LogFAQs > #970946447

Episode 25: Transfigurations

A mysterious alien and a confidence boost for La Forge.

Picard is very decent to John Doe. Understandably more terse after Worf temporarily dies.

Riker loves La Forge's newfound confidence.

I was afraid that La Forge making a tit of himself around women was going to be the norm going forward. It was a bit more bearable here, but still cringey. His confident self is a little off, at first, too, but I definitely prefer him this way.

Worf might be speaking from a Klingon perspective, but, frankly, his ideas will accomplish more than La Forge will ever manage. Seeing him fuming at how hopeless La Forge is and the geeking out is quite funny.

Figured that this might be a Crusher episode from how prominent she was in the cold open. It's nice seeing her work and get mildly stressed ect. Her developing relationship with John Doe is very sweet. I especially like how it's only ambiguously romantic.

Troi provides a bit of obvious insight into the Zalkonians.

Data shares in the geeking out. Quite liked his technobabble scene, which is unusual for me, since i recognise it for the blatant padding it is.

Wesley definitely looks better in red. I actually quite liked him and his mum having a candid conversation over dinner.

O'Brien enjoys kayaking, but the feeling apparently isnt mutual.

Henshaw is adorable and i wouldn't mind seeing her and La Forge stay together. Completely different character from her last appearance, though.

John Doe is a fine character. Not overly angsty and able to crack some jokes about his situation. More of a puzzle than anything too dynamic, though. And his vaguely spiritual exposition isn't bad, either.

The shot of them beaming to the planet is beautiful. The injuries are more grisly than I would've expected from this show. John Doe's makeup is great. This is one of those episodes with near perfect pace, direction and lighting. Every scene in the first half is a joy in some way. The second half got a bit more standard, but I still liked it. The Zalkonian ship just screams fascism.

John Doe is simultaneously a stand in for a Christ/Buddha/other prominent religious figure fusion and also a persecuted faith at once. Even leaving his true name unspoken as both a sign of humility and universality. Ordinarily, I would be a bit dismissive over having seen this sort of story before, especially as I'm more than a bit sick of Christianity, in particular, showing up where its not welcome, but I actually love the time taken to genuinely explore this idea. John Doe isn't just a bog standard miracle worker, his healing entails both physical injuries and making individuals better. I was honestly worried that La Forge's confidence would be revealed to be closer to a narcissistic arrogance that he was better rid of or that when John Doe inevitably left, the status quo would reassert itself and La Forge will have apparently learned a lesson, but in practice have just spun his wheels for an episode. Letting his new surety in himself be portrayed as an unmistakable good thing that he presumably gets to keep was a truly pleasant surprise. Equally pleasent was how John is somewhat deferential to Crusher (even thanking her for his life. I also particularly like thay they're able to have an emotionally intimate relationship that doesn't devolve into outright romance) and the other characters and willing to have an equal dialogue with them. Instead of dictating a set of rules or blindly venerating an arbitrarily significant figure, the episode's conception of faith seems to be based on genuine self improvement, the ability to be one's true self with confidence and the having of actual conversations that benefit all parties' understanding of truths. There's no hierarchy in this sense of spirituality which is a neat, if obvious, contrast to Sunad. They don't go as deep into this as I would like, and i think the mystery of what John Doe is gets in the way of who he is, a little, but touching on it at all is more than most shows ever manage.

Pretty standout episode.

We close with The Best of Both Worlds