I loved this episode!! This is one of the best episodes in the series in my opinion. It's one of the most accurate portrayals of time travel and kind of a Doctor Crusher episode too!
The opening is exciting enough! It starts with the Enterprise having suffered heavy damage. They need to eject the warp core but there's really no time. Picard orders all hands to abandon ship. Too late though... the Enterprise is destroyed in the first scene before the opening credits.
But then we realized that the episode started at the "end" so to speak as the activity leading up to the fatal accident is recounted. The senior officer poker game is going on like normal. Crusher is called away to tend to Geordi who is experiencing dizziness. She feels a moment of déjà vu when she gives him a hypospray, but thinks nothing of it. Later that night she's tending a plant and having a night cap before she goes to bed. While in bed she hears the whispers of many voices and as she sits up to put on the light, she knocks her drink over. The next day in the briefing room, the staff is gathered together to discuss a plan for charting the system they're in. She reports the voices and everyone is interested but they're interrupted by Worf who is on the bridge and has discovered what appears to be a disturbance in the space-time continuum.
Picard begins with the command to back away slowly but the thrusters aren't responding. Then a ship appears from the void on a collision course. Riker suggests decompressing the main shuttle bay to push it off course while Data recommends the tractor beam to alter its course. Picard goes with Data's suggestion, but it doesn't work. The ships collide and the events of the opening scene begin to repeat ending in the destruction of the Enterprise again.
The day repeats again, beginning with the poker game. With most of the same dialogue regarding the friendly teasing the officers engage in while playing...playful accusations of stacking the deck and such. Frakes directed this episode and for each repeat of the events he filmed it at different angles to try and keep in fresh and interesting. And I can see how this would be difficult episode to tackle because of the repetitive nature of the story. But this is why it's such a good "time anomaly" episode. Right up there with Yesterday's Enterprise. If people were traveling through time, they wouldn't be aware of it. But, of course the crew of the Enterprise are more intelligent and curious than others would be. They become disturbed by the déjà vu they are experiencing. Riker uncomfortably realizes that he knew Beverly was bluffing and folds. It's enough to make them wonder if there's any truth to their playful cheating innuendo, but they trust each other too much to believe that. Geordi's inner ear infection plays out again with Beverly wondering if she'd treated him before and that night when she hears the voices, she goes to Picard's quarters to talk about it. He feels like he's read passages out of his book before, but overall they just talk themselves back down into feeling comfortable, as though they've overreacted. The next day Beverly not only reports the voices but discovers that ten other people on board have heard the voices too. Before anything can be done though, they're contacted from the bridge by Worf announcing the space-time disturbance and all is lost once again.
The day starts over at the poker game with Beverly calling the cards as Data deals them to the astonishment of Worf and Riker. She then calls sickbay to see if Geordi is there. He isn't, but they contact her again shortly to tell her he's there. She calls for Picard and puts Geordi's VISOR on a scanning device while asking Picard if he's been experiencing the déjà vu. He says that he has and that many others have as well. She examines the VISOR instead of hunting for inner ear infections and finds out that his dizziness is being caused by phase shifts in the visual receptors, seeing things that didn't exist like the voices that Beverly was hearing that weren't really there. The distortions were found in the surrounding dekyon field. Beverly knows she's onto something and stands in her room waiting for the voices this time. She records them and takes them to Geordi and Data and they confirm that they are thousands of voices coming from everyone on the ship. Beverly calls the staff meeting early the next day so that everyone is there. Geordi has been able to isolate some of the voices off the recording including the order to abandon ship. He postulates the theory that the destruction of the Enterprise has caused them to rupture space-time resulting in a temporal causality loop, which explains the déjà vu, the dekyon disturbance, and the thousands of overlapped voices. They realize that changing their course now may not solve anything, so they continue. But they also realize that they won't remember all of this if it should happen again.
So they suggest modifying a dekyon emission that could leave an echo in Data's brain with a message of some kind. The events play out again towards their destruction, but this time on the brink of the explosion Data is seen typing the message into the dekyon emitter on his arm. When the day begins to play out again, along with the déjà vu, they are now deluged with the number 3. Three and it's multiples turn up in Data's deal of the cards, surprising Beverly who was thinking she could predict what was coming. The number 3 overwhelms a console where Geordi is preforming a diagnostic. The events continue with Beverly reporting voices but now there are also reports of the strange repetition of the number three.
