5.15 — “Power Play”
Plot: Pew pew! It’s an alien invasion of the Enterprise via crewmember possession after a shuttlecraft disaster! O’Brien, Troi, and Data fall under extraterrestrial witchy voodoo magic and are not taking any guff. What mysterious secrets are buried at the South Pole?
Thoughts: It’s been 216 episodes of Star Trek, and I’m getting a little punchy. This is a very good episode which nevertheless shows how much Star Trek has evolved and in the process how far it has drifted from its roots.
First, let’s acknowledge that the first act, involving the shuttlecraft crash landing on a planet covered with electrical storm interference that jams the scanners and transporter functions, is a straight lift from TOS 1.16 “The Galileo Seven.” Although the shuttle ride was very exciting! They bought a gimbal. Watching the actors, I couldn’t decide whether shooting the scene was fun or was making them nauseous. I lean towards nauseous, but that might have been acting. The 360° camera spin right before impact was great, and positively Hitchcockean.
Jim thought it was funny that Riker was shouting commands at Data telling him how to fly the shuttle (“Maintain the approach attitude, Data!”), as if that could possibly help. It’s odd that the shuttle doesn’t have automatic pilot. Although, with Data flying, it kind of does. When they get out on the surface, Data says “There are no instruments left of practical value that have not been damaged by our landing.” I mentally added “Except for me!”
IMDB observes dryly, “Seatbelts make a rare appearance in this episode, which are seen inside the shuttlecraft.” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708756/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv
My thought when O’Brien beams down with a giant contraption that looks like a massive bundle of AA batteries? “So that’s what a pattern enhancer looks like.”
When the crew beams up out of O’Brien’s cabalistic triangle, three officers are possessed. The rest of the episode is a throwback to two other TOS episodes, 2.22 “By Any Other Name,” in which aliens trapped on a planet beam up to the ship and hijack the Enterprise, and 2.20, “Return to Tomorrow,” in which another trio of aliens takes over the bodies of Kirk, Spock, and Diana Muldaur (second season’s Dr. Pulaski)’s Dr. Mulhall.
It’s flat out action after this, with O’Brien cleaning Worf’s clock, tons of people dodging phaser blasts (which are moving much slower than light speed–I recall reading someone’s estimate that a Star Wars blaster bolt travels about as fast as a pitched baseball), and Data turning violent, even using the Vader neck hoist on Picard.
This is good fun, and well directed. There’s a good score. It’s tempting to make comparisons, though! In “Return to Tomorrow,” the aliens were three dimensional characters with relationships to each other; a real tour de force for the actors. Remember Leonard Nimoy being possessed by different aliens in “Return to Tomorrow” and “Is There In Truth No Beauty?,” not to mention a different version of his own alien in “This Side of Paradise?” He made all three clearly distinct characters.
Well, in this version, the trio of aliens seems to be loosely based on the Phantom Zone criminals Zod, Ursa, and Non. They don’t have any personalities, they’re just bad guys.
Indeed, when Picard discovers the planet is a prison planet which has trapped hundreds of souls for over 500 years, one might expect him to be horrified. A good episode could have been made about building the trust necessary to welcome them all on board for a second chance. Instead, it’s just trap ‘em, ship ‘em back, and fly away. It’s purely an action/adventure show. This is what in early 1992 had become of Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a better future, examining week by week what it means to be human.
But that doesn’t make the episode bad, necessarily. Instead, it feels instead like a breath of fresh air and a chance for the actors, especially Marina Sirtis, to stretch a little. Although not too much.
Data’s solution to take down the forcefield by sticking his arm into a wall panel is the pantomime version of technobabble. There’s an awful lot of the verbal form as well.
The anecdote of O’Brien slipping a piece of gold jewelry into Keiko’s pocket on a date makes me wonder again why Miles and Keiko have to be the most heteronormative couple in Trek history. That’s okay, I guess. The way the couple just shrugs off everything that transpired at the end of the hour leaves me wondering if the technology for healing trauma is as advanced as the bone-mending technology.
Maybe it’s because there have been a lot of weak episodes lately, but I feel like this is a solid 4 out of 5 pattern enhancers.
Leave a Reply