LogFAQs > #969375835

Episode 3: Code of Honor

Vaccine duty. Guess some things never change. And we have space africa, which is always fun.

Picard plays diplomat and gentleman, as expected. Still in awe at how Stewart's voice can dominate a room. I kind of like how Picard has much less patience for nonsense (or in general) than Kirk did.

Riker is occupying an interesting place for me. He just generally a nice guy and kind of laid back (first episode snottiness to La Forge aside). Given how some of Picard's character traits leave him compelling, but not always likeable, it's sort of necessary to have someone like him who audiences can latch onto. Frakes seems to be settling into the role quite quickly. During the discussion over whether Picard should beam down, he came across as more relaxed in the role than the first two episodes.

Burton does his best to sell La Forge's reaction to Data's accidental joke, but it doesn't quite work for me. A smirk or brief chuckle would've probably been better.

Yar (or more accurately Crosby) has gone down in my estimation. Aside from the sexist trappings of the plot, though I can usually forgive a character a dodgy episode, the acting is just a bit off. Mannerisms are at once exaggerated and a little stiff, and, while I praised the jitteriness in the first episode, it just doesn't work here.

Worf is presumably suffering from the flu, so, I was completely wrong about my prediction.

Crusher might have relatively little to do here, but McFadden still knocks it out of the park. I stand by my comment that her character could be a real person.

Troi feels like she's going to be a bit of a living prop. Her emotion sensing abilities are just used to state the obvious. Has some insight into their culture, which is nice.

Data's interest in comedy is a cool angle to take his human quest in. I like that he has a friendship with La Forge.

Wesley is, again, almost saved by not being here much. Hiding in the lift is actually kind of alright. His delight at potentially getting another chance on the bridge still has that "golly, mister" vibe, which I do not care for, but at least he's not actively annoying in this one.

Don't reckon much to the people of Ligon. Lutan's actor tries to have some hammy fun with the role and conveys a decent amount of shrewdness and intelligence, but I don't really enjoy them much.

Time has obviously improved things, but there's still a stage play aesthetic here. Decent sets, though. The holodeck is pretty cool. The fight is incredibly abysmal. Much of the dialogue feels just functional and expositional.

It's trying harder than TOS, but it's still very racist. On the one hand, there's something good about having a non western culture be relatively advanced without losing said culture. On the other, its the most genetic of homogenised, non white cultural soup, and both Picard and Lutan ultimately suggest that the federation is still more advanced. There's what appears to be an attempt at appreciating other cultures, but every signifier of Ligonian society is viewed as either quaint or outright immoral, to say nothing of how most of it is described by the main cast, instead of the actual participants in the culture. The prime directive is invoked and justified by suggesting, if left mostly alone, Ligon will naturally evolve to be like the federation and Hagon's last line about being civilised comes after an out of nowhere supposedly feminist moment, which only further suggests that Ligon's real value lies in how it may one day resemble the federation.

Even without the bigotry, its a dull affair. First episode I've disliked more than I liked. Fortunately, it seems that bad TNG is more watchable than bad TOS.

I'll check out The Last Outpost later.