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TNG episode #27: The Child

 
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 24, 2019 3:21 pm    Post subject: TNG episode #27: The Child Reply with quote

____________
THE CHILD episode #1, second season / Air Date: 11/21/88
written by Jason Summers, Jon Povill, Maurice Hurley; Directed by Rob Bowman

___

A point of light flits after the Enterprise, enters the ship and soon chooses Troi's cabin. The next morning, she is pregnant, giving birth a day later. This makes for an unusual staff meeting — Riker is really surprised. The child grows at an astonishing rate, becoming a small boy in hours. There's a secondary story about some plague specimens which the Enterprise needs to transport.

_______

A heady enough turn of events, but this episode is full of firsts and beginnings.

This is the first episode with Dr. Pulaski (Diana Muldaur, who guested on a couple of TOS episodes as other characters), who comes aboard to replace Dr. Crusher, who has been re-assigned to Starfleet HQ. Picard gets annoyed with her right away, thinking she made a beeline for the ship's bar instead of reporting to him, not knowing that she's in Ten Forward due to Troi's 'situation.' There, we first meet the bartender, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg).

___

Pulaski becomes rather grating from the get go. She's an older, more calloused doctor than even Dr. Crusher, who came across as cold but was sensitive to certain matters. Pulaski, however, is full bore obnoxious in some scenes. She indulges herself by trying to pick a fight with Data, who she obviously sees as much less than human.

Maybe he is, but why belabor the point?

This may have been TNG's bid to create a McCoy-like character and recreate the Spock-McCoy tension, but it's rather banal and ham-fisted.

Also, La Forge basks in the glow of being the new chief engineer.

_________________

In the meantime, Wesley is sad that he is to soon leave to join his mom (many Trek fans hold their breaths . . . ). But, in the end, after much soul searching and a talk with the wise Guinan, he requests that Picard let him stay with the magnificent starship ("No! Picard, no!" scream many fans).

What should have been an interesting look at an alien life force experiencing life in human form is side-lighted by all these personal, ah, personnel issues. This didn't bode well for the 2nd season.

BoG's Score: 4 out of 10

TNG Trivia:

~ This story was intended originally for the aborted Star Trek Phase II series, which would have run episodes in 1978 had it been produced.

~ In the original draft, Lt. Ilia was the one who got suddenly pregnant. There was a writer's strike during TNG's 2nd season, forcing the producers to scramble for existing scripts.



BoG
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

More Trivia for "The Child."

Quite a number of firsts for the debut episode of ST:TNG's second season.

The Conn & Ops station seats located at the front of the bridge now have upright seats instead of the reclined seats from season one.

Jonathan Frakes now wears a beard. Frakes had grown his beard while on hiatus from the show and intended to shave it off before the new season began. Frakes (with beard) was at a Star Trek Convention with Gene Roddenberry when Gene asked the audience what they thought of Jonathan's new beard?

The audience cheered and Gene asked Jonathan to keep the beard for the show.

Geordi La Forge is now the chief engineer for the Enterprise-D.

Worf is now the chief of security for the star ship.

Worf no longer wears his gold Klingon sash that he wore during the first season. The sash was originally introduced in the episode "Errand of Mercy" from ST:TOS. The sash was one a Klingon star ship captain would wear which would have been inappropriate for Worf to wear.

A silver baldric is now worn by Worf. Always preferred the silver baldric over the gold sash from a design standpoint.

Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) was introduced as the chief medical officer due to Dr.Crusher having left to serve at Star Fleet Academy. I agree with Bogmeister's assessment of the Pulaski character. The producers must have introduced her to create more conflict for the crew in order to have more dramatic scenes.

The trouble was that Pulaski came off as an irritating and annoying person and not someone charmingly crusty. Her seeing Data as nothing more than a tool did not endear her to fans of Data.

First appearance of Guinan and the Ten-Forward Lounge.

Whoopi Goldberg had been a huge fan of the original Star Trek TV series. She said she saw Uhuru on that iteration and realized that there can be a noble place for black people in the future. Whoopi asked her friend LeVar Burton to ask Gene Roddenberry to create a role for her on the show.

