Lynch's Spoiler Review: "Final Mission"
Timothy W. Lynch
week's TNG episode, "Final Mission". Those not wishing advance knowledge of
the show should therefore tread lightly.
One-line thought: Not the best thing they've ever done, but pretty good.
As I said above (boy, this new method'll get redundant...boy, this new
method'll get redundant...:-) ), this was pretty good. It by no means was
another "Reunion" or "Brothers", but I rather enjoyed it.
More on that, after this synopsis: (for those keeping count, the synop this
week is 53 lines long)
As Picard prepares to leave to arbitrate a miners' dispute on Pentarus 5, he
informs Wes that he's just gotten into the Academy--and he'd like Wes to
accompany him to the mediation as a final mission. An emergency call comes in
to the ship from Songi, head of Gamilon 5--a ship has entered orbit, hasn't
answered hails, and has increased radiation levels planetwide. The Enterprise
warps off to help them, as Picard and Wes leave with Captain Dirgo in his
mining shuttle.
However, before they reach the planet, one of the shuttle thrusters blows off,
and the ship careens out of control. With no other workable options, they
crash-land on a moon of Pentarus 3 which can support life (just). The three of
them are all right, but the communications system is destroyed, along with the
replicator--and Dirgo has no emergency food or water.
The Enterprise arrives at Gamilon and discovers the ship is an abandoned
garbage scow carrying radioactive waste--they promise to tow it out. Riker
decides to send it into Gamilon's sun, but takes Geordi's advice to use
remote construction modules rather than a tractor beam (so as to minimize
radiation dosages on board the Enterprise). When they receive word from
Pentarus 5 that the shuttle hasn't arrived yet, they get working on the scow
as fast as possible.
Meanwhile, Picard, Wes, and Dirgo head for the mountains, despite signs from
Wes's tricorder of strange energy readings, possibly life, and eventually find
a cave. The Enterprise crew quickly find the construction modules don't work,
as one of them blows itself off the ship, causing a further leak. To avoid
danger to the planet, Riker orders shields extended around the scow and the
tractor beam set, and they begin towing. Wes and the others, in the meantime,
find a fountain of water--but are repelled from getting to it by a force-field.
Dirgo tries to shoot through it, but a mysterious energy-shape knocks away his
phaser and causes a rockslide. Picard manages to push Wes clear of the slide,
but is caught in it himself.
He's hurt badly, but despite Dirgo's insistence that Picard will never survive,
Wes tries to keep him alive. As the Enterprise tries to find a way to speed up
and still keep the tractor beam stable (so as to avoid fatalities), Wes starts
studying the "sentry"'s energy readings. He only gets as far as telling Dirgo
that it must be sensitive to something in the phaser before Dirgo railroads him
into setting off two phasers at once, so that one of them can cut through the
field. The plan fails, and Dirgo is killed.
While Wes tells Picard about Dirgo and talks with him about the good fortune
he's had to serve with Picard, the Enterprise manages to get the scow clear of
the asteroid belt (the reason they couldn't just push the ship towards the sun)
just in time, and leaves to join the search for the shuttle. Wes tells Picard
that everything he's done, he's done to make Picard proud of him, and resolves
to find a way to keep Picard alive until help comes no matter what.
As the Enterprise finds the debris of the destroyed thruster and heads for the
moon as the best option, Wes manages to stop the sentry and get the water,
which he then gives to Picard. Some time later, the Enterprise arrives and
rescues the two. As Picard is taken from the cave, he tells Wesley he will be
missed.
There, now--short and sweet. On to commentary.
One of the best words to describe this show, I think, is "standard". It didn't
break much in the way of new ground...it didn't reveal much new insight into
the characters...and it didn't hold you on the edge of your seat. It was a
pretty standard show. But as such, it was a _good_ standard show.
Several things helped this along. The first was Nick Tate. Never having seen
"Space: 1999" if I could help it, I have no idea if he was any good in that
show or not, but he did a fine job as Dirgo. Dirgo was everything he was made
out to be--a rash, impetuous, stubborn man, with his own set of principles and
his own way of life. (Sort of like a darker version of Captain Okona, I
think.) I could quite easily understand how he managed to railroad Wes into
the disastrous act which caused Dirgo's death--Dirgo is very strong-willed,
and Wes clearly still has a ways to go before he's good at command (which is
fine with me...the events of "Pen Pals" helped his confidence, but confidence
like that only comes with time and experience, methinks).
The other BIG highlight of the show for me was the series of conversations
between Picard and Wes. When Wil Wheaton tries to show the serious side of
Wes, he seems to be at his best when playing off Stewart. (When I think about
it, that could be either a surprise or not...it is if one thinks that Stewart
is so good that everyone around him looks rotten by comparison, but it isn't
if Stewart not only turns in a good performance, but frequently manages to
inspire them in others. It probably varies from person to person, but I can
believe that the second holds true in this case with no problem.) The obvious
reminder of the shuttle trip in "Samaritan Snare" (which, in my opinion, was
the only redeeming feature of that particular show) was made and built upon.
While I think Wheaton went a little overboard at times (like his little speech
about how he did everything to make Picard proud, which didn't quite ring
true for me), I liked most of it. Well done.
Some quick examples of P/W exchanges I liked a lot:
--"Oh, I envy you, Wesley Crusher--you're just at the beginning of the
adventure." It looks really dumb on...er...paper :-), but Stewart had just
enough of a quaver in his voice to really tug at the heartstrings.
--The whole exchange about Boothby, someone at the Academy whom Jean-Luc
befriended and whom he suggests Wes look up. ("What does he teach?" "He's the
groundskeeper...and one of the wisest men I ever met.") Interesting that one
of Jean-Luc's better soulmates at the Academy held a job similar to the one he
left behind in his village...
--"Ensign, what are you doing in such a filthy uniform?"
--And, of course, the closing line: "Wesley--you will be missed." Yes, you
could hear the fourth wall breaking for miles...but I liked it, and I for one
*will* miss him.
Those were the two main good points...but since they comprised about 75% of the
show, I'm happy with it. Some of the not-so-good points:
I'm quite glad they didn't do anything more with the Garbage Scow from Hell
plot, because I thought it was really a waste of time. (Fortunately, they
didn't try to drive home any Big Message [TM] with the radioactive waste, which
combined with reading _Exiles_ would have been too much for my heavy symbolism
gland to process. :-) ) I realize they needed some reason for the Enterprise
not to be able to leave immediately for Pentarus, but they could've just been
further away or something. They unfortunately decided to reuse the one thing
I really didn't like much about "Booby Trap", too--the "--- minutes to lethal
radiation levels" bit, as though it were a constant for the entire crew. It
wasn't horrible, but it was a waste. I'd much rather have seen more of the
Picard/Wes/Dirgo interaction.
That's actually the only big bad point...not too shabby. Some other random
comments:
--GAMILON 5? Boy, even an anime layman like me gets that reference...no
_wonder_ the planet was having radiation problems. :-) (For those not in the
know, Gamilon was the name of the "bad-guy" planet in the first season of
"Star Blazers".) Okuda and Sternbach strike again! :-)
--As the Enterprise first enters Gamilon orbit and encounters the scow, there's
a nice shot of the Enterprise--not a perspective we see very often. Watch for
it.
--Okay, so the rockslide sequence was the weensiest bit hokey...but as a long-
time reader of the "Amazing Spider-Man" comic, I had images of the late,
lamented Capt. George Stacy running through my brain during the scene, so it
worked for me. (If you haven't the slightest idea what I'm talking about,
don't worry...I very much doubt you're alone. ;-) )
--Near the end of the show, Picard starts singing to himself in French, pre-
sumably to stay conscious. Nice touch...and I think that was the same song he
and Robert were singing after the fight in "Family". I'm starting to wonder if
Stewart's planning on a singing career later in life...
--Like I said, I thought the whole bit with Wes insisting that he did every-
thing just to make Picard proud of him was stretching things a bit--but hey,
when you're a nineteen-year-old male, saying overblown things like that is
par for the course, right?
--I liked the music down planetside. Just a thought.
--Obligatory woman-watching note: I like the look of Wes's replacement...very,
very cute. (Lisa, you didn't read that...:-) )
--Obligatory DUNE joke: I hope I wasn't the only one who thought, when the
three crashees were about to head off across the desert to the mountains, to
yell out "Walk without rhythm, or you'll bring a worm down on you!" :-)
Well, I think that's about what I came here to say. So I'll quit while I
can. But first, the numbers:
Plot: 8. Basic and unadventurous, but solid.
Plot Handling: 9. Nice.
Characterization: 9. Would've been a 10 except for Wheaton's few out-of-
control bits.
Technical: 8. I didn't like the Scow from Hell bits (except for the one
shot I mentioned), but the force-field around the water was very
pretty, and the music helped a bit too.
TOTAL: 8.5. Wow...that's better than I expected coming in.
Well, as I finish writing this, it's already Thursday in three out of four US
time zones, so Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
S'long, Wes. May you come back from time to time.
NEXT WEEK: A rerun of BOBW2.
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
"Wesley...you will be missed."
--J.L. Picard
--
Copyright 1990, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
Jason Snell
okay.
Simplistic Synopsis:
Picard and Wesley are on a shuttle that crashes on a desolate moon.
The Enterprise is called away on a mission to save a planet from
being irradiated by a drone ship carrying radioactive waste. Picard
gets hurt. Wesley saves him. The E saves the planet and comes and saves
Picard and Wesley. Wesley's supposedly heading off for starfleet academy.
There wasn't anything especially WRONG with this one in comparison with
other episodes... there just wasn't much of any really high value.
Positives first...
* Stewart's acting, as always. His half of the discussion with Wesley were
really well done, especially when Picard's seriously injured and it looks
like he's going to die. Wheaton was pretty bad at times, but at other
times he did a decent job.
* Special effects. Every episode we're getting three or four new
opticals, it seems. Incredible shots of the enterprise. Decent shots of
the shuttlecraft/planets. Neat forcefield around the water.
* Location shooting. I can't say enough about this. "Planet Hell" is
extremely boring -- great or not, gigantic or not, it still looks fake.
Going on location helps this show immensely. Seeing "Picard of Arabia"
was kind of fun.
* The plot with the toxic ship. It didn't seem stretched out any longer
than it had to be. It was very tight-- maybe TOO tight. I might have
liked to see it explained a little bit more. In fact, I was more
interested in this plot than in the shuttle plot. True, there were
quite a few cliches in this thing-- the countdown to death, the "oh,
we've got to leave an away team because of some danger elsewhere"
contrivance, the asteroid field... but they managed to do it in a much
more interesting way than other episodes ("Schizoid Man" is a good
example). It felt like more than just a sort of "escape clause" to get
rid of the big E. It felt like it had a point to it, I guess. Nice touch.
* New music. Not the greatest, but, hell, at least it was somewhat
different. This show needs a good composer.
* The last scene. Nice to see Bev in the foreground with Data and Worf
out-of-focus in the background. We don't need to see them searching...
they're right behind the doctor. And Picard's last exchange with Wesley
was very nice.
negatives:
- The "I did it all to be proud of you, I'm going to save you" speech by
Wesley was poorly written and poorly acted by Wheaton. Boos all around.
- The idea that there would be "some class M moon closer" seems ridiculous
to me. First, wouldn't Picard know the composition of the star system they
were in, such as location of moons and whether they were inhabited or not?
- The fact that they were so close to the moon. It was as if they were right
over it and said "Oh, let's land HERE!"... I guess the idea of distance in
space bothers me. Space is big, dammit, and it felt like we were talking
as if Picard and Wesley were in an airplane. This wasn't "Flight of the
Phoenix"...
- The guy who played the pilot. Dumb character, poorly done. He was useless.
Wesley didn't even curb the guy as Picard told him to. Then he gets covered
with netting-- and do we care? Not really. All the guy did, after all, was
mess up the shuttle so it crashed and then complain about his booze.
Really.
- Where the hell did the forcefield and water come from, anyway?
- On a desolate planet, it's always nice to have a showy little fountain
to let the water evaporate. Oh, please.
Blah. Big deal. It was nice to see the crew acting in a businesslike
manner in dealing with trouble-- nice problem-solving adventure there. And
it was nice to hear Picard say that he always felt proud of Wesley-- nice
character interaction there. I didn't really buy all of Wesley's "I just did
this to make you proud of me" speech... I've always figured that Wesley has
wanted to excel because he wants to be like Captain Picard, not because he
wants Picard to be proud of him. A little difference, but an important one,
I think. Picard is Wesley's surrogate father, basically. This was a chance
for Wesley to really come off well, and I'm afraid that he didn't. I really
wanted him to-- I have no big hatred toward the character. But it didn't
work. I blame the writers more than Wheaton on this one.
All in all, a visually interesting episode, but nothing spectacular on
any real level. Still, it was refreshing in that it had nothing to do with
any past episodes. Season four has been worrying me because it has been
mucking around in the series' past too much... this one did have the
positive trait of trying to do something that hasn't really been done on
ST:TNG before. I'm thankful for that, at least.
Final Grade: B-
Season-to-date:
BOBW II............B+
Family.............A
Brothers...........B-
Suddenly Human.....C
Remember Me........B
Legacy.............C+
Reunion............A
Future Imperfect...A
Final Mission......B-
NEXT WEEK: Repeats, those weasels. It's BOBW2.
--
Jason Snell / jsn...@ucsd.edu / University of California, San Diego
"Fire BAD! Bread good!" -- Frankenstein
Smith
>WARNING: The following article contains spoiler information relevant to this
>the show should therefore tread lightly.
>
>--Near the end of the show, Picard starts singing to himself in French, pre-
>sumably to stay conscious. Nice touch...and I think that was the same song he
>and Robert were singing after the fight in "Family". I'm starting to wonder if
>Stewart's planning on a singing career later in life...
>
(TNG night here in Boston) to see if it's the same. The "Family"
song was "Aupres de ma blonde," and I thought it was kind of cute
that J-L & R did not sing most of the words, just da-da-da'd through
the tune. The words (at least the version I've heard) aren't that
bad for prime time!
Michael Rawdon
Spoilers for "Final Mission"...
>
>As I said above (boy, this new method'll get redundant...boy, this new
>method'll get redundant...:-) ), this was pretty good. It by no means was
>another "Reunion" or "Brothers", but I rather enjoyed it.
Hah! I assume you've noticed that I felt it is almost PRECISELY another
"Brothers" or "Reunion" in terms of quality. Sheesh! :-)
>One of the best words to describe this show, I think, is "standard". It didn't
>break much in the way of new ground...it didn't reveal much new insight into
>the characters...and it didn't hold you on the edge of your seat. It was a
>pretty standard show. But as such, it was a _good_ standard show.
I'll buy that.
>Several things helped this along. The first was Nick Tate. Never having seen
>"Space: 1999" if I could help it, I have no idea if he was any good in that
>show or not, but he did a fine job as Dirgo. Dirgo was everything he was made
>out to be--a rash, impetuous, stubborn man, with his own set of principles and
>his own way of life. (Sort of like a darker version of Captain Okona, I
>think.)
I'm pretty sure that Nick Tate's Space: 1999 character (Alan Carter) was
designed to basically be a counterpart to Scotty. He was later joined by
a similar character named Tony Verdeschi. Basically, both of them had
strong accents, and both were the happy-go-lucky sort of people. Alan was
rather stubborn, too, actually.
>The other BIG highlight of the show for me was the series of conversations
>between Picard and Wes. When Wil Wheaton tries to show the serious side of
>Wes, he seems to be at his best when playing off Stewart.
I usually just like him showing off the "mature" side of Wes, getting away
from all the techie talk and not being intimidated by his superior officers.
>Some quick examples of P/W exchanges I liked a lot:
>--"Oh, I envy you, Wesley Crusher--you're just at the beginning of the
>adventure." It looks really dumb on...er...paper :-), but Stewart had just
>enough of a quaver in his voice to really tug at the heartstrings.
Eh, this was just about the only part of the exchange I *didn't* care for.
It seemed kind of pointless to insert into the dialogue.
>--The whole exchange about Boothby, someone at the Academy whom Jean-Luc
>befriended and whom he suggests Wes look up. ("What does he teach?" "He's the
>groundskeeper...and one of the wisest men I ever met.") Interesting that one
>of Jean-Luc's better soulmates at the Academy held a job similar to the one he
>left behind in his village...
This was probably my favorite bit of the exchanges.
>--"Ensign, what are you doing in such a filthy uniform?"
Wesley's rejoinder was pretty cool, too!
>I'm quite glad they didn't do anything more with the Garbage Scow from Hell
>plot, because I thought it was really a waste of time.
Yeah! Possibly the biggest fuck-up the series has ever seen!
> I'd much rather have seen more of the
>Picard/Wes/Dirgo interaction.
Bingo!
>--Like I said, I thought the whole bit with Wes insisting that he did every-
>thing just to make Picard proud of him was stretching things a bit--but hey,
>when you're a nineteen-year-old male, saying overblown things like that is
>par for the course, right?
Isn't Wes eighteen? Just a nit...
>--I liked the music down planetside. Just a thought.
