Lynch's Spoiler Review: "The Perfect Mate"
Timothy W. Lynch
episode, "The Perfect Mate". Those not wishing to see their perceptions
mated to these spoilers should get out of the way.
Hmm. The first third is abominable, but it picks up a *lot* after that.
I haven't seen a show with such a vast pickup in quality during the actual
show in a long time. I'd prefer they got it *all* right, of course, but this
had its moments. More after the synop:
The Enterprise is ferrying Kriosian ambassador Breeam to a meeting with his
opposite number, Voltan ambassador Alric, where the two warring systems will
finally settle their differences on board the Enterprise. Breeam brings
along some strange cargo, and asks that the cargo bay be kept off limits
until the meeting. Unfortunately, a pair of Ferengi are "rescued" from a
damaged ship and attempt to sabotage matters. One tries to talk Breeam into
giving them trade concessions, while the other sneaks into the cargo bay and
begins scanning a glowing, floating cocoon.
Worf and a security team intercept the latter Ferengi, who in falling knocks
a cargo barrel into the cocoon's supports. As Picard, Riker, and Breeam
arrive, the cocoon opens, revealing a beautiful woman named Kamala. She
looks around, approaches Picard, and says, "I am for you, Alric of Volt."
Breeam corrects her, then hastily justifies the entire situation to Picard
and Riker. He and Kamala explain that she is a rarity, a female empathic
metamorph, who unconsciously molds her personality to meet the desires of
those men around her. Eventually, she will bond to one man, and she has been
intended since birth to bond to Alric, ending their bitter feud. Riker takes
her to some quarters, but she quickly turns herself into his ideal woman and
tries to seduce him.
The following morning, after being told by a very angry Beverly that Breeam
has Kamala confined to quarters, Picard goes to see her. She explains that
her presence could be detrimental to the crew, and when Picard asks her to
stop changing herself in this way, she explains that it's part and parcel of
who she is; "one might as well ask a Vulcan to forgo logic." Picard asks her
what she and other metamorphs do or want when there's no one else to mold to.
She says, simply, that she's incomplete. Picard leaves, visibly disturbed by
her forceful approach.
After initially failing to convince Breeam that she can move freely, Picard
appoints Data her chaperone. Even Data has his hands full, however, when
Kamala causes trouble in Ten-Forward with a group of miners. Kamala later
tells Picard that she thinks she should remain in her quarters, and will--but
only on the condition that he visit. Picard first demurs, then becomes
fascinated when she shows a sudden interest in and knowledge of archaeology.
Panicking at his own interest, Picard attempts to convince her that he's
really a very dull fellow. She doesn't believe him, but he manages to make
his refusal stick.
However, shortly thereafter, the Ferengi's attempt to bribe Breeam results in
Breeam being severely injured. The Ferengi are sent to a nearby Starbase,
but now the negotiations are in jeopardy. A delay is not possible, since
Kamala's ability to permanently bond does not last long, and Picard is put in
the position of having to conclude the negotiations--and worse yet, work
closely with Kamala for days in preparing for them.
They become closer over those days, and Kamala admits that until this voyage,
she had never been alone at all. She understands her place in history, and
intends to fulfill it, "but I find it ironic that on the eve of this
ceremony, which I spent my entire life preparing for, that I should meet a
man like you." Alric arrives that evening, and is woefully stuffy; by his
own admission, he's far more interested in the trade agreements between their
two worlds than he is in Kamala. Picard brings Kamala up to date on the
arrangements (she is to be presented to Alric the following morning at ten),
but Kamala asks him not to leave. He tries to simply sit and talk, but
Kamala draws ever closer, not even entirely knowing why.
The following morning at tea, a morose Picard bares his soul a bit to
Beverly. He says that although he realizes she "will change as soon as the
next man comes in the room...and I find myself hoping the next man won't come
in." Bev sympathizes, but tells him she doesn't think she can help. Picard
arrives to escort Kamala, only to have her tell him that she's already
bonded; to *him*. Regardless, she intends to go ahead with the ceremony;
being empathic, she can still please Alric and ensure that he never knows.
Picard gives away the bride, looking rather stricken. Finally, the recovered
Breeam heads back to his ship--but when he asks Picard how he could possibly
have resisted her influence, Picard merely tells him to have a safe trip
home.
There we are. Now, for some comments:
As I said at the outset, the beginning of this was *awful*; and I'd be not at
all surprised to see a lot of people bashing the show to high heaven because
they couldn't get past the opening fifteen minutes.
Those minutes had a lot to dislike. Things were rather slow-moving, for one;
and more importantly, we had the Ferengi as the main villain for the first
time since the horrible "Menage a Troi". They worked no better here than
they did there, or even than they did in "The Last Outpost". All the old
Ferengi cliches that made people say "these guys are a THREAT? They couldn't
blow their nose and make it dangerous!" were here in spades. (It didn't help
that one of them was played by Max Grodenchik, the same fellow who played
Sovak so abominably in "Captain's Holiday".)
Continuing on, the early Kamala scenes weren't much to sneeze at either. The
concept of an emotional chameleon (which is essentially what she was) is an
intriguing one, and offered a lot of questions. At the outset, though, none
of them seemed to matter a bit. Instead, we had her attempt to seduce Riker,
which interested me very little. (All right, there was one exception.
Riker's line right after leaving about "If you need me, I'll be in Holodeck
Four" had me alternately laughing hard and "ahem!"ing loudly. ;-) ;-) )
But then, everything changed. Once we got just a few lines into the
Picard/Bev breakfast scene, I said to myself "Self, this is getting a lot
better." Beverly's arguments were not wholly unexpected, but well-founded
and delivered with a *ton* of energy, and so were Picard's. (I loved his
little "fine, we'll just..." speech.) Interestingly, Bev's arguments get
even more ironic when we consider that at the end, Kamala is in a situation
closer to the "virtual prostitution" Bev decries. Initially, she'd have
molded herself to Alric and been happy doing it; not so by the end.
And amazingly, Kamala improved tenfold after Picard got involved, too. (I'm
tempted to think that Famke Janssen is an *acting* metamorph; she molds her
acting ability to reflect the abilities of those around her. It explains the
problems with her scene with Frakes, after all. :-) ) A big reason, I
suspect, is that the tension was no longer quite so sexual; while sexual
tension can certainly make for good viewing, it can also get overused.
Kamala's effects on Picard were much more insidious and subtle, and that
helped a lot. A *lot* a lot.
The Ten-Forward scene was a mixed bag. I think it could have lost the miners
without much of a problem at all (though, to be fair, Janssen did a good job
becoming the stereotypical miners' woman there), but Riker's hasty exit was
good, and her little exchange of growls with Worf worked better than I
expected it to.
Towards the end I had a couple of complaints about Kamala's motivations, but
in the end they ended up being *answered*, which surprised me to no end.
To wit, I remember thinking "Okay, I can certainly understand the problems a
metamorph like this would have being alone, and that makes sense; but there's
nothing I see here to convince me why *Picard* is the one she'd leap for."
But in their final exchange, I thought some pretty good grounding for that
surfaced. Her interest in a man will be a reflection of what sort of person
that man's desires will turn her *into*; and let's face it, she _was_ a lot
more interesting (and alluring, methinks) once she went for Picard than in
any of the other situations. Picard made her more than what she expected to
be, and that can be very compelling. (It's probably an overt representation
of what *everybody* wants out of love in the end; to find someone who makes
you better than you are.)
THAT I could buy, and it fit perfectly. That helped a great, great deal, and
let me overlook other minor problems. (Picard's closing lines to the
ambassador were nicely understated, too.)
A minor plot concern I had was that Breeam really could have taken better
precautions, such as sealing up the cocoon in something else, or perhaps
making sure she's kept in some *other* form of stasis once she emerged. He
should have prepared for problems such as this one, but I'll forgive that.
A few things were contrived, most of them involving the Ferengi. There must
have been better ways both to loose Kamala on the Enterprise and to take
Breeam out of action than what they found; both of these *screamed* setup.
And I think the situation Picard and Kamala found themselves in in the end
was tragic enough that they didn't need to add to it by having Alric be such
a bozo. In fact, it might have been interesting if he was a fairly good guy,
just incompatible with Picard (and thus with the final Kamala). The way they
did it made it too easy.
But on the whole, if you can get past the first third, the rest is pretty
good.