They are called to the bridge to once more go through the distortion and consequential danger. When the ship emerges, Riker and Data repeat their suggestions again, but as Data is getting ready to activate the tractor beam he glances at the three pips on Riker's collar and deduces that the message means that Riker's suggestion is the correct one. He decompresses the shuttle bay, the ships don't collide, and they have a chance to breath finally. After accessing a time beacon, they realize that they've been in the loop for 17 days. The ship they've encountered is a Starfleet vessel that hasn't been in commission for over 80 years. They hail them and they each offer assistance to each other. Captain Batesman's story is similar... they encountered a time distortion in the expanse and then the Enterprise suddenly appeared on a collision course. Picard explains that it was a causality loop and that they've been caught in it as well. Although Batesman doesn't recognize the Enterprise's design, he thinks that he must be mistaken since they'd left their starbase only weeks ago. Picard then asks him what the year is and we discover the year he believes it to be is somewhere between the first and second TOS movies which explains their uniforms. It ends with Picard inviting the captain aboard for a long talk.
The brilliance of this episode is its simplicity. The actual disaster "friendly fire." Two ships were too close to each other without knowing it and collided. And even though we here the same "captain's log" repeated over and over as well as much of the rest of the dialogue it's no less intense from one "day" to the next since we can see that they're always on the verge of solving the problem. It's just a lot of fun to watch. There's no deep meaning or message. It fixes the problems with the episode Time Squared, which had a similar theme. And the way it was written and directed make it worthy of five stars even though it's only a one-off episode.
Entranced by Mojo videos again today while looking for John Williams stuff only. But I found a lot of compilations of great movie scores. And they all end with John Williams anyway! I love instrumental music scores.
First composers in general.
A couple of top 10 instrumental scores.
And a top ten of John Williams exclusively. I only would've put Superman a little higher on the list since I think it's his most technically perfect score.
More John Williams please...
Tracklist:
0:00 Theme from "Schindler's List" (Reprise)
2:49 "With Malice Towards None" (from Lincoln)
4:31 Aunt Marge's Waltz (from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
6:43 The Arrival at Tatooine (from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace)
8:32 Theme from Jurassic Park
11:39 Main Title (from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)
16:55 The Jedi Steps and Finale (from Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens)
18:52 Return to Tatooine (from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones)
19:16 Duel of the Fates (from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace)
20:23 Holiday Flight (from Home Alone)
21:19 Theme from Superman (Main Title)
25:40 Hymn to the Fallen (from Saving Private Ryan)
31:24 The Raiders March (from Raiders of the Lost Ark)
36:28 Theme from Far and Away
41:57 Anakin vs Obi-Wan (from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith)
45:44 Hedwig's Theme (from Harry Potter and the Philisopher's Stone)
46:30 Leaving Hogwarts (from Harry Potter and the Philisopher's Stone)
48:41 Cadillac of the Skies (from Empire of the Sun)
53:31 Luke and Leia (from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi)
58:11 Main Title (Theme from Jaws)
1:00:20 Flight to Neverland (from Hook)
1:05:00 Cantina Band (from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)
1:07:40 Han and Leia (from Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens)
1:09:13 March of the Resistance (from Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens)
1:09:44 Becoming a Geisha (from Memoirs of a Geisha)
1:14:33 Across the Stars (from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones)
1:19:57 Prologue (from Harry Potter and the Philisopher's Stone)
1:22:05 Harry's Wondrous World (from Harry Potter and the Philisopher's Stone)
1:27:14 Flying Theme (from E.T.)
