LogFAQs > #973182157

Episode 2: Liaisons

I wanna know what love is

Picard tries but fails to spare Worf some suffering. Shares Riker's amusement. Tries to make small talk, quickly gets fed up and starts looking for anything to pass the time. Takes charge as expected after the accident. Peppers in some humour and a lot of reassurances and help with words for Anna's sake. Appropriately unnerved by her madness. Tries to let the lunatic down gently, but there was no chance of that working. An even worse choice, even if its quite justified, is angrily going over all her attempts to sabotage him. Infuriated when the manipulation dawns on him and utterly cold when he tells her to jump. Incredulous when Voval reveals himself. Handles the fallout with an astonishing amount of grace.

Riker has to dress Worf and finds it a little hilarious. Gets in a hypocritical and sexist quip that I don't much care for. Precisely zero sympathy for his grievances, as he loves watching him squirm. Merciful enough to suggest poker night. Bit delayed in restraining Worf, i thought. Glad that they became friends.

La Forge wisely doesn't answer the intelligence question. Chuckles at Worf's plight.

Worf can't dress himself and doesn't enjoy his formal attire, anyway. Tries to get out of diplomatic duty as politely as possible, but a shake of the head won't cut it. Suffers through his ambassador's demands. Finds a way to kill that meat dish a second time and considers doing similarly to Data. Stews more and more as the episode continues. Has a rant at Riker and looks to Troi for support. Finally blows up and its richly deserved. Makes a new friend and appreciates the workout.

Crusher tries to delicately explain etiquette.

Troi gets on with her ambassador swimmingly. Skips straight to dessert, which is admirable. Great glee in introducing people to chocolate. Regrets it not long after once she starts babying his addiction. Very passive aggressive "yum". Gets a bit exhausted with his appetite. Stunned by the ambassador's reaction to getting beaten up.

Data attempts to help Worf and leaves quite pleased with his efforts.

Anna is fascinating. The isolation has left her nearly nonverbal and she's nearly breaking apart with every word. The revelation of how long it's been almost made me tear up. Its amazing how her declaration of love can simultaneously be beautifully heartwarming and harrowing insane. Her talk of suicide and just chucking the roots on the floor after being rejected are both amazingly played symptoms of depression. I get she's based on someone who did live, but I think I'd prefer it if this version were real. It feels like far too much effort has gone into this performance for it to be fake. More sympathetic than Annie Wilkes, at least.

Starting on Worf in the mirror is an interesting beginning. Lot of nice looking dishes at the buffet. I'd happily steal the dessert dish, too. Fun with shadows when Picard is knocked out. Eric's mum is far too trusting. The freighter is a wonderfully atmospheric and cozy place. It's well set up, the revelation that she sabotaged the panel. Some discordant music when Anna's madness first becomes really obvious. Nice pan over the poker players and the little dish of chocolates is delightfully amusing. Nice to see that a female on male rape scene be played seriously for a change. Although revealing it to have been Voval in disguise makes it even more uncomfortable in a way that I think gets glossed over.

But seriously, even though she's clearly an immigrant from Misery, Anna is too great a character, played with far too much passion, to just be part of the ambassador's games. It became clear early on that Worf's ambassador is deliberately acting up to get a rise out of him, so, the other two are probably being a bit fake, too. Because of this, I was hoping that Voval's original game was to just be as miserable as possible in order to learn something about Picard and that he actually did die or was at least incapacitated by the crash. Proper dreading the inevitable reveal that Anna was just a part of the scheme because it closes the door on what could've been an interesting look at what prolonged isolation can do to someone. Instead, I get a TOS style episode about aliens studying basic and arbitrarily chosen human concepts in a relatively shallow way. And, apart from Voval being a truly awful attempted rapist, I'm left with very little to actually say about what we've got.

It's hard not to see this as a bit of a missed opportunity. I honestly think that the story would be more interesting if Picard's plot were completely removed from the ambassador stuff. Won't get further than mid way up, at best, in my rankings.

I'll Interface with the next episode tomorrow.