[TNG] Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Eye of the Beholder"
Timothy W. Lynch
Beholder", but only from a certain point of view.
In brief: some intriguing ideas, but not quite what I signed up for.
The ending to "Eye of the Beholder" was a big problem, too. More details, of
course, after a synopsis:
Everyone is stunned when Lt. Kwan, serving in the warp nacelle tube, kills
himself by jumping into a plasma discharge, everyone is stunned. It doesn't
seem like an action Kwan would do, and Picard wants an explanation he can
give to Kwan's parents when he informs them of the tragedy. Worf and Troi
get to work on investigating the suicide. The pair search his quarters and
even his personal logs, but see no evidence of any sort of strain -- in fact,
if anything, he appears happy and looking forward to the next days.
Troi then finds Kwan's girlfriend, Ensign Calloway, and speaks to her in
sickbay. While she is shocked by his actions, Calloway also can see no
reason for him to do what he did. The only potential lead Troi gets is that
Kwan felt that his superior, Lt. Nara, felt threatened by his presence. She
goes to the nacelle tube to talk to Nara and investigate Kwan's station.
Nara shows no signs of antipathy toward Kwan at all, but the surprise comes
when Troi stands on the platform from which Kwan leaped. She is suddenly
overwhelmed by a flood of emotions, and can barely contain herself long
enough to leave the room.
She is mystified by this sensation; the feelings, as she put it, "were just
*there*" -- no person was attached to them. Since her empathic sense is
overloaded, in a way, at the moment, Dr. Crusher suggests she not re-enter
the room for another few hours. In the meantime, Troi goes to her quarters
to rest. Some time later, she talks to Worf there, and muses over the possi-
bility raised previously that she might have felt an empathic "echo" left
behind by Kwan. Worf encourages the possibility, saying "there are things we
do not understand, yet they exist nonetheless," and then leaves to let her get
some rest.
After Worf talks to Riker, trying to ask if Riker minds him becoming involved
with Troi (but not getting through to an oblivious Will), Worf and Troi
return to the nacelle tube. Worf opens the hatch doorway that Kwan jumped
through for Troi -- and as soon as he does, she has a vision: she sees a
woman, very frightened, backing away and crying "no", and the image of a
grim, red-haired man. They fade, and she looks around further, finding
equipment bearing the markings of Utopia Planitia (where the Enterprise was
built) and sees the woman again, this time laughing with another man when the
pair are discovered together in a supply closet.
Worf suddenly snaps her back to the present, and they decide to leave
quickly. At a briefing, it's suggested that she was reliving an event from
eight years ago, possibly seen through Kwan's eyes, since he was at the
shipyards himself. Crusher suggests a neural inhibitor to block out the
sensations and let her re-enter the room safely, but notes that it will take
sixteen hours to synthesize.
In the meantime, a search of personnel files turns up Lt. Walter Pierce as
the red-haired man, currently serving on the Enterprise in engineering. He
happened to be Kwan's supervisor, but claims to have no memories of anything
unusual happening in the nacelle tube -- or anywhere else. As she and Worf
leave, Troi notes with surprise that she couldn't read Pierce at all -- he
must be partially telepathic. They begin to call up logs from Utopia
Planitia, but those logs will take time to arrive. Worf begins to say good
night and leave Troi to rest, but cannot bring himself to go. They clasp
hands and begin to kiss fiercely...
The next morning, Worf wakes her with breakfast, only to be interrupted when
Crusher calls on each of them in turn to help with a task. Troi gets to
sickbay and receives the neural inhibitor, and Worf then arrives and greets
her. When Worf is unable to accompany her to the nacelle tube owing to
necessary work with Calloway, however, Troi begins to wonder.
In the nacelle tube, Troi (along with Data and Geordi) investigates a plasma
conduit that Kwan repaired shortly before he died. As soon as the panel is
opened, she again flashes on Pierce and the unknown woman despite the
inhibitor. She is certain there is something behind that wall -- and a quick
scan shows that it's a long-decayed skeleton.
Calloway searches through personnel files and finds that the bone fragments
are those of an ensign, Marla Finn, who is the woman Troi saw in her visions.
When Kwan's records show he didn't arrive at the shipyard until months after
Finn's disappearance, Troi realizes that the image of Pierce she saw was a
_reflected_ image, and that she must have been seeing things through his
eyes. She and Worf leave to talk to Pierce again, but Troi is again
concerned when Worf behaves very solicitously towards Calloway.
