A Virus Worth Coming Back To: "Contagion" Works Surprisingly Well!

The Good: Acting, Plot, Character, Effects, Pacing
The Bad: Minor Details, Simple Resolution
The Basics: In a surprisingly good episode from the second season, Picard discovers an ancient civilization and a threat to the Federation as the Enterprise collapses.


Star Trek Deep Space Nine tried to differentiate itself as often as possible from Star Trek The Next Generation. It did everything it could to make a more adult, clever and dangerous show than Star Trek The Next Generation. There were, of course, lapses. There were things Star Trek Deep Space Nine used from the earlier series, but always with good reason and in the attempt of expanding the Trek universe. "Contagion" is one such episode; Deep Space Nine alludes to it in the fourth season episode "To The Death.”

"Contagion" finds the U.S.S. Enterprise responding to a distress call from the Galaxy-class vessel U.S.S. Yamato. Launched at about the same time as the Enterprise, the Yamato is trapped in the Romulan Neutral Zone suffering from a catastrophic systems failure. The Enterprise arrives just in time to witness its complete destruction. Shortly thereafter, the Enterprise begins to experience systems difficulties (an out of control turbolift, problems with the power systems, transporter difficulties, etc.). Picard reviews the logs of the Yamato's captain long enough to determine it is worthwhile for him to assume his mission. So the Enterprise is going on a hunt for a mythical planet in the Romulan Neutral Zone. And as the Enterprise breaks down, Picard, Data and Worf become stranded. And, of course, the Romulans show up!

"Contagion" is one of Star Trek The Next Generation's second season's surprise hits. While "Measure Of A Man" (reviewed here!) is a philosophical masterpiece and pretty much a guaranteed grand slam in the Trek universe, "Contagion" does what it does very differently and with much more quiet grace. What "Measure Of A Man" did for philosophical drama, "Contagion" does for suspense. "Contagion" very effectively, consistently, keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat wondering what will come next. The nice thing about it is that it creates a suspense/adventure episode that is intelligent. This episode is not about a lot of things exploding or fast movements, it's an archaeological expedition and it works quite well as a suspense with the Enterprise failure and encroachment into the Neutral Zone aspects.

The writers of this episode very cleverly tie the external threat - the Romulans - to an internal threat - the potential destruction of the Enterprise through its systems simply degrading. The two elements very effectively create a compelling race against time. As well, the idea of the mythical Iconians is intriguing and the effect of their technology throughout the episode makes for more than just a convenient plot device. Here is Star Trek The Next Generation at its best dispelling the ethnocentrism that the Federation is the center of the universe and that it could never fall.

Part of what makes "Contagion" successful is that the actors all perform in this one. Stewart plays Picard in an awkward place torn between his own passion and the welfare of his ship. For the first time, we see Picard truly excited about an alien planet and his love of archaeology is introduced. What allows the viewer to buy this unquestionably is the way Patrick Stewart brings it in. He quietly brings enthusiasm into his voice and his body language changes as he becomes intrigued with the mystery on the alien world.

Frakes and Dorn give excellent supporting performances as Riker and Worf. And here we see Brent Spiner playing a wounded Data. It's a refreshing acting use of Spiner and given the opportunity, the actor does not waste it. Data's failure in this episode is played out as quite different from his suffering in "The Naked Now" or "Justice." Indeed, Spiner plays the malfunctioning Data in a way that pulls at the heartstrings of the viewer; we fear for his character, so masterful is Spiner's performance.

So, what prevents this from being a perfect episode? Mostly just the resolution. Data inadvertently brings about the episode's final solution and it seems almost too obvious, something that any one of us using computers today would have thought of when there is a computer problem. That is frustrating when the rest of the episode works so well.

But, it is enough to keep it from perfection. Fortunately, when Star Trek Deep Space Nine revisits the Iconian revelation from "Contagion," it manages to pull off something even better.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Complete Second Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the sophomore season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

9/10

For other Star Trek episode and DVD set reviews, please be sure to visit my index page!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Revenge Of The Malicious Hole In Space! "Time Squared" Is An Interesting Science Fiction Episode!

The Good: Good acting, Interesting enough plot, Special effects
The Bad: Pointless belaboring of science, Lack of genuine character development
The Basics: A fair episode, "Time Squared" is a science-heavy episode that explores a Picard that arrives in the past after the Enterprise has been destroyed.


"Time Squared" is an episode that can be somewhat annoying to the fans of Star Trek The Next Generation who actually read TV Guide; every now and then, TV Guide lists an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation called "Time To The Second." Alas, there is no lost episode of Next Generation, For some reason, TV Guide calls "Time Squared" by that other title. Go figure.

