In the seventh episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0The Next Generation<\/i>, the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i> hosts delegates from two warring species, only to suspect that one of them might have sabotaged the ship. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For consent.<\/b><\/p>\n
Well, that was an okay episode. This felt comforting and familiar in the sense that it fit perfectly within the existing\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i> canon, but that also means that this didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to be anything other than a re-written version of a number of\u00c2\u00a0The Original Series<\/i> episodes either. But there were some neat moments!<\/p>\n
Antica and Selay<\/b><\/p>\n
I do have to hand it to the show for giving me a red herring that I absolutely fell for. I kept expecting that this episode would reveal that someone was behind the energy cloud or the possession. I believed that it couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be a coincidence because WHEN DOES THAT EVER HAPPEN? As these two species constantly toyed with the rules aboard the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i>, making poor Lt. Yar increasingly frustrated with both parties, it made sense to me that one group would benefit from a delay in the negotiations with the Federation.<\/p>\n
Instead, this story does something far more fascinating to me: it demonstrates that the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i> crew deals with a lot of shit all at the same time. I love the idea that the possession of the energy cloud plot truly has nothing to do with the ongoing fighting. I imagine, then, that delegates like these two parties are often ferried by the Federation. Even if that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the case \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which I can admit because I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that much about canon \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this still feels like it does a lot to paint a picture of what every day life is like aboard a ship like this. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no destruction or epic battles with omniscient beings; they mostly just have to clean up after others.<\/p>\n
Sherlock Holmes<\/b><\/p>\n
I found the cheesy Sherlock Holmes joke to be completely charming. I DID! I mean, do you realize the potential here??? How many other fictional characters can he imitate poorly? THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE! I say that because I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0mind<\/i> a little camp in my science fiction, and Data\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s performance as Sherlock Holmes is so bad that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s terribly good. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect Data to be a good actor; he hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t grasped the complexities of human behavior yet. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why his character is so amusing here. With an actual mystery unfolding onboard the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i>, he provides a necessary comic relief.<\/p>\n
The Energy Cloud<\/b><\/p>\n
I say that Data\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comic relief is necessary because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unfortunately the only part of most of the main plot that I found engaging. This is a fairly simplistic, on-the-nose use of this specific trope. An unknown entity latches on to a spaceship, then jumps from person to person to enact its mysterious end. It seemed pretty obvious that the energy cloud was responsible for the lightning\/shocks\/possession. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get me wrong; I found Gates McFadden and Patrick Stewart to be entertaining here; the way both actors moved their bodies while possessed was unnerving. But I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel a palpable tension here; I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t something I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen before. Hell, the only part of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mystery\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that shocked me was when the possessed Picard beamed himself out into space. HOW WAS HE NOT DEAD??? Well, it was just his own energy, intermingled with the unnamed being\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s energy, so\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I guess that works?<\/p>\n
These new characters are exciting, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that an episode like this sheds any light on who they\u00c2\u00a0are<\/i>. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been writing about a specific phenomenon over in my\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i> reviews, and I think I see it here, too. This episode feels like a show going through the motions. There are a ton of extremely common sci-fi tropes in this episode, which obviously isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bad in and of itself. Tropes are not a negative thing. The use of them, however, can make a story feel sluggish, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my issue with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lonely Among Us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That title seems to promise so much, but the only loneliness we get is in the expository monologue that Picard gives to the crew while possessed. This being just wanted to go home, which I understand. But then it wants to immediately go out and explore the universe? That seemed conflicting and confusing to me.<\/p>\n
Anyway, this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a terrible episode at all. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love if the shower dug a little deeper into this setting and these characters. I feel like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of potential here the writers aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t using.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lonely Among Us\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – Mark Does Stuff is now on Facebook<\/a>! Feel free to Like the page, which I’m running myself, for updates and SILLINESS. In the seventh episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0The Next Generation, the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise hosts delegates from two warring species, only to suspect that one of them might have sabotaged the ship. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[614,632],"tags":[615],"class_list":["post-4481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-star-trek","category-the-next-generation","tag-mark-watches-star-trek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running, I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!<\/a>
\n– Please check out the MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features will be\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/i>, seasons 2 – 4, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>.<\/b>
\n– The 2015 Mark Does Stuff tour is being announced!!! Check my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page<\/a> often to see if I’m coming to your city!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"