In the turbolift, Troi asks Worf if he regrets this new stage in their
relationship, and he reassures her otherwise. Fatigued and stressed, she
returns to her quarters to rest, letting Worf talk to Pierce alone. However,
after a short while, she is surprised to see Pierce enter her quarters,
alone! She immediately calls security and has them hold him in his quarters,
but his words to her that Worf "said he had to go somewhere" leave her
suspicious, particularly when she cannot talk to him. Hearing from the
computer that Worf is in Calloway's quarters, she rushes there and finds Worf
and Calloway in a passionate embrace.
Caught, they begin laughing at her. Panicked, Troi screams at them to stop,
and eventually phasers Worf, killing him. Shocked at what she has done, she
flees through the corridors of the ship. She runs into Pierce, who tells her
"you know what you have to do." Suddenly, she does: she runs to the nacelle
tube, opens the hatchway, and prepares to jump into the plasma stream...
... and Worf turns her around, very much alive -- in fact, it's been only a
few seconds since Troi asked Worf to open the door in the first place.
Everything after the door was opened was her hallucination. Further
investigating finds that Pierce, Finn and the man seen with Finn were all
killed at Utopia Planitia eight years ago in a plasma discharge, but Troi is
certain Pierce killed them both and then himself. Pierce's partially
telepathic nature caused a psychic "photograph" to be imprinted on the
conduit Kwan opened, and Troi's reaction to the energy caused her mind to
recreate the events seen in Pierce's last moments, only altered to match her
own life. The situation is resolved, but Worf is left puzzled as to why Troi
was so surprised to see him alive -- and what she meant by "Hell hath no fury
like a woman scorned."
----------
Now, on to commentary:
Frankly, I'm not sure *what* to say about this show. The idea of a psychic
photograph is an interesting (if well-worn) one, and there were a few bits of
energy here and there in the show -- but overall, my basic impression is
"yeah, and?"
A particular annoyance I had was with the ending. Now, the "it was all a
dream" tactic is one that gets used commonly, and one that *can* get used to
wonderful effect; pretty arguably, "The Inner Light" is one of those shows
that demonstrated just how much *could* be done with that kind of premise.
However, "The Inner Light" was a special circumstance, where everything went
right. This wasn't.
A big problem I have with the ending here was that it lets the second half of
the show completely off the hook as far as everyone except Troi making sense
is concerned. If it's just a hallucination (and one specially tailored for
her, at that), then it doesn't _have_ to make sense, or mean anything, or
"count" in any form except its effect on Troi. If those things _did_ make
sense, then I wouldn't have had a problem with it; but a lot of it felt
forced, and saying "well, it didn't *really* happen" is a fairly easy way
out.
[Before I get a horde of people pointing out that DS9's "Whispers" had a
tactic in some ways similar to this and that I loved it there, let me hasten
to point out that there, everyone was real, and everyone's reactions _did_
have to make sense. The events aren't handwaved away by the revelation;
on the contrary, they're explained by it. Here, they're handwaved away.]
The "it wasn't real" angle also lent a "safe" way for Worf and Troi to get
together without actually having to take the risk of uniting the characters
in the true Trek universe. Since there are a lot of hints here that they may
get together anyway, I'm reserving judgement -- but if it turns out that this
was a way to throw a bone to the "get them in bed!" fans without any
relationship to the characters as themselves, I'll be something less than
pleased.
The ending was by far my biggest gripe with the story, but more generally I
just didn't get brought into it very much (far less so on a second viewing
than on the first, though). Part of it is undoubtedly that I had pegged
Troi's vision as a murder from the viewpoint of the killer from about three
seconds into her first vision, and even figured Pierce had to be the killer.
After that, it got a little dull watching them figuring that out.
It didn't help that both Pierce and Calloway were pretty flat, especially
Pierce. Pierce is partially excused by being a hallucination every time we
saw him :-), but Calloway was real enough, and also stuck with lines like
"it's not like Dan to take his own life." [Yes, and he never has a second
cup of coffee at home, either. Your point?]
There was really one scene that was great fun to watch, namely Worf
attempting to ask Riker if he minds Worf getting involved with Troi.
Worf trying to be circumspect seems to me to be like a thunderstorm trying
not to make too much noise -- it's just so incredibly foreign to him that it
can't work. I think Bev or Picard might have picked up on it in spite of
Worf, but given that Riker was not in a position to be thinking with his
brain _anyway_, the scene worked through and through. Alas, it's the only
one that really did.
