Transfigurations by: René Echevarria and directed by: Tom Benko

 

“Transfigurations” is written by: René Echevarria and is directed by: Tom Benko.  It was produced under production code 173, was the 25^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 73^rd episode overall, and was broadcast on June 4, 1990.

 

“Transfigurations” is an episode with little going for it.  I will be the first to sing the praises and need of a filler episode in a season of television, it’s part of what makes the medium great.  But “Transfigurations” is an episode that were it more memorably bad it would be a prime example of poor filler.  The premise of the episode is the Enterprise crew coming upon a crashed ship with one survivor, an amnesiac dubbed John Doe, played by Mark LaMura.  This survivor displays a healing factor and begins emitting energy, the mystery of the episode being exactly where John Doe comes from and if he is going to be a danger to himself and others.  There is a moment where John Doe undergoes a resurrection after some time in stasis, something that while not quite commented on but René Echevarria’s script through the first two acts reads as a take on the Christian Passion narrative.  This is strengthened by Doe’s backstory being as a unique member of his species, mutating beyond their physical forms into beings of energy and leaving behind the petty squabbles of their current life.  The episode ends with John undergoing an ascension into the stars.  It’s a Passion narrative mixed with ideas that I am most familiar with from the 1972 Doctor Who serial The Mutants, though that serial was far more interested in the effects of colonialism and empire on society while “Transfigurations” doesn’t really have a central thesis.  René Echevarria has written a script that has a concept to explore, but does not know exactly what further to say on the concept outside of a need for death and rebirth, in the spiritual and societal sense, to grow.  The growth is almost transhumanist, becoming beings of energy that can heal the sick and injured and the implication if interfacing with higher dimensions.  This is certainly something Star Trek has done before, it’s an idea that Gene Roddenberry loved in the 1960s and this episode does it again here with at least an attempt to structure the episode like a piece of television from 1990.

 

The issue with “Transfigurations” outside of not actually saying anything about the trajectory of humanity through John Doe as a character is structural.  Echevarria foregoes the A-plot/B-plot structure after the first act.  The pre-credits scene is actually a really nice character beat for Geordi La Forge being once again not great, but at least a development for his lack of confidence.  LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn as Worf have really fun chemistry together and the episode leads you to believe that connecting Geordi and John Doe’s minds to save Doe has done something to Geordi.  He becomes more confident in flirting and starting a relationship with a woman he’s got a crush on, but then it goes absolutely nowhere.  After the episode’s first act the plotline is dropped to shift the focus on John Doe.  Shifting to John Doe shouldn’t be a problem in terms of the plot, the mystery out of his existence does give some nice scenes with Dr. Crusher early on and Echevarria is clearly trying to do something with the episode, even if it doesn’t come across.  Part of the structural issue is introducing Doe’s people only in the third act.  “Transfigurations” lacks the time to explore the Zalkonian society with the twist that John Doe was on the run: he has a death sentence from his people and the charges aren’t explained to the Enterprise crew.  The crime is just natural evolution which feels like a statement on something, but there isn’t enough development given to that as an idea.  The Mutants has a similar problem of the native aliens who are mutating being shot on site because the culture sees it as a death sentence and the mutation is into something visibly monstrous, not just emitting energy and healing people. Echevarria wants to say something about humanity fearing the different and the other, but not actually saying anything.  It doesn’t help that Tom Benko in the director’s seat is just a generic television director. It’s shot perfectly fine, but it almost feels like a reversion to earlier days for the show with little flair.

 

Overall, “Transfigurations” commits the biggest crime of having nothing to actually say about what it is putting on-screen.  It’s not offensively bad, but it commits to being almost uninterested in the premise and story it sets out to tell.  It’s 45 minutes of filling time with something that reads as if Gene Roddenberry put his hand back into the scripting process but Echevarria came back halfway through and wrote out most of his worst written qualities.  This is an episode of Star Trek that has been done before, likely will be done again better, and just exists as a poorly thought out episode of television.  4/10.

Fear of the Dark by: Trevor Baxendale

 

It’s a standard setup at its core.  A moon tucked away in a corner of space, an expedition of archeologists with ulterior motives, and the Doctor, Tegan, and Nyssa finding themselves there.  The moon of Akoshemon is desolate and quiet.  A madman in suspended animation, rich deposits of lexium, and something waiting in the dark.  This type of prose is the effect Trevor Baxendale has in writing Fear of the Dark, a novel that is lauded among Doctor Who fans for good reason, Baxendale provides the setup for a gripping horror novel.  Fear of the Dark works because Baxendale presents a type of Doctor Who story that we have said before, it roots itself directly in the Fifth Doctor’s television era by having a supporting cast of almost entirely soldiers.  At its core it’s in the same line as Kinda and Snakedance, though not taking cues from Buddhism, instead going into a more American style of horror.  To bring up the works of H.P. Lovecraft in relation to Fear of the Dark feels almost too obvious, but Baxendale excels at making the reader’s skin crawl because the Dark is just that, it’s a concept and not exactly something with a consistent physical form.  There is this implication in the end that while it is defeated, and defeated through quite simple means, it is really only one aspect of something bigger that is still out there.

 

Baxendale connects the Dark as a creature of void to Nyssa over Tegan which is particularly important, connecting Tegan to it would be obvious.  The Dark would feel like just another aspect of the Mara and this novel a midquel between Kinda and Snakedance.  But making it Nyssa adds quite a lot to the narrative and her character, as the television show essentially forgot the tragedy of her character after Castrovalva.  She was a companion who wasn’t supposed to stick around, but the few moments Baxendale spends here connects the Dark to her father.  The Master is not in Fear of the Dark, but the Dark as seen from one angle represents the inhuman acts the Master has done to Nyssa and her father.  Tegan, for her part, is equally portrayed as human.  Baxendale follows the trick of Paul Cornell and Justin Richards in their Missing Adventures novels by having Tegan as point of view.  She is both a scared woman, terrified that her mind might be next but she also can’t just leave.  Baxendale sets Fear of the Dark quite close to Arc of Infinity, Tegan has just rejoined the TARDIS and desperately wants to prove that she has improved with her time away.  She’s also the one to see half the crew of miners masquerading as archeologists as people.  She is the audience surrogate character, a role Baxendale uses well without ever sacrificing her characterization.

