I just finished watching this episode for the first time today, as I'm watching TNG through for the first time since I was a child and while it has some interesting moments, it's ultimately a disappointing and very uneven episode...
It feels like the actors shot or rehearsed a lot of scenes that we didn't see and most of the more interesting characters in the holodeck were largely underutilised.
Indeed it's strange that the main characters and overall story didn't establish that the story and World in the holodeck only exists and continues as long as there's a person in there, "playing" though it, giving it a point to exist and continue, like when we play games in real life!
And so pauses when there's no one present to experience it.
But instead, the holodeck's seems to carry on regardless without anyone being present at all!
For example, Picard as Dixon, meets a woman, interacts with her no further, then upon returning, reads in a newspaper that she is dead and he says, "Damn I should have helped her!", when the World didn't give him time to!
The reason for the malfunction then was very silly and arbitrary - instead of a random scan causing the trouble in the holodeck, it would have been better if the "historian" had instead been the engineer who upgraded it and we saw them doing something wrong - then when he got shot, it would have been much better if Doctor Crusher had had to bring him to a 1930's hospital in the holodeck and has to save him with "barbaric and old fashioned " surgery!
Upon which being saved by Doctor Crusher, he should have then had to fix whatever was wrong with the holodeck, rather than it being the crew outside who released them...
While the detective warned Picard not to continue working with the lead mobster, but when they met, much too late in the episode, he acted like they'd never met before!
In particular at the end, when the detective asked "will my wife and kids still exist when you're gone?!" and Captain Picard says, "I really don't know!", it would have been much better if he said "Don't worry, they and you will be fine and you won't even know I was gone!
You'll all be waiting here for when I return for us all to have many more adventures together!"
While the diplomatic mission with the alien species was so brief, it might as well not have been there, to in particular leave more time to flesh out the story happening in the holodeck!
All in, as said, it felt a very incomplete and rushed episode which I wanted much more from and is probably the most disappointing episode I've watched so far 😯😐😀🤘 .
Another rather strange thing was hearing British actor Patrick Stewart, playing a British/French character say Zee instead of Zed, when practicing the alien greeting!
Indeed I know Star Trek is a U. S. based series of films and TV shows, but I'm sure that even in 400 years that Europeans won't be speaking in U. S. English, so European people speaking English within the show should still be using British English!
It feels like the actors shot or rehearsed a lot of scenes that we didn't see and most of the more interesting characters in the holodeck were largely underutilised.
Indeed it's strange that the main characters and overall story didn't establish that the story and World in the holodeck only exists and continues as long as there's a person in there, "playing" though it, giving it a point to exist and continue, like when we play games in real life!
And so pauses when there's no one present to experience it.
But instead, the holodeck's seems to carry on regardless without anyone being present at all!
For example, Picard as Dixon, meets a woman, interacts with her no further, then upon returning, reads in a newspaper that she is dead and he says, "Damn I should have helped her!", when the World didn't give him time to!
The reason for the malfunction then was very silly and arbitrary - instead of a random scan causing the trouble in the holodeck, it would have been better if the "historian" had instead been the engineer who upgraded it and we saw them doing something wrong - then when he got shot, it would have been much better if Doctor Crusher had had to bring him to a 1930's hospital in the holodeck and has to save him with "barbaric and old fashioned " surgery!
Upon which being saved by Doctor Crusher, he should have then had to fix whatever was wrong with the holodeck, rather than it being the crew outside who released them...
While the detective warned Picard not to continue working with the lead mobster, but when they met, much too late in the episode, he acted like they'd never met before!
In particular at the end, when the detective asked "will my wife and kids still exist when you're gone?!" and Captain Picard says, "I really don't know!", it would have been much better if he said "Don't worry, they and you will be fine and you won't even know I was gone!
You'll all be waiting here for when I return for us all to have many more adventures together!"
While the diplomatic mission with the alien species was so brief, it might as well not have been there, to in particular leave more time to flesh out the story happening in the holodeck!
All in, as said, it felt a very incomplete and rushed episode which I wanted much more from and is probably the most disappointing episode I've watched so far 😯😐😀🤘 .
Another rather strange thing was hearing British actor Patrick Stewart, playing a British/French character say Zee instead of Zed, when practicing the alien greeting!
Indeed I know Star Trek is a U. S. based series of films and TV shows, but I'm sure that even in 400 years that Europeans won't be speaking in U. S. English, so European people speaking English within the show should still be using British English!