LogFAQs > #972712217

Episode 18: Starship Mine

Bit of horseplay.

Picard's having a stressful day. Growing increasingly impatient with everyone's requests. Weirded out by Data's small talk. Patience finally snaps when La Forge and Worf start being too polite. Not looking forward to the reception. Had to choke out his message. Gotten very attached to the Enterprise. Fondling her like the Doctor does his TARDIS. Can't even muster the energy to properly smile at Hutchinson and drags La Forge and Troi into the conversation. Gets interested as soon as horses are mentioned and seizes the fumbling opportunity to escape. Gets to be quite threatening with Devor. Uses Mot as a cover story, which is an interesting first choice, and acts a bit like a nervous idiot to make it plausible. It's kind of nice seeing him in ruthless survivalist mode.

Riker has a look of utter horror when Hutchinson spies him. Absolutely loves Data's parody of the man. Grows increasingly sarcastic with Hutchinson, then plays matchmaker. Awed by their endless stream of babble.

La Forge tries to duck out of a dreary party, but fails. A little stunned by Picard's crap excuse to escape. Must be a big eater because he's really stuffing his face.

Worf's honesty works in his favour and he gives La Forge a smug look to rub it in.

Crusher wants equipment. Takes her longer to cotton on to what Data's doing, but quickly enjoys herself as much as Riker.

Troi on micromanager duty. Has quite the nonplussed look when Picard makes his excuses, then, snaps to a slightly too bright smile when Hutchinson continues his babble. More horrified than anything at how long small talk can actually go for.

Data tries small talk. Spiner's decided he just wants to mug for the camera today, so, we get some truly amazing shots of Data imitating Hutchinson. Everything's exaggerated. A part of me wants to believe that he's deliberately taking the piss. Definitely a fun comedy act to have him waffle with a waffler. Actually a bit angry when his new best friend gets shot.

Hutchinson is a remarkably sociable bore. Even he seems to grasp that Picard's not perfectly honest about his intentions, though. Falls deeply in love with Data.

None of the villains are particularly worth mentioning.

Its a funny sequence having Picard be accosted by literally all his senior staff. Has to call two lifts. An empty bridge doesn't look right. Data loitering in the background being an absolute clown whilst relatively normal conversations occur is a delight. Quite like the darkness of a powered down Enterprise. Directing is clearly inspired by action movies. Riker discussing his plan whilst Orton and friend just stare dumbly might be a bridge too far, though, even if it still fits the action thriller mold. We have an especially silly ending to a fairly silly episode. Devor looks familiar.

Star Trek does Die Hard. An uncomplicated, well made action romp that leaves me with precious little else to say. I do appreciate that Picard is kept as regretful over the deaths as circumstances allow. I can't help but wonder if the discussions over how vacuous and meaningless Hutchinson's conversations are is meant to be a meta nod at the audience: saying that the rest of the episode is going to be similar, so, you may as well turn your brain off and enjoy yourself. Didn't quite work on me. Openly discussing your plan in full earshot of your enemies is hard to justify, even in daft stories like this. At any rate, that's the closest thing to an interesting observation I've got.

A good, fun runaround and that's perfectly okay every once in a while.

Next, I'll be learning about Lessons.