It's clear from the episode that Riker is extremely determined to survive. I can tell you that if I had to sit through this whole episode without being able to fast-forward I'd have probably given up. But Riker _lived_ through it! Amazing.
As a kid, I ended up rewatching this episode a lot (along with other early ones, on VHS) and that line will indeed haunt my nightmares literally until the day I die.
It makes sense that Lore would remember the line here rather than in Skin of Evil, given that it appeared only once in that episode, and thrice in this one.
My idea: Riker is giving a tour of the Enterprise to a small group of middle and high school age students who attend an advanced science academy and aspire to attend Starfleet Academy some day. Riker talks about how the crew of the Enterprise represent many different worlds and species. Cut to Johnathan Frakes giving the audience a behind the scenes tour of the makeup and costume department and speak to one of the actors such as Spiner or Dorn as they are getting makeup applied. Cut to Riker taking the students to the battle bridge or photen torpedo storage or phaser control. Cut to Frakes talking to people involved in special effects. Cut to Riker taking the students to the bridge which is manned by extras with Dr. Crusher or Troi in the captains chair (it's the 3rd shift). Cut to Frakes on the set who shows us how the Enterprise sets work....ETC. Near the end of the episode there is a dramatic red alert, a call to battle stations, a bustle of activity, and the ship shakes. The students are scared, but it was only a drill. Riker tells them a life lesson about something such as how space can be dangerous and Starfleet officers need to be ready for anything. The end.
Your idea is great...which is why I hate to do this- Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately I guess) Reading Rainbow had sort of done this within the first two seasons with LeVar Burton taking everyone on a tour. Great idea though!
Hey Man, just wanted to thank you for this amazing piece of work you are doing. I'm a huge Star Trek Fan myself and was watching TNG every afternoon after school when it was aired here in Germany in the mid 90s. I have the fondest of memories of those days. I recently bought the complete DVD Box and watch them through now , then I discovered your series and since then it became a habit for me to watch one or two episodes after work and my workout then go to bed and listen to your rumination of these episodes before sleep. It's so great, thank you man!
I always thought this episode would have been better as a sequel to Skin of Evil, of sorts. Back in Skin, Riker was "enveloped" by Armus. It could have been cool if that experience had somehow infected Riker with Armus' malevolence. It lay dormant for the last year until this episode where the infection down on the planet triggered ArmusRiker and Riker slowly started showing evil behavior. So this episode would have Riker restrained and sedated, and instead of clips, we would see Troi enter Riker's headspace which (to save money) would just be an empty space, like a black box theatre. All the replaced clip scenes would be Troi convincing the evil-infused Riker of who he really is. Go deep psychological therapy to showcase Frakes' and Sirtis' acting ability and chemistry together.
Going off of your idea if Riker did get a cybernetic leg that would give him and Picard another thing to bond over because of Picard's artificial heart.
You would think in the 24th century. Doctors would be able to clone body parts or replicate them using the body's DNA. Hell they made a super human like Khan centuries before. Instead they still have artificial replacement parts.
Something I always thought would be cool would be to have an episode mainly (or possible entirely) taking place in Ten Forward. Make it a kind of “day in the life” episode told from Guinan’s perspective. Kind of like “Lower Decks”. How she interacts with people, listening to their troubles, hearing rumors about the threat of the week but never seeing it- stuff like that. Different characters can come in and out, we’d hopefully get to know a little more about Guinan herself because we really don’t know much about her and there’s some great opportunities for comedy and character moments. I also have it in my head that there could be a really great “red alert” moment. Most of the time Picard or someone just says, “Red alert,” and the story just kind of keeps going. I always thought it would be awesome for the audience to be following a smaller character who’s not in the thick of the threat to suddenly see the red blinking lights come on out of nowhere and hear the alarm and just have this “oh crap” moment because they don’t even know what’s happening, but they know for certain that they’re in very real danger. I don’t have much of an idea for a plot beyond that, but I’ve always really liked the idea.
Pulaski: I realize it turned out that Riker could have been cured by a simple dose of anti-inflamatories. In the 20th century they would have called it aspirin. But is this reason for me to be removed as head of medical? Picard: No. It's simply that Crusher is returning after her temporary reassignment. You're were never supposed to be a permanent replacement. Pulaski: I would hope that my service in the past year would allow me to compete for the job. ( Picard thinks back to Beverly Crusher to the tune of "Close to you" [ Clip show style ] ) Why do birds suddenly appear Every time you are near? Just like me, they long to be Close to you Pulaski: Captain? ( The mental image of Beverly Crusher is replaced by Kate Pulaski. [ More clips ] Picard awakes from his clip show daydream with a sudden start ) Picard: No! ( regains composure ) I'm sorry my mind is made up. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Challenge accepted. Here goes: The virus-bacteria is an extention of the plant that is actually a sentient planet wide being that is probing Riker's mind. It takes the image of Troi in Riker's mind and talks with him as it provokes flashbacks to learn more about him and his species as it tries to understand concepts such as loss and death. Meanwhile Pulaski and Data work to try to free Riker from his coma in sickbay. The sentient being and Riker eventually come to an understanding and it is about to let him go when .... Pulaski goes through with her plan using the head spike device to transmit a counter-virus into Riker's brain. Riker wakes up and immediately requests to be put back under. Back unconscious he sees the sentient being now dying. He provides comfort as it experiences fear and loss and dies in his arms. Later, planet scans indicate that the creature has died. Pulaski realizes she was so focused on saving Riker that she ignored clues of what was actually happening. As a result she has accidentally committed genocide and decides to resign. Okay that may be a little dark for STNG but there you go. Themes of first contact, understanding of concepts of death and loss, and consequences. Back to the episode as written. While this is a terrible clip show it actually did a lot of good because of just how awful it was. Star Trek never did another clip show. The episode "Drumhead", one of my favorites, was supposed to be a clip show but the writers refused ( referencing how they hate clip shows ) and came up with a much better concept instead. Even non-Star Trek science fiction series have referenced this episode in explaining why they never did a clip show in their series. The notoriety of this episode has improved science fiction writing by serving as a perfect example of "what never to do".
If I were the writer for this super-bottlesode, I think I'd do a little something similar to the Futurama "300 Dollars" episode in which we get to see snippets of the crew having a "day off". Setup: The engine or something is acting up and needs to undergo repairs while the ship is in the middle of nowhere. Nothing serious, but it'll take a day. Everyone's gathered in the meeting room (Set 1) and Picard basically tells them to take it easy. I guess Warf can be in the engineering bay because of a small fire or some security reason. He reports remotely. Almost the entire episode takes place in Ten Forward, and our (the audiences') perspective is via Guinan. It starts off with Picard talking to her about the pressures and routine of their long term military life and reconciling that with their needs for novelty and relationship. He's glad to have a break so everyone can relax. Throughout the episode we have some of the crew come into TF for various reasons and get to observe snippets of how they're choosing to spend their time. Sometimes Picard and Guinan are interacting with them, other times simply observing. There are many little plots going on, but nothing major and most of them maybe a little silly, looking from the outside. This is the bulk of the episode and the only "plot" is following these little plots. At some point Picard also is gone and and we're just left with Guinan "obSERVING drinks" and just soaking in the atmosphere, dropping some Guinan wisdom and wit where appropriate (can you tell I love this character?). Then the crew start to return to TF from their mini-plots and they're all flustered and arguing about how badly they went and the bar becomes very raucous. Picard enters (dressed as a detective of course) and sees the madness, exasperated. He and Guinan exchange glances, Guinan does her great smirk. Just as Picard is about to raise his voice, the hum of the engine fills the ship for a moment and everyone becomes quiet. Geordie reports that the ship is ready to fly again, and Picard commandingly tells everyone to return to their stations and prepare to take off. Everyone, like waking from a dream, forgets their squabbling and returns to routine, immediately restoring order. Guinan and Picard exchange another glance, and he leaves. (Or Guinan walks up to him and there's a coda [koda?] delivery about the ironic relaxation that comes of steady work.) Maybe a final scene in the meeting room where everyone talks about their personal experiences, but I can't figure out how to gracefully leave Warf out. Maybe just have him if it's not too expensive/time consuming) This was a fun exercise! And thanks for another insightful review, Lore
The Drumhead is great example of a really well made bottle show. For the final of season 2, they should focus on farewell to dr. Pulaski. They even could use the Riker’s injury plot to magnify the differences between her's and Pickard’s judgement on the situation. For the sake of his friend, Pickard could intervene in the decision making, and in result undermine her authority, forcing her to resign. Obviously, they should part on good terms, noticing, they both have very strong personalities and too different approach to a problem, so they just can't work together. No matter, how do you feel about Pulaski, she deserved better than just disappearing from the show.
Of course this is easy to improve on with 30 years of hindsight and maybe this is only slightly better: Given this writing challenge, I would have gone with a letters home / personal logs episode. It would focus on universe building and developing characters - maybe building up some of the lesser characters like Chief O'Brian. I would use it to set up changes and threats for the next season, some reflections on Yar's death from a few characters, Picard reflecting on classified intelligence about the Romulans, Riker talking about ambitions, Geordi worried about romance ect. The main conflict is Pulaski talking herself into the realization that she doesn't fit in, peaking with her requesting a transfer, Picard gives a paper thin "we need you here" but once she leaves the room, you know he's happy about it. It's all dialog, very few or no effects. Sets could be mostly ready room and redressed crew quarters, shots are mostly solo and can be setup concurrently in some cases. P.S. Your videos are great, thanks for putting all this work in.
There's a lot you can do with 3 days, some good actors and a couple sets at most. Duet could have been streamlined down to this and not lost any of the quality because of the outstanding writing and acting.
With 3 days? Pick 3 good actors, lock them in a room (maybe 2), give them a dilemma, and just let them act. If you can nail the dialogue and characterisation, that's really all you need. It might seem a weird comparison, but my mind immediately went to "The Box", an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It's a bottle show with incredibly small scope, and yet it's one of the best episodes of the season because it nailed the fundamentals and the actors brought their best.
Maybe instead of just "If we don't find a cure, Riker will die!" *ominous music*, we could spread the infection to the whole ship. Most of the senior staff would be rendered catatonic (we wouldn't really see this), and Data is involved in a hostage situation along with a prominent human ambassador (we would hear Data's voice only). Riker sustained the injury after an away mission to try to save them (this part would be explained in the Captain's log). The disease-thing would be virulent, and Riker was chosen as he was fitter and not completely catatonic. We would also hear Troi trying to negotiate with the hostage takers (who we only hear the voices of. We would also have the added drama of Troi and Pulaski holding off the infection so they can save Riker.
