TNG – Starship Mine

 

Plot – Die Hard in space? This is probably the best version of this story that Trek has done. It’s hardly taxing in the brains department but every now and again its nice to see Picard discard his books and flute and pick up a gun and play hero.

Character – By the time of Starship Mine TNG has been running on all cylinders for a handful of seasons and knows exactly who its characters are and what they each bring to the show and that is why the cold open is such a delight. The Enterprise is being evacuated, Picard is trying to keep everything on track and his crew are constantly hindering him from getting from A to B in a West Wing style walk and talk sequence. Trust Data to have the best moment with his attempts at small talk (Picard’s ‘Mr Data, are you alright?’ is perfect). And look at the smug look on Worf’s face when he beats LaForge from being excused the Ambassadors reception. These characters have a wonderfully natural rapport at this point.

This is late enough in TNG’s run that Picard walking around the empty Ready Room and stroking the wood of the security station could be seen as a first step in allowing the audience to let go of this ship. Season seven would hardly see TNG go out on a high and so you can see this as the point where Picard acknowledges that we’ve had a lot fun here, but things are about to be wound up.

Data’s attempts to mimic the over the top small talk of ‘Hutch’ are delightful. Spiner truly gets how to play comedy on this show.

Think back to the early scenes of TNG and try and imagine Picard as an action hero. The two things just don’t correlate. He was always the envoi, the thinker, the arbitrator. Somewhere along the line Patrick Stewart saw his co-stars having an awful lot of fun playing hero and started making demands for more action and romance and less diplomacy. Stewart is a committed performer and manages to make the unlikely scenario of stepping into Bruce Willis’ shoes and taking down an attempted coup on the Enterprise with a gun seem perfectly natural. It is episodes like Starship Mine and Gambit that allow Picard to loosen up and play action hero that made the transition to the big screen and scenes such as his muscle man trawl through the Enterprise in First Contact to take down the Borg much more palatable. If Picard had been all talk on TNG and then all action in the movies it would have felt jarring but stories such as this truly help to bridge the gap.

Performance – It is a problem that Tim Russ turned up in several episodes as different characters before finally securing a regular part in Voyager. Whether he is growling his way through a Klingon part in in Invasive Procedures or playing Die Hard in Starship Mine, it is impossible to not think of Tuvok whilst he is on screen.

Terrible Dialogue – ‘Profit. This is all about profit’ – says Picard, disappointed, but really what was he expecting? Five minutes from the end of the episode and the villains of the piece needed some kind of a motive. A shame that it had to be something this unimpressive, but it is the de facto motive for anything in drama when nothing better can be thought of.

Production – An episode like Starship Mine needs a great lightning supervisor to bring the sets to life as atmospherically as possible to make the action as visually dynamic as it can possibly and Jonathan West is more than up to the task.

Alternatively, a criticism that you can aim at this story and the show in general is that the aesthetic is all a little too clean. The sets are all pristine and characterless. They never feel entirely lived in. Thank God dirty, grungy, falling apart at the seams DS9 came along when it did to represent a real workplace environment.

All credit to Cliff Bole. He cuts the latter half of this episode from scene to scene so well that I was perfectly convinced that Picard was traversing a real spaceship rather than just crawling about on some standing sets. It takes real skill to fix the camera in the right spots to suggest forward momentum and movement in these ship bound episodes and not all directors have the chops to pull it off.

The music is a complete disappointment but then it was throughout these middle years of Berman era of Trek. If you’re going to tell an action adventure you need a rousing score to get the blood pumping. Think The Way of the Warrior or The Adversary. But instead we get the usual dreary latter TNG music; orchestral, occasionally suspenseful but never threatening to bleed into the action and get your pulse racing.

Best moment – The Baryon sweep is kept in the background of the episode for added suspense but I loved how at the last minute when the thieves were defeated it proved to be one last hurdle before Picard could relax. You can feel the panic in his voice as he orders the base to deactivate the sweep.

I wish they hadn’t done that – Watch as Riker diverts Hutch and Data into each other’s paths so they can distract each other and save everyone else from both of them is funny, but it does highlight an issue that I have with TNG and how it views characters that don’t conform to the norm. Both in the writing, and in the regular’s performances there is an element of the regular cast treating people who are socially idiosyncratic as being beneath them or a chore to be around. Reg Barclay, Mrs Troi, Hutch…you can compile quite a list. How Riker and Troi and Picard look down their noses at these characters displays an conceit that is quite discomforting. This arrogance mostly dissipates on DS9 and Voyager, where characters differences are mostly celebrated rather than injured.

A reason to watch this episode again – I don’t buy it when people write off Starship Mine as a piece of action fluff alone because there is enough character work in the first fifteen minutes to give this piece a whole lot of charm. Voyager attempted to carbon copy this episode in Macrocosm but forget to add any of the delightful comedy moments and genuine dynamism that might have sweetened the pot. The Baryon sweep working its way through the ship means that Picard is on a timer to try and release his ship from the rogues on board, which adds a layer of suspense to proceedings. A lot of people might come to TNG as comfort viewing (especially if this was the show that got them into Star Trek as a child) and this is the kind of episode that you can relax into entirely. It’s not deep and meaningful, but it fills out 45 minutes with plenty of action and excitement and gives Picard centre stage in the most unlikely of stories. With Patrick Stewart at the helm, this was always going to be an easy watch. Looking at the episodes around it (Birthright, The Chase, Suspicions, Aquiel) this is one of the better entries in late season six.

***1/2 out of *****

Clue for the next episode - 

VOY – Alice

 

Plot – ‘Don’t make me regret this…’ says Chakotay at the thought of a ‘slightly used alien ship’ being brought on board Voyager to add to their compliment of shuttles. It’s funny, I was thinking exactly the same thing. 