Me too, actually. The whole trek across the desert was one of the high points
of the show, for me, in every way.
>TOTAL: 8.5. Wow...that's better than I expected coming in.
I think I'd give it about a 7.5, maybe an 8, but that's still pretty good.
I basically think I loathed the garbage scow thing a LOT more than you did.
I really hated it.
So how many episodes does this make that we fundamentally agreed on?
--
Michael Rawdon
Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana
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Disclaimer: Opinions mine, typos and grammar errors someone else's.
Timothy W. Lynch
>In <1990Nov22.0...@nntp-server.caltech.edu> tly...@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
Spoilers for "Final Mission"...
>>
>>As I said above (boy, this new method'll get redundant...boy, this new
>>method'll get redundant...:-) ), this was pretty good. It by no means was
>>another "Reunion" or "Brothers", but I rather enjoyed it.
>Hah! I assume you've noticed that I felt it is almost PRECISELY another
>"Brothers" or "Reunion" in terms of quality. Sheesh! :-)
I have now, yep--but that's due to disagreements about them, not about this
one, I think.
>I'm pretty sure that Nick Tate's Space: 1999 character (Alan Carter) was
>designed to basically be a counterpart to Scotty. He was later joined by
>a similar character named Tony Verdeschi. Basically, both of them had
>strong accents, and both were the happy-go-lucky sort of people. Alan was
>rather stubborn, too, actually.
But was he any good in the role?
>>The other BIG highlight of the show for me was the series of conversations
>>between Picard and Wes. When Wil Wheaton tries to show the serious side of
>>Wes, he seems to be at his best when playing off Stewart.
>I usually just like him showing off the "mature" side of Wes, getting away
>from all the techie talk and not being intimidated by his superior officers.
True--but this nearly always happens most when he's with Jean-Luc.
>>Some quick examples of P/W exchanges I liked a lot:
>>--"Oh, I envy you, Wesley Crusher--you're just at the beginning of the
>>adventure." It looks really dumb on...er...paper :-), but Stewart had just
>>enough of a quaver in his voice to really tug at the heartstrings.
>Eh, this was just about the only part of the exchange I *didn't* care for.
>It seemed kind of pointless to insert into the dialogue.
I didn't think so--not if you're Picard, thinking you may be about to die, and
knowing that even if you live, you won't see Wes much longer anyway. It's
times like those that you save all those hokey lines FOR...
>>--The whole exchange about Boothby, someone at the Academy whom Jean-Luc
>>befriended and whom he suggests Wes look up. ("What does he teach?" "He's the
>>groundskeeper...and one of the wisest men I ever met.")
>This was probably my favorite bit of the exchanges.
Mine as well.
>>--"Ensign, what are you doing in such a filthy uniform?"
>Wesley's rejoinder was pretty cool, too!
True, but it wasn't delivered quite as well. Picard's unexpected lines like
that (the other one coming to mind being the close of "The Arsenal of Freedom",
with "Mr. LaForge, when I left you this ship it was in one piece..." :-) )
always work well for me.
>>I'm quite glad they didn't do anything more with the Garbage Scow from Hell
>>plot, because I thought it was really a waste of time.
>Yeah! Possibly the biggest fuck-up the series has ever seen!
As I said elsewhere, I think that's stretching it a point. It was dull and
pointless and unnecessary, but so were some other plotlines which extended over
whole EPISODES...
>>--Like I said, I thought the whole bit with Wes insisting that he did every-
>>thing just to make Picard proud of him was stretching things a bit--but hey,
>>when you're a nineteen-year-old male, saying overblown things like that is
>>par for the course, right?
>Isn't Wes eighteen? Just a nit...
Depends on when his birthday is, but you're probably right. But if he's
eighteen, that makes the above point even MORE valid...:-)
>>--I liked the music down planetside. Just a thought.
>Me too, actually. The whole trek across the desert was one of the high points
>of the show, for me, in every way.
"Jean-Luc of Arabia"...
>>TOTAL: 8.5. Wow...that's better than I expected coming in.
>I think I'd give it about a 7.5, maybe an 8, but that's still pretty good.
>I basically think I loathed the garbage scow thing a LOT more than you did.
>I really hated it.
Apparently. I didn't care for it a bit, but since it wasn't dwelt upon much,
I didn't hit it too much.
>So how many episodes does this make that we fundamentally agreed on?
Eight--from "Family" on. And I honestly expected coming out of this one that
you were going to loathe it. If I didn't know better, I'd accuse you of
reading my review ahead of time and gauging your response accordingly...:-)
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
"What is this, Wonka? Some kind of fun-house?"
"Why, having fun?"
Michael Rawdon
>Spoilers....
>Positives first...
>* Location shooting. I can't say enough about this. "Planet Hell" is
> extremely boring -- great or not, gigantic or not, it still looks fake.
> Going on location helps this show immensely. Seeing "Picard of Arabia"
> was kind of fun.
Umm, since this is under your "positives" list, does this mean that the
planet WAS a location shot, or was NOT? It certainly looked EXTREMELY
realistic to me, regardless of HOW they did it. Possibly the best background
TNG has EVER had.
>* The plot with the toxic ship. It didn't seem stretched out any longer
> than it had to be. It was very tight-- maybe TOO tight.
I found it anything BUT tight. Not only did they not make any attempt to
cover up the colossal holes in the plot, but they didn't even show any
indication that they knew HOW! Gaah!
> I might have
> liked to see it explained a little bit more. In fact, I was more
> interested in this plot than in the shuttle plot.
Eep! *I* felt they should have almost completely excised this plot from the
episode and concentrated on the shuttle plot!
> True, there were
> quite a few cliches in this thing-- the countdown to death, the "oh,
> we've got to leave an away team because of some danger elsewhere"
> contrivance, the asteroid field... but they managed to do it in a much
> more interesting way than other episodes ("Schizoid Man" is a good
> example). It felt like more than just a sort of "escape clause" to get
> rid of the big E. It felt like it had a point to it, I guess. Nice touch.
I don't think an "interesting" way was called for here. Just get the ship
away and be done with it.
Incidentally, I think the TOS episode "That Which Survives" did about the
best job of any Trek episode in getting the ship away from where the
danger was - by having said danger send it away! The primary advantage
to this method is that they don't have to go through the old cliches of
the crew agonizing over whether they should return to the landing party or
not; they're trying, but they can only do so much!
>* New music. Not the greatest, but, hell, at least it was somewhat
> different. This show needs a good composer.
They certainly do. I wonder if Alexander Courage is still alive?
>negatives:
>- The "I did it all to be proud of you, I'm going to save you" speech by
> Wesley was poorly written and poorly acted by Wheaton. Boos all around.
Oh, I dunno. I felt it was okay. Certainly not half as bad as his
episode-opening dialogue with Picard.
>- The idea that there would be "some class M moon closer" seems ridiculous
> to me. First, wouldn't Picard know the composition of the star system they
> were in, such as location of moons and whether they were inhabited or not?
Picard might have known the make-up of the star system, but it takes a little
while for him to get his bearings as to just where the shuttle is in relation
to those planets, and it's easier for him to have Wesley look it up on the
scanners/computer. Besides, when you have to set down FAST, you can't be
picky about where you can put down.
>- The fact that they were so close to the moon. It was as if they were right
> over it and said "Oh, let's land HERE!"... I guess the idea of distance in
> space bothers me. Space is big, dammit, and it felt like we were talking
> as if Picard and Wesley were in an airplane. This wasn't "Flight of the
> Phoenix"...
I got the impression that they were worried about something ELSE blowing.
If their other engine had given out, they would have been truly screwed,
what with the lack of air friction in space and all.
>- The guy who played the pilot. Dumb character, poorly done. He was useless.
> Wesley didn't even curb the guy as Picard told him to. Then he gets covered
> with netting-- and do we care? Not really. All the guy did, after all, was
> mess up the shuttle so it crashed and then complain about his booze.
I disagree. I felt Dirgo was an interesting character played wonderfully
by Nick Tate. I cared about his death a little. A sort of "not even he
deserved that" sort of reaction. I felt he was well portrayed.
>- Where the hell did the forcefield and water come from, anyway?
I wondered that too. It would have been good if they could have handled it,
but it wasn't all that important.
Michael Rawdon
>raw...@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Michael Rawdon) writes:
>>In <1990Nov22.0...@nntp-server.caltech.edu> tly...@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>Spoilers for "Final Mission"...
>>designed to basically be a counterpart to Scotty. He was later joined by
>>a similar character named Tony Verdeschi. Basically, both of them had
>>strong accents, and both were the happy-go-lucky sort of people. Alan was
>>rather stubborn, too, actually.
>But was he any good in the role?
