Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Rascals"
Timothy W. Lynch
"Rascals". Those not wishing to be exposed to the little rapscallions should
probably hold off for now.
On the one hand, those kids could actually *act*. On the other...whose idea
was this?
In other words, as a first approximation we're talking decent characters, and
no plot whatsoever worth speaking of. More details (many more) after a
synopsis:
Picard, Ro, Guinan, and Keiko are hurrying back from shore leave in a
shuttlecraft to the Enterprise, which must answer a far-off distress signal.
However, the shuttle is enveloped by a strange energy field, and while the
four survive an emergency transport back to the Enterprise, they suddenly
have the physical appearance and abilities of twelve-year-olds, although they
are normal mentally.
While a very relaxed and playful Guinan attempts to convince Ro that their
plight is not an unmitigated disaster, Picard attempts to resume command of
the Enterprise as though nothing had happened. He quickly finds, however,
that the reactions of those around him greatly reduce his ability to command,
and on Beverly's suggestion hands command to Riker for the nonce. At the
same time, Keiko has perhaps the most difficult time of all, having to help
her husband and daughter deal with her changed circumstances.
Shortly after Picard considers his future options in the event that a cure is
impossible, Beverly and Geordi deduce what has occurred. The field was a
"molecular reversion field", which made the shuttle begin to deteriorate, and
began to do the same to the crew, masking certain key genetic sequences from
the transporter. Theoretically, then, sending them back through the
transporter with the adult-level sequences included should cure them.
However, that line of thought is temporarily put on hold when the Enterprise
reaches orbit around Ligo 7, source of the distress signal.
They find no evidence of planetary distress, however; only interference.
They prepare to investigate, when suddenly two Klingon birds of prey decloak
and begin firing. They catch the Enterprise flatfooted, and the Enterprise
is subdued without firing more than one shot. The boarders, independent
Ferengi privateers in search of slave labor for mining down below, assume
control of the ship in short order, although not before Riker orders computer
command functions disabled.
Picard and the other children, meanwhile, are left on board in a classroom,
thought to be harmless. They quickly work to lend what assistance they can,
with Guinan and Ro moving down a service corridor to Engineering, Alexander
luring a Ferengi out of the medical lab long enough to grab a couple of
hyposprays, and Picard and Keiko using Alexander's remote-controlled car to
sucker a Ferengi out of the transporter room, leaving them time to program
the transporter and get some phasers.
With everything in place, all they need is to gain access to the command
functions; and to do that, they need Riker to understand what's happening.
Picard throws a tantrum at a nearby Ferengi, demanding to see Riker, his
"father". The meeting goes well; although both speak in code, Riker appears
to understand what they need. However, matters are complicated when DaiMon
Lurin threatens Riker with the deaths of all the children unless he
reactivated the computer and instructs Morta, another Ferengi, in its use.
Riker relents, but makes up explanations as he goes, confusing Morta. At the
same time, he secretly gives Picard access to the command functions. The
children move fast, slapping Ferengi right and left with communicators. The
Ferengi, once "tagged", are beamed onto a transporter platform surrounded by
a force field, and with their weapons deactivated. In short order, all but
the two on the bridge are dealt with; and those two prove no difficulty for
Picard and Riker to subdue themselves. With the crisis resolved, the
children return to normal.
There we are; easy enough, right? Now, as usual, on with the show.
As in "Man of the People", I have to say that this was better than I'd been
expecting from the preview, and I can give you three big reasons: David
Tristan Birkin, Isis Jones, and Megan Parlen. These three played the young
Picard, Guinan, and Ro respectively, and all three were effective enough in
their roles to make the show far more amusing and bearable than the plot
would otherwise have allowed.
Birkin, almost surprisingly, might have been the weakest of those three,
though I suspect that's because he's being compared to Stewart in my mind
rather than to Whoopi Goldberg or Michelle Forbes. However, I was impressed
with his work back when he played Rene Picard in "Family", and the two
intervening years have been kind. I found bits of his performance difficult
to take seriously as Picard, but that was the *point*; even Picard himself
acknowledges that he simply isn't particularly believable as a
twelve-year-old captain. Birkin did, however, have no difficulty voicing
points I could easily hear coming from an adult Picard, and that's the key
issue.