 

Where Fear of the Dark excels as well is subverting science fiction tropes.  The supporting cast are space marines and one madman who has stared into the cosmic horror of the Dark and come out addicted.  The madman is one who slowly unravels after being awoken from suspended animation and his addictive personality is subverted as being a problem before he sees the Dark.  The miners are all given their own little backstories and needs for the money, they are acting out of greed but it is a greed from the standpoint of a society in the late stages of capitalism.  The biggest, toughest man on the team is just desperate to get home to the six year old daughter that saved his life in the end.  He is named Bunny because he really would just be a big softie at heart.  But everybody in Fear of the Dark falls victim to their own greed in the end as the horror unfolds.  The actual plot of the novel is a careful unraveling, opening in media res but not during the height of the horror.  It only starts where the tension is just starting to form, the prose is already priming the reader not to be relaxed.  There is a cave in that is one of the inciting incidents, mainly to keep the Doctor and company on the moon, and Baxendale integrating flashbacks to get to that point is a stroke of genius, even if they are flashbacks that don’t have too much to tell.  It’s also important where Baxendale decides to end the novel, he keeps it abrupt in the particular style so that the tension and the horror is released but not released enough to let it sink in.  Everybody aboard the TARDIS sleeps with the lights on because despite everything there is still something in the dark.

 

Overall, Fear of the Dark is the best thing Trevor Baxendale ever wrote.  It’s some of the best cosmic horror Doctor Who has done, bringing characters to the forefront.  It reads far closer to a Missing Adventure, putting our characters at as much of their limit with a supporting cast that are all subversions of well worn tropes at this point.  It’s one of the few Fifth Doctor Past Doctor Adventures to really succeed at capturing the era while maintaining a depth of storytelling.  10/10.

Planet of the Dead by: John Freeman with art by: Lee Sullivan and letters by: Zed

 

“Planet of the Dead” is written by: John Freeman with art by: Lee Sullivan, and lettering by: Zed (a pseudonym for Richard Starkings).  It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issues 141-142 (September-October 1988) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: A Cold Day in Hell! by Panini Books.

 

There is an argument to be made that “Planet of the Dead” is Doctor Who Magazine’s attempt at a 25^th anniversary story.  It was released in two installments leading up to the anniversary, directly attempts a tie in to Remembrance of the Daleks by mentioning the Doctor having an appointment on Skaro, and saying something about where the Doctor is as a character.  There are certainly still lingering issues: the Doctor doesn’t actually do anything to enter into the plot, just stumbling into an underground tomb on a planet where he wants to fish but John Freeman at the very least captures this happy go lucky version of the Seventh Doctor that is recognizable as a version of the Seventh Doctor.  By attempting a tie in to Remembrance of the Daleks there’s clearly an awareness from Freeman of this being a Doctor Who story with some idea for where the strip should go.  For near the entirety of the Seventh Doctor’s run so far there has been a great problem of writers really not wanting to write Doctor Who, but to connect as many Marvel UK properties together.  The only big exceptions to this were “A Cold Day in Hell” and “Culture Shock”, though Freeman here does create an alien species that he could use in these crossovers, but not without connecting it to a story about the Doctor’s regrets.  The title “Planet of the Dead” is a reflection of the visions of dead companions that the Doctor is shown in an attempt to free the shapeshifting alien race off this planet.  That’s the plot and by the time we get to the conclusion of the story where the Doctor at the last minute realizes, the strength of Freeman’s script comes to the forefront.  The plot is a simple idea and sustains two issues by switching tactics halfway through, not only do other companions appear as celebrations for the anniversary but each of the previous Doctors appear.  Freeman is quite good at characterizing each of the six earlier Doctors, not enough in depth as some of them (mainly the Second, Third, and Fifth Doctors), but they’re still recognizably them from the dialogue.

 

It's particularly nice to examine the Seventh Doctor as coming from two incarnations of loss, including comics continuity of the death of Jamie McCrimmon on top of Adric and Peri.  Frobisher is also implied to have died by his presence here.  Peri is acknowledged to have lived, but her exit in The Trial of a Time Lord is very much one of a spiritual death.  The Doctor is portrayed as having a continual heaviness put upon him because of the deaths.  There’s almost a pseudo-revival characterization of traveling alone being a particularly bad thing which is interesting considering there won’t be a return to a regular companion for two years, after the show has been cancelled on television.  Now obviously some of the companion visions are a bit weak, Katarina and Sara Kingdom seem to be from a version of The Daleks’ Master Plan where they knew each other, but Adric is particularly served well by acknowledging his death as the death of a child.  This also is the first contribution from Lee Sullivan on art duties, his style blending realism and stylization that is going to develop over literal decades of contributions to the strip and other Doctor Who Magazine submissions.

 

Overall, “Planet of the Dead” while a little atypical for an anniversary story works as an examination of who the Doctor is and where he has been.  It is kind of a shame that this didn’t immediately usher in a closer continuity with the television show because it is perhaps the second story to have the Doctor characterized as the Seventh Doctor, but alas there’s still more to come.  7/10.

Menage a Troi by: Fred Bronson and Susan Sackett and directed by: Robert Legato

 

“Menage a Troi” is written by: Fred Bronson and Susan Sackett and is directed by: Robert Legato.  It was produced under production code 172, was the 24^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 72^nd episode overall, and was broadcast on May 28, 1990.

 

Menage a trois is a French term for a polyamorous relationship between three people.  “Menage a Troi” is the season 3 appearance of Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation and it is very likely that Fred Bronson and Susan Sackett started the script with that pun and decided to go from there.  The title is also a clear in joke to being connected to two of Gene Roddenberry’s long term partneres.  Lwaxana Troi may be a maligned character in fandom, but now at her third appearance Majel Barrett’s mastery of camp has just won me over completely that I look forward to her appearances.  Barrett brings this great energy to every scene that she is in and much of this episode is written just to show off her performance above practically everything else.  Every moment she is on screen Barrett makes big acting choices but now with her third appearance she is given a script that actually gives her just a little bit more depth.  Some of this is in part due to earlier episodes this season having Troi mention her in different contexts, but there are quite a few moments that really explore the Trois’ relationship with one another.  Lwaxana has had multiple husbands and is very confident in her sexuality while Deanna is less so.  Lwaxana sees that Deanna and Riker are clearly in love and should be together and she will tease her daughter.  Deanna has her own insecurities about her mother treating her like a child, while Lwaxana for her part is a deeply caring woman who wants the best for her daughter.  Lwaxana is also a very good diplomat.  Adding this little bit of depth goes a very long way for the episode struggling from a lackluster plot.