The teaser does make promise of a great adventure in Abbadon’s scrapyard in space. It feels almost TOS in nature (not TNG, they were far too po-faced when it came to having an adventure) to stumble across a flotilla of junk and get bartering. You could imagine Kirk and Scotty having great fun making deals with Abaddon.

Character – There’s dialogue in this episode that is extremely telling about the surface level of characterisation on Voyager. Tuvok plays ‘guess his age’ on the Bridge, Neelix talks about his long-forgotten shuttle, Baxiel and Torres fails to prevent the green-eyed monster from emerging as Tom gets close to Alice. It’s entirely one-dimensional dialogue. There’s no substance or meaning to any of it. Its characters chatting away, filling up an hour, revealing nothing profound or amusing about themselves. A cardboard cast.

When I was watching Lineage in season seven I mentioned that I was astonished that the Torres/Tom romance could generate so much emotion when they had been treated as bad sitcom characters in the past. This was one of those moments. Torres gets insanely jealous over Alice in an agonising scene where Tom is diverting all of his attention away from their relationship. Torres then confides in Harry Kim (of all people), wondering why every time Tom gets a new obsession that he forgets that she even exists. Harry attempts to justify it. What he should have said was ‘because he’s’ a twat and you can do better.’

Performance – Watch very closely the scene where Chakotay asks Tom to shave and get back into his uniform. You can see how much Robert Beltran is dying behind his eyes being forced to say such unimpressive things. He’s long given up on the show giving him fresh opportunities to act at this point (and was extremely vocal around this time about it) and you can see just how badly he is phoning in Chakotay.

Sometimes you have to ask if an actress was screen tested before they secure a role on Star Trek because they are so ill-suited to the role they are given, and yet I know that these things are vigorously screened by Paramount. So how Claire Rankin scored the part of Alice is a mystery because she redefines the term ‘flat performance’ with an unemotional, fish wife (that’s the only way to describe how desperate and pushy Alice’s personality is) spaceship. If she’s trying to be sinister, she fails. If she’s trying to be sexy, she really fails. If she’s trying to generate some drama…you get the idea.

Terrible Dialogue – ‘We’re one now, Tom. Think of what you want me to do and I’ll do it…’ – Alice attempts to be seductive…and fails

Production – Tom Paris’ glitzy new uniform that he dons to work on Alice has to be seen to be believed. Obviously, Alice is a huge fan of the space age glam rock period if that is the kind of couture that she likes her pilots to don.

Best moment – That glorious moment of ‘suspense’ when the script abandons the characters for a moment so the audience can have a moment alone with Alice and she lights up menacingly to tell us she is a sinister cur.

I wish they hadn’t done that – ‘We’ve already got a full compliment of shuttles…’ I’m not going to go crazy, just point out that Voyager has lost about 25 shuttles at this point in its run. How they have a full compliment is a complete mystery.

At this point in television I think montages were a thing of the past, or at least used in parodies of television shows past. Except Voyager. Voyager features a cheerful montage of Tom and Alice getting to know each other with a chirpy score and everything but Robert Duncan McNeill giving a thumbs up to the camera.

A reason to watch this episode again – This is so awful it almost doubles back on itself in quality terms and reaches a level high art kitsch. On the back of three seasons of TOS, seven seasons of TNG and seven seasons of DS9, I fail to understand that when Voyager is finally the unique voice of the franchise that it produces something as crass, obvious and unengaging as this. Haven’t they learnt anything from the lessons of the other shows? Alice is enjoying itself until the centre figure of the episode arrives; the eponymous Alice and then the episode becomes all about Tom Paris and his latest obsession and we all know how those sorts of story’s usually go down. Robert Duncan McNeill is a fine chap by all accounts and there are reports that everybody enjoyed working with him…but that doesn’t mean he is a particularly strong actor and I struggle to think of many moments across the seven year run of Voyager that showcases him at his best (to contrast, I can even do that with Garrett Wang – Timeless, The Thaw). Alice is certainly not one of those moments, when Tom becomes an adolescent obsessive, cheating on his Chief Engineer girlfriend with his latest piece of technology and turning psychotic in the last act as she gets in his head in a very intimate way. It’s a challenge to watch because the premise is so hokey, the execution awkward and the acting abysmal. This was written by the man who gave us The Visitor and the guy who conceived Discovery. Sharp, smart writers. How they could produce a script this lacking in braincells boggles the mind. The parallels with Christine are both obvious and intentional. The idea of a sentient ship that can dig its fingers into the mind of its owner doesn’t have to be entirely embarrassing, as long as you are a writer that can explore the potential of the idea. Alice is somewhere in the middle stages of neutral about how to play the horror; neither gloriously over the top to tip into B-Movie territory (think of something like DS9’s Empok Nor) or subtle enough to unnerve (think Voyager’s own Meld). It tiptoes in the tepid middle area of timidity and as such it fails to work as a horror episode in either direction.

* out of *****

Clue for the next episode: 

DS9 - Past Prologue

Plot – It feels like the political system around DS9 is on a knife edge at this point with the Cardassians arrogant enough to think that their withdrawal from Bajor is only temporary and the Bajorans considering the Federation administrators of their independence another occupying force there to tell them what to do. One wrong move at the moment could plunge this tenuous peace into conflict, it feels and that is a fascinating position for the Federation to be in. 

It’s very clever how Kira mentions that the wormhole is the future of Bajor. It’s the thing that Cardassians are most interested in, and the Federation. It makes perfect sense to believe that if you get rid of the wormhole, then all those prospectors would vanish. Life really isn’t that simple but it makes for an exciting climax as Kira has to stop Tanha from exploding his device and destroying the wormhole.