Probably the biggest example of that would have to be during the Picard/Troi
exchange in his quarters. Several of the lines he gave struck me as
particularly Picardlike, including his opening riposte ("I'll have to speak
to my tailor, but otherwise I'm well, thank you") and his initial reaction to
what he could do at the Academy in a return trip: "and be Wesley Crusher's
roommmate." I felt a real tinge of "no, definitely not an option" there, and
I *like* Wes; I can only imagine how the Wes-loathing contingent felt about
that. :-)
Both Jones and Parlen were very believable as their adult counterparts as
well, especially Megan Parlen as a young Ro. It probably helps that Ro's
sardonic edge is something familiar to most 12-year-olds, but even so she did
a marvelous job. I quite honestly felt that these *were* the characters
stuck in smaller bodies, rather than kids playing dress-up at home, which is
what I'd been dreading. Sure, there were difficulties here and there; for
one, I think the bed-bouncing scene ran too long by at least a minute.
But for the most part, these two played off each other very well, and proved
that TNG can definitely get good young actors when it really tries. (How
Brian Bonsall fits into this picture is, unfortunately, something I've yet
to fathom.)
Then, unfortunately, we get into the plot setting up all this and running
through it; and here I'm far less impressed. I don't ask for too much from a
plot most of the time, as long as the characterization is sound. But when
I'm crying my disbelief to the screen every couple of minutes, that's gone
too far. Let's take a chronological list:
--Point the first: there is no way anyone could *ever* convince me that a
short leave party would just happen to have Picard, Ro, Keiko, and Guinan on
it, with no one else. So far as we knew before this, Guinan never leaves the
ship; and Keiko has a husband and very young child. I thought to myself
before the show started that they'd need to justify the particular set of
transformations they chose; and I don't buy their justification one bit.
--As a more general point, I find it hard to swallow that an energy field
appears out of nowhere *just* when the shuttle is in it, yet has no
connection to the reason the shuttle's in a hurry. A few coincidences here
and there are okay, but this one's tough to take.
--Little Cliche (aka "Molly") O'Brien is *not* that old, period. "Disaster"
was just over a season ago, thus she should be at the tender age of one. I
had the same complaint about Alexander, but at least with him there was the
vague possibility of claiming Klingons age differently. Molly is _fully
human_.
--"Let's make the crew look like idiots, part one": since we already know
transporter traces were available for these guys (except maybe Guinan), and
since we already know genetic damage can be fixed by the magic of
teleportation, I think Bev should have realized the solution about thirty
seconds after the problem was pointed out; and I know I did.
--An energy field which turns shuttle hulls into styrofoam (virtually)
happens to affect humans *and* plants in such a way as to de-age them? This
deterioration starts by taking away only those genetic sequences which
control physical maturity, in several species at once (plants, humans,
Bajorans, and Guinan's race)? I don't think so.
--"Let's make the crew look like idiots, part two": Let's see, the
Enterprise breaks orbit and prepares to return fire. Next thing we know,
they *still* haven't fired and have been on the receiving end of several more
shots. Sheer tactical wizardry, clearly. (I also find it highly unlikely
that two old Klingon ships, even souped-up, could take on a fully powered and
fully armed Fed flagship.)
--"Let's make the crew look like idiots, part three": I can believe Worf
being blindsided by Admiral Quinn four and a half seasons ago. I can believe
Worf losing many of the battles he's lost in the past. I can believe Worf
being helpless against a Borg invading the bridge. But Worf getting off the
first shot on a *Ferengi*, of all species, and _still_ getting beaten? Not
unless one makes a deliberate effort to call Worf incompetent; and that's a
charge I don't enjoy.
That's it for things I outright couldn't believe, but unfortunately that's
only half the problem. Much of the "children's revenge" I could swallow as
perhaps realistic (though only because the villains were the Ferengi; only
the Pakleds would make easier targets :-) ), but I kept asking myself *why*
any of this was being shown. Who, precisely, was this show designed to
appeal to?
That includes Picard's method of getting to Riker. Yes, it made sense. Yes,
Picard himself found it distasteful. That doesn't alter in the least the
fact that *I* felt absolutely no reason to watch it, and indeed was ready to
switch away if it had gone on too longer. Having the goal of making the
viewers wince is, in general, a very *bad* idea unless it's for a short time
and for a very good reason. This seemed neither.
What it comes down to is that, at the end, I felt like quoting the
now-cliched refrain from countless old afternoon cartoons: "I'd have done
it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids." That may be fine for
"Scooby-Doo", but I'd like to think that TNG strives for a somewhat higher
standard.