I took your challenge to heart. Here are 6 ideas I had while watching your video. Let’s start with the constraints: 1. Three days to shoot. 2. Three preexisting sets. 3. No/minimal makeup characters. 4. Season Finale worthy. Here are my ideas: First: Keep the medical drama, but play the entire episode almost entirely from Pulaski’s perspective. Start in the medbay, she’s in scrubs and pacing nervously. She coms for Picard and asks if she can’t just go to them, but his voice says to wait where she is and be ready. Then Geordi and O’Brien come in with Riker, who’s not visibly injured but clearly out for the count. They heave him onto the biobed, and she starts taking scans. She can’t find anything wrong with him, and doesn’t know why he won’t wake up. Later she comes into the ready room and explains that all her tests come up negative, and she doesn’t know why or what. Picard says he needs his first officer back up and soon, and vaguely mentions that Data and Worf are already being pushed back from their position. Pulaski cuts him off and says she knows the situation, but that it won’t change the facts. He asks if there’s anything she can think of, and she says that out on the frontier: what they can’t detect is usually more dangerous than what they can. He promises to go back over every mission Riker’s been on since his last physical, or even back to Farpoint Station if needed, and find anything out of the ordinary. Any explanation. Meanwhile he has Pulaski try some less orthodox tests, one’s technology can’t give bad reports on. Then we have the clips of various Riker missions, but with the theme of him doing things out of the ordinary or on the frontier, with special attention to Q Who and Skin of Evil. I’d make the twist that it’s a trace of Armus, and have Riker facing him (via footage) in his mind towards the end when Pulaski manages to stimulate his brain into working somehow. 2. Have Geordi on a planet and get hit by some energy pulse. His visor goes crazy, and he tears it off and holds his eyes and head in agony. He gets beamed up and Pulaski says his implants have been heated up to the point they’re frying his nerves. She has to operate on him, and during the brain surgery she has to keep him awake and thinking or else he might lose consciousness and she might make a mistake. She curses the fact Data is still on the planet and beyond reach, as she could use his steady hands. She asks Geordi about the year before she came over, and he relays how he was in love with Tasha, and how he got to see once, and little anecdotes of his life which make up the clips. Eventually she gets him fixed up, and the next episode: Geordi has a new, more comfortable visor prop, and one he has to take off periodically to rest his implants while he heals. 3. Picard giving a report at Starfleet Headquarters on Q and the Borg. Just Patrick Stewart, some admits extras with a Vulcan and whatever the president was in STVI, and him trying to get across how dangerous the Borg really are. Throw in an arrogant admiral who just can’t get it through his head, and even berates Picard to his own contradiction. “You allowed 18 people to die?” “You let them beam over?” “You asked for help?” 4. Picard and Riker undergoing a court martial for violations of the Prime Directive. Same as 3, but this time they’re on review for messing up, and have to defend prior episodes where the writing was bad, or else get grilled for it. Even have Data come in as “an unbiased witness” who absolutely curbstomps the Admirals’ criticisms. 5. O’Brien’s typical day. Have a whole episode just in the transporter room with O’Brien. Periodically someone needs a beam-out, or there’s an emergency he gets maybe four percent of the information on, and there’s a maintenance crew he fights with because he has to get his job done during the emergency and they need to run a diagnostic he ran yesterday, and just have fun with O’Brien in his little room. 6. Pulaski gets hurt on an away mission and they don’t have anyone aboard who can save her. Data thinks to upload her consciousness to the holodeck and put her body on intensive life support/cryostasis, so they can get her opinion. She determines she can’t be saved by modern medical technology, and they debate saving her by keeping her in the holodeck. Bring back Moriarty to talk to her about being stored and waiting. Have them discuss her potential life later, as well as being a type of secondary sick back (maybe even plant the EMH idea early). Have it be contained to the holodeck set and the actors discussing. Then have a final shot in the medbay (holodeck) where she says goodbye with whichever choice she makes.
If I had a 3-day shoot with minimal budget, I wouldn't do a clip show at all. I'd have the enterprise disabled from encountering a space maguffin, and the crew trapped in their quarters while the techies in Engineering fix the ship offscreen. Then have Pulaski and Troi trapped together, telling each other stories from their pasts. Worf and a random vulcan crew member trapped in a turbo lift, butting-heads over cultural differences. And Picard trapped alone in his ready room, recording what he thinks could be his last log entry to the computer, confessing to an old shame or regret that made him what he was. At the end, Pulaski and Troi have bonded (and the show passes the Bechdell test), Worf and the vulcan have learned to respect each other's viewpoints ... and Picard erases the log entry. Just human drama, character development, and storytelling without visuals. And maybe it would be the standout classic show of the season :-).
Proposed clip show: Let's say Riker's dad gets killed off-screen, and he goes to Troi's office to talk about things; about his career, about his relationships - especially between him and Troi, about his dad... it scores us points for characterization for Riker if we get his perspective on how he's grown in the last two years... It'd still be a clip show, but if you've got only 3 days of shooting, make it a character play between Riker & Troi. Add in a scene on the Bridge set for everybody but Worf and Data so they all get their one line up front. Maybe your third set is Riker's quarters, where he takes hold of a picture of his dad, something his dad gave him. Possible ending 1: Riker goes back to his quarters, gets his trombone, looks at his dad, plays "Amazing Grace". Possible ending 2: Riker about to go to Troi's quarters. (Possibly rehearsing something he wants to tell her about how they should be together.) Reaches to push the button. Hesitates. Cut to credits Though it'd take a good writer to sum up Riker's character arc so far and give a hint of where it's going, it'd be a better episode than this, and I came up with this concept in the 24 minutes of the Lamentation.
I'd like to posit that every clip show Stargate SG-1 did -- Politics, Disclosure, and Inauguration -- were expertly crafted to make them essential viewing despite their format. I'd even be tempted to show new viewers "Discolsure" to introduce them to the series. Each one accomplished its goal of advancing a very important political plot-line and introducing new characters despite their format. Additionally, I think each one primarily used one set and very few regular characters. Essentially, if you have to have a clip show, take some cues from that show.
Ok...thought about this a bit. 3 day shoot...one set three actors. Set black room with a spot light. Actor, Jonathan Frakes, Maria Sirtis, and Pulaski Then have him relive his worst memories where all WE get is HIS lines. Starting with his mother's death. In between memories he's aware things are not right and is trying to figure it out what is going on. While he's not lost in a memory we hear soft whispers that we can't quite hear. Each act has a memory, none taking place during his time on the Enterprise. Second memory is when he almost gets kicked out of the Academy, third memory is the first time he refuses to let a captain beam down, fourth memory is Troi where we find out Luxwana was instrumental in his choice to leave Troi. After each memory the whispers get clearer but muffled, still can't hear what they are saying until after the last memory where we hear Troi say fight Imzadi and Pulaski say we are losing him which gives Riker the final clue he needs then he recovers. Anyone who sees this let me know what you think.
The only good use of a clip show would be one after or containing some dramatic revelation that recontextualizes those scenes in some awesome way-- like in Fight Club, the flashbacks after we learn Tyler's secret. Usually (or probably always) instead it is just "hey, remember this zany scene?"
I feel like this is fairly easy to make work. Make it so inside his own head, he's reliving missions, but more importantly reliving his mistakes and reflecting on them. Maybe one of the memories he tries to change something and fails. So when he wakes up he's relieved and he's like panicking a little bit, but once he actually realizes he's back in the real world he accepts his mistakes and is at peace with himself.
This is a show where it got a negative nielsen rating where people heard about the episode but said that if they ever got a TV they would not watch it.
Here's what I do. Lock the main characters on the bridge and shut the power down. Make a pure character and dialogue driven episode basically a 45 minute black box esque stage play. You have one of the finest Shakespearean actors of all time. Like. Wtf was that crap I just watched.
I agree with you Lorerunner, the short shooting time does not excuse how bad the script is for this episode. I have always hated this episode because its just bad overall, not just because its a clip show. This one deserved a Lamentation and I am glad it got that status. Nice job pointing out the bad dialogue, good review! I like your story idea of Riker losing his leg and having it replaced with an artificial one, that would have been fantastic. Looking forward to Season 3 where as you say, the show started to get really good.
You forgot to mention that this episode contains previously aired material, unlike TOS: The Menagerie. Also, I do have an example of an effective clip show - an episode of Night Court called... "Clip Show" (S06E12 & S06E13)
Interesting idea to have Riker ponder whether or not to get the cybernetic leg... But considering his commanding officer has a cybernetic heart, you'd be hard pressed not to make Will look like a bit of a cry baby: "Come now Number One, you have two legs... Get stabbed in the heart by a Nausicaan, then we'll talk!".
Hey Lore, Always love your ruminations! As you said in your Voyager rumination on the episode “The Swarm”, this episode really is 45 minutes of wasted television.
Three days with very little budget? Easy, put riker in a non-responsive state and have everyone try to cover for his job by helping each other. Have pulaski and data handle his technical duties together so they they get a final bit of development. Have warf and Picard handle his personnel duties while showing their own character growth. Have troi and the councillor talk about worst case scenarios and how they can manage with new age tech. Just make it a big character piece. Then have riker get up, and talk with each group as he resumes duties. It's a finale, for Pete's sake. The least they can do and let the characters give one last show of how close they are.
At least the other lamentation worthy episodes are shockingly hilarious like the black "aliens" in Code of Honour, the over the top Irish stereotypes, and Riker clumsily killing his clone without a second thought in that one I can't recall the name of.
It was amazingly obvious that this is a budget episode. It actually took me multiple days to finish this one. It's crazy how Season 2 had so many ups and downs.
If I were writing this, I would eliminate the planet set altogether. Just open with, "Captain's log. Cmdr Riker and Lt Cmdr LaForge have beamed down to Cheeseburger 5 to do blah blah blah." Follow up with a scene on the Bridge where the characters briefly exposit why they're there. Then, a call comes in from Riker, "Medical emergency! One to beam directly to sickbay."
I haven’t read all the comments but Fusion, Quacker and Travis have already 3 great and original ideas and I’m sure there are more. One beloved M*A*S*H episode was in the guise of interviews of the different staff of the 4077th, but the answers were improvised by the actors. How about asking all these talented actors to do something like that? I’m sure there still is “news” in 2370 (we see it in ST:Picard).
What I would do: I would keep the slide show, but instead of filling with boring false tension, I would do it so Riker has a conversation with a projection of himself, commenting each event and the impact it had on him, and revisiting those emotions and thoughts with hindsight. I would cram as much characterisation for Riker as possible, done in as sensible a manner as possible. Ps: And I would have other projections appear, conversing with him: First Worf, the knee jerk reaction of anger, longing for action, and finally self discipline. Data, calmly and precisely recounting the recent events and analysing them, followed with a hint of his usual almost unintentionnal wisdom. Then, I'm split: Either Troy, then Pickard, or Pickard, then Troy. The latter would make sense if what matters most to Riker deep down is love, and it would play well with her being the first person he sees when he wakes up. If he is a Career man through and through, then the first, where Pickard helps him reafirm his choices, while still discussig their unavoidable cost.
Beta Cannon Captain Kang is convinced to get his lost arm replaced. He has refused a prosthetic but his father died (less than honourably) and he takes his arm which is not the same length as his own. Giving Kang the chance bring honour to his father in battle. Kang is a great warrior and learned to wild a Batleth in his left arm and now is relearning with his new right arm. The odd crew makes comments until Kang has learned and most of it was just accepting. Then a crew member who made a quiet remark was dusembowled by Kang with his father's arm. No comments or questions after. Until Kang adjusted he would have trouble rising from his command station. We use our arms to stand from seated.
