LogFAQs > #971972118

Episode 13: The Masterpiece Society

More perfection.

Picard's getting better at keeping his patience with idiots and lunatics, though he does start slightly sneering at the start. Share his distaste for engineered people. Good of him to offer passage to any who want it. Love that he sees right through Connor's cowardice.

Riker was unusually coy about why the planet is suddenly a big deal. Quickly gets fed up with paradise and Troi's decision to linger doesn't exactly improve his mood. Agree with his views on the prime directive.

La Forge also seems to want to beg questions rather than just outright explain. Has the perfect reaction to comments about his blindness. Nice to see him behave perfectly normally around a woman. Quite rightly resents the idea that someone could decide whether he gets to exist. Don't blame him for gloating when he hits upon the visor idea. Think it should've dawned on him a little earlier why Bates was lying.

Love how passionate Worf is about granting passage.

McFadden just about earns her paycheck.

Troi is far more fascinated with their society than i would be. Frankly, i share Riker's opinion. Dont really feel the chemistry between her and Connor, so, the light flirting is a bit dry. I had a brief spark of hope that she would turn down Connor's advances, but perhaps I should've learned my lesson by now. And what the fuck is she doing blaming herself? Don't get the nonsense of her claiming she could fall in love with him, either. Aggressively advocating for the society is a tremendously shit look for her. And then we have that awful scene in the lift. Even with the captaincy, I don't think it's Picard's business.

Data provides helpful information.

Connor is initially decent, but, and i almost laughed when he himself bought it up, he is a bit dull. Not much to him, at first. Briefly hits on an interesting point about the darkness in children's works. Bit too pushy with Troi. Gets a bit more interesting when his reaction to all the uncertainty is to basically be at war between his curiosity and his cowardice. Naturally, the cowardice wins out.

Sometimes you encounter a face and you scarcely need to scour your thesaurus for the perfect descriptor. It just pops into your head. Martin is the very personification of glum. Bit rich to cast judgement on La Forge when he's such a myopic idiot.

Bates does alright. Sort of cute that she and La Forge finish each other's technobabble. Can't applaud her enough for wanting more out of life than a sterile bubble.

The core fragment is a beauty, as is the biosphere out in a lifeless desert. Paradise has all the right set design to look the part, without ever being too interesting. The piano scene manages to be a truly miserable and almost morbid affair, though part of that might be me finding the idea of child prodigies sickening.

Fair amount to unpack here. Firstly, Picard and La Forge's objections to Genome are absolutely correct. Eugenics, preprogrammed societies and other associated rubbish are all flatly evil. But I think the episode is trying too hard to craft nuance where there is none. Connor's arguments about maintaining the society are given a bit too much sympathy for what amounts to a failed experiment that only served to hold them back for two centuries. And while Picard acting more reasonable than hed probably like to in the name of diplomacy is nothing new, privately confiding to Riker about how destructive their prescence was seems to suggest that Genome was a workable paradise spoilt by outside influence. When the reality is that it was a horrifically decadent nightmare that deserved to be dismantled. There's no tragedy to comment on, this was a straight up happy ending.

Troi is, typically, the worst of this bizarre eugenicist defence force and, of course, her only real reason for putting forth arguments is that she has somehow fallen in love with yet another shitty bloke. A plank of wood would be a more respectable partner and probably more spontaneous in the bedroom than a charismaless, proudly programmed bore. I'm astonished that almost every single one of her prospective boyfriends manages to be the anti sex drive. The breakdown over her mistake reeks once more of the endless barrage of sexism this show can't seem to shake and the heavy handed attempt to wed it to the episode's themes manages to insult the character further. Wanting to keep her distance is a genuinely wise move, but the episode treats her like a sulking child. I don't understand why the writers seem to hate her so much.

On the one hand, it's against ableism. On the other, it's sexist, a little dull in both direction and in guest stars and it handles quasi nazi beliefs with more nuance and dignity than they will ever deserve. Not the best.

Got ourselves a Conundrum next.