Plot – Designed to be the ultimate holodeck show by Brannon Braga, this episode was an amalgam of every fantasy adventure you could have to excuse the fact that we have been here before. Maybe they should have tried to have written something new then. The idea of the Enterprise developing an intelligence of its own is a deeply intriguing one that should have spun the writer in a very creative direction. Should have. Instead we get a much up of characters from fiction and history protecting a magical brick on the holodeck. I kid you not.
What is the point of the pre-titles sequence that sees Data playing at Shakespeare and Picard as his greatest critic? Often the cold open a theme or concept that the rest of the episode spends 40 minutes exploring but instead this is 5 minutes of Brent Spiner having fun and the rest of the audience fall asleep while he does. The steam locomotive that interrupts his theatrical rendition comes at precisely the right time.
Is it my imagination or is there absolutely nothing happening on the Enterprise at this point in the shows run? It feels the ship is limping about whilst people are wallowing away time on the holodeck, investigating bizarre new photogenic lifeforms or limping about the quadrant looking for Federation colony sites. It feels like a show without a purpose, and one I am watching just because the regulars have decent chemistry and like being together. As the show is gearing up for its finale this really shouldn’t be the level of indolence on display. At this point in DS9’s run the show was in the midst of a mutli-faceted, plot and character heavy arc full of drama, twists and action. In comparison, this is static and deeply uncomplicated. It’s television that has stalled.
Since this is an episode that is obsessed with the holodeck you can bet your life that it is overloaded with technobabble. Nobody is talking a language I understand, just rehashing technical jargon that would make a scientist’s head spin. I prefer my characters to talk like real people.
Character – Really? You think there's characterisation here?
Performance – All of the performances of the guest characters are flat and O never once believed that they were people with real lives. They are pure plot functions, and the actors behave as though they are plot functions. Even Voyager’s Chaotica (who was meant to be a subpar, hastily written super villain) felt more real than any of this bunch. Check out the train conductor who seems to get all of his character from the fact that he asks people for their tickets and gets irritated when people don’t have them. How can an actor find any depth in writing that flat?
Terrible Dialogue – ‘Is that why you killed the engineer? To get this brick?’
‘I think we should follow that man. That brick might be an important clue!’
Production – You can’t help but notice how badly CGI ages over time and when TNG chooses to create a lifeform in 1993 it is bound to end up looking a little ropey in 2020. Kudos for attempting something visually ambitious but the passing of time can be cruel.
Worst moment – During the scenes on the Paramount backlot it feels as though the actors have been left to their own devices with a camera and asked to film ten minutes of hanging around. There’s no sensible plot progression here.
As if things weren’t bad enough, the episode chooses to send Counsellor Troi in to figure out all the metaphorical imagery that is taking place on the holodeck. ‘It may not have literal sense but symbolically it probably does have some logic to it.’ No, it doesn’t. It’s just Braga attempting to have some fun. Don’t try and give this nonsense some meaning.
Watch those holodeck scenes closely. All of the actors, regulars and guests alike, look lost and without direction. It feels like this is being improvised and nobody is comfortable doing it.
I wish they hadn’t done that – Beyond the immediate danger they are in facing an emerging intelligence growing on the Enterprise, nothing that anybody talks about has any real relevance. How can you have an entire 45 minutes of television where none of the characters have any growth, or revel anything new about themselves, or where the script focuses entirely on the plot at hand and leaves no time for people involved?
A reason to watch this episode again – Emergence is the only episode that feels as contained and cheap as bottle show, whilst probably actually costing the show a small fortune because of all the extra sets for the holodeck. It’s 45 minutes of watching the characters chase their own tails as the ship is seemingly working against them. It descends into tedious surrealism (I wouldn’t say it is particularly surreal but I am certain that was what they were aiming for), technobabble and the least interesting example of seeking out new lifeforms the show has ever touched upon. It’s simultaneously very boring and angering because it is seemingly throwing random things together in an attempt to be stimulating. It’s directed without care; the actors sleepwalk their way through their parts and Brannon Braga fails to inject any passion into the script. It’s as by the numbers as they come. This is one of the last TNG episodes and it is also the most idiotic and nonsensical since the first season and another very solid reason why this show needed putting down like sick dog. It’s almost entirely worthless and all signs of the once razor sharp, bold, experimental show have vanished. It’s a tragedy. The joy of watching this episode for this review means that I never have to see it again.
½ out of *****
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