LogFAQs > #973621989

Episode 11: Parallels

Now, this is an alternate universe story.

Usually, I try to separate different versions of a character into their own paragraphs, but that clearly isn't practical here.

Picard's a bit cheeky, asking about age. Good confusion at Worf's suddenly incorrect information. Doesn't give him too much grief over the shield fiasco. Ours is perfectly reasonable during the quantum cluster fuck.

Riker has fun putting on a sterner manner than usual. Even more fun slapping that hat on Worf. Redecorating Worf's quarters is a dick move. A few accusatory looks when Worf fails to use the panel. As captain, he does quite well. Desperate Riker has some good madness.

La Forge apparently has an appreciation for art and history or so he conspires to pretend. At least one world has to do without him.

Worf is rightly paranoid about surprise parties and just about tolerates his friends' adoration. Absolute grump and a little ungrateful at his celebration, but Alexander's gift cheers him up. Many dizzy spells. Horrified at his potential relation to Lwaxana. A bit of wounded pride at suddenly having come in ninth place. Naturally, angry and confused at the weird shenanigans. Understandably awkward around his heretofore unknown wife. Applies himself well to solving the mystery. Mourns alternate Picard. Lets Troi down gently (for want of a better phrase). Not having Alexander devastates him. Wisely decides that getting with Troi is a good idea.

Crusher guides the birthday celebrations. Gentle with Worf's confusion.

Troi helps Riker to take over Worf's room. Loves the idea of being Alexander's mum. Rather playful as Worf's wife. There's a bit of Lwaxana there, too. Broken over her sudden lack of husband. Ours has picked up a new joy in lightly teasing Worf.

Data's a good painter and its quite a thoughtful gift, too. Nothing but helpful to Worf.

Ogawa is brilliant as a doctor.

Wesley is inoffensive. Actually, he seems a bit more humble. Maybe absense makes the heart grow fonder.

It's a nice looking trophy. Since we don't initially know it's his birthday, Worf's paranoia suggests that something has gone subtly wrong. Some nice camera work to highlight the differences between worlds. Certain angles make the array seem appropriately odd. The painting changing is quite surreal and I like how there's an increasingly rapid shift between worlds, until, eventually, camera trickery gives up and we just snap to the new universe. Some inexplicable plant life in Worf's quarters provides decent foreshadowing. Like the different designs of the bridge, especially the use of only one chair in the main bit. All those Enterprises popping into one world is quite terrifying. Many Worfs in one shuttle is a nice trippy image.

It's always fun to explore alternate versions of familiar characters. Much like with some time travel stories, sometimes the high concept alone is worth devoting a full episode to explore. Still, there were two slightly deeper strands of though I appreciated here. Firstly, I enjoy the idea that nobody is disposable. Better than merely not disposable, most of the alternates are fundamentally identical to the original versions, such that Worf not only understandably takes a while to figure out what's going on, but he doesn't really treat his friends' variants any differently from how he treats his actual friends. Even with Troi, he's remarkably gentle and actually does basically start to feel interest in his version of her simply by briefly living as someone who's already started that relationship with theirs. The only character to be regarded as a tolerable loss is desperate Riker and only because he fires on the shuttle. In other words, his ethics have been so skewed that he's no longer meaningfully Riker and can be acceptably put down by a technically different, but still familiar version. The second strand is what Worf does after getting home. Due to the time reset, the events of the episode might as well be an extended, vivid dream sequence. Worf has then gotten a sneak peak at some of the many paths his life could've and still could taken. I adore that his reaction upon "waking up" is to immediately attempt to actualize the best of the worlds he found himself in: where he and Troi are together. That's taking charge and moving towards living your best life.

A great idea with great execution. Sometimes you just need an excellent premise.

Onto The Pegusus.