From: tlynch@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch)
Subject: Re: 3 more reviews (JUSTICE ... HIDE & Q)
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 15:42:06 GMT

kanamori@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Atsushi Kanamori) writes:

>This posting contains reviews for:

>           JUSTICE
>           THE BATTLE
>           HIDE AND Q




>JUSTICE
>-------

>Ugh.

'Nuff said.  I can't bring myself to comment any further on this one,
except to say that I discovered it was on last night, and watched a few
minutes before I had to turn away in disgust.  (It had to be the "I'm with
Starfleet; we don't lie" line, too.  Yeeeeeargh.)

The only things I found in the least positive about this beastie were (1)
watching the...er...scenery, and (2) the fact that "There can be no justice
so long as laws are absolute" is a good pithy saying for a button which 
can be used to start fights with rigid-minded relatives.  :-)


>Gates had the most emotional role, unfortunately her distraught mother
>routine didn't work for me. Either she was trying too hard, or it was the
>script, but either way, I felt more like slapping her than comforting her.

Agreed, and normally I'm on her side in these discussions.  Not here.

>  Overall:    F- (If NEW GROUND was wiped out of existence, this would
>                  be the worst of the series.)

Oh, no.  I've got several that fall below this, "Qpid" and "The Royale" being
the top (bottom? :-) ) of the list.  This is easily in the bottom 10, though,
and probably the bottom five.  (You haven't seen "Home Soil" yet...)

>THE BATTLE:
>-----------

>Flawed, fascinating, and frustrating.

To a fault, but mostly the middle of the three, IMO.  I still think this is
the only *good* Ferengi episode ever made.

>This is another episode that's tough to rate. The *premise* was 
>fascinating, probably more so than any of the 1st season eps to this date. 

With the *possible* exception, I think, of "Where No One...", but it's a 
tough call.  

>I'll be kind and say nothing about the acting of the Ferengi this time --
>I'll simply note that the new Ferengi managed to tone the horseplay 
>down to a tolerable level without losing the basic Ferengi-ness we saw
>before. 

True.  A couple of the more lunatic bits even worked for me this time; the
"At no *cost*?  Ugly...very ugly." had me grinning.  (The "I'm all ears" 
didn't.)

>The episode absolutely OOZED a sense of approaching cataclysm and
>a lot of seemingly innocent events are shot in a way that enhanced
>the feeling of unreality and loss of control (e.g. on the Stargazer bridge --
>the power suddenly goes on with no apparent reason; it's only a second
>later that LaForge walks on and reveals himself to be the poltergeist;
>the Ready Room door opens quietly in the background and it's almost a full 
>second before anyone walks through it). Ah... I just checked the Guide:
>Rob Bowman. Why am I not surprised? 

Heh.  He's really the only *superb* director the show had this season as far
as I can remember.  Where *is* he now?  I don't remember anything by him since
"Brothers".

>The dream sequences are interesting -- despite the heavy action,
>the people manning the stations are static and robotic, and the 
>dream-Picard's actions are not frantic or rushed -- they are slow
>and deliberate. Okay, folks, we've all had nightmares where everything 
>seemed to move in slow motion and every action was like performing 
>underwater -- that's what I sensed these scenes were trying to project.

Agreed [glug].

>Patrick Stewart's performance -- gee, I really don't have to say it, do I?

If only for Otto Heuer.  :-)

>Unfortunately, the LOGIC of this episode doesn't stand up as well. In fact,
>it falls apart completely. First, a small plot hole: Daimon Bok's entire
>revenge plot hinged on the Enterprise-D being the ship chosen to rendezvous
>with his ship. How did he ensure this? 

There's nothing that said he was going to try this plan now; it could be that
he just had the 'gazer around for when he eventually came across them.  More
strongly, they probably had enough information to realize the Enterprise was
the most *likely* ship to meet them in terms of location.  Doesn't seem a big
deal to me; but as you say, it's a minor point either way.

>However, the major problem is that the script requires the crew 
>to act like idiots throughout. The Ferengi keep the Enterprise detained for 
>THREE days. Picard gets a headache which is supposed to be next to impossible 
>in this advanced age. 

Considering that he'd just been possessed by Energy Being #103R two shows 
earlier and sent to a completely different universe the episode before
that, I think a little headache is allowable.  :-)  (Honestly, I've no 
problem with this part of it in isolation.)

>Daimon Bok claims to want to discuss "a mutual problem" 
>but his visit to the bridge comes and goes with no mention of said problem.
>Picard and Troi suffer seizures during said visit. Troi reads Bok's emotions
>and senses deception. Bok clearly shows anger over the Maxia battle 
>incident and then offers the Stargazer as a gift to Picard with no
>reason given for this generous gesture. 

>Doesn't all this all call for a LITTLE more caution than beaming the captain
>over to the Stargazer after a cursory inspection by the command staff?

