{"id":5634,"date":"2014-11-13T06:59:27","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T06:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/112-The-Big-Goodbye"},"modified":"2014-11-13T06:59:27","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T06:59:27","slug":"112-the-big-goodbye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2014\/11\/13\/112-the-big-goodbye\/","title":{"rendered":"1.12 — \u201cThe Big Goodbye\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

1.12 — \u201cThe Big Goodbye\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plot:<\/strong> Picard is excited to try a new Holodeck program which sends him into the 1930s world of Dixon Hill, private eye. \u00a0A dame turns up dead, and he takes Dr. Crusher and Data with him to solve the mystery. Except they never get around to that. Meanwhile, a long range scan from a Jaradan space ship causes the Holodeck to–gasp!–malfunction. Will Picard, Data, and Crusher get out alive?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thoughts:<\/strong> Aaaand hello Holodeck. I have never been a fan of Holodeck-centered episodes, because they descend into magic very quickly. How exactly could living people get deleted, if the program is erased? How do you get a bullet wound from a hologram? I don’t think I’m offended so much that these things happen, as I am that the characters act as if there is nothing noteworthy about these things happening. Perhaps Q, for obscure reasons of amusement, hypnotized the crew to never realize that they really need to fix the safety problems with that device. Where’s Ralph Nader when you need him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Look–either holograms can walk out of the Holodeck (like the holographic Doctor on Voyager<\/em>), or they can\u2019t. It doesn’t make sense for them to walk out, then slowly fade away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I don’t mind the general premise of the story, but the writing is not up to snuff. Star Trek did a comedic gangsters brilliantly in TOS 2.17, \u201cA Piece of the Action,\u201d which introduced the world to Fizzbin, and me to the term \u201cRunyonesque.\u201d In this episode, there\u2019s no mystery to solve. No one ever explains what Cyrus Redblock is looking for, who killed the woman from the opening, or why. It would not have been too hard to borrow elements of a real plot from Dashiell Hammett or Earl Stanley Gardner. Here, they don\u2019t even bother to tell us whether Whalen, the ship’s “20th century historian,\u201d survived his wounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I like watching Lawrence Tierney, who also played the mob boss in Resevoir Dogs<\/em> (1992), but the writing is sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The actors look good in the period clothes, but, honestly, Kirk and Spock looked better. Based on Dr. Crusher\u2019s experience, the relaxation experience the Holodeck provides for female crewmembers is to simulate getting hit on. I\u2019m sure the crew will be lining up to try it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Also this week, Riker goes back to being useless and annoying. I appreciate TNG’s effort to try something different (although the idea of being trapped in a Holodeck dates back to TAS 2.3, \u201cThe Practical Joker\u201d), but my conscience still requires me to give this a Grade:<\/strong> Fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3 out of 11 episodes have received a passing grade from me so far. Not great. I will try not to think about how, at this point during TOS’ first season, they were airing the Hugo-winning \u201cThe Menagerie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

http:\/\/en.memory-alpha.org\/wiki\/The_Big_Goodbye<\/a>