Yeah, he was pretty good. Except for Barbara Bain, I never had any great
problems with the acting on the show (well, okay, Landau went over-the-top
at times).
>>>--"Oh, I envy you, Wesley Crusher--you're just at the beginning of the
>>>adventure." It looks really dumb on...er...paper :-), but Stewart had just
>>>enough of a quaver in his voice to really tug at the heartstrings.
>>Eh, this was just about the only part of the exchange I *didn't* care for.
>>It seemed kind of pointless to insert into the dialogue.
>I didn't think so--not if you're Picard, thinking you may be about to die, and
>knowing that even if you live, you won't see Wes much longer anyway. It's
>times like those that you save all those hokey lines FOR...
I guess. I don't think I have any hokey lines waiting around in ME for
when I'm on my deathbed, though... :-)
>>>--"Ensign, what are you doing in such a filthy uniform?"
>>Wesley's rejoinder was pretty cool, too!
>True, but it wasn't delivered quite as well. Picard's unexpected lines like
>that (the other one coming to mind being the close of "The Arsenal of Freedom",
>with "Mr. LaForge, when I left you this ship it was in one piece..." :-) )
>always work well for me.
Hmm, I really disliked the line at the end of "Arsenal". It seemed like
Picard was coming down on LaForge just when Geordi had managed to triumph.
I wanted to see someone slap Picard right about then.
>>>--Like I said, I thought the whole bit with Wes insisting that he did every-
>>>thing just to make Picard proud of him was stretching things a bit--but hey,
>>>when you're a nineteen-year-old male, saying overblown things like that is
>>>par for the course, right?
>>Isn't Wes eighteen? Just a nit...
>Depends on when his birthday is, but you're probably right. But if he's
>eighteen, that makes the above point even MORE valid...:-)
Actually, I think it was mentioned earlier this season (maybe in "Remember
Me"?) that he's eighteen.
Timothy W. Lynch
>In <1990Nov23.0...@nntp-server.caltech.edu> tly...@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>raw...@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Michael Rawdon) writes:
>>>In <1990Nov22.0...@nntp-server.caltech.edu> tly...@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>Spoilers for "Final Mission"...
>>>>adventure." It looks really dumb on...er...paper :-), but Stewart had just
>>>>enough of a quaver in his voice to really tug at the heartstrings.
>>>Eh, this was just about the only part of the exchange I *didn't* care for.
>>>It seemed kind of pointless to insert into the dialogue.
>>I didn't think so--not if you're Picard, thinking you may be about to die,
>>and knowing that even if you live, you won't see Wes much longer anyway. It's
>>times like those that you save all those hokey lines FOR...
>I guess. I don't think I have any hokey lines waiting around in ME for
>when I'm on my deathbed, though... :-)
Neither are you French. That may be the difference. :-)
>>>>--"Ensign, what are you doing in such a filthy uniform?"
>>>Wesley's rejoinder was pretty cool, too!
>>True, but it wasn't delivered quite as well. Picard's unexpected lines like
>>that (the other one coming to mind being the close of "The Arsenal of
>>Freedom",
>>with "Mr. LaForge, when I left you this ship it was in one piece..." :-) )
>>always work well for me.
>Hmm, I really disliked the line at the end of "Arsenal". It seemed like
>Picard was coming down on LaForge just when Geordi had managed to triumph.
>I wanted to see someone slap Picard right about then.
Boy, we didn't read that line the same way. Picard was using the line as a
way to let Geordi keep command for a little while, that's all. I saw no
evidence that he, Riker, OR Geordi saw it as coming down--why would Geordi
smile so much if it was?
>>>Isn't Wes eighteen? Just a nit...
>>Depends on when his birthday is, but you're probably right. But if he's
>>eighteen, that makes the above point even MORE valid...:-)
>Actually, I think it was mentioned earlier this season (maybe in "Remember
>Me"?) that he's eighteen.
In "Family", Bev says that Wes can see Jack's message now that he's eighteen--
but we don't know how long ago that was. I suspect it was around the time he
gained full Ensignship.
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
"Paul? Did you really build an atomic bomb?"
"Only a little one."
dr...@drake.almaden.ibm.com
Spoilers
I have to say ...
That was the WORST episode of TNG that I've ever sat through! Let's
get this straight:
1. They crash land ... without seatbelts, and without injury. Check.
2. They find more "strange energy emanations ... of a type I've never
seen before". Wow, what a shock.
3. They find a magic fountain ... never explained, no curiosity ever
expressed by ANY character about why it's there, who put it there,
etc. No explanation revealed, either ... it's just dropped.
4. Picard saves Wesley from the rocks, then takes the rocks himself, and
despite all the "last words" babbling going on Wes never says "thank you".
5. The Garbage Scow plot was lame, lame, lame. To wit:
A. The Countdown to Death. Oh, good, they were 5 seconds away
from a lethal dose of radiation. No symptoms at all! Great!
Is the ship now radioactive, or do we just ignore that?
B. It took them over 30 minutes at 1/2 impulse power to get that
Scow near the sun. But the planet it had been circling was
class M. Just how slow IS 1/2 impulse power, anyway?
C. The idea that a ship in orbit (not a big ship, either) could
be so radioactive as to cause injuries on the ground yet not
be at all odd looking from orbit is, uh, mysterious. Shouldn't
it be glowing a little, at least?
D. Are asteroid belts stable in close to stars? I note that ours
is safely beyond class M range.
E. And of course the obvious answer: 1/2 impulse for 15 minutes
at right angles to the ecliptic, then THROW the thing. Misses
all the asteroids, which were clearly seen to be arranged in a
single plane. More 2-D thinking, typical of both series.
6. The PAINFUL Wes / Picard love scenes. Ooh, I was writhing in agony.
I kept thinking of Stewart's response to an interviewers question,
"Would you like to do comedy some day?" Stewart: "What do you think
I'm doing now?" Aaugh. That and images of the Sammy Maudlin show.
7. The solution to the fountain puzzle. Typical, lame. The tricorder
is indeed a wonderful Deus Ex Machina; you can make
it do ANYTHING. I was hoping for a much more subtle solution:
don't BLAST your way into the water; ask politely for a drink. The
thingie says "sure, friend" and lets you in. But not a solution
Wes would have ever come to, of course.
8. The previously mentioned "unconscious" bit. JLPicard is already on the
stretcher before Bev even looks at her son, then waits for him to
wake up and chats before she turns on her scanner to see if he's OK?
Sure.
9. Why the stretcher? Why did they need to follow the arrow? What ever
happened to "sensors show two life forms on the planet / Beam them up"?
Oh, year, I forgot ... the "unusual magnetic field". Quite convenient.
In summary ... plot devices, contortions, no thought to the plots or the
acting. With the exception of the tugboat captain, who was quite good!
Nonetheless, this one is Worst Of the Year in my book.
Sam Drake / IBM Almaden Research Center
Internet: dr...@ibm.com BITNET: DRAKE at ALMADEN
Usenet: ...!uunet!ibmarc!drake Phone: (408) 927-1861
SCOTT ALFTER
Data: Captain, sensors detect spoilers ahead. Should we activate the
spoiler cloaking device?
Picard: Make it so.
In article <14...@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> jsn...@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Jason Snell)
writes:
>- On a desolate planet, it's always nice to have a showy little fountain
> to let the water evaporate. Oh, please.
Around here in Las Vegas, you'd be surprised at the number of
fountains that are spitting up water. Up in the northwest part of
town, there are even a bunch of fake lakes. (Really!)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott Alfter _/_
/ v \ Apple II:
Internet: alf...@uns-helios.nevada.edu ( ( the power to be your best!
GEnie: S.ALFTER \_^_/
Steven P. King
In article <1990Nov22.0...@nntp-server.caltech.edu> tly...@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>--I liked the music down planetside. Just a thought.
I don't particularly recall the music while they were on-planet, but during
the crash itself... Is it just me, or did anyone else find the "oh-my-god-
we're-going-to-crash" music *veeeeerrry* reminiscent of the score for
"Lost in Space"?
--
-----------------------------------------------------+------------------------
Space is big. Space is dark. | Steven King
It's hard to find. A place to park. | Software Archaeologist
Burma Shave. | ve...@ddsw1.MCS.COM
Benji Rudiak-Gould
writes:
>
>--Obligatory DUNE joke: I hope I wasn't the only one who thought, when the
>three crashees were about to head off across the desert to the mountains, to
>yell out "Walk without rhythm, or you'll bring a worm down on you!" :-)
>
concentrate his thoughts on getting his mother back (or whatever), was I the
only one saying, "Feel the force, Luke"? :-)
-- ____________________________________________________
Benji Rudiak-Gould /"RESTRICTIONS:
be...@euler.berkeley.edu / The time must be less than 2,147,483,647 seconds."
