Star Trek TNG Family

And then there's the follow up episode.  It's been called the unofficial third part of The Best of Both Worlds, but I'd call it an early foray into episode arcing. 

They were taking kind of a chance doing an episode like this so soon after the high octane season finale/opener.  It's entirely devoted to character development with no sci-fi subplot whatsoever.  Even in The Icarus Factor, the first primarily character development episode, there was a small subplot involving Geordi trying to take care of some minor read-out anomalies in engineering. But this episode is a home run and helps the audience to become as invested in the characters as they are in the science fiction.  But there's a flavor of science fiction in it with the creation of the space age French landscape. Just enough to remind you that this isn't a 20th century family drama show. There are three plotlines in this episode, the main one being Picard's vacation. It's inferred that he'd being getting counseling since the Borg experience and also that some time has passed since his nightmares have now stopped. He's willing to take time off in this episode and plans to go home since they're docked at Earth. Troi teases him for his choices because she knows he still has some healing to do, but I never really liked that scene for some reason. 

The secondary plot is the visit of Worf's parents.  This was a pretty brilliant move.  So far we've had just the facts.  Worf was adopted by humans and Worf is all-in for his Klingon heritage. This leads to a natural awkwardness as it's obvious that Worf honors his parents, loves and respects them but at the same time he's 100% Klingon and that culture is completely different from this sweet, doting, old Russian couple, Sergey and Helena Rozhenka. They're more outgoing than Worf and the fact that they love to talk a lot, mostly about their son as proud parents do, is a source of discomfort for Worf who is established now as a very private person. O'Brien also receives his full name in this episode, Miles Edward O'Brien which, although it's only a small development, adds layers to the crew of the Enterprise.

Picard is greeted by his nephew Robert (pronounced Roh-BEAR)and even though he's not famous for getting along with children, he quickly develops a natural rapport with Robert.  His sister-in-law is happy to see him as well but his brother René is not there to greet him and then we get the first hint of Picard's own awkward family conflict confirmed when he goes out looking for René in the vineyards only to meet a very cold reception.

The third plotline in this episode is of Beverly having a suitcase delivered to her from Earth containing some of Jack Crusher's belongings and a holographic message for Wesley that he'd recorded when he was born. So she briefly debates with Troi on whether or not it would be good for Wesley to see this message, the idea being that he's only just gotten over his father's death so it may hurt him again.  But not much had been said about Jack's death except in the episode The Bonding and at that point Wesley seemed to being doing just fine. It's more weak writing for Wesley, but it's such a small sub plot in this episode that it is actually okay and it's realistic - people often record messages for their children when they're born and even though they weren't using Wesley to his full potential as a character, this was a necessary development to focus on. The rest of the episode for the secondary plot is simple, but heart-felt.  Sergey and Helena are worried about Worf since his discommendation but are hesitant to talk to him directly since he seems so embarrassed by their presence. So they talk to others for advice on how to help him. The most memorable moment being their talk with Guinan when she tells them that Worf likes prune juice and that their influence on him is more appreciated than they know. 

The story of Jean Luc and René Picard is delightfully more complex though.  At first René seems like a bully who is ashamed of the captain for leaving the family business of wine making.  He is constantly pushing at him with what seems like jealousy on his part because Jean Luc has become such a great success in Starfleet and would appear to be completely unwilling to entertain the notion of his own son, Robert choosing that path as well.  When a man from the city comes to visit and offers Jean Luc a position as head of a research station, René brow beats him for wanting attention and accolades after his the Enterprise's recent victory. It's obvious to everyone that he wants no such thing, however he is tempted by the offer while shutting down René's attempts to draw out of him the details of his experience with the Borg. And why would he want to confide in someone who's treating him like that anyway?  It's a good, detailed episode examining the psychological journey of Captain Picard's recovery that's better to watch than to read about in a review like this.

Wesley finally gets to see the message from his father and Worf and his parents finally have a long talk about his discommendation and we first learn of how Worf expects to bear this dishonor alone as is the Klingon tradition.  But, of course, his parents love him anyway, and won't desert him to this kind of self inflicted banishment from the family.  Both moments are tender and touching.

