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TNG episode #28: Where Silence Has Lease

 
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Mon May 10, 2021 9:43 am    Post subject: TNG episode #28: Where Silence Has Lease Reply with quote

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WHERE SILENCE HAS LEASE episode #2, s2 / Air Date: 11/28/88
written by Jack B. Sowards; Directed by Winrich Kolbe

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The Enterprise comes upon some 'black space' — a region of nothingness. While the crew is examining the region, they get too close and it envelops the ship.

Picard orders the ship to backtrack, but they find that they are unable to exit. They encounter a couple of other ships, both of which are probably unreal. Riker and Worf beam aboard another starship which is empty and pretty spooky. They hear strange noises and find two bridges. Then there are two Rikers, and they start to freak out.

Back on the Enterprise, the bridge crew see an opening out of the region, but it closes before they can use it,. This event repeats. Dr. Pulaski soon opines that they are the rats in a maze — it's a cosmic laboratory. Sure enuff...

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The experimenter reveals himself to be Nagilum, a cosmic being on par with the Q or the Organians, but a much darker version. He sees the crew as nothing more than his mice, and his next step is to examine all various facets of death. This will entail the deaths of about half the crew. (Pity the TNG version of a red shirt on the bridge).

This one manages to be chilling, even as there are obvious gaffs in the presentation. When the black space suddenly grabs the Enterprise, it's a scary moment, but Picard and the others are clueless to any possible threat.

How can this not alarm them? Only when they can't leave do they start to worry.

This is the 2nd time Picard initiates the self-destruct code (last done in 11001001. Does he have a death wish?). But, Nagilum has nearly limitless power — wouldn't halting this be simple for him?

After Nagilum reveals his plans for half the crew, the top staff have one of their meetings — why didn't Nagilum immediately begin experimenting on the crew? What's the delay? Did Nagilum give them some time frame? Or . . . is it because Nagilum never intended to destroy half the crew? (This would make it all far less effective).

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Dr. Pulaski is more caustic than ever here — referring to Data as "it" — but she's the one who seems to come up with more answers than the others. She also has a great line — "Why do I get the feeling that this was not the time to join this ship?"

This episode begins oddly — the preview above is deceptive. The creatures that Riker and Worf battle are a holodeck program in a pre-titles scene. Riker wanted to learn more about Klingon ways. It has little to do with the rest of the story, except to show that Worf can lose control more readily than a human officer.

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In all, it's not a bad effort to show the very frightening dangers 'out there' — the unknown, the unfathomable, the alien, the all-powerful, the times our crew may be utterly helpless.

I even got a chilly feeling at the end knowing that this Nagilum is still out there somewhere, ready to pull the wings off flies (human beings), even if it doesn't happen until the 25th century. The epilogue, when Picard has a final discussion with Nagilum, doesn't really fit — it's as if they are two equals. But Picard's attempt mid-story to explain his own theories to Data on what death is (or what it may be) is inspired.

TNG Trivia:

~ Some of this story seems to copy the first act of the TOS episode, The Immunity Syndrome, in which the Enterprise also encountered a 'black space' region in front of them, though the nature of the enemy was much different in the old episode.

BoG's Score: 5.6 out of 10



BoG
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon May 10, 2021 1:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The super alien's name is the reverse spelling, minus one, of Mulligan. This name was chosen because actor Richard Mulligan, the star of Soap & Empty Nest, was originally sought to play the role.

I found this episode one of the lesser ones from ST:TNG. It moved slowly, we deal with yet another omnipotent alien, and it wants to study humans.

This was a prosaic plot device we saw going back to ST:TOS, as well as on a number of other sci~fi television programs.

That's not to say a writer cannot use such a premise, but make it different and intriguing this time around.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2021 11:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

POW wrote:
I found this episode one of the lesser ones from ST:TNG. It moved slowly, we deal with yet another omnipotent alien, and it wants to study humans.

I agree. And the alien has that strange-but-somehow-childlike face which robs it of the true threatening nature.

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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: Sun Jul 18, 2021 12:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nitpicks

Dr. Pulaski states that she isn't a bridge officer.

Dr. Crusher was a bridge officer because she attended bridge staff meetings.

Crusher discusses with Troi in "Chain of Command" that she took the bridge officer's test to move on to commander rank.

Pulaski wears the rank pins of a commander. If Crusher had to take the bridge officer's test to make commander, doesn't that mean that Pulaski also had to take the test, or is there another way to make commander for medical personnel?

Why did Nagilum choose to spin Pulaski around as he probes the anatomical differences between male and female when Troi is on the bridge?

Is the fact that Troi is half Betazoid an issue?

The Enterprise fires two probes into the area of darkness.

Wesley says that he has charted the boundary of the hole, and the Enterprise can move closer if Captain Picard chooses.

Isn't this just a little presumptuous?

The probes disappeared at different locations, doesn't that imply that the boundary moves? How can you possibly know where a boundary is on an object as vast as the darkness with only two plot points from two probes?

Just before beaming over to the star ship Yamato, Worf informs Riker that he's familiar with the vessel and suggests that they beam to the aft station of the Yamato's bridge.

The Yamato turns out to be almost an exact copy of the Enterprise. Wouldn't Riker be familiar with the Yamato just as well as Worf is? Or Picard? Or anybody who lives and works on the Enterprise?

In discussing the area of blackness, Riker asks Data if there are any records on anything similar? Data checks and responds there isn't.

Captain Kirk's Enterprise encountered an area of darkness in "The Immunity Syndrome."

Riker & Worf make it back to the Enterprise after their survey of the Yamato, they immediately rush from the transporter room to the bridge.

Mysteriously, the phasers and tricorders they carried on the Yamato have vanished. Just what did they do with them? They were anxious to get to the bridge to report to Picard, it hardly seems likely they stopped by the ship's stores to drop off their phasers and tricorders.
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