Never Give Up, Never Surrender. Spoilers.
After a few messy episodes this is at least starting to feel like we’re on the trajectory towards the season finale. Time to start resolving as we move to the end of the season.
There’s a bit of ‘greatest hits’ going on this season – and now it’s the episode for the ‘bad guys have control of the ship’. It’s effective mainly because Amanda Plummer as Vadik is so effective and menacing. Still, there’s a lot of talking and relatively low action. For instance, while it was great to see Worf appear, it would also have been nice to see how they actually got on the ship. Worf and Raffi’s fight is a bit undermined by the fact that there was total control of the ship by Data at that point, meaning there was little to actually worry about.
There are also some nice individual pieces. Some work towards resolving Seven and Shaw’s relationship. A really good Riker/Troi scene with a very understandable version of what had happened to them. Although, as always, it comes down to that most ancient of relationship advice – communicate.
The pacing at the end of the episode was a bit strange You’d think Troi’s feeling of a ‘dark presence’ would be the cut to credit. But after that we get a very ‘wrap up’ sequence, ending with the TNG original crew around a conference table. It actually makes a bit more sense as a 42 minute or so episode with a 10 minute epilogue.
Next time, hopefully some more answers as we reach the end of this season and this series.
Quick hits:
-
Why is there the sound of a projectile weapon in the fight sequence?
-
Why is Beverly doing the ‘hack into computer thing’ rather than Picard?
-
OK, what Deanna did to Riker was definitely not cool.
-
Deus Ex Worf! “One’s personal space is a right”.
-
Somehow Brent Spiner as Lore is like an inch taller… While it’s a bit of a retread to go back to Data agin, I’m glad to see Lore again.
-
Ah, the old Thermal Detonator ploy.
-Pretty sure this is the old ‘ the self is the sum of memories’ gambit, so as Lore absorbs them all he becomes Data. Don’t throw me into the memory patch Brer Data.
-
Spot! Yes, I did literally shout that out loud.
-
Wouldn’t Data integrate some of Lore in this process?
-
Monologuing protoplasms? Love it.
-
Poor Vadik. You were a great villain.
-
We remember a whole bunch of crew were killed right?
891 down.