Myself, they should have kept the medical emergency like you said. The amputation sure, but I would long play this. For the first part of season 3, Riker is not aboard the Enterprise. Until episode 4, which wouldn't be the one that they have make that episode 8. He comes back still struggling with the cybernetic implant and by the Vengenance Factor have him with a cane when he is back from ep.4 until he has to kill the assassin due to that he knows that if he doesn't do it then this is going to happen. It would make a good story even better by doing this, then by the time Menage a Troi, then he wouldn't need the cane and he is more confident with the implant. And scattered throughout the episodes leading to the Best of Both Worlds I'd have Riker and Troi forge a bound that could possibly be a marriage say towards the end of the next season.
Here is what I would do. Right up front, let me acknowledge that I'm going to unashamedly rip-off VOY: "Mortal Coil" here (it's hands-down my favorite episode of VOY and can easily be modified to work here, in my opinion). Let Riker have a near-death experience and deal with the consequences of it. You would only need three sets (Sickbay, Riker's quarters and maybe a hallway set - all of which they already had built). You could even remove Worf and Data from the episode until the final scene in order to save on make-up costs. I'd even remove Wesley from the episode until the final scene since he wouldn't be essential to the story until then (more on that in a minute). The episode starts out in Sickbay as Lore suggests, thereby cutting out the necessity for a planet set. You can still have something of a medical drama early in the episode. Only, Riker does in fact "die" only for Pulaski to revive him at the last possible second. Everyone is happy that Riker is okay and Riker puts on a strong face for everyone, but once he's alone it's clear that something is bothering him. Eventually, Troi (being used effectively as a counselor for a freaking change and as something who is obviously close to Riker) confronts him on his surliness and he breaks down and admits that he experienced nothing when he was "dead" and it's freaking him out. Now, in "Mortal Coil", the dilemma is that Neelix begins to question his faith in the Talaxian religion as a result of his experience. I doubt they could do something like that with Riker, as religion (and certainly any positive depiction of it) was apparently absolutely off-limits here in early TNG (as we will see shortly in a very early season 3 episode). But, religion wouldn't even have to be a factor in what is freaking Riker out. Just have him experience something like existential terror at the thought (now shoved directly in his face) that life just ends and that's that. Once the revelation is made to Troi, she feels compelled to let everyone know just what is going with Riker, in the hopes that together they can all help him. Over the course of the episode, then, Riker confronts/converses with Picard (as someone he respects), LaForge (as a friend), Pulaski (as a detached scientific observer) and Troi again (as someone who deeply cares for him - both quasi-romantically and on a simple interpersonal level) about these issues. I'll jettison the whole suicide angle that "Mortal Coil" goes for with Neelix. Instead, the episode ends with the entire main cast (including Worf, Data and Wesley) coming to see Riker in his quarters and letting him know that he does have a lot to live for - that life does have meaning because he has friends (dare I say - family) who care for him. The scene (and episode) end with only Riker and Troi alone again and Riker emotionally breaking down. Seriously, let the man break down into tears, both of fear and joy mixed together. Troi then comforts him by taking him into her arms and hugging him, telling him that it will be okay and that they will help him get through this. There you go. An episode that is confined to three simple, pre-existing sets, no guest characters what-so-ever, absolutely no special-effects and three main cast members (including the two with costly make-up) only on-screen for a few minutes. You have a serious issue involving the Human Condition to explore (even leaving out the religious aspect) and a chance for both Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis to deliver some good acting. But, instead, they went with a damn clip-show. Good grief! 0/10
First off, how this episoe is NOT a lamentation for you Lorerunner I have NO idea. But OK, I'll play along. How would I re-write this episode given the llimitations? Easy. Keep the same set up. We already have Troi using her psychofraxis powers to read his thoughts. How about make one small leap, and Troi ends up in Riker's death hallucination. The two of them are walking around an empty ship talking. Then stuff starts going wrong with the ship representing his dying brain. We show that in his death hallucination he is having flashbacks to Tasha's death, and his fight with his dad and all that. Troi has to pull him back by reminding him of the good stuff and she gives him good flash backs. In the end they have to fight heir way across a falling apart ship, make it to the bridge and hit warp speed wihch metaphorically wakes Riker up in real life. Have Riker say he doesn't remember anything just a big blank, so only Troi remembers their psychoflexis adventure against death,
There is one clip show I think is good and that is Politics from Stargate SG-1 season 1. Yes it suffers with the same issue all clip shows do but there is some fantastic acting and it is relevant to the season finale plot.
what I would do is not have a set for most of it at all... have the Med bay and one white room. have Riker basically die, make it all happen in a room, sometimes white, sometimes dark, but just using the lighting, no set...let us only see Riker as he struggles with his past, hearing the voices of his friends, make it be about Riker accepting dyeing, until he hears Troy, and Loxsana, who is the only other person able to physically exist in his inner Universe thus, make her be able to physically guide him to life through the emptiness... this would explore Riker & troy as a character & make the statement about what happened to Picard be worse than death mean more.. he having been dead. also, make a talking seen in Med-bay, where Troy is trying to gain the confidence to reach out to Riker, have a Picard speech about reaching out to your inner abilities... how, one would rather accept grief than the risk of failing to bring someone back... have the doctor talk about what it is to loose people, how with all the technology they have, not being able to overcome mortality is still a thing. have it be a character piece about those three, those four people.
I'd not make it a clip show and make it about Riker and perhaps his arrogance. Perhaps he'll need to have his leg cut off and he is refusing treatment? Perhaps something similar to Nog? This is a tough spot to be in and 3 days... that's impossible to film a full 44min episode. I'd maybe have a couple of clips here and there to, yes, fill the time slot set by paramount, but I'd make it more of a montage. No dialogue, just the images played over some stock music written earlier in the show (perhaps that amazing music they played when Tasha Yar died). I love your idea of Riker putting on a straight face and the part with Troi. That'd have the potential of being powerful. I'd have Polanski showing her stubbornness because... she knows she's right (and she is) but also struggling because she has grown to like Riker as a person. It could possibly give her a good note to end on as well saying how, despite their differences, she's gorwn fond of the entire crew, and even they of her. In the end, I'd make this episode about companionship. The entire episode would be people not only reevaluating their friendship with Riker, but their friendship with each other. Maybe one of them could bring up Tasha Yar, perhaps get a reaction from Data when it is brought up. What a lazy episode, you're right. I always skip it.
This episode is the only lamentation I’ll make my friends watch. Why? Because it’s a clip show of a bunch of other bad episodes they skipped like Haven, some good ones, and I get to show them what I mean by “Bad Star Trek.”
If they did a two parter to end the season they could share the budget between the two episodes. In fact, the production crew admitted they wished they did the story arcs in season four of Enterprise much sooner because of how much further the budget could stretch.
What I'd think about doing if I had to make a low-budget TNG episode at this point in the story: 1. The only sets in use are: The bridge, the battle bridge, and maybe main engineering. We already have those, so that keeps our cost down. 2. Break the "don't tell, show" rule as needed, because we don't have the budget to show. 3. As mentioned, leave out Worf and Data from any new material because of makeup time. Don't mention them as being gone or anything, just don't put them in the script. 4. We're going to have the viewscreens not function properly, so the audience and the characters can't see what's going on, which conveniently eliminates the need to show it. Stuff outside of those 3 sets happens audio-only. The plot: The Ferengi who were thwarted in the training exercise a few episodes ago intercepted the transmissions Worf used to hack into the Enterprise's system (if necessary to pad out, show the clip of this), and they were able to decode what had happened in the intervening time and pull off a similar maneuver. They lure the Enterprise away from help with a distress call, then simulate threats to the ship that convince Picard to order saucer separation and shut down all but life support systems aboard the saucer, including, critically, communications. The stardrive leaves to chase the non-existent threat, while the Ferengi (unbeknownst to anyone in on the Enterprise) start towing the saucer away. The rest of the show is the stardrive figuring out the threat is fake, returning to where they think the saucer will be and finding nothing, and then having to technobabble a way towards locating the saucer and freeing it from the Ferengi's clutches. For added confusion, make it so characters are stuck where they normally aren't, Pulaski having to manage a console she hasn't handled since basic training, Picard can't leave engineering while Geordi is stuck trying to command the saucer, etc. We set things up so that we never see the Ferengi, we only begin to hear them as the stardrive returns, which conveniently means we don't have to do makeup or even use shooting time to get their scenes in.
Not that Roddenberry was still involved at this point, but I'm sure he would have approved of the idea of everybody hearing about everyone else's sexual escapades. After all, sex is awesome, that's why everybody likes to have it all the time with everybody they meet! That's why Justice was such a great episode! XD
I have to admit, I never even thought of just tearing the episode down and going in a different direction like you did. My thought process was like, ok the script calls for a clip show, I guess I'll do what I can to add to it. I should point out, doing a clip episode never a good idea to begin with, but this early in a show's run is especially dumb. Even with the original script, you're telling me Riker only remembers things from the last 2 years, and that's it?? This is why sitcoms wait until they hit 100 episodes before they do one, so there can at least be some variety and progression of time shown in their highlight reel. With Grey, I think they missed an opportunity to at least add a little history to Rikers life. I didn't know they had 3 days to film this, so I would scrap the planet. Reference it offscreen. Spend the first day shooting all the sickbay stuff. Episode opens with them helping Riker into sickbay. He can walk on his own, but his foot feels like its falling asleep, that kind of thing. After all the Sickbay, or present day, scenes were shot, I'd tell Jonathan Frakes to go home and shave his beard. We're gonna shoot some new scenes on pre-season 1 Riker. Fan service stuff Like how Riker met Deanna Troi. Use some stock footage of a foreign planet to show Betazed, and just have Frakes and Sirtis act off each other in a room with sheets or something covering up the fact they're really on the Ten Forward set. Wouldn't have to be a long clip, like 2 minutes. Maybe have a producer's kid come in and play 10 year old Riker and have some stuff with Kyle Riker, and Kyle's being a dick about the karate thing again (or the first time) and the whole thing is shot like a home movie, mostly because maybe it is. Lastly on day 3, use the battle bridge set to make the bridge of the USS Fill-in-the-blank (later written in as Pegasus) and have an intense scene shot where Ensign Riker defends his Captain from crazed and seditious mutineers (at least how he remembers them at the time) which of course we would learn more about in seasons later. After these major scenes are shot, you can pepper in Season 1 and 2 clips as needed to pad the screen time. Of course, the Lorerunner's script sounds a lot better than mine. The man is far more imaginative than me, and if nothing else, a robot leg could be a good canon explanation for the Riker Maneuver when he gets in and out of a chair
Keep Riker in Sick Bay and make the episode focus on Polaski and Troy. Polaski can talk medical mumbo jumbo and try to find a solution and Troy can help the most she can and go through the emotional pains of possibly losing Will.
