{"id":6350,"date":"2016-01-14T06:06:22","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T06:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/54-Silicon-Avatar"},"modified":"2016-01-14T06:06:22","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T06:06:22","slug":"54-silicon-avatar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2016\/01\/14\/54-silicon-avatar\/","title":{"rendered":"5.4 — \u201cSilicon Avatar\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

5.4 — \u201cSilicon Avatar\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plot:<\/strong> Riker looks forward to a picnic and some sexy times when DAH-DUUM! No-one expects the Crystalline Entity! It\u2019s mayhem and destruction. Four members of the Enterprise<\/em> crew end up trapped with injured colonists in a hole (which fortunately doesn\u2019t activate Beverly Crusher’s PTSD, although it does mine). When the ship takes aboard a scientist who specializes in CE studies, the hunted becomes the hunter. However, moral quandaries lie ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thoughts:<\/strong> This episode is a direct sequel to episode 1.13 — \u201cDatalore.\u201d Good idea! It\u2019s fun to be reminded of how wacky that episode was, and how far TNG has come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite really good effects and music at the beginning, and the deadly beauty of the Crystalline Entity, “Silicon Avatar” isn\u2019t a great episode. I think it\u2019s worth talking about the central moral conundrum. Is Picard right to want to communicate with the entity and make peace with it, or is the better approach, given its deadly legacy, to destroy it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to quote commenter Hitchcoc on IMDB (http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0708774\/<\/a>): “The Crystalline Entity is a mass murderer. It attacks planets, absorbing every bit of life (both flora and fauna) and leaves the planets wastelands. . . . Picard seems to feel that even though the Crystalline Entity has killed tens of thousands, it may well be a sentient creature, to be negotiated with. Hitler was a sentient creature. Joseph Stalin was a sentient creature. I know that Picard is an explorer, but I would be hard pressed to give up my life for something so murderous I found some of the dialogue pontificating and hard to accept.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, Hitchcoc, you would be hard pressed to find the idealism of Picard expressed, let alone lionized, today. The talk I hear on the news is less… elevated.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this is a pretty murderous entity. Space must be really crowded for it to attack 11 known settlements and a space freighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, y’know–life is full of tragedy. No need to add more. I\u2019m with Picard. You try to talk to it, do your best to communicate. If that doesn\u2019t work, then you know where you\u2019re at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Crystalline Entity functions much like the Doomsday Machine in TOS, but in that episode we knew that the DM was not sentient, but purpose-built for destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 of 5 intentionally frumpy lady costumes.<\/p>\n\n\n

http:\/\/memory-alpha.wikia.com\/wiki\/Silicon_Avatar<\/a>