From: griffita@fraser.sfu.ca (David Stuart Griffiths)
Subject: Re: TNG Grade Report: "Rescals"
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 07:44:13 GMT

rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu (Michael Rawdon) writes:

A reply to...
>Spoilers for the TNG episode "Rascals"...


>1) That the Klingons have "surplus" starships that renegade Ferengi can just
>   go to buy (at their local K-Marts as blue light specials, maybe)?

This was a little phony, but not too bad... I suppose they could sell
off their older ships (perhaps an older ship?)

>2) That such ships would be able to overwhelm the Federation flagship in a
>   matter of minutes?

This was awfully annoying.  The 1701-D is such a wimp when it comes to
this.  At least the original enterprise could get roasted quite nicely
before it went out, however the "power couplings" which seem to break
whenever the "D" wants to fire phasers is most irritating.

>3) That Riker is such an awful captain and the officers and crew so
>   incompetent that in a pitched battle they are unable to get off more than
>   one phaser shot at their assailants?  (I mean, I know TNG's philosophy
>   is "all talk, no action", but this is ridiculous!)

True enough.

>4) That the interior defenses of the Enterprise are so inferior that they
>   can't ward off the Ferengi invaders, or at least put up a good fight?

Yep.

>5) That the Ferengi would for some reason keep the children on the ship,
>   rather than sending them down to the planet?  They could be as easily
>   executed there, after all!

Again, on the mark...

>This scene was outright painful, and it made so much of the episode seem so
>pointless.  Admittedly, the ploys of Picard and company to retake the ship
>was rather enjoyable (though I question the wisdom of using Alexander to help
>them!), but it lost its teeth for much the same reason that "Brothers" was
>a weaker episode due to the awfully constructed hijacking sequence.

I actually rather liked the hijacking scene in "Brothers", I thought
it was quite well done.  This one was much poorer though...  I'm sort
of wondering why Riker had to re-establish the computer connection for
Picard in the playroom.  Doesn't the captain have the authority to do
this on his own ship?

>Supposedly, though, the main focus of the episode was the transformation of
>Picard, Ro, Keiko and Guinan into children.  This would have had a lot more
>power if it hadn't been preceded long before by Classic Star Trek's "The
>Deadly Years" and TNG's own "Unnatural Selection", both of which were much
>better episodes.  And I think that the reason that both were better episodes
>is that there is something fundamentally scarier about aging than about
>getting younger.  While there was a certin amount of tension regarding the
>characters' sudden youthfulness (mainly generated by Keiko's dilemma, and
>Picard's concern about his career), there was a strong positive side to it
>as well.  Guinan seemed to genuinely enjoy the experience, and after
>talking to Troi, Picard seemed to have found a positive side to it as well.
>So, while it was an interesting diversion, it wasn't as powerful as I think
>it was intended to be.

It wasn't bad, however I would've liked to see less of Ro and Guinan
and more of Picard and Keiko.  I believe this would've made a stronger
impact.

>The greatest joy of that side of the episode was the young actress playing
>Guinan, who was really quite good.  Actually, most of the young actors were
>competent at portraying their characters

This is true, they did do a good job.

>"Rascals" was a lightweight episode with some entertaining parts, but on the
>whole it was shoddily constructed and executed, even by TNG standards.
>You'd think we were still back in the writers' strike-decimated second
>season!

I think with a little more planing, and a little less
"theatrical-license" on how they bring plot elements together, this
could've been a really impressive episode.  On the whole it was good,
and it wasn't a holodeck episode!
-- 

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