From: rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu (Michael Rawdon)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: TNG Grade Report: "Man Of The People"
Date: 13 Oct 92 14:47:20 GMT
Reply-To: rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Dept., Madison, WI

No spoilers, since the episode has now been shown across the country... but
there is a (protected) spoiler at the end for next week's episode.



Sadly, "Man Of The People" is another one of those not-too-bad-but-not-too-
great episodes which really leaves one with little to say.  A lot like
last week's "Realm Of Fear", really.

The big glaring problem with this episode is the whole aging schtick:  Why
did it happen?  I have trouble, given the feeble reasoning put forth by
this episode, understanding why the women started aging quickly when they
became receptacles for Alkar.  Moreover, the concept that their *appearances*
would age while their internal organs (such as Alkar's "mother"'s) would not
is flat-out absurd.  It would have been more realistic for them to have
died of exhaustion or something.  (No doubt they were just shooting for
"Picture Of Dorian Gray" imagery here, but it just didn't come off.)

A related issue is Alkar's death; why did *he* die from being flooded with
his *own* emotions?  How did he survive before finding his first "receptacle"?
Shoddy reasoning.

The concept of the emotion transferral and the anxiety it causes in the
people unfortunate enough to be chosen as receptacles is an interesting one,
but it would have been more interesting to see the impact of someone being
hit by someone *else's* emotions, rather than simply turning Troi into a
slut.  There was potential in this angle, but instead they just went for the
simple intrigue and time-pressure story.

If we just look past all of that, though, the story was enjoyable enough,
albeit pretty standard Star Trek material.  A little reminiscent of "Is
There In Truth No Beauty" in some ways (though seriously watered down).
Marina Sirtis turned in a good performance (though the lack of chemistry
between her and Frakes is pretty jarring).  I appreciated the fact that
we weren't deluged with the nut-and-bolts of penetrating the defense shield
on the surface (though it annoyed me, as I said, that they didn't focus
more on the whys and wherefores of the aging).

On the whole, this was a fairly standard, unambitious adventure yarn.
Nothing to write home about, and not a whole lot to say about it.

Grade: C


SEASON SIX AT A GLANCE:
Time's Arrow II: B-
Realm Of Fear: C
Man Of The People: C
---
Total Points: 6 2/3
Season Average: 2.222 (C+)

Next Week:

Well, they blew it with Spock in "Unification", so how will they do with
Scotty?  Well, the preview looked really good.  (Even in those few clips,
I found Scotty exuded more personality than the entire TNG cast combined).
I'm really looking forward to this.

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

"You gotta grow, you gotta learn by your mistakes,
 you gotta die a little every day just to try to stay awake.
 When you believe, there's no mountain you can climb,
 And if you get it wrong, you'll get it right next time."
						- Gerry Rafferty