On Earth though, tough love is what is needed to help the captain come to terms with his situation.  René eventually provokes a fist fight in the mud which ends in Jean Luc finally opening up about how the Borg violated him. It's genuinely heartbreaking to watch the confession of a man who is always in control of his circumstances lose control while remembering how his self control was stolen from him by the Borg.  And it's appropriate for him to lose control around a close family member. You get the idea he probably wasn't this open with Troi. It's excellent writing that makes sense.  You then see that René doesn't hate his brother after all. On the contrary, he knows his brother all too well in fact. He could tell when Jean Luc returned that he was weakened and in danger of succumbing to living out his life in a lackluster manner on Earth that wasn't befitting of him and all of his accomplishments to date. In truth he's very proud of his brother and knew that he had to snap him out of his mental malaise and potential stagnation. It soon becomes a tender and touching moment although it's more manly and not as warm and fuzzy as the other plots. Very satisfying.

 The episode has a peaceful and feel-good ending on all fronts, complete with little Robert dreaming of the stars which would indicate that René may not be entirely closed to the option of his son joining Starfleet one day.  As an aside, the actor that played Robert would later, by chance, play a younger version of Picard in the episode Rascals, so it kind of comes full circle for Robert without even trying.  A complete 180 degree turn after the fast paced, action packed beginning to the season, but it works on a lot of levels. It was much more meaningful and full of depth than The Icarus Factor, which was a decent try, but a touch on the shallow side.  I see no reason not to award this five stars.

Book Review

The Federalist Papers

Well, I worked hard and bullied my brain into taking in the 85 Federalist Papers over the past few months. I prefer fiction to non, so this was quite an undertaking, but it's a task I strongly recommend to everyone. We weren't taught the Papers in school. If they were even glanced over, I barely remember it. If you think that the country is suffering and on the verge of collapse at this moment and you don't know what you can do except vote, then do the one thing that nobody can do for you - educate yourself.

 The Federalist Papers are a hard read, admittedly. Even if you've been to college. But, they are worth every moment of the time you spend on them. The copy I have even comes with the U.S. Constitution in the back. (You can never have too many copies of that either!) The Papers are enlightening and will make you think very hard about the deformation of our government which is taking place.

 They were originally published in four New York newspapers over the course of a year and were essentially op-ed pieces that rebutted the anti-Federalist propaganda. They are all short, most of them only a few pages long. They are presented in an orderly fashion, moving from one topic to the next concerning a central government and how it is meant to function sometimes in general, sometimes in specific. Hamilton wrote the bulk of them, followed by Madison and only a small contribution was made by Jay; I prefer Madison's papers personally. If you don't have the time to read, I've chosen three that I think are the most important. Federalists 10, 45, and 46 are the one's I've marked as being the most useful in defining the way our country is intended to be governed.

 I would encourage everyone to make an effort to read and understand The Federalist Papers, even if it means running to a dictionary every 10 minutes for you. You can try to be cool and say that you don't get involved in politics, but the fact is, we live politics every day whether we acknowledge it or not.

I'll end my recommendation with some quotes I was writing down as I was studying the Papers. These quotes alone may make you want to read up on your history.

"The fabric of American Empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE" (sic) -Hamilton, letter 22

"If this spirit shall ever be so far debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the Legislative as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate anything but liberty." -Madison, letter 57

"The rights of neutrality will only be respected, when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits the privilege of being neutral." -Hamilton, letter 11

"Let us recollect, that peace or war, will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others." -Hamilton, letter 34

"To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude, that the fiery and destructive passions of war, reign in the human breast, with much more powerful sway, than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace; and, that to model our political systems upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character." -Hamilton, letter 34

"A constitution is in fact, and must be, regarded by the judges as a fundamental law." -Hamilton, letter78

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulged, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is to-day can guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known and less fixed?" (sic) - Madison, letter 62

Dark Shadows Character Profile: Willie Loomis

Willie Loomis, played by John Karlen.  He was the most major supporting character of the show.

He wasn't always played by Karlen though.  When the character was first introduced as a thug side-kick of Jason McGuire he was played by a different young man, James Hall, who definitely had the greasy, reprobate look down pat.  But looking back on it he doesn't seem right. A little too handsome and even a little too mean spirited and violent.

