A Matter of Perspective by: Ed Zuckerman and directed by: Cliff Bole

 

“A Matter of Perspective” is written by: Ed Zuckerman and is directed by: Cliff Bole.  It was produced under production code 162, was the 14^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 62^nd episode overall, and was broadcast on February 12, 1990.

 

In 1950, Akira Kurosawa released the film Rashomon, a film examining the concepts of truth, justice, human nature, and memory through four versions of the same story, contradictory, that all have their own versions of the truth through a perpetual rainstorm.  It is a film I have seen exactly once but greatly enjoyed, through the structure has been tributed several times in film and television, enough to have entered the pop culture osmosis.  There are good homages, but Star Trek: The Next Generation’s attempt at a Rashomon story, “A Matter of Perspective”, falls into the many pitfalls of a television series doing this type of story.  Rashomon partially works not because it is part of a trial, but it is explicitly post-trial, Kurosawa is critiquing systems of justice while “A Matter of Perspective” opens with a crime being committed (a space station exploding and killing Dr. Nel Apgar played by Mark Margolis) and the episode itself has more in common with original series episodes “The Menagerie” or “Court Martial”, Jonathan Frakes’ Riker being given the blame.  The episode becomes his trial, presided not by the Federation but by the justice system of Tanuga Four which is under the presumption of guilty until proven innocent.  The holodeck provides recreations of three testimonies and the end of the episode reveals that nobody actually committed the crime, the twist of the episode being that Apgar caused the explosion in an attempt to murder Riker.  Apgar believed his treachery, developing a radiation that he wished to sell to the Romulans, was discovered and wished to make the murder look like an accident.

 

Rashomon is a story that works in the more finite medium of film, unlike a series of television which is inherently ongoing, because part of the musings on human nature come from not knowing the four characters relaying their stories.  “A Matter of Perspective” is an episode of a television series in its third season, we already know that William Riker could not have committed a murder, he is a protagonist that the series has affirmed far too many times to be a good man with a strong sense of justice and fairness.  Picard is immediately on his side and does not believe it, the tension of the episode clearly wanting to come from the existential threat of Riker being extradited for a crime he did not commit.  Ed Zuckerman’s script, however, does not really support the tension.  Everyone knows that Riker did not commit the crime of which he is accused, his version of events is presented as the most accurate version.  You can tell he is enjoying these three versions of events, sticking vaguely to the Rashomon effect by not having any of them be entirely true, Riker’s cannot be because he doesn’t know how the crime is committed.  There’s also an accusation of rape that weirdly is taken as Riker actually did scare Apgar’s wife when shown his quarters, something that is depicted on-screen as remembered as at the very least a sexual assault.  This is an assault that didn’t actually happen, but the episode says that it is the truth in Manua Apgar’s mind, which is horrific when you think of the implications of the episode.  If Zuckerman is trying to say something feminist about how men don’t think about the power dynamics they can have over women, it is mangled in the execution.  It’s also sadly very possible that the rape subplot is here for the sole reason of being a reference to Rashomon.

 

Jonathan Frakes for his part is clearly having fun with the recreations as are Margolis, Gina Hecht, and Juliana Donald.  Tributes to Rashomon are particularly fun for actors because they’re able to play the same scene in completely different ways, though again framing the episode as an actual trial indicates Zuckerman doesn’t understand exactly how Rashomon works.  It is integral that Rashomon is set after the rape trial, not during.  Recounting the stories doesn’t actually change the fate of the characters in the retellings, it is instead philosophical musings upon them.  It isn’t the performances that are a problem, even the guest cast is full of great character actors doing their best with a script that clearly loves what it is tributing, even if it muddles a lot of the artistry it wants to apply.  There is also clearly something off with Cliff Bole’s direction in this episode.  Since the flashbacks make use of simulation the decision is made to shoot them while the cast watches on.  While there are points where this is technically impressive seeing two versions of the same character on-screen at once, it often leaves some of the sets to feel just a bit abstract and incomplete at points.  While the acting is giving it all, the different blocking and framing of the flashbacks just feels less than inspired to make the visual distinctions actually mean something so the emotion is mostly portrayed through performance.  It’s bringing down what at the very least would be a fun tribute to a classic film, even if Zuckerman doesn’t have anything to say about the nature of either memory or justice deeper than they are both flawed.

 

Overall, “A Matter of Perspective” is a messy episode that has some of its moments, but because everything it is doing is a tribute to a much better film, you get the sense that not everybody was on the same page when making it.  It’s not a bad episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation per say, it just lacks any sort of cohesive statement inside of its script and is almost entirely carried by the performances of both the main and supporting casts.  5/10.