LogFAQs > #973214938

Episode 3: Interface

Surprised this concept didn't happen earlier, honestly.

Picard is happy to chat to an old friend, but soaks in the severity of the news. Love that he seriously considers La Forge's theory before dismissing it and how protective he is of his health.

Riker invites exposition on La Forge's new kit. Treads delicately and offers to do his job for him. Opens up about his own experiences which affords Frakes the opportunity to indulge in some powerful acting that usually requires his own character focus episode.

La Forge is amused by a look at his probe body. Reacts as you'd expect to news of his mother. Reminisces and feels a little guilty, but maintains optimism. Really enjoys being the probe. Not having his visor let's us see some of Burton's acting a lot more clearly, which makes moments like his matter of fact recognition of fire turning into sudden pain a bit more powerful. Understandably angry at his family already giving up. Has a mildly uncomfortable chat with Data on the subject. Bit madly obsessive with the image of his mother and frustrated by every attempt to block him. Grateful to Data for his help.

I think I heard Worf.

Troi approaches her session with a stern detachment, which im not surprised by since La Forge is the latest in a long line of people who treat her like shit for doing her job.

Crusher quite likes the interface. Rolls her eyes at La Forge's self reporting.

Data does his best to comfort La Forge and wasn't completely hopeless at it. Has immaculate patience with difficult poetry. Reluctantly honest about theories, as he doesn't want to give his friend false hope. Knows him well enough to predict disobedience, doesn't want him to be at risk, but is ultimately decent enough to help. Lips twitch a bit when La Forge puts him in an impossible position.

You know something potentially weird is going on when La Forge is walking around without his visor. Very dark and claustrophobic, those tubes. Could barely see anything at the start. La Forge's probe reflection is a bit surreal. The ship he visits is perhaps a bit too dark in places, as well. Actually getting burned is quite a cliffhanger. Until the context is delivered, Data being intrigued by seemingly nothing on the screen seems like another surreal oddity. Captain La Forge is ambiguous enough for either theory to be possibly correct, at first. Relatively subtle how they handle her, compared to other similar situations. The actual family felt a bit limp. Like, that's all we get of his dad?

Pretty standard tale of grief and retreating into inner worlds. Kind of feel like they've wasted some potential with the family and the implications of pseudo VR tech, but it tells its message of accepting reality coherently enough. Maybe im just a bleeding heart, and it would compromise the standard message they wished to tell, but i think it would work better if that really was his mum. Wish I had more to say. Well, I suppose I could mention that La Forge's character focus episodes do tend towards just being average at best usually.

I enjoyed it well enough whilst watching, but, I don't even know, there's nothing really inspiring me too much here.

Let's see if this two parter Gambit continues to work well.