Sub Rosa

Well folks, I have been insulting this episode for over a month in anticipation of it coming. I recently saw this on BBC America, and it is worse than I remember. Bad writing, illogical actions of the Starfleet crew, and bad acting from Gates McFadden. She is a fine actor, but this episode is amateur hour. Ghost stories and Star Trek do not mix. Just stupid and insulting. I always wonder when episodes like this are being filmed if the actors ever speak up and realize how crappy a show they are making. Yup. Never thought any TNG episode was scary. Closest was “Night Terrors” w music. But that was offset by Troi ass shots…. This is my Star Trek guilty pleasure. It’s a shocker in almost every respect, and yet I can’t help but enjoy it, and I’d rather watch it a hundred times than see last week’s horror show just once. My only real complaint is that it doesn’t go far enough – imagine a version that really embraced the trashiness, and cast Fabio Lanzoni as Ronin… Perhaps if they had spent a little less time showing Beverly in Ghostly Rapture then this might have had a chance. The premise is interesting and creepy and had potential but no. Yes, those scenes where she is “getting to know” her new “friend” are very uncomfortable to watch. Talk about an ICK factor. You know the string of crappy , unredeemable episodes based on how a VHS tape recorded from tv sat on shelf unwatched…. this episode and other S7 turds were on that tape. I love this episode so, so much. In the way that I love Whom Gods Destroy, or The Man With The Golden Gun. It’s just ridiculous, and the cast seems to know it. It’s wonderful seeing the series take a page from Harlequin, because in any rational universe, it absolutely should not be doing that. I understand how embarrassing and uncomfortable this episode can be for others, but for me, it’s a hoot. Trek would be poorer without it. Sometimes mistakes can be enriching, or at least make for interesting memories. this is from “Arsenal of Freedom” the deep chat while injured/separated from the rest of the group…sigh…TNG never fleshed out Crusher and La Forge enough…..I even think Riker should have had more depth… I still say Picard should have hit Ronan in the fontanel (which never closes, because he’s a Taltos), grabbed his ice cream, and been done with it. Was anyone else frustrated when Picard mentioned that Beverley’s eyes had turned green? I was expected a close-up of some kind. Even in the screen shots, it’s hard to see. Ugh. Another worthless detail. Does she have to wear contacts for the rest of the series? Yes, this sucked. On so many levels. Even the sets looked sub par. Wow, a real Mission Log rarity! You guys took an episode I already disliked because of the sheer cheese quotient, and made me utterly loathe it because of the misfired message that I hadn’t picked up on. Holy crap. At least we got to revive one of Patrick Stewart’s Saturday Night Live sketch, though maybe “Phil McCracken, Scottish Therapist” should’ve made a house call too, considering how much angerrrrrrrrrrr fandom directs at Sub Rosa. The one piece of praise I can work up for Sub Rosa is for Gates McFadden. The scene where she takes the candle into her quarters, lights it, and then kind of rocks herself back and forth in a near-fetal position waiting for Ronin to show up….she is doing a scarily good job of portraying the body language of an addict there. For me, that’s almost more uncomfortable to watch than Beverly getting it on with the Video Toaster. Speaking of… There is virtually nothing about this episode that works. But for Imaginary Friend and Code Of Honor, this might have been TNG’s absolute nadir. I watched the majority of TNG with a friend of mine – we were in high school when the show started and in college when it finished – and this episode had us snickering and asking “What was that ?” by the end of it. When Beverly’s grandmother suddenly sits up, it was a laugh-out-loud moment (even though it wasn’t meant