2.14 — “Whispers”
Plot: O’Brien is on the run in a shuttlecraft, followed by mysterious pursuers of possibly murderous intent. A series of flashbacks reveals that his pursuers come from DS9, where something strange is going on.
Thoughts: I sometimes wonder about the effect of my mental state on my perception of these episodes. When I watched this, I had just gotten back from Norwescon, which was five nights of intense socializing, going to bed after 1 a.m., only to get up before 7 to either commute to work or do work for the convention. So I watched this episode tired and sore. I thought it was fairly clever, maybe a bit too clever, and otherwise middle of the road. The usual online sources assure me that it is epochal and awesome. Michael PIller once identified “Whispers” as his favorite episode. David X. Cohen from Futurama says it’s the best Star Trek episode of all time. Ira Steven Behr says it’s “terrific.”
I feel like “Whispers” is interesting and well-executed, but also a one-off gimmick, like some previous TNG episodes we’ve seen, such as the one where Picard goes all Die Hard and has to kill everyone (TNG 6.18, “Starship Mine”), or the superior episode where Riker is trapped in an insane asylum (TNG 6.21, “Frame of Mind”) and is forced to question reality. I guess I’d rather explore relationships between the crew, instead of an alternate reality where there are no relationships, or the relationships are wrong. But I probably just didn’t enjoy it the way I should because of exhaustion. Or maybe I just don’t love O’Brien, with his aggressive normalness which reads to me as retrograde.
The premise and twist are fairly original, and the plot elements hold together well, even in retrospect. What is it like, to be the clone? It seems like it would make more sense to just put O’Brien under arrest, but I understand part of the premise is they couldn’t prove anything against him. Still, this is a military outpost, taking him into protective custody seems to make more sense than waiting for him to murder someone.
And in the end, O’Brien dies again! Didn’t that just happen in the very last episode? The theme of season two is, let’s kill O’Brien! Poor Keiko.
3 of 5 upper pylons.
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