Now, for some short takes:
--Okay, so last week we had the earthquake towards the end of the show. This
week, given the circumstances in LA at the time, I fully expected the show to
be preempted entirely and shown at a later time. Amazingly, it wasn't. It
wasn't even interrupted beyond the usual commercials, and the newscritters
just before it made a special point of *promising* the show would air intact.
Man, the Trek-watching lobby in this area must be a lot stronger than I
thought. (Fine, so it's not really relevant, but it does make me wonder what
sort of calamity is going to occur NEXT Wednesday.)
--The planet from which Breeam and Kamala came is called Krios? As in the
same Krios that was attempting to secede from the Klingons in "The Mind's
Eye"? Somehow I suspect this was an accidental duplication.
--Geordi's "Have you had a chance to see the dolphins yet?" in passing to
one of the Ferengi was an interesting throwaway line. Guess they really
ARE taking the Tech Manual seriously. :-)
--I loved Picard's bit about piano lessons. "I...never liked performing in
front of an audience." [Picard, perhaps, but not Stewart! :-) ] "Shy?"
"No. Just not very good!" Heh.
--It's interesting that a lot of the qualities Kamala seemed to exhibit while
attracting Picard really *were* similar to the way we're told Vash is.
Here I saw those traits, though; I never did in her. If Vash had been shown
like *this*, both "Captain's Holiday" and "Qpid" would have been a lot more
palatable.
--Okay, maybe it's just me, but when Kamala started rubbing Picard's head,
was anyone else suddenly seized with an uncontrollable urge to yell "the orb!
The orb!" a la "Sleeper"? Ah, well, maybe not. :-)
--The only bit of music I remember was in the actual wedding ceremony, which
was quite nice. The rest was pretty standard.
Anyways, that ought to do it. This turned out a lot better than I expected
from the preview, and recovered nicely from a brutal first fifteen minutes.
Not bad at all.
Da numbers, then:
Plot: 8. Fairly well thought out and well justified.
Plot Handling: 4. Waaaaaay too many contrivances, however.
Characterization: 7. Terrific Picard and late-term Kamala, lousy Alric and
early-term Kamala, neutral Breeam, and the Ferengi are just plot
devices and don't count. :-)
TOTAL: 6.5, rounding up a tick. Not bad; if they'd tightened up the early
bits, we'd have had an easy 8-9.
NEXT WEEK:
Gee, none of MY imaginary friends ever killed anyone...
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
"When a metamorph shows her interest, you should not take it lightly."
"Oh, I'm not taking it lightly. I'm just trying...to be as dull as
possible."
--
Copyright 1992, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
Smiley
:)WARNING: This article contains spoiler information regarding this week's TNG
:)episode, "The Perfect Mate". Those not wishing to see their perceptions
:)mated to these spoilers should get out of the way.
:)Hmm. The first third is abominable, but it picks up a *lot* after that.
I wouldn't quite say abominable, or really even less than average, but oh
well...
[insert synopsis here]
:)There we are. Now, for some comments:
:)As I said at the outset, the beginning of this was *awful*; and I'd be not at
:)all surprised to see a lot of people bashing the show to high heaven because
:)they couldn't get past the opening fifteen minutes.
:)Continuing on, the early Kamala scenes weren't much to sneeze at either. The
:)concept of an emotional chameleon (which is essentially what she was) is an
:)intriguing one, and offered a lot of questions. At the outset, though, none
:)of them seemed to matter a bit. Instead, we had her attempt to seduce Riker,
:)which interested me very little. (All right, there was one exception.
:)Riker's line right after leaving about "If you need me, I'll be in Holodeck
:)Four" had me alternately laughing hard and "ahem!"ing loudly. ;-) ;-) )
Despite your opinion of the scene (which I sorta liked), I think this
scene was probably the best choice of a necessary scene. We needed to see
an example of Kamala changing to fit the man, and probably the best way
was to see her conform to Riker, who's style of woman we know rather well.
But I still am wondering exactly what Riker was doing in that holodeck. :)
:)But then, everything changed. Once we got just a few lines into the
:)Picard/Bev breakfast scene, I said to myself "Self, this is getting a lot
:)better." Beverly's arguments were not wholly unexpected, but well-founded
Apparantly you didn't think it was getting that much better if you
started talking to yourself. :)
:)THAT I could buy, and it fit perfectly. That helped a great, great deal, and
:)let me overlook other minor problems. (Picard's closing lines to the
:)ambassador were nicely understated, too.)
I think this was one of the best closing scenes in TNG. Breeam was clueless
to what had happened until he asked, and with a single statement, Picard
informs him of his error in assumption, and they both KNOW nothing else
should be said about it.
:)A minor plot concern I had was that Breeam really could have taken better
:)precautions, such as sealing up the cocoon in something else, or perhaps
:)making sure she's kept in some *other* form of stasis once she emerged. He
:)should have prepared for problems such as this one, but I'll forgive that.
Well, you can't really expect the Ferengi to come on board to ruin things,
especially since they haven't been seen in over a year. :)
:)A few things were contrived, most of them involving the Ferengi. There must
:)have been better ways both to loose Kamala on the Enterprise and to take
:)Breeam out of action than what they found; both of these *screamed* setup.
Tim, you have a gift for understatement. :)
:)And I think the situation Picard and Kamala found themselves in in the end
:)was tragic enough that they didn't need to add to it by having Alric be such
:)a bozo. In fact, it might have been interesting if he was a fairly good guy,
:)just incompatible with Picard (and thus with the final Kamala). The way they
:)did it made it too easy.
I think it's much better how they did it. If Picard knew Kamala was going to
at least be left in good hands, he wouldn't have been as upset. The fact that
he KNEW that he was gonna treat her as rather unimportant added a lot more
hurt to the situation on his part.
:)Now, for some short takes:
:)--Okay, so last week we had the earthquake towards the end of the show. This
:)week, given the circumstances in LA at the time, I fully expected the show to
:)be preempted entirely and shown at a later time. Amazingly, it wasn't. It
:)wasn't even interrupted beyond the usual commercials, and the newscritters
:)just before it made a special point of *promising* the show would air intact.
:)Man, the Trek-watching lobby in this area must be a lot stronger than I
:)thought. (Fine, so it's not really relevant, but it does make me wonder what
:)sort of calamity is going to occur NEXT Wednesday.)
Well, there did seem to be some sort of Daemon influence at work in it... :)
:)--It's interesting that a lot of the qualities Kamala seemed to exhibit while
:)attracting Picard really *were* similar to the way we're told Vash is.
:)Here I saw those traits, though; I never did in her. If Vash had been shown
:)like *this*, both "Captain's Holiday" and "Qpid" would have been a lot more
:)palatable.
You're not the only one who saw the same traits, but better. I guess the
fact that I liked both of those episodes is why I liked this one a LOT...
:)--The only bit of music I remember was in the actual wedding ceremony, which
:)was quite nice. The rest was pretty standard.
I'm sure Atushi will say something, but there was one scene with REALLY out
of place horns... :)
:)Da numbers, then:
:)Plot: 8. Fairly well thought out and well justified.
:)Plot Handling: 4. Waaaaaay too many contrivances, however.
Aw, come on. :)
There were only two. So what if they were really, really major. :)
:)Characterization: 7. Terrific Picard and late-term Kamala, lousy Alric and
:) early-term Kamala, neutral Breeam, and the Ferengi are just plot
:) devices and don't count. :-)
Wait a second... just cause you thought Alric was a bozo doesn't mean it was
bad characterization... :)
Just curious: do you think this was possibly one of Stewart's best
performances?
--
Josh Laff # #
E-Mail to: _ _ Hello! I am a signature virus!
smi...@uiuc.edu |#\_____/#| Join the fun and copy mo*#(*&^!>.
(217) 384-6227 \#######/
Timothy W. Lynch
Spoilers for "The Perfect Mate" ahead...
[on the Kamala/Riker seduction scene, which I didn't care for]
>Despite your opinion of the scene (which I sorta liked), I think this
>scene was probably the best choice of a necessary scene. We needed to see
>an example of Kamala changing to fit the man, and probably the best way
>was to see her conform to Riker, who's style of woman we know rather well.
Well...to a fault. I certainly see what you're saying, but I thought she
did a far better job of demonstrating "changing to fit the man" in Ten-
Forward a bit later on. This left me cold, probably because it was so
shallow. So sue me. :-)
>But I still am wondering exactly what Riker was doing in that holodeck. :)
Ahem. I'm not. ;-)
>:)A minor plot concern I had was that Breeam really could have taken better
>:)precautions, such as sealing up the cocoon in something else, or perhaps
>:)making sure she's kept in some *other* form of stasis once she emerged. He
>:)should have prepared for problems such as this one, but I'll forgive that.
>Well, you can't really expect the Ferengi to come on board to ruin things,
>especially since they haven't been seen in over a year. :)
There were plenty of other things that could have gone wrong, that Breeam
might have wanted to prep for.
>:)A few things were contrived, most of them involving the Ferengi. There must
>:)have been better ways both to loose Kamala on the Enterprise and to take
>:)Breeam out of action than what they found; both of these *screamed* setup.
>Tim, you have a gift for understatement. :)
Thank you, kind sir. :-)
>:)And I think the situation Picard and Kamala found themselves in in the end
>:)was tragic enough that they didn't need to add to it by having Alric be such
>:)a bozo. In fact, it might have been interesting if he was a fairly good guy,
>:)just incompatible with Picard (and thus with the final Kamala). The way they
>:)did it made it too easy.
>I think it's much better how they did it. If Picard knew Kamala was going to
>at least be left in good hands, he wouldn't have been as upset.
But are those hands really good if she's permanently molded to Picard's way of
thinking, and this one's so different? I agree that the way they did it made
Picard's angst a lot easier, but I don't believe that makes it a good idea.
>:)--Okay, so last week we had the earthquake towards the end of the show. This
>:)week, given the circumstances in LA at the time, I fully expected the show
>:)to be preempted entirely and shown at a later time. Amazingly, it wasn't.
>:)It wasn't even interrupted beyond the usual commercials, and the news-
>:)critters just before it made a special point of *promising* the show would
>:)air intact. Man, the Trek-watching lobby in this area must be a lot
>:)stronger than I thought. (Fine, so it's not really relevant, but it does
>:)make me wonder what sort of calamity is going to occur NEXT Wednesday.)
I've made up my mind. I figure we'll get a plague of locusts around 3 pm
PDT. Mark my words. :-)
>:)Characterization: 7. Terrific Picard and late-term Kamala, lousy Alric and
>:) early-term Kamala, neutral Breeam, and the Ferengi are just plot
>:) devices and don't count. :-)
>Wait a second... just cause you thought Alric was a bozo doesn't mean it was
>bad characterization... :)
He was a bozo merely for the sake of adding to Picard's angst, not a bozo in
his own right. :-)
>Just curious: do you think this was possibly one of Stewart's best
>performances?
Could well be. Certainly elements of it were.
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
First Asimov, then my grandfather. This has been a very long month.
Jose Gonzalez
>WARNING: This article contains spoiler information regarding this week's TNG
>episode, "The Perfect Mate". Those not wishing to see their perceptions
>mated to these spoilers should get out of the way.
>Hmm. The first third is abominable, but it picks up a *lot* after that.
I don't agree. I thought the first third set up the rest quite well, as well
as including a priceless Riker scene.
>
>As I said at the outset, the beginning of this was *awful*; and I'd be not at
>all surprised to see a lot of people bashing the show to high heaven because
>they couldn't get past the opening fifteen minutes.
Uh, oh, don't start speaking for others unless spoken to. (-:
>
>Those minutes had a lot to dislike. Things were rather slow-moving, for one;
>and more importantly, we had the Ferengi as the main villain for the first
>time since the horrible "Menage a Troi". They worked no better here than
>they did there, or even than they did in "The Last Outpost". All the old
>Ferengi cliches that made people say "these guys are a THREAT? They couldn't
>blow their nose and make it dangerous!" were here in spades. (It didn't help
>that one of them was played by Max Grodenchik, the same fellow who played
>Sovak so abominably in "Captain's Holiday".)
I don't how I've managed to do it, but I've grown to (gulp) *like* the Ferengi.
They're a part of the show, and I've learned to appreciate the humor they
bring, whether I originally liked them or not. (Now, I won't or can't do
the same thing for Lwaxana, no matter how hard I try.)
>
>Continuing on, the early Kamala scenes weren't much to sneeze at either. The
>concept of an emotional chameleon (which is essentially what she was) is an
>intriguing one, and offered a lot of questions. At the outset, though, none
>of them seemed to matter a bit. Instead, we had her attempt to seduce Riker,
>which interested me very little.
It had me in tears, Frakes did a *wonderful* job of trying to resist while
not resisting, and it made for an interesting comparison to how Kamala
changed when with Picard. I thought it was important as well as funny.
>And amazingly, Kamala improved tenfold after Picard got involved, too. (I'm
>tempted to think that Famke Janssen is an *acting* metamorph; she molds her
>acting ability to reflect the abilities of those around her. It explains the
>problems with her scene with Frakes, after all. :-) ) A big reason, I
>suspect, is that the tension was no longer quite so sexual; while sexual
>tension can certainly make for good viewing, it can also get overused.
>Kamala's effects on Picard were much more insidious and subtle, and that
>helped a lot. A *lot* a lot.
Agreed, this was one of the most unforced evolving relationships I've seen
on the tube in a while. Everything progressed naturaly and logically.
>TOTAL: 6.5, rounding up a tick. Not bad; if they'd tightened up the early
>bits, we'd have had an easy 8-9.
I thought the early bits were fine. Not as good as the later ones, but *ten*
times funnier than any of "Cost of Living" to be sure.
--
Jose Gonzalez
Spock- "In your own way, you are as stubborn as another
captain of the Enterprise I once knew."
Picard-"Then I'm in good company, sir."
Atsushi Kanamori
>
>I thought the early bits were fine. Not as good as the later ones, but *ten*
>times funnier than any of "Cost of Living" to be sure.
Well ten times nothing is still nothing...
. . . . .
: : : :. : : :....: : . ::.: . ..: : .. : : .:
::::::::::.: :::::::.:::::::::::.:::::: :?.:::::..::::.:.::
------------ -------------------------- -------------------.------
Kanamori's Episode Ratings: (last episode rated: "Cost of Living" --
[Episode unavailable for comment. Homocide teams are investigating.])
Timothy W. Lynch
>In article <1992Apr30.1...@cco.caltech.edu> tly...@cco.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>WARNING: This article contains spoiler information regarding this week's TNG
>>episode, "The Perfect Mate". Those not wishing to see their perceptions
>>mated to these spoilers should get out of the way.
>>Hmm. The first third is abominable, but it picks up a *lot* after that.
>I don't agree. I thought the first third set up the rest quite well, as well
>as including a priceless Riker scene.
Too much Ferengi, too little interest. Sorry. :-) And the Riker scene
certainly *tried* to be priceless; I just don't think it quite pulled it off.
>>As I said at the outset, the beginning of this was *awful*; and I'd be not at
>>all surprised to see a lot of people bashing the show to high heaven because
>>they couldn't get past the opening fifteen minutes.
>Uh, oh, don't start speaking for others unless spoken to. (-:
I think I've been proven right in at least one case. :-)
>I don't how I've managed to do it, but I've grown to (gulp) *like* the
>Ferengi.
There *is* a treatment available for that. ;-)
>They're a part of the show, and I've learned to appreciate the humor they
>bring, whether I originally liked them or not.
I think turning them into attempted comic relief might have been a good idea,
given how lousily they turned out as a real enemy, but it would help a lot
more if they actually managed to be funny.
>>Continuing on, the early Kamala scenes weren't much to sneeze at either. The
>>concept of an emotional chameleon (which is essentially what she was) is an
>>intriguing one, and offered a lot of questions. At the outset, though, none
>>of them seemed to matter a bit. Instead, we had her attempt to seduce Riker,
>>which interested me very little.
>It had me in tears, Frakes did a *wonderful* job of trying to resist while
>not resisting, and it made for an interesting comparison to how Kamala
>changed when with Picard. I thought it was important as well as funny.
Agreed that in the wider context it had some importance, but it really didn't
do much for me, I'm afraid.
>I thought the early bits were fine. Not as good as the later ones, but *ten*
>times funnier than any of "Cost of Living" to be sure.
Here, for once, I've gotta go with Atsushi. Ten times nil is still nil. :-)
Tim Lynch
Michael Olin
well informed about the metamorph while Star Fleet's finest knew
NOTHING about her?
Ethan Solomita
Since when is a beauracracy more efficient in getting
information around than private capitalist enterprise? 8-)
-- Ethan
Jerry Brown said today he'd like to make Earth the cleanest of
the planets he's lived on.
-- Dennis Miller
Kyle Jones
Spies. The Federation is aboe this sort of thing, of course,
except against sworn enemies.