Captain Picard is abducted from his quarters and imprisoned with three aliens in a tiny room. The group must learn to work together -- and past their suspicions of one another -- to escape captivity. And Picard really must save himself, for his crew doesn't even know he's missing; a doppelganger has taken his place aboard the Enterprise, and is testing everyone's reactions to ever-stranger orders.
It's not that this is a bad episode. In fact, it's a much better version of an idea of the "mutiny against the captain" idea the series flirted with to disastrous results back in the first season. No, the problem is that this is treading very cliché and familiar territory for Star Trek in general, in fact going all the way back to the original series' original pilot episode, "The Cage." An advanced alien culture that doesn't understand some concept of humanity (in this case, authority) decides to abduct and imprison a crew member in a sort of laboratory experiment designed to investigate said concept. We've seen it again and again and again.
Just like in "The Cage," the unnamed alien species in this case is telepathic. There are loosely implied limitations on their telepathy, but their abilities are still advanced enough to riddle the plot with holes. How can they have learned so much about Picard to impersonate him so thoroughly (his catch phrases like "make it so," his love of Earl Grey tea) and yet be unable to telepathically understand the authority concepts they're trying to study? How is they can't telepathically detect when Picard becomes suspicious of their mole inside the experiment?
And they aren't the only problematic aliens in this episode. Picard is imprisoned with a character named Kova Tholl, of a race that is said to be known for its pacificism, and yet Tholl himself comes off as quite abrasive and passive-aggressive, as though he's deliberately goading others to irration. The violent Chalnoth named Esoqq is a caricature on the opposite end of the spectrum, with the curious (but convenient) ability to know from a quick taste that a food is poisonous to him.
Still, for its flaws, the episode is quite a showcase for Patrick Stewart as both Picard and the Picard duplicate. He shades the duplicate very close to the real thing in the beginning, and then gradually introduces the notion that maybe the alien wants to be found out as the episode goes on. There are many wonderfully awkward moments for the not-captain, from leading his officers in a drinking song in Ten Forward, to crashing the senior officers' poker game. (Interestingly, the only other time Picard shows up there is also noted as being uncharacteristic, for the very final scene of the series in "All Good Things...")
The truly great scene of the episode plays between Patrick Stewart as the double and Gates McFadden. After dangling the idea of a Jean-Luc/Beverly romance in front of the audience since the beginning of the series, we now get a payoff of that... under false pretenses. The double is essentially toying with the audience just as much as he's toying with Dr. Crusher, putting us effectively in her shoes. (Though interestingly, she says she doesn't want to pursue any relationship with Picard during the scene.) The soft lighting adds an appropriate soap opera kind of vibe, and the performances are excellent.
Also notable are some interesting camera choices during the episode. The alien holding cell is full of lens flare, virtually unseen in Star Trek (until J.J. Abrams took it over, anyway). There are strong, dramatic profiles used in the scene where Riker finally confronts the duplicate in the ready room. And the choices in editing clearly tell us the moments when the real Picard suspects which of his fellow prisoners is really one of his captors in disguise. The camera really tells a story throughout this episode.
Other observations:
- Composer Ron Jones provides music that really highlights the suspicion and mistrust among Picard and his fellow captives.
- There's a moment where the captives smash open a panel to try to hotwire the door open. The glass breaks with a really cheesy 1960s movie sound effect.
- During the flirtation scene, Beverly notes that Jean-Luc doesn't dance. This observation is possibly being referenced much later in the film Star Trek: Insurrection, when Picard becomes aware of the youth-giving properties of the alien planet when he spontaneously begins dancing a mambo.
- For a young acting ensign like Wesley Crusher, the decision to side with Riker and mutiny against "Captain Picard" is huge, especially when Wesley wasn't even present at the meeting where the senior officers broached the subject of rebellion. I wish more had been made of this moment for the character.
- The aliens' comeuppance in this episode is delivered when, with a single nod from Picard, an order is given to capture the aliens in a force field. The point is supposed to be that even without true telepathy, the crew can communicate non-verbally. But to make this point, we're asked to accept that it takes no less than three bridge officers (Riker, Data, and Worf) to turn on one simple force field. Not a good system, if you ask me.
No comments:
Post a Comment