________________________/ -- sleep manpage
Sean Reifschneider
>So, "1/4 impulse power" is probably akin to "let's get out and push 1/4th
>as hard as we possibly can". I.e. impulse power is an acceleration and
>not a speed.
It would have to be. It it was just a speed, there would be no problem
with the tractor beam not being able to pull the barge. When they were
staying at a steady "speed", there would be no pull on the tractor beam
at all. My question is... Why didn't they just get the barge moving,
and move out of the way, instead of staying with it the whole time, and
risk glowing in the dark? I wouldn't think it would take much energy or
time at all to get the barge moving in a line that would collide with the
sun.
If NASA can get Voyager to whip around all the planets, with no course
correction, I think Mr. Data could do it (for lack of a better phrase) in
his sleep ;-).
Personally, I think they're mothod sucked.
Sean
--
From the desk of Sean Reifschneider. Isn't Amiga UUCP great? Thanks Matt.
uunet.uu.net!ccncsu!ncuug!miranda!seanr
cosc...@jetson.uh.edu
> In <14...@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> jsn...@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Jason Snell) writes:
>>Spoilers....
>
>>Positives first...
>
>>* Location shooting. I can't say enough about this. "Planet Hell" is
>> extremely boring -- great or not, gigantic or not, it still looks fake.
>> Going on location helps this show immensely. Seeing "Picard of Arabia"
>> was kind of fun.
>
> Umm, since this is under your "positives" list, does this mean that the
> planet WAS a location shot, or was NOT? It certainly looked EXTREMELY
> realistic to me, regardless of HOW they did it. Possibly the best background
> TNG has EVER had.
>
The planet sure LOOKED like a location shot, but the cave had to be planet
hell. And I diagree about planet hell-it looks much better than the alien
worlds on TOS. Planet Hell only looks real bad when they try to to an Earth
like planet.
>>* The plot with the toxic ship. It didn't seem stretched out any longer
>> than it had to be. It was very tight-- maybe TOO tight.
>
> I found it anything BUT tight. Not only did they not make any attempt to
> cover up the colossal holes in the plot, but they didn't even show any
> indication that they knew HOW! Gaah!
>
I think they handled it very well-eventhough they probably spent a litle too
much time on it. Also, a little enviromental message every once in awhile
sure doesn't hurt (as long as it isn't in "Exiles" scale).
>> I might have
>> liked to see it explained a little bit more. In fact, I was more
>> interested in this plot than in the shuttle plot.
>
> Eep! *I* felt they should have almost completely excised this plot from the
> episode and concentrated on the shuttle plot!
>
Ahh the two extremes. If they had spent too much time on the garbage scow
the show would have been too boring. I mean how many times does the Big E have
to go through an asteroid belt anyway?
>>* New music. Not the greatest, but, hell, at least it was somewhat
>> different. This show needs a good composer.
>
> They certainly do. I wonder if Alexander Courage is still alive?
>
THe old music was getting old-I knew Reunion was going to be a big, serious ep
just from the intro music in the first scene (same stuff from the Borg Eps).
>>negatives:
>
>>- The "I did it all to be proud of you, I'm going to save you" speech by
>> Wesley was poorly written and poorly acted by Wheaton. Boos all around.
>
> Oh, I dunno. I felt it was okay. Certainly not half as bad as his
> episode-opening dialogue with Picard.
I liked the speech, it explained Wes's motives and opened him up as a
character. As a matter of fact, I now no longer hate the character.
I was also waiting for Picard to groan "Wes, it looks like I ain't goinna make
it-I'm your father...." :-))))
>
>>- The guy who played the pilot. Dumb character, poorly done. He was useless.
>> Wesley didn't even curb the guy as Picard told him to. Then he gets covered
>> with netting-- and do we care? Not really. All the guy did, after all, was
>> mess up the shuttle so it crashed and then complain about his booze.
>
> I disagree. I felt Dirgo was an interesting character played wonderfully
> by Nick Tate. I cared about his death a little. A sort of "not even he
> deserved that" sort of reaction. I felt he was well portrayed.
>
It seemed to me Dirgo's purpose was to make life hard on Wesley, but that never
happened.
>>- Where the hell did the forcefield and water come from, anyway?
>
> I wondered that too. It would have been good if they could have handled it,
> but it wasn't all that important.
It made sense though. They dropped numerous hints the moon was once or is
inhabited. Water would be scare on such a world and more than likely the
people living there would tend to be nomadic, so building a such a device to
guard a precious supply makes sense. Only a couple problems with this theory:
1. That forcefeild was pretty high-tech and indicative of a sophisticated
society.
2. There were no traces of civilization.
>
> --
> Michael Rawdon
> Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Internet: raw...@rex.cs.tulane.edu | Knowledge may be power, but
> Usenet: rex!rawdon.uucp | withholding knowledge can be a
> Bitnet: CS6FECU@TCSVM | dangerous thing.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Disclaimer: Opinions mine, typos and grammar errors someone else's.
Later
Matt Tighe
Atsushi Kanamori
Spoilers ahead
>Positives first...
>
>* Stewart's acting, as always. His half of the discussion with Wesley were
> really well done, especially when Picard's seriously injured and it looks
> like he's going to die. Wheaton was pretty bad at times, but at other
> times he did a decent job.
'Specially when he told Crusher how much he envied the other - almost
as good as FAMILY's mudfight scene, imo.
>* Special effects. Every episode we're getting three or four new
> opticals, it seems. Incredible shots of the enterprise. Decent shots of
> the shuttlecraft/planets. Neat forcefield around the water.
Except for the planet surface shots, I'd say FX excelled more in quantity than
quality here. Some of the visuals, like the shuttlecraft spinning towards
the planets, made me think "Hey, they're emulating TOS visuals!"
>* Location shooting. I can't say enough about this. "Planet Hell" is
> extremely boring -- great or not, gigantic or not, it still looks fake.
> Going on location helps this show immensely. Seeing "Picard of Arabia"
> was kind of fun.
Did you like or dislike the desert moon? I can't tell from your posting.
>
>* The plot with the toxic ship.
>It felt like more than just a sort of "escape clause" to get
> rid of the big E. It felt like it had a point to it, I guess. Nice touch.
What point was that? To me, it looked like it was EXACTLY just a plot device
to get the E out of the way. Not to mention all sorts of logic contortions
to generate artifical tension.
>* New music. Not the greatest, but, hell, at least it was somewhat
> different. This show needs a good composer.
Damn right about this one.
>
>* The last scene. Nice to see Bev in the foreground with Data and Worf
> out-of-focus in the background. We don't need to see them searching...
> they're right behind the doctor. And Picard's last exchange with Wesley
> was very nice.
The last scene was a bit of a letdown for me - everything turns out all right
after all.
>negatives:
>
>- The "I did it all to be proud of you, I'm going to save you" speech by
> Wesley was poorly written and poorly acted by Wheaton. Boos all around.
That "proud" stuff does stick in my craw, yes.
>- The idea that there would be "some class M moon closer" seems ridiculous
> to me. First, wouldn't Picard know the composition of the star system they
> were in, such as location of moons and whether they were inhabited or not?
He's a busy man - wasn't he out of the cockpit precisely because he
was brushing up on the details of the system/mission, or something like that?
>
>- The fact that they were so close to the moon. It was as if they were right
> over it and said "Oh, let's land HERE!"... I guess the idea of distance in
> space bothers me. Space is big, dammit, and it felt like we were talking
> as if Picard and Wesley were in an airplane. This wasn't "Flight of the
> Phoenix"...
We know ships travel pretty fast in the ST universe.
>
>- The guy who played the pilot. Dumb character, poorly done. He was useless.
I disagree, it was fun watching him spar with Crusher. Let's not forget that
this is entertainment. He also gave the sentry a chance to SHOW its menace
rather than TELLING us about it (like those Borg episodes.) Doesn't sound
useless to me.
> Wesley didn't even curb the guy as Picard told him to. Then he gets covered
> with netting-- and do we care? Not really.
I did.
> All the guy did, after all, was mess up the shuttle so it crashed and then
In other words, he set up the storyline.
>complain about his booze. Really.
I prefer that to the sterile get-along crew that we're usually treated to.
>- Where the hell did the forcefield and water come from, anyway?
Have no idea, yet another plot thread swinging in the breeze...
>This was a chance
>for Wesley to really come off well, and I'm afraid that he didn't. I really
>wanted him to-- I have no big hatred toward the character. But it didn't
>work. I blame the writers more than Wheaton on this one.
As a card carrying Crusher Trasher, I didn't really care whether he
came off well or not - offhand, though, I'd say I liked him in this
episode more than I have in MOST episodes.
>
>All in all, a visually interesting episode, but nothing spectacular on
>any real level. Still, it was refreshing in that it had nothing to do with
>any past episodes. Season four has been worrying me because it has been
>mucking around in the series' past too much...
Or the future...
>
>Final Grade: B-
My conclusion exactly.
. . . .
: : : :. : : :.. .:
::::::::::.: :::::::.
------------ ---------------------------------------------------------
TNG Lifelines: From Yesterday's Enterprise To Future Imperfect ("She married
me -- she *had* to have patience." - Captain Riker)
Michael Rawdon
>In article <50...@rex.cs.tulane.edu>, raw...@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Michael Rawdon) writes:
>> In <14...@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> jsn...@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Jason Snell) writes:
>>>Spoilers....
>>> extremely boring -- great or not, gigantic or not, it still looks fake.
>>> Going on location helps this show immensely. Seeing "Picard of Arabia"
>>> was kind of fun.
>> Umm, since this is under your "positives" list, does this mean that the
>> planet WAS a location shot, or was NOT? It certainly looked EXTREMELY
>> realistic to me, regardless of HOW they did it. Possibly the best background
>> TNG has EVER had.
>The planet sure LOOKED like a location shot, but the cave had to be planet
>hell. And I diagree about planet hell-it looks much better than the alien
>worlds on TOS. Planet Hell only looks real bad when they try to to an Earth
>like planet.
Well, I think some of the alien worlds in TOS succeeded fairly well (as in
"The Cage", for instance). Given their budgetary limitations, I think the
series succeeded admirably.
I'm not quite sure what your "planet hell" comments are about, exactly,
except (I think) you felt the cave looked fake? I thought some of it
looked rather plastic, but other times it looked fine.
>>>* The plot with the toxic ship. It didn't seem stretched out any longer
>>> than it had to be. It was very tight-- maybe TOO tight.
>> I found it anything BUT tight. Not only did they not make any attempt to
>> cover up the colossal holes in the plot, but they didn't even show any
>> indication that they knew HOW! Gaah!
>I think they handled it very well-eventhough they probably spent a litle too
>much time on it. Also, a little enviromental message every once in awhile
>sure doesn't hurt (as long as it isn't in "Exiles" scale).
I was VERY glad they didn't toss an environmental message in. TNG has done
enough preaching, and I don't need it to tell me how to run my life. That
would be a good way to make me stop watching it.
I was unimpressed by the toxic ship sequence, as I said before, because
the Enterprise could have simply sent the ship flying off into deep space
(which would have taken maybe a few minutes) rescued Picard and Wesley,
and then returned to dispose of the toxic ship permanently. This was a
classic "idiot plot".
>>> I might have
>>> liked to see it explained a little bit more. In fact, I was more
>>> interested in this plot than in the shuttle plot.
>> Eep! *I* felt they should have almost completely excised this plot from the
>> episode and concentrated on the shuttle plot!
>Ahh the two extremes. If they had spent too much time on the garbage scow
>the show would have been too boring. I mean how many times does the Big E have
>to go through an asteroid belt anyway?
One wonders why they have to go through it at ALL. I mean, asteroid belts
are comparatively thin, compared to the size of space. The only good
asteroid sequence I can remember from any Trek episode is in "Booby Trap",
and that's because they were in the belt for a very specific purpose
rather than just trying to get through it.
>It seemed to me Dirgo's purpose was to make life hard on Wesley, but that never
>happened.
I think he was there more to provide a counterpoint to Wesley. His death
served a dramatic purpose (the "I should have stopped him" syndrome :-)
which was ultimately his most important use in the story.
>>>- Where the hell did the forcefield and water come from, anyway?
>> I wondered that too. It would have been good if they could have handled it,
>> but it wasn't all that important.
>It made sense though. They dropped numerous hints the moon was once or is
>inhabited.
Did they? I didn't catch any. What hints did they drop, precisely?
> Water would be scare on such a world and more than likely the
>people living there would tend to be nomadic, so building a such a device to
>guard a precious supply makes sense. Only a couple problems with this theory:
>1. That forcefeild was pretty high-tech and indicative of a sophisticated
>society.
>2. There were no traces of civilization.
Those are pretty big problems. It would have been nice if they'd tackled the
issue, but it's not really all that crucial. The focus of the story
was on the characters.
Vicki Holzhauer
>In article <91...@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> be...@euler.Berkeley.EDU (Benji
>Rudiak-Gould) writes:
> [......] in "Remember Me," when the Traveler is telling Wesley to
>concentrate his thoughts on getting his mother back (or whatever), was I
>the only one saying, "Feel the force, Luke"? :-)
Indeed you were not. I was saying the same thing, as were those I watched
it with. The parallel was just too close.
But this is a common theme in fantasy/SF, is it not? Remember the
first-season episode where Deanna's betrothed had been attracted for
all of his life to the woman on the plague ship? Lwaxana explained
it as his having been hooked into the subconscious stream of thoughts
that joins all intelligent life in the universe. Also sounds a bit
like The Force to me.
I for one believe that there actually may be a Force out there, and
the fact that others believe in some such energy may be one clue to
Star Wars' enduring popularity ...
--
Internet: vi...@ncar.ucar.edu
"It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent." --Q
"Quoth the Raven: `Eat my shorts!'" --E.A. Poe/J.E. Jones/B. Simpson
Mark Runyan
...[Some minor complaints which might be rationalized]...
>Spoilers
>That was the WORST episode of TNG that I've ever sat through! Let's
>get this straight:
>
>1. They crash land ... without seatbelts, and without injury. Check.
Aren't safety fields a wonderful thing?
>2. They find more "strange energy emanations ... of a type I've never
> seen before". Wow, what a shock.
Considering the limitations of their tricorder, it shouldn't be surprising
that they couldn't figure out what the emanations were.
>3. They find a magic fountain ... never explained, no curiosity ever
> expressed by ANY character about why it's there, who put it there,
> etc. No explanation revealed, either ... it's just dropped.
Yep, because it wasn't crucial to the episode except as a goal that
Wesley had to acheive. For a quick explanation, you *could* assume that
it the shield and trap were devised by human pirates using the rock as a
hiding place.
>4. Picard saves Wesley from the rocks, then takes the rocks himself, and
> despite all the "last words" babbling going on Wes never says "thank you".
That would have been redundant.
>5. The Garbage Scow plot was lame, lame, lame. To wit:
> A. The Countdown to Death. Oh, good, they were 5 seconds away
> from a lethal dose of radiation. No symptoms at all! Great!
> Is the ship now radioactive, or do we just ignore that?
The wonders of Hyronalin, eh? The lethal dosage limits probably included
irradiating the ship beyond the ability of the ship to decontaminate itself.
> B. It took them over 30 minutes at 1/2 impulse power to get that
> Scow near the sun. But the planet it had been circling was
> class M. Just how slow IS 1/2 impulse power, anyway?
Depends on how hot the sun is. Afterall, there was an asteroid belt in the
way.
> C. The idea that a ship in orbit (not a big ship, either) could
> be so radioactive as to cause injuries on the ground yet not
> be at all odd looking from orbit is, uh, mysterious. Shouldn't
> it be glowing a little, at least?
Glowing? Leaving a trail of smoke perhaps? Perhaps you wanted Geigor
counters for each of the crew members.
> D. Are asteroid belts stable in close to stars? I note that ours
> is safely beyond class M range.
Again, size and type of star. A Class M planet doesn't have to circle
a Yellow dwarf in the Star Trek universe.
> E. And of course the obvious answer: 1/2 impulse for 15 minutes
> at right angles to the ecliptic, then THROW the thing. Misses
> all the asteroids, which were clearly seen to be arranged in a
> single plane. More 2-D thinking, typical of both series.
*An* answer, yes. Of course, this assumes you know about the star
system, and would throwing it be sure of missing everything in the way?
But, given the rest of the posting and the tone of what I already responded
to, I guess you really don't want an explanation, you appear to want to
complain. So, just to annoy you, let me say that I disagree with your
opinion that this is a poor episode.
Mark Runyan {r.a.s. random rationalizer}
jtre...@eagle.wesleyan.edu
>> liked to see it explained a little bit more. In fact, I was more
>> interested in this plot than in the shuttle plot.
>
> Eep! *I* felt they should have almost completely excised this plot from the
> episode and concentrated on the shuttle plot!
>
This thing should have been done away with... toooooo many holes. The episode
could have benifited from more time on the real plot (read on...)
>>negatives:
>
>>- The "I did it all to be proud of you, I'm going to save you" speech by
>> Wesley was poorly written and poorly acted by Wheaton. Boos all around.
>
> Oh, I dunno. I felt it was okay. Certainly not half as bad as his
> episode-opening dialogue with Picard.
I think that character-developing should be done in subtle ways... this was a
little too blatant. It should have been cut down to maybe a few exchanges
instead of the long, repetitive shlock it came across to me as.
>>- Where the hell did the forcefield and water come from, anyway?
>
> I wondered that too. It would have been good if they could have handled it,
> but it wasn't all that important.
Ever since the time they found they fountain, the whole thing came across as an
Indiana Jones fountain of youth type thing. I was half expecting Picard to open
his eyes, stand up and be all better when he drank the water. It was sort of
cheezy. But beyond that, how did Wesley get through the forcefield anyway? He
just sits there playing with the tricorder, and bam, it's gone. Maybe they
should have done away with the garbage scow stuff and spent five minutes
showing Wesley figure out how to get through it.
All in all though, I liked the episode... but I never really met one I was
sorry I watched. Special FX were really neat... especially the forcefield. My
favorite effect to date though is the shield the Borgs get around them (kind of
like the Dune shields. Maybe you can get through them with a slow, sharp
object :-)). This one was close...
--
James A. Treworgy -- No quote here for insurance reasons --
jtre...@eagle.wesleyan.edu jtreworgy%ea...@WESLEYAN.BITNET
Mark Runyan
> ...[List of good positives]...
>negatives:
>- The "I did it all to be proud of you, I'm going to save you" speech by
> Wesley was poorly written and poorly acted by Wheaton. Boos all around.
I disagree. I say that scene worked rather well for me.
>- The idea that there would be "some class M moon closer" seems ridiculous
> to me. First, wouldn't Picard know the composition of the star system they
> were in, such as location of moons and whether they were inhabited or not?
Sorry, I can't see Picard having time to study that and all the other issues.
Even the freighter captain didn't know all the places he could go to. It
might have been a large system.
>- The guy who played the pilot. Dumb character, poorly done. He was useless.
The character was played well, from my point of view. It is surprising that
he lasted as long as he did, considering the mistakes he made.
>- Where the hell did the forcefield and water come from, anyway?
An interesting question perhaps, but not really part of the episode. Perhaps
pirates were using the place as a base of operations for picking off
drunk freighter pilots.
>- On a desolate planet, it's always nice to have a showy little fountain
> to let the water evaporate. Oh, please.
Especially in a cavern. Of course, the fountain was anything but natural,
and the amount of evaporation couldn't have terra-formed the planet, but
it probably made the cavern much more livable to the humanoid life forms
that built the cavern.
Of course, I agree with you positives, I just disagree that the negatives
were that bad.
Mark Runyan
Patrick Walsh
not enough originality. Last's weeks episode with twist within a
twist within a twist was more convincing.
b
l
a
n
k
s
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a
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Negatives:
1. The subplot with the toxic-waste scow was a bit unconvincing,
poorly executed and way, way, way too overdone in complexity. They
could have bumped it into a harmless orbit without having too
interrupt the rescue of Picard and Wesley.
2. The "I done it all to make you proud" speech complete with corny
cliche lines and cheesy music.
3. The water fountain and sentry is inadequately explained. Maybe
Data should have gone on this one to explain some of the archaeology
and history of the planet. This could have been done in the approach
phase of the Enterprise to the planet/moon. The planet itself was not
all that particularly interesting. No seismic or meterological
features.
Positive:
1. It has confirmed my opinion that Wesley is a sick puppy. A
surrogate father, ... really now. Picard is a good role model, but
the selection of a surrogate father is usually some one who is very
close to the person, and has some characteristics in common. Wesley
is not very close to the captain, and they have absolutely nothing in
common. Geordi would have been a better choice.
Good Luck at the Star Fleet Acting Academy, Wesley. You'll need it.
Kevin D. Quitt
>Vague spoilers within, so...
>In article <1990Nov22.0...@nntp-server.caltech.edu> tly...@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch) writes:
>>--I liked the music down planetside. Just a thought.
>
>I don't particularly recall the music while they were on-planet, but during
>the crash itself... Is it just me, or did anyone else find the "oh-my-god-
>we're-going-to-crash" music *veeeeerrry* reminiscent of the score for
>"Lost in Space"?
My wife commented on it at the time.
--
_
Kevin D. Quitt demott!kdq k...@demott.com
DeMott Electronics Co. 14707 Keswick St. Van Nuys, CA 91405-1266
VOICE (818) 988-4975 FAX (818) 997-1190 MODEM (818) 997-4496 PEP last
96.37% of all statistics are made up.
Steven P. Miale
>week's TNG episode, "Final Mission". Those not wishing advance knowledge of
>the show should therefore tread lightly.
>One-line thought: Not the best thing they've ever done, but pretty good.
>As I said above (boy, this new method'll get redundant...boy, this new
>method'll get redundant...:-) ), this was pretty good. It by no means was
>another "Reunion" or "Brothers", but I rather enjoyed it.
I like the "new" method...
>
[synopsis omitted]
>One of the best words to describe this show, I think, is "standard". It didn't
>break much in the way of new ground...it didn't reveal much new insight into
>the characters...and it didn't hold you on the edge of your seat. It was a
>pretty standard show. But as such, it was a _good_ standard show.
Well, I think it confirmed what we suspected all along, about Wesley's feelings
for Picard and Picard's feelings toward Wesley.
>
>The other BIG highlight of the show for me was the series of conversations
>between Picard and Wes. When Wil Wheaton tries to show the serious side of
>Wes, he seems to be at his best when playing off Stewart. (When I think about
>it, that could be either a surprise or not...it is if one thinks that Stewart
>is so good that everyone around him looks rotten by comparison, but it isn't
>if Stewart not only turns in a good performance, but frequently manages to
>inspire them in others. It probably varies from person to person, but I can
>believe that the second holds true in this case with no problem.) The obvious
>reminder of the shuttle trip in "Samaritan Snare" (which, in my opinion, was
>the only redeeming feature of that particular show) was made and built upon.
>While I think Wheaton went a little overboard at times (like his little speech
>about how he did everything to make Picard proud, which didn't quite ring
>true for me), I liked most of it. Well done.
Stewart does seem to inspire his fellow actors. IMHO, TNG has more acting
talent than TOS, at least with Stewart and Spiner; Frakes also seems to be
getting a good start directing. (And if they gave Burton a chance, perhaps
he would shine).
>
>Some quick examples of P/W exchanges I liked a lot:
>
>--"Oh, I envy you, Wesley Crusher--you're just at the beginning of the
>adventure." It looks really dumb on...er...paper :-), but Stewart had just
>enough of a quaver in his voice to really tug at the heartstrings.
The mark of a fine actor.
>
>I'm quite glad they didn't do anything more with the Garbage Scow from Hell
>plot, because I thought it was really a waste of time. (Fortunately, they
>didn't try to drive home any Big Message [TM] with the radioactive waste, which
>combined with reading _Exiles_ would have been too much for my heavy symbolism
>gland to process. :-) ) I realize they needed some reason for the Enterprise
>not to be able to leave immediately for Pentarus, but they could've just been
>further away or something. They unfortunately decided to reuse the one thing
>I really didn't like much about "Booby Trap", too--the "--- minutes to lethal
>radiation levels" bit, as though it were a constant for the entire crew. It
>wasn't horrible, but it was a waste. I'd much rather have seen more of the
>Picard/Wes/Dirgo interaction.
I would've preferred the interaction, too. And wasn't everybody surprised
when it wasn't that easy to tow away the garbage scow?
>
>That's actually the only big bad point...not too shabby. Some other random
>comments:
>
>--GAMILON 5? Boy, even an anime layman like me gets that reference...no
>_wonder_ the planet was having radiation problems. :-) (For those not in the
>know, Gamilon was the name of the "bad-guy" planet in the first season of
>"Star Blazers".) Okuda and Sternbach strike again! :-)
Wasn't that the ol' animated series about 10 years ago (which, come to think
of it, resembled Battlestar Galactica in a basic plot, that is to go to
some place - in BG, Earth and in SB, the Magellanic (sp?) Cloud?)
>
>--Okay, so the rockslide sequence was the weensiest bit hokey...but as a long-
>time reader of the "Amazing Spider-Man" comic, I had images of the late,
>lamented Capt. George Stacy running through my brain during the scene, so it
>worked for me. (If you haven't the slightest idea what I'm talking about,
>don't worry...I very much doubt you're alone. ;-) )
At least the entire surface wasn't made up of rocks, like almost all the
TOS shows... TNG has some variety (tropics in "Arsenal of Freedom", forest
in "Angel One", a creative rock formation in "Last Outpost"... :-)
>
>--Near the end of the show, Picard starts singing to himself in French, pre-
>sumably to stay conscious. Nice touch...and I think that was the same song he
>and Robert were singing after the fight in "Family". I'm starting to wonder if
>Stewart's planning on a singing career later in life...