 

“Menage a Troi” has a plot that clearly wants to lean into farce, bringing back the Ferengi as part of negotiations in a trade conference for the Federation.  The conflict of the episode is that the Ferengi Daimon Tog, played by Frank Corsentino develops an intense attraction to Lwaxana and inserts himself between her, her daughter, and Riker, kidnapping them until Lwaxana agrees to marry him.  The farcical aspects of the episode feels like a throw back to a specific style of comedy popular in the 1960s, not screwball at all because the threat is taken far too seriously, but close enough to be Star Trek: The Next Generation doing a sex comedy.  Sex comedies aren’t my particular genre of film so it is very possible that my analysis of this episode is being influenced greatly by being a tribute to a type of story that I generally don’t like.  It also might just be my dislike of the Ferengi in general, and the performances of Corsentino and Ethan Phillips are slightly lackluster.  Phillips is fine, though his character is the subordinate and not so much on screen but Corsentino I found to be almost too reserved which doesn’t play as well against Majel Barrett’s very big performance.  The first act of the episode is great, Barrett playing Troi as completely standoffish towards the Ferengi and is disappointed when Picard refuses to give her an out from interacting with them.

 

Bronson and Sackett also do keep up the A-plot/B-plot structure and this B-plot is actually quite strong for Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher who is preparing to leave the Enterprise for Starfleet Academy.  He doesn’t in the end, but as consolation Picard promotes him to full ensign, a position that by this point is fully earned as Wesley has grown from much of his early appearances.  He brings plenty of value to the crew and has evolved into a fully formed character that by this point is just a lot less annoying.  Bronson and Sackett do tie it into the rest of the episode, Wesley is responsible for finding where the Trois and Riker have been taken, and actually seeing Wesley in a proper uniform at the end of the episode is just a really nice image.  There is also this subplot involving Riker playing chess against the Ferengi, able to use a mix of brains and brawn to stay help.  The farce of trying to escape the Ferengi is particularly fun even if some of the ideas are just a bit tired at times.  The real crowning moment of the episode is Picard’s impassioned pleas to get Lwaxana back, pretending to be her lover and quoting Shakespearean sonnets among other things at the Ferengi before escalating to violence.  The trick here is that it means Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart gets the treat of performing Shakespeare badly.  It is intentionally an over the top scene and is just a ridiculous enough conclusion to work.

 

Overall, I feel as if the scores that Lwaxana Troi’s appearances do the character justice.  Majel Barrett is just one of the best additions to Star Trek: The Next Generation even if she is in episodes that are generally held back by being quite light, though each with a different host of problems.  “Haven” had the problem of still not knowing how to write the main cast and deciding everyone needs to be stiff, “Manhunt” being padded like much of Season 2 was, and now “Menage a Troi” just needed a couple stronger guest cast performances and some better timing with the jokes.  They are slowly improving and I have the feeling that her next appearance may push the trajectory of the character out of this range.  6.5/10.

Keepsake by: Simon Furman with art by: John Higgins and letters by: Zed

 

“Keepsake” is written by: Simon Furman with art by: John Higgins, and lettering by: Zed (a pseudonym for Richard Starkings).  It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issue 140 (August 1988) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: A Cold Day in Hell! by Panini Books.

 

“Keepsake” is a story that exists.  It’s yet another installment of the Doctor Who Magazine comics that limits itself to telling an eight page story and this time there isn’t actually enough story for about anything.  Outside of Doctor Who Magazine, Marvel UK was in the middle of a multi book crossover involving the character Death’s Head, something that Doctor Who did participate in with “The Crossroads of Time”.  “Keepsake” is on the margins, introducing the title character and reading more like a backdoor pilot for the larger series more than anything of Doctor Who.  The issues of many Seventh Doctor comics are present here, the Doctor doesn’t read as the Doctor.  He reads just as generic male character that could easily be drawn over as a different person outside of the TARDIS appearing in one panel on the final page.  The Doctor drops bombs on a population to scare them which is a particularly out of character moment, even for the Seventh Doctor.  The argument could be made that since this is a story not from the Doctor’s perspective there is a sense of unreliability, but I think that might be giving Simon Furman too much credit for what he is doing.

 

Keepsake the character is also not strongly drawn in the eight pages.  He is a merchant with a pet vulture which is clearly meant to be a more striking image.  He is introduced with hints at depression, something that is cured by meeting an unnamed medic which becomes the object of his sexual desire.  He is rewarded by the end of the story with a relationship, Furman making the only female character of this story an unnamed love interest.  But then again, this isn’t so much a story with characters but ciphers for the incredibly light plot to happen within.  That plot is particularly pro-colonialist, the natives on the planet Ryos are portrayed as savages and needing to be scared into submission as they kill survivors of a crash.  This murder isn’t actually depicted, just hinted at through dialogue, and there are no native characters in “Keepsake”.  At the very least John Higgins’ art is nice, he is one of the stronger artists and the style is reminiscent of Dave Gibbons’ early work on the strip.

 

Overall, “Keepsake” is just another weak Doctor Who Magazine strip to add to the pile.  There’s potential in the plot but Furman doesn’t write a Doctor Who story, instead it reads like a particularly generic piece of military science fiction across eight pages of ultimately nothing.  3/10.

Doctor Who and the Pescatons by: Victor Pemberton and directed by: Don Norman

 

Doctor Who and the Pescatons stars Tom Baker as the Doctor and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith with Bill Mitchell as the Pescatons.  It was written by: Victor Pemberton, directed by: Don Norman, and was released by Argo Records in July 1976.

