Star Trek:TNG "The Child" (S2E1)

1626 Views 22 Replies 8 Participants Last post by doom1701, Oct 25, 2011

DougF

Discussion Starter · Oct 17, 2011

Still watching, but had a couple of random thoughts.

Riker has a beard...and some extra pounds. We all know he gained quite a bit of weight over the run of the series, but I never noticed before that it started so early. I guess I've never seen the S1 finale and S2 premiere back-to-back.

The establishing shot of the Enterprise arriving at the blue planet appears to be precisely the same footage used when the Enterprise arrives at J25 in "The Best of Both Worlds". I'm not complaining, as that happens in TV all the time. It just stood out for me since I've seen BOBW several times.

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DougF

Discussion Starter · #2 · Oct 17, 2011

That was decent. This was the season after the writer's strike and there are a few stinkers in there. This isn't one of them, IMO.

I'm pretty sure this story was originally written for the aborted "Phase II" series in the 70s. I'd guess it would have been Ilia who got impregnated.

I think Geordi's promotion was a good idea. I also liked the addition of Ten Forward and Guinan.

I don't dislike Pulaski, but I don't really like her. What bugs me the most is the IMO obvious attempt to make her just like Bones. Is there a reason they didn't just give her the last name McCoy and have her say her granddaddy was CMO on Kirk's Enterprise?

kaszeta

· #3 · Oct 17, 2011

Yeah, I had seen someplace else that this was a recycled Phase II script.

LoadStar

· #4 · Oct 17, 2011

Watching through first season, then sitting down and seeing this, it was a night and day difference. This really was the TNG I remember. You can really feel the difference in the budget here, allowing them to build the Ten Forward set and populate it with a fairly realistic number of extras, plus renovate one of their existing sets to be one of the shuttlebays. Even the ship exteriors seemed to be better made this season.

While Geordi finally is where he belongs, and it's good that after a full season they finally have a chief engineer, it still is a little unrealistic that he jumped from being a junior bridge officer and helmsman to being the Chief Engineer in the span of a summer. That's one hell of a promotion.

Pulaski was... well... yeah, she really was a female McCoy. I didn't like this choice; after spending a year trying to define their own identity, it is disappointing that they decided to go back to a character that seemed to be such an obvious copy of a very familiar TOS character.

The best part about the episode was that it finally gave Troi something more to do than lines that start with "I feel..." Still, some of her role was sidelined somewhat by everything else going on in this episode. Moving this story back to #2 or #3 would have allowed them to separate out the introduction of Pulaski and the adjustments of the other characters to to their new roles, and given Troi more time to have more leading role time.

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DougF

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 17, 2011

Anyone know why did Gates McFadden left? Her own choice or canned?

LoadStar

· #6 · Oct 17, 2011

DougF said:
Anyone know why did Gates McFadden left? Her own choice or canned?

Fired, according to Wikipedia. They wanted a stronger actress who would be able to stand up to the rest of the crew.

gchance

· #7 · Oct 17, 2011

DougF said:
Anyone know why did Gates McFadden left? Her own choice or canned?

According to Rick Berman:

Rick Berman said:
Gates McFadden fired at end of first season because head writer Maurice Hurley "he had a real bone to pick" with Gates and dint like her acting, Berman brought Gates back for 3rd season after Hurley left

http://trekmovie.com/2009/08/26/rick-berman-talks-18-years-of-trek-in-extensive-oral-history/

Greg

doom1701

· #8 · Oct 17, 2011

gchance said:
According to Rick Berman:

http://trekmovie.com/2009/08/26/rick-berman-talks-18-years-of-trek-in-extensive-oral-history/

Greg

I never knew the specifics, and I find it really interesting that they fired her. She had some really bang up stuff in season 3 and beyond, and it's obvious that they just had trouble finding the character in season 1. Too bad McFadden was fired for it...but good that she came back.

Doug, BTW, thanks for taking the reigns this week! I hope to have some time to catch some of these episodes.

LoadStar

· #9 · Oct 17, 2011

gchance said:
According to Rick Berman:

http://trekmovie.com/2009/08/26/rick-berman-talks-18-years-of-trek-in-extensive-oral-history/

Greg

I question the description that Berman brought her back. Most other accounts note that Patrick Stewart was one of her strongest advocates, and it was partially his campaigning that got them to consider her again, and it was his phone call to Gates that convinced her to come back.

JYoung

· #10 · Oct 17, 2011

You guys actually liked this episode?

No one I knew in 1988 liked this episode.
(Well except for the one person who thought it was a great "Pro-Life" statement and therefore gave it their stamp of approval.)

Back then, I thought it was a big disappointment.
I thought the end of Season 1 was starting to build up momentum but then the writer's strike happened.

So, not only was Season 2 delayed and shortened (22 episodes instead of the standard 26), we get a rejected script from Phase II as the season opener. Ugh.

