[TNG] Review: "Man of the People"
Scott Andresson
"Man of the People"
----
Season Six, Episode 3
Written by Frank Abatemarco
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
"Maybe he's just tired of hearing you complain. I know I'm certainly tired
of it! How do you think it feels to sit here and hear someone whine about
themselves all the time?!"
-- Troi at a counselling session
~~~~
Synopsis: The Enterprise ferries the Lumerian Ambassador, Vas Alkar to a
crucial diplomatic mission on Rekag-Syronia. When his aged (and aggressive)
mother dies, Alkar asks if Troi will join him in an ancient funeral
meditation to honour the deceased. Troi agrees, but the meditation has a
profound effect on her -- she becomes an aggressive, vindictive vamp who
starts ageing at a severely accelerated rate. Crusher discovers that Maylor
wasn't Alkar's mother at all -- she was a young companion whom Alkar
latched onto and used to offload his negative emotions, thus keeping him
the perfect man for ambassadorial peace missions. Following Maylor's death,
Troi is his new "receptacle" and Alkar isn't willing to release her.
Crusher has to enduce death and revive her in order to severe the link and
free Deanna. When Alkar attempts to link with another woman, the negative
emotions surge back into him, immediately killing him.
~~~~
Okay. What the hell was all THAT about? :-(
Extensive though they are, I can safely sum up Man of the People's problems
with just one word: the plot. Such as it is. Not only is the premise
exceptionally cliched but it's laced with a number of plot holes and
questionable logic galore. I will say the episode does have some things
going for it; for the most part Marina Sirtis is entertaining -- her
performance as enjoyable as it is over-the-top. And it's sure as hell less
boring as "Realm of Fear" which ought to have carried the warning: "May
cause extreme drowsiness. If affected do not operate heavy machinery". But
compost could be considered more entertaining than "Realm of Fear", so alas
that's not saying much.
But let's get back to "Man of the People" and this time I'm going to
proceed to pull apart the frail, feeble little waif that is the plot. For a
start, I'd like to know why Alkar needs to channel his negative emotions
into someone else. I mean, crikey, how negative *is* this guy?! The
explanation that "as an Ambassador I need to be free of all negative
thought" just doesn't cut it. Our emotions are a part of us and whilst
they're a damned nuisance at times (!) we do have limited control over
them. I simply don't see why it would be necessary for a negotiator to do
this.
And even if you can buy this, I don't quite understand the correlating
effect this has on Troi. Sure, a barrage of negative emotions probably
would make you aggressive, unpredictable and unstable. But why would it
make you age prematurely (and particularly at such an accelerated rate)?
Should I even touch upon the issue of sex?! The writers were evidently
looking for a way to depict Troi's shocking descent over to the dark side,
so what do they come up with? "I know, let's make her turn into a slut!"
She seduces a young ensign, dallies in a bit of casual sex and when Riker
finds out he's horrified (what a hypocrite, eh?). I mean, _come on_. What
this episode does is basically equate sex as evil! No, thanks.
As I said above, the high point of the episode is Marina Sirtis's
deliciously wicked performance. She carried a lousy script really rather
well, and even lifted one or two rather horrible scenes. Witness the scene
where Troi is standing doing her martial arts exercises in what looks like
slow-motion. It was a nebulous scene in which nothing actually happened
(and it took a long time in happening at that!) and one that could have
ground the episode to a halt. But Sirtis carries it quite nicely and the
eerie music helped as well, I guess. I actually thought she was gonna rip
off her top -- which might actually have made the episode a little
more...watchable! Ahem! I was less happy with the bit where she screams
after Alkar "TAKE ME WITH YOU!!" It was dreadfully OTT. Sirtis evidently
doesn't do "shouting" very well, but most the rest of it was quite
enjoyable.
Less impressive was the lacklustre Chip Lucia who was an utter bore as
Alkar. It wasn't until quite well into the episode that we're supposed to
learn that Alkar's a baddie (even though it was telegraphed about a mile in
advance) so I respect that he had to keep it quite restrained, *but*...did
he have to be so darned dull? It doesn't qualify as a bad performance but
it's not exactly all that memorable.
Anyway, the episode limps to its uninspired, by-the-numbers conclusion with
Deanna going from one extreme of bitchiness to the next. Some of it, I'll
admit was quite fun. Her counselling session was a genuine hoot. But the
whole "sex kitten" fiasco is best left forgotten and so, perhaps, is Troi's
transformation into what looks like Frankenstein's bride (with some
laughably over-the-top costuming and hairstyling). The "stabbing" scene in
the transporter room was hokey, poorly staged and featured an awful bit of
directing by Winrich Kolbe.
And Beverly's solution to break Alkar's link -- ie, by momentarily killing
Deanna -- was a concept which didn't come off terribly well. Nor did the
fact that Troi de-ages _before our very eyes_. And, pow, there we have
another instantaneous "reset button" ending! This one, however, was a very
near insult to the intelligence. The closing scene featured some very warm
interplay between Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes but it was undercut by the
fact that the scene was used to explain what had happened in the previous
scene. It's never a good sign when you have to explain your climax in
retrospect.
Some other notes:
* As for Maylor: talk about over-bearing moms! Yikes! Of course, it
transpires that Maylor *isn't* actually his mother but actually another of
his victims. Which begs the question: why the heck did she let him call her
"mother"?!
* The little political sub-plot was merely a means to an end, I know -- but
whereas DS9 handles politics with sophistication and depth, TNG's politics
frequently come off as simplistic and unengaging. This was a case point.
* Why was Riker called to Alkar's quarters when Maylor was dying? What
business is it of his? Does that happen whenever there's a medical
emergency on the ship -- "I know, let's call Riker so he can have a good
gawk!"
* The scene where Picard enters the infirmary to talk to Beverly opens with
Beverly just standing, staring at that corpse for a good few seconds. It
just looked a bit odd -- I couldn't help but wonder how long she'd _been_
staring at it!
* The Picard/Alkar exchange on the planet, where they discuss Alkar's
motives, was reasonably done until Picard started his Federation
holier-than-thou moralising. Oh, I agreed that Alkar was entirely wrong for
what he was doing, but as is often the case, the moralising felt
over-wrought and almost sanctimonious.
Well, that's about it. Hallelulajah. "Man of the People" does have it's
moments, just not nearly enough of them. The plot really is something of a
mess, needing a lot more work. It's not the interminable bore that "Realm
of Fear" was, but it's not exactly a Shakespearean masterpiece either. When
all is said and done, I have to chalk this one up as another early season
clunker.
Rating: 4
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Scott Andresson - brah...@hotmail.com
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--------Celestial Temple Star Trek Reviews:--------
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Station/2542
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"Sometimes I think the only reason I come here
is to listen to those wonderful speeches of yours!"
-- A sarcastic Q, ST:TNG's "True Q"
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