{"id":6433,"date":"2016-04-07T06:39:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T06:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/522-Imaginary-Friend"},"modified":"2016-04-07T06:39:15","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T06:39:15","slug":"522-imaginary-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/07\/522-imaginary-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"5.22 &#8212; \u201cImaginary Friend\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n        \n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>5.22 &#8212; \u201cImaginary Friend\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Plot:<\/strong> The <em>Enterprise<\/em> is invaded for the second time in three episodes by an intelligent sparkly light with malevolent intent. This time it takes the form of a little girl\u2019s imaginary friend. This will show up all those grown ups who think they what\u2019s real more than a six-year-old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Thoughts:<\/strong> The genre of mischievous lights invading the <em>Enterprise<\/em> (cheap special effect!) goes back at least as far as \u201cDay of the Dove\u201d (TOS 3.7) and &#8220;The Lights of Zetar&#8221; (TOS 3.18), and includes TNG episodes like \u201cLonely Among Us\u201d (TNG 1.7) and \u201cThe Child\u201d (TNG 2.1). What was the one where they beat the alien by turning off the lights? The best sparkly light episode, imho, is \u201cMetamorphosis\u201d (TOS 2.9), although that doesn\u2019t take place on board the ship. &#8220;Imaginary Friend&#8221; is an undistinguished entry into the sub-genre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re going to do horror with children,\u00a0\u00e0 la\u00a0Kubrick\u2019s <em>The Shining<\/em> (1968), I\u00a0think you should go all out. There should at least be a jump scare where Isabel is found hiding in the closet. Or, maybe go back to the drawing board and try a different idea. Such as, anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I suspect young kids have imaginary friends for a reason, and the reason isn&#8217;t that they are generally unable to distinguish fantasy from reality. Clara should have realized something is up sooner with Isabel, and figured out faster that it is something she needs to tell to an adult. But I&#8217;m not a parent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I saw the 30-second promo for this episode, I was half expecting to find a remake of \u201cAnd the Children Shall Lead\u201d (TOS 3.4),\u00a0following last week\u2019s reworking of \u201cElaan of Troyius.\u201d\u00a0Sadly, that would have been better. At least it\u2019s good to reinforce that Troi has a real job counseling families aboard the ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1 of 5 clay pots. It doesn\u2019t look to me like Alexander had been working on that thing for two weeks. It is nice, however, to see that Alexander can be in a story without being the focal point of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/memory-alpha.wikia.com\/wiki\/Imaginary_Friend\" class=\"embedly-card\" data-card-recommend=\"0\" data-card-width=\"100%\">http:\/\/memory-alpha.wikia.com\/wiki\/Imaginary_Friend<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/cdn.embedly.com\/widgets\/platform.js\" charset=\"UTF-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n      ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>        5.22 &#8212; \u201cImaginary Friend\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-6433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-star-trek-relive-the-majesty-tng-episode-threads","tag-kevin-black"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}