Amnesia of the Future: The Big Goodbye

by Christina on December 1, 2009

Before I talk about The Big Goodbye, I want to briefly tell you a little story about what a small world it is.

I got a note from a friend on Facebook this weekend stating that he met a woman from LA named Debbie (who is a friend of a friend of mine) at a dance thing in Melbourne, Australia. I’m not sure of the order in which this conversation all took place, but apparently she met Wil Wheaton recently at Wootstock, and when Darren mentioned my blog, the first thing she said was, “That’s the one that Wil Wheaton mentioned!”

Hello fifteen minutes.

In other news (promise I’m getting to the review in a minute)…last night, on my way home to watch Datalore, I found out that the twins my sister is carrying will be identical boys. I think she should name them “Data” and “Lore,” but I’m pretty sure I’m getting vetoed on that one.

So, The Big Goodbye.

This weekend, I styled a photo shoot for a friend and the theme was Speakeasy/Prohibition. It’s really difficult to do a shoot like this because getting the period look is difficult enough and even more so when you have no money. The reason I was asked to do this was because of the whole swing dancing thing. However, my clothes are vintage inspired, which means they don’t really look accurate. And I go more for a 1960s Mad Men look than I do 1920s flapper. A friend joined in and we went more for capturing the essence of Prohibition than we did accuracy.

There was an episode (Life in the Past Lane - clips on YouTube) of Dariawhere Jane started dating a vintage obsessed fellow, and in one scene he admonishes her for mixing a 1940s dress with 1950s shoes, and she retorts that he’s being too nit-picky seeing as they’re going to a tiki-lounge and he’s wearing a zoot suit. In the late ’90s, swing dancers and loungers were really hung up on authenticity. It’s calmed down a lot since then, but people still get worked up over authentic music and make fun of newb dancers who like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy over Duke Ellington or wear saddle shoes and poodle skirts instead of Keds and sweat-friendly tee-shirts.

So while it’s unlikely I’ll ever become a hardcore Trekkie, I completely understand that obsessive behavior of getting things right. Watching The Big Goodbye made me realize how brilliant Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner are as actors and made me appreciate Gates McFadden as an actress–because up until this point, we really haven’t seen what she can do. And here she nails that fine line of trying to fit in while still being completely awkward in her surroundings. There’s so much to posture, movement, and speech that has changed in the past 70 years that makes it really difficult to capture that essence now, and McFadden does a lovely job of being naive, enthralled while imitating the period with limited knowledge. It would sort of be like going back to an Elizabethan court and trying to act natural based on a few biographies and too many viewings of Shakespeare in Love. As a result she’s a lovely ingenue.

I also love the looks and reactions of the Starfleet crew in the holodeck. They’re just so excited to be there, sort of like those Tony and Tina’s Wedding performances where you are both observer and participant; they can be thrilled with the unfolding of events as long as they think they are safe and removed from danger. That immediate switch to “Oh, shit–Houston, we have a problem” is seamless.

With this review, I don’t really have anything snarky to add, so I guess I’ll just say that if I didn’t already love Data, seeing him in a vintage pinstripe suit would have done the trick. Swoon. That goes for Captain Picard too. And you know what, Dr. Crusher too. She’s smokin’ in this episode.

Also, I want a holodeck of my own. I’m thinking I can clear out one of my closets and just put it in there.

Memories of the Future: Chapter 12

I’m really failing here. So far, I’ve re-read the chapter a few times, and I still don’t know what to say. In part, I think this is because The Big Goodbye is such a good episode–how do you really make fun of it? Even Wil Wheaton snark ebbs low–so it’s not just me blathering about what great actors these people are. Hearing him talk so highly of the skills his fellow co-stars possess is great. You can really see in his writing how much he admires the talents of Patrick Stewart.

As in every episode, there are problems and inconsistencies, but just as in previous episodes, sometimes great acting covers up the issues. While I’ve been enjoying all the jabs of previous episodes, the slight change of tone here is surprisingly refreshing. If Wil Wheaton has been grading all these on a curve, and this episode won a Peabody, and future seasons are supposedly much better than this first one…well then I’m excited to continue watching because it’s already enjoyable.

Amnesia of the Future: The Big Goodbye

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