Star Trek TNG TIn Man

Second episode about an large, ship-like alien.  I gave Encounter At Farpoint a good rating, but it wasn't complex.  This episode makes a more detailed story of a "living spaceship."

It starts out with another hush hush kind of mission to investigate a star that's about to go supernova near Romulan space.  An advisor is sent aboard.  He's a Betazoid who has been used in many first contact missions, but his reputation was also tainted with a tragedy in which he was involved with but exonerated of guilt.  I was always interested when they'd take the time to explore Betazoids because even though you had Troi and Lwaxana, there wasn't much else done with them developmentally.  I guess it's because they're just like humans except that they're telepathic.  They squeeze a lot of interesting stuff into Tam Elbrun, the advisor.  He was Troi's patient at one time.  Betazoids aren't born reading minds... it's something that develops at puberty.  But Tam was born with his telepathic abilities at full steam and was never able to learn to close or filter his mind and it's lead him to a life of seclusion since he was unable to cope with the telepathic traffic that he'd been saddled with from birth.  This makes him emotionally unstable and really annoying since he just rattles off what everyone is thinking before they say it.  However, the audience can only feel sorry for him because the actor plays it with such sad overtones.  Of course, meeting Data is a breath of fresh air for him and they end up spending a lot of time together.

He briefs them about a probe that has revealed a vessel near the dying star that appears to be alive that has been christened "Tin Man"by Starfleet and that the mission is to make contact.  He's erratic and forgets to tell them at first that the Romulans have taken an interest to and that they'll be in a kind of race to get to Tin Man first.

They all question how they can trust him because of this distracted nature and their suspicion of the disaster he was involved in in which another ship was destroyed. This Ghorusda incident is never detailed; it's simply a launch point for exploring Tam's personal issues. Troi also figures out that Tam has been in contact with Tin Man even from the far distance they're at which would seem to make him untrustworthy, but not really since he's just so hypersensitive to feelings and emotions. The episode is full of this character's personal struggles and of being trapped in his own mind as it were.  I've always like it.  Tam is a character I identify with. Much of the episode is devoted to his depression and neurosis as well as discussions with Data about what the point of existence is and how to be happy.  Some may find all of this slow and dull and I understand that, but I've always had a layman interest in psychology and, of course, my faith so for me it's interesting filler material between the primary story and action sequences.  So my rating will be high while others would be lower simply because of a difference of opinion regarding the filler material.  The primary story itself is very good and exciting. Much more significant that the pilot episode.

A Romulan ship essentially sacrifices its own ability to ever get back home so that it can damage the Enterprise enough to slow it down and allow the Romulans to contact Tin Man first.  As is typical of Romulans they can't make a successful contact with it and secure it as their own, so they decide they want to destroy it prevent anyone else form having access to it.  The creature defends itself and damages the Enterprise as well by accident, but the Enterprise still moves to defend it against another Romulan attack.

They send Tam over with Data to see how they can help and try to talk the being into at least moving away from the volatile star.  Tam is overwhelmed with the emotion of this being but also feels a connection to it.  It is a being called Gomtuu that lived symbiotically with a crew that was killed by an explosion in space and now it's alone and intending to commit suicide via the supernova.  Tam can identify with the pain of feeling alone and isolated.

In the pilot episode the living ships could manipulate matter to make things appear out of nowhere like apples and cloth.  This was poor science fiction in all honesty, but in this episode the "magic" is more focused and limited to the ship. Gomtuu can shape shift within itself to create things convenient for its passengers like doors and chairs.  I love to see the concepts fixed and refined.

Anyway, Tam bonds with the ship to save it.  With a person living inside of it for Gomtuu to take care of, it has something to live for again.  And with only one consciousness inside of Tam's tortured mind, he is at peace and finds the point of his existence.  It's a happy ending.  Gomtuu gently pushes both the Enterprise and the Romulan ship away and moves on with Tam before the star explodes.  Where they go, nobody knows.

I admit, it's not for every one.  My rating is four stars because I liked it personally.  This is one of those episodes that may get a two star rating from someone else for being boring.  It really is just a matter of taste in this case.

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Childhood flashback

Omgoodness.. I work nights, so on Sunday I'm up long after the hubby is in bed and one Sunday I surfed into two of three movies that I watched a lot growing up.  The Adventures of The Wilderness Family and The Further Adventures of the Wilderness Family.  They weren't running the third in the set: Mountain Family Robinson. 

I hadn't seen these movies in, probably, 35 years.  I told my husband and he said, "Yeah, sometimes you see movies that you watched growing up and they turn out to not be as good."  That was the case when I YouTube surfed into Dot And The Kangaroo and Waterbabies, as I've blogged about before.  But, not in this case.  These movies still hold up. Can't find a lot of clips, but I think someone posted the entirety of the second one.

