From: martins@amanda.Eng.Sun.COM (Martin Sodos)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: ** SPOILERS ** Rascals -- the new all-time trek low
Date: 5 Nov 1992 18:26:37 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc., Mountain View, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: amanda

Spoilers on Rascals follow ...


























I'm not one to usually publish reviews, but this episode is so
pathetic I felt complelled to speak up (and this from the quintessential
personage of the let it go, its only a TV show type)

Normally I try to allow for minor continuity errors, technical
gibberish or plot contrivance in order to just enjoy the show.

However, a number of items on this one just stretched continuity and
contrivance too far ...

1. The shuttle just flies right into an energy field which
  a.  is so strong it can reduce tritanium (sp?) into its component
parts, yet,
  b.  the shuttle apparently can't detect it, (though the enterprise can).
  c. and, apparently, this energy has the rather remarkable
property of staying together in a cohensive blob.

2. The 1701-D has shields so weak that 2 Klingon Birds of Prey (of
any class) can totally drain them (using only Phasors) in under 10 
vollies?!! Remember, these are shields which, 3 models earlier (or
4 for the original 1701):

  Stood up to assaults from the likes of 
  a. V'y'gr, (which totally vaporized Klingon vessels of the 
same day, as well as station shields in a single shot), 
  b. Nomad assaults, 
  c. Romulan plasma weapon assaults (which could go down thru 
miles of solid rock, thru a bases shields on max, and still devastate 
the underlying base).

and which in their present day form, stood up longer to the likes of
the Borg (which we assume has far advanced technology) far longer than 
the shields held in this episode.

Give me a break. This was a complete contrivance for no other
purpose than to allow the warp drive and weapons to go offline
in an implausibly short period of time. I find this
the worst sort of contrivance, and utterly lacking in credibility.

3. The scene where Worf missed by a mile, and was shot directly
in the chest? (Can you say Keystone Kops?).

4. They were out of BATTERY power!?  And, the lights were still on!?

5. No way I can believe they were overpowered so fast that they
only had time to fire one shot from the phasors (and what about the photon
torpedos, and what about the mode where they fire both 
continuously), ie why didn't Riker order something like

"My. Worf, Simultaneous continuous fire of all phasors and torpedoes
on each vessel in succession. Fire at once, and continue as long
as necessary."

6. Another alternative, 1701-D should be faster than other ships in the
fleet (Federation or Klingon), run away and return after preparing.
(Unless, of course, one has the shields drop so unrealistically fast
that the warp drive is knocked out first, already an unacceptable
contrivance as stated above).

7. Allowing aging to be removed by having the trasporter delete
a well defined base-pair sequence is not only hokey, but
opens multiple cans of worms on the immortality possibilities
(which will undoubtedly be completely forgotten in upcoming
episodes).

I could go on and on, but from perspective of lack of continuity,
implausibility, contrivance and rewriting the basic assumptions in
order to support an unsupportable premise, I consider this to be one
of the worst offenders of all time.

Grade: F--- (No redeeming social value)

MS