Okay, so the only review I ever wrote of the Harry Potter books was a
review for the entire set. I've never reviewed them one by one and
since I'm re-reading the series for the first time in a few years, I
thought I'd give a go at reviewing them one by one. If you're one of the
few people in the world who haven't read it, beware of some spoilers.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
This book wasn't received as well with the audience. There were complaints about it being too dark and too much of a downer. I'd also seen a review of a disgruntled reader saying that the ending wasn't anything we couldn't have guessed anyway. When I did my overall review I even called this one the "Empire Strikes Back" of the series because although it was necessary to the story, not a lot got accomplished. But this is actually an important book in the series. The character development is critical, plus the rest of the characters for the bad guys' side are introduced with a few new good guys to round out the playing field and the final goal is made crystal clear. To the complaint of it being too much of a downer, I give a twofold argument. First, it's easy to forget the general anxiety involved in being fifteen years old to begin with. The desire to be treated as an adult when the adults would rather not do that yet is part of the stifling growing pains we all had to go through. And, in this case, that frustration is coupled with the fact that Harry had already had to grow up faster than the other characters due to the situations he'd faced since discovering his place in the magical world. The anger at suffering a severe traumatic episode and then having to deal with the resulting emotions alone in a place where he's not wanted for two months and the confusion of being summarily ignored by his unshakeable mentor, Dumbledore puts the protagonist under considerable pressure. Is it embarrassing and unseemly that the hero is so self-absorbed, moody, and reckless throughout this piece? Probably, but it's true to life. Maybe that's why it makes people uncomfortable. But, it was also necessary to swing the momentum in favor of the antagonist. Good, protracted story telling is not all happy endings with super heroes that are only dealt minor setbacks. Voldemort can't be seen as a great threat until he's seen being truly threatening and claiming some victory, beginning at the climax of Goblet of Fire and continuing through the end of Order of the Phoenix. This isn't the first book in which a character dies, but it's the first in which a character dies that the reader has an emotional investment in. And the blame lies as much with the heroes as the villains. It compounds the complexity of the story. And the prophecy itself was no less complex. Was it obvious that Harry is discovered to be the chosen one - something that we all could've guessed anyway? Perhaps, but the unique difference made clear in this ending is that he wasn't chosen by the gods, the good guys or the guesswork of a prophet, but by Voldemort himself. It ties in with the first book, giving a more thorough explanation of his scar and also elevates the importance of Neville Longbottom, who some may have always wondered what the point of that character was except to be the token bullied wimp. No, this book is not so much dark as deep. More gets accomplished than one can see this early in the series and all of it necessary for Harry to defeat Voldemort in the end.
Of course, I can't deny it's one of the most stressful books. Definitely Harry's worst year since the second. In the cross-hairs of the magical government that is trying to deny Voldemort's return for PR sake, he is on the wrong side of everything again, but this time but the emotional toll it takes is magnified almost beyond endurance and causes him to become obsessive, paranoid, and to make a lot of bad decisions that make his life harder. Professor Umbridge is one of the very best antagonists ever created. She's more believable than Voldemort, because people like her really exist and her presence gives the story nail biting intensity. It has one of the most exciting openings (along with the seventh book) of the whole series with the dementor attack and the crumbling of the wall between Harry's magic world and muggle world. All of the lines concerning the Dursleys, Snape, Harry's father, and even Harry's purpose in the world that seemed to be so clearly defined are suddenly blurred. All except for the unwavering presence of Dumbledore and his omniscient ability to be the architect of delaying Voldemort's plans, the protector of Harry, and the wizened guide who makes sense of everything that happens in the end of the books. But there are hints in this book that he is not entirely infallible. Although he still protects Harry once again in the end, he must credit his own selfishness for serious mistakes that were made and his explanations come too late to prevent the death and damages done which begins to shake this foundation as well, leaving the reader the feeling that nothing is certain anymore.
But it's not without it's comical moments. Introducing more new and fascinating places and elements of the magical world is always comfort food for the story. After seeing how a normal good wizarding family lives at the Burrow, we see the house that once belonged to dark wizards in the run down Grimmauld Place with a shrieking painting that is hysterical every time I read through those passages. The Room of Requirement within Hogwarts castle is one of the greatest
ideas ever set in writing, enabling a secret hiding place that would be
used to great effect not only in this book but in the two that follow. The magical world also has tabloids which is a nice twist and makes the magical world not so different from our own. Instead of Weekly World News reporting on a half man-half alligator, the Quibbler reports on equally far fetched notions. Just because they live in a magical world doesn't mean that every magical phenomenon or notion is credible - you just can't help but marvel at these levels of depth. St. Mungo's the hospital that had been mentioned before is finally experienced and is used for the most part to inject some comedy into otherwise serious circumstances, but the creativity of how it's hidden and it's many uses is brilliant as well, along with the Ministry of Magic. Even though it's filled to the brim with jackass politicians and bureaucrats, seeing the layout and the different aspects is still so delightfully unique and interesting, from Arthur Weasly's little office, to the dungeon courtrooms glimpsed in the last book, to the Department of Mysteries, even to the interoffice memos. Top it all off with Grawp, the O.W.L examinations, Ron's first foray into Quidditch, and way the Weasly twins depart from the school to pursue their dream of owning a joke shop and there's just as much to love and cheer in this book as there is to lament and grieve.
