{"id":5708,"date":"2015-01-22T07:01:59","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T07:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/124-Well-Always-Have-Paris"},"modified":"2015-01-22T07:01:59","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T07:01:59","slug":"124-well-always-have-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2015\/01\/22\/124-well-always-have-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"1.24 — \u201cWe\u2019ll Always Have Paris\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

1.24 — \u201cWe\u2019ll Always Have Paris\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plot:<\/strong> A time anomaly puts the Enterprise<\/em> on the track of a distress beacon leading to a mad scientist\u2019s laboratory, where time experiments are going awry. The universe is under threat, but Picard is filled with palpitations more over encountering a lost love, whom he abandoned on Earth at the start of his Starfleet career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thoughts:<\/strong> We start with Patrick Stewart showing off his Royal Shakespeare Company training with foils. That is, I think so–it might have been all stunt doubles. A good start, anyway, to an episode featuring nice grace notes and greatly focused on Jean-Luc Picard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I found much about this episode to be delightful, and little to offend. The episode direction from Robert Becker seemed like some of the best of the series. Becker executes a very fine cut from the fencing closet doors closing on Picard to the turbolift doors opening to reveal him, now changed into his uniform, head still bowed at the same angle with worry. A very elegant way to illustrate the character’s continuing distraction. The blocking and camera movement in the conference room scene between Picard and Jenice, placing the long table between them, is also graceful and does much to underscore the fine acting on display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The camera pan across the field of mirrors in the laboratory creating the multiple images of Data and presaging the final time distortion is another good moment in camera. My favorite visual moment, however, is the one that sells the whole episode. Picard, Riker, and Data encounter their doubles during a time fold from inside the turbolift. The camera pushes out from the primary characters to their doubles outside the doors, and suddenly, in the visual grammar of the scene, the doubles become the primaries, and the primaries are the new doubles. The characters we thought we were following drift away into a different time stream. It\u2019s a great \u201cAha–look what we can do!\u201d moment which underscores the underlying themes of the episode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In a small coincidence, I just finished reading Amy Poehler\u2019s excellent book Yes Please<\/em>, and right before watching this episode, I read the chapter \u201cTime Travel,\u201d in which she argues that time is an illusion that you can subjectively shape and control. Quote: \u201cTime can be your bitch if you just let go of the \u2018next\u2019 and the \u2018before.\u2019\u201d We see in the episode that regret is a kind of time travel; a willful summoning of the past and\u00a0refusal to dwell in the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For my money we see Patrick Stewart\u2019s finest acting yet in this episode, and his character is deepened by both the love story, and the very fine \u201cEnough of this indulgence\u201d moment that ends his first foray into Paris. The episode gets triple bonus points for incorporating the Holodeck into an episode without any malfunctions, and without giving me heartburn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I giggled over the antics of Professor Manheim, who chews the scenery in the tradition of Simon Van Gelder from “Dagger in the Mind”\u00a0and Commodore Decker from \u201cThe\u00a0Doomsday Machine.\u201d He does not squander the lines like \u201cIt will get worse!\u201d and \u201cI am not even fully versed on all of my theories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The transporter: still terrifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What’s wrong? The episode isn’t ambitious enough. They can dream so much bigger. Meeting his old flame throws Picard into a spell of melancholy. What if, instead, he had been thrown into crisis? What if he had asked Jenice to leave her husband? What if he had been prepared to step away from his starship command (although I don\u2019t see why that should have been necessary)? What if they had written Jenice’s part in such a way so that she had really challenged him? sunny jim\u00a0pointed out to me that it seems unlikely Picard would really go for a person who seems to put so little on the table (other than “I really get you<\/em>“).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I think we\u2019re supposed to understand that Picard did the right thing leaving her behind (although perhaps he should have done it differently), because she would have never challenged him, or made him happy in the long run. So, then, who are we supposed to feel sorry for–him or her? Or neither? Wouldn’t it have been more interesting if she was truly his equal? I want higher stakes and bigger consequences. I enjoyed the episode, but it\u2019s no \u201cAll Our Yesterdays.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Grade: Pass.<\/p>\n\n\n

http:\/\/en.memory-alpha.org\/wiki\/We%27ll_Always_Have_Paris<\/a>