Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Future Imperfect"
Timothy W. Lynch
episode, "Future Imperfect", so if you don't want to be spoiled...
...then duck while you still can.
Oy.
Letdown city. This show had a lot of promise, but wasted much of it. I'll
go into detail, after my usual synopsis. (And for those of you planning to
jump ahead, the synop is 57 lines long this time.) Anyway:
Riker's birthday party is interrupted when he has to lead an away team down to
Alfa Onias 3. He, Worf, and Geordi find nothing of consequence, but a sudden
gas buildup knocks Riker out before beam-up. He revives in sickbay, where a
strangely altered Bev tells him that sixteen years have passed, and he is now
CAPTAIN of the Enterprise. (Apparently, he picked up a disease on the planet
which only recently became active, and caused the memory loss, which may or
may not be permanent.)
Riker encounters one surprise after another. First, on the bridge, he sees
Geordi, VISORless; Worf, now a full Commander, sitting at Ops; Data, in red, as
first officer; and a Ferengi helmsman. Suddenly, a Romulan Warbird uncloaks--
Riker instinctively orders red alert, then rescinds it after Data tells him
that this ship, the Deseus, was expected. It hails them--revealing on board
ADMIRAL Picard with his aide, Deanna Troi.
Before long, they beam on board, and tell Will that his amnesia couldn't have
happened at a worse time--a treaty with the Romulans is imminent, and due to
his past actions, Will's the chief spokesman. Will insists he cannot continue
the negotiations, but Picard tells him that, ready or not, he's needed. Deanna
takes Will to his quarters, where he finds another surprise--a teenage son
named Jean-Luc. (He finds out from Deanna that Jean-Luc's mother was killed 2
years ago in a shuttle accident, and was ship's counselor after Deanna left.)
He doesn't remember Jean-Luc at all, but he soon starts to warm to the boy.
The Romulan ambassador beams on board--and Riker is not at all pleased to
discover it's Commander Tomalak, an old enemy. Still, everyone else trusts
him, and Riker's main fear--that they're revealing the location of Outpost 23--
is discounted, as the outpost hasn't been strategically important for years.
Then, Bev calls--Jean-Luc's been injured. After seeing him in sickbay, Riker
leaves with him, and they talk about losing old memories and building new ones.
Riker resolves to always be there for Jean-Luc, the way his father wasn't there
for him. In his quarters, however, when he manages to call up a picture of
his wife, he sees that it was _Minuet_--and he suddenly becomes very grim.
On the bridge, he catches everyone in inconsistencies. Geordi couldn't possibly
be as incompetent as he's been; Worf can't explain his scar; Data can't zip
through calculations, and then uses a contraction. He demands that the charade
end--and Tomalak nods, the "Enterprise" vanishes, and Riker finds himself in a
Romulan holodeck.
Tomalak claims that their neural scanners helped them make such a good mock-up,
but is astonished to discover that Minuet, whom Riker harbors such strong
feelings for, was only a holodeck creation herself. He demands the location of
Outpost 23, and throws Riker in a cell with Ethan, a boy who "Jean-Luc" was
modeled after.
Riker and Ethan (who claims to have been taken from a nearby research station
on a planet Riker thought was deserted) join forces, and manage to escape from
their cell. Ethan leads Riker to a forgotten storeroom, but there slips
himself when he says that only "Ambassador" Tomalak can activate the Romulan
communications. Riker deduces that this scene is fake as well, and refuses to
play the game any more. The Romulans dissolve, and Ethan tells him that he was
left there by his mother when his planet was invaded so that he'd be safe from
his enemies. The neural scanners let him enact anything he wants, and he took
Riker because he wanted to see someone real. Riker, touched, takes Ethan (now
revealed as a vaguely insectlike alien named Barash) with him when he leaves.
Okay, now. On with the commentary:
This episode invites two obvious comparisons--one with "Yesterday's Enterprise"
as an alternate-universe/sets-and-costumes-redressing story, and one with the
TOS novel _Time Trap_, where Kirk wakes up 100 years later and finds that the
Federation and the Klingons are now at peace. This show has more in common
with the former than the latter. This is NOT a good thing.
First, some rather sweeping gripes. First of all, it's almost established
FACT that the biggest cop-out ending of all is "it was all an illusion". It
gives one leeway to do anything--'cos after all, it's not REAL, right? Now,
the illusion gambit can be enjoyable when used properly--but here, it wasn't
used right at all. Big disappointment.
Second, there was an astonishing lack of insight about Jean-Luc/Ethan/Barash,
and I think bringing him up (thus suggesting we may see him again? No thanks)
was a mistake. We have no indication as to the REAL reason he did what he
did; since he showed very little compunction about placing Riker in false
scenarios earlier, why should we/Riker believe he's telling the truth now? I
certainly wouldn't have, and wouldn't have brought him on board without a
little proof of good faith. Bad, bad move--and it unfortunately made JL/E/B
one of the least-motivated characters in Trek history, I think.
Now, for some thoughts on the redressing. Some were quite interesting and
well done--for example, the rank insignia was now a set of horizontal bars
across the communicator insignia rather than the old pips-on-the-shoulder
routine, and it looked nice. However, I thought that, with a few exceptions,
they didn't do a good job showing how much time had "passed". For example:
--It looked to me like they didn't do much more with Bev and Deanna than change
hairstyles. Deanna had a tinge of grey in her hair, but little more--and I
would guess there'd be more than that in aging from (as a rough guess) 30 to
45. And Bev had virtually no indications of all of the sixteen-year-gap.
--Worf also looked virtually unchanged. Come on--it's been sixteen years, and
the only evidence is a SCAR?
--More importantly, I find it EXTREMELY implausible that nearly everyone would
have stayed on board--and so close to their earlier ranks, too. Worf's
promotion up to full Commander is fine, but I find it hard to believe that
GEORDI's only gone up one grade in sixteen years, considering how quickly he
shot up over the last three. Data's fine--he may not think he's ready for
command yet. But I really don't think they'd all still be together--regardless
of how much they love the ship, that's a long time to be on one mission.
Okay...some other thoughts.
It's tough to say much about characterization for a show like this, because one
can always say "well, Ethan just didn't get the characters exactly right".
However, I don't buy that. Riker told "Tomalak" that every detail of the
Enterprise was recreated PERFECTLY, including the people (at least up until the
end, assumedly)--and if there were problems I spotted, he should have, too.
That said, here goes.
Some of the characters weren't bad. I liked Picard as an Admiral--and Stewart
happens to look good in a white beard, too. Come to think of it, I guess all
the Enterprise regulars were "normal". In other words, they weren't thrilling,
but they were consistent--and that was the point. (One thing, though--Bev
tells Riker that she'll leave some of the explanations to "the Admiral"--not
to Jean-Luc. That seems awfully distant for someone who's been dear friends
with Picard for, by this time, decades.) Riker was pretty good, too, I
thought, particularly at the beginning, but I'll get to that in a minute.
The one objection I had was to Tomalak, and that one, unfortunately, I really
think I *can* say that it was Ethan's fault. He was drawing these people out
of Riker's mind, and Riker's limited contact with Tomalak may have affected
how accurate the reproduction was.
Now, the show wasn't all bad. The window-dressing was for the most part
pretty interesting, and the "future" parts of the show definitely had me
intrigued. Most of the scenes with Riker and "Jean-Luc" (NOT "Ethan" or
Barash) were reasonably good, and there were some nice references back to
earlier shows (for example, the trombone's reappearance, and "Jean-Luc"
injuring himself in a game of Parrises Squares--gee, did the writers of this
one just watch "11001001" or what?). In addition, I liked the very beginning
of the show, with Riker's birthday party, quite a bit. (There were some
classic lines in it, but I'll save them for you or my .sig.)
One other thing which I DID like--despite the fact that they went with the
illusion ending, they at least didn't make it an actual Romulan illusion, which
they seemed to be telegraphing a mile away. That would have smelled even MORE
like _Time Trap_, and I wouldn't have enjoyed it a bit. This much was a mild
surprise.
However, it really didn't live up to its promise. I think that the production
team decided that they wanted to do another "Yesterday's Enterprise", and so
tried something like this. This isn't it, folks.
So, to sum up: Nice window-dressing, and a fairly decent first half--but it
fails miserably at the end, unfortunately taking much of the show down with it.
The numbers read:
Plot: 4. The entire plot, basically, was Riker taking time to notice the
inconsistencies. Bo-ring.
Plot Handling: 5. Adequate for what they had to work with, I suppose, but
a better director could have done so much more...
Characterization: 7. A fairly good Riker, and a competent everyone else, but
not so good on Ethan.
