Pirate's music

Have to turn the sound way up for this one.

Star Trek TNG The High Ground

Third episode in a row involving heavy, preachy politics.  The improvement over the previous seasons was satisfying but the content was getting stale. I wonder if I'm the only one who felt this way.

It's a Beverly episode.  I like Dr. Crusher. She's one of my favorite Trek women.  She hadn't gotten enough attention at this point and an episode revolving around her was long overdue, for sure.  The Enterprise is giving medical supplies to an unaffiliated planet, Rutia IV.  They're not part of the Federation but they trade with them.  They're in the midst of a burgeoning civil war with their western continent, so I'm not sure why a few of the characters were taking lunch on the planet since shore leaves weren't permitted because of violent protests, but that's where it all begins.

Once again we see Beverly's stubborn personality.  These people have doctors of their own but she insists on sticking around to treat the wounded. One of the Ansatan terrorists appears via a stealthy type of transportation method and abducts her.

The improvements allow for so much more to happen in the episode. They don't waste a lot of time on the why's.  The Enterprise assumes that Crusher was the intended target. Although they don't know the reason immediately, they can operate without a lot of undo speculations on the kidnappers' motivations.  After the obligatory set up of Crusher's introduction and objection to her situation, she proceeds to help the sick people in the Anastan compound because it's in her nature to heal.  She also doesn't have figure out the cause of illness - they know it's their special transportation method that is making them sick.  It's this kind of streamlining that allows them to weave in a more detailed story and even more of their politics but without the awkwardness that was present throughout much of the first two seasons.

 The problem with their politics, as always, is blame America.  Trash America.  America has no right to help people fight for freedom because our own freedom is a lie of some kind and we'll demonstrate how.  America needs to be taken down a notch.  It's all very subtle of course.  They were actually getting better with that as well!  In the first two seasons the Federation was set up in a double role as the utopic ideal as well as a representation of America/humanity that needed to be repeatedly reminded of how inferior it was. In this season they decide to leave it as a utopic third party used as lens to focus in on the evils of America as demonstrated in other alien cultures to one degree or another so that the self loathing doesn't surface as prominently and they always get to be the level headed good guys.  The episode is very watchable because even though they try to confuse and smear the line between terrorism and freedom fighting, they also would appear to be showing both sides of the conflict fairly... even though you could see the side they were trying to depict as the most righteous.

They demonstrate that the Rutian government has good reasons for trying to take out this bunch of hoodlums while at the same time trying to teach us that they're equally as hate filled and making it worse by using violence to defend themselves.  They give Crusher a brief moment of Stockholm syndrome in order to humanize the terrorists because they can't actually justify their behavior which is dragging the Enterprise into this conflict. (At least not back then. I believe the left sees themselves as the Ansatans in our present time.)  I suppose it's a good conversation piece type of episode.  It's certainly a start as far as letting other points of view slip through, if only slightly at this point.  But the biggest problem with these early "serious" episodes is that it was still a thinly veiled commentary of the left-leaning American political climate.  The reason why "The Defector" stood apart for me within these three episodes, is that although it was borrowing from our own world history, it was also useful in helping the Star Trek franchise to set up a political climate of its own that would grow and change according to the circumstances of the fictitious characters, planets, and cultures created therein.  These last two one-off episodes were an example of a Star Trek that had not quite taken on a life of its own yet, although it was very close and I suppose this sort of casting about for a cause was necessary for them to find their own identity in the long run.  But the growing pains are nearly over.

The use of Wesley was good and bad.  Good because he had a stake in the game with the need to rescue his mother and he gets to be a team player instead of just a boy genius that the adults can't keep up with and/or constantly marvel over.  Bad because he was just doing the same kind of stuff that Geordi does.  He should've been evolving and phasing like the Traveler at this point, but instead we get a compliment of how he'll make a fine Starfleet officer someday.  I genuinely liked Wesley's character when it was used properly, but always lamented the wasted potential because the writers weren't thinking that big yet.  Anyway, Geordi and Wesley figure out that their special transportation method that is making them sick is also making them traceable.  It's a technique that would be used again.

And not a moment too soon either since the intensity has been amplified as the Ansatans get on board the Enterprise and kidnap Captain Picard as well to use as a bargaining chip since they're convinced that the Federation has sided with the Rutian government.

