[6.8/10] I’m always apt to cut Star Trek more slack when its heart is in the right place. “Loud as a Whisper” sends a clear message. The term “disability” is a misnomer and people who perceive and interact the world differently than the general population can have talents and insights that are invaluable and only made possible through their different perspectives and lived experiences. That’s a lovely theme to build an episode around and part and parcel with the progressive and welcoming spirit of the franchise.
Unfortunately, “Loud as a Whisper” is also a doldrum-filled, wheel-spinning episode that doesn’t convey that message very well. Thankfully, it does fail in the way some prior TNG issue episodes have, by muddling its points or, worse yet, seeming backward in them. It does, however, waste a lot of time arriving to the point and doesn’t make it as vividly or engagingly as it ought to be.
The vehicle for this one is another ambassador/negotiator type named Riva. Starfleet calls on the Enterprise to ferry him to Solais V in order to resolve a long-running dispute there. Pretty standard stuff. The twist is that Riva is deaf and communicates through a three-person “chorus.” One member represents intellect and artistry; another represents passion and warriorhood, and a third represents wisdom and balance.
“Loud as a Whisper” spends a lot of time explaining this and demonstrating it, and you can understand why. It’s the latest “alien has unique trait” guest star bit. As the most novel thing in the episode, TNG wants to show it off as much as possible. More to the point, it commendably shows a deaf individual as one of the galaxy’s most respected negotiators and a strong figure, which is a nice bit of representation.
But there’s two problems with it. The first is that however unusual Riva’s method of communication may be, it’s pretty easy to comprehend after a few minutes. The show doesn’t do much with it -- like say have multiple chorus members talk at once or anything -- so a lot of the “How does this work?” material seems superfluous.
The second is that Riva is, sadly, a pretty dull and generic character but for his mechanism of communication. Maybe it’s just because we’ve seen these negotiator types time and again in Star Trek, but he has the same approach and vaguely arrogant self-certainty they all do. The episode tries to spice things up and humanize him by having him show a romantic interest in Counselor Troi. But the two have no chemistry, and if anything, Troi seems mildly uncomfortable by his advances but duty-bound to entertain them given his importance and that of their mission.
The only moment in any of this folderol that really sings is when Riva interacts with Geordi. There’s a certain kinship between them. They understand each other given their mutual divergence in how they perceive the world. Geordi’s statement that he doesn’t resent either his visor or his blindness because they’re a part of him, and he likes who he is, makes for a heartening and reassuring message to all the differently-abled Trekkies watching the show. Riva’s affirmation that his method of perception and communication has been a boon rather than a hindrance is likewise an affirmation of those fans. The catch is that “Loud as a Whisper” never really closes the loop with Geordi. There’s an engrossing scene near the midpoint of the episode where Dr. Pulaski raises the possibility of restoring his vision. There’s questions and tradeoffs. Artificial ocular implants would reduce his vision by twenty percent. Regrowing his eyes would be risky, and there’d be no going back. It’s the type of thing that really should be its own episode. But TNG drops this idea in a single scene, and doesn’t come back to it for years.
I expected some sort of affirmation from Geordi that he’s happy with who he is and doesn’t want to mess with his vision. But even if the show went the other direction -- something LeVar Burton reportedly lobbied for, which I get since actors want to be able to emote with their eyes -- that would be better than this never-closed ellipses we get in “Loud as a Whisper”.
Separate and apart from Geordi, the show has trouble closing the loop on Riva too. The big obstacle here is that at the first peace negotiation, one of the delegates rages out and kills Riva’s chorus. Suddenly, this grand dignitary who’s honed his method for communication and negotiation is left without the ability to use his usual methods and becomes angry and withdrawn.
The problem is that, for all the time Riva spends farting around the ship not doing much of anything, we don’t really see him use his chorus in a way that makes them seem vital to the negotiation, or frankly even all that interesting. Data learns Riva’s sign language and offers to interpret, but Riva rebuffs him. He says that Data can’t communicate the passions or emotions necessary. That makes sense on paper, but we never really see or feel that from Riva’s prior interactions, so it doesn’t land the way it should.
Troi ends up being the one to convince him that he should still lead the negotiations, and as flat as she is in this one, it’s still nice to see her get the win (and an attaboy from Picard). She guides Riva to the epiphany that in the same way he tries to find common ground between warring parties, turning disadvantage into advantage, he can do the same with this challenge. The reasoning is a little tortured, but the point is a heartening one, that dovetails nicely with the episode’s message about so-called disabilities.
Riva eventually resolves to stay on Solais and help resolve the dispute by teaching obht sides to sign together. It’s one of those things that works better on a symbolic basis than on an actual reality basis, but the show at least uses enough dialogue-based fig leafs to make it superficially plausible.
