Sunday, November 21, 2010

2-1. The Child

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is en route to assist with another of those nasty space viruses that keep breaking out. Too much antibacterial handsoap, I guess - the Federation people have lost all resistance to viruses. No sooner are they underway than an energy pulse penetrates the ship, and then impregnates Counselor Troi.

Because this episode doesn't take place over a 10-month period, the pregnancy of course proceeds at an astonishingly accelerated rate. The baby is born less than two days after conception. A day later, when Picard decides to "pay (his) respects," he discovers that the baby is now a 4-year-old child! As the child, Ian, continues to grow at a rapid pace, Picard waits to find out why he is here. "The answer is within him," Troi assures him; they just have to wait for Ian to grow to a point where his mental abilities will allow him to articulate that answer.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: He has trouble interacting directly with Wesley, obviously not knowing how to respond to the imminent departure of someone who he's come to see as a sort of surrogate son. When Wesley requests permission to stay on board, his relief is evident, even as he enlists the aid of the command crew in teasing Wesley mercilessly before granting his assent.

Riker: Introducing... the beard! (And no, I don't mean Troi.) The beard actually looks a little strange right now; I think it needs the paunch to go with it. Still, Riker looks a lot more like himself now than he did in Season One. There's also a decent character moment when he hovers just outside the delivery room, watching and listening anxiously as Troi gives birth, then going in to comfort her in person.

Data: Watches Troi give birth to Ian, reacting to everything before him with pure wonder. He reacts similarly, but with more somberness, when the boy dies. With Pulaski, he initially tries to take her attitude toward him in stride, but finally stands up for himself when Pulaski is dismissive toward his correcting her pronunciation of his name. Despite Pulaski's claims of bruised feelings, Data's correction of her is a statement of fact. "Day-tah" is his name, "Dah-tah" is not.

Dr. Pulaski: Season Two saw many instantly-apparent changes. One change which viewers did not take to was the new doctor. Diana Muldaur is a substantially better actress than Gates McFadden, and gives a good performance. She is everything the script calls on her to be: compassionate when dealing with Troi, spiky when dealing with the officers, concerned scientist when discussing the implications of the pregnancy and birth with Picard. The idea of a woman doctor who is less maternal and more crusty is a potentially good one, and I suspect Pulaski might have been more positively received if she had not been burdened with replacing a well-liked character.

There are some serious missteps in the conception of her character, however. A big one is her interaction with Data. Pulaski is downright scornful of Data, dismissing him as "cold technology" during the childbirth sequence. The name confusion scene is even worse, with Pulaski not only failing to apologize for mispronouncing Data's name, but then mocking him for appearing to have bruised feelings when he corrects her. Given that viewers overwhelmingly liked Data, this could not help but distance Pulaski from them before she'd even had a chance to start to grow on them.


SHUT UP, WESLEY!

With Wesley's mother reassigned to Starfleet Medical, Wesley will soon depart the Enterprise. But before we can get our hopes up too high, Wesley pays a visit to the new bar in Ten-Forward, where Guinan the Sage Bartender (Whoopi Goldberg) doles out wisdom to Wesley about making choices that reflect what he actually wants. All of which leads to Wesley staying on Enterprise after all.  Damn you, Guinan!

At least he didn't save the ship.


SEASON CHANGES

As I mentioned in my Season One Overview, I question whether the series even deserved to survive such a weak first season - and I think even the series' producers recognized that there were problems.  Right from the get-go, it is obvious that some thought has been taken about how to re-tool the show for its sophomore year.

Making Geordi the chief engineer at least resolves the first season issue of revolving engineering chiefs, and it fits with what we know about the character. Giving Wesley his old station means that there's a safe use for Wesley that shouldn't require massive plot diversions in order to simply work him into the episodes. Effects work seems to be better than in Season One, though that may simply amount to spending more money on the season premiere. Also, someone finally seems to have done something about the lighting. It's still brighter than I'd like - I much prefer the moodier lighting of Enterprise and Deep Space 9. But at least there are visible shadows, rather than having the ship's bridge and corridors look practically floodlit. Its hard to exactly describe it, but the overall look is genuinely more polished.

I'm less sanguine about the introduction of Guinan. This was pure stunt casting. I actually remember when they were promoting the new season in 1988, making a big push about having Whoopi Goldberg on board. I wasn't thrilled at the time. I know now that Guinan actually did work in some later episodes (around Season Three, I think). But here, we have Whoopi Goldberg showing up and playing the wise, noble Whoopi Goldberg role, doling out sage advice to those that need it. (eyeroll)


THOUGHTS ON THE CHILD

Anyway, enough about the immediately obvious tweaks performed for Season Two. I'm sure I'll have a more thorough judgment of how the change-ups ended up working at the season's end. Putting aside all of that, how does The Child stand up as an episode?

For me, I'm afraid the answer is "so-so," at best. It's certainly better than the worst episodes from Season One. This is, at least, competently-made television. But it consists of two plots that are both overused and cliched. The space plague-as-MacGuffin became old long before the original 1960's Star Trek had finished its run, and has already been overused in TNG. It's impossible to care about its application here. The whole "rapidly-aging alien child" is also a sci fi/fantasy standby, and no particularly interesting spin is given to it.

You may have noticed that I didn't mention Troi under "Characters" in this review, despite Troi being the mother to the child of the title. That's because there really isn't much interesting character material for her. The script treats Troi simplistically, using her only as "mother." She exhibits no sense of violation or outrage at being used as the vessel for an alien experiment (which is what happens here!), she simply mothers Ian and then cries when he dies. A more complex treatment of the character was called for, but I guess that would have cut into the Wise Bartender scenes or the Technobabble Virus bits.

Then there are the old Season One problems, still far too evident. The pace is slow, and the disparate pieces of the episode never gel into feeling like part of the same whole. As a result, this 45 minutes feels longer than it is. As with too much of Season One, there is no sense of jeopardy. Having a bunch of actors stand around a piece of plywood pressing buttons and talking urgently to the computer voice does not convey a sense of threat. There is nothing tangible in the threat. In a couple of hours the MacGuffin virus will break through the plywood thingie? Well, wake me in a couple of hours.

With two weak plots, simplistic treatment of a character who should have been the episode's spotlight character, and problematic introductions for the series' two newest additions, this is far from the start the second season needed... Even if it all clearly looks a lot better than it did last season.


Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: The Neutral Zone
Next Episode: Where Silence Has Lease


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