96 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
96 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
The following post may contain spoilers for this week's TNG episode,
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"The Icarus Factor". Those not wishing spoilage should stay away.
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I mean it...get out now if you don't want to know what happens.
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Okay...now, onwards!
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Well, I'd have preferred something better after two weeks of reruns. This
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wasn't exactly bad (in fact, it was better than I expected from the preview),
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but it was disappointing.
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Part of it was that there were three distinct plots: one rather serious, one
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silly but sort of entertaining, and one just plain pointless and dumb. Here's a
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summary for the uninformed.
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Main (Serious) Plot: Commander Riker is requested by Starfleet to take command
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of the USS Aries, a ship doing some long-range exploration. It would be his own
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command, but it would no longer be serving on "the Federation's flagship", as
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Picard puts it. And, as if that weren't enough, the Federation officer sent
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over to brief him on the ship is one Kyle Riker, Will's father. Apparently,
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Kyle tried to raise Will all alone after Will's mother died, but didn't do
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all that good a job, and there is certainly no love lost between father and
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son. (Kyle's also the sort of fellow who knows absolutely everyone, including
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Dr. Pulaski, with whom he had a rather strong love affair at one point.)
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There are lots of scenes of Kyle trying to recreate the father-son relationship,
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with Will wanting no part of it. Eventually, the two engage in an "ambu-jitsu"
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(sp?) match, and sort of come to terms. Also, at the last minute, Riker decides
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to stay aboard the Enterprise, for reasons that aren't made incredibly clear.
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Subplot (Silly): Wesley notices that Worf is feeling out of sorts, and mentions
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it to Geordi and Data. They do a little investigating and discover that this is
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the tenth anniversary of Worf's rite of Ascension, a Klingon ritual very
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important to his spiritual development. Worf is upset because there are no
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Klingons around to commemorate the occasion. So, the three conspirators plan a
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little surprise in the holodeck: a Klingon Ascension Rite, which involves a lot
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of Klingons, a lot of smoke and red lighting, and lots and lots of pain. Not
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thrilling, but had some good moments.
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Subplot (Pointless): Is there something wrong with the ship, or is it just a
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computer glitch? An investigating team tries to find out while Geordi gripes
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about how useless the whole thing is. As it happens, there's nothing wrong.
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Now, to some comments:
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They definitely tried to do too much in this episode. I would have liked to
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find out more about Kyle Riker's relationship with his son (and with Katherine
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Pulaski, for that matter), but things seemed very...well, I guess "cluttered"
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is the best word for it.
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Lots of good scenes, though. Worf telling Data to "BEGONE!!!...sir." was nice,
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and so were many of the scenes involving Troi and Pulaski (unlikely though it
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sounds). Somehow, though, very little of it stayed with me.
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I disagreed with the ending quite a bit, though. There wasn't any persuasive
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reason given for Riker's decision to stay, particularly when you notice how
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committed he was to going not too long before. I can't see that his reunion
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with his father would convince him not to accept his own command, not why his
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"enlightened self-interest", as he put it, didn't kick in earlier. I think it
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would have been a great deal more interesting to actually have him take it, and
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then return a few episodes later after some problem made things fall through.
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But, I suppose that's too daring for today's television. :-)
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I don't think there's much more I can say. It was nice going down, but left me
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with an empty feeling afterward. It felt like the cast didn't take this episode
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very seriously, but it didn't feel like the kind of episode we were meant to
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take lightly. I'm just perplexed by it all.
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Anyway, a quick sum-up:
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Plot: 6. 8 for Riker, 7 for Worf, and about 3 for the "what's wrong with the
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ship?" plot.
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Plot Handling: 7. They did pretty well with what they had: 9 for Riker, 8.5
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for Worf, but only a 4 for the ship.
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Characterization: 8. Between Riker, Troi, and Pulaski, this should've been a
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9 or higher, but everyone else seemed so empty that I couldn't give it.
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Technical: 8.5. Lots of very nice shots of the ship orbiting, and nice use of
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music, but still...something was missing.
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TOTAL: 7.38---> 7.5. Decent, but that's all.
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Next week:
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Data's got a friend on a doomed planet. Yay. Rah.
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Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy Major)
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BITNET: H52Y@CRNLVAX5
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INTERNET: H52Y@VAX5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU
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UUCP: ...!rochester!cornell!vax5.cit.cornell.edu!h52y
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"I feel a void inside."
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"What kind of a void?"
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"Well, an empty void."
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--"Love and Death"
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