Technical: 10. Nice window-dressing, and a lovely close-up of the transporter
beam trying to latch onto Riker and failing.
TOTAL: 6.5. Could've been worse, but could have stood MUCH improvement.
Nothing to write home about.
NEXT WEEK:
Picard and Wes are trapped on a desert planet, and Wes can only save Picard
by mastering the spice melange...no, wait, that can't be right...:-)
Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy B.A.; one of many Caltech grad students)
BITNET: tlynch@citjuliet
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"Some things improve with age--maybe your trumpet playing will be one of them."
--D. Troi, at Riker's birthday party.
--
Copyright 1990, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
Timothy W. Lynch
>In <1990Nov15.0...@nntp-server.caltech.edu> tly...@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>WARNING: The following post contains spoiler infomation about this week's
>>TNG episode, "Future Imperfect", so if you don't want to be spoiled...
>>First, some rather sweeping gripes. First of all, it's almost established
>>FACT that the biggest cop-out ending of all is "it was all an illusion". It
>>gives one leeway to do anything--'cos after all, it's not REAL, right? Now,
>>the illusion gambit can be enjoyable when used properly--but here, it wasn't
>>used right at all. Big disappointment.
>Bingo.
Glad you agree, Michael. Let's shock r.a.s. by agreeing some more. :-)
>>Second, there was an astonishing lack of insight about Jean-Luc/Ethan/Barash,
>>and I think bringing him up (thus suggesting we may see him again? No thanks)
>>was a mistake. We have no indication as to the REAL reason he did what he
>>did; since he showed very little compunction about placing Riker in false
>>scenarios earlier, why should we/Riker believe he's telling the truth now? I
>>certainly wouldn't have, and wouldn't have brought him on board without a
>>little proof of good faith. Bad, bad move--and it unfortunately made JL/E/B
>>one of the least-motivated characters in Trek history, I think.
>I think we WERE told his motivations (he wanted a father/companion), but
>we were told it extraordinarily badly. Extremely poor scripting at the
>end, there.
We were "told" his motivations, but it was scripted so badly that I don't
entirely BELIEVE that those are his true motivations--and since I think I was
supposed to, that's a real sticking point.
>I think the basic plot was solid, but the execution was
>jerky and extremely dull.
As you say, Bingo.
[on the "future" redressing]
>I agree that Bev looked basically the same (except for the hair), but I
>did think Deanna looked different. She had streaks of gray in her hair,
>she looked a bit wrinkled, especially around the eyes, and her make-up was
>very different. Her eyes were emphasized much more than her lips, which
>I think made her a much more visually interesting character.
Looking back, something did feel different about her, tho' I didn't consciously
notice much different. This may be it--thanks.
>I actually
>think she was more attractive - largely because she looked more realistic
>and less like a fashion-queen-wannabe - then she ever has.
Well, I've never found her particularly attractive myself, so it's a moot
point.
>>--More importantly, I find it EXTREMELY implausible that nearly everyone
>>would have stayed on board--and so close to their earlier ranks, too. Worf's
>>promotion up to full Commander is fine, but I find it hard to believe that
>>GEORDI's only gone up one grade in sixteen years, considering how quickly he
>>shot up over the last three. Data's fine--he may not think he's ready for
>>command yet. But I really don't think they'd all still be together--
>>regardless of how much they love the ship, that's a long time to be on one
>>mission.
>I made the same predictions when the sneak-peek information about this
>episode started turning up on the net a few months ago.
Well, all I remembered gleaning from the sneak info (never having seen the
now-infamous ET clip) was that Riker was grey and Geordi was VISORless--and
that Picard was an admiral. Since we didn't see any other main characters, it
was at least possible to assume they weren't there. That has, of course,
been proven wrong.
>It was rather
>implausible, yes, though, of course, it was supposed to be "Riker's ideal
>future" or something.
Lousy copout, that (not that it's your fault--I don't think you believe that
explanation any more than I).
>>Now, the show wasn't all bad. The window-dressing was for the most part
>>pretty interesting, and the "future" parts of the show definitely had me
>>intrigued.
>As my review pointed out ad nauseum, the key word for this episode with
>me is "Dull".
Check. Desperately so.
>"Yawn" is another key word. In short, I wasn't very
>intrigued with the future world because it just wasn't very interesting.
>Not much had really changed.
Unlike "Yesterday's Enterprise", where so much had changed, oh so subtly...
if only they'd managed that.
