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WARNING: The following post contains spoiler information regarding this
week's TNG episode, "The Vengeance Factor". Be warned.
Really.
Greetings, all.
Well, this is another case of "nothing spectacularly wrong, but nothing
spectacularly RIGHT either". It was sort of nondescript. Here comes a
reasonably short synopsis:
The Enterprise finds a Federation science outpost torn to shreds, and it
appears that the Gatherers are responsible. The Gatherers are a group
originally from Acamar III, who split off from the Acamarians roughly a
century ago. The raids have been getting worse, and something has to be done.
They travel to Acamar III to talk to the Marouk, Sovereign of Acamer 3. She
wants nothing more than Federation help to hunt the Gatherers down, but
Picard has other ideas. He claims they'll be a divided people until they take
the Gatherers back into the fold, and weaker as a result. Eventually, he
manages to talk her into it. Then, of course, the problem is finding and
convincing the Gatherers.
They find one Gatherer outpost, led by a man called Brul. He is initially
skeptical, but after hearing the Sovereign out, decides this is an offer
worthy of consideration. He says he'll take the message to Chorgan, the
Gatherer leader, but whatshername says she'd rather do it herself. Okay . . .
so they all end up on the Enterprise.
One minor complication arises, however. The original reason for the
Gatherers' departure, the Clan Wars, apparently are not quite as over as
originally thought. The Lornac clan, a century or two ago, managed to kill
off nearly all members of a rival clan, the Triesta. A few survived, however,
and one of them has been genetically altered to carry a virus lethal only to
Lornacs. She happens to be Uta, the Sovereign's servant, and is discreetly
killing off the last few Lornacs wherever she goes. The final catch: Chordan,
himself, is the final Lornac left alive.
From here, things are pretty much as you'd predict. After analyzing the death
of an elderly Gatherer on the outpost (whom we saw Uta kill), Dr. Crusher
ends up realizing it's lethal only to Lornacs. Data eventually figures out
who'd have motive, etc., and Riker ends up beaming over to the negotiations
and stopping Uta. Unfortunately, he has to kill her to do it, and it's all
the more painful because he was falling in love with her.
Well, that's about all there is to that. Now, usual babble:
As I said, there really wasn't much wrong with the episode. There just wasn't
much right about it either. It was certainly watchable, but just . . . there.
I was fairly impressed with the acting of whoever played Uta. She carried off
the attitude of one who's been so obsessed with vengeance that it's all she's
got left quite well. She also projected a good image of one used to service
for so long that she can't remember any other way to behave.
I liked the idea of the virus tailor-made to kill one clan only very much
indeed, but had one major problem with the scene where this was discovered.
When they discover the record of the other Gatherer dying, and see he's a
Lornac, then notice that the old man was also Lornac, they immediately say,
"Oh, so that's it!" Now, I realize that the Clan Wars were a big deal on
Acamar III, and that this in all probability wouldn't have led them astray,
but would it have been that big a deal to ask the computer to specify all
factors common to the two people who died? For all they know, the virus
specifically attacked only those who were males with no left testicle.
The coarseness of the Gatherers seemed a little overdone to me, and slightly
inconsistent as well. There's a scene between Brul and Wesley in 10-Forward,
which smacked of a subplot waiting to happen (but never did), where Brul
seems a little less brutal than usual, with no real reason given. While the
brutality of the Gatherers did convey the idea that these people have had to
live by their wits for 100 years, it still seemed a little too barbaric to
me.
One really minor "what-if": I sort of hoped that Uta's meal for Riker had
been less delicious and more spicy. I half expected him to have real trouble
with it. Well, I suppose this lends credence to the theory that Riker had his
taste buds surgically removed before signing on to the Pagh last season. :-)
I didn't like the acting of the woman playing the Sovereign very much. She
was too whiney and dictatorial to be a proper leader.
Other than that, there's not much to say. The regulars did a pretty good job
(particularly Crusher), but there just wasn't much to this. I suppose, then,
that it's rating time.
Plot: 6 - Competent, but not particularly exciting.
Plot Handling: 5 - Nothing wrong, but points off for the immediate jump to
the clan being the common factor.
Characterization: 7.5 - Not bad, and a little extra for Uta. Some off for the
Sovereign and the Gatherers.
Technical: 8 - I liked the virus, and the method the away team used to get
out from under the ambush.
TOTAL: 26.5/4 => 6.6. Watchable, certainly, but not really worth a second
viewing.
Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy B.A.; one of many Caltech grad students)
BITNET: tlynch@citjuliet
INTERNET: tlynch@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.caltech.edu@hamlet.caltech.edu
"Brill? What was he doing here?"
"Last time I saw, trying to fly."
"I didn't know he could do that."
"He wasn't doing very well."
"Well, maybe he'll get the hang of it."
<<THUD>>
"Does bouncing count?"
---Silk and Belgarath, from David Eddings' THE BELGARIAD
--
Copyright 1989, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...