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Episode
240
Timescape
A rift in the space-time continuum freezes the Enterprise and a Romulan warbird in battle… or so it looks to Picard, Data, Troi and LaForge from the outside. When they dig a little deeper, they find all that timey-wimey stuff may not be exactly as it seems. Plus, the Enterprise blows up real good. Timescape goes into the Mission Log.
“Imperial Battleship, halt the flow of time!” — You guys watch WAY too much sci-fi! https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=imperial+battleship+halt+the+flow+of+time&view=detail&mid=271ADB2C4B3383840902271ADB2C4B3383840902&FORM=VIRE Too bad TNG never had the budget to get The Hoff and plastic pants. Ah well…
Surely the Hofflessness and plastic-pantslessness (not to be confused with ordinary pantslessness, which is fine) are two of TNG’s more consistently laudable qualities.
I was bothered by Riker throwing the phaser to Dr. Crusher, too…I retconned it by reasoning that Riker probably took a quick look to make sure the phaser wasn’t charged and was therefore safe to toss around.
I realized towards the end of your discussion that this episode has similarities to the one where Geordi and Ro are out of phase and travel back and forth to a Romulan ship, and we discover that some of the Romulans are out of phase too, and can see them… I think that’s why the viewer is alarmed seeing that the aliens who appear to be Romulans are not stuck in time; it makes you think of that previous moment.
Love that you made a Starcrash reference. Makes me proud in an odd way. As for the episode, it’s pretty solid, certainly one of the better season 6 eps.
sigh….potential but…the unseen space critters trope, just got a little old. “Home Soil”, “Evolution”, “The Loss”…..assuming the shape of a Romulan? Convenient. The “Romulans” who were unaffected also reminded me of “The Next Phase”.
Finally, we can all thank this episode for bringing us this meme.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/24794e94be91bd5f17704b2f38d15acc39dc32ab2807e6ea6a9a4e6d1372d7a6.jpg
That being said, it was all executed really well. One point – do I remember correctly that the ship was originally supposed to be the Captain’s Yacht, but reusing the Runabout set was more economical than a new model and new sets?
First off…looking at the schedule of upcoming shows, it’s really hitting me that we’re almost done with TNG. I remember Farpoint like it was just yesterday.
I like the “situation/enemy/etc. is not what you think it is” strand running through the story, though I wonder if they should’ve lampshaded it for the audience a bit more just to remind them that there was more to it than wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey.
Ahhh crap…temporal anomalies hit my post. Um…just roll with it.
looks like she had a stroke….ahhhh this was her imitating and winking….not sure what the caption means?
Has one series ever utilized the ‘Captain’s Yach’? Seems lazy. I mean all those shots of Voyager underneath and never one story with it?
Your discussion about Deanna getting hit on and Geordi’s response is pretty funny, from a woman’s point of view. Welcome to our world! It really doesn’t matter if we look like a bag of moldy bricks covered in oozing gunk from under the bathroom sink or if we’ve dolled ourselves up a bit to hit the bar at a conference (or just leave the hotel room to attend the conference that morning). Some jerk is going to act like he’s God’s gift, hit on us, probably won’t succeed, and we’ll go back and tell our friends. We’ll have the exact conversation that happens in the episode, and no matter how creepy the guy was that hit on us was, one of our friends is going to go, “Oh, him? Yeah, he is actually…” Not because they actually know about him, or heard of him, it seems like it’s almost a reflexive defense mechanism. I’m glad it made you uncomfortable. After a number of years, and after a number of more blatant attempts than Deanna’s dude, I, and many of my female friends, have just gotten used to it. It’s more of a mental gauge of “Is he just being handsy, or is he rapey as well? How careful do I need to be?” Not, “Should I be careful?” Geordi isn’t really being creepy, he’s being absolutely normal for his character, as is Picard, and as is Data. Granted, the conversation would have gone a little differently with Beverly around.
“Is he just being handsy, or is he rapey as well? How careful do I need to be?”
What is generally called “handsy” for men doing to women is far less than what almost all women do in general to men and women so…
As far as “or is he rapey” That you would think that is really a pretty terribvle and bigoted view on men. It’s like going around and saying “is that black guy just shopping or is he stealing things?” or “is that muslim guy driving a van just going to work or are they about to go do a terrorist attack”… It’s actually a bit worse simply because based on statistics considering the percentage of men who participate in such behaviors is far smaller than the percentage of blacks that steal or muslims that commit terrorist attacks.
Durakken, this will seem like I’m picking on you, but I’m not trying to. I’m just long-winded, so for that, I apologize. Having said that:
I can only speak to my own experience. A lot of men I meet are genuinely interesting, sensitive, considerate, and…genuine. A bunch of them aren’t. Getting hit on like Deanna was has happened to me and almost all of the women I know, and it usually isn’t traumatic, it’s just annoying, and in the best of circumstances, hilarious.