>> In addition, I liked the very beginning
>>of the show, with Riker's birthday party, quite a bit. (There were some
>>classic lines in it, but I'll save them for you or my .sig.)
>I liked the sequence, too.
There's a friend of mine who's a budding scriptwriter who I think is absolutely
going to _scream_ with joy when she sees it...:-)
>>However, it really didn't live up to its promise. I think that the production
>>team decided that they wanted to do another "Yesterday's Enterprise", and so
>>tried something like this. This isn't it, folks.
>I think it would have been several orders of magnitude better if they'd
>thrown the illusion thing out the window and had made it a REAL future
>Trek episode, with a REAL plot occurring in the future.
Absolutely. If they'd actually done that and done it well, it would easily
have gotten a 10, I suspect.
>>Plot: 4. The entire plot, basically, was Riker taking time to notice the
>> inconsistencies. Bo-ring.
>>Plot Handling: 5. Adequate for what they had to work with, I suppose, but
>> a better director could have done so much more...
>>Characterization: 7. A fairly good Riker, and a competent everyone else, but
>> not so good on Ethan.
>You, sir, are far too kind. :-)
On which bit?
Overall, you may actually be right. While it got a 6-7 on the first run-
through, I already have the impression it's not going to age at all well. It
may go considerably down by season's end.
Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy B.A.; one of many Caltech grad students)
BITNET: tlynch@citjuliet
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"The Seven Deadly Virtues--they were not meant for me!"
--Mordred
Gonzo Tog
>WARNING: The following post contains spoiler infomation about this week's TNG
>episode, "Future Imperfect", so if you don't want to be spoiled...
>
>...then duck while you still can.
>
>Oy.
[ Plot Synopsis Removed ]
>Okay, now. On with the commentary:
>This episode invites two obvious comparisons--one with "Yesterday's Enterprise"
>as an alternate-universe/sets-and-costumes-redressing story, and one with the
>TOS novel _Time Trap_, where Kirk wakes up 100 years later and finds that the
>Federation and the Klingons are now at peace. This show has more in common
>with the former than the latter. This is NOT a good thing.
Actually, I felt Future Imperfect handled the set-and-costumes
redressing bit a little better than "Yesterday's Enterprise". Well, they
went into the differences in more detail (as they should) than in YE.
>First, some rather sweeping gripes. First of all, it's almost established
>FACT that the biggest cop-out ending of all is "it was all an illusion". It
>gives one leeway to do anything--'cos after all, it's not REAL, right? Now,
>the illusion gambit can be enjoyable when used properly--but here, it wasn't
>used right at all. Big disappointment.
Granted, big cop-out assuredly. However, until it was revealed that
the kid was creating the illusion, I felt it was really well done. Just
because the finale stinks, doesn't make it a totally bad episode. It
could have been worse. The kid could have been an omnipotent being (a la
Q) and just be doing behavioural tests on Riker. That'd be a bigger
cop-out.
>Second, there was an astonishing lack of insight about Jean-Luc/Ethan/Barash,
>and I think bringing him up (thus suggesting we may see him again? No thanks)
>was a mistake. We have no indication as to the REAL reason he did what he
>did; since he showed very little compunction about placing Riker in false
>scenarios earlier, why should we/Riker believe he's telling the truth now? I
>certainly wouldn't have, and wouldn't have brought him on board without a
>little proof of good faith. Bad, bad move--and it unfortunately made JL/E/B
>one of the least-motivated characters in Trek history, I think.
Oh come on! The kid was left alone with illusions for, what, eleven
years? Tell me that after eleven years of talking to fake people, you
wouldn't like to see something new? He was lonely. He didn't harm Riker
in any way (sort of, if you count caging as non-harming).
Why introduce him? Take this possibility: Riker is actually inside
a Romulan base, fights his way out. The J-L/E/B never really existed, just
in the enterprise illusion. Anyways, Riker fights his way out. Then,
what? Tomalok is court-martialed for holding a Rom base in Fed space.
Translation: A Federation/Romulan war. Do you think Mr. Roddenberry's
going to like that idea in his perfect universe? No.
>Now, for some thoughts on the redressing. Some were quite interesting and
>well done--for example, the rank insignia was now a set of horizontal bars
>across the communicator insignia rather than the old pips-on-the-shoulder
>routine, and it looked nice. However, I thought that, with a few exceptions,
>they didn't do a good job showing how much time had "passed". For example:
>--It looked to me like they didn't do much more with Bev and Deanna than change
>hairstyles. Deanna had a tinge of grey in her hair, but little more--and I
>would guess there'd be more than that in aging from (as a rough guess) 30 to
>45. And Bev had virtually no indications of all of the sixteen-year-gap.
