Allegiance

if the aliens have no concept of authority then who gives the order to conduct the study in the first place? They pull the order out of a hat, maybe? A monoculture built entirely on random chance. yeah its a pretty thin concept….no concept of authority? why do anything? why travel? why experiment….. Does Esoqq subsist entirely on spaghetti and soup or does his jaw unhinge when he’s going to eat a roommate? What are little Picards made of?. For some reason, I just assumed that the “not-Picard” was a member of the alien race who was just “playing” Picard with the assist of all of Picard’s memories. It does open the plot hole of why Troi couldn’t tell the difference. I typically never cared much for “Allegiance”, considering it one of Season Three’s rare disappointments, though every episode (barring maybe “A Matter of Perspective”) has its strong points. Just felt like a low-budget one-act play with too-simple characters representing parts of a straw-mannish argument the writer is making, but paired with yet another “the crew takes too long to realize something’s so obviously wrong and do something about it” ep. But I never zeroed in on the subtler bits you pointed out, the Picard/Riker scene, how this is/may be one of Dr. Crusher’s better episodes (Season Three was her best season, I’m guessing). Definitely something to look forward to in an upcoming re-viewing. It probably won’t change too much (John enthusiasm for this episode is really puzzling), but anything to add depth and nuance could only help an episode like this one. Pretty average episode…things I remember wondering about… 1. no nametags on Starfleet uniforms…just the impracticality of it all. of course Picard had to identify himself to “cadet” Haro, he has no nametag! 2. once again, the intro of a species but never or rarely see them again. I always wished for a Bolian to get more screen time. Mizarians, the Chalnoth..woulda been nice to see them again. That goes for so many races. 3. That woulda been hilarious if the Worf had killed the intruders! With his shield cylinder misinterpreting Picards gestures…did we even reveal the name of this abductor race? 4. Silly that this race had never experienced captivity or had no idea it was unpleasant, but I guess if they were just emerging from their system, but happened to have this kick ass tech. I feel like this is an online class…I review the episode on Mon or Tues in anticipation for downloading the podcast on Thursday @ 0001, yup…usually for lots of posts, commentary and pics from Thursday to Sunday…lol, Just watched “Captains Holiday”- hahaha, I even take notes sometimes…hahaha, anyone else? I just re-watched “Allegiance” for the first time in a few years. The script feels sparse and simple (at first), and the guest aliens are one-note and rather silly in a Doctor Who way, and I think that’s a big reason why I don’t remember the episode being very interesting. The thing is, it’s not sparse or simple at all, just kinda slow. But it’s also well-directed, and I suspect I’d gotten used to just having the episode in the background instead of actually looking at it, and so feeling like there isn’t a lot going on. This episode did a lot of interesting things with its subdued lighting and frequent close-ups (with the Picard/Riker scene being the most striking example, but one of many). It has a Season Two-type script, very slow, taking too long to get its point across, and I suspect the episode’s poor pacing is based more on that, but it’s directed with a dramatic, at times German Expressionist, eye. A better script might have done more with how rule-bound Data would respond to Riker’s conspiracy to mutiny (shades of Doomsday Machine?), or expand on Esoqq’s aggressiveness and paranoia instead of only allowing him to posture and bare his teeth (to which, I guess he has no alternative…), but, structured as it is, there probably wasn’t enough room to let the ideas or characters breathe. I suspect a lot was cut out to