To be frank, and hopefully not insulting in any way, you guys are guys. Your interior alarms go off for entirely different–and legitimate–reasons than ours do. Most of the men that have harmed me have been white middle class men. At lot of the men that have been kind to me have been white men. Same goes for women.
It’s gratifying to hear John and Ken mention that it made them uncomfortable because for a woman getting the pick-up line that Deanna got, it’s not just a matter of, “No thanks, I’m busy,” and the guy leaves us alone. When that happens, it’s great. Stress goes way down. However, that’s usually the rare Hollywood version. When it doesn’t happen and he persists, we have to run through our various tactics of getting away from the guy who is making us uncomfortable, and our lizard brains are in high gear. (There is a shining good reason why we try to travel in packs.)
Look, I’ve been assaulted a few times (not raped, fortunately) and when the guy that I’ve said “no” to several times manages to force his way into my car, yeah, that’s really going to turn me off. When a guy who sees me ordering a drink at a bar, grabs my arm and says, “Hi, I’m from Iowa!” and immediate sticks his tongue down my throat, it doesn’t sully my view of Iowans, it sullies my view of leaving my house and spending time with friends. When I’m standing in line at Safeway and the guy behind me finds an excuse to rub himself against my backside “because the line was getting crowded”, (it wasn’t) I start wondering if I need food to survive.
When I got a flat tire and two guys pulled over to help me change said tire and then went on their merry way, what was a crappy day turned into an awesome day and I was grateful for their help and kindness. Fortunately, I have more experiences of people being kind than being jerks, but it’s the jerks that we remember.
I’m really not trying to pick on men of any particular color, but we women have to be aware of the very near and present dangers of jerks. They are much more of a liability to us than any terrorist.
You can tell yourself that all day, but that’s simply not true. Not only is it not true of the “women have to worry more about men in general than terrorists” it’s not true that “women have to worry more about men than men have to worry about women”.
The actions you talked about are inexcusable, but you’re talking about “this made me uncomfortable,” and when you put it in that context and realize a lot of that is those actions are coming from men wanting to have a relationship, having to make the first move, having to make an impression, and generally speaking that is a highly uncomfortable position to be in, even for the suavest of people, then your “this made me uncomfortable” doesn’t hold much water as all parties are uncomfortable. The social dynamics make it that way, especially in places which are for socializing and picking up someone which are what clubs and bars are for.
And again, as I pointed out, women are no better, in fact they are quite a bit worse about this, because they generally view it as “men like to be touched” and women are generally more touchy with each other as well so the average woma tends to think it is perectly alright to, kiss, rub, hang on to, grope any guy that they wish to seduce. Which is not only the same level of “uncomfortableness” but then you add in the social positions of if the guy rejects the woman, other men will likely taunt him, if the woman is persistant and he tries to get away other guys will view that as aggressive and come to attack him, and if she quite malicious she can claim all sorts of things that can ruin his life without a hint of it being true. That’s not likely to happen due to women generally don’t pick up men and most women, like most men aren’t psychotic, but we’re comparing like with like.
So when you’re talking about discomfort and complaing about someone “being handsy” and then being like “oh that’s just how men are” that’s just factually wrong.
———
And then I watch the scene… And I realize holy crap these people have just projected their own weird thinking into the show believing something was said that wasn’t..Deanna says nothing about “handsy”. She only says “this guy walked up to me” and then says what he said which is introducing himself and using a cheesy pickup line based on that introduction which might have even been said in gest. She doesn’t even say it made her uncomfortable, even in body language… So you guys are just projecting all over this scene…
But, funny thing is, if you want to see “handsiness” you can just step back to the first scene with Riker and Crusher. Crusher has her hands on Riker. Most guys would ever do that to another guy, very few guys would do that to a woman, and no male doctor would ever do that to a female patient, but here we see Crusher doing it to Riker and then you guys projecting such behavior into the story the Deanna is telling when it isn’t insinuated anywhere v.v
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Also I have to point out now that the scene sorta made Deanna sound like an airhead when she’s like “I fell asleep” while the other 3 are talking about stories about what they were up to…
I’d have to rewatch the intro scene if Crusher touched Riker inappropriately…lol. we medical people can touch as a way of showing compassion and being there…therapeutic. I agree the way of the world is men have to go out there and make their fortune, opportunity, chances to have luck w women. Women, can sit, chill, maybe drop a few hints …some women of course are more aggressive which can be awesome ! lol. Such a funny seemingly minor part in the story, but I guess this episode analysis really gets us to analyze!
I don’t think that how Crusher touched Riker is inappropriate, whether male or female, but I do think if a male placed his hands where hers were on a female then there would be a high chance of it being called inappropriate.
I just thought it was interesting that the situation occured where Crusher was touching Riker in a way that plenty of people would call “handsy” if a male was doing it to a woman right before a scene that people are projecting a guy being handsy when it’s never even implied by the dialog or acting.