As far as the two main regulars this show went, it's a mixed back. Dorn did
a fairly good job with a character that, alas, I think has gotten
significantly less interesting in the past year and a half or so (excepting a
few gems like "Rightful Heir"). Sirtis was fine when Troi was being calm,
such as in her story about her grandfather. The ending moments, though, had
Troi in "whimper and moan" mode, which have worked maybe one time in twenty.
This wasn't that one.
Other than that, I'm honestly not sure I have very much to say about this
show. The ending struck a strong negative chord with me, the Riker/Worf
scene had me very amused, and virtually everything else didn't have more than
a small impact either way. The whole show really gave me the impression of
"let's get Worf and Troi into bed together, but not have to worry about the
repercussions". That's no way to build an episode, I'm sorry to say.
So, a few short takes and then I'll close.
-- Time problems yet again: stardate 40-whatever was eight years ago? Now
I really am starting to wonder if the Powers That Be are deliberately trying
to change the usual understanding of one season = one year. If so, they're
making a rough time of it, given the number of glitches they've had go both
ways (Riker's beard, for instance, and the interesting point that according
to claims in the last month, "The First Duty" must now have happened before
"Disaster") -- and I can only hope there's a good reason for it.
-- Very simple question: once Riker was on the catwalk with Kwan in the
teaser, why didn't Riker just *stun* him? It wouldn't work for Worf to do
so, because the impact would probably push him through the field anyway, but
Riker had the right direction. Isn't that the sensible move?
So, wrapping up:
Plot: Holding up more or less well until the last five minutes, then loses
all sense.
Plot Handling: Not one of their better efforts. The show seemed to go on
for far longer than it really did.
Characterization: Reasonably good for the "real" periods, but after that
there were problems.
OVERALL: 4.5. Not the way I wanted to go into a rerun cycle.
NEXT WEEK: A rerun of "Dark Page". Enjoy the break!
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET: tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"Mr. Worf, you sound like a man who's asking his friend if he can start
dating his sister."
-- Riker
--
Copyright 1994, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
stephanie clarke
(Timothy W. Lynch) wrote:
<snip>
> The "it wasn't real" angle also lent a "safe" way for Worf and Troi to get
> together without actually having to take the risk of uniting the characters
> in the true Trek universe. Since there are a lot of hints here that they may
> get together anyway, I'm reserving judgement -- but if it turns out that this
> was a way to throw a bone to the "get them in bed!" fans without any
> relationship to the characters as themselves, I'll be something less than
> pleased.
> "let's get Worf and Troi into bed together, but not have to worry about the
> repercussions". That's no way to build an episode, I'm sorry to say.
>
created this "it wasn't real," safe way out angle, to appease the fans that
wanted Riker and Troi to get back together. Thomas wasn't the real Riker,
so he could bed Deanna, then leave and nothing changes on the E. Hey,
TPTB-- It's gotten old!
stephanie clarke
Both shows were also written by Rene Echevarria.
Jonathan Kass
>
(stuff deleted)
>There was really one scene that was great fun to watch, namely Worf
>attempting to ask Riker if he minds Worf getting involved with Troi.
>Worf trying to be circumspect seems to me to be like a thunderstorm trying
>not to make too much noise -- it's just so incredibly foreign to him that it
>can't work. I think Bev or Picard might have picked up on it in spite of
>Worf, but given that Riker was not in a position to be thinking with his
>brain _anyway_, the scene worked through and through. Alas, it's the only
>one that really did.
>
has to be, since Worf never leaves the Nacelle during the hallucination...
If so, the funny point of this scene to me is that Riker's behaviour is really
a reflection of Troi's hallucination. And since in the end it serves almost
no useful purpose to framing the jealousy sequence from the psychic
imprint, it just seems to display her opinion of Riker as self-absorbed
womanizer :-).
>As far as the two main regulars this show went, it's a mixed back. Dorn did
>a fairly good job with a character that, alas, I think has gotten
>significantly less interesting in the past year and a half or so (excepting a
>few gems like "Rightful Heir").
While we watched it, we started noticing how "deep" Worf seemed to be
getting... of course all his really mystical comments (there are things we
do not understand in the universe, etc..) were in the hallucination, so they
weren't out of character in the real world, just imprints to get the jealousy
pattern in place.
>
>-- Very simple question: once Riker was on the catwalk with Kwan in the
>teaser, why didn't Riker just *stun* him? It wouldn't work for Worf to do
>so, because the impact would probably push him through the field anyway, but
>Riker had the right direction. Isn't that the sensible move?
Make the episode alot shorter, too :)
Jonathan