transparent allegories Archive

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “The High Ground”

– March 21, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

highground1 “The High Ground”
Written by Melinda M. Snodgrass
Directed by Gabrielle Beaumont

Season 3, Episode 12
Original air date: January 29, 1990
Star date: 43510.7

Mission summary

The Enterprise has decided to give some medical supplies to ~~Ireland~~ Rutia IV, but it turns out terrorists have been bombing places so shore leave got canceled. Bummer. Dr. Crusher, Worf, and Data are sipping some tea in a cafe (for…work?) when a bomb goes off injuring civilians. Worf says they have to get out of there, but Crusher starts bandaging the wounded and refuses to beam back to the ship until the local medics arrive. Suddenly one of the Ansata–the space IRA–appears out of nowhere, kills a policeman, and abducts Crusher to the void from whence he came.

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Tags: bad metaphors, dr. crusher is pushy, fully clothed man-wrestling, handwaving mumblemumble, man-wrestling, manfighting, picard gets in a punch, picard moralizing, science!, terrorism, the tao of picard, transparent allegories, unfortunate historical allusions, wesley saves the day

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Too Short a Season”

Torie Atkinson

– March 8, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Too Short a Season”
Story by Michael Michaelian
Teleplay by Michael Michaelian and D.C. Fontana
Directed by Rob Bowman

Season 1, Episode 16
Original air date: February 8, 1988
Star date: 41309.5

Mission summary

On Mordan IV terrorists have taken several hostages, including a Federation ambassador, and demand to negotiate with an elderly Admiral Mark Jameson. Despite (or perhaps because of) his advanced years, Jameson’s qualifications are self-evident: he negotiated a seemingly impossible hostage situation on that very planet forty-five years earlier that made him something of a diplomatic hero. Though Mordan IV eventually plunged into a bloody, forty-year civil war, the past five years have been peaceful. Picard wonders why the current governor, Karnas, can’t seem to handle the situation himself. (Obviously healing a rift as deep as a civil war has a difficulty rating of three, max.)

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Tags: bad makeup, diplomacy fail, emotional women, fake moral dilemmas, letting the terrorists win, picard moralizing, really old people, things that are absolutely not funny, transparent allegories, troi is useless

Star Trek Re-Watch: “The Savage Curtain”

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– March 3, 2011 3:00 pmPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“The Savage Curtain”
Teleplay by Arthur Heinemann and Gene Roddenberry
Story by Gene Roddenberry
Directed by Herschel Daugherty

Season 3, Episode 22
Production episode: 3×22
Original air date: March 7, 1969
Star date: 5906.4

Mission summary

The Enterprise is in orbit around a molten lava-coated and poisonous planet that nonetheless reads carbon-based life. Seems like a classic mission for our bunch, but unfortunately the mysteries of Excalbia will have to go unexplored because the molten planetary surface isn’t suitable for a landing party. Just as Kirk turns that starship right around so no one can go to Mordor, the Enterprise jumps to red alert: they’re being scanned. “A deep probe, incredibly swift,” Spock says (miraculously without giggling).

On the viewscreen, a man in a black suit, seated in a leather chair, and wearing a stovepipe hat appears to float.

ALIEN THING: No need to check your voice telegraph device. Do I gather that you recognize me?
KIRK: I recognize what you appear to be.
ALIEN THING: And appearances can be most deceiving, but not in this case, James Kirk. I am Abraham Lincoln.

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