I read a review online that began, "A couple of hippies living in Los Angeles who were forced to grow up and get jobs when they had kids, decide they've had enough of the smoggy city and pack up their family to move to the Rocky Mountains." The reviewer was poking fun at it a little because a  lot of "back to nature" kid movies were being made, but he also went on to point out that it's one of the better ones because instead of being naive and making it look like a Disney cake walk, they face actual dangers.  I agree that it's all a little over dramatic at times, but it's a solid family movie.  And it could still work today... people do fantasize about living "off the grid."  Of course, in 1975 they didn't speak of the fact that there were no bathroom facilities so they most likely had to use an outhouse as well (mom washing clothes in the river..hmmm...)  But although the plot is very simple and cheesy, I like cheese when it's well done.  And this was a sweet and thoughtfully made movie.  Robert Logan is good and so were all the other actors.  It's where I first saw George "Buck" Flower before Back To The Future.

Admittedly, the second one is almost exactly the same as the first one, but for some reason it doesn't bother me.  In the first one they survive the outdoor life and a bear called Three Toes while the daughter gets sick, and in this one they survive the first winter and a wolf pack with the main wolf known as Scarface as the mom gets sick. Or the fact that they couldn't get the original daughter back so the daughter now becomes an older teenager. They realized that Boomer (Flower) was the most popular character so they give him more screen time in this one.  And the mother cries a lot again about how bad things always seem to happen.  Which of course they do, or there'd be no conflict.  So maybe they could've been better thought out with a plotline, but there's still so much to love.  Maybe because it takes me back to my childhood so much and I just can't bring myself to be too critical.

The third one deviates a little.  Instead of bears and wolves, the government comes to take their land away which is a more down to Earth threat.  I didn't see this one that night so I can't really remember what all went on after 35 years, but I remember not liking this one as much when I was a kid... probably because of the more realistic conflict.  I bet I'd like it more now.  I bet it wouldn't even be made now if it casts the guv'ment in a bad light.

But what brought the memories crashing back the most was the soundtrack.  I can't find the music it played in the first movie where the kids found a pair of mountain lion cubs and were running with them, but it's a banjo tune that I had running through my head for years without really remembering where I'd heard it until I watched this movie again.  It's always surreal when that happens... you know, it nearly brings tears.  But I'll post a couple of others that I did find.

The montage song, which I always remembered because it mentions the title of the movie.

Then there's Touch The Wind, which had been rolling around in my head all these years, but not clearly, so it was nice to hear it again.  This clip plays both the instrumental music that ran throughout the background of the movies and the version with lyrics that played at the end.  More nostalgic tears. Sigh...

Anyway, that's my childhood flashback for this week.  Wow.. it's a powerful one.  And I think I actually recommend these movies.

Groovy Tuesday

Just some 70's jams that I love...

Star Trek TNG Captain's Holiday

This was a fun episode, but not as good as it could've been.  I always enjoy watching it, but if I'm being objective, it has some flaws.

It's enjoyable because it's a Picard episode.  The first of many that revolve around a personal adventures of this character without the rest of the cast being involved too much.  In the previous seasons I'd voiced my concern about how they'd been trying to write Picard as the hero of the show like Captain Kirk was in TOS.  But this is different because instead of saving the day for the ship, crew and/or planet involved, he's playing the hero in a character development plot.  It also is critical in settling this character down to a primary hobby that he likes to focus his free time on. Heretofore we'd seen him fencing, painting, and playing detective on the Holodeck along with bringing up his interest in archeology. But archaeology is perfect for this character.  It seems very natural that he'd need to keep his mind constantly engaged with study and exploring of relics of some sort.  We also get to see how the crew has bonded.  They are able to harass him in a conspiratorial way into taking a vacation when it becomes obvious that he really needs one.  I don't see the uptight Captain Picard of season one being cajoled like this by the nearly mother-hen season-one Riker or the dramatically moody season-one Troi.  And I really don't see him being talked into going to Risa, the pleasure planet.

Even this concept is much more enjoyable now that the writing had matured some.  Yes, there's some innuendo and flirting, but instead of sex being the object of the silliness, the joke is a prank pulled on him by Riker.  Riker asks Picard to bring him back a Horga'hn as a souvenir and Picard, not knowing it is a love god, lets it sit out in the open next to him which attracts several of the resort's pleasure girls offering to service him.  It's another landmark in observing how the crew are comfortable with each other now.  And Picard's reactions are much more relaxed and smooth now than they would've been in a previous season.  It's not at all uncomfortable to watch and it's funny and light-hearted.

Of course, between the teaser scene where you first see a pair of people looking for Picard before he'd even been forced into a vacation and a strange woman kissing him the second he walks into the recreational area, you know that it's going to be a lot more interesting than just buddy pranks from his first officer.  This episode introduces Vash.  I like the concept of the show.  Picard was never meant to be the ladies man with a million conquests under his belt like Kirk, so they had to think out his affairs carefully, and I think this one was well done.  I just didn't care for the character of Vash.  I admit it's probably aesthetics... something about her looks or her voice just didn't fit in with her character and with the brief romance she shares with Picard.  She's a good actress for sure, the character just didn't click with me.

