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Re: TNG S6: Suspicions

It's a shame really, I think Beverly deserves better Beverly episodes than this. It's such a lazy throwaway script so full of contrivances and plot holes I don't even know where to start. Jammer has already pointed out a lot of them, but...

What is Starfleet procedure when there's an unauthorised shuttle launch? If I were captain or commander, my first reaction would be an instant "tractor beam!". But standard procedure on the Enterprise seems to be to wait until it's too late. It did the same in "Coming of Age" in S1. And returning to the standards of S1 is not something that's going to help any episode.

Again, all the writing throughout the episode is just so bad and lazy and contrived. I feel bad for Gates McFadden that another Beverly-centric episode was just garbage (and that's before she gets to bang a ghost).

Re: TNG S6: Aquiel

I didn't even mind the quality of the episode that much. It's not good, but I've seen worse on TNG. Just a boring subpar episode to sit through in the rewatch and forget about again.

What bothers me is the depiction of Geordi--again. At this time during my rewatch, I'm already tired of him being depicted as a creep/jerk in Geordi-centric episodes. First I thought "here we go again..." but this time it gets even worse.

She's a murder suspect and it's not looking good for her--and Geordi is involved in the investigation (which she knows). She tells him she's scared and asks "do you believe me?", he puts his hands on her cheeks, says "yes I do" and starts kissing her.

Geordi... wtf? He's shown inappropriate behaviour before, but this is on a whole new level. And the episode apparently tries to sell this as a romantic moment. This episode is going to be harder to forget than I hoped.

Re: TNG S6: Time's Arrow, Part II

Count me among those who hated Clemens, I think he's horribly written and even more horribly acted. I wanted to say I found him the most obnoxious guest character since Okona, but scratch that, he's even more insufferable than Okona. Worst TNG guest character at this point (and no, I didn't forget about Lwaxana). His scenes add absolutely nothing, he's just there to be utterly annoying and stretch this to two episodes.

It's a terribly boring 2-parter with a lot of technobabble and nothing of interest happening. Clemens just makes it much worse. You could remove all Clemens scenes and it would have been an ok one-parter worthy of maybe 2.5 stars. The way it is, I give part 1 1.5 stars and part 2 1.0 star.

Also, that supposed comedic relief scene with the hotel owner reading Shakespeare and falling for it... I can't help but think that was as successful at comic relief as Data falling for a Chinese finger trap all the way back in darker times.

Re: TOS S1: The Enemy Within

@Peter G.

Most of the s**t TOS guys get through is from the outside. Rand was assaulted by Kirk.

Most of the assaults on the staff is weird alien stuff. That doesn't necessarily represent real-world assault. Kirk's attempted rape of Janice Rand is a very real-world thing. Why did that need to happen, and why is Rand supposed to put up with comments like that from Spock?

Re: TOS S1: The Enemy Within

I believe we agree on that. Rape isn't going to go away because as horrible as it sounds, that's one part of human nature. We need to contain it, and we've found ways to contain it, but it's not going to go away without replacing humans by androids.

It is our responsibility to keep that crap in check, but if we allow humanity to continue, its dark side will continue as well.

Just saying that we should do better about it than this episode did.

Re: TOS S1: The Enemy Within

Starfleet people have gone through all sorts of crap, yes. But rarely have they gone through the same agony that Janice Rand did. When Janice Rand is subjected to her "treatment", in utter terror while her apparent rapist is standing in front of her, flanked by his senior officials, would it be so much to ask that she'd be taken out of that situation?

I'm just asking for Rand to be safe, to be rescued from that situation. How difficult is it to save her from that situation?

Re: TOS S1: The Enemy Within

Rand flailing around in terror is not evidence enough? The attempted rape would traumatise most people, and the episode doesn't give any incentive to think it wasn't. If Rand was assaulted by Kirk, the episode would have some extreme explaining to do for how that wasn't traumatic, but... it didn't. It didn't even try.

Re: TOS S1: The Enemy Within

"I would just like to point out that the idea that Rand is "severely traumatized" is an interpretation made by you, and not a fact."

Oh, but you are very wrong about that. That is a fact.

Re: TOS S1: The Enemy Within

"Can you accept the premise that most people, good or bad, have dark impulses, and the thing that separates good from bad, is whether they give in to them or not?"

That's about as much as accepting the Earth isn't flat. In "Violations", Picard has this speech about violence being a thing of the past, but I don't buy it. Unless humans have been replaced by androids, rape will still be a thing in 400 years.

Rape is a common result of humanity's worst base instincts, and those base instincts won't go away unless we either replace ourselves with androids, or genetically alter ourselves significantly.

It is our responsibility to contain those instincts. But in any way, first and foremost we have to care for the victims. And that is where The Enemy Within utterly fails.

Re: TOS S1: The Enemy Within

I am alienated by the attempts to rationalise any of this.

First, "evil" Kirk tries to rape Janice Rand. Rand had a high opinion of Kirk, possibly a crush, but now he comes into her quarters and tries to rape her. She's severely traumatised.

Next, she's in that "questioning" session, moving left and right in her chair in terror while the apparent perpetrator and two of his senior staff are standing around her. She's being traumatised again and it's painful to watch and all I'm asking for is that security or anyone else get her out of there. NOW.

Then the episode doubles down again with the scene where reunited Kirk smiles at here in a benevolent "no need to apologise" way. And then it doubles down again with Spock's comment.

All the while, the episode tells us that evil Kirk is a necessary part of Kirk, conveniently forgetting about how that means that rape Kirk is a necessary part of Kirk. Rand is apparently expected to accept that full Kirk isn't who tried to rape her, despite the episode sending the opposite message a few moments earlier. The Kirk who tried to rape her is half of the Kirk who's sitting in front of her now, and she's apparently supposed to forget about that.

That Grace Lee Whitney was sexually assaulted by a Trek executive makes this even more painful to watch, but even without that it's disgraceful.

Meanwhile, "evil" Kirk was shown compassion while Rand's terror was largely ignored. Seriously, how is this not Star Trek being f***ing awful, at least in this episode? What is there to excuse?

Re: TOS S1: The Enemy Within

How it deals with the attempted Janice Rand Rape is so appalling it turns my stomach inside out. Without that this could have been one of the best TOS episodes, but the way it is it's one of the most shameful episodes in the franchise's history, right up there with Code of Honor.

Zero stars.