The Golden Age of Star Trek: we had the 6th Season of The Next Generation and the 1st Season of Deep Space Nice on our televisions, Generations on view in our cinemas and First Contact due out soon. This season of TNG contains some excellent stand-alone episodes and several spectacular two-parters, with only the occasional make-weight. Despite the length of time it had already been on the air, it still represents some of the highest standard of television Science Fiction ever broadcast.
When I first watched this episode I was very annoyed at the cavalier way such an interesting character as Cmdr Hutchinson "Call me Hutch" was killed off. This classic "bavard", as the French Captain would call him, was just a harmless chatterbox brought in to give Brent Spiner some delicious comedic moments as Data seeks to master the art of small talk. I didn't particularly like the way the crew rolled their eyes and attempted to avoid him (they are trained in diplomacy, aren't they?) and I especially didn't like the unconcern with which stepped over his hastily covered body when things got serious.
David Spielberg (no relation) was an extremely prolific and versatile actor who breathed life into a part that could have been included merely an excuse for Picard to duck out of the reception and, personally, I thought he deserved better. The writers could at least have left him alive with the possibility of a return. He Passed Beyond the Rim in 2016.
That said, we can now get onto the Picard-does-Die-Hard part of the story. It's OK if you like that sort of thing. Some viewers noticed that the Captain actually killed quite a few people with the pick-them-off-one-by-one method of re-taking control from the hijackers. Patrick Stewart loved it, we're told, but many Trekkers thought it was a genre-busting mistake and that the character of Picard would have been more likely to have come up with a less violent and more cerebral solution.
The villains of this piece are a veritable Who's Who of Science Fiction actors. Redheads Patricia Tallman and Marie Marshall are well known to Babylon Five fans as Lyta Alexander and Private "Dodger" Durman while Tim deZern returns to Star Trek in Deep Space Nine. Tim Russ, despite having been being rejected for a role in the main cast of TNG and then being ignominiously killed off early in this episode, will soon become well known for the part of Tuvok in Voyager. Glen Moreshower (stripy-head) and Alan Altshuld (shoelace-face) are also both Trek veterans
Senior Trekker scores every episode with a five.
When I first watched this episode I was very annoyed at the cavalier way such an interesting character as Cmdr Hutchinson "Call me Hutch" was killed off. This classic "bavard", as the French Captain would call him, was just a harmless chatterbox brought in to give Brent Spiner some delicious comedic moments as Data seeks to master the art of small talk. I didn't particularly like the way the crew rolled their eyes and attempted to avoid him (they are trained in diplomacy, aren't they?) and I especially didn't like the unconcern with which stepped over his hastily covered body when things got serious.
David Spielberg (no relation) was an extremely prolific and versatile actor who breathed life into a part that could have been included merely an excuse for Picard to duck out of the reception and, personally, I thought he deserved better. The writers could at least have left him alive with the possibility of a return. He Passed Beyond the Rim in 2016.
That said, we can now get onto the Picard-does-Die-Hard part of the story. It's OK if you like that sort of thing. Some viewers noticed that the Captain actually killed quite a few people with the pick-them-off-one-by-one method of re-taking control from the hijackers. Patrick Stewart loved it, we're told, but many Trekkers thought it was a genre-busting mistake and that the character of Picard would have been more likely to have come up with a less violent and more cerebral solution.
The villains of this piece are a veritable Who's Who of Science Fiction actors. Redheads Patricia Tallman and Marie Marshall are well known to Babylon Five fans as Lyta Alexander and Private "Dodger" Durman while Tim deZern returns to Star Trek in Deep Space Nine. Tim Russ, despite having been being rejected for a role in the main cast of TNG and then being ignominiously killed off early in this episode, will soon become well known for the part of Tuvok in Voyager. Glen Moreshower (stripy-head) and Alan Altshuld (shoelace-face) are also both Trek veterans
Senior Trekker scores every episode with a five.