{"id":6402,"date":"2016-03-07T05:23:35","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T05:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/515-Power-Play"},"modified":"2016-03-07T05:23:35","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T05:23:35","slug":"515-power-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/07\/515-power-play\/","title":{"rendered":"5.15 — \u201cPower Play\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

5.15 — \u201cPower Play\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plot:<\/strong> Pew pew! It\u2019s an alien invasion of the Enterprise<\/em> via crewmember possession after a shuttlecraft disaster! O\u2019Brien, Troi, and Data fall under extraterrestrial witchy voodoo magic and are not taking any guff. What mysterious secrets are buried at the South Pole?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thoughts:<\/strong> It\u2019s been 216 episodes of Star Trek, and I\u2019m getting a little punchy. This is a very good episode which nevertheless shows how much Star Trek has evolved and in the process how far it has drifted from its roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First, let\u2019s acknowledge that the first act, involving the shuttlecraft crash landing on a planet covered with electrical storm interference that jams the scanners and transporter functions, is a straight lift from TOS 1.16 \u201cThe Galileo Seven.\u201d Although the shuttle ride was very exciting! They bought a gimbal. Watching the actors, I couldn\u2019t decide whether shooting the scene was fun or was making them nauseous. I lean towards nauseous, but that might have been acting. The 360\u00b0 camera spin right before impact was great, and positively Hitchcockean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jim thought it was funny that Riker was shouting commands at Data telling him how to fly the shuttle (\u201cMaintain the approach attitude, Data!\u201d), as if that could possibly help. It\u2019s odd that the shuttle doesn\u2019t have automatic pilot. Although, with Data flying, it kind of does. When they get out on the surface, Data says \u201cThere are no instruments left of practical value that have not been damaged by our landing.\u201d I mentally added \u201cExcept for me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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IMDB observes dryly, \u201cSeatbelts make a rare appearance in this episode, which are seen inside the shuttlecraft.\u201d http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0708756\/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My thought when O\u2019Brien beams down with a giant contraption that looks like a massive bundle of AA batteries? \u201cSo that\u2019s what a pattern enhancer looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When the crew beams up out of O’Brien’s cabalistic triangle, three officers are possessed. The rest of the episode is a throwback to two other TOS episodes, 2.22 \u201cBy Any Other Name,\u201d in which aliens trapped on a planet beam up to the ship and hijack the Enterprise<\/em>, and 2.20, \u201cReturn to Tomorrow,\u201d in which another trio of aliens takes over the bodies of Kirk, Spock, and Diana Muldaur (second season\u2019s Dr. Pulaski)\u2019s Dr. Mulhall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s flat out action after this, with O\u2019Brien cleaning Worf\u2019s clock, tons of people dodging phaser blasts (which are moving much slower than light speed–I recall reading someone\u2019s estimate that a Star Wars blaster bolt travels about as fast as a pitched baseball), and Data turning violent, even using the Vader neck hoist on Picard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is good fun, and well directed. There’s a good score. It’s tempting to make comparisons, though! In \u201cReturn to Tomorrow,\u201d the aliens were three dimensional characters with relationships to each other; a real tour de force for the actors. Remember Leonard Nimoy being possessed by different aliens in \u201cReturn to Tomorrow\u201d and \u201cIs There In Truth No Beauty?,\u201d not to mention a different version of his own alien in \u201cThis Side of Paradise?\u201d He made all three clearly distinct characters.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Well, in this version, the trio of aliens seems to be loosely based on the Phantom Zone criminals Zod, Ursa, and Non. They don\u2019t have any personalities, they\u2019re just bad guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Indeed, when Picard discovers the planet is a prison planet which has trapped hundreds of souls for over 500 years, one might expect him to be horrified. A good episode could have been made about building the trust necessary to welcome them all on board for a second chance. Instead, it\u2019s just trap \u2018em, ship \u2018em back, and fly away. It\u2019s purely an action\/adventure show. This is what in early 1992 had become of Gene Roddenberry\u2019s vision of a better future, examining week by week what it means to be human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But that doesn\u2019t make the episode bad, necessarily. Instead, it feels instead like a breath of fresh air and a chance for the actors, especially Marina Sirtis, to stretch a little. Although not too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Data\u2019s solution to take down the forcefield by sticking his arm into a wall panel is the pantomime version of technobabble. There\u2019s an awful lot of the verbal form as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The anecdote of O\u2019Brien slipping a piece of gold jewelry into Keiko\u2019s pocket on a date makes me wonder again why Miles and Keiko have to be the most heteronormative couple in Trek history. That’s okay, I guess. The way the couple just shrugs off everything that transpired at the end of the hour leaves me wondering if the technology for healing trauma is as advanced as the bone-mending technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maybe it\u2019s because there have been a lot of weak episodes lately, but I feel like this is a solid 4 out of 5 pattern enhancers.<\/p>\n\n\n

http:\/\/www.hulu.com\/watch\/442293<\/a>