Character – Plain, simple Garak. I make no exaggeration when I say that Andrew Robinson’s Garak is not only one of the best characters of Trek, but he’s one of the best characters on television full stop. I don’t think you will find many people that would argue with me. He’s marvellously mysterious, witty and brutal but with a sarcastic edge, intelligence and a shady past that gets uncovered slowly but with breathtaking assuredness by the writers and the actor. He makes an instant impression here, clearly desperate to shag Dr Bashir’s brains out and making no secret of that desire. To have an openly seductive gay (or at least bisexual) character on Star Trek at the time was a phenomenal move and whilst they shied away from this aspect of his character in later appearances, it was certainly undeniably there in droves at the start. In the writing and in the way that Robinson so teasingly plays him. Did he stay on DS9 as the eyes of and ears of the Cardassian people? What did he do to make his people force him into exile? Is he using Bashir as a conduit to get information to the Federation? So many questions arise around this character who is cloaked in enigma. Add to that Robinson’s magnetic performance and you have a character who raises the profile of the show by his mere inclusion.

How marvellous that nobody bats and eyelid when Bashir turns up in Ops to boast about Garak making contact. Bashir is so wistfully naïve at this point to be virtually unlikable and so O’Brien refusing to acknowledge that he even exists is actually very funny.

A vital episode for Kira so early in the show. She’s still more a Bajoran freedom fighter (or terrorist if you will) than an administrator and so when somebody from her violent recent past shows up it is a great chance to show how divided her loyalties are. Kira goes on more of a journey than practically anybody else on this show (perhaps only Odo and Bashir go on more of staggering level of development) and in these early episodes she is self-destructive, brutally emotional and suffering from the fallout of her violent childhood. It’s not always easy watching but Nana Visitor is always compelling and it is pieces like Past prologue that show there is much more going on under the surface of this woman than just a fiery redhead with a chip on her shoulder.

In a quiet moment Odo admits that Cardassian rule might have been oppressive but at least it was simple. I like the fact that he has this darker side to his personality, one that favours swift justice rather then political nicey-niceness of the Federation. It means when we meet his mirror universe counterpart in series two it isn’t such a stretch to see how he became such a sadistic tyrant.

Performance – Perhaps the tension between Sisko and Kira is a little overstated here by both actors. In one early scene they are arguing vehemently over a matter that requires gentle debate. DS9 was trying to stick out as a show with in built tension between its character and that was a laudable goal but I can see why (especially on the back of TNG) people might have had an issue with just how divisive and combative the show was this early in its run.

Great Dialogue – ‘I know its difficult to see after all we’ve been through, we want it all now.’

‘It was so much easier when I knew who the enemy was.’

Production – Early DS9 was a dark, oppressive, claustrophobic place. It was all smoke and shadows and dingy sets. I rather liked it because it felt edgy and dangerous at the time, but I have to say when they lightened the show up and made the sets feel bigger and brighter it certainly felt much more welcoming. Thank God the runabouts were given less importance when the Defiant turns up. They are pathetic.

Best moment – I love the scene where Lursa and B’tor meet with Tahna in one of the cargo bays. I love the idea of DS9 as a location where dark and dirty corners can be used as locations to make illicit deals for weapons. This isn’t the Trek we have been used to.

The highlight of the episode is the scene between Kira and Odo. You can see the seeds for so many future developments being laid here. Kira’s change of heart about the Federation. Odo’s investment in her. Their relationship. Visitor and Auberjonois together are just gold. They can take good material and make it great. Kira asks how she can turn against her own people and betray them to the Federation, to which Odo replies ‘are they your own people?’ ‘They’re no different than how I used to be’ ‘Used to be?’

Worst moment – ‘That Bajoran woman you have working for you’ is how an Admiral speaks of Major Kira in a tone that suggests she thinks that humanity is far superior to any other species. It’s so shocking to see this kind of TNG mentality on DS9, but then it was still early days.

I wish they hadn’t done that – I don’t care where Netflix chooses to place this, Past Prologue will always be the first episode after the pilot for me and a pleasing first step into political underhandedness for the show on the back of the incredible first episode. Whilst it is always nice to see Lursa and B’tor (of the house of Duras), this absolute pandering to the TNG crowd of which there would be a fair amount in the first season (Q, Vash, Picard, Mrs Troi). Interestingly, as soon as DS9 finds its voice it jettisons these gestures of welcome to the TNG viewers and would complete embrace its own identity and audience. Voyager never quite found that confidence.

A reason to watch this episode again – Another reason that I enjoy DS9 so much is because once you have watched this show through it is fascinating to go back and see where these people started out. At the time the first season was patchy and awkward, albeit with hugely promising character work shining through. Now it is a glorious first chapter of an epic piece of storytelling and an intriguing glimpse of these people before they were fully formed. Bashir is a naive and irritating, Garak is sadistically creepy and mysterious, Sisko lacks the commanding presence he would have later on, Dax is more a wise old woman than the aggressively confident young woman she would become. Kira is the one who stands out the most; on the verge of being utterly unlikeable because of her traumatic past (Visitor is playing a woman with serious PTSD at this point) but immediately going on a journey of healing and spiritual redemption. Past Prologue takes the reactionary Major from the pilot and puts her in a situation where she has to choose whether to continue as she has all these years or embrace her future and it doesn’t make that a forced decision. You can see why fans of TNG might have been turned off by this – this episode is stationary and it has none of the wonder of space travel or quirky high concepts that people have come to associate with early 90s Trek. But it is those very things that has made this show endure whilst TNG can be written off as a piece of SF ephemera; the political shenanigans, the intense character work and idea of creating an entire universe of worlds with rich colours and detail rather than broad strokes. Past Prologue isn’t quite fully formed DS9 firing on all cylinders but it has many thoughtful moments, terrific opportunities for great acting and some marvellous twists and turns that it promises a show that will deliver in spades.

**** out of *****

Clue for the next episode: 

The Nimon Be Praised! Reappraise Season 24!