Given that this episode was made in a time before binge watching was a thing I wondered if they could make a new story out of stock footage. For example the external shots of a saucer separation don’t need to be changed.
We're getting into the Good Star Trek now that this episode is done. No more Lamentations until "Rascals". I forget, did they beam Riker up into quarantine, because that should be obvious in universe procedure. Down with clips shows OMG Troi was useful! Oh, wait. Medical technology is advanced enough for Polaski to determine all of his emotions from scans. (We almost have that now) Why did Diane Muldrew leave? I've heard she was suppose to return to guest star in that Worf's back episode, was that true?. Spoilers - Your new leg idea would come up in season 3, "The Survivors" when he's caught in the rope trap and just hanging upside down and "The Watchers" when he has to carry that guy away from the village while Troi distracts everyone.
I like the idea of having flashbacks to unseen events in the past. Say b/w Troi & Riker or b/w Will & his father. Could be simple set redressing of an office or living quarters all in props & sets existing for the series. Could be set no more than 5 years in the past so uniforms and sets don't need to be created. Maybe a dark room candle lit just two actors with some poignant talk exploring deep ideas and facing the crisis du jour. A seen where Tuvok is ill and visited by Janeway in endgame works too. A few years ahead is just as effective if we in a mental landscape. Some easy digital background for an effect with dark ambient light cheap and effective. The idea that this crisis has him remembering past crisis and imagining a future/hallucinations/visions of a future event where he recalls this crisis as a life changing event. Gain perspective to make? His choice in the present. Pulaski, Picard, Troi, Riker could be all you need besides VO or just quick 2nd unit scenes taking 5 mins of show time as plot filler/narrative device. Bright lit office in past. Dark intimate cabin space for a future. Med lab. Done. If you then maybe have clips added in as reference material sparingly it could be a great study in pathos! Minimal effects. Minimal costs. Maybe be brave leave it on a cliffhanger. Riker telling Pulaski he's made his choice how he wishes to proceed. Results shown in S3. Now that's a possible hook.
You should watch the all-time, Inception-esque, anti-clip show, "Paradigms of Human Memory" (a clip show with all-new clips that the audience has never seen before!): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigms_of_Human_Memory
In all sincerity, this was one of my favourite episodes the first time I saw it. I was about 12, so the thinness of the plot didn't stand out to me. We don't have clip shows in the UK (or I've never seen one) so the idea seemed fresh and clever. I still remember my shock when I opened Nemecek's TNG guide and found it being described as awful ... These days I don't view it with quite the same fondness, but don't hate as much as most do. The clips are well put together, at least. No more lamentations for quite a while now, I think! Bring on Season 3 ...
Lol, he couldn't manage to get through Season 3 without one more Lamentation. He's almost done with season 6, and I think he's got a grand total of 7 lamentations in this one show (while DS9 only has 3).
Always love your videos, keep up the TNG ruminations... (Im actually avoiding watching more until you have a few out because i use them as watch-companions basically.
Couldn't it be said that this episode was simply a product of its environment? I think season 2 had enough challenges to face, (incorporating Pulaski comes to mind), but the strike by the Writer's Guild that year had lasting repercussions & Shades of Gray was the oozing & festered ulcer which in its failings serves as a low-water mark against which we may measure future offerings. It would be extremely difficult to produce a successful clip show in the first few seasons of a series, as there simply isn't much depth to the characters & not much upon which to draw. As an example of a fairly good to excellent clip show, I would point to "Citizen Joe" from Stargate SG-1. It is a clip show, but with a twist.
If I had three days to film, I would have the entire episode featuring two (maybe three) characters in a single room, and have the drama played out in a single setting. Maybe they are stuck, waiting for the ship to come get them, or they are on the ship, and the episode deals with a single issue with tons of character development. Babylon 5 was excellent at this-- so it can be done! It would still be an opportunity for character growth and drama and even humor. Maybe even someone got punished and was ordered to stay in their quarters, and they are visited by someone... there are lots of choices, despite the limitations. If the Shades of Grey story had to be kept-- then have Riker fall unconscious, get the same treatment, and instead of flashbacks, we stay in sickbay and develop Deanna and the Doctor's characters. Or have the virus that infected Riker turn out to be sentient, and remove itself voluntarily in the end. Strange new worlds indeed! Keep up the awesome work, Lorerunner!
Clearly this episode was the easy way out - whether it was due to laziness, budget death, strikes, time runout, whatever - just a review of Riker's previous episodes in flashback. And once I realised what it was, a clip show (and now I know there's a name for such a show as this) I saw it as just that, and I wasn't disappointed anymore. I mean, of course I was underwhelmed at the zero originality, but if I changed my mindset and just enjoyed the Riker nostalgia trip, I at least got good memories of better episodes. Doesn't justify the loss of 45 minutes of my life, just trying to salvage something of what is a non-episode episode. Is it true this was Pulaski's last episode? For all the naysayers about Pulaski, I don't think she was a bad character, just one placed in the wrong place at the wrong time. Replacing Crusher was the problem - Pulaski herself in another role would have been fine, say as a second head doctor in another sickbay. Whatever people think, I think she deserved a better end than this. To make it better? Goodness. Just don't do this. Cut the clip show. Do another type of bottle show if there's such a lack of time and resources. Or have an extra episode script in the first place in the bag to pull out in case of emergencies. If there's no time and can't afford exotic writing, at least make a basic, relatively boring story, but make it strong, give it space for the actors to fly a bit. Or, as I read somewhere, just cut it out and save the money for something else. Did there have to be that many episodes in one season? If however it had to be a clip show, then I feel it has to better other clip shows at least. If I remember any others, they at least involved some scenario like a round table of discussion about something, and the clip shows provided the flashback for which the characters would make commentary on, eg say Riker is conscious but struggling with the virus, and Data reminds Riker of a time he encouraged Data when he was stuck. Play clip. Then Riker says something else about it, like thanks Data, but the virus is rather different to a faulty subroutine - that would be marginally better. Marginally. A step up from that would be using the flashback clips to point out something that everyone might subconsciously be aware of, but still makes them go 'Ah!' when it's pointed out. For example, in The Simpsons a doctor examines Homer after he has an accident and notices that his head his full of little nodules, and asks his family how that is - then comes about thirty short clips of Homer getting whacked in the head by anything from automatic doors, mad monkeys, bowling balls, etc - after that, the family all shrugs and say they have no idea whatsoever. Not that Star Trek TNG would go that silly, but if they point out some secondary aspects of the show so far that people might be unconsciously asking in their own minds it might serve the episode better.
Hurley's revenge! Yeah, the music is good, sure I wouldn't rewrite this episode, I would scrap it and "Peak Performance" and end this season with "The Emissary". Your friend, Pax, keeps getting stuck with this episode (poor man!) I keep getting stuck with "Too Short A Season" Riker with those needles so close to his face creeps me out. "Data! Something's got me!" Run like hell, Lore. You're caught in Riker's bad dreams. And didn't we see something similar to this in "Day of the Dove"? No privacy in TNG, it's annoying to me, too. I'm not going to miss, Pulaski, at all. But she deserved a better ending than _this_ piece of crap! Riker gets a prosthetic leg? It's hard for me to envision that, knowing as much Deep Space 9 as I do. Rightly deserving of Lamentation status. And you note book is nearly finished. That _did_ make me smile! Thank you, Lore.
On the point on "Clip Shows" I do disagree. I still count the ones you mentioned as clip shows. But then again I prefer the idea that a clip show can be used to great effect and I don't react with disgust every time a clip show comes up.
For me, The Unconquerable Man is one of the high points of season 3 of Andromeda - whether that means it's not a true clip show, or just reflects the general state of Andromeda over the later seasons, I'm not sure...
Upvoted just for what you did for the title card... lol. Wish they'd done as well with the episode you're discussing. Clip shows are almost always terrible. The only one I can think of that is an exception (that wasn't the Farscape ep) was a Teen Titans Go! ep that skewered the whole concept of the bottle ep/clip show
Well, having rewatched this episode, I have to say it's not as awful as I thought. It's not great, it's not even good, the acting and writing is all pretty terrible, and even the props are bad. But as clip shows go, I'd have to put this one well ahead of the Stargate SG1 one, or any of the ones in the Outer Limits. It didn't feel too much like a bunch of rerun footage; for the most part, the "memories" actually came across as something that would come up in Riker's head while he was struggling with this. Having rewatched this, I'm forced to come to the conclusion that "The Child" is the only really bad episode in Season 2. This one is certainly second-worst, neck-in-neck with "Manhunt", but the fact that it isn't worse than The Child despite being a clip show is pretty impressive.
This is the worst TNG episode. I recall that when I saw it the first time in 1994, I thought: „Oh they do here, what they sometimes do with cartoon episodes.“
I remember wondering why they made a clipshow this early in the shows run. Well, technically "Firefly" went like "hold my Beer" and make a clip show within their half of a season. And it was really good because they had some really nice weighty character pieces in there. Some of which are newly shot footage because of course the captain remembers things from outside the show's run... But here we have a clipshow episode without new footage for the memory clips and its all about one character. You can really see them straining and failing to keep the tone straight. There just isn't enough material for happy and sad. Now, if the author had given a crap he could've written around that. Have Pulaski trigger some other memories in seeking something that annoys the alien virus thingy. The two emotional states are a bit sparse. Have riker remember other emotions and there might be enough footage to be found...
It's clear from the episode that Riker is extremely determined to survive. I can tell you that if I had to sit through this whole episode without being able to fast-forward I'd have probably given up. But Riker _lived_ through it! Amazing.
"Data, something's got me!!!!" Lol, I think of the same line whenever this episode comes up.
As a kid, I ended up rewatching this episode a lot (along with other early ones, on VHS) and that line will indeed haunt my nightmares literally until the day I die.
It makes sense that Lore would remember the line here rather than in Skin of Evil, given that it appeared only once in that episode, and thrice in this one.
SOMETHING'S GOT MAAAAAYYYYY
My idea: Riker is giving a tour of the Enterprise to a small group of middle and high school age students who attend an advanced science academy and aspire to attend Starfleet Academy some day. Riker talks about how the crew of the Enterprise represent many different worlds and species. Cut to Johnathan Frakes giving the audience a behind the scenes tour of the makeup and costume department and speak to one of the actors such as Spiner or Dorn as they are getting makeup applied. Cut to Riker taking the students to the battle bridge or photen torpedo storage or phaser control. Cut to Frakes talking to people involved in special effects. Cut to Riker taking the students to the bridge which is manned by extras with Dr. Crusher or Troi in the captains chair (it's the 3rd shift). Cut to Frakes on the set who shows us how the Enterprise sets work....ETC. Near the end of the episode there is a dramatic red alert, a call to battle stations, a bustle of activity, and the ship shakes. The students are scared, but it was only a drill. Riker tells them a life lesson about something such as how space can be dangerous and Starfleet officers need to be ready for anything. The end.