 

Doctor Who and the Pescatons is an oddity.  It is one of the earliest examples of performed Doctor Who released to the home media market after a vinyl release of “The Planet of Decision”, the sixth episode of The Chase.  Other television stories obviously would have been novelized at this point, plus there were original short stories in comic strips in TV Action or Countdown and in the annuals.  Technically there was Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space as the first original novel, and there were two stageplays at various points in The Curse of the Daleks and Doctor Who and the Seven Keys to Doomsday.  But Doctor Who and the Pescatons is something entirely different, it is an original Doctor Who story featuring the cast of the show at the time reprising their roles.  Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen recorded this in the gap between Season 13 and 14’s production, then releasing it between those season’s broadcast.  It’s a monumental opportunity to launch Doctor Who on audio and yet it didn’t.  There would be scant audio releases after this: the follow-up would arguably be Exploration Earth: The Time Machine which was an educational program with Baker and Sladen.  Baker would return to audio in 1979 to narrate a cutdown version of Genesis of the Daleks.  1986 would see another attempt with Slipback while the mid-1990s would pave the way for Big Finish Productions with the BBC Radio dramas The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space both staring Sladen and Jon Pertwee.  And yet, despite it being an oddity Doctor Who and the Pescatons has had several releases since it’s original vinyl: modern repressings as well as cassette, CD, and digital releases (plus featuring on the Season 14 Blu-ray release), it’s a story that never really faded into obscurity.

 

As a story Doctor Who and the Pescatons is nothing special.  Victor Pemberton was tapped to write the script, and you can tell that he is drawing on Fury from the Deep for the premise as several scenes recall that earlier story from discovering seaweed aliens on a beach to the conclusion involving the use of sound to defeat the monsters.  What it lacks is the horrific, claustrophobic atmosphere and the many layered characters to make up the tale leaving Doctor Who and the Pescaton’s plot strictly lacking.  Half of the production is narrated by Tom Baker in character as the Doctor between more dramatic scenes between the Doctor and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.  It’s clear that the budget for this story only extended to three actors, Bill Mitchell playing all the Pescatons through mostly vocal effects if they aren’t the leader Zor.  It’s presented as two episodes, each about the length of a shorter television installment to fit on one side of a vinyl record.  Structurally this should work, it conforms to the television series after all, but it struggles to balance events being narrated and being dramatically presented.  Pemberton’s story being fairly derivative is a problem, but it’s exacerbated by how flimsy the Pescatons are as a threat.  Sure, this is a story marketed as a younger audience, but so is Doctor Who on television and that’s allowed to present alien races as complex.  Doctor Who and the Pescatons has the Doctor with the authority of the hero, claim the Pescatons are inherently an evil race of aliens and deserve to die.  The second episode’s climax involves the Doctor tricking Zor into traveling back to Pesca, destroying himself and his planet with a sonic wave.  This is a genocide and unlike say The Seeds of Death where the Ice Warrior fleet is thrown into the sun, the Doctor does this with joy because the Pescatons are evil.  It’s particularly out of character for the Doctor who also plays the flute in Doctor Who and the Pescatons because Pemberton remembers Patrick Troughton playing the recorder.  The climax also just kind of happens, the narration mentions other characters being involved but they cannot appear because there is only enough budget for three actors.  The sound design is also particularly primitive.  It’s likely director Don Norman responsible for the sound design, the score feels like discount Paddy Kingsland or Roger Limb and it’s fine enough, just unremarkable.

 

Overall, at its best Doctor Who and the Pescatons is unremarkable.  Victor Pemberton knows how to write good drama and good characters, but his script reads like a writer held back by the format of only two episodes on a single vinyl record.  What tips it into the realm of a bad Doctor Who story is that the Doctor is out of character and poor Sarah Jane Smith is given no character, just generic receiver of the Doctor’s dialogue.  4/10.

Sarek by: Peter S. Beagle from an unpublished story by: Marc Cushman and Jake Jacobs and directed by: Les Landau

 

“Sarek” is written and from a story by: Peter S. Beagle, from an unpublished story by: Marc Cushman and Jake Jacobs, and is directed by: Les Landau.  It was produced under production code 171, was the 23^rd episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 71^st episode overall, and was broadcast on May 14, 1990.

 

“Journey to Babel” is D.C. Fontana’s Star Trek masterpiece, along with “Amok Time” it is the episode to flesh out who the Vulcans are and who Spock is as a person.  “Journey to Babel” introduces Spock’s parents, Sarek, played by Mark Lenard, and Amanda Grayson, Sarek being the full Vulcan, emotionally distant father of Spock.  Sarek as a character would appear in an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series and in four of the six Star Trek films, three at the time of this episode.  “Sarek” brings back Mark Lenard as Sarek to Star Trek: The Next Generation for an episode that works as the perfect parallel to that first appearance in “Journey to Babel”.  The setups are similar: diplomatic missions to enter trade relations between the Federation and a civilization when something goes wrong with deep connections to Vulcan, implicating Sarek.  “Journey to Babel” is special because it explores how Sarek as a character does actually care for his son and the sacrifice Spock has to make which brings them closer and the love he has for his wife.  “Sarek” is interesting because Spock is nowhere to be found, for good reason as Star Trek: The Next Generation should not be reliant on the original series which is partially responsible for the issues of the first two seasons.  Instead, “Sarek” is an episode that is primarily concerned with examining aging gracefully and stepping out of the limelight.

 

The premise is that the negotiations with the Legarans will be ambassador Sarek’s last duty as an ambassador, he will be retiring after this mission with his second wife Perrin, played by Joanna Miles.  The conflict of the episode is also about aging, after several crew members become agitated and coming to blows the hypothesis Picard and Crusher come to is that Sarek is suffering from a rare, degenerative disease.  He is losing control of his emotions and his innate empathic abilities as a Vulcan are destabilizing the emotions of those around him.  The conflict comes from the crew having to first uncover why the crew is getting angry, allowing for several scenes where our main cast are allowed to shout at each other in releases of emotion, and then convince Sarek that he has this disease.  What dramatically enhances the premise of “Sarek” is that it can be read as a tribute to Gene Roddenberry whose health at the time was declining.  The episode’s conclusion, Picard participating in a mind meld and taking on Sarek’s pain, insecurities, and regrets.  This adds an extra layer of humanization as Patrick Stewart essentially plays Sarek for a brief moment.