The same can be said about “Loud as a Whisper” as a whole. It works better as a sort of pleasant, high level concept than as an actual story. The Next Generation endeavors to affirm not only Riva and Geordi, but those like them, whose lives are made no less worthwhile, and even greater, by their differences. The way it tries to dramatize that feels clumsy and unexciting at times, but the good intentions boost this one above its missteps as a story.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-02-07T18:14:45Z
[6.8/10] I’m always apt to cut Star Trek more slack when its heart is in the right place. “Loud as a Whisper” sends a clear message. The term “disability” is a misnomer and people who perceive and interact the world differently than the general population can have talents and insights that are invaluable and only made possible through their different perspectives and lived experiences. That’s a lovely theme to build an episode around and part and parcel with the progressive and welcoming spirit of the franchise.
Unfortunately, “Loud as a Whisper” is also a doldrum-filled, wheel-spinning episode that doesn’t convey that message very well. Thankfully, it does fail in the way some prior TNG issue episodes have, by muddling its points or, worse yet, seeming backward in them. It does, however, waste a lot of time arriving to the point and doesn’t make it as vividly or engagingly as it ought to be.
The vehicle for this one is another ambassador/negotiator type named Riva. Starfleet calls on the Enterprise to ferry him to Solais V in order to resolve a long-running dispute there. Pretty standard stuff. The twist is that Riva is deaf and communicates through a three-person “chorus.” One member represents intellect and artistry; another represents passion and warriorhood, and a third represents wisdom and balance.
“Loud as a Whisper” spends a lot of time explaining this and demonstrating it, and you can understand why. It’s the latest “alien has unique trait” guest star bit. As the most novel thing in the episode, TNG wants to show it off as much as possible. More to the point, it commendably shows a deaf individual as one of the galaxy’s most respected negotiators and a strong figure, which is a nice bit of representation.
But there’s two problems with it. The first is that however unusual Riva’s method of communication may be, it’s pretty easy to comprehend after a few minutes. The show doesn’t do much with it -- like say have multiple chorus members talk at once or anything -- so a lot of the “How does this work?” material seems superfluous.
The second is that Riva is, sadly, a pretty dull and generic character but for his mechanism of communication. Maybe it’s just because we’ve seen these negotiator types time and again in Star Trek, but he has the same approach and vaguely arrogant self-certainty they all do. The episode tries to spice things up and humanize him by having him show a romantic interest in Counselor Troi. But the two have no chemistry, and if anything, Troi seems mildly uncomfortable by his advances but duty-bound to entertain them given his importance and that of their mission.
The only moment in any of this folderol that really sings is when Riva interacts with Geordi. There’s a certain kinship between them. They understand each other given their mutual divergence in how they perceive the world. Geordi’s statement that he doesn’t resent either his visor or his blindness because they’re a part of him, and he likes who he is, makes for a heartening and reassuring message to all the differently-abled Trekkies watching the show. Riva’s affirmation that his method of perception and communication has been a boon rather than a hindrance is likewise an affirmation of those fans.
The catch is that “Loud as a Whisper” never really closes the loop with Geordi. There’s an engrossing scene near the midpoint of the episode where Dr. Pulaski raises the possibility of restoring his vision. There’s questions and tradeoffs. Artificial ocular implants would reduce his vision by twenty percent. Regrowing his eyes would be risky, and there’d be no going back. It’s the type of thing that really should be its own episode. But TNG drops this idea in a single scene, and doesn’t come back to it for years.
I expected some sort of affirmation from Geordi that he’s happy with who he is and doesn’t want to mess with his vision. But even if the show went the other direction -- something LeVar Burton reportedly lobbied for, which I get since actors want to be able to emote with their eyes -- that would be better than this never-closed ellipses we get in “Loud as a Whisper”.
Separate and apart from Geordi, the show has trouble closing the loop on Riva too. The big obstacle here is that at the first peace negotiation, one of the delegates rages out and kills Riva’s chorus. Suddenly, this grand dignitary who’s honed his method for communication and negotiation is left without the ability to use his usual methods and becomes angry and withdrawn.
The problem is that, for all the time Riva spends farting around the ship not doing much of anything, we don’t really see him use his chorus in a way that makes them seem vital to the negotiation, or frankly even all that interesting. Data learns Riva’s sign language and offers to interpret, but Riva rebuffs him. He says that Data can’t communicate the passions or emotions necessary. That makes sense on paper, but we never really see or feel that from Riva’s prior interactions, so it doesn’t land the way it should.
Troi ends up being the one to convince him that he should still lead the negotiations, and as flat as she is in this one, it’s still nice to see her get the win (and an attaboy from Picard). She guides Riva to the epiphany that in the same way he tries to find common ground between warring parties, turning disadvantage into advantage, he can do the same with this challenge. The reasoning is a little tortured, but the point is a heartening one, that dovetails nicely with the episode’s message about so-called disabilities.
Riva eventually resolves to stay on Solais and help resolve the dispute by teaching obht sides to sign together. It’s one of those things that works better on a symbolic basis than on an actual reality basis, but the show at least uses enough dialogue-based fig leafs to make it superficially plausible.
The same can be said about “Loud as a Whisper” as a whole. It works better as a sort of pleasant, high level concept than as an actual story. The Next Generation endeavors to affirm not only Riva and Geordi, but those like them, whose lives are made no less worthwhile, and even greater, by their differences. The way it tries to dramatize that feels clumsy and unexciting at times, but the good intentions boost this one above its missteps as a story.