#I like Timothy rand a normal amount | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

calliecat93 · 3 years

Text

ST: TNG S5 Watchthrough Episodes 10-13

(Trigger Warning: The section covering the episode Violations will be discussing topics such as assault and r***. While I don’t talk in-depth about the subject, it is a part of the episode even if they use the Midn R*** trope and thus will be mentioned. If these topics make you uncomfotable or are triggering to you even int he slightist, then please skip that section of the watchthrough. Thank you.)

New Ground: Alexander and Worf’s adopted mother have returned. Sadly Worf’s adopted parents are just too old at this point to properly care for a young Klingon child, and thus Worf agrees to allow him to stay on the Enterprise. Unfortunately not only is Worf completely unsure how to go about parenting, but… well, children are not always perfect little angels. Alexander is… well, a difficult kid. Worf having no idea how to be a parent certainly doesn’t help either him or his son. He tries, but… well, he tries. It’s perfectly understandable at least to me, why Alexander is like he is. His mother, someone who likely didn’t force him to choose either his human or Klingon heritage, was horribly murdered. Then Alexander finds out who his father is… and he sends him to Earth to live with his parents, who were no doubt loving but just not capable of caring for Alexander. Then Alexander is sent back to the Enterprise and again has to adapt to a new way of life, and his father not only is incapable of caring for him and clearly wants to raise him as a Klingon but is busy with Security duties and is now gonna send him to a Klingon school. And likely Alexander got no proper help with coping with his mother’s death or the various life changes that happened in a relatively short amount of time. I’d probably be more concerned if he wasn’t acting at least a little bratty. I don’t doubt that Worf cares about his son and he is clearly trying. Sending Alexander to his parents and now a Klingon school is probably the best option since he knows that he’s not able to are for him, so he has him sent tot ose who can. But without those proper emotional needs handled, it would cause a variety of emotional problems for Alexander like abandonment, anger, and… well, him lying and getting into fights is pretty expected. I was expecting to not like this episode, but it was alright. Alexander acted how I would expect a kid to act due to those circumstances and he’s never demonized for it. Worf isn’t made outt o be a bad parent, but someone very much out of his element and just not suited for the job at the current time, but he does try and int he end allows Alexander to remain, willing to tr and be the father that Alexander needs. It’s those kind of nuanced stories regarding parenign I wish that we got more of instead of them automatically having to be abusive or incompetent. I guess we’ll see what happens next, but still good eisode. 3/5.

Hero Worship: We essentially have a mish-mash of S2’s Pen Pals (Data saving/befriending a young child) and S3’s The Bonding (said child dealing with enormous grief but hiding it). So a young boy named Timothy has lost everything, including his family, and has been brought onto the Enterprise. To deal with the grief and pain, he decides to emulate Data, who had been the one who’d rescued him. As Data ‘can’t feel things’ (I know, I know, just roll with it), he decides to shut out his emotions and act as though he can’t feel anything. It is kind of cute to see how much Timothy looks up to Data and him dressing similarly and trying to act the same way isn’t surprising to see from a young kid. Normally this kind of plot I’d deem too childish for something like Star Trek, you usually only see this in children’s shows or comedies, but given the circumstances, it makes more sense than it would otherwise. Now I've made it clear how I dislike the whole ‘Data is emotionless’ thing since it's been made pretty clear that despite not expressing it in the quote ‘normal’ way, he does. It’s one thing for Data to believe that he doesn’t, but it feels like the show can’t decide if he does or doens’t. But for the context of this episode, going with this angle does work. timothy, being a kid and having the misconception that Data can’t feel, decide to act the same way in response to coping with the trauma. But of course, Timothy isn’t an android. He can’t live as something that he isn’t. He’s suppressing his trauma. IDK if just letting him keep acting that way as he slowly begins to act more like a child was what most counselors would suggest, but hey it worked. I just feel so bad for the poor kid, he blamed himself for what was a horrible accident, and when the kid finally breaks down… no child should have to ever go through that. Apparently pairing Data with kid characters is just guaranteed to make something good cause his interactions with Timothy were just really sweet, especially when he talks about how he wished he could do things like being able to taste as humans can. As I said, we’ve crossed this ground already and it’s no better or worst than say how The Bonding handled the topic of grief, thought he certainly does it differently. Still, it’s a nice episode. 3/5.

Violations: So… as I mentioned in the Trigger Warning above (if you did not read it, please do so) this is an episode about r***. It’s the Mind R*** variety, but it’s pretty clear what they were intending, so… needless to say, I shall repeat what I said in the Trigger Warning; while I won’t be going too terribly in-depth, if you are uncomfortable with this topic, please skip this part of the watchthrough and go on ahead to The Masterpiece Society. Alright, so now let's discuss the episode. The Enterprise is hosting a group known as Ullians, who are strong telepaths. They are all creepy as heck. Troi gets mentally assaulted, and… well the images that she sees make it very clear what the intention is, and yes, even knowing that it wasn't real did nothing to make it any less uncomfortable. Troi is comatose and while the audience sees who did it, the Enterprise crew has to deduct who the culprit is among the Ullians. So… how did they handle the subject? Well, they sure as Hell handle it WAAAY better than TOS did. I love TOS but if you’ve seen the episode The Enemy Within, while I do like that episode the way that they handled what Evil Kirk did to Rand, the aftermath with them allowing her supposed attacker to get close/in her face (yeah the audience knows it’s Good Kirk but no one else did and even then they should have NEVER allowed that), and a horribly OOC/disgusting remark by Spock towards her at the end makes it utterly rage-inducing to look back at. In comparison, the subject is handled with more tact and they do nothing anywhere near that horrid. However, I want to compare the different visions between the victims. The ones who get attacked are Troi, who I already went over, Riker, and Crusher. While Troi’s goes exactly as you’d expect in an episode covering this topic, Riker’s and Crusher’s visions (crewmen dying and reliving her husband’s death respectively) are very much scary but not portrayed as an actual r*** scene. So… umm… writers WHY did it have to be portrayed as a r*** scene? If we didn’t need that for Riker or Crusher (aka the only other female character), why do that to Troi when there were plenty of other options? Just to hammer the intent in? Which they had to have her go through it three times?! No, we didn’t need that. Troi’s been sexualized a lot throughout the show or given just gross, inappropriate scenairos like the whole prgnancy thing in The Child and Dear God the woman does NOT deserve that. Again, nowhere near as bad as in TOS, but still. Though credit to them, Troi does regain counciousness and is able to fight back against the culrpit when he attacks her again the third time (the second time is a little more complicated) so at least they allowed her that much. It is certainly not the worst thong covering this subject material that I’ve ever seen, not even in this franchise. IDK if the warnings were necessary, but it never hurt to be too careful. The episode was fine, certainly creepy and one I can probably rewatch without getitng angry like with The Enemy Within. But I repeat, quit sexualizing Troi show. The woman deserves a Hell of a lot better. 3/5.

The Masterpiece Society: What is The Masterpiece Society, you may ask? They are a society of flawless, genetically engineered beings. They are engineered to serve specific functions and occupations, such as the scientist Hannah Bates being designed as… well, a scientist. They also terminate the flawed/disabled such as the blind… so needless to say Geordi’s not exactly fond of them. The Enterprise is there because, of course, the colony is about to be destroyed. So… it was okay. I didn’t find it good or bad. It’s kinda how I felt about Transfiguration in S3, I don’t really have any serious issues, I just don’t have a lot to say about it. The only thing I do want to talk about is the ending. So after the Enterprise has resolved the Issue of the Day, Bates fakes another incident to cause an evacuation. Why? Because after encountering The Enterprise, she wants to leave, but her leaving will cause issues due to her role. Nevertheless, she and those who want to leave are allowed… but Picard questions if this is best as it may cause societal collapse., the very thing that the Prime Directive is meant to prevent Ugh… what?! Okay yes, they’d clearly have some issues to work out, but they also saved the colony from getting destroyed. They were saving innocent lives. Certain death is MUCH worst than some societal reconstructing. Yes, problems and conflicts would arise, that shouldn’t be ignored… but the implication that saving their lives from a natural disaster was the worst? I don’t… why did they shove the Prime Directive in at the end like that? Their ‘interference was done only to save the society and those people should be allowed to make choices for themselves, their society shouldn’t dictate their life direction. The comparison is just ridiculous and I was very much on Bates’ side when she made her argument at the end. One scenario is recoverable, the other is not. Otherwise, it was fine. Again, not much else to say. 2.5/5.

So far S5 has been… fine. IDK, S4 was really good and maybe my expectations got raised too high due to it. I’m still enjoying it, but the quality has just been alright. It’s not bad, but doesn’t quite have that oomph from last season or even S3. But we still have half the season to go, so still plenty more to go through.

#st watchthrough

0 notes