From: ecunha@sumax.seattleu.edu (Erik Cunha)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Re: Lynch's Spoiler Review:  "Time's Arrow, Part II"
Keywords: TNG, Data, head, time-loops
Date: 27 Sep 92 22:22:32 GMT
Article-I.D.: sumax.5226
Distribution: na
Organization: Seattle University, Seattle WA

In article <1a2lihINNfbm@gap.caltech.edu> tlynch@cco.caltech.edu
 (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:

>WARNING:  The following post contains critical spoiler information regarding 
>the sixth-season premiere of TNG, "Time's Arrow, Part II".  Those not wishing 
>to have already seen spoiler information at the time of viewing are advised to 
>remain clear at this time.

>Well, that was...strange.

True, but it was also a satisfying conclusion.

>There were quite a few things they did, many of them good...but there were 
>also a lot of things they *didn't* do, and a few things they did that I 
>didn't like.  More after a synopsis:

[synop deleted]

>As I said before, there are good and bad things here.  Perhaps I just wasn't 
>particularly in the mood for Trek this week, but I found this somewhat 
>disappointing.  Not *awful*, mind you; just disappointing.  

I tend to agree, but I give it a "satisfying, not great, but satisfying."

>One of the things that disappointed me is that very little about the actual 
>reason for all this got *answered*.  The basic storyline about these aliens 
>works out to be:  Picard and company find signs of aliens in the 1890s, 
>assume they're hostile, attack them when they find them in the past, and 
>eventually destroy their base in the 24th century.  We're never given any 
>evidence that they *must* be hostile, or that they have a choice in the 
>matter (remember the Crystalline Entity?  "It is not evil, it is 
>*feeding*."), and I find that disturbing. 

I felt this question was answered well enough uder the circumstances. 
Picard's conversation with the alien indicated that a substitute was not
possible.  While it's true that they are not evil, there feeding, the crew
was not evil, they were defending their race from predators.

They did assume they were hostile.  This was mentioned in TA I.  I saw
this assumption as a hypothesis, which they then confirmed in TA II during
their investigations at the morgue and hospital.  I don't see a problem there.

They attacked them at the hospital, but lets remember they were there to
kill another person.  It would be different if they found the aliens in
thier lair, or detected them on the street, but attempting to communicate
with them before restraining them would have been foolhardy.

I do take off a point or two because there is no explicit attempt to
communicate with the aliens in the cavern on Devidia II.

>Even more annoying is that we 
>found out precisely zero about why they picked Earth at that time, or at all. 
>Riker and Bev gave a theory which might work, but we have no sign that it's 
>the case.  

I don't have a problem with this.  Why they choose Earth is not central to
the plot.  The question was "they are on Earth, what do we do about it?" 
Besides, TNG always "explains" situations by having a main character give
a theory and then look no further.

>Finally along these lines, the particular aliens involved more or 
>less ended up drifting off screen rather than being resolved somehow.  Yes, 
>the female presumably died and faded offscreen, but the male jumped back 
>through the portal.  Where is he?  Did he remain on Devidia Two with the 
>others?  We don't know.  Too many unanswered questions that *should* have \
>been answered.

On the other hand, answering every question is not that great either.  I
like having a few loose ends every once in awhile, such as Lore in "Brothers."

>Here's another, for instance:  Why, *why*, did the away team not try to 
>simply find Data via communicator?  We're given the clear impression from the 
>hospital scene that they work; why not try it?  If in fact Data *had* lost 
>the communicator in last show's poker game, then we'd be the wiser for it, 
>and the show would look very bright for having thought of *and blocked* that 
>easy way out.  Instead, it looks like they forgot.  Sigh.

We are agreed here.  Sloppy.

>As long as we're on the away team, we are told absolutely nothing about how 
>they got from the situation at the end of part one to the apartment they were 
>in now.  There are several easy answers, but nothing obvious; how did they 
>get, not only a room, but an apartment large enough to hold the whole team?  
>How did they get, not only clothing, but *precisely* the clothes they all 
>needed to do what they had to (Riker's policeman outfit, Beverly's nurse 
>garb, etc.)?  That felt decidedly like ducking the issue to me, and I'd 
>prefer something more honest.

On the other hand, do we *really*  need to see a rehash of the
main-characters-try-to-cope-with-past theme from "City on the Edge of
Forever", ST: TVH, and holodeck epsidoes?  This actually *improved* the
episode for me.

>Another one that just occurred to me:  the soul-searching about whether the 
>portal would open and get Picard back was completely unnecessary.  The 
>Federation has had the knowledge of time travel for a *century* now, and I 
>cannot believe that a situation like this would not at least allow them to 
>consider using it.  The Devidia Two cave was hardly the only way back to 
>1893.

But it has been made clear that slingshooting around a star is not a
trivial matter.  Besides, Picard would *definitely* not approve of placing
the entire ship in jeopardy to save him.

>Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
>BITNET:  tlynch@citjulie
>INTERNET:  tlynch@juliet.caltech.edu
>UUCP:  ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.caltech.edu@hamlet.caltech.edu
>"I'll see you in five hundred years, Picard."
>"And I'll see you...in a few minutes."
>--
>Copyright 1992, Timothy W. Lynch.  All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...

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\/ Erik Cunha                          that will require a disclaimer      \/
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