Join Jack and Joe as they avoid the Rani’s bubble traps, swim past the robotic nasties in the pool, let loose the bees that bring down the Bannermen and open a window that melts off Kane’s face. Season 24 is in the limelight and we’re ready to discuss whether it is unfairly maligned. Is this Sylvester McCoy’s best season, performance wise? Is Mel as grotesque as the stories around her? Hurry...while stocks last

Availble on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor and more...

https://anchor.fm/nimon1/episodes/The-Nimon-Be-Praised--Reappraise-Season-24-ejk08e

TOS – The Corbamite Manoeuver

Plot – I love the melodramatic of Kirk and crew being giving ten Earth-type rotations known as minutes to contact their deities before it wipes them out. Star Trek lacks that kind of extreme dialogue in later years and is far less entertaining for it. Spock later exclaims that they are ‘super heating’, which is obvious a lot more dramatic than a regular heating up.

Character – Introducing Leonard McCoy, and the creation of the triumvirate that ensured that this series lasts three years. Without McCoy to provide a counterpoint to Kirk and Spock (a wise advisor and a curmudgeonly rival respectively) then neither character would have been as successful. Deforest Kelly is instantly charismatic and a formidable figure. Even if he does commit a court martialble act in his very first scene. Goodness knows why he is hanging around on the Bridge for now readily apparent reason but he certainly provides an entertaining commentary at all times.

Performance – Because this episode is essentially a reaction to an unknown threat throughout it means that the director has to rely on the cast more than ever to provide the interest. Cue William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy doing their best ‘stare at the viewscreen in wonderment and fear’ acting. To give them their credit they sell this material and then some.

Shatner can’t resist getting his chest out as much as possible and relishes the sweaty medical test sequences. At this point he is playing the part as cool as a cucumber. Even Leonard Nimoy is panicking in the face of the cube but Kirk is determined to escape the cube at any cost. He’s playing a dangerous game when he bluffs his way out of their situation by pretending that the ship can withstand any attack and that he is growing annoyed at Balok’s foolishness, especially given the being has already proven that it is vastly superior in ability. But that’s what it takes to sit in the Captain’s chair. Sometimes you’ve got to risk death to get out of a tight scrape.

You need Bailey in this story to pad out its running time. Without the tension of one of the Enterprise crew cracking under pressure it would be a long 50 minutes of looking a the viewscreen waiting for something to happen. That doesn’t make him any less annoying though because it is clear that is his function. He’s not somebody we have met before and we lose him at the end of the episode in a particularly pat ending for the character and so he is literally a device to extend the running time of this episode. We don’t learn much about him, just that Kirk pushes him harder than he can handle.

Production – You can tell that this is the first episode to be made after the pilots because the director is trying to sell the hell out of the Enterprise sets with some impressive and imaginative sweeps and zooms. There’s a sense of dynamism to the show that feels like it is really trying to impress. Fast forward to series three where there is a real feeling of ‘point and shoot’ about the realisation of the Enterprise scenes because of the ‘been there, done that’ feeling that pervades the series. There’s an impressive over the shoulder shot from Kirk’s POV as he enters the Bridge that really stands out.

It also explains the unfinished look of Mr Spock, especially his demonic eyebrows. The decision to tone down his make-up hadn’t been made yet. And why Uhura is in a yellow uniform instead of a red one. Everything is still a little unfinished and forming, which is rather exciting. You feel like you’re experiencing a classic TV show coming together slowly.

The Corbamite Maneuver has one of my favourite music scores of all of Star Trek, from The Original Series until the present day. The cues may have been cannibalised for other episodes but this remains very much the music that I associate with this episode and its mysterious goings on. Fed Steiner writes a brilliantly dramatic and memorable score, going made on the xylophone to suggest an escalation of drama. The sequence where the vessel first appears in all its majestic glory with Steiner’s awesome cello score is one to be remembered. When I think TOS, I think this music. It suggests drama and wonder and the unknown.

On the CGI improvements you have the cube spreading its light on the Enterprise in a very nice touch that they didn’t really have to bother with. You might think that improving the effects of vintage television is a pointless exercise but the creators of the HD Trek have gone to some effort to mimic the originals and offer gentle and persuasive enhancements. It feels like the CG that would have been created had they had the technology at the time.

The Balok puppet face is one of the most iconic visuals from the Original Series, probably because it featured at the end of the closing credits. It’s not the most mobile of masks but it does have the shock factor when it first appears, looking for all the world as though it is screaming.

For once making the corridors of the Enterprise appear busy and crowded has a purpose. As the first shipboard show, the director needs to make sure that there a decent visual stake to the episode and by making this feel like a functioning starship there is a feeling that many lives are at stake at the hands of this unknowable alien. 

Best moment – The size of the object is truly accentuated in the CGI version but it was still an impressive spectacle in the original. It’s an awesome piece of design and its sheer scale makes it a genuine threat to the Enterprise. It looks like it can gobble her up in a second. ‘5000 miles away and it still fills the screen.’

I’m not sure if the real Balok is supposed to be super cute because he is played by a child but there is something extremely sinister about this grinning, adult sounding infant that commands such technical wizardry. If anything suggests the weirdness of the space visually then it is Clint Howard miming complicated dialogue and grinning like a loony. It gives me the shivers.

Worst moment – Janice Reed turning up during what is supposedly tense moment with hand-phasered coffee. Sexist and tension destroying, if there is time for a quick brew made by the missus then things can’t be that bad.

I wish they hadn’t done that – There’s a worrying moment when Kirk and McCoy discuss the fact that he has a female Yeoman and McCoy asks if he doesn’t trust himself. It’s indicative of the notion that woman are treated as objects of sexual attraction and little more in early Trek that is very troublesome.

