From: mwgertz+@cs.cmu.edu (Matthew Gertz)
Subject: Re: Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Man of the People"
Keywords: TNG, Troi, anger, lust
Organization: Dept. of ECE, The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 14:11:37 GMT

tlynch@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>WARNING:  The following post contains spoilers regarding this week's TNG 
>offering, "Man of the People".  Those not wishing to be exposed to spoiler 
>elements prematurely are advised to keep clear.

>Ecch.

Oh, you ain't just whistlin' Dixie...

>First, let me shake you of the belief that I liked nothing about the show.  
>There were a few things I thought were interesting.  For example:

>--The climax was harsh; every bit as harsh as it deserved to be.  I found 
>that particularly effective.

Ehh.  I saw it coming, having carried the "Dorian Grey" parallel to its logical
conclusion.  It actually reminded me of the Borg ship blowing up in BOBWII,
where basically, I think the writers were just looking for a convenient way
for the bad guys to get their just desserts.  It sure was convenient that
Picard and crew had their problem taken care of for them (diplomatic 
immunity, in this case) -- a little too convenient, methinks.

>The biggest one has nothing to do with the storyline; it's the writing and 
>acting of the characters.  I can't remember the last time I saw a TNG episode 
>with everyone *this* flat; I felt like I was watching a picture of an episode 
>rather than an episode. 

"The Picture of Man of the People."  :-)

> I don't know if the writing or the acting is more to 
>blame, but given the abilities this cast can do when written well (and that 
>Stewart and Spiner can often turn in terrific performances even from lousy 
>scripts), I'm tempted to blame more of it on Frank Abatemarco, new 
>supervising producer and writer of this show.  

Well, Spiner got about 10 seconds of camera time, so maybe that explains
some of it... Gates McFadden gets a big thumbs down for her acting in this
one.  Extremely unconvincing, though perhaps she couldn't figure out how
to salvage her scenes.

You already point out the biological and emotional absurdities of this 
episode, as well as the predictability of it, so I'll lay off that angle.
I'll just mentioned that I found the non-Troi scenes to be very rushed,
in particular the Beverly scenes, where she and the other actors were
performing what I call "string dialog:" fast, rapidly drawn conclusions
going off on wild tangents designed to string the viewer along to a
final conclusion (a variation, I suppose, of the "locked room" mystery),
where any possible alternatives are just shrugged off or not even addressed.
"Gee, if I turn off the neurotransmitters, she'll get better, but I want the
audience to know that I can't even try to do something so dangerous without
the bad guy letting her go first."  How the **** do you know all that, Bev?
Sheesh...

At least Picard let her go ahead and autopsy the old crone.  Hiding behind
the PD would have been just one more convenient plot device designed to
conceal the (non)mystery.  I'm glad they didn't stoop to *that* level.

>I talked last week about giving "Realm of Fear" something of an MST3K 
>treatment, but mostly all in good fun.  This time, we were MSTing to survive. 

MST?

>TOTAL:  3.  Not a good sign at *all* here, folks...

You were generous...

>NEXT WEEK:

>A certain Scottish engineer we all know makes a trip to a new century.  Now 
>*this* looks promising...

Promos look okay, but we'll see.  I'm having my wisdom teeth yanked the
day before I see this one, so I really need a good episode this time...
if I end up gnashing my teeth it will HURT... :-)

-- 
Matt Gertz, mwgertz+@cs.cmu.edu
Dept. of ECE, The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current