Star Trek TNG: The Schizoid Man (S2E06)

I'm not necessarily going to do a running commentary on this one, but I'm watching now and wanted to make a couple comments about the opening.

I hate Dr. Pulaski. Have I mentioned that yet?
I think Data looks fine with a beard. It was kind of mean for Troi to react the way she did.
Would it have killed them to stop for 5 seconds?
It's the dude from Babylon 5, right?
Why is it that, while we have names for pretty much every disease now, everybody in the future is dying of something new?
Again, something from a couple hundred years ago is called "ancient". Those darn ancient English settling the new world...
I believe the proper response is "Attracted? He's like my grandpa. Yuck!"
It's corny, but I really like Data calling him "Grandpa". In season 1, it wouldn't have been pulled off well. But it seems totally logical for Data to do it now.
I wonder if that was actually the actor in the casket, or just a picture.
Picard looks like he's going to try to get in on some Grandpa action...
Data/Graves isn't being too coy about things, is is?
Blondy had been in 10 forward, looking out the windows into space. If her interest is stargazing, why would the bridge interest her?
Why would any "devices" work on data? They would be built for human biology.

OK, so I did a little more commentary than I thought. Good episode. Not great, but good. Another opportunity for Spiner to flex his acting chops. Although, I do have to ask, am I the only person who really expected to hear Data start whistling "If I only had a brain" right before end credits?

I have trouble believing that those little communicators could reach the Enterprise that clearly once it re-entered warp. By the time they raise the Enterprise, it would have been a considerable distance from the planet.

This also would've been another good use of the saucer separation. Leave the saucer section behind orbiting the planet, while the drive section warps off to help the other vessel.

Did the "near warp transport" really save that much additional time?

There were a few oddities about Data as Graves. For one, how "Graves" can have that pronounced emotions when Data cannot. (For another, how Troi can sense emotions from him.) On the other hand, although he can have emotions that Data cannot, there were several instances that made it evident that he, like Data, could not use contractions.

I didn't get the "two personalities in conflict" thing. It would be more natural for Graves to simply overwrite the Data personality, but that would make a pretty poor story. Another more realistic possibility would be for the Data personality to be a program that was simply deactivated while the Graves one is running. There wouldn't be a reason for both to be running at the same time. (The ending would seem to indicate that they indeed weren't, since Data was unaware of anything that happened.)

I still love the visual effect of going to warp as seen from the windows in Ten Forward. It was first shown in "The Child," and again here, and it's worth them using it twice. It's a very, very cool effect, and if I were on the Enterprise, I'd be parked at those windows every time the ship went to warp.

LoadStar said:

I have trouble believing that those little communicators could reach the Enterprise that clearly once it re-entered warp. By the time they raise the Enterprise, it would have been a considerable distance from the planet.

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IIRC, Combadges have subspace transmitters so that shouldn't have been an issue.

LoadStar said:

This also would've been another good use of the saucer separation. Leave the saucer section behind orbiting the planet, while the drive section warps off to help the other vessel.

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I don't think so.
The transport had a manifest of 2000 passengers.
They would have needed the resources of the saucer section to handle the potential casualties (at the time speculated to be hundreds).

LoadStar said:

Did the "near warp transport" really save that much additional time?

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Picard thought so.
I thought that it was kind of cool myself and as a dramatic device, it helps set the sense of urgency for the Enterprise to assist the transport.

LoadStar said:

There were a few oddities about Data as Graves. For one, how "Graves" can have that pronounced emotions when Data cannot. (For another, how Troi can sense emotions from him.) On the other hand, although he can have emotions that Data cannot, there were several instances that made it evident that he, like Data, could not use contractions.

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Obviously Graves dumped his entire consciousness into Data, emotions and all.

LoadStar said:

I didn't get the "two personalities in conflict" thing. It would be more natural for Graves to simply overwrite the Data personality, but that would make a pretty poor story. Another more realistic possibility would be for the Data personality to be a program that was simply deactivated while the Graves one is running. There wouldn't be a reason for both to be running at the same time. (The ending would seem to indicate that they indeed weren't, since Data was unaware of anything that happened.)

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Consider Graves' personality like a computer virus that was working to gain control of a system.

LoadStar said:

I still love the visual effect of going to warp as seen from the windows in Ten Forward. It was first shown in "The Child," and again here, and it's worth them using it twice. It's a very, very cool effect, and if I were on the Enterprise, I'd be parked at those windows every time the ship went to warp.

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Agreed.
I think the effect was also used in The Vengeance Factor although from one of the cabin windows.

I like this episode a lot.
While it doesn't measure up to a number of episodes that follow it, taken in the context of not knowing what follows, this episode continues the marked improvement of the writing noted in Loud as a Whisper, especially when compared to the first season.

We get a good performance from Spiner here as Graves/Data and some good lines as well ("Did I win?").

Worf also has some good lines as well.

Oh and Barbara Alyn Woods?

Hawt!