Your idea is great...which is why I hate to do this- Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately I guess) Reading Rainbow had sort of done this within the first two seasons with LeVar Burton taking everyone on a tour.
Great idea though!
Hey Man, just wanted to thank you for this amazing piece of work you are doing. I'm a huge Star Trek Fan myself and was watching TNG every afternoon after school when it was aired here in Germany in the mid 90s. I have the fondest of memories of those days.
I recently bought the complete DVD Box and watch them through now , then I discovered your series and since then it became a habit for me to watch one or two episodes after work and my workout then go to bed and listen to your rumination of these episodes before sleep.
It's so great, thank you man!
I always thought this episode would have been better as a sequel to Skin of Evil, of sorts. Back in Skin, Riker was "enveloped" by Armus. It could have been cool if that experience had somehow infected Riker with Armus' malevolence. It lay dormant for the last year until this episode where the infection down on the planet triggered ArmusRiker and Riker slowly started showing evil behavior.
So this episode would have Riker restrained and sedated, and instead of clips, we would see Troi enter Riker's headspace which (to save money) would just be an empty space, like a black box theatre. All the replaced clip scenes would be Troi convincing the evil-infused Riker of who he really is. Go deep psychological therapy to showcase Frakes' and Sirtis' acting ability and chemistry together.
Going off of your idea if Riker did get a cybernetic leg that would give him and Picard another thing to bond over because of Picard's artificial heart.
You would think in the 24th century. Doctors would be able to clone body parts or replicate them using the body's DNA. Hell they made a super human like Khan centuries before. Instead they still have artificial replacement parts.
"If I don't cure him, he will die" - Wisdom of Dr. Pulaski
Something I always thought would be cool would be to have an episode mainly (or possible entirely) taking place in Ten Forward. Make it a kind of “day in the life” episode told from Guinan’s perspective. Kind of like “Lower Decks”. How she interacts with people, listening to their troubles, hearing rumors about the threat of the week but never seeing it- stuff like that. Different characters can come in and out, we’d hopefully get to know a little more about Guinan herself because we really don’t know much about her and there’s some great opportunities for comedy and character moments. I also have it in my head that there could be a really great “red alert” moment. Most of the time Picard or someone just says, “Red alert,” and the story just kind of keeps going. I always thought it would be awesome for the audience to be following a smaller character who’s not in the thick of the threat to suddenly see the red blinking lights come on out of nowhere and hear the alarm and just have this “oh crap” moment because they don’t even know what’s happening, but they know for certain that they’re in very real danger.
I don’t have much of an idea for a plot beyond that, but I’ve always really liked the idea.
Pulaski: I realize it turned out that Riker could have been cured by a simple dose of anti-inflamatories. In the 20th century they would have called it aspirin. But is this reason for me to be removed as head of medical?
Picard: No. It's simply that Crusher is returning after her temporary reassignment. You're were never supposed to be a permanent replacement.
Pulaski: I would hope that my service in the past year would allow me to compete for the job.
( Picard thinks back to Beverly Crusher to the tune of "Close to you" [ Clip show style ] )
Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you
Pulaski: Captain?
( The mental image of Beverly Crusher is replaced by Kate Pulaski. [ More clips ] Picard awakes from his clip show daydream with a sudden start )
Picard: No! ( regains composure ) I'm sorry my mind is made up.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Challenge accepted. Here goes:
The virus-bacteria is an extention of the plant that is actually a sentient planet wide being that is probing Riker's mind. It takes the image of Troi in Riker's mind and talks with him as it provokes flashbacks to learn more about him and his species as it tries to understand concepts such as loss and death. Meanwhile Pulaski and Data work to try to free Riker from his coma in sickbay. The sentient being and Riker eventually come to an understanding and it is about to let him go when .... Pulaski goes through with her plan using the head spike device to transmit a counter-virus into Riker's brain. Riker wakes up and immediately requests to be put back under. Back unconscious he sees the sentient being now dying. He provides comfort as it experiences fear and loss and dies in his arms. Later, planet scans indicate that the creature has died. Pulaski realizes she was so focused on saving Riker that she ignored clues of what was actually happening. As a result she has accidentally committed genocide and decides to resign.
Okay that may be a little dark for STNG but there you go. Themes of first contact, understanding of concepts of death and loss, and consequences.
Back to the episode as written. While this is a terrible clip show it actually did a lot of good because of just how awful it was. Star Trek never did another clip show. The episode "Drumhead", one of my favorites, was supposed to be a clip show but the writers refused ( referencing how they hate clip shows ) and came up with a much better concept instead. Even non-Star Trek science fiction series have referenced this episode in explaining why they never did a clip show in their series. The notoriety of this episode has improved science fiction writing by serving as a perfect example of "what never to do".
Very nice.
If I were the writer for this super-bottlesode, I think I'd do a little something similar to the Futurama "300 Dollars" episode in which we get to see snippets of the crew having a "day off".
Setup: The engine or something is acting up and needs to undergo repairs while the ship is in the middle of nowhere. Nothing serious, but it'll take a day. Everyone's gathered in the meeting room (Set 1) and Picard basically tells them to take it easy. I guess Warf can be in the engineering bay because of a small fire or some security reason. He reports remotely.
Almost the entire episode takes place in Ten Forward, and our (the audiences') perspective is via Guinan. It starts off with Picard talking to her about the pressures and routine of their long term military life and reconciling that with their needs for novelty and relationship. He's glad to have a break so everyone can relax.
Throughout the episode we have some of the crew come into TF for various reasons and get to observe snippets of how they're choosing to spend their time. Sometimes Picard and Guinan are interacting with them, other times simply observing. There are many little plots going on, but nothing major and most of them maybe a little silly, looking from the outside. This is the bulk of the episode and the only "plot" is following these little plots.
At some point Picard also is gone and and we're just left with Guinan "obSERVING drinks" and just soaking in the atmosphere, dropping some Guinan wisdom and wit where appropriate (can you tell I love this character?).
Then the crew start to return to TF from their mini-plots and they're all flustered and arguing about how badly they went and the bar becomes very raucous. Picard enters (dressed as a detective of course) and sees the madness, exasperated. He and Guinan exchange glances, Guinan does her great smirk. Just as Picard is about to raise his voice, the hum of the engine fills the ship for a moment and everyone becomes quiet. Geordie reports that the ship is ready to fly again, and Picard commandingly tells everyone to return to their stations and prepare to take off. Everyone, like waking from a dream, forgets their squabbling and returns to routine, immediately restoring order.
Guinan and Picard exchange another glance, and he leaves. (Or Guinan walks up to him and there's a coda [koda?] delivery about the ironic relaxation that comes of steady work.)
Maybe a final scene in the meeting room where everyone talks about their personal experiences, but I can't figure out how to gracefully leave Warf out. Maybe just have him if it's not too expensive/time consuming)
This was a fun exercise! And thanks for another insightful review, Lore
The Drumhead is great example of a really well made bottle show.
For the final of season 2, they should focus on farewell to dr. Pulaski. They even could use the Riker’s injury plot to magnify the differences between her's and Pickard’s judgement on the situation. For the sake of his friend, Pickard could intervene in the decision making, and in result undermine her authority, forcing her to resign. Obviously, they should part on good terms, noticing, they both have very strong personalities and too different approach to a problem, so they just can't work together.
No matter, how do you feel about Pulaski, she deserved better than just disappearing from the show.
Of course this is easy to improve on with 30 years of hindsight and maybe this is only slightly better:
Given this writing challenge, I would have gone with a letters home / personal logs episode. It would focus on universe building and developing characters - maybe building up some of the lesser characters like Chief O'Brian. I would use it to set up changes and threats for the next season, some reflections on Yar's death from a few characters, Picard reflecting on classified intelligence about the Romulans, Riker talking about ambitions, Geordi worried about romance ect. The main conflict is Pulaski talking herself into the realization that she doesn't fit in, peaking with her requesting a transfer, Picard gives a paper thin "we need you here" but once she leaves the room, you know he's happy about it. It's all dialog, very few or no effects. Sets could be mostly ready room and redressed crew quarters, shots are mostly solo and can be setup concurrently in some cases.
P.S. Your videos are great, thanks for putting all this work in.
There's a lot you can do with 3 days, some good actors and a couple sets at most. Duet could have been streamlined down to this and not lost any of the quality because of the outstanding writing and acting.
The biggest time sink on Duet was the Cardassian makeup.
With 3 days? Pick 3 good actors, lock them in a room (maybe 2), give them a dilemma, and just let them act. If you can nail the dialogue and characterisation, that's really all you need. It might seem a weird comparison, but my mind immediately went to "The Box", an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It's a bottle show with incredibly small scope, and yet it's one of the best episodes of the season because it nailed the fundamentals and the actors brought their best.
Maybe instead of just "If we don't find a cure, Riker will die!" *ominous music*, we could spread the infection to the whole ship. Most of the senior staff would be rendered catatonic (we wouldn't really see this), and Data is involved in a hostage situation along with a prominent human ambassador (we would hear Data's voice only). Riker sustained the injury after an away mission to try to save them (this part would be explained in the Captain's log). The disease-thing would be virulent, and Riker was chosen as he was fitter and not completely catatonic. We would also hear Troi trying to negotiate with the hostage takers (who we only hear the voices of. We would also have the added drama of Troi and Pulaski holding off the infection so they can save Riker.
I took your challenge to heart. Here are 6 ideas I had while watching your video. Let’s start with the constraints:
1. Three days to shoot.
2. Three preexisting sets.
3. No/minimal makeup characters.
4. Season Finale worthy.
Here are my ideas:
First: Keep the medical drama, but play the entire episode almost entirely from Pulaski’s perspective. Start in the medbay, she’s in scrubs and pacing nervously. She coms for Picard and asks if she can’t just go to them, but his voice says to wait where she is and be ready. Then Geordi and O’Brien come in with Riker, who’s not visibly injured but clearly out for the count. They heave him onto the biobed, and she starts taking scans. She can’t find anything wrong with him, and doesn’t know why he won’t wake up.
Later she comes into the ready room and explains that all her tests come up negative, and she doesn’t know why or what. Picard says he needs his first officer back up and soon, and vaguely mentions that Data and Worf are already being pushed back from their position. Pulaski cuts him off and says she knows the situation, but that it won’t change the facts. He asks if there’s anything she can think of, and she says that out on the frontier: what they can’t detect is usually more dangerous than what they can. He promises to go back over every mission Riker’s been on since his last physical, or even back to Farpoint Station if needed, and find anything out of the ordinary. Any explanation. Meanwhile he has Pulaski try some less orthodox tests, one’s technology can’t give bad reports on.
Then we have the clips of various Riker missions, but with the theme of him doing things out of the ordinary or on the frontier, with special attention to Q Who and Skin of Evil. I’d make the twist that it’s a trace of Armus, and have Riker facing him (via footage) in his mind towards the end when Pulaski manages to stimulate his brain into working somehow.
