There Are Four Lights

The Christmas season slowly approaches and with it come Xmas parties. My blogs have been sparse due to the holidays and I'm making this one brief for the late hour my party ended. Since I've been on the subject of anniversaries lately I have failed to mention a couple important ones. The first of which is Star Wars' 30th anniversary this past May. It's amazing what three (3) decades have done to the franchise and the many more tales to tell. If I can think of the most influential movie on my childhood it would be Star Wars. In between Star Wars movies was another obsession of mine. Star Trek. I became hooked on it in the 70s when it was in re-runs, and then went to the movies, and followed all the new shows as they were produced. As it happens we are all in the middle of the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek. And to celibrate, the SFX team at Paramount is making the Hi-Def special edition version on TV and HD-DVD with CG enhanced Special Effects, and 5.1 surround to boot. This all done without compromising the integrity of the show. I haven't seen a bad remastered episode yet. It's almost like watching a new episode every week.

But wait, there's more. The Next Generation (TNG) is also celebrating its 20th Anniversary. Started in 1987 this was a staple of my Saturday evenings. When this show came into its prime by the third year my family and friends and I would all gather to watch. I can't think of any other show (maybe X-Files) that brought everyone together. Come January of next year Deep Space Nine will enter its 15th Anniversary. The defining Space Opera of the franchise, almost every episode built upon the next, defining the politics and people of the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants, changing the way the viewers understood many of the races and characters. All this accomplishment while juggling the series along side TNG and then Voyager. Once the show ended the only Trek remaining on TV was Voyager, whose Season 4 is currently enjoying its 10th Anniversary. And that's not all, The latest incarnation, Enterprise, was on the air 5 years ago. A family of anniversaries.

During TNG Season 6 a two-part episode aired called Chain Of Command. The second part is the better of the two (2) and it aired 15 years ago today (December 21). Not one of the best stories, the two episodes did usher in Deep Space Nine, about two (2) weeks later, by setting up the Cardassians (first introduced during season 4) as the bad guys. The story revolves around hidden Cardiassian WMDs with MetaGenic properties and a possible surprise attack on the Federation. Picard is relieved of command and made a commando, along with Worf and Dr. Crusher, to infiltrate Celtris III and find these weapons. The majority of the story involves Captain Jellico, Picard's replacement, and the difference in their command styles. This mostly seems like filler for the Picard bits eventually leading up to his capture. Part 2 is notable for Picard's sadistic torture at the hands of Gul Madred. In fact I thought this was the only good part of the whole story.

The problem I have is I refuse to believe that Picard is the only person that could be sent on the mission, due to the sensitive, classified nature of the weapons. Section 41 (Trek's version of the CIA established mid-way through Deep Space 9's run) is a clandestine branch of Starfleet that does all sorts of "illegal" and classified missions. This would be perfect for them. Am I to assume, all this time that Picard is a member of Section 41? That's like saying George Lucas is a CIA assassin and his movies are a front for his missions. There's no basis for it. The Cardassians turn out to be lying just to lure Picard to Celtris III to be captured. David Warner plays Picard's torturer, Gul Madred. (Gul is a Cardassian rank, not a name). Warner's name should be recognizable immediately as SARK in TRON, and his human counter-part, Dillenger. After failing to get Starfleet tactical info from Picard, he then plays a mind game by showing him four (4) lights and trying to painfully convince him there are really five (5), in homage to 1984 during a similar interrogation (using fingers instead of lights).

There are only a couple redeeming moments on the Enterprise and that is Riker's relief of command when he blows up at Jellico for his treatment of the crew, and Jellico's tactic to warn off the Cardassians and get Picard free. The former is great because Jellico later needs Riker's help and Riker lays into him even more. (Note that Data is First Officer with the Red Command Shirt in the absence of Riker.) Makes me wonder how Jellico even made Captain. Maybe Starfleet was desperate after the loss of ships and personnel from the Battle Of Wolf 359 against the Borg two (2) years before. I guess the script writers wanted us to hate Jellico but everything seemed so contrived, by letting Picard get captured, I couldn't suspend my belief during most of the two (2) episodes. And after watching Jellico (played by Ronny Cox, better known for his roles in RoboCop and Total Recall) cleverly set the Cardassians up to loose, by planting mines on their hull while their sensor's were blind, showed us that even though he's a jerk, he's right anyway. I don't buy it. Since TNG had a lot of trouble writing two-part stories after the brilliant "The Best Of Both Worlds," I think the writers needed to create tension for the sake of tension and not for driving the story. And in the end Picard is given back the ship, looking almost non-plussed about being tortured, and everything goes back to normal, status quo. I know this is how most Trek episodes end but it's so glaring here that it begins to show the strain the writers must have had to produce the show for seven (7) years.

Once again, though, Patrick Stewart's performance was extraordinary as much as David Warner was controlling, even letting Madred's daughter in to watch Picard suffer. It is later revealed that Picard did snap and was saved just in time before admitting he saw five (5) lights. This is another case of a bloated two-parter. This should have been one episode and Jellico removed mostly from the story. Once I learn how to edit film I would like to do just that and find a way to post it. The above Status Quo issue I have with some episodes of TNG begins to disappear with Deep Space Nine and becomes a welcome relieve, like a weight lifted from the writer's shoulders. Classic Trek (aka TOS) always operated under the Status Quo premise but rarely felt as contrived.

I took a week off from Guitar Hero III to rest my weary left fingers and try to develop feeling again in my finger tips. I think I actually developed calluses from the game. Seven (7) new downloadable songs are now available, and, with the exception of the guitar version of We Three Kings, all the rest are a bit harder on Medium that I think they ought to be. It's like they wanted to make the songs much more challenging than fun to play. But, that's a small gripe and I'm hungrily devouring the new content. See you next broadcast.