LogFAQs > #970289443

Episode 18: Up the Long Ladder

Sometimes you just have to bow to the absurd. Fucking hell, what a mess.

Picard is still trying to encourage history. There was fun in watching him get increasingly annoyed by O'Dell's incessant waffling. Breaking down in laughter at the antics of the Irish space amish was a great moment.

Riker isn't much of a smooth operator any more. The love music doesn't make his staring at Brenna any less creepy. I understand wanting enough bodily autonomy to not have to donate DNA, but the actual argument of uniqueness doesn't hold for me and slaughtering the clones is, frankly, evil.

La Forge is apparently a living lie detector. Manages to make that power far less useful than it should be.

Worf has the flu. Until he suddenly doesn't. His interactions with Pulaski are one of the few genuine highlights in this rubbish. The tea drinking ceremony is great.

Troi helpfully informs us that a shifty guy might be shifty. I don't quite buy her final remarks about emotional maturity.

Data does his usual nonsense of reciting an article in full. Just going through the motions, really.

Wesley and cloning sounds like a horror story, so, he was wisely kept at a distance.

It's a nice gesture for Pulaski to lie for Worf, but I'm not convinced that a fasting misadventure is any less embarrassing. Got a bit flirty during the tea ceremony. I wouldn't be completely opposed to these two shacking up. I've noticed that her bigotry, both towards Data and Klingon culture, has vanished. Probably for the best, even if it isn't the most graceful character development. Sharp enough to figure out about the cloning.

O'Brien had fun working around the clowns. I imagine Meaney didn't enjoy this one much.

O'Dell is a blatantly offensive stereotype, but he has some entertaining moments. Brenna isn't much better, but taking charge of everything endears her a little. Making her a gold digger at the end doesn't sit right with me. Nothing to say about the clones.

This is clearly two episodes spliced together. The comedy amish completely disappear once we start exploring the clone world. Well, I call it comedy. Its a very banal and broad sort of humour and there's a sense that the script is going through a standard checklist. Picard is annoyed, Riker flirts (except hes never been this awkward) and Data has an overly literal moment. The utter insanity does elicit some giggles, but you're laughing at the episode, not with it. Worf and Pulaski's scenes, great though they are, amount to nothing. Scene transitions start to get sloppy as we go, with La Forge waiting until everyone is back on the ship to inform about the lying. Then, they effortlessly beam into the lab without resistance. Padding is everywhere. The VFX for the system are great, though, and they're finding more exciting angles for the transporter effect.

They're trying to stick their fingers in many thematic pies and nothing quite works. The space amish versus the clones is standard technophobic Luddite nonsense, with a completely inelegantly arrived at solution. (Seriously, the sudden smile on Picard's face). There's an attempt to link anticloning to pro choice, but, aside from stealing the DNA in the first place, which is obviously wrong, there's nothing in the way of bodily autonomy being violated, so, it comes off as condoning arbitrary murder. (In other words, it's literally doing what anti abortion lunatics rant about). Shutting down monogamous marriage is sound practice for making a viable gene pool, and it could be empowering for women, but it's ruined by portraying Brenna as a workaholic shrew who needs to be married off and then they make her a gold digger at the end. I believe there's good intentions, but it's ruined by everything being a complete mess.

So bad it's good is probably the best description. It's like Spock's Brain, where you recognise its shit, but you can still have fun with it.

Going on a Manhunt, tomorrow.