Maybe it was the French version of that drinking song he did last year...
>
>--Like I said, I thought the whole bit with Wes insisting that he did every-
>thing just to make Picard proud of him was stretching things a bit--but hey,
>when you're a nineteen-year-old male, saying overblown things like that is
>par for the course, right?
The WORST part was right when Picard wanted to go into the mountains, and
Wesley says, (paraphrased) "Look bud, if you want to get out of this desert,
you BETTER listen to Captain Picard!"... Ugh, more Wesley-Whining (TM)
>
>--Obligatory woman-watching note: I like the look of Wes's replacement...very,
>very cute. (Lisa, you didn't read that...:-) )
Maybe they can bring Leland T. Lynch back... some conflict in the crew. Or
Shelby back to her ol' Rosalyn Shays-like ways.
>
>--Obligatory DUNE joke: I hope I wasn't the only one who thought, when the
>three crashees were about to head off across the desert to the mountains, to
>yell out "Walk without rhythm, or you'll bring a worm down on you!" :-)
Hey...wait... OK. Young kid on a desert planet. Mother still alive, father
dead. Patrick Stewart, too. Water a precious resource. Sound familiar?
Sounds like another David Lynch/Twin Peaks <-> Star Trek crossover...
>
>Plot: 8. Basic and unadventurous, but solid.
>Plot Handling: 9. Nice.
>Characterization: 9. Would've been a 10 except for Wheaton's few out-of-
> control bits.
I'd give Wheaton lower (although he is MUCH better than the first few
seasons).
>Technical: 8. I didn't like the Scow from Hell bits (except for the one
> shot I mentioned), but the force-field around the water was very
> pretty, and the music helped a bit too.
>TOTAL: 8.5. Wow...that's better than I expected coming in.
Wow... pretty high.
>
>Well, as I finish writing this, it's already Thursday in three out of four US
>time zones, so Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
>
>NEXT WEEK: A rerun of BOBW2.
Hey guys, I saw SOMETHING ELSE: I saw a preview (on WDCA) when the big-E
seemed to be attacking (and being repelled) something. Not much info
given out, but lots of action. Sounds good.
Atsushi Kanamori
>
>Spoilers
>I have to say ...
>
>That was the WORST episode of TNG that I've ever sat through! Let's
>get this straight:
Strong statement. Are you really saying it was worse than, say,
"Transfigurations?"
>
>1. They crash land ... without seatbelts, and without injury. Check.
Hmm... you wouldn't be an advocate of seatbelts laws, would you? :-)
>2. They find more "strange energy emanations ... of a type I've never
> seen before". Wow, what a shock.
Just a quick question: how many different energy types have been "discovered"
in Star Trek? (I remember at least one other, from TMP.)
>3. They find a magic fountain ... never explained, no curiosity ever
> expressed by ANY character about why it's there, who put it there,
> etc. No explanation revealed, either ... it's just dropped.
What did you find "magical" about it?
Sure, there had no water, they were marooned, Picard was dying - not
exactly optimal conditions to start a research project.
>4. Picard saves Wesley from the rocks, then takes the rocks himself, and
> despite all the "last words" babbling going on Wes never says "thank you".
Feh. Would have sounded maudlin (and you complained about "love" scenes!)
>5. The Garbage Scow plot was lame, lame, lame. To wit:
> A. The Countdown to Death. Oh, good, they were 5 seconds away
> from a lethal dose of radiation. No symptoms at all! Great!
> Is the ship now radioactive, or do we just ignore that?
Very dumb, I agree.
> B. It took them over 30 minutes at 1/2 impulse power to get that
> Scow near the sun. But the planet it had been circling was
> class M. Just how slow IS 1/2 impulse power, anyway?
Twice as fast as one quarter impulse power, which will get you from
one end of Spacedock to the other in about 30 seconds (:-)
> C. The idea that a ship in orbit (not a big ship, either) could
> be so radioactive as to cause injuries on the ground yet not
> be at all odd looking from orbit is, uh, mysterious. Shouldn't
> it be glowing a little, at least?
No, it's radiation "of a type never before encountered." :-)
> D. Are asteroid belts stable in close to stars? I note that ours
> is safely beyond class M range.
I'm not a physicist, but it seems plausible to me.
> E. And of course the obvious answer: 1/2 impulse for 15 minutes
> at right angles to the ecliptic, then THROW the thing. Misses
> all the asteroids, which were clearly seen to be arranged in a
> single plane. More 2-D thinking, typical of both series.
2-D thinking and 1-D characters, that's NG.
>6. The PAINFUL Wes / Picard love scenes. Ooh, I was writhing in agony.
> I kept thinking of Stewart's response to an interviewers question,
> "Would you like to do comedy some day?" Stewart: "What do you think
> I'm doing now?" Aaugh. That and images of the Sammy Maudlin show.
Which "love" scenes? I'd like to see them, especially if they're X rated
;-)
>7. The solution to the fountain puzzle. Typical, lame. The tricorder
> is indeed a wonderful Deus Ex Machina; you can make
> it do ANYTHING. I was hoping for a much more subtle solution:
> don't BLAST your way into the water; ask politely for a drink. The
> thingie says "sure, friend" and lets you in. But not a solution
> Wes would have ever come to, of course.
I agree about the uninteresting solution they used, but OTOH, I can
imagine the uproar it would cause if it turned out to be another "make
friends" type solution.
>8. The previously mentioned "unconscious" bit. JLPicard is already on the
> stretcher before Bev even looks at her son, then waits for him to
> wake up and chats before she turns on her scanner to see if he's OK?
> Sure.
Hey, Bev is a member of the Crusher Basher Club! :-)
>9. Why the stretcher?
Cuz it would be painful for Jean-Luc to walk to sickbay on a broken leg.
>Why did they need to follow the arrow? What ever happened to "sensors show
>two life forms on the planet / Beam them up"? Oh, year, I forgot ... the
>"unusual magnetic field". Quite convenient.
Exactly.
Randal Schwartz
In article <1990Nov25.0...@ddsw1.MCS.COM>, veck@ddsw1 (Steven P. King) writes:
| I don't particularly recall the music while they were on-planet, but during
| the crash itself... Is it just me, or did anyone else find the "oh-my-god-
| we're-going-to-crash" music *veeeeerrry* reminiscent of the score for
| "Lost in Space"?
Ya know, I did think that too.
No sign in the credits of a "Johnny Williams", though. Maybe he's
writing under another pen-name? :-)
Just another John Williams semi-fan,
--
/=Randal L. Schwartz, Stonehenge Consulting Services (503)777-0095 ==========\
| on contract to Intel's iWarp project, Beaverton, Oregon, USA, Sol III |
| mer...@iwarp.intel.com ...!any-MX-mailer-like-uunet!iwarp.intel.com!merlyn |
\=Cute Quote: "Intel: putting the 'backward' in 'backward compatible'..."====/
SCOTT ALFTER
Data: Captain, sensors detect spoilers ahead. Should we activate the
spoiler cloaking device?
Picard: Make it so.
Just a nagging question that I should've asked earlier, but why is it
that the Big E's shields can stand up to phaser barrages, asteroid
hits, photon torpedo strikes, etc., but they won't block ordinary
radiation?
Inquiring minds want to know...
Kenward Chin
Here's a CTRL-L for those of you who can process them:
In article <1990Nov26.0...@Neon.Stanford.EDU>, kana...@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Atsushi Kanamori) writes:
> In article <3...@rufus.UUCP> dr...@drake.almaden.ibm.com writes:
>
> > B. It took them over 30 minutes at 1/2 impulse power to get that
> > Scow near the sun. But the planet it had been circling was
> > class M. Just how slow IS 1/2 impulse power, anyway?
>
> Twice as fast as one quarter impulse power, which will get you from
> one end of Spacedock to the other in about 30 seconds (:-)
>
Doesn't the term "impulse power" imply that the ship is being propelled by
some impulsive force? Thus, the "amount" of impulse power probably refers to
the amount of force being used to propel the Enterprise forward.
So, "1/4 impulse power" is probably akin to "let's get out and push 1/4th
as hard as we possibly can". I.e. impulse power is an acceleration and
not a speed.
Kenward Chin
--
Disclaimer: Since transmission of this article is by imperfect methods, there
may well be discrepancies between what is above and what was
intended. Therefore, please edit this article to read as you
wish.