As noted by Bogmeister, this script was originally intended for the ST: Phase II TV series.

The crew member Ilia was to give birth to a baby girl named Irska. Irska unintentionally was weakening the ship's hull and placing everyone in danger.

In a later rewrite, the Enterprise was to encounter an alien cylinder that would endanger the Enterprise. Irska would be the only one who could solve the problems created by the cylinder.

The idea of carrying the deadly plasma plague for study by the Enterprise originate from the film "Sorcerer" which in turn was inspired by the French film "The Wages of Fear."

Wesley points out the star Epsilon Indi when he's in Ten-Forward. The planet orbiting Epsilon Indi was home to the pirates on the episode "And the Children Shall Lead" from ST:TOS.

All-and-all, this episode was an inauspicious start for the new season.

This episode was a rare occasion where a camera crane was utilized.

Marina Sirtis wore a pouch filled with birdseed under her clothing while portraying a pregnant Troi.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 6:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) was introduced as the chief medical officer due to Dr. Crusher having left to serve at Star Fleet Academy. I agree with Bogmeister's assessment of the Pulaski character. The producers must have introduced her to create more conflict for the crew in order to have more dramatic scenes.

The trouble was that Pulaski came off as an irritating and annoying person and not someone charmingly crusty. Her seeing Data as nothing more than a tool did not endear her to fans of Data.

Actually, I liked Dr. Pulaski! Very Happy

Good doctors tend to have a God complex because they save people's lives on a daily basis. Dr. Pulaski provided entertaining friction between the extremely confident captain and his very competent chief medical officer.

Frankly I never cared for the idea that Picard and Crusher had a quasi-romantic a relationship, because that just didn't work as well as the heterosexual friendship between Kirk and McCoy.

Those two were friends, but obviously there was no sexual tension between them, and McCoy would strenuously disagree with Kirk from time to time.

But with Picard and Crusher, their disagreements often had an undertone similar to a lover's quarrel. And sometimes they'd discuss their difference over a candlelit dinner in the captain's cabin! Shocked

Thank God Jim and Lenard never did that . . . Smile

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 11:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did not care at all for the Picard/Crusher underlying romance either, Bud.

I found Dr.Crusher bland and never cared for any episodes in which she was the focus.

Pulaski may have been a realistic depiction of how some doctors have a bedside manner but I still could not warm up to her.

I'm not someone that has to be fond of every cast member's persona on a TV show by any means.

Love Louie DePalma on "Taxi," loved Major Charles Emerson Winchester III on "M*A*S*H."

Even liked Frank Burns on M*A*S*H because his character served as the kind of louse we can all boo.

All those characters were more richly drawn by the writers and made interesting on some level.

Pulaski never was for me. I just never found any aspect to her that was compelling in any way.

But hey, that's me.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 1:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nitpicks

For some reason, Guinan lies to Wesley in this episode. She tells him that she didn't know Picard before she cam on board the Enterprise.
Yet in "Times Arrow, Part 2" we learn that Guinan first met Picard in the late nineteenth century.

~ Well, I guess ya can chalk that up to the writers not having worked out Guinan's backstory entirely so early on.
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johnnybear
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 23, 2021 11:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, the character was new to the series at that time, and like many other shows it added events to boost interest later — in despite it contradicting earlier moments of the show that they thought no one would remember anyway!

At least not before the VHS tape recorder — or was that 1979? Indeed it was '79, but maybe they really didn't worry about it, or had even forgotten themselves?
JB
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 15, 2022 3:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
Pulaski never was for me. I just never found any aspect to her that was compelling in any way

Since I admire Miss Diana Muldaur, thought she did a good job as Dr. Pulaski. She projected just the blend of competence and arrogance — a common attitude among highly successful doctors.

It was fun watching the competent and arrogant Dr. Plulaski and the competent and arrogant Captain Picard spar with each other when their separate areas of expertise intersected and they didn't agree on a course of action.
Very Happy
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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