{"id":5732,"date":"2015-02-12T06:11:39","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T06:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/22-Where-Silence-Has-Lease"},"modified":"2015-02-12T06:11:39","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T06:11:39","slug":"22-where-silence-has-lease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2015\/02\/12\/22-where-silence-has-lease\/","title":{"rendered":"2.2 — \u201cWhere Silence Has Lease\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

2.2 — \u201cWhere Silence Has Lease\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plot:<\/strong> The Enterprise<\/em> encounters a giant hole in space. After it swallows the ship, the crew must find a way out, as an omnipotent intelligence keeps messing with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thoughts:<\/strong> To me, this episode is all about tone–a new tone for a new season. Notably, there is more action in this episode than I believe occurred in the entirety of Season One. New character dynamics are on display. But there is precious little story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We start by pairing Riker and Worf for a action-adventure mission through the Holodeck, where they tussle with Gothmog and a Lizard Man from Flash Gordon. So much violence in the 24th century! The creatures look like Orcs, so you know they\u2019re evil. It\u2019s a cross between a video game and, as Worf calls it, calisthenics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I guess. The show is, belatedly, setting up Riker and Worf as action heroes, which is progress. We see the dynamic again as they volunteer for the away team to beam aboard the Yamato<\/em>. I call it progress because it\u2019s a relief to see the show have a take on these characters, which was notably absent in season 1 and often left them floundering in scenes and looking stupid (especially Riker).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The whole bestial nature of Worf is pushed a bit too far for my taste. The new take on him seems to be that he is a Hyde-like character, who could lose control of his animal side at any time, as he almost does with Riker.\u00a0My problem with this is that previous Klingons–e.g., John Colicos\u2019 Kor, William Campbell\u2019s Koloth, and Christopher Lloyd\u2019s Kruge–were not bestial, and in fact could be very urbane. The black man, Michael Dorn, gets to be bestial. Perhaps the writers were taking their cues from Dorn\u2019s own performance, and dialogue from \u201cHeart of Glory.\u201d Dorn is good, but he is also almost channeling Shatner in the overacting department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The new dynamic between Picard and Riker is much better. Riker expresses Picard\u2019s impatience, frustration, and fear, allowing Picard himself to be cool, calculating, and reserved, which Patrick Steward does a great job with. In one of the retrospective interviews in the season 1 box set, Steward talks about being fascinated with authority and leadership after playing so many Shakespearean princes and kings; you can see that in action here. This dynamic works a lot better than having Picard dither and Riker flounder and smirk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The leg over the chair pose from Riker is rapidly becoming a signature movement. While I am naturally suspicious of conventional wisdom, the legions who proclaim that the beard is better appear to be solidly correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With Pulaski, the show seems to be deliberately trying to recreate the McCoy dynamic, giving us an older, crustier doctor (compared to the rest of the crew) who says whatever she wants. I suspect the friction they are ginning up between her and Data is intended to recreate Bones\/Spock. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to work, because Data is no Spock. While he serves some of the same functions in the scripts, the character is an innocent, without the pridefulness, sarcasm, and tightly bottled passion that Leonard Nimoy brought forward. Pulaski picking on Data seems to be one-sided and unfair; might as well pick on Wesley for being young. Spock always dished out as much as he took. I\u2019m reserving judgment on the character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blowing up an enemy vessel, even an illusory Romulan, seems like a bold declaration that the show is headed in different directions this season. We even have a crew member death–poor Mr. Haskell!–which might have happened in 3 out of 26 episodes last season (\u201cLonely Among Us,\u201d \u201cHeart of Glory,\u201d and \u201cSkin of Evil\u201d–am I forgetting any?), and never so graphically. More drama comes from the horror movie tricks used as Riker moves through the corridors of the Yamato<\/em>–drawing in tight on the actor with the camera, so you can’t see what’s lurking right off frame to jump out and scare you.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Overall, these ingredients add up to a tight, dramatic episode (although a bit slow), which might well have cracked my top 5 if it had aired during first season. But there isn’t much story, is there? We have the mysterious space organism from TOS 2.18 \u201cThe Immunity Syndrome\u201d crossed with an omnipotent space douche like Q\/Trelane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I appreciate the return of the ship self-destruct procedure, familiar from \u201cThe Ultimate Computer,\u201d Star Trek III<\/em>, and, IIRC, “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The discussion of the meaning of death is more literary and thoughtful than anything the show has fed us for a while, but. Is Picard really having a quiet moment alone in his quarters, after setting a 20 minute self-destruct sequence for the whole ship? I would think he would be busy explaining this to the crew, and maybe dealing with unrest, if not mutiny, among the 4 or 6 hundred increasingly invisible other souls aboard the Enterprise<\/em>. The main crew is in such a bubble on the bridge that I believe the writers have forgotten there are other passengers. At least, with Geordi, there is now have a familiar face in Engineering to cut to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One only needs to look back at \u201cThe Immunity Syndrome\u201d to get an idea of what more could have been done to give the story twists and turns and dramatic incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Warp 3.5 out of 6.<\/p>\n\n\n

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