A reason to watch this episode again – What astonishing about this episode is how much suspense can be drawn out of nothing in particular happening. If this was an episode of Voyager or Enterprise where really have seen it all before this would be pretty intolerable but at this stage of the game everything is fresh and dangerous in space and so a mysterious cube menacing the Enterprise feels like a genuine threat. What truly stands out is how well characterised everybody is, the efforts of the cast to make these roles interesting in the face of a plot that barely moves for half an hour and the superb direction from Joseph Sargent who is trying to make all the shipboard scenes as dynamic and capturing as possible. Add to it one of the best scores for a Star Trek episode (up there with The Best of Both Worlds, Call to Arms and Anomaly) and you have a production team that are truly attempting to impress and it works. Whilst The Corbamite Maneuver is little more than a shaggy dog story (albeit one with a sweet ending that lingers in the memory) it is one from the opening salvo of The Original Series where the series was still proving itself and succeeding. The approach of the mysterious crystalline vessel is still one of the best ever scenes in all of Trek.

**** out of *****

DS9 – Shadowplay

 

Plot – I like the thread of disinformation that runs throughout the three plots in this episode. The colony is presented as a thriving community in trouble, but it is nothing but a simulation that is breaking down. Bariel appears on the station and woos Major Kira, but this is all a subterfuge to allow Quark to get away with nefarious criminal activity. And Jake goes along with his father’s expectation to get a job even though joining Starfleet is the last thing he would ever want to do. By the end of Shadowplay the lies have been lifted and Odo, Kira and Sisko can all see through their misapprehensions.

Character – The first sign that Dax is the biggest gossip this side of the Alpha Quadrant, taking Odo into her confidence against his will and forcing him to listen to all the latest goings on on the station. He pretends that he is appalled by her behaviour but I think he secretly loves hearing this stuff.

Odo has come to the Gamma Quadrant hoping to learn something of his origins…be careful what you wish for Constable. Ultimately, he does learn something very profound and disturbing about his people but he only learns that it is relevant in hindsight after discovering who the Dominion are in the next season. This show reveals that it is playing a long game with this character. Lysia Arlan is mentioned here and how Dax thinks she fancies Odo. We meet her later in Broken Link and she makes her advances perfectly clear.

Sisko does that thing that all Dads tend to do and that is to assume that their children are going to follow in their footsteps. He thinks Jake is just a work-shy whiny bitch rather than recognising that his son has other career aspirations in mind.

We learn a little about O’Brien’s Dad and to this day it seems bizarre that after 13 odd seasons on Trek that we never got to meet his folks, not even at his wedding.

Kira has an interesting approach to her spiritual wellbeing, jumping the bones of a Priest.

Performance – You have three gorgeous performances from the main characters featured in the Gamma Quadrant plot; Kenneth Mars provides a quirky and funny Colyus, Kenneth Tobey adds weight and gravity to the plot as the grumpy and ultimately tragic Rurigan and in a rare win for child actors Noley Thornton has an excellent rapport with Rene Auberjonois as Taya. As a result it is one of the better populated alien worlds on Trek. Watch Auberjonois as he plays his scenes with Thorton. He’s immediately more childlike and gentler.

Great Dialogue – ‘What happened to your face?’ ‘Nothing happened to my face, I happen to be a shapeshifter. I just don’t do faces very well.’

Production – The great Star Trek interior exterior set makes another reappearance with a minimal redress. I think you could probably trace how many episodes took place on this piece of set (you know, the one with a the huge stair case and multiple levels) and bask in the comforting glow of its repetition. I think it can be traced back to season three of TNG and forward as far as Voyager season four. On DS9 it featured more memorably in Children of Time.

Best moment – You might think pairing up Odo with a twee little girl would be the most agonising television of all time but instead it works a treat, with both characters coming away from the experience better off. Taya finds out the truth about her disappearing mother and learns to trust strangers and Odo softens considerably in her presence. The moment when he turns into a spinning top to make her smile makes your heart melt because this really is out of character for Odo but he wanted to do something special for her.

The moment that really counts is when Odo digs deep to find out just how much Rurigan cares about his fake community. They are real to him and you really feel it in that moment.

Worst moment – Given that this is a story about 22 missing people it hardly feels like an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. Instead it is pitched at such an effervescent level that it would have been wrong had the reason for their vanishing had been anything other than malfunctioning equipment.

I wish they hadn’t done that – Bariel is handsome but he is literally the dullest man ever to have set foot on the station. I wish they had paired Kira up with somebody a little more exciting.

You might think that Odo and Dax would jump immediately to the ‘this is a holographic programme’ explanation given that they handle that kind of technology all of the time. But that would deny us the very cool moment when Taya’s arm vanishes and we realise for ourselves. It makes the characters look a little dim to allow us to have that moment and the mystery beforehand. There isn’t the time to explore the existential crisis that discovering that your entire colony is a holographic. It’s merely a case of ‘oh well, I guess we’ll have to get used to it’ which seems especially glib to me. The point is to show the lengths the Dominion will go to punish people who disobey them rather than to provide a gripping citation on the epistemological nature of life.

A reason to watch this episode again – A sweet piece, which is far more relevant in plot terms than it appeared to be at the time (both in terms of Odo’s origins and the Dominion war plot). This is one of those adventures that DS9 could have in the Gamma Quadrant before the Dominion plot kicked in, one where the stakes aren’t really that high but the interaction between the characters is enjoyable. Three plots adorn Shadowplay and that was probably a wise move because whilst the primary story is amiable enough, I would suggest it isn’t meaty enough to sustain an episode on its own. Instead this bounces between Dax and Odo’s investigations in the gamma Quadrant, Quark trying to distract Kira so he can get away with criminal activities and Jake deciding that he doesn’t want to join Starfleet. Rather wonderfully this adds depth to Odo (who learns how far his people are willing to go), Kira (who is in a relationship with Bariel from this point on) and Jake (who would go on to become a reporter on the back of his confession here). This won’t go down as one of the DS9 big hitters but it doesn’t do anything wrong and for all its character significance actually provides a really entertaining time.