They track them down and the leader of the Rutian military force kills Kyril which would seem to have been unnecessary and then a child from the Ansatan side threatens to kill her.  Beverly stops this with just a few words - "No more killing!" - and it makes for an emotionally touching ending. I guess... I mean, I'm not a kid person, so I'm just guessing that most women would have their hearts melted at this.  But more importantly they were trying to prove their point that violence isn't the answer for either side.  Peace, bro.

All political opinion aside, I like the episode cuz I like Beverly.  I like how cool she is under duress and her natural desire to heal even when the people who are sick are an undesirable lot.  And I like Beverly and Picard paired even if it was only for a brief period of time.  Three and a half stars.

Star Trek TNG The Hunted

This episode is very action oriented.  It's a redo of what was a throw-away concept in the first season episode, "The Lonely Among Us."  In that episode I'd complained that they weren't taking the backdrop story of planets petitioning to be a part of the Federation seriously.  This episode pushes substance over the annoying silliness that was so prolific in the first season.  Although it's a refreshing improvement, it's still not the best one with this basic story line from the series.  But it's another good episode.

The lucky man who went on to play Zephram Cockran in First Contact plays the leader, Nayrok, of the Angosians who are petitioning to become Federation members.  They've survived a terrible war and have rebuilt on peace and pacifism.  Everything the progressive and utopic Federation likes to hear.

But while they're all getting to know each other a prisoner escapes in a transport shuttle from an orbiting asteroid which Nayrok first describes as a penal colony.  They ask the Enterprise for help since they feel unable to deal with it.  So naturally the Enterprise helps out.  The prisoner ends up loose on the ship and it takes a good deal of time and several men to catch him.

His name is Roga Danar and this should be a cut and dried case of capture and recovery, but of course, it's not.  The crew of Star Trek can never resist a mystery and when they discover that he has no life signs, they start to investigate.  They discover he was psychologically conditioned and biochemically altered to become the perfect soldier for the war that they'd won.  Because of the conditioning he and other soldiers received, they had a hard time reintegrating into civilized society after the war.  This is more of Star Trek reaching back to its beginnings in the 60's to try to sure up its roots in attempt to move forward in the 80's and it's not a bad thing - this episode just didn't have as much to build on like the previous one did so it was more of a one-off blip on the screen. Still, it's a better way to throw stuff against the wall to see what sticks than the previous methods. This episode is an allegory for the way Vietnam Vets were treated after returning to America.  Of course the part they leave out is that it was the liberal, progressive hippies like Jane Fonda who not only sabotaged them while they were over there but also treated them with contempt and called them baby killers and ostracized them from decent society on their return, not patriotic people who supported aiding other countries to fight for real freedom.  But the circumstances in this situation are sufficiently different that the smugness of the liberal protagonist position of the Federation isn't too offensive. It's actually a good story.

In this case the government really is to blame because of the scientific tampering of their people. Nayrok and other government officials have to admit that the Lunar V base is not a penal colony but a place to relocate these soldiers because the modifications made to their bodies and minds made it impossible for them to assimilate back into normal culture without becoming criminals.  It's also determined that the damage could've been undone but that they'd never been serious about trying to undo it. All of this is making the Angosian bid for Federation acceptance less and less palatable. And I do appreciate this episode as better example of how to write about people whose internal problems that are a hindrance to their application in comparison with "The Lonely Among Us" which played the two races off very comically and absurdly.

However, this episode verges on the absurd as well. But, not because of the concept of the super soldier.  In the attempt to send Danar back to the Angosians he escapes and tears around loose on the ship again.  I actually like this stuff.  He single handedly takes out a lot of people in a non lethal manner and then organizes a mass break out from Lunar V.  (As an aside, this is the first time the Jeffries Tubes get named and this is the only one where they have one big enough to stand up in also.)

But where it starts to trail away from credibility for me is the way they leave the Angosian government to deal with it at the end without any desire to help.  It would seem that they've made the assumption that the Angosians have brought it on themselves and therefore need to be left to deal with it alone (using the Prime Directive as an excuse) in what is a very irresponsible situation - even if the Angosians decided to give concessions to the former soldiers, there's still a very good chance that the situation would escalate into chaos in a hurry due to the temperament of the soldiers.  It's just a little too soon after The Vengeance Factor where the Enterprise bends over backwards to help a people reintegrate, not sick and lonely war veterans, but actual criminals and thugs back into the host society, holding their hands through the entire process.  This is the smugness of progressivism surfacing a little.

It doesn't detract much from the episode though.  Roga Danar is a believable character and even though I take notice of that smugness, I can also see the appeal in this solution.  I liked it.  But when you try to simplify politics, there end up being a lot of holes.  Three and a half stars

Anime Thursday

Sailor Moon.

Okay, I'm a little ashamed of this one and I didn't actually watch enough of it to remember what was going on most of the time.  But it caught my eye because its reruns were being aired around the same time I was checking out Dragon Ball Z. 

Of course what catches my eye so often with Anime is the structure.  In many cases this "Superman" type of foundation where the heroes or in this case heroines are just teenage school girls until they transform into the Sailor Scouts.  When I first saw it, it just featured three girls who are all friends but, if I remember right, don't even know the that each one also has the powers that turn them into Sailor Scouts.  As with other Anime it creates a character for a different element.  The main character, Serena, changes to Sailor Moon and is the leader. The middle girl, Raye, changes to Sailor Mars and her power is fire.  The girl on the end, Amy, transforms into Mercury and harnesses water.  Simple and straightforward.

I'm not sure why the moon overrules the planets, but like I said, I didn't pay too close attention.  There was an episode where Raye questions Serena's position as leader.  This is also common in Anime.  Lance was always calling into question Keith's leadership in Voltron.  But in this case it turns out that Serena is a princess and the daughter of Queen Serenity who is the moon queen, or something.

I thought it was interesting because I'd never seen an all female cast for an anime superhero cartoon like this.  I guess the reason it's stayed in my mind so long is because it's a good example of a lot of potential wasted.  But like DBZ and the others, they still hadn't come up with a good way to write girl heroines.  As I noted before, they wanted strong women without sacrificing any of the girlie-girlie nature or the need for a hero to save them.  And I'm not offended by that, it's just that I think you really can have both.  It would be more of the context of a Princess Leia type that can take care of herself and everyone else but still is charmed and grateful when her Han Solo can swoop in and save the day.  The creators of the 80's and 90's anime just couldn't think in that kind of detail though. In the case of Sailor Moon they added a boy character... a boy that Serena has a crush on in real life who transforms into Tuxedo Mask.  The battles follow the same pattern - the Sailor Scouts fight but Tuxedo Mask always needs to come in and save them at the last minute which thrills Sailor Moon of course. Very little variance from episode to episode, much like Voltron never winning until he pulls the blazing sword to cut the enemy in half.

The villains had names that were all types of jewels and stones like Queen Beryl and Malachite although the colors didn't match. I don't know why I like groupings like this in anime.  Lol.

After a while they started adding more planets.  I stopped watching steadily after the introduction of Sailor Venus, in orange. I sort of remember when Sailor Jupiter, in green, first appeared.  But I don't remember a lot about the story lines because they were mostly very shallow.

And then I drew the line when I flipped it on one day and saw the the older girls, Sailors Neptune and Uranus.  It was getting a little weird at that point and these two were obviously supposed to be lesbians. It didn't even seem like they were trying to pretend that they were just  best friends either, as I recall.  I remember thinking it was a little balls-out for a kids' show at the time.  Not sure if there was a sailor Saturn or why they skipped her if there wasn't.  Like I said.  Not much substance.  Just a vehicle for sexy schoolgirl uniforms and long transformation sequences.

The opening can give you a good idea of the entire series without ever having to actually watch it. It just nags at me when I think about it that it was was possibly a good concept that was poorly done.  I just think it could've been much better.  Perhaps fan fiction has fixed some of its flaws.  I don't really know though.

Book review

I just got done with this one the other day.  One of my Christmas presents if you remember my list of books I posted after Christmas.

The Explorer's Guild Jon Baird/Kevin Costner
It took me a while to get through this one; I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Not because it's a bad story. It's a little on the shallow side though. It takes place during WWI and it's about a group of renegade army deserters who set off to find the fabled city of Shambhala for the sake of the leader's brother. Several other groups are looking for the place for different reasons and all of their paths eventually converge in the climax. There are a lot of creative, fantastical elements and adventure with an Indian Jones feel. But it didn't seem like there was one main character for the reader to identify with and the idea of the club called the Explorer's Guild is more of a red herring that just hangs in the backdrop as almost a misleading title.

What caught me by surprise though is that it's a hybrid of novel and graphic novel. Most of the narration, diary entries, etc. was written out in text while the majority of the action and dialogue was illustrated in comic story-board form. It went back and forth between the two styles frequently which made it hard for me to concentrate on it. It was interesting while I was reading it but I was in no hurry to get back to it after I'd put it down.I've never been into the comic/graphic novel scene anyway which is probably why it seemed a little empty. I'm used to being more intimately acquainted with the characters by seeing their behavior processes based on their experiences patiently and thoughtfully written out. It was kind of like reading a book and watching the movie at the same time and my brain was finding it very distracting. Anything that could be considered a curse word had the vowels deleted as a way of, I guess, making it more of a PG atmosphere. But I'm not sure what good that does when you're viewing a printed page - you'd have to be illiterate to not know the words you're looking at and I wouldn't consider it a totally YA story anyway, so I don't see the point. That's not a complaint, just one of those things that seemed odd about it.

If you like graphic novels, I think you'd like this a lot more than I did though. Like I said, there was some good creativity and storytelling going on. It's just not something I think I'll read again or pursue if more of these are made. It says "volume 1" but that could just be a part of the atmosphere.

Star Trek TNG The Defector

Intense little episode that furthers the development of the Romulan-Federation affairs.  The story is based on the Cuban  Missile Crisis to set up a Cold War backdrop for these two races of the Star Trek universe.  Smart.  Not too whiny.  Good episode.

 The teaser scene that sets up Jorak's deception is one of Data studying human behavior through Shakespeare on the holodeck.  These kind of scenes became such a familial part of the episodes for the characters and for the audience.  And in this scene Stewart pulls double duty as Picard observing Data's interactions and one of the characters from Henry V.  Wonderful stuff.

Anyway to the story.  The Enterprise has to check out a Romulan scout ship that's strayed into the Neutral Zone with the pilot hailing them to ask for asylum.  Two Warbirds decloak and try to destroy it pushing it into Federation space.  They put up a show of force but leave without communication or a fight after the Enterprise takes the scout ship under its wing.

The pilot claims to be only a low ranking logistics officer and has come to tell them that the Romulans are ramping up for war with the Federation but he's uncomfortable with his new status as a defector and doesn't answer questions satisfactorily.

It's a nice fake-out as far as writing goes.  They have less and less reason to trust that what he's saying is the truth as the episode progresses.  His ship would seem to conveniently blow up before they can search it.  They find out from ongoing investigations that his escape was so easy that it could've been staged and that it's possible that his wounds are self inflicted.  He's also not as forthcoming with information as a person who is trying to warn the enemy about an invasion should be. It's a neat little mystery because they feed you true and false information throughout.

Their suspicions that he's merely a spy seem to be justified since all of the evidence fits and then another brushstroke is created when he talks about his genuine desire to make his world better for his children's sake.  See, this works so much better than the very same argument used in the previous episode because there's more depth and history with the Romulans instead of the new Acamarians that were created for that episode.  Roddenberry's vision was to jettison the Romulan and Klingon conflicts because he wanted to see new races and conflicts develop.  It happened eventually with the Cardassians, Bajorans, Domionon, Breen, etc... but what Roddenberry didn't understand is that the foundation that had been set in TOS wasn't sturdy enough and needed to be strengthened up in order to build onto it. So, they  finally backstepped in a creative manner to the way TOS was trying to emulate the cold war in the sixties so they could create a more complex and living story that could grow and evolve. And this episode as well as "The Enemy" were a start of this brand new dance.  It's a shame Roddenberry didn't live to see that this wasn't a rehash, or his conception of rehash, but a necessary bridge from TOS to TNG. Data takes Jorak to the holodeck to look at a particular natural wonder of his home planet.  I was always a little disappointed that we never go to see a lot of Romulus, but this scene demonstrates the new sorts of creativity that  would be taking place as the show progressed.

 Soon after it's revealed that Jorak is not Sublieutenant Setal (the name he'd given them) but an Admiral that is convinced that the Romulans have a secret base on a planet in the Neutral Zone and it genuinely worried that they intend to invade the Federation.  They give the name of the treaty that set up the Neutral Zone in this episode and Picard decides to go investigate.

There's oddly nobody around to be outraged by their blatant violation of the treaty by their crossing into the Neutral Zone and they quickly figure out that it's a trap to make the Federation look like the aggressors.  Jorak is, in fact, innocent having only been used to get the word out that the Romulans had a base so that the Enterprise would come snooping around and we get more of Commander Tomalak threatening them. The weak spot in this episode is that this is probably too soon after the episode "The Enemy" to continue these tensions, but it's not a big deal in the overall scheme of the seven seasons.  You find out that the Enterprise didn't go alone and the confrontation was avoided because they had cloaked Klingon back up ships with them.  Now this is the kind of chest beating that's much more interesting to watch than the stuff they had in the first season. It demonstrates that the Klingons can practice restraint in their role as allies to the Federation against the Romulans. It's also another excellent "gotcha" for Tomalak and another epic Picard standoff moment. 

It ends sadly with Jorak shocked to learn that he was just a tool to carry the false information across the Neutral Zone as a test of his loyalty to the sadistic Romulan government.  He then kills himself and leaves a note for his family that will probably never reach them.  It kind of sucks to end it on a downer like that, but it was just more evidence that Star Trek was finally growing up.

I have to give it four stars for the Picard and Tomalak showdown scene alone.  It's great stuff that just keeps getting better and better.

Star Trek TNG The Vengeance Factor

I admit, I don't know this episode as thoroughly as others.  I've always been a little bored by it, and I tend to either flip the channel when it comes on or else wander off and do housework while it's playing in the background.

It a Roddenberry classic type episode, but instead of having a lot of improvement, it sort of reminds me of the last two seasons.  It's not as bad, but it seems like there's a lot of tail chasing distraction throughout.  The Enterprise finds a ransacked Federation out post.  They figure out that the people responsible are likely an offshoot of the Acamarian race called Gatherers.  So they head that way.

On the way they pick up the Acamarian leader and you get the history of their wars and the way the Gatherers broke away continuing on as savages while everyone else became peaceful.  It just seemed to be slipping back into that oversimplification of story again.  Picard wants to help the Acamarians reunite with the Gatherers, and he seems to have forgotten that a Federation outpost had just been vandalized with things stolen from it.  I mean... wouldn't there need to be some legal repercussions for this that go over the Acarmarian government's head?  And then the captain just inserts himself uninvited into their domestic affairs.  Too pushy again.

And then when you see this bunch, they seem to be little more than thugs anyway.  It's not like the Vulcan-Romulan split that incorporates two equal forces that share common blood and history with complexity and a lot of thought put into it.  The Gatherer's broke away a hundred years ago according to this story and it would appear they haven't flourished into anything but roving gangs of criminals.  Still, Picard wants to start up some peace talks and brings Marouk down to their encampment... which seems kind of dangerous at the least.  I'm just not feeling it with this episode... the believably I mean.

One of the men in the encampment decides that it's time to negotiate and wants to send word to their official leader that this is going to take place.  Meanwhile he gets to hang out on the Enterprise and marvel over Wesley being so young and yet a bridge officer.  Really?  I thought we were over this in the first season.  The character of Wesley shouldn't be blamed for this kind of writing, but this is exactly why a lot of people like me don't like him.  You also find out he wants to support this reunification effort for his own children's sake even though he hasn't exhibited an ounce of maturity so far.  I mean, whatever, man.  Like I said, this all smacks of the vapidness of the previous seasons.

It does attempt a little complexity with Marouk's cook.  She kills one of the men in the encampment secretly which touches off an investigation into his death. You get a more detailed history of the Acamarians and how they were once divided into clans that all had blood feuds with each other, taking revenge against one another constantly.  Then they fill the space with this notion of slavery because Yuta is a very docile and submissive servant to Marouk.  Accusations are repeatedly made by the Gatherers about Acamarian slavery.  But it's all very vague and the only servant you see, Yuta, isn't badly treated on any level.  Riker's flirtation with her is very reminiscent of a Kirk style of romance as he wants her to be less submissive.

But, it really seems like Yuta is only a slave to her own existence as the arm of destruction against one of the old clans; the same clan of which the man she killed belonged too.  The science fiction of this and the whole investigation is a little desperate too.  At any rate they find out she was around back in the day and she's hunting down everyone from the Lornak clan that all but wiped out her own clan, Tralesta, and she's using her position as Marouk's servant to track down and find the last of them.

The Gatherer's leader, Chorgan, is of the Lornak clan as well and in the end Riker has to stop Yuta from exacting her vengeance by killing her... also reminiscent of a Kirk type of situation.  I guess the dramatic display brings both sides to an agreement after spending the entire episode arguing, which is not only like the classic over-simplicity of the first two seasons, but it never really shows it either so we're just left to assume it. It ends with Riker being sad about killing the pretty girl that he was interested in.

Like I said, I don't know about this episode.  Two and a half stars seems fair for the attempt as something more complex in the way of cultural development.  I don't actually hate the episode either.  It's just boring to me.