But he wasn't in it very long (5 episodes) before they brought Karlen in.  He was a punk too, but he had a much more expressive face that betrayed a hint of innocence as well and didn't seem as slavishly devoted to Jason even though his allegiance was about to change.  This Willie wasn't as much of a creeper as the first one.  He was merely eaten up with greed for money and jewels.  The old Willie is the first to see the Barnabas portrait and be mesmerized by his ring.  They have Karlen mooning over the ring too just before the introduction of Barnabas.

And history was made.  Barnabas was introduced and Willie was changed forever.

 When the Barnabas story was thought up, it was just going to be a quick copy of Dracula and was only meant to run for a few weeks, ending in the staking of the vampire.  Willie was written in as the Renfield character to Barnabas' Dracula.  At first he was indeed crazy from the bite he received from Barnabas. (On the arm of course.. lol.. a man biting a man on the neck in the 60's would probably have been a little weird.)  Karlen poured a ton of energy into the character too.  He fell right into the over the top melodrama like he'd been there all his life and was one of the very best at always delivering his lines without too many mistakes.  You could believe Barnabas was beating him mercilessly with his cane even though it didn't look very real while it was happening.  The other characters noticed a change in his demeanor too.

And his character's personality also evolved.  Although Barnabas had him doing all of his dirty work in kidnapping Maggie and building her prison and keeping her there, he protected Barnabas loyally in spite of this use and abuse, and he also became a kind of conscience to Barnabas the longer they kept this story going.  .

Always in the servant role, you almost couldn't have Barnabas without Willie as well.  They sent his character away to an asylum after Victoria Winters was removed into the past to see the history of Barnabas play out so that his best foil, Julia Hoffman could come in to try to cure him of his vampirism.  But once that failed they retrieved him and he never left again.  How could he?

Once it became impossible for Barnabas to be a bad guy again, Willie was a servant, but a willing servant like Julia. They became the greatest team on the show in any time period.

The best job they did of changing his character up a little in the Parallel Time story.  They made him an unsuccessful, alcoholic writer who was unhappily married to Carolyn and then they as a married team became Barnabas' slaves.  Carolyn was much more eager of course and bored with her husband as the sexualizing of the vampire bite was becoming more acceptable. But he wasn't as engaging like this.  Not as high strung.  And it was that high strung quality that made him so appealing.

He was later paired with Carolyn again as Kendrick Young and he did eventually get "promoted" to a Collins in 1840 as Desmond Collins.  And he starts out serious but becomes slightly crazy because of the head of Judas Zachary which gives him that "Willie" personality we all loved.  Obviously, like all of the others, he wasn't used to his fullest potential and I have no doubt he would've done fine acting without the underlying crazy tendencies of all the characters, but the familiarity was comforting in this case. His character was supporting but it was also main since the stories wouldn't have been the same without him.

Willie may be my favorite character on the show.  He was vital to the magic that it produced and the fan base it created.

Star Trek TNG The Best Of Both World's Part 2

Phew!  Looks like Stewart didn't leave the show after all!  Amusing bit of trivia - the guy who wrote the first part thought it would be his last script and when Roddenberry asked him to stay he had to write his way out of all the knots he'd made in the first part.

Of course, it seems very easy to make sense of why the deflector shield weapon doesn't work.  Once they assimilated Picard they also assimilated knowledge of any preparations for battle that the Enterprise crew had been working on hitherto.  The Borg then break off the engagement and resume their course towards Earth. They quickly inform Admiral Hanson who declares Picard to be a casualty of war implying that there should be no further attempts to recover him.  Riker is officially promoted and they continue to try to find a way to neutralize the Borg in which the Borg can't adapt to.  Meanwhile the Admiral is preparing for battle at Wolf 359.  This story was originally supposed to be a three episode arc with this battle at Wolf 359 being shown.  However, budget constraints made it impossible and although I think it would've been very cool, I also think it would've probably been too big of a bite at the time. They were only just getting to the point of fine tuning the pace of the shows. Wolf 359 was also a bridging point between TNG and DS9, when it is later written as the incident that results in the death of Commander Sisko's wife causing tension between Sisko and Picard at the beginning of that show.

And all of our hearts collectively break as we see Locutus being further worked on inside the Borg cube with but a single tear rolling down his face to show the audience that Picard was still inside there somewhere.  I'd like to think that's why the Borg chose to move onto Earth without destroying the Enterprise first which would've been a better strategy for them since this Enterprise has been nothing but trouble since their first encounter.  Riker reluctantly promotes Shelby to first officer because of her Borg expertise and they put aside their childish feuding for now.  You can tell that this wasn't what Shelby had in mind for landing the spot of first officer of the Enterprise and her character grows up a little.

