worst of all time.

In your opinion, perhaps.  Not even near the same league as 1st-season's
"Justice", though...

>The science was totally unfeasible,

Is it ever?  Star Trek has never really been about "hard science" (despite
claims to the contrary) -- I mean come on!  In the first season of TOS
we had

  - A creature that could remove /all/ the salt from a human body
    in seconds via skin-to-skin contact ("The Man Trap")

  - A group of people who survived 400 years of suspended animation
    drifting in space ("Space Seed")

  - 3 groups of entities with super powers ("Where No Man...", "Charlie X",
    "Errand of Mercy")

  - The transporter as contrived plot device that the entire episode
    hangs on ("The Enemy Within")

  - Time Travel ("Tomorrow is Yesterday", "City on the Edge of Forever")

I put it to you that the "science" in each of these is totally unfeasable.
The transporter turning people into children is no more or less unfeasable
than the transporter splitting the captain into evil twins.

>the plot was ridiculous and cliche,

Examples, please?  I will agree that it was highly contrived that 4 adults
including the captain "just happen" to look like children just in time for
the Ferengi to capture the ship and ignore all children.

But cliche?  Perhaps not terribly original, but how so cliche?


>the lines were without substance.

Again, examples please.  Random assertions do not a review make, IMHO.

As for the dialogue, I found Guinan & Ro to be believable.  Keiko's never
had a chance (thank God) to develop much of a personality, so that was
pretty much of a gimmie.

However, I could just not believe that that kid was supposed to be Jean
Luc Picard.  He did some of the cursory mannerisms, but he didn't have
the same speech patterns, or ... well, the only way I know to say it is
that he just didn't seem like a grown up to me, let alone a starship
captain with 40 years of Starfleet duty behind him.

Ultimately, I think this is one of the major failings of the episode.
For it to really work, it needs two things above all else:

   1. Child actors who can believably act like adults, particularly
      for Captain Picard.

   2. The re-capture of the Enterprise had to be... well, entertaining.
      Dramatic, exciting, funny, ... anything to make it fun to watch.

Unfortunately, the Ferengi are made to look like bumbling fools once
again, and Picard & co. seem to hardly break a sweat in getting back
the ship.

(Also -- why is it that a Ferengi can duck out of the way of a phaser
shot, but Worf can't?!)


>I felt so bad watching this show, wondering why it's been
>so bad in the sixth season ... wondering what happened to the brilliance of
>the third.  The show seems to have lost its originality, its intelligence,
>and above all, its true substance. 

Y'know, I'm starting to get a little tired of this particular complaint.
Sure, TNG hasn't matched the string of wins it had in the 3rd season.
On the other hand, it has had some very good shows.  And while there hasn't
been any "big winners" yet in the 6th season, I think I've been reasonably
entertained on several occasions.  In particular, I found "Relics", "Schisms",
and "True Q" to all be worthy offerings.

I'm beginning to think maybe it's time to create rec.arts.startrek.whiners.

-- 
You're traveling through another dimension -- a dimension not only of sight and
sound but of mind. A journey into a wonderous land whose boundaries are that of
imagination.  That's a signpost up ahead: your next stop: the Twilight Zone!
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current