From: rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu (Michael Rawdon)
Subject: TNG Grade Report: "Time's Arrow II"
Followup-To: rec.arts.startrek.current
Reply-To: rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Dept., Madison, WI
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 20:22:04 GMT

He's baaa-aaack...

Spoilers for the TNG episode "Time's Arrow II"...

I'm still a little mystified about this whole story.  On the one hand, it
seemed like they had real potential here to do a compelling, intricate
story with substantial color and depth.  On the other hand, what we got is
an entertaining adventure story, no more, no less.  It leaves me a bit
frustrated afterwards.

I'll start at the bottom and work my way up.  First:  Character and theme.
Well, simply put, there wasn't much.  Data goes through his usual routines,
Picard fawns over Guinan briefly without really revealing anything we hadn't
already known.  Samuel Clemens was more a plot device (to get Picard back)
and humor generator than a genuine character.  Everyone else was pretty
much window dressing.  There were, on the whole, neither any new developments
in the characters nor any particularly clever interactions between them.

And yet, it seems like this episode could have gone a long way, had it
wished, in demonstrating Data's attachment to humanity and desire to be
human.  Part I had that nice bit where Data said that knowledge of his death
was comforting, and yet that thread was utterly ignored here (how does he
feel now, knowing that his head survived in a dusty cave for 500 years, and
was reattached to his body with a minimum of effort.  Also, we could have had
a neat exploration of Picard's relationship with Guinan, and yet that too
was completely glossed over.  It was strongly implied that this escapade was
the reason behind Picard and Guinan meeting and becoming such good friends
(and, it seems, that ever-vague "much more"), but nothing we saw here
demonstrated any of that.  I remain mystified.  And I certainly don't see how
if Picard had never gone along on the mission that they never would have met.

In a sense, this underscores one of TNG's fundamental problems:  Examining
its characters very closely seems anathema to the series.  Moving them away
from generic adventurers would limit the range of stories that could be told
about them, but, while this is true, it would make the stories we WOULD get
much meatier and satisfying.

On the theme front, Part I hinted at themes of sacrifice and death, while
Part II early on hinted at themes of friendship and/or love (between Picard
and Guinan).  The first two were nullified utterly by Data's very survival
(and, even more so, by the EASE with which it was accomplished).  The last
was negated by the shallowness of the Picard/Guinan sequence.

So what do we have left, having dispensed with those aspects of storytelling?
Well, as I said, a rollicking good adventure.  Not a *great* one, mind you,
but enough to keep one entertained for a couple of hours.

Time travel stories are probably my favorite science fiction pieces, so I
was pleasantly disposed toward the premise here, and was further pleased
to see that the entire plot flowed together pretty smoothly, and didn't
seem terribly ad-hoc.

But.  There were, sad to say, a number of holes, or at least disappointments.

First, and foremost, I wonder why the crew didn't try to reactivate the
head they found on Earth at the beginning of Part I to find out what had
happened.  I mean, they didn't even TRY.  Data's head has operated properly
without being attached to his body before ("Disaster"), and the fact that
they didn't try strongly implied that it couldn't be done.  And yet Geordi
did it in a matter of hours in Part II.  This is cheating, in my opinion,
and makes the whole story a little bogus.

Second, though less important, is why Data didn't notice the iron bit shoved
into the head in Part I, since he certainly appeared to be examining it
pretty closely.

Third, and least important, is how Picard and company managed to fit into
19th century society so well.  But I guess we can sort of abstract this
away by watching reruns of "City On The Edge Of Forever". :-)

So what *was* nice about this episode?  Well, in a sense, it was the
choreography.  The story flowed smoothly and the loose ends (save for the
issue raised above regarding activating Data's head) all seemed to get
tied up.  The aliens were plausible (keeping in mind that this is fiction),
as was the solution to them (though I wonder if many people found the "blow
them up" approach uncharacteristic of TNG; no matter, *I* thought it was
eminently practical).  Scenes such as Data riding to rescue the team at
the hospital, and Data, reactivated after 500 years, delivering Picard's
message are the sorts of things that SF drama is all about.  Samuel Clemens
was entertaining (though the injection of Jack London was a bit silly),
and, finally, the fade-out scene on Data's head in the 1800s was ideal.

In both parts there were only two sequences of dialogue I didn't care for.
First was the Troi/Riker piece in Part I, which was tedious exposition.
Second, and far worse, was Troi explaining the nature of humanity in the
24th century to Clemens.  I observed at the time (and I think that the
parallel is most apt) that that scene seemed like the Trek equivalent of Pat
Buchanan and Ronald Reagan addressing the Republican convention:  Trying to
energize the "base of the party", the Trek fandom equivalent of the
religious right.  Personally, it nauseated me nearly as much as Buchanan did
last month.

Overall, I give this one a thumbs up as a lighthearted adventure story, but
am saddened that it could have been a lot more, and wasn't.  It tastes
great, but it's less filling.  Not an auspicious start to the season, but
it's not "The Child" either...

Grade: B-


SEASON SIX AT A GLANCE (Gee, this is useful after just one episode):
Time's Arrow II: B-
---
Total Points: 2 2/3
Season Average: 2.667 (B-)

-- 
Michael Rawdon				 rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu
University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department, Madison, WI

You can watch them die, live on TV.
						- The Box, "Live On TV"
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