Wrong. Bev, besides the different hairstyle and grey tinges, had her
costume padded. Her hips are wider. (I'm almost ashamed in noticing.)
What do you expect? It's only 16 years. Between 40-ish and 50-ish, there
isn't too much change.
As for Deanna, her make-up was amazing. Normally, her face is smooth.
Here, she had age lines. And she looked like she gained weight (and then
again, it was a new costume, I'm not too sure). What are you expecting,
decrepid, toothless old hags?
>--Worf also looked virtually unchanged. Come on--it's been sixteen years, and
>the only evidence is a SCAR?
Again, wrong. When they first introduce the future Worf, you can
easily see something I've never seen Worf do.... slouch. Klingons have
a smaller life span than humans, so potentially he's MUCH older. Actually,
on first glances, I didn't even notice the scar. But, he looked like
he grew a hell of a lot more than sixteen years.
>--More importantly, I find it EXTREMELY implausible that nearly everyone would
>have stayed on board--and so close to their earlier ranks, too. Worf's
>promotion up to full Commander is fine, but I find it hard to believe that
>GEORDI's only gone up one grade in sixteen years, considering how quickly he
>shot up over the last three. Data's fine--he may not think he's ready for
>command yet. But I really don't think they'd all still be together--regardless
>of how much they love the ship, that's a long time to be on one mission.
Ahem. The Enterprise is the fleet's FLAGSHIP. You can't top that,
without going to Starfleet Academy (and even then, in comparison, it's
a letdown). I can see Picard going off and becoming an admiral at starfleet
since he is such an administrative type. And I can see Deanna leaving
with him, since they have a heavy (respectful type) relationship. But,
can you imagine the member of the top of the flagship of Starfleet going
to the USS Garbagescow? No.
Besides, Wesley wasn't there. That's got to be some kind of
consolation.
>Okay...some other thoughts.
>It's tough to say much about characterization for a show like this, because one
>can always say "well, Ethan just didn't get the characters exactly right".
>However, I don't buy that. Riker told "Tomalak" that every detail of the
>Enterprise was recreated PERFECTLY, including the people (at least up until the
>end, assumedly)--and if there were problems I spotted, he should have, too.
>That said, here goes.
>Some of the characters weren't bad. I liked Picard as an Admiral--and Stewart
>happens to look good in a white beard, too. Come to think of it, I guess all
>the Enterprise regulars were "normal". In other words, they weren't thrilling,
>but they were consistent--and that was the point. (One thing, though--Bev
>tells Riker that she'll leave some of the explanations to "the Admiral"--not
>to Jean-Luc. That seems awfully distant for someone who's been dear friends
>with Picard for, by this time, decades.) Riker was pretty good, too, I
>thought, particularly at the beginning, but I'll get to that in a minute.
It was said that Picard left the Enterprise six years ago. Tell
me that someone's going to still be on a first-name basis after all
that time. Ok, well.... maybe that is wrong. But it's a small point.
Also, if you look at it from Riker's view... Jean-Lue and Bev have never
really shown their affection in public. It doesn't look more than a
professional overview to someone who doesn't see them in private.
>The one objection I had was to Tomalak, and that one, unfortunately, I really
>think I *can* say that it was Ethan's fault. He was drawing these people out
>of Riker's mind, and Riker's limited contact with Tomalak may have affected
>how accurate the reproduction was.
>Now, the show wasn't all bad. The window-dressing was for the most part
>pretty interesting, and the "future" parts of the show definitely had me
>intrigued. Most of the scenes with Riker and "Jean-Luc" (NOT "Ethan" or
>Barash) were reasonably good, and there were some nice references back to
>earlier shows (for example, the trombone's reappearance, and "Jean-Luc"
>injuring himself in a game of Parrises Squares--gee, did the writers of this
>one just watch "11001001" or what?). In addition, I liked the very beginning
>of the show, with Riker's birthday party, quite a bit. (There were some
>classic lines in it, but I'll save them for you or my .sig.)
