LogFAQs > #972513873

Episode 3: Man of the People

Painting a portrait.

Picard gives Alkar a funny look when he suggests he has no choice. Frankly, he makes for a better diplomat than the guy supposedly doing the work. Has the right reaction to Alkar's brand of self serving "utilitarianism".

Riker delivers bad news in a funny way and always tries to comfort Troi. Briefly happy when he sees her in that dress. I can't imagine him being all that bothered. Handles the whole thing in a mature, professional way. Notices the obvious, but isn't quite as much above the influence as I'd like. Still, it hurts him how much of a state Troi is in.

La Forge does some work for Crusher.

Worf continues his martial arts lessons. Still not the best security guard.

Crusher doesn't like it, but she cant in good conscience say that there is a threat to the Enterprise. Otherwise, does her job.

Troi senses that somethings up immediately. Quite like the sweet smile she gives the transporter chief. Why does she insist on find ing the worst possible boyfriends? Even if he were decent, hed still be boring. The blonde haired lad is onscreen for less than a minute and hed frankly be a more interesting lay. Rightly unnerved by Maylor. Sirtis is doing brilliantly as someone simultaneously slightly uncomfortable with her body and, yet, horny as fuck. Not my preferred angle for her character, even if its only caused by technobabble, but she's putting the work in. Very defensive over who she fucks and, again, I can't see Riker being that bothered. Quickly becomes an absolute bitch to just about everyone.

Even Data notices that Troi's doing herself up more.

There are a few flashes of smug malevolence written into his face, but i found Alkar really boring. The lack of negative emotions explains this, but it doesn't make him interesting. Turning Troi down did surprise me, though. I'd expect him to use his receptacles whilst theyre young. His arguments for his "noble" cause are appropriately shit.

Maylor begins as an absolute picture of insanity.

They called it the Dorian? Subtle. It was a cool shot going over Worf's lesson. Troi lightly fondling herself in the mirror while mysterious music plays is an obvious clue that her imminently high sex drive isn't normal behaviour. Manages to suck all the eroticism out of the thing, which is probably for the best. Riker walking in and the blonde lad immediately snapping to attention is quite funny. Troi clawing at Riker took me by surprise and that was quite a nasty gash she made. The old age makeup does alright. Alkar, in particular, becomes quite a wretched creature.

It's long since become ridiculous that most Troi episodes have her as a victim of some sort. I considered it distasteful to begin with and its only gotten worse. Its also bothersome that a key component of Troi's madness is having a high sex drive. I was almost willing to excuse it as a continuity reference to Betazoid physiology, but then Troi basically became a clone of Maylor and i realised that ive probably thought about this more than the writers have. Fortunately, it's on the right side of the utilitarianism debate, so, I appreciated Picard's later scenes. Apart from that, it's literally Sci-fi Dorian Gray. Which could be fine, but even the best case scenario probably wouldn't give me much more to talk about.

There are very few bad episodes anymore in the sense of shoddy, incompetent work. Instead, a bad episode at this point is often a decently made wrapper around fairly shitty contents. So, this is the first dud of the season.

Looking at Relics next.