Most likely.  I'm not going to try to defend this one in any great detail;
putting the captain in unnecessary (and usually unwarranted) danger is part
and parcel to both series, and sometimes the methods used are a little 
extreme.

>Doesn't anyone wonder why the Ferengi continue to hang around like vultures
>while all this is happening?

'Cos Bok hasn't mentioned his "mutual problem" yet.  :-)  Seriously, if I'm
remembering right, they were trying to start negotiating for peace; surely
there's more to that process than the one meeting they saw.  Perhaps the 
E's diplomatic staff (er...it does have some, right?  :-) ) was busy working 
on the sidelines.

>And it's 40 minutes into the episode before anyone realizes it's the
>Ferengi that's causing Picard's madness (and it's Rainbow Kid that
>has to point this out to them?)

They may have gotten the same impression after the events of "The Last
Outpost" that we did; "oh, come on, these guys couldn't blow their nose and
make it dangerous!".  First impressions can be tough to refute.

>So much for "fascinating" and "flawed." The "frustrating" part stems
>from the fact that this psychic warfare isn't really an integral
>part of the Ferengi characterzation after all. 

As you say later, I don't think they could have used this on a regular basis.
Better to do what, for the most part, they did; get the Ferengi out of the
picture entirely, and use them for comic relief if you absolutely have to 
use them at all.  When they slip, of course, we get things like "Menage a 
Troi", but usually they haven't since.

>To sum up, I liked the ideas in this episode and the episode packed
>a powerful suspense and emotional impact. It won't stand up for
>repeated viewings, unfortunately, since much of the impact comes
>from not knowing what's going to happen next. 

Perhaps for you.  I've watched this one quite a few times without much lessen-
ing of impact.

>HIDE AND Q
>----------

>Eh.

Uh-oh.  :-)

>This one had some interesting ideas but wasted much of it. 

To some extent.  It's probably the weakest of the Q-centered stories beyond
"Qpid", but I don't understand the loathing many people have for it, honestly.
I thought it was rather mundane in bits, but not bad.

>The theme
>of power corruption is reminiscent of THE NTH DEGREE. 

Er...I think you've got that backwards.   This did it first.

>There's nothing glaringly wrong with the story.

>Unfortunately, there's nothing glaringly *right* either. The episode
>went through the motions but never seemed to tap the underlying drama.

Not much; that's true.  Probably the things I found most interesting were the
underlying hints about the Qontinuum; I'm still miffed that *they've* never
been handled in any greater detail.  The concept of a race that's incredibly
advanced, yet now stagnant, is one I've seen elsewhere in SF, and one that 
can be interesting if well handled.  Unfortunately, they haven't done it
yet, but looking at that side of it makes this a little more interesting, at
least.

(Of course, the other thing I liked was Picard's "Quite right, so you should
[feel like an idiot]" to Riker, considering that I'd felt that way from day
1 towards the guy up to that point.  :-) )

[on the planet]

>plot degenerates into a pointless sitcom reminiscient of THE SQUIRE OF
>GOTHOS. This was definitely the "F" part for me -- the only enjoyable
>part being seeing Wesley get shiskebobed (I wonder how loud the cheering
>was when this first aired? :-) 

That didn't do much for me, though an awful lot of people were pleased.  The
one bit in the first half that *really* stood out for me, for whatever reason,
was Q's sudden apperance in Data-makeup planetside.  That one stunned the hell
out of me at the time.

>Much of this stems from the lackluster performance
>of the regulars. Frakes looks convincingly smug and arrogant as SuperRiker
>but everyone else sleepwalked through their roles. 

I'd differ with that on Stewart and, to some extent, Spiner, but other than
that it was rather straightforward.  

>Finally, once Riker gets his superpowers, little is done with it other
>than the obvious. The writers seem to acknowledge this by rushing through
>Riker's transformation into arrogance and stating the issue up front
>in the conference between Picard and Riker -- this happens much too quickly
>and abruptly for me to believe. 

I'm not sure.  Barclay's transformation was much more natural in nearly all
ways, to be sure, but look at where Barclay *started* from compared to Riker.
Barclay was incredibly shy and took time to get over that.  Riker already had
an ego the size of several small states; suddenly becoming a god can't 
help but add to it.  It was still a *little* fast, sure, but given Riker's 
personality up to that point I don't think it's too farfetched.

>we get little sense of what it's like to be suddenly more powerful
>than anyone around you. 

Agreed here, mostly.

>The idea of exploring the Q-continuum is, in itself,
>a fascinating one but like Nick Locarno in TFD, Q lacks the basic
>character and three-dimensionality to make this a defensible option.

That I disagree with.  I think a story finally showing the Qontinuum in 
some fashion and *dealing* with exactly how Q sits in relation to his 
fellows might well be a good one, if executed properly.

Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy B.A.; one of many Caltech grad students)
BITNET:  tlynch@citjuliet
INTERNET:  tlynch@juliet.caltech.edu
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R.I.P. Isaac Asimov, 1920-1992.  You will be missed.
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