"To know him, was to love him. And to love him, was to know him. Those who knew him, loved him. While those that did not know him, loved him from afar." I want this speech given at my own funeral, or else I refuse to die. It's just so beautiful.
Ira Graves is alone on a planet with a hot blonde helper. He is in grave danger, apparently, as a distress signal has been sent out. Unfortunately, the Enterprise is already on a mission to help others, and so Pulaski decides that even though Graves is important, he is but one man and so she'll send her next best to check him out. They decide to do a "near warp" transport since time is of the very essence. We are left with the knowledge that it is a very different feeling from a normal transport. But why so much screen time is dedicated to this is beyond me. As for the other people in distress? We don't hear anything else, so I guess they were all patched up easily enough. It seems like the whole series of events is constructed just so that we can see Pulaski in action, making tough calls. Whatever. I like Pulaski ok, but this is all unnecessary.
On the planet, a one-on-one with Data and Graves reveals that Graves is working on transplanting the human consciousness into a machine. This is a concept at least as old as "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" and as new as the latest season finale of Black Mirror. No surprise, since Graves is dying, and living inside of Data is probably better than existing on a floppy disk, the exchange happens. But how exactly Graves managed to manually switch Data off, and then turn him back on after he died is beyond me. Anyway, Graves takes over Data's body and sets about assuming his identity. Which allows him to give an absurd speech at his own funeral, which is what this review began by quoting. It's fricken hilarious, and is only made funnier by Wesley repeating it to Data later on.
Data begins acting like a jealous and cantankerous old man. Troi takes a look at Data, since nothing shows wrong from a physical standpoint. She finds that there are two people inside him, and that if they don't do something Data will be lost forever. She has no possible way of determining this though, since she has no idea how a sophisticated android brain works. But hey, Troi got to do something in this one.Graves ends up blowing his cover, as he is a narcissistic jerk who is crazy possessive of the blonde, even though she has no interest in him. He figures that now that he's in a young hot android body, she has no reason not to rip off her top and throw herself at him. This line of thought, flawed as it is, leads to Picard putting together the pieces of what is going on. In a Kirk-like fashion, he convinces Graves to exit Data. Graves places his experiences and knowledge, but not his consciousness, into the ship's computer. Isn't that nice?
"The Schizoid Man" is an Adequate episode of Trek. This idea of human consciousness finding a new digital existence is nothing new, but still is intriguing. The episode is saved by a humorous portrayal by Brent Spiner of Graves in a new body. To not know "The Schizoid Man" is to love the episode, from afar.Published April 14, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment