doom1701
09-25-2011, 09:42 PM
OAD 3/14/1988
I was a little scared of this episode, knowing it was a pretty heavy Wesley ep. Turns out the only weak points were some sets, graphics, and a couple of weird writing decisions. The cast, including Wheaton, did very well.
I didn't remember that the Academy testing was really more of the B plot to Remmick's investigation. I think this is one of the few times that TNG foreshadowed future plot elements; TNG was never meant to be serialized like that, but this time it works really well. We're left wondering what this investigation was about, what the Admiral thinks is going on, and what's going to happen in future episodes.
The direction of the interrogation in the conference room really stood out to me; it's probably a trite device, but I loved how the director mis-directed us as they moved between crew members. I also thought that everyone's responses, especially Worf and Crusher, were excellent.
The only part that bugged me about the Academy entrance exam was the overall idea that only one person gets in. I know I shouldn't make comparisons to the new universe, but in the new movie it seems that anybody who can get onto a shuttlecraft can get into the Academy, but here only one person per planet can get in. And I have to say that if I were someone actually from that planet trying to get in, I'd be really darn pissed that people came from off-planet to try to take my spot.
A couple of trivia notes for this episode--apparently the writer of the episode was shocked to learn that a shuttlecraft had not yet been designed for the series, and the entire side plot about Jake and the stealing of the shuttlecraft was inserted by the writer just to get a shuttlecraft designed. I wish he would have had the clout to get us a view of the main shuttlebay, too.
The other piece of trivia--the intermix ratio question in the test led to some difficulty in the future, as some of the tech advisors felt that intermix ratios should be variable (for the creation of plasma), while the writer of this episode felt it should always be 1:1 (total annihilation). So the official answer in the Star Trek TNG Technical Manual for intermix ratios became that, at Warp 8 and above (the speed mentioned by the computer in the question), the ratio is always 1:1, but below it can be different.
I was a little scared of this episode, knowing it was a pretty heavy Wesley ep. Turns out the only weak points were some sets, graphics, and a couple of weird writing decisions. The cast, including Wheaton, did very well.
I didn't remember that the Academy testing was really more of the B plot to Remmick's investigation. I think this is one of the few times that TNG foreshadowed future plot elements; TNG was never meant to be serialized like that, but this time it works really well. We're left wondering what this investigation was about, what the Admiral thinks is going on, and what's going to happen in future episodes.
The direction of the interrogation in the conference room really stood out to me; it's probably a trite device, but I loved how the director mis-directed us as they moved between crew members. I also thought that everyone's responses, especially Worf and Crusher, were excellent.
The only part that bugged me about the Academy entrance exam was the overall idea that only one person gets in. I know I shouldn't make comparisons to the new universe, but in the new movie it seems that anybody who can get onto a shuttlecraft can get into the Academy, but here only one person per planet can get in. And I have to say that if I were someone actually from that planet trying to get in, I'd be really darn pissed that people came from off-planet to try to take my spot.
A couple of trivia notes for this episode--apparently the writer of the episode was shocked to learn that a shuttlecraft had not yet been designed for the series, and the entire side plot about Jake and the stealing of the shuttlecraft was inserted by the writer just to get a shuttlecraft designed. I wish he would have had the clout to get us a view of the main shuttlebay, too.
The other piece of trivia--the intermix ratio question in the test led to some difficulty in the future, as some of the tech advisors felt that intermix ratios should be variable (for the creation of plasma), while the writer of this episode felt it should always be 1:1 (total annihilation). So the official answer in the Star Trek TNG Technical Manual for intermix ratios became that, at Warp 8 and above (the speed mentioned by the computer in the question), the ratio is always 1:1, but below it can be different.