Yeah, I think some men can be scum bags, sorry for those jerk encounters. Yeah, I think for bad behavior, vandalism, theft, groping, we need to bring back whipping..ugh…thinking of “Starship Troopers”. anyway, yeah, a few bad apples can make the whole basket smell like crap….
As a guy, who took a chance…many times…I always felt women never really appreciated how much effort and courage it took to approach and try and get a girls number etc… I think some women were too guarded when it came to a dance, but hey that’s the way of the world. I also hoped sometimes women would be flattered at least, oh well…..I think the scene in the runabout seemed a bit forced. It’s funny to have success w random women, you start to wonder..wow! All I had to do was ask and get the ball rolling and look what happened!- Choose Your Own Adventure type thinking really opened up the world…
I think the thing with Troi being “stronger” in later episodes is that it’s largely due to perception and the character just growing. In the earlier episodes she is strong as well, but she is dealing with direct emotional issues which changes the type of response that can be considered “strong”. I recall her breaking down once or twice, but so has Geordi, Riker, Picard, and even Data. I don’t recall Worf nor Crusher breaking down, however Worf’s actions through out the series, while it can be said that there many times he is strong, there are quite a few times where you can see that he is a fairly weak character and Troi is the one that he relies on in a lot of those situations.
I think what did change more so than her being strong is that in the early episodes she was put into the scared “victim role” in situations that are generally only allowed to be experienced in tv shows by women. ie. There are a few episodes (which is a lot in the context of ST:TNG) where the story is “Troi is raped” but raped is changed to magically impregnated, psychically exploited, had her youth stolen, etc. Middling episodes she is dealing with “typical mother drama” and her behavior is that of frustration, not of weakness. But these two types of story we associate with “weakness” so when she stops being given these episodes and is instead given several “Anyman” stories she appears stronger, because everyman stories generally revolve around stoic characters or characters that will overcome the situation through their own actions, rather than failing or having someone/thing else save them… both of which tend to make the character appear weak… unless you’re Worf demanding to be let him commit suicide rather than get medical treatment….
as a military medical person, I think her role in “Disaster” was great. It highlighted how there is technically proficient vs tactically proficient, which is what Troi lacked. I really think the uniform change made her appear more professional and her low cut stuff was more eye candy. I still think the tactical uses of Crusher and Troi seemed a bit far fetched…but ennnh, they were on the last season…..I am sure there was a “what the hell”…
So inconsequential, but OJ Simpson was famous for running, not throwing.
I thought he was famous for stabbing…
“Now” he is. I used “was” in the in the past imperfect sense.
Fame is a good thing. Infamy is the bad version.
Technically…
He’s famous for rushing yards.
He’s infamous for stabbing people and running from the cops.
Both are present tense ^.^
Just an aside- the more people refer to Star Trek Discovery as ‘the Disco’ the more it makes me not interested.
Discovery does seem generic to me… it seems lazy as a title in a strange sense, to me anyway.
I mean, The Next Generation sounds more exciting. It was a great natural title for a first sequel series to Star Trek.
Troi really took the lead in this episode. Who knew she was so technical.
Good thing Data did not want to try the “early bird gets the first worm” phrase. That would mean replicated worms and birds that would go the same way as the puppies.
As the guys mention she had an episode where she was not being victimized and actually had a lot to contribute.
I heard she really has an inexplicable interest in meta-phasic shield technology.
Like most councilors do
Did or did not the time-aliens want to stop the energy flow from the Enterprise? Because the female time-alien jumps Data when he is in the process of stopping the flow. It didn’t make sense to me.
Did someone say meme? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a32f04cac71b831824230270e0cc01b798c0eb0bc37396139d746c8c980bed33.png
Some great TNG moments in this one, that I’d forgotten about… the folksy table conversation (what’s up with the 4 berths, would like to see one of them leap up to the top row?). Just when I think it’s going to be a Riker ep, he’s abandoned for the others, even a noteworhty moment for Spot!
I didn’t believe Sitris for a minute. She should have said “and when he winked me pulled out my phaser and gave him a good stun. I knew what he was thinking.”
There is less to this episode than appears. No one learns anything about anyone or anything, really. The message ‘things aren’t what they seem’ could be just the writer trying to lead you in one direction so he can do a twist.
And there is mystery, but it is all just solved by techno-babble.
It makes the “Flash Gordon” mistake of relying on the climax of each part being the science fiction itself, rather than what characters are learning about themselves or society.
But there some really weird scenes – like Picard’s imitation of the lecturer being really too damn good. And Trois imitation being , well, not quite as good maybe. And the smiley face.
I don’t know how people write the great episodes like Tapestry and the Inner Light, and so when you get these lesser episodes I have sympathy and bide my time.
I don’t like this episode. I think all those time travel things don’t make any sense. I mean the shuttle is flying arround the ships and is no affected by the time passing with different speed