Then Riker, at the suggestion of Guinan, has to start thinking of how to form his own strategies that Picard wouldn't be able to anticipate.  It's a good scene that I can't really describe well.  It's filler space for what is the second part of an essentially hour long episode, but it's necessary.  I got confused yesterday and slipped in that picture of the aftermath of the battle of Wolf 359.  Riker's instincts are validated as one of the destroyed vessels they pass is the ship that he was being offered command of in the first part.  This is the devastation of war.  This is something they wouldn't touch with a 50 foot pole in the first season. Instead they tried to make every conflict about an outbreak of disease or saving a planet from natural disasters or always being able to reach an accord with diplomacy because they so desperately wanted the Star Trek universe to be a utopia without war.  It's something that can't happen in real life on Earth, so it wouldn't happen in this science fiction universe either, and it was high time a little reality was faced. The result raises the bar of quality for all the storylines and gives the fans something to really commit to on behalf of their beloved characters.

But, of course, the Enterprise still wants Picard back whether or not Starfleet will approve so Riker tweaks a plan that Picard had knowledge of before his capture.  They separate the saucer for the last time in the series.  I guess they feel they'd overused it, but this was definitely the best use of it... much more like what it was intended to be used for, I'm sure. Picard watches on, ignoring the saucer section while they make a distraction to send out a shuttle pod.

It shows once again how the biggest weakness of the Borg is how they underestimate individual beings.  Worf and Data are able to sneak in and steal Picard back.  Then we get to see Picard walking around acting like a Borg.  It's so wonderfully terrible.  The phrase, "you will be assimilated" is first used in this episode and married forever to "resistance is futile" making it the most popular catchphrase since Peace and Long Life/ Live Long and Prosper.  This is such a great episode.  They shut Locutus down but are afraid that severing the link between he and the Collective will kill Picard.  It's Data that wants to reverse the process and try to establish a link with the Collective via Locutus.  In the original draft, both Picard and Data were supposed to be assimilated and I think the writer is glad he didn't go with that now after all.  This is a smart, fast paced script.

And they run it right down to the end.  You see the Borg cube passing Saturn and headed for Earth in the heart pounding, breath holding climax.  It's just such a nice touch to add the threat to our home solar system in a science fictions show that's about exploring the unknown and being as far away from Earth as possible in most shows.  The Borg are faster than the Enterprise and pass the Mars defense perimeter with no chance of them catching up.

As the clock is counting down they connect Data and Locutus with Troi standing by to sense if they are able to contact Picard's mind.  It's a power struggle. They try to implant commands that will confuse the Borg, but they're all too complex or otherwise detrimental to their mission.  And then we stand up and cheer when Picard reaches out to Data and tells him to implant the command "Sleep." All of this while the Enterprise is gearing up for its final Kamikaze maneuver to crash into the Borg cube.  One of the most exciting endings ever. I can't even say that they ever effectively duplicated the intensity of a finally ever again.

It's a great commentary on how computers work.  They implant the command just in time to shut the Borg cube down and put it in a state of hibernation.  Once more, an away team is sent to confirm this and they discover that the command has caused a power feedback that will make the cube self destruct.  Again, Riker makes the hard choice to allow that to happen even though their destruction will eliminate their opportunity to study their enemy and probably kill Picard.  But, of course, it doesn't.  Picard is left reeling, but out from under the Borg control.  My guess is that the severing of their connection wasn't fatal because he was slowly starting to draw away from it on his own when he made contact with Data.

And his recovery involves those skin plates that were probably the idea behind the make up job of 7 of 9 in Star Trek Voyager when she's broken away from the Borg.  And even though it's a happy ending they don't have Stewart playing it off as "all in a day's work" but rather with the dark weariness of someone who has been heinously traumatized.  Very real; very relateable.

The other season finales were of equal excellence, but I think this one is still the best.  It opened up a lot of avenues and cemented for TNG an original antagonist all of its own so that they could grow beyond the political tensions of TOS as Roddenberry envisioned. And it was done without discarding all of the old races in spite of that vision, giving it real depth. Five stars all the way.