2. Have Geordi on a planet and get hit by some energy pulse. His visor goes crazy, and he tears it off and holds his eyes and head in agony. He gets beamed up and Pulaski says his implants have been heated up to the point they’re frying his nerves. She has to operate on him, and during the brain surgery she has to keep him awake and thinking or else he might lose consciousness and she might make a mistake. She curses the fact Data is still on the planet and beyond reach, as she could use his steady hands. She asks Geordi about the year before she came over, and he relays how he was in love with Tasha, and how he got to see once, and little anecdotes of his life which make up the clips. Eventually she gets him fixed up, and the next episode: Geordi has a new, more comfortable visor prop, and one he has to take off periodically to rest his implants while he heals.
3. Picard giving a report at Starfleet Headquarters on Q and the Borg. Just Patrick Stewart, some admits extras with a Vulcan and whatever the president was in STVI, and him trying to get across how dangerous the Borg really are. Throw in an arrogant admiral who just can’t get it through his head, and even berates Picard to his own contradiction. “You allowed 18 people to die?” “You let them beam over?” “You asked for help?”
4. Picard and Riker undergoing a court martial for violations of the Prime Directive. Same as 3, but this time they’re on review for messing up, and have to defend prior episodes where the writing was bad, or else get grilled for it. Even have Data come in as “an unbiased witness” who absolutely curbstomps the Admirals’ criticisms.
5. O’Brien’s typical day. Have a whole episode just in the transporter room with O’Brien. Periodically someone needs a beam-out, or there’s an emergency he gets maybe four percent of the information on, and there’s a maintenance crew he fights with because he has to get his job done during the emergency and they need to run a diagnostic he ran yesterday, and just have fun with O’Brien in his little room.
6. Pulaski gets hurt on an away mission and they don’t have anyone aboard who can save her. Data thinks to upload her consciousness to the holodeck and put her body on intensive life support/cryostasis, so they can get her opinion. She determines she can’t be saved by modern medical technology, and they debate saving her by keeping her in the holodeck. Bring back Moriarty to talk to her about being stored and waiting. Have them discuss her potential life later, as well as being a type of secondary sick back (maybe even plant the EMH idea early). Have it be contained to the holodeck set and the actors discussing. Then have a final shot in the medbay (holodeck) where she says goodbye with whichever choice she makes.
If I had a 3-day shoot with minimal budget, I wouldn't do a clip show at all.
I'd have the enterprise disabled from encountering a space maguffin, and the crew trapped in their quarters while the techies in Engineering fix the ship offscreen. Then have Pulaski and Troi trapped together, telling each other stories from their pasts. Worf and a random vulcan crew member trapped in a turbo lift, butting-heads over cultural differences. And Picard trapped alone in his ready room, recording what he thinks could be his last log entry to the computer, confessing to an old shame or regret that made him what he was.
At the end, Pulaski and Troi have bonded (and the show passes the Bechdell test), Worf and the vulcan have learned to respect each other's viewpoints ... and Picard erases the log entry.
Just human drama, character development, and storytelling without visuals. And maybe it would be the standout classic show of the season :-).
Proposed clip show: Let's say Riker's dad gets killed off-screen, and he goes to Troi's office to talk about things; about his career, about his relationships - especially between him and Troi, about his dad... it scores us points for characterization for Riker if we get his perspective on how he's grown in the last two years...
It'd still be a clip show, but if you've got only 3 days of shooting, make it a character play between Riker & Troi. Add in a scene on the Bridge set for everybody but Worf and Data so they all get their one line up front.
Maybe your third set is Riker's quarters, where he takes hold of a picture of his dad, something his dad gave him.
Possible ending 1: Riker goes back to his quarters, gets his trombone, looks at his dad, plays "Amazing Grace".
Possible ending 2: Riker about to go to Troi's quarters. (Possibly rehearsing something he wants to tell her about how they should be together.) Reaches to push the button. Hesitates. Cut to credits
Though it'd take a good writer to sum up Riker's character arc so far and give a hint of where it's going, it'd be a better episode than this, and I came up with this concept in the 24 minutes of the Lamentation.
Alternate title for this episode: "So It's Come to This: A 'Star Trek' Clip Show."
Re: Riker's leg - I seem to remember there was a possibility of Picard losing an arm after they recovered him from the Borg.
I'd like to posit that every clip show Stargate SG-1 did -- Politics, Disclosure, and Inauguration -- were expertly crafted to make them essential viewing despite their format. I'd even be tempted to show new viewers "Discolsure" to introduce them to the series. Each one accomplished its goal of advancing a very important political plot-line and introducing new characters despite their format. Additionally, I think each one primarily used one set and very few regular characters. Essentially, if you have to have a clip show, take some cues from that show.
Gotta disagree. I hate those clip shows just as much as this one.
I have only just started the video but I am impressed that you managed this length for a clip show.
I saw this was a lamentation I was like....it cant be that bad. It was that bad.
Ok...thought about this a bit. 3 day shoot...one set three actors. Set black room with a spot light. Actor, Jonathan Frakes, Maria Sirtis, and Pulaski Then have him relive his worst memories where all WE get is HIS lines. Starting with his mother's death. In between memories he's aware things are not right and is trying to figure it out what is going on. While he's not lost in a memory we hear soft whispers that we can't quite hear. Each act has a memory, none taking place during his time on the Enterprise. Second memory is when he almost gets kicked out of the Academy, third memory is the first time he refuses to let a captain beam down, fourth memory is Troi where we find out Luxwana was instrumental in his choice to leave Troi. After each memory the whispers get clearer but muffled, still can't hear what they are saying until after the last memory where we hear Troi say fight Imzadi and Pulaski say we are losing him which gives Riker the final clue he needs then he recovers. Anyone who sees this let me know what you think.
The only good use of a clip show would be one after or containing some dramatic revelation that recontextualizes those scenes in some awesome way-- like in Fight Club, the flashbacks after we learn Tyler's secret.
Usually (or probably always) instead it is just "hey, remember this zany scene?"
I feel like this is fairly easy to make work. Make it so inside his own head, he's reliving missions, but more importantly reliving his mistakes and reflecting on them. Maybe one of the memories he tries to change something and fails. So when he wakes up he's relieved and he's like panicking a little bit, but once he actually realizes he's back in the real world he accepts his mistakes and is at peace with himself.
Wow, harsh treatment for the last appearance of beardless Riker before Insurrection.
Congratulations on finishing second season of TNG! Looking forward to new videos!
They didn't even need a planet. It could have been something (exotic cargo)in the cargo bay that harms Riker.
This is a show where it got a negative nielsen rating where people heard about the episode but said that if they ever got a TV they would not watch it.
Here's what I do. Lock the main characters on the bridge and shut the power down. Make a pure character and dialogue driven episode basically a 45 minute black box esque stage play. You have one of the finest Shakespearean actors of all time. Like. Wtf was that crap I just watched.
I think you missed an opportunity to review this episode with your very own Lore clip show 😂
I seem to remember that during an interview Troi's nickname was "feelin shit" lol
All ai could think during this episode was "Why don't they wear biosuits when exploring a new planet they know nothing about?"
I agree with you Lorerunner, the short shooting time does not excuse how bad the script is for this episode. I have always hated this episode because its just bad overall, not just because its a clip show. This one deserved a Lamentation and I am glad it got that status. Nice job pointing out the bad dialogue, good review! I like your story idea of Riker losing his leg and having it replaced with an artificial one, that would have been fantastic. Looking forward to Season 3 where as you say, the show started to get really good.
You forgot to mention that this episode contains previously aired material, unlike TOS: The Menagerie.
Also, I do have an example of an effective clip show - an episode of Night Court called... "Clip Show" (S06E12 & S06E13)
Interesting idea to have Riker ponder whether or not to get the cybernetic leg... But considering his commanding officer has a cybernetic heart, you'd be hard pressed not to make Will look like a bit of a cry baby: "Come now Number One, you have two legs... Get stabbed in the heart by a Nausicaan, then we'll talk!".
Hey Lore, Always love your ruminations! As you said in your Voyager rumination on the episode “The Swarm”, this episode really is 45 minutes of wasted television.
Three days with very little budget? Easy, put riker in a non-responsive state and have everyone try to cover for his job by helping each other. Have pulaski and data handle his technical duties together so they they get a final bit of development. Have warf and Picard handle his personnel duties while showing their own character growth. Have troi and the councillor talk about worst case scenarios and how they can manage with new age tech. Just make it a big character piece. Then have riker get up, and talk with each group as he resumes duties. It's a finale, for Pete's sake. The least they can do and let the characters give one last show of how close they are.
At least the other lamentation worthy episodes are shockingly hilarious like the black "aliens" in Code of Honour, the over the top Irish stereotypes, and Riker clumsily killing his clone without a second thought in that one I can't recall the name of.
It was amazingly obvious that this is a budget episode. It actually took me multiple days to finish this one. It's crazy how Season 2 had so many ups and downs.
This review makes me happy, just for the fact that we get to start diving into the very best of TNG, from now on! 🖖
If I were writing this, I would eliminate the planet set altogether. Just open with, "Captain's log. Cmdr Riker and Lt Cmdr LaForge have beamed down to Cheeseburger 5 to do blah blah blah." Follow up with a scene on the Bridge where the characters briefly exposit why they're there. Then, a call comes in from Riker, "Medical emergency! One to beam directly to sickbay."
This episode deserved a Lamentation.
What you should have done is cut past ruminations together to be fully meta about this episode.ol
I haven’t read all the comments but Fusion, Quacker and Travis have already 3 great and original ideas and I’m sure there are more.
One beloved M*A*S*H episode was in the guise of interviews of the different staff of the 4077th, but the answers were improvised by the actors. How about asking all these talented actors to do something like that? I’m sure there still is “news” in 2370 (we see it in ST:Picard).
I see what you did there with the video icon. ;)
What I would do: I would keep the slide show, but instead of filling with boring false tension, I would do it so Riker has a conversation with a projection of himself, commenting each event and the impact it had on him, and revisiting those emotions and thoughts with hindsight. I would cram as much characterisation for Riker as possible, done in as sensible a manner as possible.
Ps: And I would have other projections appear, conversing with him: First Worf, the knee jerk reaction of anger, longing for action, and finally self discipline. Data, calmly and precisely recounting the recent events and analysing them, followed with a hint of his usual almost unintentionnal wisdom. Then, I'm split: Either Troy, then Pickard, or Pickard, then Troy. The latter would make sense if what matters most to Riker deep down is love, and it would play well with her being the first person he sees when he wakes up. If he is a Career man through and through, then the first, where Pickard helps him reafirm his choices, while still discussig their unavoidable cost.
Beta Cannon Captain Kang is convinced to get his lost arm replaced. He has refused a prosthetic but his father died (less than honourably) and he takes his arm which is not the same length as his own.
Giving Kang the chance bring honour to his father in battle.
Kang is a great warrior and learned to wild a Batleth in his left arm and now is relearning with his new right arm.
The odd crew makes comments until Kang has learned and most of it was just accepting.
Then a crew member who made a quiet remark was dusembowled by Kang with his father's arm. No comments or questions after.