***1/2 out of *****

Clue for the next episode: 

ENT – E2

Plot – The question of being thrown back in time and having the opportunity to prevent the terror attack on Earth and crush the Xindi before they ever create their weapon of mass destruction is brought up and it’s a doozy of a premise. You know that Archer is too in love with protocol to dare to undertake such a mission but the idea alone is enticing.

Character – This episode is in the depths of the T’Pol drug recovery season, which honestly is the most interesting thing that ever happened to this character. The writers have also decided to take a risk with two of the characters and have them admit their feelings for each other and I would say that Trip and T’Pol have a chemistry that surpasses Tom and Torres but doesn’t quite match Jadzia and Worf. The actors do great work together and this attraction that they play with is certainly more interesting than if they weren’t taking that approach. They have had sex at this point and are now skirting around the fact that this is a thing between them and it is something worth exploring. There are only so many times I am willing to sigh with disappointment as they turn away from each, but at this stage it isn’t annoying yet.

Archer is seriously under the weather in the face of all the horrors he has seen lately and there isn’t even a glint of a sparkle in his eye. A shame because this episode might be a lot more palatable if he was in a more embracing mood. Think of Sisko in Children of Time; cuddling up to children, working in the fields, getting to know another Dax. We were charmed by that community because we saw it through Sisko’s eyes. All Archer reflects is mild boredom and irritation. This is a deviation from his mission and he wants to get over and done with.

It takes the episode 20 minutes to consider Hoshi and Mayweather and their descendants. Given the respect these characters are usually written with, I’m surprised they bothered at all. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if one them had ended up with somebody of the same sex and it hadn’t been commented on? Reed, as ever, can’t find himself a woman. Even in after a freak accident where this crew only have each other to couple with.

Performance – David Andrews gives an effective performance as Lorien and in one scene with Archer after he has tried to destroy them I momentarily felt the connection between them. It’s more in how Andrews plays the dialogue to sound like Bakula than the dialogue itself.

Check out Balock playing the older T’Pol. Check out Rene Auberjonois playing the older Odo. Compare and contrast.

Production – This is two episodes after Azati Prime when Enterprise was given a thorough pummelling by the Xindi and the ship is still in a fair state of disrepair. This is what I was asking for on Voyager for a long time, to show the protracted consequences of travelling through a dangerous region of space. They copped out by giving us The Year of Hell, a brilliant story but taking place over two episodes and then resetting the ship as good as new at the end. Enterprise goes the whole hog and shows the ship brought to near destruction and then the slow process of continuing repairs whilst still facing regular threats. The crew is dirty, tired and on edge. It’s very well done.

How is old age makeup getting worse as time goes on? You would think that the designers would learn from the mistakes of the past. The most egregious example is Admiral Jameson from TNG’s Too Short a Season but I would suggest that T’Pol’s make up here is even worse. It literally looks like Jolene Balock’s head has doubled in size and then started to melt. Unless that is what happens to Vulcans when they get older, I don’t know.

Best moment – Trip is so handsome. I cannot say it enough times. Now he’s handsome, and a bit grimy. Phew.

Worst moment – The depictions of the descendants lacks any kind of curiosity because they are presented in such a bland way. These should be striking characters and a chance for the writer to take a germ of what we know about the regulars and take it to an extreme. Mind you I guess it could be said to be accurate that the descendants of the Enterprise crew are pretty tedious…because the majority of our crew are too. Even the design of the Ship is shockingly unimaginative. The designers could have gone crazy and turned Enterprise into a shrine filled with candles. The idea that over 100 years and many generations that it would look pretty much the same is very unlikely.

I wish they hadn’t done that – The story is such a blatant rip off of Children of Time (a freak accident in a subspace anomaly causing Enterprise to head into the past where the crew becomes a generational ship and eventually meets with its former self) that I’m surprised Rene Echeverria didn’t get a writing credit.

Trip being shot by his son should have some kind of emotional impact, but it just feels like another Enterprise action scene. It’s a telling sign that the emphasis is in the wrong place here. The DS9 managed to fill its episode without having to resort to action sequences but it is Enterprises stock and trade. I can see the urge to have one Enterprise fire on another but again it puts all the weight on the plot rather than the characters. It’s the most predictable thing the episode could do. Plus, Red Dwarf did it better.

I think it would have been far more effective to approach the episode from a completely different angle. The crew is tried, worn out and scared. It would have been fascinating had their descendants been portrayed as happy and content and loving life. Then the dramatic juice of the episode could have been the crew deciding whether they should abandon their hunt for the Xindi weapon and embrace this life (with the promise to warn Earth that the terror attack was coming so they can prepare) or not. Even better would be if they decided to go through with it, and then something prevented them from doing so. Forcing them back out into the cold. That would have been a real punch to the gut.

A reason to watch this episode again – The big question I find myself asking about E2 is why isn’t as gripping as DS9’s Children of Time, which it pays more than a little homage to? The answer is the characters. The characters simply are not as vivid or as arresting on this show and so showing a mutation of them from far flung future carries far less interest. Which is a shame because the premise is terrific and Mike Sussman figures a way to tie it into the Xindi arc which gives it a definitive place in the chronology of Enterprise. You can make a direct comparison between DS9 and Enterprise with this episode because the two episodes are so similar and unfortunately Enterprise disappears into the background. Children of Time was more imaginative, funnier, cleverer and more heartfelt. It was a brilliant piece of television. E2 spends more time examining how they got to this point rather than exploring the consequences. That means the plot becomes the focus, and thus we don’t get to know the characters as well as we should so the ending hurts. The best of E2 is what it says about the T’Pol/Trip relationship; teasing us with scenes of their inconsiderable chemistry, revealing that they can successfully have children and a future together and ending with a glimmer of hope that that is where we are heading. The climax is particularly problematic because I didn’t feel anything for the loss of the crew’s descendants. It feels like the whole thing is just a fever dream in the delirium of the Delphic Expanse. In one of the bravest seasons of Star Trek, this really fails to take any risks. I’m scoring 1/2 lower because I think this had massive potential and it was entirely unfulfilled.