>One other thing which I DID like--despite the fact that they went with the
>illusion ending, they at least didn't make it an actual Romulan illusion, which
>they seemed to be telegraphing a mile away. That would have smelled even MORE
>like _Time Trap_, and I wouldn't have enjoyed it a bit. This much was a mild
>surprise.
>However, it really didn't live up to its promise. I think that the production
>team decided that they wanted to do another "Yesterday's Enterprise", and so
>tried something like this. This isn't it, folks.
Obviously. It is sweeps month, and this (and next week's episode)
appear around the same time that YE showed. Why not try it?
go...@contact.UUCP | .sig? Are you crazy?
Michael Rawdon
>raw...@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Michael Rawdon) writes:
>>In <1990Nov15.0...@nntp-server.caltech.edu> tly...@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>>WARNING: The following post contains spoiler infomation about this week's
>>>TNG episode, "Future Imperfect", so if you don't want to be spoiled...
>>It was rather
>>implausible, yes, though, of course, it was supposed to be "Riker's ideal
>>future" or something.
>Lousy copout, that (not that it's your fault--I don't think you believe that
>explanation any more than I).
Correct. :-P
>>"Yawn" is another key word. In short, I wasn't very
>>intrigued with the future world because it just wasn't very interesting.
>>Not much had really changed.
>Unlike "Yesterday's Enterprise", where so much had changed, oh so subtly...
>if only they'd managed that.
Yeah, though "YE" could have used a bit more umph itself, but it was far
ahead of this episode. It certainly had definite goals in mind and went
out to accomplish them.
>>>Plot: 4. The entire plot, basically, was Riker taking time to notice the
>>> inconsistencies. Bo-ring.
>>>Plot Handling: 5. Adequate for what they had to work with, I suppose, but
>>> a better director could have done so much more...
>>>Characterization: 7. A fairly good Riker, and a competent everyone else, but
>>> not so good on Ethan.
>>You, sir, are far too kind. :-)
>On which bit?
Cardboard everyone for characters, except Riker and Ethan, doesn't help
the characterization in my mind over a 5, especially since Riker DIDN'T
have ALL the screen time. He had to interact with other people a lot
(Dr. Crusher, for instance, seemed expecially bland).
I'd rank the plot about a 2, and the execution of that plot about as high.
The basic idea (that of the illusions, that is, not of the future world)
was bad, and the handling of that idea was very jerky and very boring.
To my mind, there's little worse in science fiction drama than a boring
story.
>Overall, you may actually be right. While it got a 6-7 on the first run-
>through, I already have the impression it's not going to age at all well. It
>may go considerably down by season's end.
I can't bear the thought of watching the episode again. There's nothing
really to watch!
--
Michael Rawdon
Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet: raw...@rex.cs.tulane.edu | Knowledge may be power, but
Usenet: rex!rawdon.uucp | withholding knowledge can be a
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: Opinions mine, typos and grammar errors someone else's.
Willie Gordon
>--It looked to me like they didn't do much more with Bev and Deanna than change
>hairstyles. Deanna had a tinge of grey in her hair, but little more--and I
>would guess there'd be more than that in aging from (as a rough guess) 30 to
>45. And Bev had virtually no indications of all of the sixteen-year-gap.
They seem to do more with Deanna.........Did anyone out there happen
to notice the rank of Deanna after 16 years? From what I remember
(I'll have to review the tape again so this may not be accurate)
she was a LT Commander. Now I seem to remember a few postings debating
her rank. I at first thought she was a LT. Commander. But her rank
in Future Imperfect was LT. Commander. Which leads me to believe that
she is currently a LT...
Just another theatre geek...
Grrrr........
Nothing gripes me more than a cracklin' good dialogue that I have to
wait to join until I actually see the episode.....
And by that time, of course, the conversation has moved a couple o'
parsecs down the road......
Grrrr.........
--
Roger Tang
Member, Uncle Bonsai Memorial Fan Club
gwan...@blake.u.washington.edu
Timothy W. Lynch
:-)
raw...@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Michael Rawdon) writes:
>In <1990Nov16.0...@nntp-server.caltech.edu> tly...@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>raw...@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Michael Rawdon) writes:
>>>In <1990Nov15.0...@nntp-server.caltech.edu> tly...@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>>>WARNING: The following post contains spoiler infomation about this week's
>>>>TNG episode, "Future Imperfect", so if you don't want to be spoiled...
>>>"Yawn" is another key word. In short, I wasn't very
>>>intrigued with the future world because it just wasn't very interesting.
