LogFAQs > #972209405

Episode 21: The Perfect Mate

Yes, I recognise Jean Grey.

Picard has his priorities in order. Rightly perturbed by the mail order bride business. Once again, the prime directive gets in the way of the right thing to do. Definitely not Kirk. Kamala tries a TOS style seduction and he breaks out of it without too much effort. His respectful attitude gives way to lightly patronising at a few points. Puts himself down in matters of romance. Straight up lies on Alrik's behalf. His resistance to spending any significant time with Kamala starts to verge on the cruel.

Riker doesn't much like Ferengi, which is quite understandable given his recent history with them. Disconcerted by human trafficking. Can't help but be slightly flirty. Doesn't put up much resistance. I pity the poor soul who has to clean holodeck 4. Wisely makes himself scarce when Kamala comes to the bar.

La Forge makes up something involving dolphins to get the Ferengi away. Bit of a weird first thought.

Worf doesn't care much for the new guests, either. Makes for a pretty good bouncer.

Crusher has the moral right of it.

I'm not sure taking Kamala down to the local is Data's cleverest idea. Bit useless, really. Very gossipy, apparently.

Briam is a little dull.

The Ferengi are hilarious in how willfully annoying they are. Didn't expect them to nearly kill a man.

Kamala's actor is brilliant at adjusting her personality to fit in each situation. Doesn't take her long to figure out Riker. Quite a significant look she gives him. Being proudly sociable and promiscuous is quite wonderful. Sees through Picard's cunning plans effortlessly. Cutely sly in how she gradually breaks his guard. Find it interesting that her first thought when asked about herself is to start imitating Picard's interests.

Alrik manages to be instantly hateable.

The egg is a pretty cool looking thing. Nice music during the emergence. Fantastic shot of Kamala in the mirror when Picard knocks on her door. Actually mirrors are used a lot around her, for obvious reasons.

My thoughts on the whole altar diplomacy haven't changed since the last time I ranted about it, but a quick note, nevertheless. It's sickening and, frankly, more than a bit farcical, that, for the longest time, the only thing that would often stop two groups of people from killing each other was shackling women to men who would never regard them as human. It's a nasty business and neither planet receives any sympathy from me. It's, again, lighter than TOS' brand, but there's more than a little sexism infecting this episode. Sure, they're trying to act against it by making the main characters care about Kamala as a person, rather than a sex toy, but some of the ways she's shut down by the characters are more than a little patronising, almost veering towards slut shaming, and the ten forward scene, with the rowdy miners, is almost intolerable, with Kamala herself being the only bright spot. Even her talk about never having been alone is framed a bit too close to being needy for my tastes. Maybe it's just that it's a subject matter for which I have very high standards and merely having your heart somewhat in the right place simply isn't enough. I do like that Kamala's arc sort of concludes with her self actualisation, but then going along with the mating out of duty isn't just a sour note, it kind of goes against what they've been building to. It doesn't help that her best self is literally Picard's ideal woman. That his ideal woman happens to be an actual human being doesn't stop it from muddying itself further. Would've been better if who she chose to be had no relation to any of the men. Allow her to find a long buried true self or something.

Like a lot of episodes of this calibre, I think it's genuinely trying and the guest star is excellent, but I just don't have much tolerance for getting this sort of thing wrong.

Imaginary Friend sounds like it could be a creepy one.