2.10 — “The Dauphin”

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8 responses to “2.10 — “The Dauphin””

1. 

   sunny jim

   March 12, 2015

   While I actively dislike most of their clothes, they still manage to be really interesting.  The “chaperone” costume evokes “lizard politician from Atlantis”, the “blonde BFF” is very “I made this out of t-shirts with scissors and a YouTube tutorial and it’s totally Kardashian-inspired”, Salia’s outfit is sort of Tudor-meets-HammerPants (and how awesome a mashup is that?  I never would have thought of that, and I just did a Tudor/Rohirrim costume). 

   Also, Wesley having feels, and not knowing what to do about them.  I always felt they wrote him about five years younger than his actual age – he’s, what, about 16 here?  Yet they’ve got him in the transition from girls-are-yucky to girls-are-fascinating/terrifying stage.  It’s like it never occurred to him before that cute girls exist.  He’s looking good, though.  Despite the horrifyingly high waist on those trousers, he really wears them well, and combined with the shoulder detail of the top, it gives him a really nice shape.  (I don’t care if he’s wearing shoulder pads or a girdle – he looks fantastic.  No, I’m not a dirty old skeeze.  Not at all.)  The horrors of the teen years are also showing.  It must be dreadful to have teen acne, and know that there’s only so much the makeup department can spackle over for your Blu-Ray High-Def closeups.  Makes me glad (again) that I’m not famous.

   Guinan’s costume is one of the better ones.  The hat is still silly, but there’s some nice things going on with textures this time.  I approve. 

   I think the challenge the writers were trying to go for here was the question of whether appearances matter.  Would Wesley have liked her as much if he saw her actual form?  Unfortunately for this writing team, I have to follow that up with, “and would we care?”

   Finally, about that chocolate.  Here’s a philosophical conundrum for you:  If the chocolate comes out of a replicator, can you really claim that the beans are aged for 400 years?

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2. 

   Kevin Black

   March 12, 2015

   Also, if you find a way to create beans that have aged 400 years in seconds with little effort, are they still special?

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3. 

   Randi Cohen

   March 12, 2015

   Meh.  Wesley falls in love and acts silly.  Riker acts sillier.  Worf dishes on Klingon mating rituals (ridiculous but Michael Dorn’s delivery is just the best as usual, I cracked up, best part of the episode for me.  “We do alot of ducking.”).  Giordi continues to space/emphasize his words weirdly, which bothers me.  

   Overall, not much is said about the one interesting thing in the episode, which is exactly how is this untrained girl supposed to bring peace to these warring people?  And what is her governess’s role in the whole thing if she isn’t even going back to the planet?  Also, do phasers not work on the gorilla-bugs or whatever they are?  Honestly,  Can’t Worf ever just beat someone in a fight fair and square?

   (Insert Picard face-palm here).  

   https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/Captain-Picard-Facepalm

   PS- Yes, the scene between Riker and Guinan is awesome.

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4. 

   Kevin Black

   March 12, 2015

   It did occur to me that this episode wouid have been very different if Kirk were in charge. He would have immediately disregarded everything that did happen, and beamed down and gotten involved in their thousand year intraplanetary dispute. Picard’s attitude is, “I can’t wait to get these very inconvenient passengers off my ship.”

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5. 

   Randi Cohen

   March 12, 2015

   Yes!  Kirk’s Enterprise was never “Love Boat in Space”.  This makes the 3rd episode that I see as pretty much that (counting the Paris and Okona episodes as the other 2).  Not a trend I like to see!

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6. 

   Kevin Black

   March 12, 2015

   The Paris episode had some kind of time travel hook where they were going to blow up the universe, didn’t it? It’s not really what you remember about the episode, but at least there was a subplot.

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7. 

   R. Alex Reutter

   March 25, 2015

   There’s a blonde at the helm!  A blonde to make a bishop kick out a stained glass window.  

   Wesley is so gone on the girl that he forgets to deliver a magnet to Geordi.  Why is Geordi dependent upon the work of someone who isn’t even a Starfleet officer?

   Thank you, Worf, for slapping down Riker’s “she looks too delicate” B.S.

   Back to the dauphin’s quarters, where she’s talking to another girl who is her own age, whom we’ve never met?  Where did the governess go?  Is this girl the governess?  Suddenly the governess is an alien teddy bear?  So confused.

   In engineering, Geordi is once again dependent on a teenager.  In looooooove.

   I love Wesley getting dating advice from Worf, but why is it happening on the bridge?  Finally Wesley goes to Riker, the master!  He and Guinan are wonderful in this scene, and I particularly love that they’re doing an adult flirting that isn’t appropriate/possible for teenagers.

   Worf takes the governess on a tour of the ship, during which she’s extremely annoying to crewmembers, and threatens a patient’s life.  Picard answers a security call almost immediately; he must have taken the transporter…

   Ultimately this episode is booooooooring.  I have no idea why the governess is so overprotective, so her behavior is just baffling, and not deserving of the respect that Worf affords it.

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8. 

   R. Alex Reutter

   March 25, 2015

   Absolutely agree about Kirk and “Love Boat in Space”.  I don’t know whether this is a good change or a bad change, or just a change…

   Reply