We’re almost halfway through the third season of TNG, and it’s time to realize something: the show can have a “meh” episode that’s still pretty good, as “The Hunted” proves. Later, in “The High Ground”, TNG does space Ireland again, but this time, they don’t blow it. Crap. Bad choice of words.
Stoek
-Hey guys.
I watched both of this weeks episodes before your podcast and then rewatched them afterwards. Several times actually. Some great comments regarding both episodes by yourselves. Largely I am in agreement, especially about the ability of TNG to do episodes that even when not as brilliant as The Defector are still pretty damned awesome. I have a small difference of opinion, and some thoughts about The Hunted, and a small non-difference of opinion and some thoughts about The High Ground. So without further ado…
The Hunted.
Eric, you made a couple of comments that I wanted to respond to. First you had wondered why people who were largely much too young to have served in Vietnam had ended up making an episode that was so clearly an allegory for the plight of soldiers returned from that war. I have a possible answer.
The first thought is that while many if not most of the people on the writing staff etc were too young to serve, they would I think have been the perfect age to have had a father, older brother, or in some cases even grandfather, who had served, and they quite possibly could have observed the kind of havoc that horrible situation wreaked on the body, mind, and spirit of someone they cared about.
My second thought about why is this; The people in the entertainment industry are masters of manipulation. I mean it’s their job after all. They manipulate us (with our consent of course) to believe that the leading man and woman (one of whom is gay and one of whom is just fucking obnoxious) are helplessly in love with each other. They manipulate us to believe that people in the more southern portion of the 13 colonies during the Revolutionary War would have sound like hillbillies instead of British. So it occurs to me that those who make a living at manipulation might be better suited to recognize it than many of us, or at least to recognize it more quickly.
At first I had the same thought that Richard did, as to the episode being in part inspired by the Gulf War, and then you pointed out that the episode was in advance of that conflict, and that’s when I got to thinking. Basically the Reagan/Bush juggernaut had spent nearly 12 years trying to get the country back on a more militaristic footing. They had done everything in their power to demonize those who had openly dissented and spoken out against our involvement in Vietnam (If you want to read a well researched and written book about how we are still fighting the legacy that Raygun left check out Back To Our Future by David Sirota) and to fan the flames of simpleminded jingoism disguised as patriotism. In hindsight it was obvious that they were guiding us on the path to involvement in a conflict that we could “win” by dint of vastly superior firepower, and to make sure that the whole fucking thing was televised. Then they figured that they would have carte blanche to involve us in any other military action they wanted.
I can’t help but wonder if perhaps The Hunted, was based on the icky feeling in the back of someone’s brain that the war mongering fucks were getting ready to erase all the lessons we’d only just learned and therefore the episode is not so much about Vietnam per se as it is a plaintive cry to remember that when you send people, no matter how just, or noble the cause to kill in the service of the state, there are going to be real and lasting consequences to those people.
The other thing I wanted to respond to Eric was a comment you made about how you feel that the situation with soldiers returning from active duty today is different from those returning from Vietnam. I personally can’t really agree. The thing I think that obfuscates the whole issue, is that while they have done everything to stifle dissent short of actually outlawing it, (you are absolutely right with your observation about how they’ve turned supporting the troops into supporting the wars) they also have put up a huge fucking smoke screen to try and keep the public unaware of exactly how shittily vets are treated once they get home. Starting with the clauses in many terms of service where if there is declared a manpower shortage they can be re-activated, and re-deployed pretty much indefinitely with zero recourse. Then there is the military’s ongoing backwardness around dealing with mental health issues, the shitty way the VA often treats those seeking medical care for a host of problems, and the fact that as bad as the current social conditioning treats civilians who dare to criticize the military, it is about a thousand times worse if you actually served and dare to open your mouth to say anything negative.
Now I’m certainly no fan of the military as it exists today (in fact my oft repeated “joke” is that if you want me to join the military there’d better be a starship involved) but it doesn’t take much digging to see that the shitty deal most vets got handed after Vietnam, has been pulled out of mothballs, with a fresh coat of paint slapped on it, to become the same shitty deal most vets are being handed after they get back from Iraq, or Afghanistan, or whatever other blip on the radar some asshole in a three piece suit decides we need to liberate or what the hell.
