Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Allegiance"
tly...@heights.cit.cornell.edu
"Allegiance". Duck now, or forever hold your cookies.
Spoilers ho, just after this
Well, I'm on time THIS week, anyway.
I also thought the show quite good, though by no means perfect. It wins some
points on mystery alone. Comments ahead, after this synopsis by your local
station:
The Enterprise has just finished dealing with a plague, and Picard's relaxing
in his quarters with some tea and a good book. Suddenly, he loses conscious-
ness, a strange light washes over him, and he vanishes. By the time Worf and a
team get to his quarters to check on the energy surge, the door opens and they
see...Picard, with a glass of tea and a good book. Hmm.
Meanwhile, Picard awakens in a room that looks like half prison, half labora-
tory. Already present are Thall, a peaceful philosopher from Mizar, and a
Starfleet cadet of the Belean race (the same race as "Conspiracy"'s Capt. Rixx,
it would appear). Shortly thereafter, Enoch, a member of the savage and anar-
chic Chalnan people, appears. Picard takes charge of the group to see if they
can find a way out.
On the Enterprise, "Picard" is behaving somewhat strangely. He orders the ship
away from its upcoming rendezvous with the Hood and towards a nearby pulsar,
but at only Warp 2 (31 hours travel time), giving no explanation to anyone. He
conducts sudden efficiency checks for no good reason. He pulls Counselor Troi
out of the crew's poker game (grin!) to ask her for advance warning if the crew
start losing confidence in him. Most interestingly, he invites Bev to dinner
in his cabin, and says he's interested in extending their relationship a bit
beyond friendship. He buys drinks for everyone in 10-Forward and leads them in
an old Academy drinking song. As Riker says, "this isn't the Captain I know."
Things have gotten worse in the "cell". Distrust and suspicion have started to
surface, and everyone starts thinking that one of the others is running an
experiment on them from the inside. (This is accompanied by a couple of "rats-
in-the-maze"-type tests, which the group passes, but without escape.) Eventu-
ally, Picard figures out the truth, and finds that the so-called cadet is an
impostor.
The impostor reveals itself to be a member of a race of telepaths who are all
exactly alike. As such, they have no concept of leadership and authority, and
wanted to test that, both by experimenting on those three they kidnapped, and
by testing the people who must deal with the doppelgangers. They return Picard
to the Enterprise, just as Riker has removed "Picard" from command for ordering
the ship too close to the pulsar. They briefly hold the aliens captive, then
let them go.
Well, I managed to keep the synop short this time. I'm trying to keep them
down to under forty-five lines or so from now on, so don't expect quite so much
detail. Anyway, this show had good points and bad points, but mostly very
good.
The overall concept of aliens kidnapping the crew for experiments has, as Mike
Shappe pointed out to me not long ago, been done TO DEATH in Star Trek: "The
Empath" and "The Cage" come to mind immediately, and there are certainly
others. That much disappointed me.
However, the execution was carried out very well. Picard's ingenuity in
ferreting out the impostor was nicely done (he noticed "her" reference to the
events on Mintaka III, and, realizing that a real cadet probably wouldn't know
that, tested her by referring to the recent plague, which Starfleet had classi-
fied as secret.), and much of the suspicion in the cell seemed justified.
I also give the writers credit for keeping us (well, me, anyway) guessing for
as long as they did. It wasn't clear until the end whether the intent was
benign, hostile or neutral; whether the testers were testing the Enterprise
crew with the impostor, Picard and the other captives, or both; or, indeed,
whether there was an impostor at all. Most impressive.
The crew's reactions to the fake Picard were very believable. Riker summed it
up very nicely when he talked to most of the regulars (I recall seeing Bev,
Troi, Geordi, Data, and Worf there). He said essentially this: "We're cur-
rently on a mission with no purpose. This in and of itself is not cause for
alarm, because the captain says it's important and we trust the captain. He
is running sudden efficiency checks, for the first time in my tour of duty.
Again, though, he says it's important, and we trust our captain. HOWEVER..."
and he goes on to mention other things that were out of the ordinary, such as
the impromptu song in 10-Forward. (Pat Stewart's singing voice, by the way,
is...well...interesting. I don't know if I like it or not, but it's interes-
ting.) The crew, and especially Riker, waited almost exactly the right length
of time believable before getting really suspicious.
The scene between Picard and Beverly in Picard's quarters was priceless.
Anyone who's been working on a Picard-Crusher story now has some good spring-
board material. Some may argue that "well, this wasn't the REAL Picard, so we
can't trust anything he said", but since the double was working from Picard's
memories, it's at least plausible to say that he may be harboring some desires
in his breast for the fair Beverly. Of course, they're not hidden any more,
and Beverly's manner on the bridge at the close of the episode must be seen to
be believed. Lotsa fun.
I enjoyed seeing, for once, a fair number of other races. Besides the new
alien of the week who were conducting the experiment, we finally found out the
name of the Belean race, and met both the Mizarians and the Chalnans, who I
wouldn't mind seeing again (though the Mizarians were a little too Benzite-
like to suit me). Nice to get a little diversity. Maybe eventually we'll get
a Horta. Nah. Doubt it.
Finally, for all those who were sick of the alien experimenters getting off
scot-free, it will be very fun to see Picard, with naught but a look, manage to
get the two experimenters on his ship taken captive. Just a look to Riker, who
silently presses a comm panel, which Worf sees and works with, and Picard's
later statement of "now, Mr. Worf", and poof! up goes a force field. Now
THAT's a well-oiled crew.