So, the very short conclusion of this is that Order of the Phoenix definitely turns this world up on its end and is the beginning drop of a whirlwind roller coaster speeding to the finale.
Ah yes, their "hurray for gay" episode. I haven't been looking forward to reviewing this one. Not just because I disapprove of homosexuality, but it because it was so predictable. It couldn't have played out or ended up any other way than it did.
The Enterprise is contacted by an androgynous race called the J'naii to help investigate the disappearance of one of their shuttle craft in their own space. The Enterprise launches a probe which also stops transmitting and appears to vanish. So it's a nice little benign mystery to get started with. The Enterprise crew and several J'naii scientists work together to discover that there is a patch of "null space" out there which was only theoretical up til now. It's a naturally cloaked pocket of space that is full of bright light and condensed gravity fields and sucks up all energy from anything that enters it. They believe the J'naii shuttle is trapped in there and form a plan to go and rescue it. A J'naii pilot named Soren, who is an equally accomplished pilot insists on going with commander Riker. That's the background the show works against.
Riker and Soren work closely together and Soren is curious about human sexuality and the separate genders. They have a long and somewhat awkward conversation about it in Ten Forward as Riker describes the purpose of the sexes to satisfy Soren's continued questioning. One of Soren's colleagues, Krite, shows up and looks suspiciously at their casual manner. When Krite approaches, Soren becomes very formal and bids Riker goodbye.
And it continues as they get to work in the shuttle, charting the patch of null space so they can proceed with the rescue mission. Talking about the sex act itself. Mating. Procreation. A debate on whose procreation methods are more enjoyable - humans or J'naii? The entire episode is essentially about sex. Riker is uncomfortable but also aroused because he's Riker. He's the sex expert on this show like Kirk of old and she seems to be obviously leaning female and attracted to him, so of course his interest is piqued. She also gives the history of the J'naii; that they once had genders but evolved beyond that. As though there's something wrong with men being men and women being women. That part is typical of the Star Trek brand. The shuttle engine is damaged and they have to return to sick bay where Soren gets the woman's perspective on gender and what it's like to be a woman trying to attract a man as well as some more preaching on gender equality.
Of course we have to get in some more normalcy shaming at the poker game. They put this burden on Worf so it's not so obvious that they're shaming straight people for being uncomfortable with homosexuality. Worf is uncomfortable with the genderless species because of his
stereotypical (i.e. normal) views of men and women. In this case, it is
absurd that anyone would be bothered by the J'naii, because they've
certainly encountered stranger aliens than them before (as well as androgynous, btw.) And this is supposed to
translate into how absurd it is to be uncomfortable with homosexuals. I'm sorry, but the fact is that even straight people who are the most sincere and die-hard gay rights activists are uncomfortable with homosexuality whether they want to admit it or not. If they weren't we'd all be naturally bisexual, right? These straight activists would date their own gender in a pinch, right? Why not? It must be because it feels unnatural to them. There's nothing wrong with feeling uncomfortable about homosexuality. I don't understand why gays don't have "rights" unless they can openly display what makes a vast majority of people uncomfortable for the express sake of making them uncomfortable. Because that's all it's really about. Yes, there was a time when a gay person may have gotten beaten up for being open about it, but most people don't care anymore and really just don't want to hear about it anymore than they want to know about their parents' sex lives. So Riker and Soren fix the shuttle and she finally reveals that she's attracted to him and wants to have a relationship with him. Big surprise. The use of the word "relationship" was also corrupted in the 80's and 90's for all sexual orientations. She wants to have sex with him. Nothing they've done so far warrants a "relationship." Just sex and the thrill of having to watch their backs since in the J'naii culture it's a criminal offense to identify as one gender or another.
So they wrap up the background story sending Riker and Soren in to rescue the J'naii officers. They find their shuttle and after a lot of fighting the elements transport them onto the shuttle and return safely just in the nick of time. Krite invites everyone to the planet to celebrate.