** out of *****

Clue for the next episode: 

TNG - A Fistful of Datas

Plot – Everybody is trying to relax in their downtime and the story opens on a charming scene of Picard chilling and playing music and constantly being interrupted by his senior staff who simply cannot cut themselves off from their work. His exasperation as each of them visits and interrupts his practice. It’s not as funny as it perhaps thinks it is but it does highlight the chemistry between this cast effortlessly. I especially like Dr Bev telling Picard that he won’t be playing one of the leads in her play because he isn’t much of an actor. Worf would rather do anything than get stuck in a western in the holodeck with his son and so tries to find any assignment from his Captain to get out of it. And fails.

Character – It’s telling that Worf made an attempt to try and get out of visiting the holodeck with Alexander but wearily accepts his fate when there is no other option. He does love his son a great deal and that does translate on screen. The sparkle in his eye when he has beaten the crap out of several of the villainous cowboys is great. He really gets in the swing of things when he realises that violence is the order of the day in this environment.

Performance – Every line that comes out of Brian Boswell’s mouth sounds as though it has been memorised five minutes ago and he is desperate to try and remember it. He does this little smile when he gets them right. He was hardly the greatest asset to TNG.

In comparison, Brent Spiner gets to play several characters in this episode and commits to each one absolutely. His Frank Hollander is still and menacing, whilst he really gets the weaselly nature of his son right on the nail.

Production – I studied westerns at college and so I have some idea of the tropes of the genre and to my mind Patrick Stewart gets a couple of things very wrong that translates awkwardly to the screen. The town lacks any sense of bustle and excitement. When two travellers wander into town it is supposed to be throw at them danger, excitement and promise. This location looks like a wild west main street but there is no life to anything. More importantly there is a lack of lack open spaces that are the life blood of westerns (visually). If there is one thing that sells the genre it is sequences in wide open vistas suggesting that our heroes have visited the middle of nowhere. Stewart focuses on a couple of locations and keeps the camerawork small and intimate, which is a fatal mistake.

How did Doctor Who in the 1960s provide a more visually sumptuous, exciting, bloody and violent shoot out than an American production in the 1990s?

Best moment – The introduction of Counsellor Durango, the mysterious stranger who turns up and lends Sherriff Worf a hand. You can take the fact that Deanna Troi is the best thing in this episode however you will. She’s magnificent (and enjoy that moment because I don’t say it very often) because for once she is not shelling out psychological advice but simply getting into the spirit of the episode and having a whale of time. Sirtis seems more relaxed than ever and it is a joy to behold.

Any scene featuring Miss Annie is a riot. Worf doesn’t know how to handle the attention and so tries to avoid her amorous advances, only for Annie to think he is having an affair with one of the floozies down at the house of pleasure. It makes me wish that Miss Annie had been a character on the Enterprise who hunted down Worf on a regular basis.

I love the last two scenes. One features Worf standing in front of a mirror in his quarters wearing his Stetson and practicing his quick draw. The way he looks at his finger and smiles is so heart-warming. You feel that he has truly found his place on this Ship and is starting to loosen up. Finally, the shot of the Enterprise heading into the sunset is a joy to behold. It’s probably the loveliest final shot of any TNG episode.

Worst moment – how the episode tries to suggest there is an element of danger within the programme itself, which is never really felt. Troi and Worf both act like a calamity has befallen them but I often like to gauge a threat by how satisfying it would be if this was the thing that brought those characters down for good. If Troi and Worf were killed in a holodeck western surrounded by copies of Data it would be quite a bizarre end to their characters. The second everyone stops having fun it becomes a really bizarre threat.

I wish they hadn’t done that – What you have here is a game of two halves. A Fistful of Datas showcases the comic potential of Worf brilliantly. He’s especially deadpan in this environment. But it also highlights the lack of comic potential in Alexander, a character so unconvincing you would swear he was part of the scenery in the holodeck rather than a participant in the programme.

It’s unfortunate that in the one shot where the camera is allowed to get some scope and pull back on the location, the carpark behind the location is visible.
Worf using modern day tricks to prevent himself from being shot feels like a complete cop out. He should have used his wits and used the conventions of the genre against them somehow.

A reason to watch this episode again – A Fistful of Datas is a cute episode that is aiming high for belly laughs but only achieves mild chuckles because it is hampered by two very important elements. One is Brian Boswell who manages to make a high budget production seem to be a low rent amateur hour every time he opens his mouth and the other is Patrick Stewart, who directs this story as though westerns lack any atmosphere altogether. Westerns are all atmosphere, bustle, danger and hope. Stewart’s camerawork is leaden, his location feels deserted and lacking life. It’s Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis and Brent Spiner that provide all the fun moments; Worf is a natural fit for a western, Troi is loving every second of this and Data turns up in various guises throughout the programme that get more and more sillier as the episode progresses. It’s not a total write off but when you compare to other Trek comedies like Our Man Bashir and Bride of Chaotica it is far too indolent to truly make an impact.

**1/2 out of *****

Clue for the next episode: 

ENT – Similitude

Plot & Character (because they go hand in hand here like all the best Trek) -

There are enormous ethical issues about creating a clone of a crewmember that will only live for 15 days, harvest the tissue you need to cure his progenitor and then let it die. It’s a premise so ripe for Trek that I’m surprised it has taken this long for them to get around to it. What if the clone doesn’t want to die? What if the crew become attached to Trip II? What about the moral issue of creating a lifeform for the express purpose of exploiting it? Doesn’t that make the clone no better than an instrument rather than a person? T’Pol is quick to remind Archer that they will be growing a sentient being but he is blinded by his love for his friend. What you have is a living, breathing self-aware being who has been bred for death essentially and the episode pushes hard to make the crew confront the moral implications of that. Archer certainly doesn’t duck away from making some tough choices here; he takes the teenage Sim to meet Trip who is lying in bed dying. Some might say that is a cruel thing to do to a child, others would argue that the clone should be told as early as possible what he is alive for so he can spend his ‘life’ preparing for his death. Once he learns the truth that he wont survive the transplant Sim asks the obvious questions of why he shouldn’t just sacrifice himself now if he only has five days left to live…forcing the crew into the uncomfortable position of finding reasons to keep him alive that time. Like it or not, he is an exact copy of Trip and they don’t want to lose him, even if that means just for five days.