Anyway to spend two seconds actually talking directly about the episode, *L* I will say that they do a good job handling a pretty touchy subject. The actor who plays Roga Danar manages to be both likable and tragic and since James Cromwell is pretty much an overly tall prick in real life he’s well suited to playing the overly tall prick of a Prime Minister here. I love Picard’s bit of Prime Directive Fu at the end. My one complaint and god I feel like an asshole saying this but… Marina Sirtis is kind of really shitty in this episode. It’s like in Danar she came up against an actor of better quality and without meaning to his performance exposes how shrill and un-nuanced hers is. Ultimately though I give this one a 7 or an 8.
The High Ground.
FUUUUUUUCK. I liked this episode. And when you guys kind of damned it with faint praise I was all ready to build a case for how it was a much better episode than you thought. So I went back and rewatched it. And the more I rewatched it the more I realized that you guys were right. It’s pretty fucking “meh”. I just now as I’m writing this figured out where my head was at though. Have you guys ever seen Monty Python’s Holy Grail? On the commentary track of the DVD Terry Gilliam is talking about what a pain in the ass co-directing with Terry Jones was. Because Gilliam was editing the movie based on what was actually on the screen and Jones was editing based on his feelings and memories around what was going on at the time they were shooting this scene or that. So the actually performance in a scene might be shit, but Jones would just remember what a good time everybody was having that day.
Well I did something kind of similar. There is a lot of potential with High Ground. Especially since they actually do make an attempt to invoke the complexities of dealing with terrorists, and the fact that often The State creates or exacerbates problems in a whole host of ways, that result in people choosing terrorism as a means of seeking redress. But the more objectively I watched the episode the more I realized that they squander that potential. The lead terrorist is underplayed and crappily at that. The lack of specificity as to why they are fighting etc makes it hard to give a shit about either side, and the ending is way to fucking pat.
If it had been a bolder episode I think possibly it could have become a classic, but instead it’s just kind of there.
I’d give it a 3.
Alright, that’s it from me for now. I’ve already watched the next two episodes a few times and I’ve come to a realization that kind of surprised me and that you guys might end up violently disagreeing with. I’ll look forward to hearing your thoughts and sharing my own with you after next Thursday.
P
A
L
L
Stoek
Eric Brasure
-That’s true enough–I imagine the writing staff was old enough to have, if not fathers, at least some relatives that had fought in Vietnam. I still maintain that it’s a little odd to bring it up in 1990, but then again, TNG wasn’t TOS in the sense that it was interested in relevant and timely social commentary. That ship sailed when they killed “Blood and Fire” back in the first season.
Lee
-Apparently the producers liked Jeff McCarthy (Roga Danar) enough to bring him back for… a very brief role on the Voyager pilot. In fact, if you started watching “Caretaker” midway through, you already missed him. 🙂
Is it me or is Roga Danar the biggest Marty Stu in Star Trek since Gary Seven? Neither of them could be bested by the ‘mere mortals’ among the crew of their respective Enterprises because they’re made of such invincible stuff. Of course, in Gary Seven’s case, they were building him up for the hoped-for spin-off series. Why they felt the need to make Roga Danar ridiculously unstoppable — to the point where he can escape from a transporter beam(!) — is a complete mystery.
Stoek
-I personally don’t think of him as a Gary Stu. To me a Gary Stu is all perfection with no flaws and with no price to that perfection. While to be certain Danar is presented as having some pretty far fetched abilities I think that is in part to underscore how tragic he is. He doesn’t want these abilities, he doesn’t want the un-relenting drives that he has been burdened with.
Plus I suspect that his abilities are highlighted to make clear exactly how fucked the PM is if he doesn’t stop being such a duplicitious ass.
Eric Brasure
-The Outrageous Okona was TNG’s Marty Stu. Roga Danar is just one in a long line of guest stars designed to make the crew look incompetent for 40 minutes. 😀
Lee
-Not sure I see what qualities make Okona a Marty Stu, unless it’s his infallibility with the ladies. He doesn’t seem all that extraordinary to me. (Although being played by Billy Campbell doesn’t hurt.)
Lee
-I see your point, Stoek. But I think the production team took it a step too far with the transporter stunt. That, more than anything, pushes him into Marty Stu territory for me.
Stoek
-I certainly agree that the transporter bit was a bit much.