As one might imagine, a plot like this lent itself to lots of MST3K-style
taunting (as, strangely enough, have most of the plots this season). Highest
on the agenda, since we *did* watch it early in the week before Election Day,
were lots of Perot/Ferengi jokes. "Daimon Ross!" was heard quite often. :-)
Points also were made about certain legal issues surrounding Keiko and Miles,
but I think I'll just leave them unspoken; I'm sure you can figure them out.
However, the show itself had a few other snappy (or otherwise clever)
bits of dialogue. Although most of them came from Ro, there's one set of
lines which I'm sure was definite, and which had us reacting quite strongly.
Consider: Picard's trying to get help from the kids' computer, and not
getting anywhere. He asks for a schematic, and...
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that."
Now *that* would be frightening enough, given the cinematic precedent. But
then, it's followed by:
"Would you like to play a game?"
I think HAL and Joshua need to get together and sue for breach of copyright.
;-) At any rate, I was amused.
One last bit, this one on direction. Adam Nimoy doesn't seem to have his
father's talent, but he did a good enough job. With only one or two small
exceptions, the show seemed paced pretty well; and there were several
opportunities where he played with camera angles to good effect. (Two
examples would have to be the Riker/Picard scene in the turbolift and
Guinan's/Ro's trip down the ladder to engineering.) Not bad; not bad at all.
I just wish he'd had better material to work with.
At any rate, the show had definite moments, and was certainly better than I
expected. But the biggest question running through my mind was "Why do
this?", and I've yet to come across an answer.
So, the numbers:
Plot: 1. I don't think so.
Plot Handling: 8. Fairly snappy and well paced, though.
Characterization: 6. Above average for the three big stars, and the rest
weren't too bad, although the Ferengi were unpleasant.
TOTAL: 5. I'm giving a lot more of those than I used to; it doesn't bode
well.
NEXT WEEK:
The Wild West comes to the final frontier.
Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET: tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET: tly...@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.ca...@hamlet.caltech.edu
"I believe you're in my chair."
--
Copyright 1992, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
Bill Kyrouz
(and I hoped pleasantly) surprised by "exciting new" episodes
of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But if any of the people
involved with the production of it are reading this newsgroup--
I sincerely ask that you take a hard look at your writing team
and make some serious changes.
This weeks episode, "Rascals", was one of the oldest sci-fi
cliches in the books: I remember seeing "The Superfriends"
episodes with the same plot when I was 6. After five and a half
seasons I find it rather saddening that the quality (and originality)
of an episode has to be so low. I'll concede that the child-actors
were better than "Disaster", and I have no objection to children
playing a role in a story-- what I want is a *story*. Could
you either a) dump the whole writing team and start from scratch, b)
ask around for a prominent sci-fi (or drama) writer to pen an
epsidoe, or c) look into one of the many contributions from fans.
All-holodeck episodes, plots and events strictly confined
to the ONE episode, and "mystery germ eats away at the enterprise"
episodes are beaten to death: I sincerely ask that you get
some new blood on your team at Paramount.
I have no problems with the regulat cast; they put on a fine show (though
I do think Alexander may be an exception-- but nobody's perfect) with
a fine script.
An e-mail reply is welcome. Thank you for your time and good
luck on the rest of the season and on Deep Space Nine.
Sincerely,
Bill Kyrouz
Blanche Cohen
Scott Smay
episode this season that I've really enjoyed. In spite of the truly bad
transporter science and almost traitorously incompetent defense of the ship,
the child crew delivered a great comic book. Easily and sadly the best episode
this season.
cheers,
scott
Mark Lindsay
|One last bit, this one on direction. Adam Nimoy doesn't seem to have his
|father's talent, but he did a good enough job. With only one or two small
|exceptions, the show seemed paced pretty well; and there were several
|opportunities where he played with camera angles to good effect. (Two
|examples would have to be the Riker/Picard scene in the turbolift and
|Guinan's/Ro's trip down the ladder to engineering.) Not bad; not bad at all.
|I just wish he'd had better material to work with.
I disagree. This is after all his first outing, and it was on a weekly
series. Leonard got started on STIII. The opening scene on the bridge
(which was one of the first shot) and some of the immediate ones right
after in STIII still make me cringe. I think Adam has some decent
potential.
|At any rate, the show had definite moments, and was certainly better than I
|expected. But the biggest question running through my mind was "Why do
|this?", and I've yet to come across an answer.
There have to be episodes that make you go "Why" once in a while.
Look at STIV. Here is a movie where the crew violates the time stream
with no regard at all: transparent aluminum, kidney pills, etc. (Please
don't quote the book explanation, I've read it - I'm talking about
the movie.) It's played for laughs, not for serious plot. To me,
the execution is of far greater weight than the plot itself. STV
had a decent plot, and an almost completely horrid execution. It
could have been well done. "Rascals" has a humorous plot and it
was done wonderfully FOR that format. I've found it to be the most
enjoyable so far this season.
i just loved watching Picard rub his head stepping off the transporter,
and the comment about being Wesley's roommate.
* SLMR 2.1a * I doubt any God who inflicts pain for his own pleasure.
R Ross Holder Jr
>I've found [Rascal's] to be the most
>enjoyable [episode] so far this season.
>i just loved watching Picard rub his head stepping off the transporter,
>and the comment about being Wesley's roommate.
This is obviously from someone who is easily entertained. God knows I am
not somone who needs absolute consistency and realism, but an attempt at it
would be nice once in a while. How Riker lost control of the ship so easily
is truly beyond me. Had I been in command, there would have been torpedoes
aplenty and none of this "prepare" to fire nonsense. Further, the shields
buckled just a wee bit too fast - they could handle a prolonged fight with
the Borg before. Now one wonders why they bothered with shields at all.
And don't tell me that they suffered so _much_ damage with their shields down
that they wouldn't fuction anymore; the Enterprise hull certainly isn't made
out of paper.
I found the episode's humor - at best - no better than that of any other
episode and certainly weaker than in the most recent episode with Q.
--
R. Ross Holder, Jr. INTERNET: roh...@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
Department of Philosophy - The University of Manitoba
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER: The views I express are not neccessarily those of the U of Manitoba.
ron c carman
>WARNING: The following post contains spoilers for this week's TNG episode,
>"Rascals". Those not wishing to be exposed to the little rapscallions should
>probably hold off for now.
[...]
>As in "Man of the People", I have to say that this was better than I'd been
>expecting from the preview, and I can give you three big reasons: David
>Tristan Birkin, Isis Jones, and Megan Parlen. These three played the young
>Picard, Guinan, and Ro respectively, and all three were effective enough in
>their roles to make the show far more amusing and bearable than the plot
>would otherwise have allowed.
Well, it certainly could have been worse. I too was impressed by Birkin
from his role in "Family"; he seemed to do slightly less well in this
episode, but I think that can be written off to trying to fill some *very*
large shoes.. :-).
Ms. Parlen did an outstanding job of protraying Ro, IMO; I was suitably
impressed. Something about Isis Jones' voice was quite hard to get used
to for me, and detracted from the first few minutes of her performance,
but after a while one becomes acclimated. Thereafter, she seemed more
than adequate to the task..
While we're on the subject of the child-officers, I think due credit
must be given to the writes in one respect. The lines for each of the
four were perfectly in character, especially with regard to Picard.
I could *easily* hear and picture Stewart's voice coming from the body
of David Tristan Birkin... now if we could just teach them to write
better plots... ;-)
>But for the most part, these two played off each other very well, and proved
>that TNG can definitely get good young actors when it really tries. (How
>Brian Bonsall fits into this picture is, unfortunately, something I've yet
>to fathom.)
Possibly as an attempt at comic relief? :)
>--Point the first: there is no way anyone could *ever* convince me that a
>short leave party would just happen to have Picard, Ro, Keiko, and Guinan on
>it, with no one else. So far as we knew before this, Guinan never leaves the
>ship; and Keiko has a husband and very young child. I thought to myself
>before the show started that they'd need to justify the particular set of
>transformations they chose; and I don't buy their justification one bit.
I didn't have much problem with this (possibly because it never ocurred
to me until I read it in your post); but to me this is a minor point,
considering how swiss-cheesed the rest of the plot was.
>--As a more general point, I find it hard to swallow that an energy field
>appears out of nowhere *just* when the shuttle is in it, yet has no
>connection to the reason the shuttle's in a hurry. A few coincidences here
>and there are okay, but this one's tough to take.
How do you know the field didn't exist before the shuttle passed that way?
It could be an uncatalogued phenomenon, which is undetectable until you
fall into it...
>--Little Cliche (aka "Molly") O'Brien is *not* that old, period. "Disaster"
>was just over a season ago, thus she should be at the tender age of one. I
>had the same complaint about Alexander, but at least with him there was the
>vague possibility of claiming Klingons age differently. Molly is _fully
>human_.
