Why would you let a teenager, even a super genius one, mess with your warp drive?
That is just the first of many difficult to imagine/accept bits of this episode. I know that you have to suspend disbelief when you watch anything, but I really had to work at this one.
The premise is interesting. What if you lost everyone bit by bit, not just through aging but through an unexplained phenomenon? What if you were the only one who remembered? I didn’t have any trouble believing that someone or something was removing people from the Enterprise and wiping all memory of them. Weirder things have happened. What I had trouble with was the fact that it took Crusher almost the whole episode to figure it out.
I can also accept that she might create her own reality in the warp bubble and even that the clues she got and the questions she was being asked were her subconscious trying to help her. But a ship’s computer that seems to work? Why in her reality would people forget the existence of others? How could anyone forget Worf? I and the audience shouldn’t have to work that hard or forgive that many inconsistencies to make the plot work. Finally, I don’t mind that Wesley is a prodigy but moving him up to the level of the ‘Traveller’ was a bit much for me.
What I did like about this episode was that it was centred on Dr. Crusher. She didn’t lose her cool or her confidence in herself. She did question her sanity with Troi but the answer Troi gave (or Crusher’s subconscious) was excellent. She was doing the best she could in the situation whether people believed her or not. I also enjoyed Dr. Crusher’s descriptions of the crew and her commitment to remember them. She obviously cares deeply about at least the main characters.
Bits
I wish they had done more with Dr. Quaice and the idea of cherishing people in the present. Beverly mentions that he might be dead and doesn’t even flinch. It seemed unusual considering how close she was to him.
Interesting that Jean Luc was the last to disappear - even after Wesley - is that because in Beverly’s mind he is integral to the existence of the ship?
Data has lots of reasons for empty rooms on the Enterprise. It made me wonder why they do have all those people. Without Dr. Quaice, there are 1013 crew on the Enterprise.
Why didn’t they try to get a message to Beverly? Or be super brave and dive into the warp bubble?
Quotes
Dr. Quaice: “You know what the worst part of growing old is? So many of the people you’ve known in your life are gone and you realize you didn’t take the time to appreciate them while you still could .”
Crusher: “I just examined myself and being the only doctor on board I had to do it myself.” (The best part of this quote is her exasperation).
Picard: “Your word has always been good enough for me.”
Picard: “Whom did you say?” (That’s right people, ‘whom’)
Crusher: “Worf, Chief of Security. The big guy who never smiles. The Klingon!”
Crusher: “I won’t forget. I won’t forget any of you.”
Traveller: “As long as she thinks she is alive, she is alive.”
Riker: ‘What the hell does that mean?” (Exactly)
Crusher: “They all have been the living, breathing heart of this crew for over three years. They deserve more than to be shrugged off, brushed aside, just pinched out of existence like that.”
All in all not my favourite episode but at least it was centred on a female character. Two out of four collapsing warp bubbles.
Definitely a flawed episode but I really enjoyed it on rewatch. There was something super creepy about the way people were simply disappearing as if they had never existed, and I think Gates McFadden played it well.
ReplyDeleteA group of us watched this together a while back, and my friends could not stop laughing at the line you used as the page quote! :) It's a bit of a leap, to be fair... I like the sections of this with people disappearing, but the solution really doesn't make much sense.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed bits of this episode but I think what really bothered me was the fact that they finally have a Crusher centric episode and then they treat her like a bit of a ninny at times. I think I would have preferred her figuring out what was happening earlier on and then working with Wesley to make a bridge rather than just having him be boy wonder.
ReplyDeleteThe Twilight Zone actually did an episode with the exact same premise (people being erased from existence one by one) back in 1963, with "And Then the Sky was Opened."
ReplyDeleteI'm with drnanamom on this one...Crusher's slowness on the uptake really hurt this episode for me. When one man is missing and all accounts of his existence have been expunged it could be a conspiracy. But when three quarters of the crew is suddenly missing and we know there's been some kind of space-time disturbance, I knew she must have somehow moved to an alternate universe or traveled in time or something. The conspiracy theory just doesn't make any sense.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the idea of Picard and Crusher happily gadding about in this enormous space craft with no one else aboard for three years was very amusing.
Funny - I was skeptical about watching TNG. This was the first episode I ever watched (by chance) and I fell in love with it. It drew me in and I have never missed any of the subsequent series. I have watched and rewatched all 5 (live) Series many times over in reruns, as well as Discovery, Picard, and Strange New Worlds. Love my Star Trek! Cathy J
ReplyDeleteThe fact that it focuses on Dr. Crusher, a character that I've always been a huge fan of, and the very Twilight Zone vibes this one gives me helps elevate it some, but I also have to agree that all the glaring inconsistencies bring it down quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteIt is at least interesting and engaging, so there is that. I'll take flawed but intriguing over well reasoned but boring any day.