 

“Sarek” is written by Peter S. Beagle, an author most well known for The Last Unicorn, and he brings a particularly human element to Star Trek: The Next Generation.  This is not an episode with an A/B-plot structure, Sarek’s story driving everything, but it does devote several scenes to the smaller emotions of the side characters.  Wesley Crusher gets to be excited for a date and just about every character is allowed at least one emotional freakout, even O’Brien who has over the course of this season become this regular presence in the transporter room.  This aspect of the story is integral to making Sarek’s emotional arc actually work because Beagle in many ways is celebrating the breath of humanity.  The most interesting scene in the story is actually the opening conversation between Picard and Riker, because it’s two men discussing a living legend.  Stewart and Jonathan Frakes play the scene, a fairly normal scene of mostly expository dialogue, as in complete adoration.  The image of the stoic Captain John-Luc Picard being far too excited to meet Sarek as a child that just adds so much to who Picard is as a person.  Beagle’s script also is handling delicate matters quite well.  Bendii syndrome metaphorically reflects conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease within the episode, and the script is one of the few times Star Trek hasn’t completely demonized these sorts of health issues.  Beagle does not make Sarek uncapable because of his condition, despite it he is still himself and his biggest problems are his aides keeping his own health issues from him in attempts to preserve his legacy and allow him to continue his work.  It’s not his wife who is causing him issues, his own insecurities are doing that by making him believe he does not love her though Joanna Miles plays Perrin as a woman deeply in love and deeply loved.   It is telling that the tip off that something wrong with Sarek is not anger, it is tears at a string quartet of Mozart’s performed in Sarek’s honor.

 

The script isn’t the only thing that makes “Sarek” as an episode work so well.  Les Landau at this point has directed several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but “Sarek” is one where his style shines in particular.  Take the opening expository scene for instance, it’s one long tracking shot as they are walking to the transporter room.  While it does not add character like some other examples, the motion helps the forward momentum of the exposition before we can meet Sarek and begin the episode proper.  When Data is discussing Sarek’s condition with his aide Sakkath, played by Rocco Sisto, the camera is placed in a way to partially obscure the scene which feels closer to a piece of film direction over an episode of television.  It adds to the atmosphere and primes the viewer to see the duplicitous and shadowy nature of Sakkath’s actions while placing Data in the light, representing the correct viewpoint.  The use of shadows then becomes representative of the anguish Sarek’s condition has caused and of what the mind meld with Picard does at the climax.  While in negotiations Sarek is lit in a positive light, representing the return to his faculties, when we cut to Picard suffering he is lit equally in shadows and in uncomfortable close up to enhance the anguish of Stewart’s performance.  These are all particularly small details, they are all within the confines of a busy television schedule, but Landau is quickly becoming one of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s directors to really watch out for as interesting despite directing quite a few episodes per season.

 

Overall, “Sarek” has a premise that could easily fall into the trap of nostalgia, but giving it to a writer like Peter S. Beagle means it becomes a very human story of aging and moving into late stages of ones life with grace.  It’s an episode that does not demonize the elderly, something that Star Trek has had difficulty with in the past, instead looking at what it all means to live life and confront those insecurities.  The script and direction are perfect, enhancing some of the best performances from the cast, even the cast members who are given only small roles in the episode.  It’s perfect.  10/10.

The Infinity Race by: Simon Messingham

 

There are indications that The Infinity Race should be a novel catered to me.  Simon Messingham’s second and final Eighth Doctor Adventure takes some of its inspiration from Barbara Clegg’s Enlightement, a personal favorite, and reads in places as a tribute to certain aspects of fantasy role playing games of the time.  Sadly, referencing things that a reader may like is not the same as writing a compelling narrative.  To have a compelling narrative, first you must have a narrative that maintains itself through the length of the story being told, something that Messingham just does not do.  The Infinity Race is a story that flits from plot point to plot point, not being content with the initial setup of a regatta set on a distant ocean planet of “friction-nullifying light water” in a parallel universe.  The parallel universe aspect of the novel is the weakest plot point, it suffers from Messingham not using any aspects of a parallel universe story.  The fate of humanity in this future is different, however with the nature of Doctor Who as a franchise that does not actually mean anything.  Instead of using it to make any connections to our three protagonists, or even to Sabbath, Messingham keeps it largely a background detail behind everything.  That also means that because this is one of many parallel universes there is a sense that the supporting characters of The Infinity Race don’t actually matter.  When Messingham finds himself almost bored of the regatta plot, he introduces the Warlocks (later Warlock) of Demigest, humans changed by a completely different planet that are on Selonart, that is the ocean planet of the novel, because they are essentially Sabbath’s MacGuffin.  This plot leads to one of the few interesting scenes for the Doctor here, Messingham doing a decent job of playing with the Eighth Doctor’s harsher morality, but outside of that he is a background player in events.

 

The scenes where Sabbath does appear, largely contained to the final third of the novel, are clearly the one regular character Messingham enjoys writing for.  When Sabbath is on page there is immediately this sinister charm added into the scenes, something that has become a standard in the Eighth Doctor Adventures now that his own arc is taking the forefront, but he just breathes some life into an otherwise lifeless book.  His plan here is nothing special, it almost feels as if Messingham substituted Sabbath for a different, possibly original villain of the novel and changed it ever so slightly to fit Sabbath when the commission confirmed where it would be placed in the range of novels.

 

The changing characterization to fit is also what plagues Fitz and Anji as companions.  Because the parallel universe plot thread is not really exploring many of the side characters (although Bloom is at least intriguing and part of me wonders if the theme with the supporting characters is naming them after playwrights and literary critics), it is imperative for Fitz and Anji to at least work.  Messingham at least makes the attempt of getting into their heads by alternating there perspectives at several points.  This should be a slam dunk for exploring where their mindsets are, and Anji’s perspective gets closest to this aim, however Messingham is not content from being in their perspective.  Instead, The Infinity Race is a novel that attempts to change from third person limited to first person limited and back again.  This does not work.  The first person segments are Fitz and Anji separately, but the way Messingham writes their internal narration is this similar over the top style of breaking the fourth wall.  This has a knock on effect of making the prose itself clunky throughout, meaning that a story already light on plot is quite difficult to actually get through.  By the time you get to the conclusion, again where things improve by the presence of Sabbath, you’re left with nothing but this empty feeling that nothing mattered and you took way to long to get to nothing mattering.

 

Overall, The Infinity Race is another of Simon Messingham’s missteps as a novelist.  Its best moments are building on the work of others, mainly the characterization of Sabbath as written by Lawrence Miles, Justin Richards, and Lloyd Rose specifically and Barbara Clegg’s contribution to Doctor Who.  Everything else about it feels almost retro fitted into the current arc and characters without really succeeding.  The characters are all one-note outside of a few select moments and there isn’t much here to really grasp onto.  At least it’s not offensively bad, but it’s a novel that is difficult to get through because of a lack of focus.  3/10.

