LogFAQs > #974266103

Episode 23: Emergence

It's life, Jean, but not as we know it.

Thanks to Picard, we know the lighting is intentional. Pouting over the darkness. Has a fine interpretation of Prospero. Spends some time gradually trailing off as he tries to find what Data's noticed. Naturally, impatient over the weirdness. Still holds absolute respect for life. Mostly optimistic about the new life.

Riker isn't optimistic about potential colony sites. Tries to bluff his way through the train drama.

La Forge isnt willing to take credit for something he didn't do. As puzzled as everyone.

Worf is predictably shit at going along with Riker's lie. Develops a mild sarcasm when around Troi.

Appreciate Crusher's love for the orient express.

Troi tries to engage the characters as actual people and generally approaches this as a psychological exercise.

Data approaches his role with suitable bombast. His dedication to realism is almost admirable and probably a worthy creative endeavour in its own right. Perplexed by the sudden train and gives a confused shrug after it passes. Almost casually stops a crazy taxi. Using Miranda at the end is actually quite thoughtful.

The characters on the train are a fun group of vaguely sinister weirdos.

I'm probably one of the few people mad and pretentious enough to enjoy Data's original artistic vision. Darkness has its uses. A sudden train is a beautiful image and the still quite low light level gives it an extra ominous flavour as it moves in from the background. The train is a lush set (if an obvious pun) and the crew of anachronisms are an amusing image. It's nice seeing the nodes being done by jigsaw and card games. The mostly empty city has a dreamlike quality to it.

One of those facts that is so obvious that it's nearly ignored and, therefore, sometimes forgotten is that the Enterprise is literally just a story vehicle. While some fans probably have fun going over fictional schematics, attempting to make consistent maps of the various decks and trying to figure out precisely how fast a given warp factor, the reality will always be that it acts in whatever manner best serves that particular episode's writer. So, its as fast as the plot requires, for instance. Equally, the holodeck is also a story vehicle, one that's necessary since Star Trek has to pay some lip service to being serious Sci-fi, which unfortunately means certain story ideas and even genres aren't feasible without resorting to the planet of hats style of TOS. But the holodeck is in universe fakery, so, it also a reliable source of meta stories. So, if you're going to allow the Enterprise to come alive (and there's no reason not to), the holodeck being the seat of imagination makes perfect sense. Even better, its meta nature allows it to act as a representation of the creative process itself.

As we are reaching the close of TNG (there's also the small matter of this being intended as the writer's last hurrah, as well), starting with Prospero and Picard's interpretation of his character makes perfect sense. One last creative endeavour. The ship comes alive and its mind takes the form of a who's who of character archetypes that the show couldn't normally get away with using. And the final act is for it to produce offspring. Obviously, the daughter shows of DS9 and Voyager. And Data and Picard close it in a similar manner to how they started it: by using a character from The Tempest to comment on what's going on and how they feel about it. As this is Star Trek, hopeful is the answer.

Meta plots will always have a place in my heart and this is no exception. Pretty great.

Preemptive Strike may come early.