Thursday, March 29, 2012

Those Damned Ferengi!


Episode Six of Season One


First Notes:

A good scientist knows that, when a hypothesis is going really, really well, something must be off. This episode played perfectly into my scheme of nine major plot points. This leads me to believe a few things:

1. My scheme is well designed for these first episodes, however we must still be in the exposition of the series
2. Perhaps the points are too broad and thus, need to be whittled down to a smaller spectrum with stricter requirements
3.All of these episodes may be by the same author, and though that should not account for everything, it could account for the use of a similar formula in the construction of these episodes.

I truely know that this formula will need amendments or will fail. However it works for now. I don't like the idea of quoting future episodes from memory to destroy my analysis because, well, the memory is a tricky thing. So for now i will leave it alone. However i am taking the success of the 9 points of these episodes with a grain of salt.

Other Notes: We are surely in expository episodes. More allusions in this episode to Riker's American Cowboy history, Picard's french background, and Data's encyclopedia traits. We don't know these characters yet, but we are learning. Geordi officially takes the role of chief of engineering in this episode (though he still wears red).


The Meat:

1. Exploration and Necessity: They meet the Ferengie for two reasons. One is a power converter they removed from Gamma Tari Four, the second is that they know little about the Ferengi and want the encounter.

2. Alien Meet Up: This is an easy fit. It is strange because they don't actually meet the Ferengi face to face until they are on the planet. However they view their ship and are interaction with them regardless.


3. Crew Endangerment: They are having a power drain because of them trying to break free from the forcefield that the ship supposedly puts on them. They need to get away or they will lose power? This is weird because it makes it seem like the ship runs on an alternator, like a car, and without movement they lose power. Also the files of the Enterprise seem to be rifled through.

4. Rules and Regulations: Picard contemplates attacking the Ferengi to break free however Troi says that they should use diplomacy instead. This is a small part but it fits the scheme. Usually in the Rules and Regulations stage they wil
l choose the non violent option to lead to Crisis Navigation.

5. Crisis Navigation: They try speaking with the Ferengi and realize their ship is immobilized as well. They find that the planet poses a mystery and try to cooperate with the Ferengi to investigate the mystery. The Ferengi resist which leads to...

6.Reasoning: Through Picard's skill of negotiations they have the Ferengi agree to beam three science team members down to the planet. Riker beams down with all the important officers.

7. Necessary Problem: This is a compound function of the story , perhaps the most sustained. The Ferengi are hostile, but then The Guardian of the outpost is also hostile. The Guardian of the Tkon wants to destroy them both.

8. Trickery: "Deception is the way of the Human" -Ferengi officer. I know, right. What a quote. Riker having some sort of strange preternatural instinct does not lie to the Tkon Guardian, but instead stays honest, perhaps this is more about his character. Meanwhile he lets the Ferengi say whatever they want without stopping them. As the Ferengi dig themselves deeper we realize the Gaurdian is telepathic. Thus he finds Riker
agreeable and the Ferengi barbaric.

9. Peaceful Beneficial Resolution: The Guardian says "Normally i would have destroyed all of you and your ships" but he likes Riker and asks h
im "Should i destroy them (The Ferengi)". Riker like a good boyscout says "No, then they would learn nothing". Very belittling of the Ferengi but in the end the most peaceful of resolutions. The only "bad" thing they do is send the Chinese fingercuffs over to the Ferengi ship; the galactic equivalent of ordering a pizza with anchovies to someones house.

Frighteningly this episode fits the rubric. The Functions work like clock work. I was very suspicious of them as well but they fell in line. Perhaps there are more functions i could add but at the rate of these functions it seems that a major plot event occurs about once every five minutes. That seems about right. So far the episodes are rather formulaic. I suppose that is to be expected from many shows. But as the story becomes more complex, and the characters have more of their own episodes, the set of functions will have to change.


Funny Items:

Poor Worf is turned down in ideas about two to three times this episode including him saying "For battle come to me!" Riker, of course, shoots him down.

The Ferengi's M.O. is to use whips, have their women naked, attack first and make up a profitable story later, and do everything for profit. A whole race of Gordon Geckos. Donald Trump made alien (except the Ferenegi have no hair)

The ship magically has a power drain. This never happens. What a weak plot device.

Picard suggest that Wesley Crusher die like a man, without a sedative, further proving that the only thing keeping him from shacking with Bev is the damnable Will Wheaton.

Data, capable of insane amounts of knowledge about human history, slang, and behaviors (not to mention crazy science) gets tuck in a Chinese finger trap. Why didn't they try these on the Borg huh?

Alright, that is it. Thank you for reading. Will keep updating. See you in the episode "Where No One Has Gone Before"

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Code Of Honor

I wonder what Edward Said would say about this?

Code of Honor is, at first, an offensive blunder that tries to recapture the glorious decade of sixties racial tolerance as it related to the Kirk series. We are made aware of the aliens being close to human. However the monotone color to offset them from the crew as well as garb reminiscent of a movie about the middle east from the fifties does not lend itself well to a series that tries to set itself up as more cerebral. Indeed this episode is full of poor written dialog. ponderous acting, and offensive overtones that mix Eddie Murphie's Coming to America with the Flash Gordon movie from the early eighties. However, this is not important to me, because i am not reviewing the episode, but analysing it structurally.