The Most Toys by: Shari Goodhartz and directed by: Timothy Bond

 

“The Most Toys” is written by: Shari Goodhartz and is directed by: Timothy Bond.  It was produced under production code 170, was the 22^nd episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 70^th episode overall, and was broadcast on May 7, 1990.

 

The ending of “The Most Toys” is where the episode is let down by interference from the production team.  It is the final thing the audience is left with and clearly meant to be part of the episode’s thesis, but is altered in a way that poorly attempts ambiguity.  The premise of the episode is that Data is kidnapped by Kivas Fajo, played by Saul Rubinek, because he is the only sentient android in existence.  The Enterprise thinks him dead in an explosion and Fojo treats him as an object to be shown off to his very rich and powerful friends.  The conflict is this game of quiet resistance Data puts up, only breaking not when his life is threatened but the lives of those happily working for Fojo.  Data’s programming of course will only let him commit acts of violence in self-defense, and when there is a clear and present danger.  The climax of the episode has Fajo happily kill his partner, a woman he is implied to have groomed for 14 years.  Data gets the gun in his hands and is transported away right as it is pointed at Fajo.  The trouble here is that the episode includes a line that Data did in fact fire the gun, only lampshaded as it possibly being the transporter that fired the gun.  Fojo is taken into custody and the final line of the episode is Data essentially telling him point blank he feels nothing now that the roles are reversed, for he is an android.  Now, the intent of this line is to be dripping with sarcasm and irony, Shari Goodhartz’s script to this point has been using the insistence that Data is an android to be dehumanizing.  He could not possibly have meaningful emotions or experiences, something that Fojo never comes to learn, importantly.  The last line is meant to be read as incredibly dark, Data is not just an android and he can make his own decisions.  He was going to kill Fajo, but adding the lampshade of it is just a transporter malfunction, shot in a way so we don’t see a trigger being pulled and it being deliberately added, undercuts this.

 

It does not tank the episode, but it does weaken it.  Brent Spiner is carrying the episode on his back as Data, something that should not be a surprise at this point, but he makes Data understand exactly how to resist within the parameters of the programming.  The most effective scene is Data refusing to even move when Fojo is showing him off to an old friend, knowing that despite Fojo insisting he is just part of his collection, if Fajo wants a thing he should get a thing and not a person.  It’s this great little bit of resistance that is enough to push Fajo into punishing violence, Data is stripped of his uniform forcefully by the use of a solvent which in and of itself is a violent act.  Data is patient, he understands that there is going to be a mistake and he is going to make it out at some point.  Goodhartz knows how to balance this idea that Data is both the kindest member of the Enterprise crew, and a genuinely terrifying person in many respects.  The same can be said about director Timothy Bond, often shooting Spiner as Data at this incredibly even level that just feels off intentionally in several shots of the episode.  He is effectively immortal, will outlive Fajo if it comes to it but also does not blame his crewmates for not coming to rescue him.  He knows that the lie was set up so that they believe he is truly dead.

 

The plot on the Enterprise is responding to the environmental disaster, something revealed to be part of Fajo’s plan to kidnap Data, is one that works well to focus on the characters.  The crew is dealing with their grief, even Captain Picard calls Worf “Data” at one point as it has been decided he will take over Data’s duties.  LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge gets the best material, Geordi and Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher being tasked with going through Data’s personal items.  That scene in particular is effective at exploring Data’s own sentimentality and just how his death is one of grief.  There’s even a reflection on the fact that Data is not the only crew member to have died in the line of duty, Michael Dorn as Worf does remember his previous promotion being from the death of Tasha Yar.  Geordi is the one insistent that something is wrong, there is a slight mistake in Fajo not having Data communicate that he was taking the shuttle back to the Enterprise, but that mistake is too small to notice and the actual issue at hand is saving a planet.  The transport of an unstable mineral adds to the heightened tension and the eventual logical deduction comes at long enough time for the audience to realize the length of time Data has been in captivity.  The unravelling of the plan is a great sequence and it’s surprising that there is actually a set made for the scene set at the contaminated water source.   Sure it’s not one of the most memorable Star Trek planets, but it is enough to notice how Star Trek: The Next Generation is growing in terms of budget and capability, especially compared with the previous season which in this episode slot was the clip show finale “Shades of Grey”.

 

Overall, “The Most Toys” despite taking its title from one of the weirdest sources, a quote from a millionaire vaguely about the joys of collecting, and by undercutting itself with this unnecessary ambiguity, it’s still a great episode.  It’s an episode that just fires on all cylinders in the character drama and should be applauded for writing a B-plot that doesn’t actually have any conflict outside of characters coming to terms with grief.  The entire cast has each their moment to shine even if this is Brent Spiner as Data’s show.  Timothy Bond also directs to really wring the emotions out of the episode despite being stylistically often simple.  8/10.

Culture Shock! by: Grant Morrison with art by: Bryan Hitch and letters by: Zed

 

“Culture Shock!” is written by: Grant Morrison with art by: Bryan Hitch, and lettering by: Zed (a pseudonym for Richard Starkings).  It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issue 139 (July 1988) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: A Cold Day in Hell! by Panini Books.

 

Leave it to Grant Morrison to provide the first good Seventh Doctor comic story.  Their final work on Doctor Who is “Culture Shock!”, a single issue comic story that has the biggest issue of being only eight pages long.  The idea of telling a story from a cell culture that is an organism in symbiosis is actually a great one.  This is a premise that could not be done on television for Doctor Who for obvious budgetary reasons, even with the resources of the revival, but the format of a comic strip means the sky is the limit.  Bryan Hitch is on art duties for this script and his style does mean that the organism is one that looks fantastic, especially since half of the story is just from this perspective.  The big problem with “Culture Shock!” is that it’s too short to do too much interesting as note.  The twist is that the culture is one attacked by the virus and the Doctor just so happens to have an antiviral on his person so it can continue living, the Doctor even helping it get to the ocean.  The twist feels like it could have been a cliffhanger that could pivot to the Doctor finding a solution in a second or even third installment, but Morrison keeps it brief.

