From: ph9991_manfr@rivers.acc.uwrf.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Saturday Night Review "The Quality of Life" SPOILERS!
Date: 21 Nov 92 19:25:24 -0600
Organization: University of Wisconsin - River Falls


And now, not at all live, from River Falls, Wisconsin, comes
this week's SPOILER review of this week's TNG episode:
"The Quality of Life"



SPOILERS AHEAD







Only pass this spot if you have the correct replicated tool.










The thought which kept recurring throughout watching this episode is
what a great director Jonathan Frakes has developed into.  He _really_
gave this script an above average spin, turning a merely average 
episode into one well above the norm.

Two intertwined examples come to mind.  First is his casting of the
doctor who ran the station, and the second is the way he directed
the Exo-Comp's testing scene.  By setting up her character sufficiently
and by making sure we got lots of looks at her smirking face during the
test, (and by having the scene right at the halfway point in the episode),
I was thrown off course for a little while.  I couldn't be sure if the
Exo-Comp's behavior was of its own accord or due to some piece of sabotage
on her part, which thanks to the way the character was played and directed,
made it very credible that she could do such a thing.  
I won't say I really took the bait, but it made me stop and think.  
Plus points for that wonderful piece of direction.

The other wonderful piece of direction Frakes has developed is his 
camerawork, and this is definitely his best yet, possibly one of the best
in the entire series cinematographically speaking.  The use of half-close-ups,
people slightly off-center on the screen, and the smart use of several
different points of view of the model shots all made the storytelling
much nicer to watch.

Still another wonderful piece of direction in this one was the "casual"
bits we see between characters, particularly Dr. Crusher.  For once,
the crew seemed _relaxed_ and had the attitude, "Hey, we do this all
the time, what's there to get worked up about" until the last minutes
when they really do have something to get worked up about, and even then
don't get too excited.  Well done.  

But what about the script? I hear you ask.  Funny you should ask...
The script was nice.  Simply nice.  The Exo-Comps are nice, peaceful
takeoff on Transformer-type robots (the tools even materialize out of
the air!) and one of the few truly fun-looking "gadgets" we've seen on
the show.  They were cute.  
Data's puzzling over the meaning of life was good and necessary, and
wisely kept to just what was necessary.  Data has puzzled over such matters
before and now we're seeing him puzzle a lot less and begin to act a
lot more than he has.  
Data's actions at the end of the episode brought about a conflict we
haven't seen before, that of Riker vs. Data, and is no doubt one of those
conflits in the TNG catalog that the writer probably went down the list
and said, "Let's see, who hasn't had an argument yet?"  
It was predictable and we could see it coming, but once again we are
saved but whether this was the script or the diector, I am not totally
sure.  When I say we were saved I refer to Riker's sudden softening down
to Data, and trying to come up with other options himself.
To me, this scene proves once and for all that Riker is worthy to command
the Enterprise should something happen to Picard or should Patrick Stewart's
contract expire.  And this seemed a goal of this episode.  Riker's
reputation as a commander to the viewers was sorely damaged, I feel, by
his reactions in "Darmok," but they were the correct reactions.  The
trouble there was that we knew a lot more than he did about the situation
and thus our first impressions, before we recall that we are omniscient
in this case, are that "Riker's a jerk, Riker's firing first and asking
questions later."  
Here is a case similar to Darmok where Riker does seem to be up against
the wall again, but this time he's got a little more time to think,
and given that time, he comes up with some other options.  Nice plot point,
and nice piece of acting and directing by having Riker break into that
smile during the conflict between the two.

I did see the Exo-Comps' innovation coming (not the technical side, but
the fact that they would have a better idea), but once again the script
out-guessed me just ever so slightly (and if _I_ would have had a few
more minutes I probably would have figured it out, but that's another
sign of a good script, i.e. have the event happen so fast there's no
chance for us to predict it) by having the one machine stay behind to
save the others, and Frakes' directed that scene extremely well again
to really ring a note of sadness into the scene.

Special mention must be given to Brent Spiner for one of his best performances
as Data in ages, and in particular for those "hints" of emotion we see
from time to time when he is defending or arguing for te Exo-Comps,
ESPECIALLY in the final transporter scene and his last scene with Captain
Picard.

And I'll also give the script a good mark for a semi-original science fiction
idea, that of the Particle Fountain.  
And is it just me, or do you guys and gals and ones agree that a Particle
Fountain would make a really excellent Christmas tree ornament?  
(Miniaturised of course)

Were there any bad points to the episode?
I can think of only two, and they were _very_ small.  Two cases of padding,
the most blatant one being the poker scene, and the second being 
Crusher and Worf in sick bay.  The sick bay one is brief enough to be
glossed over, but the first one had _no_ relevance whatsoever to the
plot of the episode.  Helping a little to cancel against that, however,
is the fact that is was entertaining padding, and that this piece of
padding came well before the plot began.  If it had come in the middle
then it would have been much more annoying, such as the Troi/Riker/Fudge
scene in "The Game."

On a scale of one to ten:  9.3



Until the next new episode then, (which is a dratted five weeks or more away)
With a hat tipped in farewell,
Steven.K.Manfred

Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current