>>>Not much had really changed.
>>Unlike "Yesterday's Enterprise", where so much had changed, oh so subtly...
>>if only they'd managed that.
>Yeah, though "YE" could have used a bit more umph itself, but it was far
>ahead of this episode. It certainly had definite goals in mind and went
>out to accomplish them.
Yep.
>>>>Plot: 4. The entire plot, basically, was Riker taking time to notice the
>>>> inconsistencies. Bo-ring.
>>>>Plot Handling: 5. Adequate for what they had to work with, I suppose, but
>>>> a better director could have done so much more...
>>>>Characterization: 7. A fairly good Riker, and a competent everyone else, but
>>>> not so good on Ethan.
>>>You, sir, are far too kind. :-)
>>On which bit?
>Cardboard everyone for characters, except Riker and Ethan, doesn't help
>the characterization in my mind over a 5, especially since Riker DIDN'T
>have ALL the screen time. He had to interact with other people a lot
>(Dr. Crusher, for instance, seemed expecially bland).
I thought Picard was reasonably good as an Admiral, which bumped it up a
bit, and the birthday party did too.
>I'd rank the plot about a 2, and the execution of that plot about as high.
>The basic idea (that of the illusions, that is, not of the future world)
>was bad, and the handling of that idea was very jerky and very boring.
>To my mind, there's little worse in science fiction drama than a boring
>story.
How about a boring, preachy story? :-)
I think a 2 is a little low--I save my 2s and below for things on the level
of "The Royale" or, Zeus help me, "Menage a Troi"--and whatever objections
I did have to this show, it wasn't even close to being as bad as those two.
>>Overall, you may actually be right. While it got a 6-7 on the first run-
>>through, I already have the impression it's not going to age at all well. It
>>may go considerably down by season's end.
>I can't bear the thought of watching the episode again. There's nothing
>really to watch!
Remember, you're talking to someone who voluntarily sat through the entire
history of TNG through BOBW1 in late spring to get the synops done for the
Guide. Nothing fazes me anymore. :-)
Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy B.A.; one of many Caltech grad students)
BITNET: tlynch@citjuliet
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"The seven deadly virtues, those fiendish little traps;
Oh no my Lord, they were not meant for me!"
--Mordred
Michael Rawdon
>In <1990Nov15.0...@nntp-server.caltech.edu> tly...@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>First, some rather sweeping gripes. First of all, it's almost established
>>FACT that the biggest cop-out ending of all is "it was all an illusion". It
>>gives one leeway to do anything--'cos after all, it's not REAL, right? Now,
>>the illusion gambit can be enjoyable when used properly--but here, it wasn't
>>used right at all. Big disappointment.
> Granted, big cop-out assuredly. However, until it was revealed that
>the kid was creating the illusion, I felt it was really well done. Just
>because the finale stinks, doesn't make it a totally bad episode. It
>could have been worse. The kid could have been an omnipotent being (a la
>Q) and just be doing behavioural tests on Riker. That'd be a bigger
>cop-out.
Well, I felt the whole thing before revealing the role of the kid was not
at all well done. There was very little drama, thin characterization,
a predictable plot, and just lots of boredom to go around.
[On the visual images of the "future" characters:]
> Again, wrong. When they first introduce the future Worf, you can
>easily see something I've never seen Worf do.... slouch. Klingons have
>a smaller life span than humans, so potentially he's MUCH older. Actually,
>on first glances, I didn't even notice the scar. But, he looked like
>he grew a hell of a lot more than sixteen years.
Actually, there's no film evidence to suggest that Klingons have a shorter
lifespan than humans.
[On most of the TNG crew still being on the ship after 16 years:]
> Ahem. The Enterprise is the fleet's FLAGSHIP. You can't top that,
>without going to Starfleet Academy (and even then, in comparison, it's
>a letdown). I can see Picard going off and becoming an admiral at starfleet
>since he is such an administrative type. And I can see Deanna leaving
>with him, since they have a heavy (respectful type) relationship. But,
>can you imagine the member of the top of the flagship of Starfleet going
>to the USS Garbagescow? No.
True, but I could easily see Riker being a Commodore by that time, Data
and Worf having their own commands, and Geordi having gone into research
or something. There are plenty of ways for them to have moved up in the
world from the Enterprise. (Also, the Enterprise might have no longer
been the flagship by that time.)
> Besides, Wesley wasn't there. That's got to be some kind of
>consolation.
