From: rawdon@cabrales.cs.wisc.edu (Michael Rawdon)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc
Subject: Re: 3 more reviews (JUSTICE ... HIDE & Q)
Date: 16 Apr 92 19:41:53 GMT
Reply-To: rawdon@cabrales.cs.wisc.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Dept., Madison, WI

In <1992Apr15.154206.8369@cco.caltech.edu> tlynch@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>kanamori@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Atsushi Kanamori) writes:
>>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.)

I don't loathe it QUITE as much as Tim does, but it's still awful.

>>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.

I agree more with Tim here (though "fascinating" might be too strong a word;
"fun" is better :-)  It's the only good Ferengi episode ever made, and
despite the rather amateurish idea on which the story is based (mind
control - snooze.  Picard Maneuver - double snooze), it's carried off
pretty well.

>>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.

Of the episodes to this point, the only ones that I thought had particularly
interesting PREMISES were "The Last Outpost" and "Lonely Among Us".  But
then, premise isn't everything.

>>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.

Considering Starfleet's time-honored tradition of keeping their starships
at least a week's travel at high speed apart from each other, I doubt that
it was much of a gamble. :-)

>>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.

It would be interesting to see, say, a TV mini series focusing on some
of the crewmen on the ship, people who logically OUGHT to be the ones in
danger most of the time.

>>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.

Well, I can't really see a good thing about it.  If the premise (Riker gets
"the power of the Q") is a good one, this episode sure didn't show it to me.
Between Riker's posturing, the (entirely!) gratuitous violence, Yar crying,
and the "let's grant some officers their greatest wishes" scenes, this one
hits on many of the lamest ideas that TNG has ever introduced.  Heck, this
episode is almost a blueprint for how to make an awful TNG episode.

>>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.

*My* interest was piqued slightly by Q's one-off about the humans having
"beaten" the Klingons in the past (a line which was never developed on,
that I know of, later in the series), but throw-away stuff like this and
the Q Continuum lines don't substantially add anything to the show.

>[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.

Wes and Worf getting skewered marked the point at which I realized that
"Hide and Q" was the first TNG episode that I truly loathed.  I was about
ready to turn off the TV there and then.

>>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.

I agree that it could be interesting, but I don't have any particular interest
in seeing ANY more episodes with Q seeing as they're batting at the Mendoza
line with the character to date, IMO.

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

"It is a fool's prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak."
				- Dream, "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc