Manhunt

There’s something distinctly Deltan about the Betazoids in this episode. Not surprising in that Wil and Deann are partially based on Decker and Ilea. Probably just an element Roddenberry had been meaning to shoehorn in for awhile, and given how they were mining old Phase 2 stories for the strike shortened season 2, it’s no wonder. Really, though, they are seriously running low on momentum at this point. It’s a good thing they decided to cut it short, or I have no idea what they would’ve done for the last four episodes after Planet Clipshow. You have to commend them on stretching no story into an hour of television. Wil Decker. Will Riker. William Shatner. I sometimes wonder if the similarity in the names was intentional or subconscious on GR’s part. Riker is almost an anagram of Kirk. I always thought that in the beginning, the Riker character was there to step in if Picard didn’t work and make it more like an updated TOS. The episodes with Lwaxana sucked as they were far too panto like in performance. ST was always better in the more thoughtful or thought provoking episodes. This one was just silly and should have been canned at the writing stage. This is yet another season two episode, where when I started to watch the repeat I could not recall the ending. Oh good, I think, I may have Alzheimer’s but at least I’ve got a “new” Trek to watch. Come to find the reason I couldn’t recall the endings of these eps… is because they essentially don’t have an ending. They have the sit-com wrap-up where all the miscommunication is spoken aloud, everyone chuckles, ep over. I like the characters and situations in this ep, but feel that they circle the arena but never do much of anything. Meanwhile, Lluxanna comes off in this ep as a 60’s era stock character — “The Manhunter.” See also: barracuda, black widow, etc… It seems as though Majel is having fun, in the way actors can enjoy a matinee of a bad play, but it’s not the show’s finest hour. (Good point about the Squidbillies failing to detonate their bombs.) OK, you guys dance around it, but I’m thinking that’s one happy shuttle pilot. Guys, how about doing some supplementals on the higher quality fan films? (Exeter, Phase 2/New Voyages, Continues, Farragut, Aurora, CHDanhauser’s animated episodes, and Axanar. Lots of discussion, in the podcast, about how Picard was treating Lwaxana. Why didn’t he “just say no.” Was it her ranking as Ambassador… etc.? I think they mentioned, but glossed over, the most important thing — she’s Deanna’s mother. Picard respects Deanna so much that he does his best to honor — or at least tolerate — her mother for the three day trip. After all, if Lwaxana is upset, she will share it with Deanna. Picard doesn’t want to see Deanna hurt. John, with respect to what you and Ken said about the media’s “gotcha” modus operandi relating to political correctness and what you guys are doing in your commentary, particularly in regards to Ken finding something “sexist” to indict in nearly every, single episode of Star Trek (certainly in almost every episode of TOS), I honestly don’t see any distinction. Ken, I must say, does not seem any less “gotcha” about his charges of racism and, especially, of sexism, than the media—judging by the frequency of his indictments and the import that the issue seems to carry with him in these commentaries. Though, obviously, Ken is not in the position to cause someone to lose their livelihood for having slipped up and said something un-PC consequent to, for example, being provoked on the street by paparazzi. And I must say that Ken comes across as not entirely fair-minded in his relentless charges of sexism against Trek writers. And do we really need to label Wesley “racist” for his honest reaction to the appearances of other species? Does casting that judgment on Wesley really enrich the viewing experience? Does it make us feel superior to him? More moral/enlightened/”progressive”? I guess I’ve just gotten tired of the endless, c