She picks out Picard to hide a disc on in attempt to ditch a Ferengi named Sovak.  He's the same actor that would go on to play Rom and I'm always fascinated by the way both he and the actor who would later play Quark were nearly undetectable in their early Ferengi roles.  It shows the evolution of the make up and the actor's abilities.  This is the first Ferengi role that starts to make a little more sense than any of the previous ones.  Sovak and Vash are business partners and although Sovak is still more of a violent, pirate type of person, the Ferengi race was slowly starting to transition into the smarmy business man type of persons.  Sovak accuses Picard and Vash of working together and at this point Picard really has no clue what he's talking about.

Until he gets tired of their nonsense and goes back to his room to find the two beings from the opening scene.  They introduce themselves as Vorgons from the 27th century and that they were historians that had traveled back through time because they knew that he, Picard, would find the object that they were looking for - the Tox Uthat - a device that could halt all nuclear fusion in a star; presumably a valuable weapon and since Picard was knowledgeable about its legend, he is curious.  They claimed that its inventor hid it on Risa in the 22nd century and Picard, having no reason to doubt them, agrees to hand it over to them if he should happen to find it.

Of course he could've just let it be, but then again, no he couldn't have because he's Picard and he finds the disc that Vash had hid in his pocket so he seeks her out to find out what she knew about the Tox Uthat.  She and Sovak were both apprentices to a scientist studying it and she left to find it without him so Picard offers to go with her to find it.  He finds out along the way that she's not entirely on the level as far as her motivations for finding the artifact go and that she can be devious, but he's still intrigued and they manage to brush off Sovak and go on their search for the artifact.

Like I said, the character of Picard would not normally be given over to fast and fleeting romances, but the fact that they share an interest in a historical artifact and are in the middle of and Indiana Jones-ish adventure stirs up Picard's wild side.  It's a believable and fun story.  The only problem I have is just that Vash seems like an inferior subject for his affections.  I know that seems shallow, but these things matter.  I don't think I'm alone as far as not being a Vash fan goes.  I understand that they were pairing the noble and honorable Picard with essentially a criminal which is a fun idea.  But she wasn't his equal... a little on the immature side for him. They go to a cave where the Vorgons show up to observe and Sovak shows up as well to threaten them.

Although everything indicated that it was there, they dig for a long time without finding anything.  The Vorgon's nervously retreat and Sovak goes crazy and starts digging for himself while Picard and Vash just go back to the resort.  But Picard isn't fooled and that's what makes this a great Picard episode.  He already knew Vash well enough to figure out that she'd found it when she first got to Risa and was just creating this situation to lose Sovak for good.  He catches up to her before she can leave the planet where she shows that she now had it hiding in a Horga'hn of her own.

The Vorgons also catch them with it and Vash reveals that the scientist's notes stated that Vorgon criminals tried to steal it.  When Picard asks them to prove their identities they do try to steal it. So Picard does the honorable thing and just destroys it rather than have it stolen by either the Vorgons or Vash.  They confirm that they knew that this was what he'd been destined to do and they'd posed as historical observers in order to get it away from him. Then they disappear without any further protest after having just threatened them moments before.  It's a little too convenient of an ending.  Of course, even though she's something of a criminal, Picard doesn't try to have her prosecuted or anything.  Probably because of their time together which although it's a nice ending, it kind of goes against Picard's nature for seeing that justice is always done.

So on the good side there's Picard's intelligence, cunning, coolness and a palpable passion for archaeology along with just the right amount of humor and a situation in which we can believe that Captain Picard could be swept away in a brief love affair.  On the bad side we have Vash and the simplistic ending of a kind of shaky time travel based story. I think I'll score it on technical merit this time and give it three and a half stars. 

Uniform Swap

This may be my last post for the week.  The husband is on Spring Break, so my time will be preoccupied with him.

In Star Trek TNG, they made several references to its predecessor and had the occasional TOS guest character on.  Deep Space Nine had it's own way of reaching back to TOS to pay homage to it.  It was able, due to advancing CG technology, return to Kirk's Enterprise in the episode Trials and Tribble-ations and it was a great episode in my opinion. But what everyone thinks of the episode isn't really relevant.  I'm pretty sure everyone,whether they liked it or not, could get a measure of satisfaction in seeing the newest characters in the Star Trek universe dressed in the classic uniforms.  I was looking for pictures to go with my last TNG episode post when I stumbled onto fan created pictures of characters dressed in uniforms from other Star Trek shows and this confirms that I'm not the only one who really enjoys this kind of change up.  It was also addictive... I couldn't stop scrolling through to look at them. So, the rest of what I'm posting is a collection of fan created uniform swapping which has nothing to do with this episode of DS9, but it seemed like a good place to start.

Now, obviously, some of the photo shopping in these pictures isn't very good, while others are excellent.  And the rank insignia doesn't always match up because heads have been placed on lower ranking bodies, but the point is that it's fun to re-imagine how characters would look if they were in other series while in their prime.  I'll try to keep individual characters grouped together so it's not too random.

Starting with group shots.  And the middle one is simply an idea of what everyone would've looked like if they'd kept with the original series color scheme which is very appealing indeed.

Spock

Captains

Doctors

And all the rest.

And I almost forgot Michael Dorn made up into a classic Klingon