Interesting that there is no visual effect to indicate the shuttle passing through the atmospheric containment field. (I'm assuming a containment field is present, because otherwise all those crew members milling about on the shuttle bay deck would have had no air to breathe as the shuttle exited, and they would have gotten very cold in the vacuum of space.)
When Data runs into Deanna in the corridor, he is on his way to meet Dr. Pulaski—presumably in sickbay. After Deanna asks for his help getting to sickbay, they turn around and head back the way from which Data came… Scenic route?
Whatever Eichner radiation is, apparently superglue emits it. (Data says "certain cyanoacrylates" do; cyanoacrylates are fast-acting adhesives, commonly known as superglues.)
Picard tells Riker to "make it so" in response to the ship being "ready to leave orbit". Shortly afterward, Picard enters the Bridge from his ready room, only to give Wesley the order Riker was presumably supposed to give—to prepare to break orbit, and set course for the Morgana Quadrant. Maybe a script revision broke the logic of this? Not sure.
Ian's maturation rate seems to fluctuate. He comes to term in about two days (roughly 150 times the normal ten-month gestation period for a Betazoid), then grows to the rough equivalent of a four-year-old in one day (about 1400 times normal speed). Either the writers didn't bother doing the math, or they just said, "The hell with it."
Wow, 184 words and I didn't even get to the review part. I wasn't even in hardcore nitpick mode.
Anyway, about the story: This was super rushed. Wesley gets a small bit of character development, but he's about the only one.
Everything else feels really contrived, especially Ian's arc. He gets practically no screen time, and all the focus goes from Deanna's pregnancy to the dangerous virus specimens as soon as he's born. Then suddenly Ian realizes he's a danger to the ship and lets his humanoid form die… because the episode ran out of time, I guess? There was no emotional impact, for me. The audience wasn't given time to bond with this character, so why should they care about him? (Also, he's not really dead. The "life force entity" still lives on.)
Troi's parturial experience inexplicably leaves her extremely attached to the mysterious child, though. I can't really make sense of Deanna's emotional journey through this episode. Her tone of voice and choice of words at the first meeting regarding her sudden pregnancy carried a distinct undertone that she felt, basically, raped. But then she does an about-face and insists on giving birth to the kid, after a pretty lame scene where she introspects silently under the other officers' distorted voices. I've seen at least one claim (sadly, without a source) that this was Marina Sirtis' least favorite episode of the series, so maybe she thought it was just as shallow as I did.
Given that this episode was based on one of three scripts originally written for the aborted Star Trek: Phase II series that was to air in 1978, I shouldn't be too surprised that it flopped. The other two scripts were adapted into "Devil's Due" and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The former (TNG 4x13) was an OK but not great episode, I guess. The latter was the opposite of this episode in many ways: A long, slow-moving, dragged-out film that featured the character (Lt. Ilia, a Deltan) who was to have given birth to the alien baby in Phase II's version of this story. (I reviewed ST:TMP quite some time ago: https://trakt.tv/comments/38620)
The good bits of this episode are the additions: Ten Forward, Guinan, Miles O'Brien.
Well, Miles isn't really new (he appeared in two early first-season episodes as a crewman-of-the-week), but this is the first time he's shown operating the transporter. He doesn't have a name yet, but it's still progress toward what became one of Star Trek's best Average Joe characters. I'll take whatever I can get, because Colm Meaney is great.
Funny how Wesley says Guinan never talks about herself. She's only been on the show for five minutes, hasn't she? Of course she doesn't talk about herself. There's been no time!
It's also nice to have Geordi bumped up to Chief Engineer, Worf officially made Chief of Security, and an in-universe explanation for why Dr. Crusher is absent! It really does only take one line of dialogue to turn "pretending that nothing changed" into "moving forward after the absent character's life changed". How refreshing to be thrown that bone, as a viewer.
Review by dgwVIP 10BlockedParent2018-12-08T08:27:04Z
Interesting that there is no visual effect to indicate the shuttle passing through the atmospheric containment field. (I'm assuming a containment field is present, because otherwise all those crew members milling about on the shuttle bay deck would have had no air to breathe as the shuttle exited, and they would have gotten very cold in the vacuum of space.)
When Data runs into Deanna in the corridor, he is on his way to meet Dr. Pulaski—presumably in sickbay. After Deanna asks for his help getting to sickbay, they turn around and head back the way from which Data came… Scenic route?
Whatever Eichner radiation is, apparently superglue emits it. (Data says "certain cyanoacrylates" do; cyanoacrylates are fast-acting adhesives, commonly known as superglues.)
Picard tells Riker to "make it so" in response to the ship being "ready to leave orbit". Shortly afterward, Picard enters the Bridge from his ready room, only to give Wesley the order Riker was presumably supposed to give—to prepare to break orbit, and set course for the Morgana Quadrant. Maybe a script revision broke the logic of this? Not sure.
Ian's maturation rate seems to fluctuate. He comes to term in about two days (roughly 150 times the normal ten-month gestation period for a Betazoid), then grows to the rough equivalent of a four-year-old in one day (about 1400 times normal speed). Either the writers didn't bother doing the math, or they just said, "The hell with it."
Wow, 184 words and I didn't even get to the review part. I wasn't even in hardcore nitpick mode.
Anyway, about the story: This was super rushed. Wesley gets a small bit of character development, but he's about the only one.
Everything else feels really contrived, especially Ian's arc. He gets practically no screen time, and all the focus goes from Deanna's pregnancy to the dangerous virus specimens as soon as he's born. Then suddenly Ian realizes he's a danger to the ship and lets his humanoid form die… because the episode ran out of time, I guess? There was no emotional impact, for me. The audience wasn't given time to bond with this character, so why should they care about him? (Also, he's not really dead. The "life force entity" still lives on.)
Troi's parturial experience inexplicably leaves her extremely attached to the mysterious child, though. I can't really make sense of Deanna's emotional journey through this episode. Her tone of voice and choice of words at the first meeting regarding her sudden pregnancy carried a distinct undertone that she felt, basically, raped. But then she does an about-face and insists on giving birth to the kid, after a pretty lame scene where she introspects silently under the other officers' distorted voices. I've seen at least one claim (sadly, without a source) that this was Marina Sirtis' least favorite episode of the series, so maybe she thought it was just as shallow as I did.
Given that this episode was based on one of three scripts originally written for the aborted Star Trek: Phase II series that was to air in 1978, I shouldn't be too surprised that it flopped. The other two scripts were adapted into "Devil's Due" and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The former (TNG 4x13) was an OK but not great episode, I guess. The latter was the opposite of this episode in many ways: A long, slow-moving, dragged-out film that featured the character (Lt. Ilia, a Deltan) who was to have given birth to the alien baby in Phase II's version of this story. (I reviewed ST:TMP quite some time ago: https://trakt.tv/comments/38620)
The good bits of this episode are the additions: Ten Forward, Guinan, Miles O'Brien.
Well, Miles isn't really new (he appeared in two early first-season episodes as a crewman-of-the-week), but this is the first time he's shown operating the transporter. He doesn't have a name yet, but it's still progress toward what became one of Star Trek's best Average Joe characters. I'll take whatever I can get, because Colm Meaney is great.
Funny how Wesley says Guinan never talks about herself. She's only been on the show for five minutes, hasn't she? Of course she doesn't talk about herself. There's been no time!
It's also nice to have Geordi bumped up to Chief Engineer, Worf officially made Chief of Security, and an in-universe explanation for why Dr. Crusher is absent! It really does only take one line of dialogue to turn "pretending that nothing changed" into "moving forward after the absent character's life changed". How refreshing to be thrown that bone, as a viewer.