So here is how the main plot sequences play out.

1. Exploration and Necessity: Vaccine for a plague on a Federation Planet
2. Alien Meet Up: Meeting Lu-tan
3. Crew Endangerment: Tasha Yar taken
4. Rules and Regulations: Prime directive forces Picard to play by their rules (code of honor)
5. Crises Navigation: Explore the alien threat, goes to planet to meet with Lu0tan
6.Reasoning: Politely tries to get Yar back
7.Necessary Problem: Yar needs to fight to the death
8. Trickery: Scheme gets Yar back and punishes Lu-tan
9. Peaceful Beneficial Resolution: Taking Lu-tan out of power the Enterprise gets what it needs and moves on.

There are nine main plot structure points. The show blunders through hues and shades of bad writing to deepen and round out the characters but, for our purposes in this plot analysis, there are nine. The goal of these nine (of which perhaps more will show) is to create a basis for a structural analysis of the show by trying to see how these plot points change throughout the series and from episode to episode. This model is based partly on Vladamir Propp's model he used on Fairytales (Props to Propp yo).

So lets see how this all plays out. Lets compare the structure of this episode to the one we just watched, "The Naked Now"

1.Exploration and Necessity: Exploring the star that a science craft from Starfleet was exploring they need to solve the mystery of deaths and actions.

This function fits, there is exploring and necessity. Certainly this is a vague plot point but, it is one necessary to the series. Necessity can be described as any condition that requires direct Enterprise involvment.

2. Alien Meet Up: An unknown virus infects the ship

Is that a stretch? I don't think so. Alien can mean anything foreign and, certainly, the virus is foreign. It is made apparent to us that the virus is very foreign later in the episode when the original cure doesn't work.

3. Crew Endangerment: Virus spreads and causes the crew to act irrationally, leading up to Wesley messing up the engine room.

Many times, in many episodes it is the whole of the ship that is endangered, but, for this function, it is if any of the crew is endangered.

4. Rules and Regulations: This is one that perhaps does not apply to this episode and since no direct part of the episode flashes to mind i will not try to stretch.

The rules and regulations function is one that usually serves to show how and why the enterprise cannot take an easy way out. Usually they are stuck to diplomacy or to some aspect of Starfleet that will not let them take an easy out.

5. Crisis Navigation: Riker tries to find out the mysterious disease. Beverly Crushser searches for a cure. Engineers look for a way into Main Engineering.

Navigation of crew endangerment can be something such as gathering facts, reconnaissance, or the beginnings of solving a problem.

6. Reasoning: Picard tries to talk to Wesley to get control back. The old cure is used on Geordi.

Reasoning is the part when solutions are tried and fail. The failure of the reasoning function is what leads to the necessity of trickery. Reasoning can work, but usually doesn't because it is the obvious answer.

7. Necessary Problem: The star explodes and threatens to destroy the Enterprise.

The Necessary Problem is one that adds tension and makes the original problem presented in crew endangerment more prodominant. This function makes it so that the problem must be solved or we risk permanent consequences.

8. Trickery: Despite Wesley they get access to main engineering and try to manually take control back.

Trickery is necessary because Reasoning fails. This is when the crew's intellect is showcased and usually some miraculous way is provided to escape crew endangerment.

9. Peaceful Beneficial Resolution: Wesley, who cause much of the problems, solves them and shows his worth as a young man. Furthermore Data shows capabilities.

The PBR (wow i didn't even realize that, awesome) is one that, not only solves the episodes issues, but provides some sort of benifical respons. In "Code of Honor" it is the vaccine and peace with the alien species, in "The Naked Now" it is Wesley's reputation that gets a boost. It closes the episode and provides closure as well.


So what did Lu-tan show us? He showed us that, though there is a lot of smoke screen action in these episodes there may also be a underlying deep structure that we can analyze. I will look at all the episodes after this with this structure in mind, and will analyze them accordingly as well. Since we won't have to go through the functions again, i can analyze other aspects in a fuller capacity. Also it should be know that these functions will be flexible. They will grow and maybe change and become more concise as i go through the episodes and see more of the deep structure of STNG.

Thanks for reading.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

The Naked Now


The Naked Now
Well here we are, in the episode "The Naked Now". Firstly, it is directly a sequel of the "Naked Time" in the original Trek. As fun as it would be to compare the two, including the iconic Sulu sword fighting scenes, that will not be happening. There is plenty enough in this episode to help us understand where the series starts, and how much it will grow throughout it's seasons.

This episode, by far, is one that is introducing an older story arc from a different season just to flesh out the characters. Yes it seems cool, and yes it ties us in with the original series but, despite that that may be the intent, it is not the effect. The effect, rather, is a setting up of certain characters with faults and skills and to basically do a show and tell of how this new Enterprise works. So, since i have said the analysis here rests on characters, and perhaps their structural functions, lets list and examine.

Data

So here we have Data. A fresh new character and, besides Worf (this is debatable but shut up) the only one of his type within the entirety of the franchise (as it comes out chronologically here in the 80's). Besides the constant and annoying reminders we are given that he is an android (such as grammar corrections and references) we are also given that he is in "perfect health" by the doctor.

Yet Data has limitations. The problem with this young series is that the writers don't quite know those limitations yet, as we can see in this episode. On one hand Riker says to Data that looking up records of an incident similar to the one on the Tsiolkovsky ( a pioneer in astronautic theory as well as a rocket scientist, thanks Wikipedia) "ought to be easy for someone written up in bio-mechanical texts". And it should shouldn't it. In fact Data is a thinking machine and he is reading the screen at many times the speed of any normal human. So why couldn't they find the files sooner? If i asked you, dear internet reader, to look up incidents of people showering with their cloths on aboard a ship, you would find things rather quickly using Google or Yahoo or whatever. But Data, a thinking machine, a intellectual and physical giant, using a computer also so advanced its beyond our comprehension, cannot find this information in a quicker than timely fashion. Boo.

What this illustrates is that Data's abilities are a plot device to the max. His abilities and limitations often will form plots or be used to make plots go forward. This happens again at the end of the episode when Data will not be able to put the iso-linear chips in quickly enough. Data is, follow me here, able to be plugging these complicated chips in at a crazy speed, but also, at the same time, able to calculate with limited information the chunk of star that will come and destroy the ship? give me a break that this robot couldn't find an instance of showering in clothing with the aid of possibly two search engines in enough time to recognize what was going on. Down to the core, Data does grow as a character, but he is essentially a tool for plot. His abilities will falter where plot seeks another character to come forward, and will be amazing when he solves the problems.

Also, sex with Yar and human emotions while under the influence of a disease that effects water molecules (despite Data's "if you prick me do i not bleed" crap i don't really think he would be effected by this disease)? Give me a break.

Wesley Crusher
This little shit is just a plot device. He creates two devices. A portable tractor beam and a recording device the equivalent of spy gear from the 90's. Both that allow him to bring the ship into jeopardy.

First, he has the ship's assistant chief engineer ask him how he made a force field...

Really?
Realllllllly? Are you saying to me that, a person, who is the assistant chief engineer, on the flagship of an intergalactic federation of planets that has its own academy that is super hard to get in to and weeds out people using stress tests that are the equivilant of the BAR with a gun pointed at your head, doesn't know how to make a simple portable force field?!?!?!

I give up.

Or that, the whole ship of geniuses, even under the influence of a disease mimicking "alcohol" (more like ecstasy in the episode if you ask me) can't find a way around one force field. Or that there aren't fail safes?

Basically ridiculous. And Wes Crusher only gets more ridiculous but that can wait.

Riker

Now i know some people don't really like Riker, i say poo on them. Many people have told me he is a a failure as a playboy and doesn't live up to the shadow of Kirk. Well you are right, but Riker is not like that. In fact this episode gives the best account of character in Riker. He shows that he is resourceful, intelligent and strong in willpower.

Riker knows what needs to be done to save the ship and he does it. He is constantly trying to fix the problem and, if the disease is indeed like alcohol, the man holds his liquor damn well.

This episode sets up Riker as heroic and capable. He cares more about the ship. Also their is a moment of character between him and Dianna, which goes on through the whole series. Basically this is the one character who gains depth through this episode, without the scathing idiocies of reducing his attributes to simple plot functions.

Picard and Bev CrusherI won't lie, at this point i am running out of steam when it comes to the analysis of the characters as presented by this episode. But we need to analyze these two.

Picard: He is Picard, the same Picard he was at Farpoint, serious, intelligent, and strong. We do see a bit of him drunk and acting like a boy, a boy, not a drunk man but a boy, when talking to Crusher but that is about it. He is stern with Wesley the way through, and as serious as ever.

Bev: She is a strong female character for this show. She is not as cheesy as Dianna and seems to have more agency. Though she wants to put it down on Picard in a hard way, she does come up with the solution to the problem. Also we see her relationship with the captain goes deeper than expected. She, like Riker, is show with good poise. She controls herself (even though she makes sexual advances but hey, the women hasn't gotten any since her husband died, i can't blame her). This is funny though:

"Of course we don't have time for that sort of thing"
"What sort of thing?"
"Oh god would i love to show you"

I don't think Picard would say no, no lie. Also right after this exchange he makes some sort of weird throat clearing sound and becomes suddenly infected by the disease. Worf tells Riker the captain is infected and well, the show goes on.

Summary:
Basically this is a bad episode. It is one where the plot is very easy to determine and is mostly pushed forward by the inadequacies of the crew. It doesn't paint anyone but Riker and the minimal Worf in a good light. It shows that, despite the vast dominions of enemies the Enterprise will face, a boy with science fair projects could defeat them. We can hope to get better focuses on character later, but we will have to see.