TNG – Power Play

Plot – An entirely plot bound episode that trudges from A to B to C without much of the way of sparkle (aside from the execution) in the script. The dialogue is purely functional, dealing with the planet, the possessed crew and finding a way to get the regulars back. On a character level there is absolutely nothing. It is practically hollow.

Character – It is very interesting to watch Power Play back and watch the performances of Spiner, Sirtis and Meaney after they have been possessed but before it has been revealed. They stand in the background of scenes taking in everything, apparently innocuous.

Performance – God bless Marina Sirtis who is given something decent to do for a change but has to be possessed by an alien in order to do so. She’s gloriously over the top in Power Play, far more pantomime than Spiner or Meaney and I could watch her overdone theatrics all day long. She walks into Ten Forward and starts gunning everybody down. I wish she was this vicious on a regular basis, she’s so much more fun. Listen to how Sirtis says ‘Picard, you are mine…’ She is loving this. The two men are far more menacing because they play their parts as disturbing wife beaters, the sort of underplayed aggression I imagined women face when the door is closed and no-one can see. It’s really rather disturbing. O’Brien deliberately choosing to murder his wife is pure sadism.

Production – David Livingston was the top director for many years on Trek before people like Mike Vejar and Allan Kroeker came along and raised the game of the franchise. Livingston was the one director who seemed willing to break out of that point and shoot direction that plagued the middle seasons of TNG and the early seasons and try and inject some life into the stories. By the time he transferred over to Voyager he was attacking the scripts with energy and imagination – remember Deadlock? Even a simple scene like Troi coming onto the Bridge at the beginning of this episode was achieved craftily with all the dialogue taking place in the foreground but tracking Troi as she walks around the Bridge to join them. The camerawork remains fluidic throughout, especially during the exciting sequence when the possessed crewmembers show their true colours.

Some good old fashioned horror atmosphere is generated on the planet with a fierce wind machine, lightning and a nice dark smoky set. TNG very often goes for green and pleasant lands so it is fun for them to stretch their wings and create a world which is entirely inhospitable.

Best moment – There’s some suspense in trying to take out all three possessed crewmembers in the forcefield circle. Again the direction is doing most of the work.

Worst moment – You’ve got a Klingon warrior and a former terrorist on the Bridge and O’Brien manages to take them both out. His special skills? Engineering.

Troi and O’Brien writhing on the floor in pain, wailing. It’s just blissful.

I wish they hadn’t done that – For all the smart direction there is no getting away from the fact that the shuttle going through the storm is a box being rocked by stage hands whilst the actors hang on for dear life. Also the shuttle that the actors crawl out from seems to be a lot smaller than the usual full size version. It must have been awfully cramped in there.

By the climax I had completely lost interest in what was going on. Even the hysterical direction had calmed down to the usual TNG level of competence. When the conclusion relies on the potentially interesting idea of the spirit of a vengeful Federation Officer actually turning out to be a bog standard malevolent alien who is acting out you’re going to lose my interest rapidly. There’s no punch to the last ten minutes, no surprises, no development of the characters. It’s an exercise in pushing the reset button.

A reason to watch this episode again – Power Play used to be a favourite of mine when I was a nipper because it takes an unusual approach of going for the jugular in a period of TNG that is so languid it is falling into a coma. Livingston delivers some pleasing shocks and scares along the way and the actors get the chance to stretch their muscles and play nasty versions of themselves. O’Brien and Data are quite frightening whereas Marina Sirtis hams it up brilliantly as evil Troi. However, this is an entirely plot driven exercise and as an adult my tastes have changed a lot and so the atmosphere can take me so far but after that I need something substantial to keep me interested and that is where Power Play falters. It falls into a predictable hostage scenario and features some quirk of technobabble to get them out of trouble. That’s not compelling television, it is watching the writers get out their toys and play with them and then put them back a little too easily.

*** out of *****

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