 

The Doctor, however, is a character that Grant Morrison has just latched onto in an interesting way.  “Culture Shock!” was released before Season 25 began broadcasting, but Morrison latches onto the idea that the Seventh Doctor is a tired incarnation of the character.  He has been traveling a long time, seen practically everything that he could possibly have wanted to see and is briefly contemplating stopping everything and going back to Gallifrey.  It’s almost Morrison voicing their complaints with the state of the show, because it is about to be cancelled in two years, the Doctor has lost whatever companion he had been traveling with.  Yet, “Culture Shock!” ends with the Doctor going off to have more adventures because he was shocked by something new.  It’s an interesting outlook to take and almost a comment on where Doctor Who Magazine is as well because there is a clear need to give the Seventh Doctor an identity.

 

Overall, “Culture Shock!” isn’t anything special, being held back by being a singular story, but after several dud stories it’s nice to have one with actual ideas behind it and something to say despite it having to just shout it out very quickly.  6/10.

Hollow Pursuits by: Sally Caves and directed by: Cliff Bole

 

“Hollow Pursuits” is written by: Sally Caves and is directed by: Cliff Bole.  It was produced under production code 169, was the 21^st episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 69^th episode overall, and was broadcast on April 30, 1990.

 

“Hollow Pursuits” really should have been titled “Holo-Pursuits” as this is an episode exploring what happens when a crewmember becomes addicted to the fantasies of the holodeck and the consequences therein.  This is a very odd episode in many ways since it’s actually a look at a character with mental health issues, and in exploring mental health issues the episode is actually attempting sympathy towards Barclay, played by Dwight Schultz, an officer who clearly is suffering from some form of anxiety disorder.  He clearly has the knowledge to be a competent crewman and engineer, but struggles with interpersonal communication which in turn leads to harboring resentment towards his colleagues.  The episode does a fairly competent job at positioning Barclay as wrong for falling into the fantasy of the holodeck, there are several sequences where he places his colleagues in roles of villains for him to defeat as well as the rest of the crew regularly giving him the nickname Broccoli.  This is a nickname started by Wesley Crusher, something he is told to stop doing but it spreads even up to Captain Picard who uses it right to Barclay.  Picard is treated as in the wrong for this, it is portrayed as an incredibly awkward faux pas, though Picard doesn’t actually face any consequences.  Schultz’s performance is doing much of the legwork for the episode, because there are some major issues with Sally Caves’ script.  Schultz plays the role very much as well meaning but unable to communicate and it has caused him to become self-isolating.  That self-isolation becomes resentful and clearly wants the respect from his coworkers, but it’s more than that.

 

Barclay as a character is also a man in a television show written in 1990.  As a character, he is explicitly a misogynist: his fantasies specifically prop up his own sense of masculinity as either a strong man or swashbuckling hero while Troi and Crusher are presented as the only women in the fantasies.  Crusher is portrayed in Barclay’s fantasy as a mothering figure specifically to him while Troi is reduced to a sex object.  Now Troi as a sex object is something that Star Trek: The Next Generation struggles with, but here this is an episode that is actually aware that she is being reduced to this.  Troi as ship’s counselor is given material to be sympathetic towards Barclay, until his instability confronts her with her holodeck double which the tells to “muzzle it” with the comments about being a goddess of empathy.  It’s intentionally creepy, Barclay is implied to have rejected Troi’s counselor services when he desperately needs them.  The rest of the regular cast is largely written out of character.  Some of this is possibly down to the perspective of the episode clearly meant to be Barclay’s so the viewer may be seeing them through their eyes, but there are moments where Riker in particular is quite cruel.  He does not get much focus, but throughout there is just this lack of empathy and care that Picard has to call out at points which are off.  Again some of this is also clearly because Barclay is written to be in several ways morally repugnant, the episode proposing it is partially a result of his self-isolation, but the script also does have moments where Barclay is just treated terribly.  Wesley Crusher is responsible for most of them: there is the rather unflattering nickname but also a moment where Wesley just does not let Barclay even get a word in when he is reporting on the engineering issues plaguing the Enterprise.

 

Though the episode is focused on Barclay what helps “Hollow Pursuits” work is that unlike episodes which focus on one-off characters, this is equally an episode about Geordi La Forge having to be Barclay’s superior officer.  Geordi’s plot, the emotional B-plot of the episode because while the conflict is several mini-misadventures that link in the end to a leaking biological sample, the episode really is interested in examining Geordi’s command.  LeVar Burton actually gets his best material of this season (so far) in this episode, playing Geordi as the most understanding of the regular cast behind Picard.  He takes advice from his commanding officers (and Guinan in a particularly great little character moment) to put his dislike and frustrations towards Barclay aside to understand the man and help him work through his issues.  This does have the underlying message involving someone’s personal issues to be other people’s problems, especially when those problems are these biases and bigotries underneath are being placed on the one prominent black member of the crew, but then again this is a show made in 1990 by a mostly white production staff.  Caves’ script is interesting in that it does not at any point really invalidate Geordi’s feelings towards Barclay, even when the climax in the holodeck happens the episode portrays the crew as correct for being disturbed by the fantasy even if they are attempting understanding towards Barclay in equal measure.

 

Overall, “Hollow Pursuits” from the perspective of someone watching over 35 years later actually does play quite well in terms of mental health advocacy.  The biggest stumbles are in a script that mischaracterizes the regulars even with the argument that we are not in the typical perspective during the episode.  Barclay is an interesting character that is played well despite the character lacking much of the charm of a typical character.  Were it made today the nuance would be brought a little more to the forefront while the direction from Cliff Bole would also be more than the serviceable visuals we have.  The discomfort feels intentional at points even if there are some big blunders in portraying that discomfort, though the material for Geordi La Forge is particularly great.  7/10.

Claws of the Klathi! by: Mike Collins with art by: Kev Hopgood and Dave Hine and letters by: Zed

 

“Claws of the Klathi!” is written by: Mike Collins with art by: Kev Hopgood and Dave Hine, and lettering by: Zed (a pseudonym for Richard Starkings).  It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issues 136-138 (April-June 1988) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: A Cold Day in Hell! by Panini Books.

