139. The Schizoid ManFORMULA: Turnabout Intruder + Datalore + Requiem for Methuselah
WHY WE LIKE IT: Dr. Selar and Ira Graves are real charmers, each in there own ways.
WHY WE DON'T: Graves as Data has a completely different personality, and it doesn't really work.
REVIEW: The episode starts well enough, with a funny but abandoned bit about Data's beard, and a show-off shot of Pulaski boarding a turbolift and arriving on the bridge without a camera cut. Nothing much to do with the plot though. Then we have the ridiculous near-warp transport that makes no sense at all when you examine it, even at a distance. Ok, let's gloss over that. Ah, we meet Dr. Selar, Suzie Plakson's first Star Trek character, and she's so memorable, fans frequently clamored for more. (She became a regular in Peter David's Excalibur series.) The cool Vulcan doctor probably has little bedside manner, but this short appearance has remained intriguing and engaging. (Were they just trying to keep Pulaski off the transporter pad for the next episode, or what?)
Can't say I liked the sappy Kareel Brianon character, but W. Morgan Sheppard's Ira Graves is excellent. Arrogant, yes, but also philosophical and quirky. His scenes with Data are top-notch, full of great lines and a high acting level. It's extremely disappointing, then, that he has to die to be replaced by a) a dummy corpse that doesn't really look like him, and b) a Graves-possessed Data that doesn't really ACT like him. I mean, Brent Spiner does another take on "evil Data" that's fine in a vaccum, but I don't see how it truly relates to the Ira Graves we previously met.
So the rest of the episode is a little slow-going, as Data-Graves piles insubordination atop insubordination, and partakes in a dull little romance with Kareel. It's a big yawner that ends like you expect it to. And what should we think of scenes like the funeral? I could believe Data would say stuff like this in a failed attempt at poetry, but a genius like Graves? It's very badly written. Enough said about the second half of the show, it's just getting me riled up.
LESSON: You always hurt the ones you love, and the ones you know, which is the same thing.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Great performances in the first half of the show are let down by a predictable possession plot that's not very well written at all. Still, your only stop for a live action Dr. Selar.
Comments
One thing I do like... in Datalore the senior staff were frustrstingly dense at spotting that anything was wrong with Lore-as-Data. In this episode Picard figures out what's going on almost straight away.