We get a very good opening scene with the Enterprise rendezvousing with the Repulse and showing the Shuttle Bay, accompanied by a rousing Dennis McCarthy fanfare (which I thought was an improvement from his previous work which I had found too "new agey". Too bad that didn't last but that's not totally his fault.) and we see about the personnel changes to the Enterprise.

Then it drops into the deadly dull plot about Troi and the alien baby.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...

In fact, I'll go ahead and preemptively trash the following three episodes as weak and it killed any momentum that they had gotten from Season 1.
It was not a good way to end 1988.

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LoadStar

· #11 · Oct 17, 2011

JYoung said:
You guys actually liked this episode?

Well, I didn't NOT like the episode.

I thought it was an average episode, notable as I mentioned for giving a leading role to Troi, who had already been relegated to "I feel..." lines on the bridge. I definitely didn't think it was as dull as you indicate, at least.

ThePennyDropped

· #12 · Oct 17, 2011

Many sources say it wasn't that Maurice Hurley "had a bone" with Gates McFadden, so much as he was sexually harassing her, and then fired her for not being more welcoming to his advances. As written above, Patrick Stewart was one of her strongest advocates, and his advocacy was a key component to orchestrating her return.

JYoung

· #13 · Oct 18, 2011

ThePennyDropped said:
Many sources say it wasn't that Maurice Hurley "had a bone" with Gates McFadden, so much as he was sexually harassing her, and then fired her for not being more welcoming to his advances. As written above, Patrick Stewart was one of her strongest advocates, and his advocacy was a key component to orchestrating her return.

Sounds to me like he had a bone for McFadden.

The other thing I wanted to mention was that Thank God that they put Wesley in a uniform.

The fact that he was at the helm so much was a little weak but at least he was in a training program so there was a somewhat genuine reason for him to be on the Bridge.

LoadStar

· #14 · Oct 18, 2011

JYoung said:
The other thing I wanted to mention was that Thank God that they put Wesley in a uniform.

You don't think the grey thing with the stripes he wore during s1 was a uniform?

dtivouser

· #15 · Oct 18, 2011

Wasn't it during season 2 that McFadden kicked off that lucrative career in The Hunt for Red October?

JYoung

· #16 · Oct 18, 2011

LoadStar said:
You don't think the grey thing with the stripes he wore during s1 was a uniform?

No, I never thought of it as a uniform and you're the first person to mention it to me.

It actually looks like stuff I wore in junior high.

LoadStar

· #17 · Oct 18, 2011

JYoung said:
No, I never thought of it as a uniform and you're the first person to mention it to me.

It actually looks like stuff I wore in junior high.

To me, it seemed obvious that it was a uniform. Besides for him wearing it every week, the other hint that it was a uniform was the stripes in the three colors of the other uniforms (red, yellow, blue). It implied to me that as an acting ensign he had duty assignments in all three major areas of ship operations, which seems fitting.

kaszeta

· #18 · Oct 18, 2011

LoadStar said:
To me, it seemed obvious that it was a uniform. Besides for him wearing it every week, the other hint that it was a uniform was the stripes in the three colors of the other uniforms (red, yellow, blue). It implied to me that as an acting ensign he had duty assignments in all three major areas of ship operations, which seems fitting.

I think the intent was for it to be a uniform, but it looked a bit like the sweaters my great-aunt used to make.

doom1701

· #19 · Oct 18, 2011

LoadStar said:
To me, it seemed obvious that it was a uniform. Besides for him wearing it every week, the other hint that it was a uniform was the stripes in the three colors of the other uniforms (red, yellow, blue). It implied to me that as an acting ensign he had duty assignments in all three major areas of ship operations, which seems fitting.

I had never thought of it that way, although it makes sense (especially the coloring). Before that, it seems like he had one, maybe two outfits (both involving really thick sweaters)--I always figured the show staff just couldn't handle having a character that would logically wear different outfits.

gchance

· #20 · Oct 23, 2011

DougF said:
I don't dislike Pulaski, but I don't really like her. What bugs me the most is the IMO obvious attempt to make her just like Bones. Is there a reason they didn't just give her the last name McCoy and have her say her granddaddy was CMO on Kirk's Enterprise?

LoadStar said:
Pulaski was... well... yeah, she really was a female McCoy.

All these years later, and my thoughts are the same: I can NOT stand that woman. I said that out loud, to my wife, as I watched it this time around. Seriously, they made an effort to get the audience to hate her right out the door, mispronouncing Data's name, then not only arguing with him about it, but implying that he's a moron for questioning it.

While I love Ten Forward and Guinan, she didn't get much of an introduction before Wesley's scene. Picard says hi Guinan, and that's about it.

I do love the story of how she got onto TNG though. She was a Star Trek fan, and said hey, put me on it, heh. Isn't that also how Christian Slater got into Star Trek VI?

Greg

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