I’m really pleased that the writers managed to sustain (for the most part) that the Delphic Expanse is a dangerous place to be and has fresh dangers to threaten the crew.

Performance – Trineer’s performance as Sim is an interesting one because he plays this version of Trip with exactly the same charm but a much greater sense of innocence, as befits a man who has been alive for less than two weeks. He’s a much-undervalued actor in the Star Trek pantheon, overlooked compared to some far ropier actors in the franchise simply because of the show that he featured in. I would suggest watching Cogenitor, Similitude and Demons back to back to explore just how smart and brave his acting choices can be. Stick Unexpected on too just so you know he’s game for a laugh. Trip without the Texan street smarts is even more appealing, if that’s possible.

Great Dialogue – ‘I need Trip. I’ll take whatever steps necessary to save him. Even if that means killing you’ Scott Bakula delivers that line with such venom and emotion that I was quite taken aback.

Production – I was very impressed with the brevity of time it took to show Sim being grown and progressing through childhood. A Dr Phlox voiceover certainly helps (it’s like he can’t help but be amusing) but how director Levar Burton shows the passing of age in a few minutes is effortlessly achieved. The actors that they choose to represent the different stages of Trip’s development look remarkably similar to Trineer. That must have been an interesting casting session. Stand in that corner whilst we bring in lots of people who look like you and we decided could be you at different stages of your life. The incapacitated Enterprise covered in debris from the nebula looks fantastic, like it is resting under the sea and is covered in barnacles and rust. Something very simple like having the windows encrusted with dirt makes the ship feel so much more claustrophobic. It’s not so much Star Trek as Star Stuck. The score won an award and so I was listening out for it but I didn’t have to, it is the perfect kind of accompaniment. Emotive, exciting and unobtrusive. It’s cinematic at times, suggesting that something far more visually ambitious is occurring.

Best moment – The dialogue scene that we all knew was coming between Archer and Sim about the nature of existence, sacrifice and doing the right thing. Similitude was always heading here and it doesn’t disappoint. The performances are exceptional, both actors look on the verge of tears. Understandable, given what they are talking about.

The kiss between Trip and T’Pol has been a long time coming. So the fact that it happens between T’Pol and Sim is hilarious.

Worst moment – Similitude features what is probably the most blatantly manipulative teaser in all of Trek in that it tries to convince us that they are writing out Trip. This is a big deal because he is one of about four characters that are tolerable on this show. Can you imagine if the camera panned across the mourning crew and rested on the corpse of Mayweather or Reed? It would be a reason to celebrate. The trouble is I think the writer imagines that the audience are going to be wondering who dies at the end of the episode; Trip or Sim but honestly as soon as Sim is introduced the answer to that questions is obvious and the suspense around the teaser poofs into thin air. Enterprise simply doesn’t take those kinds of risks. I would have removed the teaser altogether and let the episode play out with all the material afterwards. That way we would never know that death is on the cards for ether character and we would wonder which of them might make it, or both.

I wish they hadn’t done that – At a point where Trip and T’Pol are relaxing half naked and massaging each other in their free time I think perhaps it is time for the pair of them to grab hold of each other and have at it. The point where his head is between her legs and she is leaning over and giving him what looks to be a colonic massage, I wonder if Trek has quite learnt how to build up sexual tension in a way that titillates the audience.

A reason to watch this episode again – ‘You’re not a murderer’ ‘Don’t make me one.’ An episode of Enterprise that makes you sit up and pay attention to the moral implications of what is happening and truly punches you in the gut with its unscrupulously manipulative premise. I can see why it is a favourite of the fans of this show. This is not exactly original stuff because it shares a lot of similarities with the Voyager episode Tuvix (a new lifeform that if left to survive will mean the death of someone else where the Captain has to explore the tough decision to murder him or not) but this is a far superior episode because it focuses on the one element I often criticise Enterprise for; focusing on the human element. By bringing the Trip/Archer friendship to the fore, Similitude reaches an emotional level that I would have suggested it couldn’t scale before this episode. I certainly have never felt the bond between these two quite so intensely before and it’s in an episode where Trip barely features. The moral and ethical implications of creating a clone for slaughter are given as much consideration as you can in 45 minutes – this might have been a more interesting experiment if Sim had an expiration of several months and he appeared in a handful of episodes – but to see Enterprise engaging with big philosophical questions of identity and mortality in such an intelligent way is very refreshing. I can see why Manny Coto was a shoe-in for the showrunners chair in the fourth season. This is a powerhouse first effort that hits harder than it has any right to.

****1/2 out of *****

Clue for tomorrow's episode - 

The Nimon Be Praised! Discuss Hell Bent and The Timeless Children

Dare you come face to face with the finally unfaceable...Jack and Joe tackle two of the most controversial episodes in the past decade of Doctor Who. Even more daringly they respectively offer a defence of those stories (Jack of Hell Bent and Joe of The Timeless Children) and tackle many of the big questions within. Was the return of Gallifrey worth it? Or is a celebration that it has gone again? Is the Doctor irrevocably damaged in both stories or does it add something to his/her character by taking them down these paths? Take the plunge with us as we get to grips with these very tricky, challenging tales and discuss their impact. 

https://anchor.fm/nimon1