Until Kang adjusted he would have trouble rising from his command station. We use our arms to stand from seated.
Myself, they should have kept the medical emergency like you said. The amputation sure, but I would long play this. For the first part of season 3, Riker is not aboard the Enterprise. Until episode 4, which wouldn't be the one that they have make that episode 8. He comes back still struggling with the cybernetic implant and by the Vengenance Factor have him with a cane when he is back from ep.4 until he has to kill the assassin due to that he knows that if he doesn't do it then this is going to happen. It would make a good story even better by doing this, then by the time Menage a Troi, then he wouldn't need the cane and he is more confident with the implant. And scattered throughout the episodes leading to the Best of Both Worlds I'd have Riker and Troi forge a bound that could possibly be a marriage say towards the end of the next season.
"Ethics" is an episode I really enjoy. I'm always up for a bit of Worf backstory.
Here is what I would do. Right up front, let me acknowledge that I'm going to unashamedly rip-off VOY: "Mortal Coil" here (it's hands-down my favorite episode of VOY and can easily be modified to work here, in my opinion).
Let Riker have a near-death experience and deal with the consequences of it. You would only need three sets (Sickbay, Riker's quarters and maybe a hallway set - all of which they already had built). You could even remove Worf and Data from the episode until the final scene in order to save on make-up costs. I'd even remove Wesley from the episode until the final scene since he wouldn't be essential to the story until then (more on that in a minute).
The episode starts out in Sickbay as Lore suggests, thereby cutting out the necessity for a planet set. You can still have something of a medical drama early in the episode. Only, Riker does in fact "die" only for Pulaski to revive him at the last possible second. Everyone is happy that Riker is okay and Riker puts on a strong face for everyone, but once he's alone it's clear that something is bothering him. Eventually, Troi (being used effectively as a counselor for a freaking change and as something who is obviously close to Riker) confronts him on his surliness and he breaks down and admits that he experienced nothing when he was "dead" and it's freaking him out.
Now, in "Mortal Coil", the dilemma is that Neelix begins to question his faith in the Talaxian religion as a result of his experience. I doubt they could do something like that with Riker, as religion (and certainly any positive depiction of it) was apparently absolutely off-limits here in early TNG (as we will see shortly in a very early season 3 episode). But, religion wouldn't even have to be a factor in what is freaking Riker out. Just have him experience something like existential terror at the thought (now shoved directly in his face) that life just ends and that's that.
Once the revelation is made to Troi, she feels compelled to let everyone know just what is going with Riker, in the hopes that together they can all help him. Over the course of the episode, then, Riker confronts/converses with Picard (as someone he respects), LaForge (as a friend), Pulaski (as a detached scientific observer) and Troi again (as someone who deeply cares for him - both quasi-romantically and on a simple interpersonal level) about these issues.
I'll jettison the whole suicide angle that "Mortal Coil" goes for with Neelix. Instead, the episode ends with the entire main cast (including Worf, Data and Wesley) coming to see Riker in his quarters and letting him know that he does have a lot to live for - that life does have meaning because he has friends (dare I say - family) who care for him. The scene (and episode) end with only Riker and Troi alone again and Riker emotionally breaking down. Seriously, let the man break down into tears, both of fear and joy mixed together. Troi then comforts him by taking him into her arms and hugging him, telling him that it will be okay and that they will help him get through this.
There you go. An episode that is confined to three simple, pre-existing sets, no guest characters what-so-ever, absolutely no special-effects and three main cast members (including the two with costly make-up) only on-screen for a few minutes. You have a serious issue involving the Human Condition to explore (even leaving out the religious aspect) and a chance for both Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis to deliver some good acting.
But, instead, they went with a damn clip-show. Good grief!
0/10
First off, how this episoe is NOT a lamentation for you Lorerunner I have NO idea. But OK, I'll play along. How would I re-write this episode given the llimitations? Easy. Keep the same set up. We already have Troi using her psychofraxis powers to read his thoughts. How about make one small leap, and Troi ends up in Riker's death hallucination. The two of them are walking around an empty ship talking. Then stuff starts going wrong with the ship representing his dying brain. We show that in his death hallucination he is having flashbacks to Tasha's death, and his fight with his dad and all that. Troi has to pull him back by reminding him of the good stuff and she gives him good flash backs. In the end they have to fight heir way across a falling apart ship, make it to the bridge and hit warp speed wihch metaphorically wakes Riker up in real life. Have Riker say he doesn't remember anything just a big blank, so only Troi remembers their psychoflexis adventure against death,
There is one clip show I think is good and that is Politics from Stargate SG-1 season 1. Yes it suffers with the same issue all clip shows do but there is some fantastic acting and it is relevant to the season finale plot.
what I would do is not have a set for most of it at all... have the Med bay and one white room.
have Riker basically die, make it all happen in a room, sometimes white, sometimes dark, but just using the lighting, no set...let us only see Riker as he struggles with his past, hearing the voices of his friends, make it be about Riker accepting dyeing, until he hears Troy, and Loxsana, who is the only other person able to physically exist in his inner Universe thus, make her be able to physically guide him to life through the emptiness...
this would explore Riker & troy as a character & make the statement about what happened to Picard be worse than death mean more.. he having been dead. also, make a talking seen in Med-bay, where Troy is trying to gain the confidence to reach out to Riker, have a Picard speech about reaching out to your inner abilities... how, one would rather accept grief than the risk of failing to bring someone back... have the doctor talk about what it is to loose people, how with all the technology they have, not being able to overcome mortality is still a thing. have it be a character piece about those three, those four people.
damn. 3 lamentations in 2 seasons. thats rough
I'd not make it a clip show and make it about Riker and perhaps his arrogance. Perhaps he'll need to have his leg cut off and he is refusing treatment? Perhaps something similar to Nog? This is a tough spot to be in and 3 days... that's impossible to film a full 44min episode. I'd maybe have a couple of clips here and there to, yes, fill the time slot set by paramount, but I'd make it more of a montage. No dialogue, just the images played over some stock music written earlier in the show (perhaps that amazing music they played when Tasha Yar died). I love your idea of Riker putting on a straight face and the part with Troi. That'd have the potential of being powerful.
I'd have Polanski showing her stubbornness because... she knows she's right (and she is) but also struggling because she has grown to like Riker as a person. It could possibly give her a good note to end on as well saying how, despite their differences, she's gorwn fond of the entire crew, and even they of her.
In the end, I'd make this episode about companionship. The entire episode would be people not only reevaluating their friendship with Riker, but their friendship with each other. Maybe one of them could bring up Tasha Yar, perhaps get a reaction from Data when it is brought up.
What a lazy episode, you're right. I always skip it.
One set: Chief O'brien At Work, the episode.
This episode is the only lamentation I’ll make my friends watch. Why? Because it’s a clip show of a bunch of other bad episodes they skipped like Haven, some good ones, and I get to show them what I mean by “Bad Star Trek.”
If they did a two parter to end the season they could share the budget between the two episodes. In fact, the production crew admitted they wished they did the story arcs in season four of Enterprise much sooner because of how much further the budget could stretch.
Are comments disabled or hidden or something? I can't see anyone else's comments :'(
What book do you use for behind the scenes reference material
If restrictions are that tight, why not pull a Twilight Zone and just have the sick character hallucinate being alone on the ship?
What I'd think about doing if I had to make a low-budget TNG episode at this point in the story:
1. The only sets in use are: The bridge, the battle bridge, and maybe main engineering. We already have those, so that keeps our cost down.
2. Break the "don't tell, show" rule as needed, because we don't have the budget to show.
3. As mentioned, leave out Worf and Data from any new material because of makeup time. Don't mention them as being gone or anything, just don't put them in the script.
4. We're going to have the viewscreens not function properly, so the audience and the characters can't see what's going on, which conveniently eliminates the need to show it. Stuff outside of those 3 sets happens audio-only.
The plot: The Ferengi who were thwarted in the training exercise a few episodes ago intercepted the transmissions Worf used to hack into the Enterprise's system (if necessary to pad out, show the clip of this), and they were able to decode what had happened in the intervening time and pull off a similar maneuver. They lure the Enterprise away from help with a distress call, then simulate threats to the ship that convince Picard to order saucer separation and shut down all but life support systems aboard the saucer, including, critically, communications. The stardrive leaves to chase the non-existent threat, while the Ferengi (unbeknownst to anyone in on the Enterprise) start towing the saucer away. The rest of the show is the stardrive figuring out the threat is fake, returning to where they think the saucer will be and finding nothing, and then having to technobabble a way towards locating the saucer and freeing it from the Ferengi's clutches. For added confusion, make it so characters are stuck where they normally aren't, Pulaski having to manage a console she hasn't handled since basic training, Picard can't leave engineering while Geordi is stuck trying to command the saucer, etc. We set things up so that we never see the Ferengi, we only begin to hear them as the stardrive returns, which conveniently means we don't have to do makeup or even use shooting time to get their scenes in.
Not that Roddenberry was still involved at this point, but I'm sure he would have approved of the idea of everybody hearing about everyone else's sexual escapades. After all, sex is awesome, that's why everybody likes to have it all the time with everybody they meet! That's why Justice was such a great episode! XD
I have to admit, I never even thought of just tearing the episode down and going in a different direction like you did. My thought process was like, ok the script calls for a clip show, I guess I'll do what I can to add to it. I should point out, doing a clip episode never a good idea to begin with, but this early in a show's run is especially dumb. Even with the original script, you're telling me Riker only remembers things from the last 2 years, and that's it?? This is why sitcoms wait until they hit 100 episodes before they do one, so there can at least be some variety and progression of time shown in their highlight reel.
With Grey, I think they missed an opportunity to at least add a little history to Rikers life. I didn't know they had 3 days to film this, so I would scrap the planet. Reference it offscreen. Spend the first day shooting all the sickbay stuff. Episode opens with them helping Riker into sickbay. He can walk on his own, but his foot feels like its falling asleep, that kind of thing.
After all the Sickbay, or present day, scenes were shot, I'd tell Jonathan Frakes to go home and shave his beard. We're gonna shoot some new scenes on pre-season 1 Riker. Fan service stuff Like how Riker met Deanna Troi. Use some stock footage of a foreign planet to show Betazed, and just have Frakes and Sirtis act off each other in a room with sheets or something covering up the fact they're really on the Ten Forward set. Wouldn't have to be a long clip, like 2 minutes. Maybe have a producer's kid come in and play 10 year old Riker and have some stuff with Kyle Riker, and Kyle's being a dick about the karate thing again (or the first time) and the whole thing is shot like a home movie, mostly because maybe it is.
Lastly on day 3, use the battle bridge set to make the bridge of the USS Fill-in-the-blank (later written in as Pegasus) and have an intense scene shot where Ensign Riker defends his Captain from crazed and seditious mutineers (at least how he remembers them at the time) which of course we would learn more about in seasons later. After these major scenes are shot, you can pepper in Season 1 and 2 clips as needed to pad the screen time.
