From: kanamori@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Atsushi Kanamori)
Subject: REALM OF FEAR -- OPINIONATED COMMENTS
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 11:05:08 GMT


Realm of Spoilers ahead



Like 11001001, but more so, "Realm of Fear" points out a need for an
"S" ("S" for "schizophrenic") rating. Some parts of this were wonderful,
other parts were just plain awful. Fortunately, most of the former
can be separated from the latter. The good stuff first.

First, this is the most chilling look we get to date about what can
go wrong with the transportation process. We've seen it before in
ST:TMP (sterilized and unconvincingly done) and in "The Enemy Within"
(where it was a plot device). But we haven't seen it as the focus of
a story before and several common fears are woven into this 24th century
"airphobia" story. There's the familiar phenomenon, for example, that the
more we know about a scientific process, the more paranoid we can become
(who hasn't read an encyclopedic medical/health book detailing all the
things that can go wrong and wonder how he/she made it to her current age?)
The idea of a transporter-induced "cancer" that creeps up and consumes
you long after the event is a nerve-wracking one indeed, and the 
transmutation of human crewmembers into flying larvae (as scientifically
inept as it is) has got to touch a few visceral nerves somewhere.

This is also the first story in a while that had "creepy things going on
in familiar surroundings." ("The Next Phase" was somewhat similar, but
it's whimsical tone just didn't have the same atmosphere.) Cliff Bole
is not my director of choice, and this episode doesn't do much to change
my mind. Even so, some scenes were pretty shocking: the Kentucky-fried
crewmember "coming to life" in the sickbay, for one. The 
"transportee's-eye" view of the beaming process was also nicely done:
it's what you'd logically expect, yet jarring enough to make you sit
up and notice. As usual, TNG is often strongest on the horror-mystery
aspects, and this episode is no exception. 

Unfortunately, things like plot and characterization *aren't* TNG's 
strong points and most of the "human issue" transportaphobia thread failed
for me. Several factors contributed to this.

First and foremost, Dwight Schultz was absolutely AWFUL as Barclay. I don't
understand what happened. When we first saw him in "Hollow Pursuits", he
was one of the all-too-rare TNG guest characters who could be identified
with because he was just "a regular guy" -- the unpretentious, vulnerable,
neighbor-across-the-street kind of character. True, he was eccentric, but 
the beauty of it was that he was "nutty in a normal way." That's hard to 
bend your brain around but that's *exactly* what made him so good :-) 
I still believe that.

In contrast, for most of "Realm", Barclay was Mr. Murdock; overdone and
overacted. Scenes like Barclay curling up on Troi's couch and puckering
his lips while Majel Barrett (Schultz's acting inspiration for this episode?)
reads out the symptoms of transporter psychosis were *so* bad, I was trying
to push him out the door. It's been a while since I rewatched "Pursuits" so
maybe my tastes have shifted a bit, but I found Schultz's performance *much*
too burlesque. In both this episode and "TAII", I felt less like I was
watching characters (even bland characters) and felt more like I was
watching a bunch of spoiled actors hamming up on the screen. This bodes
ill for a show who I've generally regarded highly in the acting department.

On the characterization note, the script strains a tad too obviously to
marry the Barclay character (whose trademark neurosis was fear of people)
with transporterphobia. Part this stems from the overacting mentioned above:
come *on*, guys! Any crewmember who whines and acts *this* childish for
two seasons straight should have been booted out of Starfleet a long time
ago. If Geordi had any sense, he would taken Ensign Furniture as systems
engineer instead of dragging Barclay along. But of course, this episode
has to center on Barclay so he has to be part of the action somehow.
The handling of this was awkward.

Scriptwise, the characterization of Barclay does a nice recovery
about halfway through when he proactively puts himself through the
transporter effect again to recreate the worms, and makes useful
suggestions during the investigation. *This*, at least, represents
a logical step up from "Hollow Pursuits" and it's done subtlely enough
so that it didn't feel defensive. That, I approved of wholly.

Characterization "throwaway scenes" ranged all over the scale (I did
say "schizophrenic.") The O'Brien "spider story" pushed my paranoia button
because it looked like yet another "let me tell you a story" schtick and
an long-winded one at that. But it did a nice recovery at the end when
O'Brien introduced Barclay to his pet spider. Fun wrapup there. 

Unfortunately, the bad scenes stand out more than the good: the opening
post-credit scene looked like yet another Awful Troi Psychobabble scene, 
and that's exactly what it was. My other main objection was the "Transportation
is the safest way to travel" bit -- I can appreciate the connection between
transportaphobia and modern day flight phobia but I don't appreciate having
it written over the screen in big tall letters. 

Plotwise, the mystery-ship subplot wasn't bad as far as tacked on
science menace subplots go. It had some atmosphere, as I mentioned above,
but suffered from a rushed ending as often. Barclay's deductive flash
seems just too easy to me, and Worf and Beverly were awfully quick to jump
on his orders ("grab 'em and hold on.") The ending was also predictable
as hell -- anyone who couldn't figure out that the worms were really
the missing crew after the first act just wasn't trying.

I think I've said all that's needed. This one jumped all over the quality 
scale from scene to scene. Graphically, I think the following rating
describes "Realm of Fear" pretty well:

		
		.
		
		.
		-

I'll stick to something more traditional though.


GRADE SHEET FOR "REALM OF FEAR"
-------------------------------
  Premise:    B+ (creepy trappings and a decent "human issue" story).
  Execution:  C  (some good directing moments, both excellent and awful
		  character scenes.)
  Characters: C+ (started out exactly where "Hollow Pursuits" began, but
		  a nice turnaround halfway through.)
  Acting:     D- (this isn't "The A-Team", Schultz.)
  
  Overall:    C  (very, *very* uneven. Sigh.)



Next Week:



What looks like a pretty bad episode and another downstep from Troi
being a useful character back to being stage dressing. 


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Kanamori's Episode Ratings: (last episode rated: "Time's Arrow Part II")
  "I keep telling you, there *is* no plot." -- Guinan.

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