Yep, this is the first *major* problem I had with this one. This is
just *not* possible, and I kind of got the feeling it was begin used
only as a plot device.. (i.e. You're not mommy, I want mommy..).
Give me a break...
>--"Let's make the crew look like idiots, part one": since we already know
>transporter traces were available for these guys (except maybe Guinan), and
>since we already know genetic damage can be fixed by the magic of
>teleportation, I think Bev should have realized the solution about thirty
>seconds after the problem was pointed out; and I know I did.
After all, we've already had two other episodes involving transporters
during this season *alone*... not a major sticking point for me, but
now that I notice it, it is a bit like the sand in your shoes after a
walk on the beach.
>--An energy field which turns shuttle hulls into styrofoam (virtually)
>happens to affect humans *and* plants in such a way as to de-age them? This
>deterioration starts by taking away only those genetic sequences which
>control physical maturity, in several species at once (plants, humans,
>Bajorans, and Guinan's race)? I don't think so.
This was the second major problem I saw. If that energy field
could turn the 24th century's equivalent of solid steel (duranium?)
into a substance you can crush in your hand, there's just no way
a human could survive it...
>--"Let's make the crew look like idiots, part two": Let's see, the
>Enterprise breaks orbit and prepares to return fire. Next thing we know,
>they *still* haven't fired and have been on the receiving end of several more
>shots. Sheer tactical wizardry, clearly. (I also find it highly unlikely
>that two old Klingon ships, even souped-up, could take on a fully powered and
>fully armed Fed flagship.)
Actually, I think we should call this section "
"Let's make the *writers* look like idiots"
This is, IMHO, the biggest problem with the entire episode.
Do the writers actually expect us to believe that the same
Galaxy-class starship which maintained its shields and its
life-support through and extended encounter with a *Borg cube*
could be disabled in a matter of moments by two Klingon
cruisers crewed by *Ferengi*?????
>--"Let's make the crew look like idiots [writers], part three":
> But Worf getting off the
>first shot on a *Ferengi*, of all species, and _still_ getting beaten? Not
>unless one makes a deliberate effort to call Worf incompetent; and that's a
>charge I don't enjoy.
This was the last major sticking point for me (and it's a big one).
What is unbelievable to me is that Worf could get off the first shot
and *miss*! It just seems totally implausible. And did anyone else
notice that the Ferengi in question seemed to *dodge* the phaser blast?
If this wasn't just a trick my mind played on me, that's another point
to add to your list of plot-holes.
>That includes Picard's method of getting to Riker. Yes, it made sense. Yes,
>Picard himself found it distasteful. That doesn't alter in the least the
>fact that *I* felt absolutely no reason to watch it, and indeed was ready to
>switch away if it had gone on too longer. Having the goal of making the
>viewers wince is, in general, a very *bad* idea unless it's for a short time
>and for a very good reason. This seemed neither.
I think the principle to apply here is "virtually anything in moderation
is acceptable and/or enjoyable". The scene of Picard throwing a tantrum
was good. The scene of Picard hugging Riker when he first enters the
conference lounge is necessary. But Picard and Riker embracing just before
Picard returns to the school-room was pushing things just a bit too far...
That last bit did indeed make me wince.
>However, the show itself had a few other snappy (or otherwise clever)
>bits of dialogue. Although most of them came from Ro, there's one set of
>lines which I'm sure was definite, and which had us reacting quite strongly.
Yes, the writers must've spent their entire time on dialog, and none
on plot, because the dialogue was better than I've seen in some time (with
the exception of Troi's last few lines before she exits Picard's quarters).
My personal favorite:
"That's the great thing about crayons.
They can take you lots of places a starship can't."
>At any rate, the show had definite moments, and was certainly better than I
>expected. But the biggest question running through my mind was "Why do
>this?", and I've yet to come across an answer.
A cute piece of fluff, with some sharp dialogue, and not much else.
Too bad.
>So, the numbers:
>TOTAL: 5. I'm giving a lot more of those than I used to; it doesn't bode
>well.
That sounds about right.
>NEXT WEEK:
>The Wild West comes to the final frontier.
Yet another episode which *could* turn out to be a real stinker.
Too bad we don't have any Saurian brandy to dull the ache... ;-)
RC Carman
--
/=======================================================================\
| Ron C. Carman || Quantum physicists get all the girls. |
| rcca...@mik.uky.edu || Al. Is he live, or is he a hologram? |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~