Of course, the Lorerunner's script sounds a lot better than mine. The man is far more imaginative than me, and if nothing else, a robot leg could be a good canon explanation for the Riker Maneuver when he gets in and out of a chair
Keep Riker in Sick Bay and make the episode focus on Polaski and Troy. Polaski can talk medical mumbo jumbo and try to find a solution and Troy can help the most she can and go through the emotional pains of possibly losing Will.
Given that this episode was made in a time before binge watching was a thing I wondered if they could make a new story out of stock footage. For example the external shots of a saucer separation don’t need to be changed.
"That's not how that works!"
The tagline for Trek writers.
We're getting into the Good Star Trek now that this episode is done. No more Lamentations until "Rascals".
I forget, did they beam Riker up into quarantine, because that should be obvious in universe procedure.
Down with clips shows
OMG Troi was useful! Oh, wait. Medical technology is advanced enough for Polaski to determine all of his emotions from scans. (We almost have that now)
Why did Diane Muldrew leave? I've heard she was suppose to return to guest star in that Worf's back episode, was that true?.
Spoilers - Your new leg idea would come up in season 3, "The Survivors" when he's caught in the rope trap and just hanging upside down and "The Watchers" when he has to carry that guy away from the village while Troi distracts everyone.
The point of this episode is not having to watch the bad seasons 1 and 2, so you can begin watching the really good seasons 3+ instead.
I like the idea of having flashbacks to unseen events in the past. Say b/w Troi & Riker or b/w Will & his father. Could be simple set redressing of an office or living quarters all in props & sets existing for the series. Could be set no more than 5 years in the past so uniforms and sets don't need to be created. Maybe a dark room candle lit just two actors with some poignant talk exploring deep ideas and facing the crisis du jour. A seen where Tuvok is ill and visited by Janeway in endgame works too. A few years ahead is just as effective if we in a mental landscape. Some easy digital background for an effect with dark ambient light cheap and effective. The idea that this crisis has him remembering past crisis and imagining a future/hallucinations/visions of a future event where he recalls this crisis as a life changing event. Gain perspective to make? His choice in the present. Pulaski, Picard, Troi, Riker could be all you need besides VO or just quick 2nd unit scenes taking 5 mins of show time as plot filler/narrative device. Bright lit office in past. Dark intimate cabin space for a future. Med lab. Done. If you then maybe have clips added in as reference material sparingly it could be a great study in pathos! Minimal effects. Minimal costs. Maybe be brave leave it on a cliffhanger. Riker telling Pulaski he's made his choice how he wishes to proceed. Results shown in S3. Now that's a possible hook.
I'm surprised this went on for longer than five minutes. I thought there'd be little to talk about given much of this episode is a clip show.
50 shades of grey - star trek edition huehue
You've missed the deeper meaning of this episode. You completely missed the point. This episode is incredible.
So, what do you think of the Stargate: SG-1 clip shows? Would they be an exception?
You should watch the all-time, Inception-esque, anti-clip show, "Paradigms of Human Memory" (a clip show with all-new clips that the audience has never seen before!): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigms_of_Human_Memory
In all sincerity, this was one of my favourite episodes the first time I saw it. I was about 12, so the thinness of the plot didn't stand out to me. We don't have clip shows in the UK (or I've never seen one) so the idea seemed fresh and clever. I still remember my shock when I opened Nemecek's TNG guide and found it being described as awful ...
These days I don't view it with quite the same fondness, but don't hate as much as most do. The clips are well put together, at least.
No more lamentations for quite a while now, I think! Bring on Season 3 ...
Lol, he couldn't manage to get through Season 3 without one more Lamentation. He's almost done with season 6, and I think he's got a grand total of 7 lamentations in this one show (while DS9 only has 3).
Always love your videos, keep up the TNG ruminations... (Im actually avoiding watching more until you have a few out because i use them as watch-companions basically.
Couldn't it be said that this episode was simply a product of its environment? I think season 2 had enough challenges to face, (incorporating Pulaski comes to mind), but the strike by the Writer's Guild that year had lasting repercussions & Shades of Gray was the oozing & festered ulcer which in its failings serves as a low-water mark against which we may measure future offerings. It would be extremely difficult to produce a successful clip show in the first few seasons of a series, as there simply isn't much depth to the characters & not much upon which to draw.
As an example of a fairly good to excellent clip show, I would point to "Citizen Joe" from Stargate SG-1. It is a clip show, but with a twist.
If I had three days to film, I would have the entire episode featuring two (maybe three) characters in a single room, and have the drama played out in a single setting. Maybe they are stuck, waiting for the ship to come get them, or they are on the ship, and the episode deals with a single issue with tons of character development. Babylon 5 was excellent at this-- so it can be done! It would still be an opportunity for character growth and drama and even humor. Maybe even someone got punished and was ordered to stay in their quarters, and they are visited by someone... there are lots of choices, despite the limitations. If the Shades of Grey story had to be kept-- then have Riker fall unconscious, get the same treatment, and instead of flashbacks, we stay in sickbay and develop Deanna and the Doctor's characters. Or have the virus that infected Riker turn out to be sentient, and remove itself voluntarily in the end. Strange new worlds indeed! Keep up the awesome work, Lorerunner!
Clearly this episode was the easy way out - whether it was due to laziness, budget death, strikes, time runout, whatever - just a review of Riker's previous episodes in flashback. And once I realised what it was, a clip show (and now I know there's a name for such a show as this) I saw it as just that, and I wasn't disappointed anymore. I mean, of course I was underwhelmed at the zero originality, but if I changed my mindset and just enjoyed the Riker nostalgia trip, I at least got good memories of better episodes. Doesn't justify the loss of 45 minutes of my life, just trying to salvage something of what is a non-episode episode.
Is it true this was Pulaski's last episode? For all the naysayers about Pulaski, I don't think she was a bad character, just one placed in the wrong place at the wrong time. Replacing Crusher was the problem - Pulaski herself in another role would have been fine, say as a second head doctor in another sickbay. Whatever people think, I think she deserved a better end than this.
To make it better? Goodness. Just don't do this. Cut the clip show. Do another type of bottle show if there's such a lack of time and resources. Or have an extra episode script in the first place in the bag to pull out in case of emergencies. If there's no time and can't afford exotic writing, at least make a basic, relatively boring story, but make it strong, give it space for the actors to fly a bit. Or, as I read somewhere, just cut it out and save the money for something else. Did there have to be that many episodes in one season?
If however it had to be a clip show, then I feel it has to better other clip shows at least. If I remember any others, they at least involved some scenario like a round table of discussion about something, and the clip shows provided the flashback for which the characters would make commentary on, eg say Riker is conscious but struggling with the virus, and Data reminds Riker of a time he encouraged Data when he was stuck. Play clip. Then Riker says something else about it, like thanks Data, but the virus is rather different to a faulty subroutine - that would be marginally better. Marginally.
A step up from that would be using the flashback clips to point out something that everyone might subconsciously be aware of, but still makes them go 'Ah!' when it's pointed out. For example, in The Simpsons a doctor examines Homer after he has an accident and notices that his head his full of little nodules, and asks his family how that is - then comes about thirty short clips of Homer getting whacked in the head by anything from automatic doors, mad monkeys, bowling balls, etc - after that, the family all shrugs and say they have no idea whatsoever. Not that Star Trek TNG would go that silly, but if they point out some secondary aspects of the show so far that people might be unconsciously asking in their own minds it might serve the episode better.
This episode exists so that for every other bad episode you can day "At least they tried"
Hurley's revenge!
Yeah, the music is good, sure
I wouldn't rewrite this episode, I would scrap it and "Peak Performance" and end this season with "The Emissary".
Your friend, Pax, keeps getting stuck with this episode (poor man!) I keep getting stuck with "Too Short A Season"
Riker with those needles so close to his face creeps me out.
"Data! Something's got me!"
Run like hell, Lore. You're caught in Riker's bad dreams.
And didn't we see something similar to this in "Day of the Dove"?
No privacy in TNG, it's annoying to me, too.
I'm not going to miss, Pulaski, at all.
But she deserved a better ending than _this_ piece of crap!
Riker gets a prosthetic leg? It's hard for me to envision that, knowing as much Deep Space 9 as I do.
Rightly deserving of Lamentation status.
And you note book is nearly finished.
That _did_ make me smile!
Thank you, Lore.
On the point on "Clip Shows" I do disagree. I still count the ones you mentioned as clip shows. But then again I prefer the idea that a clip show can be used to great effect and I don't react with disgust every time a clip show comes up.
I always thought this episode was a result of the writers strike that was on going at the time
Was this a Lamentation when you first uploaded it? I didn't remember it being one.
ANY BUDDY!!!!!
For me, The Unconquerable Man is one of the high points of season 3 of Andromeda - whether that means it's not a true clip show, or just reflects the general state of Andromeda over the later seasons, I'm not sure...
Upvoted just for what you did for the title card... lol. Wish they'd done as well with the episode you're discussing. Clip shows are almost always terrible. The only one I can think of that is an exception (that wasn't the Farscape ep) was a Teen Titans Go! ep that skewered the whole concept of the bottle ep/clip show
IS THERE NO END TO THE ATROCITIES MAURICE HURLEY UNLEASHED UPON THE WORLD??????
They spelt 'grey' improperly, that was mistake #1.
Maybe they should have shown clips from season 7 instead 🤔
Well, having rewatched this episode, I have to say it's not as awful as I thought. It's not great, it's not even good, the acting and writing is all pretty terrible, and even the props are bad. But as clip shows go, I'd have to put this one well ahead of the Stargate SG1 one, or any of the ones in the Outer Limits. It didn't feel too much like a bunch of rerun footage; for the most part, the "memories" actually came across as something that would come up in Riker's head while he was struggling with this. Having rewatched this, I'm forced to come to the conclusion that "The Child" is the only really bad episode in Season 2. This one is certainly second-worst, neck-in-neck with "Manhunt", but the fact that it isn't worse than The Child despite being a clip show is pretty impressive.
This was a clip show. I tend not to suffer them. They're typically filler, pure and simple.
I am so glad we are out of the Maurice Hurley era now.
FIRST!
I knew this would be a lamentation!
Nice thumbnail.
This is the worst TNG episode. I recall that when I saw it the first time in 1994, I thought: „Oh they do here, what they sometimes do with cartoon episodes.“
I remember wondering why they made a clipshow this early in the shows run. Well, technically "Firefly" went like "hold my Beer" and make a clip show within their half of a season. And it was really good because they had some really nice weighty character pieces in there. Some of which are newly shot footage because of course the captain remembers things from outside the show's run...
But here we have a clipshow episode without new footage for the memory clips and its all about one character.
You can really see them straining and failing to keep the tone straight. There just isn't enough material for happy and sad.
Now, if the author had given a crap he could've written around that. Have Pulaski trigger some other memories in seeking something that annoys the alien virus thingy. The two emotional states are a bit sparse. Have riker remember other emotions and there might be enough footage to be found...
Oh. This one. I'm sorry, dude. I wish you could have just said, "It's crap" and moved on.