The references to the pulsar were a mixed blessing to my astronomer's mind.
They were on target in referring to the dangerous radiation and magnetic fields
close to the star, but they showed it as an optical pulsar, which most are not,
and gave it a mass far too high according to ANY currently viable model (4.5
solar masses or so). (Trust me--I just had a course in the little buggers last
semester.)
At any rate, this was fun, though not perfect. I preferred "Sins of the
Father". On to the ratings:
Plot: 7.5. Way too overdone in past programs, but a bit back for Picard's
deduction of the impostor's identity.
Plot Handling: 9. Nice work.
Characterization: 10. Them poker games just do wonders. :-)
Technical: 7. The neutron star gaffes brought it down.
TOTAL: 33.5/4===> 8.4. Nice work.
NEXT WEEK:
The Captain's pleasure planet is spoiled by...a Ferengi in a Hawaiian shirt?
Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy Major)
BITNET: H52Y@CRNLVAX5
INTERNET: H5...@VAX5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU
UUCP: ...!rochester!cornell!vax5.cit.cornell.edu!h52y
"The replica was convincing?"
"Very convincing...but not perfect."
"Not perfect in what way?"
"Well, sir--I find it hard to believe that you're that good a singer."
"Singer? <<pause>> I look forward to reading your report, Commander. At
least, I think I do."
R Timothy Smith
>WARNING: This article contains spoilers for this week's TNG episode,
>"Allegiance". Duck now, or forever hold your cookies.
> [ ... ]
>Things have gotten worse in the "cell". Distrust and suspicion have started to
>surface, and everyone starts thinking that one of the others is running an
>experiment on them from the inside. (This is accompanied by a couple of "rats-
>in-the-maze"-type tests, which the group passes, but without escape.) Eventu-
>ally, Picard figures out the truth, and finds that the so-called cadet is an
>impostor.
Question 1: If the alien acting as the cadet impostor "knows" of the
recent viral episode (or whatever it was), I assume telepathically
from the "Picard" double, then wouldn't it also know that the
episode was classified "secret" by Star Fleet and therefore not
of likely knowledge for a cadet? (Also, BTW, are we
to assume they can "make" impostors without a model as well as duplicate
those stolen/transported? Or is there a poor Belean (?) cadet somewhere
being held captive in another room in order to produce the imposter?)
> [ ... ]
> ... the people who must deal with the doppelgangers. They return Picard
>to the Enterprise, just as Riker has removed "Picard" from command for ordering
>the ship too close to the pulsar. They briefly hold the aliens captive, then
>let them go.
Question 2: Not so much merely "let them go" as ordered them off the bridge.
But why? I thought the mission included "seek out new life and new
civilizations," -- so having now made contact with these aliens,
Picard dismisses them with no knowledge of their race's location.
He'd made his point about the immorality of captivity, so after
freeing them from the force field, why not work on communicating
with them? It seems the Enterprise is no longer interested in
meeting new races, but rather finds alien contact to be an annoyance
and a distraction from carrying out routine supply missions, etc.
[OK, so this was more a comment than a question but .... ]
- Tim
Mr. Weefy
>In article <1990Mar26....@heights.cit.cornell.edu>
> tly...@heights.cit.cornell.edu writes:
>>WARNING: This article contains spoilers for this week's TNG episode,
>>"Allegiance". Duck now, or forever hold your cookies.
>
>Question 1: If the alien acting as the cadet impostor "knows" of the
>recent viral episode (or whatever it was), I assume telepathically
>from the "Picard" double, then wouldn't it also know that the
>episode was classified "secret" by Star Fleet and therefore not
>of likely knowledge for a cadet?
I assumed that the aliens were able to gather information through some
method of surveilance -- turn themselves into negligible size, invisible,
or use their technology with which they were able to snatch Picard and then
teleport back and forth. In any event, because of their lack of experience
with command and privledges they wouldn't appreciate how certain
information is sheilded from those without authority and an indication of
dependability. Remember, they are all alike (in their native form) and are
able to use telepathy to communicate, so they don't likely have too many
secrets. Which brings up a treknical point, can telepathy be intercepted.
And if so, can the FBI use it as evidence :-)
>
>Question 2: Not so much merely "let them go" as ordered them off the bridge.
>But why? I thought the mission included "seek out new life and new
>civilizations," -- so having now made contact with these aliens,
>Picard dismisses them with no knowledge of their race's location.
>He'd made his point about the immorality of captivity, so after
>freeing them from the force field, why not work on communicating
>with them? It seems the Enterprise is no longer interested in
>meeting new races, but rather finds alien contact to be an annoyance
>and a distraction from carrying out routine supply missions, etc.
Good point. I think it was a simple ending which gave Picard another good
one-liner. We all enjoy those one-liners, but sometimes they distort the
story rather than enhance. Also, we never did find out where the "prison"
was or for that matter where the aliens lived. Or for that matter, how
they procreated. Or for that matter ... sigh, the writers do it again.
-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-*^*-
Keith Jackson {convex, texsun}!smu!jackson == jac...@smu.edu
UN*X - live free or die
Kyle Jones
> It seems the Enterprise is no longer interested in meeting new races,
> but rather finds alien contact to be an annoyance and a distraction
> from carrying out routine supply missions, etc.
This is one of my continuing gripes with the new series. They've taken
the wonder out of space exploration.