"Time Squared" finds the Enterprise flying through space when it encounters a shuttlecraft. The crew is surprised to realize that the shuttlecraft is one of the Enterprise's own and it also appears that the vessel is still aboard the starship. They bring the shuttlecraft aboard (next to its counterpart) and open it up to discover . . . Captain Picard is aboard. Picard (our regular Picard) is baffled by the presence of the duplicate and strangely disturbed by the man. As the Enterprise crew works to determine where this came from, Picard becomes reclusive. The crew discovers that the Enterprise, a few hours in the future, will be destroyed. And the episode then goes from there, trying to piece together how and why Picard left the Enterprise before it was destroyed.

The problem is that the alternate Picard is not conscious. He becomes more awake and more aware the closer to the time of the Enterprise's destruction. In the process, the Enterprise encounters a big hole in space that seems to be the cause of the destruction. The amount of time belaboring the scientific anomaly is incredible and distracting. That is to say that outside the anomaly, this episode isn't terribly much.

But it tries to be and that gets some points. The relationship between Picard and the alternate Picard is an odd one; Picard becomes moody and angry at his other self, believing that the alternate lacks his values. He seems very troubled by the duplicate and that part tries to read as real. Why does it fail? I think it fails because every opportunity to expand on that, to delve into the meat of Picard's difficulties with himself, the show shifts to a scientific explanation or a medical review. It loses the momentum for character development at every turn.

What saves the episode from obscurity and the trashcan is the acting. Patrick Stewart goes all out as both himself and his duplicate. His facial expressions and mute horror in the eyes that Stewart portrays is amazing. He performs here and he makes an uncertain character position much more believable.

The special effect of the malicious hole in space (is it an entity? Is it a spacial phenomenon? Who knows?) is pretty unique. It looks good and it adds believability to the episode.

And the plot, despite being a bit tech heavy, is paced in a way that is enough keep the viewer interested. For a second season of Star Trek The Next Generation episode, sometimes that's the most you can hope for.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Complete Second Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the sophomore season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

7/10

For other Star Trek franchise reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2011, 2007, 2002 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Officer Down (And That's The Whole Story)! "Skin Of Evil" Replays Less Extraordinarily!

The Good: Character, Acting, Behind the Scenes stories
The Bad: Plot, One-Trick Pony, Pointless Enemy.
The Basics: A disappointing episode that kills off Tasha Yar and serves little other purpose, including not being terribly entertaining.


Star Trek The Next Generation has a fairly stable cast . . . by the third season. Here in the first season, the crew undergoes a single major change and that occurs in the episode "Skin Of Evil." In fact, the whole purpose of "Skin Of Evil" is to make a change in cast. In a way, it strengthens the characters in the long run.

While flying to pick Counselor Troi up from a conference, the Enterprise receives a distress call from her shuttlecraft. Her ship is under attack and by the time the Enterprise arrives, the shuttle has crashed on an unexplored planet called Vagra II. When the Away Team beams down, they find an oil slick blocking their path and whenever they try to pass it by, it moves to block their way. The slick reconfigures itself to the form of a human, sort of. It generally resembles a human shape and it calls itself Armus.

Armus apparently has a grudge against everyone and everything and is a sadist to boot. When the Away Team tries to get by the creature, it lashes out and kills Lieutenant Yar. Yar is beamed back to the Enterprise and, in a scene reminiscent of every medical drama, Dr. Crusher tries desperately to save her, to no avail. Yar dies, Troi is trapped in the shuttlecraft and upon returning to the surface, Riker is absorbed by Armus and lost.

The rest of the episode, and the rest takes a while as Yar is killed fairly early in the piece, is spent with Picard figuring out how to free Troi and thwart Armus using philosophy alone. It becomes pedantic and the pace slows to ridiculous levels during the second half.

I once had a writing teacher who taught that if a conflict is easily resolved, it wasn't much of a conflict to begin with. It makes a lot of sense and it's something I've come to live by in both my life and my writing. Unfortunately, the writer's of "Skin Of Evil" had no such guidance in their education. Faced with the dissatisfaction of actress Denise Crosby, the writers of Star Trek The Next Generation came up with "Skin Of Evil" to resolve the problem. It was a simple problem and they came up with the most simple resolution: kill her. The problem is, it's a simple problem and resolving it is ridiculously easy.

But, it doesn't take a lot of time.

Much of "Skin Of Evil" is filler. That is, the episode is resolved rather quickly; Yar is killed, but the episode keeps going on. It's a lot of pointless talk defining Armus and the nature of evil and the middle twenty minutes is a complete wash.