Not really. When used well, he can be a good addition to the show.
Michael Rawdon
>Hey, Michael, ya wanna slow down and wait for Roger, so he won't be angry?
>:-)
Nah, he's a big kid. He won't mind. :-)
>raw...@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Michael Rawdon) writes:
Spoilers for "Future Imperfect"...
>>Cardboard everyone for characters, except Riker and Ethan, doesn't help
>>the characterization in my mind over a 5, especially since Riker DIDN'T
>>have ALL the screen time. He had to interact with other people a lot
>>(Dr. Crusher, for instance, seemed expecially bland).
>I thought Picard was reasonably good as an Admiral, which bumped it up a
>bit, and the birthday party did too.
Well, for me it bumped it up from an "F" to a "D-", but that's about it.
>>I'd rank the plot about a 2, and the execution of that plot about as high.
>>The basic idea (that of the illusions, that is, not of the future world)
>>was bad, and the handling of that idea was very jerky and very boring.
>>To my mind, there's little worse in science fiction drama than a boring
>>story.
>I think a 2 is a little low--I save my 2s and below for things on the level
>of "The Royale" or, Zeus help me, "Menage a Troi"--and whatever objections
>I did have to this show, it wasn't even close to being as bad as those two.
Well, of course, I didn't hate "The Royale" as much as you did, and haven't
seen "Menage a Troi", but if I did hate them that much, they'd get F's,
which are either 1s or 0s. A '2' on your scheme seems about equivalent
to a D- on mine.
Timothy W. Lynch
>In <1990Nov17....@nntp-server.caltech.edu> tly...@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>raw...@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Michael Rawdon) writes:
>Spoilers for "Future Imperfect"...
>>bit, and the birthday party did too.
>Well, for me it bumped it up from an "F" to a "D-", but that's about it.
Things like birthday parties and poker games nearly always enchant me--it's
a quirk.
>>I think a 2 is a little low--I save my 2s and below for things on the level
>>of "The Royale" or, Zeus help me, "Menage a Troi"--and whatever objections
>>I did have to this show, it wasn't even close to being as bad as those two.
>Well, of course, I didn't hate "The Royale" as much as you did,
That might be a bit difficult. Certainly, hating it any MORE would be. :-)
>and haven't seen "Menage a Troi",
Count your blessings.
>but if I did hate them that much, they'd get F's,
>which are either 1s or 0s. A '2' on your scheme seems about equivalent
>to a D- on mine.
Probably about right. "The Royale" did get a 0, as it happens, and MaT got
roughly a 2.
Tim Lynch
Christopher K. Wigginton
Spoiler Ahead.......
Did anyone notice the time Riker spent down on the planet under the illusion of the kid vs the time that Picard said that they lost Riker in mid transport?
I believe that Picard stated that Riker was lost in mid transport about an hour ago. The time Riker spent on the planet seems quite a bit longer than that.
Does this mean that a time distortion is also a capability of the holodeck and
related generators? or at least perceived that way? Sure would be easy to
take a long vaction in an hour or so.
--
____________________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer: Hey, This is California, where the crooks can sue their victims.
I can be fired and anything I write I can be held
responsible for, if the courts so decide.
____________________________________________________________________________
Christopher Kent Wigginton c...@apple.com
Apple Computer, Inc. AppleLink: C.WIGGINTON
America Online: CWIGGINTON
___________________________________END______________________________________
John Pimentel
Minor Spoiler
>They seem to do more with Deanna.........Did anyone out there happen
>to notice the rank of Deanna after 16 years? From what I remember
>(I'll have to review the tape again so this may not be accurate)
>she was a LT Commander. Now I seem to remember a few postings debating
>her rank. I at first thought she was a LT. Commander. But her rank
>in Future Imperfect was LT. Commander. Which leads me to believe that
>she is currently a LT...
Actually, those were hangers on which to place your coats. Quiet, don't
tell anyone, they might get upset at being proved wrong. Considering
that the one who probed the computer banks found that Deanna had a rank,
so she was put in a uniform with a rank. But keep this to yourself, we
don't the group in an uproar because the computer lists her as a
LT. Commander. Afterall, I didn't see the three bars, and I'm sure
you didn't either.
--
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John Pimentel ...!{decvax!mit-eddie!harvard}!frog!jp
Disclaimer: The opinion presented, is just that;
I take full responsiblity for those parts I've entered.
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