Wanderlust

4.6 — “Legacy”

4.6 — “Legacy”

Plot: Answering a distress call, the Enterprise becomes embroiled in a factional war on Turkana IV, involving the need to rescue two imprisoned Federation officers. The site of the war is Tasha Yar’s home planet. The crew soon encounters Ishara Yar, who claims to be Tasha’s sister. Can they trust her?

Thoughts: Oh here it is! I was wondering when TNG Season Four would put out a bad episode. This episode reminds me powerfully of Season One–and not just because of the Tasha Yar references. We have an unexplained strange factional war between two groups of nondescript white people wearing indistinguishable, unremarkable costumes. These factions can’t make any headway against each other, er, why? Because of infallible proximity detectors installed in their bodies by the former government (even the children? and any neutral person who might be recruited to join a faction, or switch sides?) that explode if you try to remove them. Riiiight.

The episode blows past the exposition quickly, filling the time leftover with shoot ‘em ups. That way they must figure the audience will be less likely to pause and ask questions like, why can’t they just beam out the hostages? Or do a hostage rescue operation as in TNG 1.16 “Too Short a Season?” No, clearly the best plan is… whatever it was they did between all the shooting scenes.

It is striking how many times people fire weapons in this episode. Usually they try to minimize this sort of thing, to reduce the post-production special effects costs. All those phaser blasts have to be inserted! This serves to illustrate that removing limitations does not necessarily make an episode better.

The story is supposed to be about Data. He has emotions, you see, but just doesn’t know it. This idea is a bit tired, and I don’t see any new ground being broken. I would rather have seen Ishara exploit the trust of another crewmember, like Riker, Worf, or Geordi.

The way the drama was handled was also clumsy. Scene after scene sunny jim  would ask, “Why are they whispering?”

1.5 out of 5 “futuristic” feathered haircuts (saving the “1” for something truly wretched).

http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Legacy_(episode)

Posted

in

by

krblack42

Tags:

Comments

9 responses to “4.6 — “Legacy””

  1. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Better than the last one I thought, although that is not saying much. It kept me interested wondering how she would betray the enterprise crew. Also I liked Picard’s speech about Tasha. And the actress is pretty good… If some of the interpersonal dynamics she refers to had been shown not told this could have been a really good episode.

    Reply
  2. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Interesting! What I take from this is that even the worst episodes of Season Four (so far) produce some disagreement, because they’ve got enough going for them to have some appeal to some of us.

    I didn’t think that the betrayal thread paid off (how can the whole plot be based on tricking the Enterprise to remove the proximity chip if Ishara does not even believe that the proximity chip can be removed? All this so she can plant a bomb in their reactor core, or whatever? Where did she get the bomb, and why wasn’t it detected by the transporter equipment? Why not smuggle a bomb in with mail or supplies, if the proximity chip is all that is stopping them?), but betrayal always makes for a strong plot point.

    Reply
  3. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Part of my hang up is that the proximity chip gimmick, even if it worked, doesn’t seem to be enough of an impediment to produce decades of stalemate that can only be broken by the Enterprise.

    Reply
  4. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Well… (1) she was probably “protesting too much” and actually did think it could be removed, (2) I think she set the system to overload rather than planting a bomb, and (3) agreed; proximity chip seems like it should not alone produce a stalemate, but I just chalked that up to technobabble because what makes this society function is not really the focus of the  episode.

    In this episode, we see Riker do something brave, which I also liked, because usually his bravery is told not shown.  I also liked his speech on trust, more psychologically apt than anything Deanna has ever said.

    Anyway, remember when there used to be 2 totally unconnected plots that did not come together in the end?  Remember when nobody seemed to care if any of the characters (even the main characters) lived or died?   Remember when Jonathan Frakes’ only expression was a smirk?  (I swear he learned how to act somehow while doing this show… at least a little).  

    In this ep, I see the main point as back-story on Tasha Yar and the interaction between Data & Ishara, which was well-acted even if not new in kind.  Like, tons better acted than that Indiana Jones Picard episode last season.  So, as compared to prior seasons, this ep was pretty good!

    Reply
  5. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    I am in total agreement that they have gotten MUCH better at the mechanics of putting episodes together!

    Reply
  6. Katharine Bond Avatar
    Katharine Bond

    I agree that the proximity detectors distracted me from most of the rest of the episode. I couldn’t set them aside as technobabble.

    I did enjoy the slight implication that Tasha might have been selfish for leaving. It added some depth to her character.

    Reply
  7. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    It’s another poker night! As we head to Yar’s homeworld, I fear this will be the high point of the episode…

    Wha? Sounds like Yar’s homeworld went feral. Or, more feral than it was when Yar left? Or… or maybe it was occupied by urban ranchers with guns who didn’t want Starfleet takin’ their planet from ’em. But they’re not terrorists!

    Tasha’s sister, a professional Linda Hamilton impersonator, happens to be in the city where the pod crashes. Seems legit.

    I like the reasoning behind Will’s “unnecessary personal risk.” It’s a nice character building touch.

    I like Picard’s speech to Ishara. I hope we learn more about why Ishara has such a negative opinion of Tasha.

    What in the hell is Ishara wearing in the following scene? Is the blue bodysuit a standard Starfleet outfit for civvies who get their clothes shot off? It looks like she’s getting ready to cosplay Mystique from the X-men movies.

    Yay! Ishara explains her feelings about Tasha to Data in Ten Forward, and it’s clear Tasha got the brains in the family. (Gee, I’ll be loyal to these violent urban rancher jerks rather than go off to Space Hogwarts)

    Deanna does a better job counseling the android she can’t read than with her fleshy subjects. It’s almost a nice touch that she tries to give Data good advice.

    I like the final scene between Riker and Data. Overall, this was a good Data/Riker/Worf character building episode with a little urban adventure thrown in. Not great, not bad. Didn’t care about the personal proximity alarms. Were they really worse technobabble than the warp bubble in the last episode, or the belief we need to suspend in any Star Trek episode? Eh, it’s all in what happens to hit us when we watch.

    Reply
  8. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    It just occurred to me that tasha’s sister and her daughter have very similar stories (i.e. loyal to thugs, duplicitous, see her as disloyal for trying to escape). Genetics? Unimaginative writers?

    Reply
  9. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    It’s a little-known secret that Tasha was just about ready to set in motion plans to take over the Enterprise when they visited Vagra II — the entire security staff worshipped her, and it was one small step from there to mutiny.  Also, she had seduced the ship’s android to her cause.  Armus is an unsung hero to the Federation.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *