The Enterprise picks up Riva (Howie Seago), a top peace negotiator. Riva, who is deaf, uses three interpreters, one for each emotional state: Reason, Passion, and Balance. He is now called upon to go to Solais V, a world that has been at war for 15 centuries. 1500 years of war. With energy weapons. Which has, amazingly, not reduced the planet to rubble.
Nevermind. The planet wants Riva to negotiate peace, and the Enterprise's job is to bring them Riva. Riva spends the voyage seeming less interested in his mission than in Counsellor Troi's multiple intriguing curves. Troi doesn't seem to find this at all creepy, but instead actively encourages Riva. Perhaps she and Riker had an argument just prior to the episode.
This is all irrelevent anyway. As soon as they reach the planet, Riva abandons Troi's charms and actually is interested in doing his job. But since neither faction has insisted on security, and the Enterprise's security for the peace summit consists of Riker of Worf standing around with their guns holstered staring into space, an angry militant wipes out Riva's chorus - leaving Riva shattered and unwilling to complete his work.
Zzzzz....
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: Gets a hilariously bad scene in which he gets through to a grieving, agitated Riva by literally clutching the man's head and screaming at him. Picard, he's deaf - It doesn't matter whether you scream or whisper, he ain't hearing you. Astoundingly, Picard's gestures (which should come across as hostile and agitate Riva further) somehow calm the man. Perhaps he was just intimidated by the captain's shiny bald head.
Riker: His reluctance to allow Picard to lead Away Teams reaches ridiculous proportions at the start of this episode, with him reluctant to allow Picard to beam down to greet Riva. As Picard points out, this is nothing more than a purely ceremonial gesture, as risk-free as a beam-down possibly could be.
Troi: The last 10 - 15 minutes of this episode does give Troi some decent material, as she pushes Riva into fulfilling his role as peacemaker. Prior to that, we get to see her once again acting as the episode's lust object. Yes, we get it - She's pretty, with big eyes and a rather well-developed figure. But why is it that any episode that doesn't reduce her role to, "I sense hostility" (while the ship is being fired upon) instead reduce her to a walking sex toy? Riva's almost instantly obsessive reaction would seem likely to make any real woman a bit... well, frankly a bit creeped out. Troi's reaction is to smile and flirt. When Riva only talks to her through his "Passionate" representative, leaving "Reason" and "Balance" behind as "encumberances," she has no problem with the implication that reason and balance have no place in a romantic conversation. Many of the Kirk's Hot Space Babes of the Week had more realistic romantic responses than this.
Riva: This entire episode rests on us believing that Riva really is this extraordinary peacemaker who can make warring factions set aside their differences and listen to each other, no matter the situation. Unfortunately, I never did believe it. Riva's method of communication seemed like it would inspire more irritation than respect, and the moment in which he briefly loses his temper when Picard addresses his "chorus" instead of him seemed like the opposite of what we were told about the character. Surely some of the warlike races he's negotiated with have made the mistake of looking at the person actually speaking on occasion? His interactions with Troi are borderline stalkerish, and make Okana's skirt-chasing look like a realistic depiction of male/female relations by comparison, while his petulance in the last part of the episode just made me want to slap him.
THOUGHTS
"I am passion... the libido... chaos," Riva's "Passionate" representative intones dully and emotionlessly. The uninentional comedy of this moment is, unfortunately, a harbinger of the episode to come.
The Outrageous Okana was horrible, but it was so inept that - like Justice and Angel One - there was almost something amusing in its very badness. Loud as a Whisper is the worst kind of bad: so ponderous and self-serious that the only possible response is boredom. It's an endurance test of an episode, and vies with Too Short a Season for my pick as the series' worst episode.
It shares an unfortunate trait with Too Short a Season. As with that episode, we are presented with an hour of television that has little to do with our regulars. It's all about Riva. And as with Admiral Jameson in the earlier episode, Riva proves to be neither particularly likable nor interesting. This is a pattern the show needs to break away from. Now.
Another problem is the vagueness of the conflict. We are told that the two faction on Solais have been at war for centuries, but we are told nothing about the conflict. Troi observes that the two factions are "entrenched in their positions," but we are never told what their positions are. Riva actually asks a very good question early on, when he observes that the Solari want peace after centuries of war. "What's changed?" No one on the Enterprise knows the answer, and the episode is never interested even in exploring the question. It's a point that's forgotten as soon as it's raised. A pity, as it was maybe the only interesting moment in this entire, miserable 45 minutes of television.
Rating: 1/10.
Previous Episode: The Outrageous Okana
Next Episode: The Schizoid Man
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