Amnesia of the Future: The Battle

24th November, 2009 2 Comments

I just spent two hours thinking I had no point, no cohesive summary for The Battle.  And then, looking at my list of nine bullets pointing out the good and the bad of the episode, I realized something.  All along, Wil Wheaton has been pointing out that the actors on a show are sort of at the mercy of the writers.  And if your writers sort of suck…

There was some good stuff to it all; the Ferengi in this episode would have made a much better intro to the diabolical, shifty, and crafty enemy race.  I’d trust these guys about as far as Wesley Crusher could throw them.  Which isn’t particularly far. 

Patrick Stewart really saves the day in this episode.  His acting is outstanding and you feel such tenderness for very simple moments–whether he is describing his action on the Stargazer that would later be dubbed as The Picard Maneuver (such a boy moment!) or the emotional tugs of being on the bridge of his old command–he just really nails it. 

But the rest of the cast has to deal with crap.  Troi is still pointless in an episode where she should be of some use with Picard’s double thoughts. The Battle is sort of a repeat of Lonely Among Us:  Picard’s mental faculties are taken over by an outside force that convinces him to beam himself out of the safety of the Enterprise and into a dangerous situation where he’s probably going to die.  The crew is pretty up on esoteric ancient texts; they should take a page from The Odyssey and handcuff their captain to his chair in the bridge as he hears way too many Sirens calling out to him. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Crusher has to deal with a script that forces her to pointlessly explain to Picard, for the benefit of the audience, how humans have overcome headaches (which doesn’t make a ton of sense to me; unless you’re perpetually drugging your people a la Brave New World or evolution booted headaches, wouldn’t the human body and mind function the same and therefore still produce them?) and act like a bit of a moron unable to figure out what’s wrong with Picard despite the fact that she’s clearly not.

I also feel bad for Geordi La Farge.  As a character he’s simply an echo of Wesley Crusher.  Speaking of whom, I finally get it.  Clearly, Wheaton’s Law is forgotten over the course of the next 400 years, because Wesley Crusher, you sir, are a dick.  You haven’t gotten laid, you are a nerd with no friends, and here you are being all snarkyand teenage rebellious behind your mom’s back.  Before this, Wesley was the pitiful nerd boy and I’m not sure why the writers gave him an attitude.  Other than becoming acting ensign a few episodes, it’s not like he’s really done anything (like that Edo chick)  in the past episodes to warrant such a drastic personality change.

Some things I don’t understand and will chalk up to the writers realizing they’d dug themselves into a hole:

1) Why doesn’t Riker just destroy the “thought maker” that’s on the Enterprise rather than hoping he can get through the altered thoughts of Picard to blow up the one on the Stargazer?
2) Wouldn’t there have been more DRAMA! and TENSION! if the audience didn’t realize there was a control device until Worf went to search through Picard’s belongings?
3) I realize there had to be some way of discovering that the signal pattern from the “thought maker” and the pattern of Picard’s thoughts matched–but it was just stupid using Wesley to figure it out for two reasons:

a. Who lets an acting ensign tinker around with the ship?  Isn’t that what school is for?  So you learn in a controlled environment and don’t accidentally break the real thing?

b. Mom is a doctor, not Wesley.  I understand he’d be the only one whose presence in both engineering and sickbay is understandable, but wow, contrived.  He’s an engineering boy-genius, not a doctor!*

Memories of the Future:  Chapter 9

I’m really grateful to have Wil Wheaton’s Memories of the Future on hand.  As I’m watching these episodes for the first time, I miss a lot while trying to absorb all that’s going on.  There are definitely cringe-worthy moments and others worth some sort of award for the acting involved.  Truth be told, my reviews come from a mix of watching an episode, watching it again while taking notes, and watching it a third time after having read the corresponding chapter.  

It’s not a completely honest first-time reaction as a result; however, I do try to write it all before reading and watching for the third time.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t go back and retweak for clarity when working out a final draft. 

What I like about the book is that I get to notice things that make sense and are so obvious, but that I miss because I’m checking Twitter/getting a glass of water/sleep deprived and imaging cockroaches in my apartment.**

Here, in the Behind the Scenes, is finally the explanation for why alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die existed.  Or does it still exist?  I might want to join.  The scene in sickbay stood out immediately whereas the first time around I didn’t notice how Wesley bypasses all chain of command in the bridge.  He’s a little sullen and petulant to all the adults (including Captain Picard) and on top of a complete personality change has dialogue that makes him sound like a douche while incomprehensibly saving the day.

Now, I really don’t know anything about writing for television, but it seems that there should have been someone in the room as this script was worked out who could point out all its shortcomings.  It’s not the worst episode I’ve seen so far, but clearly not the best either.  Why wasn’t there a producer culling the wheat from the chaff with each successful or unsuccessful episode?  The quality of an entire episode should be a combination of great writing and great acting, a fusion of parts to create a whole.  That success shouldn’t rest squarely on the shoulders of one actor, no matter how talented he may be.  Just to be clear, I’m referring to Patrick Stewart. 

It must have been incredible to be Wil Wheaton back then getting to watch Stewart do his thing.  He may not have appreciated The Blue Boy, but being around a master of the trade has got to be such an amazing experience.  I get chills watching Picard on my little 14” computer monitor.  As an actor, to be in the same room must have been so inspiring. 

*I was trying to figure out where that “I’m a doctor, not a…came from on Google and was completely unaware that it was a common Star Trek: The Original Series phrase.  I feel cleverer than that accidental choice in comment really was.

**Once you have a large cockroach crawl up the inside of your pants, forcing you to drop said pants on a subway platform at 1 am, you too will see them EVERYWHERE!  Especially when sleep deprived.

Related posts:

1. Amnesia of the Future: Where No One Has Gone Before Oh my god.  The previous three episodes were insanely cheesy...
2. Amnesia of the Future: Hide and Q My two first impressions of Hide and Q were as...
3. Amnesia of the Future: Lonely Among Us Oh conflicted reaction to this episode!  Part of me is...
4. Amnesia of the Future: The Naked Now Hmm, I’m not sure where to begin with the second...
5. Amnesia of the Future: The Big Goodbye Before I talk about The Big Goodbye, I want to...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.