Two important things happen in "Skin Of Evil" and both are character things. Yar is killed and in the last minutes of the episode, a wonderful scene is presented whereby a holographic Yar gives her memorial, helping to define each of the characters and her relationship with them. The other important aspect of the episode is that Worf is made Security Chief.

The episode suffers on many levels, but none more serious than the fact that the episode attempts to draw out a simple premise into a full episode. They had an easy thing to do and, unfortunately, the writer's used the easiest possible resolution to the problem.

The real nice thing about the episode actually does not appear in the episode. Jonathan Frakes, who plays Riker, was immersed in a vat of black dyed Metamucil when Armus absorbs Riker. Jonathan, being a young actor at the time, and a real sport, jumped right in. Rather disgusting. What Jonathan didn't know was it was dyed with professional printer's ink and it dyed him quite a bit. If one watches closely, when Riker is released from Armus, they may see that the whites of Frakes’ eyes are dyed! Yech.

In the end, "Skin Of Evil" is a remarkably unsatisfying end to a decent character. I am recommending it solely on the basis of its importance within the Star Trek The Next Generation mythology. Yar's death has consequences that will resonate the rest of the series as does Worf's promotion.

Watch it once, that's all it's worth.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Complete First Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the debut season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

5/10

For other Star Trek episode, movie and season reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2007, 2002 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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The Big Overrated Episode of Star Trek The Next Generation: "The Big Goodbye" Is Fair Science Fiction.

The Good: Acting, Plot, Effects
The Bad: Attempts at humor, Shaky characterization
The Basics: While better than most television, "The Big Goodbye" is an inconsistent episode of Star Trek The Next Generation that sacrifices some characterization for style.


It's a bit ironic that I should call the only Star Trek episode of any of the series' to win a Peabody award "overrated." And yet, I shall. The Star Trek The Next Generation episode "The Big Goodbye" deserved the Peabody less than the episode which preceded it, "Too Short A Season." Does that mean "The Big Goodbye" isn't worth your viewing? Not at all.

"The Big Goodbye" has Captain Picard relaxing from some tense diplomatic preparations that require him to perfectly present a greeting in an alien language to a very picky species by using the holodeck. Picard plays a holodeck adventure set in the 1940s on Earth. It has him playing the role of Dixon Hill, a detective. Impressed by the quality and realism of the holodeck, Picard invites Crusher, Data and the ship's historian, Whalen, to join him in the mystery. Unfortunately, an alien probe of the ship causes the holodeck to malfunction - the first time the holodeck malfunctions, so this episode is original - and the officers inside are trapped in a potentially lethal situation.

The strength of the episode is in its originality. The first time things go wrong on the state of the art ship, is a milestone and when they go seriously wrong. Whalen is shot by a thug and his struggle to survive becomes the crux of the episode.

The problem is that the episode tries too hard, too early. Captain Picard is played as a clown; his enthusiasm over the holodeck is fine, but the writers took it too far, trying to make his stodgy character funny so soon makes him come off as goofy and the episode significantly less funny than pathetic. Similarly, the rest of the humor of the episode seems to come too close to being ridiculous, as opposed to genuinely funny. The best example of this is Data. While I appreciate the humor of Brent Spiner, the actor who plays Data, his facial expressions and his performance in this episode are just plain silly.

The character that saves the episode is Dr. Crusher. She is not as altered as Data and Picard for the purposes of this episode. So, while she is able to unwind in a way her character has not previously illustrated, it does not go so far as to be pointless or a hyperbole of uncharacteristic behavior. Her ability to shift gears when Whalen is shot is very realistic.

While Picard adapts to the change in circumstance, it does not flow as well, to the point that the climactic scene wherein Picard confronts the holographic villains with the truth about what they are, he becomes far more philosophical than worrying about the practical matter of his dying crewman.

That's not to say the episode is all bad. The episode has a lot going for it. The first is the acting. Even though his character is severely affected for the episode, Patrick Stewart plays him well. It's not his fault that Picard comes off as silly, it's the writing. Gates McFadden gives a fine performance as Crusher as well. The powerhouse of the episode is Lawrence Tierney who plays the holographic villain Cyrus Redblock. He plays Redblock well with real villainy and makes the flat character come to life with his stage presence.

"The Big Goodbye" is essentially a "Holodeck Malfunction" episode wherein the new technology that can create any setting and any people experiences an error that the crew must thwart to survive. It's a nice standard, but the humor of this episode distracts from the real menace that the plot attempts to create.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Complete First Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the debut season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

7.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and film reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2010, 2008, 2002 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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