From: kanamori@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Atsushi Kanamori)
Subject: Re: Another 3 in 1 Opinionated Review (OUTPOST...LONELY)
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 21:21:45 GMT

In article <1992Apr10.194145.22055@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> hucke@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Matt Hucke) writes:
>In article <1992Apr10.143137.27606@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> kanamori@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Atsushi Kanamori) writes:
>>THE LAST OUTPOST
>>
>>First, the force field causes the Away Team members to beam down in all
>>kinds of ridiculous positions, but they all escaped materializing inside
>>a rock or 20 feet above the air. Right.
>
>If the transporter could be disrupted enough to turn La Forge upside down,
>then how did it still know to connect Carbon Atom #2341933 to Carbon Atom
>#2341934?  Ridiculous.  It's like pissing into a fan and expecting 
>every drop to fall in the same place. :)

My word, but that would have been messy... :-)


>They give them one characteristic of humans because it's easier than creating
>an alien with a full set of motivations.  Picking a single emotion (greed,
>honor, lust, bigotry, and war-lust have all been used) and basing the 
>entire race on that is quick and easy.  Few writers are able to create a
>psychologically-complete alien.  Single-emotion aliens are the writing 
>department's equivalent of the makeup crew's forehead ridges.

Not to mention four clones of the same alien rather than aliens with
different personalities and motivations.


WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE:
-----------------------------

>>It had an interesting IDEA of people's thoughts becoming reality as
>>well as exploring what amounted to an entirely different universe.
>>Unfortunately, neither of these are explored in any depth.
>
>Very annoying that they didn't have much of this, considering that the preview
>mentioned 'a place where thoughts become reality' and half the film in that
>was about the 'weirdness'.
>
>>theme of exploring an utterly unknown reality carries a lot of basic appeal
>>(and is, incidentally, the alleged primary activity of the Enterprise :-). 
>>But Picard chooses not to take this opportunity and concentrates on the
>>pragmatics of *escaping* instead. As understandable as this is, it's
>>frustrating to me as a viewer.
>
>An omen of things to come... "Explore strange new worlds" has become a sick
>joke.

I think this was an episode that was too ambitious for the format. In
an 1-hour show, you'd be hard pressed to handle *either* of those threads
in a really satisfactory manner, let alone both. The part they *did*
handle (the "get home" aspect) was handled quite well, I thought, but
unfortunately, it was the least interesting part of the premise for me.
This one had enough potential to *be* a season in itself.



>>A compelling story with compelling characters does, and when you boil away 
>>the cosmetics, WN1HGB is largely a "we're in a jam, how do we escape" 
>>story. Tastes great, but less filling.
>
>Uh oh, the Plot Vs Characters thing again...  I disagree here, I think that
>what is happening is more important than how Picard feels about it.

But unless I can get interested in the people affected by "what's happening",
I can't really get interested in what's happening. Of course, there are
"idea" episodes where the events *themselves* are interesting enough
that I can be drawn into an episode for them alone, but that's pretty
rare for me (CAUSE & EFFECT is a recent example of an episode where I
thought the ideas overwhelmed the characters; which was why I was so
annoyed that the logic behind those ideas got so loose in the second half.)

Normally, my take on an episode in a dramatic TV series is that it's driven 
by the characters and the plots serve to test and develop these characters.

I've found that this view disagrees with many here on r.a.s.


>>I rather enjoyed the final
>>scene where Picard made Wesley an acting ensign (not so much for what
>
>I was groaning when this happened... "The Weasel's going to be on the 
>*bridge* now?  Twice as much camera time?  Say it ain't so, Gene..."

:-) I guess this didn't bother me so much because I had the benefit
of foresight and knew that Wes becomes virtually a non-entity by season 3
and actually becomes a decent character after he leaves (:-). I'm trying
to evaluate these episodes as if I'd never seen the shows that came
afterward, but I guess that one slipped through.


>>Come to think of it, this thread has a lot of parallels with Scotty and
>>the glass spider (damned if I can spell her name) in THE WOUNDED SKY --
>
>Except for the fact that people *like* Scotty! :)

Yep. :-)


>>(Small continuity note: why does Wes think Riker doesn't know his name --
>>Riker had him man a bridge station in CoH.)
>
>I'm sure Riker knew his name,  Wesley was simply whining that he'd prefer that
>Riker actually use it, rather than the patronizing "the boy."
>
>Overall, I think it was the best of the first half-season, in spite of the
>Weasley/Traveler parts.

Uh oh..., I've got 7 more to go in the first half-season :-)


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------------ -------------------------- --------------------------
TNG Lifelines: From "Yesterday's Enterprise" To "Cause & Effect" --
  "Captain, we are getting unusual readings 20,000 km off the
   starboard bow." -- Worf, Worf, Worf and Ensign Ro.