At the party Riker goes outside for air and Soren follows him. They go for a walk amidst the plants and other landscape. They try to make small talk but she's already made her intentions clear so Riker seizes on the romantic moment to kiss. Krite is watching though. Next Riker goes to Deanna to get her permission to pursue Soren because this is a serious relationship, you see. Even though they've never talked about anything but sex, have only ever had a mutual blushing interest in the kinky notion of a human and a J'naii possibly mating, and the temptation of forbidden passion. Even in the kissing scene they'd only progressed as far as "who leads when the J'naii dance?" Nothing like life goals, careers, politics, and general values, i.e. if they have enough in common to commit to a lifetime relationship. But apparently this is all it takes for Riker to be in a relationship serious enough to warrant having the talk with Troi. She gives her blessing but when Riker goes to see Soren, Krite is there to tell him that Soren has been arrested and taken away to a tribunal on the matter. I would, however, like to concede the point that "love at first sight" can happen and that relationships that begin as passionate affairs can end up in long marriages, but the odds aren't favorable, even in heterosexual relationships. Part of my objection is, unfortunately, just pure cynicism.
So he barges in on the proceedings. So much for the prime directive. He tries to accept full responsibility and indicate that he corrupted her. It might have worked but Soren decides to come clean and gives a speech about how she's always been female; that she was just born that way and wants to be accepted as such. Trivia nugget: they cut out a line where Riker asks Noor (the tribunal judge) why Soren doesn't have a choice about her sexual orientation. I guess because the idea that's being promoted is that it's not a choice, but that she was born that way and that line would've been conflicting. But it still wasn't enough. The gay community and Frakes himself thought it was a cop out to have the J'naii played by women, because you can tell they are women. And there's no doubt that Star Trek has classically done a better job of creating androgynous races, two examples being the Binars from episode 11001001 and the Talosians from the TOS pilot episode, The Cage. You really couldn't tell what the hell you were looking at in those episodes, so they could've tried harder to make it sufficiently uncomfortable for everyone even though the J'naii were played by women. Or, I'm sure they could've found some effeminate men in L.A. (someone that could easily fool the audience in to thinking it may be a woman) to fill the role since Frakes was so serious about kissing a man to accommodate the complaints. But it just seems to prove the point of people who think homosexuality is a perversion, which could also be made about the episode Rejoined from DS9 (an even bigger "cop out" due to the story) - that all the supporters care about is seeing the perversion of the physical acts. Soren's speech was actually a good one, but it's still not good enough. Nothing ever is for any liberal cause. Soren is taken away to get the psychotectic treatments needed to eliminate her desire to be a woman.
Riker asks Picard if Soren can be granted assylum but Picard refuses because the J'naii see her problem as a medical condition that can be fixed. I'm also thinking it's because Soren didn't get a chance to actually ask for herself. Picard does offer to talk to Noor about releasing Soren, but warns Riker not to take matters into his own hands since that's definitely a violation of the Prime Directive and the end of his career. Now, obviously I think it's ridiculous that he starts making plans to go down to rescue his lady love, run away, and live happily ever after with her for all of the previous reasons stated, but I do love the fact that Worf is such a romantic that he offers to go with Riker as a kind of "second" to help him. That seems like a more believable cause for throwing away your career, or at least a much more romantic one. They are able to separate Soren from her guards, or I should say companions rather, since it's too late. She's had her treatments and no longer feels like a woman nor is "she" attracted to Riker. Again, why does this matter if they were in love enough to risk criminal condemnations and careers? Love is a condition of the heart. Love lasts when the sex stops. Love stays when the sex is not possible due to injury or long separations. Sleeping together for warmth and companionship is not something exclusive to this androgynous race but it also applies to the close friendship that exists with people truly in love. And so my cynicism concludes that it couldn't have been real love. And, of course, real brainwashing isn't done by hooking someone up to a machine... it's always a great convenience for a science fiction story and it's convenient for this episode as well, but could a machine designed to eliminate sexuality also eliminate romantic love that's as fierce as it's made out to be between these two characters? Soren feels normal again as defined by her species and her response to Riker's declaration of love is, "I'm sorry." Riker is heartbroken. I guess that's kind of sad in the same way it was sad to see Kirk truly heartbroken the couple of times that it happened. I just wish it'd been a more believable scenario.
When they made their rescue attempt, it was dark, nobody got hurt, and Soren remained, so we can assume she didn't tell on Riker because they are able to leave in peace. Even Picard confirms with Riker that their business is finally finished before heading out.
I know I raise a lot of objections and it's mostly an uncomfortable watch for me, I still liked to a certain degree. So I'm torn between three and three and a half stars. As stated before, the quality of everything in these latter seasons is always worthy of good ratings and I feel certain it would've be worse in one of the first two seasons. I think I'll give it three stars, though. Just not one of my favorites.
