TNG 3x12: "The High Ground"

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Unrelated poll: Is it bad that I'm really happy I finally bought a new headset today, because I think my ill-favored roommate is home from her wanderings and now I can listen to music but also pretend I'm not here as long as I don't leave my room! Sure, at some point my roommates will start to wonder where I am, but by that point it will be late enough that they'll think I'm sleeping!

Hey, at least I'm not a TERRORIST.

Episode Notes: ( Hey, at least that was almost a SEGUE )

Overall Reaction: I...hm. I enjoyed this episode while I was watching it, but it doesn't really hold up for me. I liked that Kyril Finn (who is apparently a Russo-Irish folkloric hero) called the Federation out on the "hint of moral cowardice" in denying that they are involving themselves in a conflict when they are providing one side with aid; I thought that was a strong point. But beyond that, he was mercurial and hard to pin down as a character and a fucking terrorist, who killed school children. My real problem was the disservice this episode did to Beverly Crusher. Because I didn't think he was really made as three-dimensional as they seemed to believe he was, all her equivocating ("Ohhh, he's not what you expect!") made her seem naive and easily influenced. And one minute she would seem to despise what he stood for and the next to think that he had a point and to totally forget that he tried to blow up her sixteen-year-old son. Just because the guy's got an artistic soul and a yen for you doesn't make him a decent guy, Beverly! I'm getting enough of this shit in season two of Gilmore Girls! (Jess is a douchebag who should grow the fuck up, for the record.) (But at least he has the excuse of being seventeen for his hair tossing and annoyingly cynical commentary.)

In short, could've been better and I don't think making Crusher act like a teenage girl makes for scintillating television.

Star Rating: ** 1/2

Quote of the Episode:
"Captain, Federation has a lot to admire in this. But there's a hint of moral cowardice in your dealings with non-aligned planets. You're doing business with a government that is crushing us, and you say you're not involved? You're very, very much involved. You just don't wanna get dirty." (Kyril Finn)
Quote of the Episode:

TNG 3x13: "Déjà Q"

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Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! This is one of my favorite Q episodes! Fair warning that I will probably just go on to quote half his lines in the notes.

Episode Notes: ( THESE AREN'T MY COLORS. )

Overall Reaction: Okay, I saved pretty much all the Q-Picard and Q-Data interactions for this, because otherwise everything would have ended up in the notes. I feel that my love of this episode can be pretty accurately summed up just through a list of quotes.

Anyway, this episode has wonderful, wonderful Q/Picard interactions! "Because in all the universe, you're the closest thing I have to a friend, Jean-Luc," is probably one of the most honest things Q says all episode even though, being Q, he obviously has other motives for ending up on the Enterprise and certainly only means to be honest in the very loosest way. But it's no surprise to anyone at all that given a split second to decide the rest of his now-mortal existence, he would turn Picard-wards. Picard is unsurprisingly grumpy throughout the episode, but I love all Q's doomed attempts to get him on board with the human!Q thing -- sitting on his desk, asking for guidance, trying to become accepted as a Starfleet officer. And all so charmingly ineptly and egotistically.

God, my heart is such a Q apologist because I'm all like, "GIVE HIM A CHANCE!" and then my brain says, "Um, Emma, he's a terrible, terrible human. And really awful at taking orders. And has a pretty bad track record." But I can't help that I love him and that I love Q/Picard.

And the episode also has great Data and Q interactions! With Data nearly sacrificing his life for Q and Q letting him laugh and, oh, be still my heart!

Plus at the end Q is a hip-swiveling mariachi band leader. And at one point he is naked on the bridge. I could watch this stuff all day.

Star Rating: *** 1/2

Quote of the Episode:
"Oh, you’re so stolid. You weren’t like that before the beard!" (Q, on Riker)

TNG 3x14: "A Matter of Perspective"

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Episode Notes: ( Riker Wanted for Murder One )

Overall Reaction: I love a good murder mystery! I was just reading over my earlier episode reactions and I know that that statement is directly contradicted in a previous Voyager review, but that was different! That was bad noir pastiche! This played with the idea of subjectivity and different perspectives on the same event, and I even like the one kind of shitty due South episode that does that! This was an actually slightly good murder mystery!

Slightly. I can only give it a slightly because nothing about the different perspectives was resolved. We can only assume Riker's is the most accurate, because we are meant to side and sympathize with him, but what are we supposed to make of Deanna's assessment that Manua Apgar was not being dishonest in her recollections? There is a pretty big difference between coming onto a man and being rejected and having a man try and rape you, and it would be pretty hard to confuse the two. That is not a misunderstanding or a different interpretation, as her earlier memories of him checking her out could be; it is a completely different event.

Are we supposed to think that she is deeply delusional? Perhaps grief-deranged? Are we supposed to believe the assistant's representation of the scene and assume that both Riker and Manua were remembering things in the best light for themselves after having been mutually involved? That would be the best answer, but, although I call Riker a lech a lot, he's not self-deluding; I doubt he'd reimagine himself as an unwilling partner if he actually made out with the scientist's wife. Which leaves us in a bit of a narrative pickle, and also leaves me in a pretty dissatisfied place with the episode's handling of what is essentially an accusation of attempted rape -- it doesn't call Manua a lying bitch trying to ruin Riker's life, for which I am grateful, but Riker's perspective is clearly privileged because we know him and the other characters love and trust him. Without any clear explanation for her memory of the events, Manua's hung out to dry.

Still, toss me some twisty narrative techniques and a bit of suspense and I am usually there, so did get a kick out of the episode.

Star Rating: ** 1/2

Quote of the Episode:
"While suggesting the free treatment of form usually attributed to fauvism, this quite... inappropriately attempts to juxtapose the disparate cubistic styles of Picasso and Léger. In addition, the use of color suggests a... haphazard melange of clashing styles. Furthermore, the unsettling overtones of proto-Vulcan influences..." (Data, trying to be tactful in his assessment of Picard's art -- personally, the brief glimpse I saw reminded me of Modigliani and didn't strike me as horrendous, but I admit I wasn't paying any attention. ...Just enough attention for my brain to dredge Modigliani's name out of my memory and draw a comparison, obviously.)