Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Menage a Troi"
Iain Odlin
tly...@heights.cit.cornell.edu writes:
>NEXT WEEK:
>Bev ministers to a very odd patient. That's about all I could glean. Bye,
>all.
That and Worf gets the bejeesus kicked out of him... again...
--
----------------------------------Iain Odlin-----------------------------------
4326 SE Woodstock Blvd, Suite 378, Portland OR, 97206
odlin@reed -or- {ogicse,tektronix}!reed!odlin
"Ever had a reality check that bounced?"
tly...@heights.cit.cornell.edu
TNG episode, "Menage a Troi". Those who are squeamish at the sight of spoilers
probably should go away now.
Honest.
Yech.
There are good ways and there are bad ways to do a Lwaxana Troi episode.
There are good ways and there are bad ways to do a Ferengi episode.
This failed both tests. More on that, after this friendly synopsis:
The Enterprise is orbiting Betazed, throwing a final party to celebrate the
successful completion of a trade agreement. Attending are many aliens, inclu-
ding Lwaxana Troi and, unfortunately, the Ferengi DaiMon Tog and his entourage.
Tog approaches Lwaxana for two reasons: he thinks her telepathy could prove
very useful in his business dealings, and he's very attracted to her. She re-
coils in horror, and tells him to go away.
Lwaxana's been trying to encourage Deanna to settle down and have a family, but
she thinks her family is her friends on the Enterprise. But, be that as it
may, she and Riker both take some shore leave on Betazed, as the Enterprise
warps out to examine a nearby nebula. This study, by the way, will be Wesley's
last mission on board the Enterprise: when they return to Betazed, he's going
to hop a shuttle to take his oral exams for entrance to the Academy. As you
might expect, Tog shows up and kidnaps Lwaxana, who "accidentally" joined
Deanna and Will on the picnic. He takes Deanna and Riker as well.
Most of what follows can be summed up quickly. Lwaxana lures Tog into a state
of relaxation by...er...stroking his ears, among other things. Riker uses one
of the other crewmembers's annoyance at losing to Riker in 3-D chess to con his
way out of the cell, and rigs the warp engines to modulate the subspace static
into a pattern the Enterprise will recognize. By this time, the Ferengi CMO
has caught on to what Lwaxana is doing, and is brutally examining her with
their mind-probe. The Enterprise, having returned to Betazed after their study
(and, by the way, the nebula was giving off interference, cutting their commu-
nications off) and discovered what happened, catch on to Riker's subspace sta-
tic, but as a result of staying behind to help, Wesley misses the shuttle--and
thus, his chance at the Academy this year.
They eventually find the Creighton (the Ferengi ship), but things have changed
by the time they arrive. Lwaxana has made a deal for Deanna and Will's safety;
if Tog lets them go, she'll remain behind willingly. Deanna and Will return,
and Picard, by pretending to be a jealous lover of Lwaxana's, scares Tog into
giving Lwaxana back. All is well. Finally, saying that "although the Academy
must wait for you, I can no longer in good conscience make you wait for the
Academy", Picard gives Wesley a field promotion to full Ensign, complete with
all its rights and responsibilities (like a nice red uniform).
There, now. Sounds reasonably harmless, doesn't it?
It wasn't.
First, there's Lwaxana. TNG is now, unfortunately, 1 for 3 on Lwaxana Troi
episodes. I think the only decent way to bring Lwaxana into an episode is to
do what they did in "Manhunt": rather than concentrate on her, they concentra-
ted on everyone else's reactions to her, typically "BLEEEAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!".
This tried to make Lwaxana a more sympathetic character, and failed miserably,
at least with me. I was hoping Picard would just blow up the Creighton with
her on it, and be done with the wench. No such luck.
Then, there's the Ferengi. They've been done completely right once in their
history: I thought "The Battle" presented them as actually being a dangerous
enemy. "Menage a Troi", however, didn't manage that. Rather the opposite--I
found myself thinking, "Come on! Any race this mind-bogglingly stupid would
never have managed spaceflight, much less any power." Although I found DaiMon
Tog reasonably well done (which makes sense, since he was played by the same
guy who played DaiMon Bok in "The Battle"), the others reminded me more of bad
actors in several pounds of makeup than anything else.
Quick break for a minor quibble: once again, the writers and editors of TNG
have shown they know nothing about astronomy. They gave a figure of 10**41
watts for the power output of the nebula, which Picard seemed mildly surprised
at. He should be more than mildly surprised, as that's the power output of TEN
THOUSAND normal galaxies (or, putting it another way, it's the equivalent of
a supernova every hour or so!). This is something that should have been caught
in the editing stage, folks.
Now, back to a major gripe. The scene where Picard bluffed Tog into thinking
he was a jealous lover of Lwaxana's was almost literally painful to watch. I
didn't enjoy myself, and for once I didn't think Stewart was having fun with it
either. Often, when he recites Shakespeare, even if Picard isn't having fun,
you can tell Stewart's enjoying himself. Here, it looked like Stewart was
thinking "Oh, God, am I REALLY saying this?" Please--never again.
Wes's field promotion to Ensign was fine, but there was no need to have him
JUST miss the shuttle so he could help save Riker, for a couple of reasons.
First, it puts Wes back in the "saving the ship" role, which I thought he'd
outgrown long ago. Second, we all knew Wes was staying on the Enterprise, so
most of the mystery was lost. I was trying to push him out of the doors, my-
self (and that's not typical, as I haven't disliked Wesley since the middle of
the first season).
Another quick gripe, this one a plot hole. Data said at one point that the
Creighton was nearly as fast as the Enterprise, and we also know that it
had at least a day's headstart. Given that, how the hell did the Enterprise
catch up to it within an hour?
It wasn't all bad, though. Small bits of it were amusing, and the scene be-
tween Picard and Wesley where Picard promotes him was pretty well done. I did
like the shots of the Creighton in warp-space, but I've always liked the Feren-
gi designs. I also liked the close of the Lwaxana storyline, when she's tel-
ling him how convincing he was, and he orders the Enterprise back to Betazed,
"WARP NINE". The look on his face was priceless.
However, priceless looks aren't enough. I think this is probably the second
worst of the season, after "Captain's Holiday". I just hope the other two of
the season are better.
Well, it's all over bar the ratings, so...
Plot: 4. With a few changes, it might not have been so bad.
Plot Handling: 1. If they'd done it right, it could've been tolerable. They
didn't.
Characterization: 3. That's about all Tog is worth, and a bad Picard is a
sign of a serious problem.
Technical: 3. That's about all the shots of the Creighton were worth.
TOTAL: 11/4---> 2.8. Ooch, but that's poor.
Now, before I go, two quick announcements:
1) This account (heights) is going away as of Friday, 6/1. I have other
accounts I can post the reviews from, so they won't go away, but I'd suggest
you NOT send me mail to heights if you want me to see it.
2) Vidiot: I've been trying to reach you for the past week, but my mailer
doesn't seem to think you exist. Could you send me a good mailpath through
the Internet, to the address below? Thanks.
NEXT WEEK:
Bev ministers to a very odd patient. That's about all I could glean. Bye, all.
Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy B.A.)
BITNET: H52Y@CRNLVAX5
INTERNET: H5...@VAX5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU
UUCP: ...!rochester!cornell!vax5.cit.cornell.edu!h52y
Why are there so many songs about rainbows, and what's on the other side?
R.I.P. Jim Henson, 1936-1990; we shall never see your like again.
William P. Kaufman
>he was a jealous lover of Lwaxana's was almost literally painful to watch. I
>didn't enjoy myself, and for once I didn't think Stewart was having fun with it
>either. Often, when he recites Shakespeare, even if Picard isn't having fun,
>you can tell Stewart's enjoying himself. Here, it looked like Stewart was
>thinking "Oh, God, am I REALLY saying this?" Please--never again.
>
Well,...that's EXACTLY what Picard would have been thinking! I think that's
the point there: "Oh, God, am I REALLY saying this,...about LWUXANNA?" Put
yourself in his position. "Lwuxanna, you are more beauteous than,...er, than
headcheese, yeah."
I was rather content with Barrett's acting job on this one, as with the others
she was in. Not extraordinary, sure, but at least (thank God!) Roddenberry
married a competent actress.
-- Bill K.
Bill Kaufman | "Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Is wild man. So, bug off."
Official laughing stock | -- from _Stranger_than_Paradise_
of the down-trodden \------------------+----------------------------------
{...}!{ames,ucbvax}!hplabs!hqsun2!wkaufman | ...in dire need of disclaimer...