 

The claws of the title “Claws of the Klathi!” are not literal, they’re not even metaphorical, it’s just to sound evocative.  Sounding evocative is perhaps the best analysis of Mike Collins’ second Doctor Who Magazine strip.  This entire story has some fairly intriguing big picture ideas: aliens at a freakshow during the Great Exhibition, giant robots committing murders at the docks, and a group of scientists who meet during the full moon to discuss experiments.  Any one of these ideas could very much take up the premise of an issue of the Doctor Who Magazine strip at this time and actually give the readers the first good Seventh Doctor strip.  Even with Collins being given three issues of the magazine to tell the story you could do these ideas justice, but in execution there really isn’t anything deeper than the initial idea.  The plot itself ends up being something not so much standard for Doctor Who: aliens have been captured by Victorians and are trying to escape with the twist that the two Klathi are actually evil.  That twist is where everything becomes surface level analysis, Collins is uninterested in examining the nature of the freak show and its place in Victorian society.  It just isn’t there.  The Victorian setting reads more like Collins having an idea for a backdrop because of the freak show idea, it’s integral to the story but doesn’t actually contribute to the plot.  The freak show is just a reason to have some violence done on our sympathetic alien, which should give the story at least a little bite but every other character including the Doctor barely reacts to it.  Even at the conclusion when the Klathi Danq and Yula are defeated it just reads as something that has happened with no emotional stake.

 

The characterization of the Doctor, despite being written after Sylvester McCoy has had a season air in the role, is weak.  This is not a Terrance Dicks style generic version of the Doctor, he is more a cypher who arrives and vaguely wants to help out seeing someone in trouble, but only after being accused of theft for a page or two to add some drama.  If I didn’t know better I would think that Collins started this story for a different Marvel UK strip and converted it into a Doctor Who strip.  It does not help that in this story the pseudo-companion shares more character traits with the Seventh Doctor as characterized in Season 24 than the Doctor here.  Nathaniel Derridge is portrayed as an upper class gentleman and scientist who bumbles around, creating spoonerisms of colloquial phrases and having an eye for justice.  This is something that I have to ascribe to Collins and not artists Kev Hopgood and Dave Hine despite the possibility of the Marvel method being used to write “Claws of the Klathi!”.  It isn’t like Collins hadn’t written for Doctor Who before, his previous effort was “Profits of Doom” which was a great Sixth Doctor strip, so he should have a handle on at least the Doctor’s characterization.  Hopgood and Hine do at least make “Claws of the Klathi!” interesting to read, the art is particularly good and stylized in a way to evoke Victorian illustrations while maintaining the late-1980s house style.

 

Overall, “Claws of the Klathi!” is another poor entry for a period of Doctor Who Magazine comics that seem to lack a solid sense of identity.  It does reflect where the show was at during Season 24 as a period of transition, but unlike the show this is not a story that gives the Doctor any sort of character or assurance that the transition will be going somewhere.  4/10.

Tin Man by: Dennis Putman Bailey and David Bischoff and directed by: Robert Scheerer

 

“Tin Man” is written by: Dennis Putman Bailey (a pseudonym for Dennis Russell Bailey and Lisa Putman White) and David Bischoff and is directed by: Robert Scheerer.  It was produced under production code 168, was the 20^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 68^th episode overall, and was broadcast on April 23, 1990.

 

“Tin Man” should probably be an episode focusing on Deanna Troi but Star Trek: The Next Generation seems to be allergic to giving its female characters real episodes of substance.  The premise of the episode is a different Betazoid who never really adapted to his telepathic abilities arriving on the Enterprise to investigate a massive life form taking the form of a sentient spaceship preparing for a first contact situation.  The tin man is stuck in Romulan claimed space, though explicitly not acknowledged as Romulan space, but the Federation desperately needs this first contact to go well for whatever strategic advantage they could gain in the mounting conflict.  The episode is a character piece about Tam Elbrun, the Betazoid played by Harry Groener, in a way that isn’t going to be to everyone’s tastes.  Elbrun is a character written by Dennis Bailey and David Bischoff (and apparently an uncredited Lisa Putman White which is where Bailey’s middle name in the credits comes from) to be abrasive and impossible to work with.  The episode is very intentional in delving into the hell that would be telepathic abilities that one cannot switch off: Elbrun just cannot stop himself from blurting out what everybody around him is thinking and knowing that he is not liked.  He already has this great sense of guilt around an incident that killed 47 Starfleet personnel, the guilt taking him every day and, on the Enterprise Riker explicitly blaming him for not giving better guidance.  This is a man who has been broken and beaten, he is at the end of his rope and “Tin Man” as an episode serves as a way to give him an out.  The eventual message of the episode is actually quite sympathetic to his plight and gives him a place where he can be without the pains of other people.  The ending is almost beautiful.  Almost.  It doesn’t quite work nearly as well as the episode thinks it does, it feels almost as if the ending just creeps up on the episode.

 

There’s a lot of the episode that does explore Elbrun’s relationships with other people.  While the episode takes very little to focus on Troi, it is made explicit he is a previous patient of hers in her training as a counselor.  Mental health services here are presented in this very mixed light, the fact Elbrun had mental health services is presented as a dramatic twist, but Elbrun is treated at the very least like a person.  Marina Sirtis is clearly grabbing at the material she is given, even if it isn’t the focus on the episode.  The episode is more interested in creating a relationship between Elbrun and Data because Data’s android nature means he cannot be read telepathically.  This is the first person Elbrun doesn’t immediately know everything about and Groener plays it just as this sigh of relief.  Data becomes the only person that Elbrun can connect with because he doesn’t know Data’s internality.  Data has internality, that has been explicit throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation, but because he is not organic those thoughts aren’t there.  “Tin Man” is not a Data episode, though he does take a lot of time between Elbrun and Data as characters.  The episode is also interesting since there really isn’t a B-plot, instead it all being related to Elbrun.  Robert Scheerer is in the director’s chair for this episode and it is quite interesting to see exactly how he sets up so much of this episode to play into the emotions of the characters.  The way he shoots Riker in this episode is of particular note, he’s almost shot as the villain of the episode and certainly there is some antagonism there which feels wrong for the character on paper but in practice Jonathan Frakes plays it correctly.  Riker is emotional throughout the episode and his animosity towards Elbrun isn’t entirely unearned.

 

Overall, “Tin Man” is another example of a good episode but it is an episode that never quite reaches the status as one of the greats.  While the ending is touching and much of the episode works because of an emotionally charged script, it does have this problem of never actually being about our main cast instead being the story of a guest character’s relationship with the crew.  The relationships actually need just a bit more time to be fleshed out because they are all ever so slightly surface level while there isn’t really a B-plot to get satisfaction for characters like Riker, his anger just being an antagonistic force that is not ever brought to catharsis.  It is a good episode, but it’s an episode that could have easily been great with expansion to a two parter, especially considering this was based on a previously published novel.  7/10.