William December Starr
The scene where Picard bluffed Tog into thinking he was a jealous
lover of Lwaxana's was almost literally painful to watch. I
didn't enjoy myself, and for once I didn't think Stewart was
having fun with it either. Often, when he recites Shakespeare,
even if Picard isn't having fun, you can tell Stewart's enjoying
himself. Here, it looked like Stewart was thinking "Oh, God, am I
REALLY saying this?" Please--never again.
Hmm, I have to disagree completely -- I got the impression that Pat
Stewart, masterful Shakespearean thespian that he is, was having the
time of his life cutting loose and doing some serious Bad Acting...
--
William December Starr <wds...@athena.mit.edu>
"Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the
last you are going to see of him until he emerges on the other
side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth."
-- Mark Twain, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"
William C. Regli
>
>In article <1990May28.1...@heights.cit.cornell.edu>
>tly...@heights.cit.cornell.edu writes:
>
> The scene where Picard bluffed Tog into thinking he was a jealous
> lover of Lwaxana's was almost literally painful to watch. I
> didn't enjoy myself, and for once I didn't think Stewart was
> having fun with it either. Often, when he recites Shakespeare,
> even if Picard isn't having fun, you can tell Stewart's enjoying
> himself. Here, it looked like Stewart was thinking "Oh, God, am I
> REALLY saying this?" Please--never again.
>
>Hmm, I have to disagree completely -- I got the impression that Pat
>Stewart, masterful Shakespearean thespian that he is, was having the
>time of his life cutting loose and doing some serious Bad Acting...
I concur. Realize further that he was speaking to Troi's mother--who he
definitely did not want to seduce. On the whole I thought Steward did
a quite masterful job. Realize that he was playing a person who
loves Shakespeare with a fervor, is very serious, and finds himself
in the reluctant position of having to convince a Ferengi captian that
his is madly in love with someone he does not want to be near. What's
Picard to do? Ramble reluctantly through a hodge-podge of Shakespeare's
most romantic lines with complete absence of desire.
b
================
William C. Regli Ten tens make hundered semicolon
University of Maryland, College Park, MD consequences far reaching.
Department of Computer Science --The Skin of Our Teeth
CSNet: re...@cs.umd.edu Thorton Wilder
William P. Kaufman
>he was a jealous lover of Lwaxana's was almost literally painful to watch. I
>didn't enjoy myself, and for once I didn't think Stewart was having fun with it
>either. Often, when he recites Shakespeare, even if Picard isn't having fun,
>you can tell Stewart's enjoying himself. Here, it looked like Stewart was
>thinking "Oh, God, am I REALLY saying this?" Please--never again.
>
Well,...that's EXACTLY what Picard would have been thinking! I think that's
Just another theatre geek...
>In article <1990May28.1...@heights.cit.cornell.edu> tly...@heights.cit.cornell.edu writes:
>I was rather content with Barrett's acting job on this one, as with the others
>she was in. Not extraordinary, sure, but at least (thank God!) Roddenberry
>married a competent actress.
A small comment here. I like Barrett's acting, but I think the
IDEA of Lluxwana Troi is much, much better than the actual execution of the
idea. The telepath as domineering, obnoxious busybody is not an overdone
cliche; it's fresh, it's fallow ground for good writing.
The only problem is that in all three episodes she's appeared in,
Mrs. Troi has been put in terrible situatuins. The writers have opted to
touch only the most surface actions and lines and have not bothered to
treat her as a real character. In MENAGE, I thought it would have been
a FAR better ending for Lluxwana to have stuck by her deal and gone off
into the starset with the Ferengi, leaving open a few storylines for
the fourth and fifth season.....
--
Roger Tang
Protoyuppie Scum---and PROUD of it!!!
gwan...@blake.acs.washington.edu
John Hyde
gwan...@blake.acs.washington.edu (Just another theatre geek...)
writes:
>
> The only problem is that in all three episodes she's appeared in,
>Mrs. Troi has been put in terrible situatuins. The writers have opted to
>touch only the most surface actions and lines and have not bothered to
>treat her as a real character.
I felt as if the writers WERE giving her some depth in MENAGE. I felt
that it was the best portrayal of Luxwanna yet. It is certainly the
first time that I have been able to stand her, and even almost admire
her.
In fact, I was kind of hoping she just might succeed in seducing old
stoneface Picard!
-=-
Regarding someone else's comment earlier, yes, it did seem as if
Picard was trying to "set up" Riker and Troi.
--
-John C. Hyde |"Only a brave person is willing honestly to admit,
|and fearlessly to face, what a sincere and logical
|mind discovers." -Rodan of Alexandria