Marina's Acting | TNG 6.03, "Man Of The People" | T7R #359 - The 7th Rule -- A Star Trek Podcast with DS9's Cirroc Lofton

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hostilities between the two factions in Raycog's Seronia have intensified recently.
Lumerians are empathic only with themselves and Deanna Troy claused
the hell out of Riker's neck. Hello, everybody, and welcome
to the Seventh Rule. Was sar Roc lofton. Hello, my
name is Ryan T. Huskin. Today we're doing a review

(00:20):
of Star Trek the Next Generation season six already Man
of the People, written by Frank A. Bete de Marco.
I don't know if that's Italian or what, but directed
by Winrich Colby. This was October third, nineteen ninety two.
Where were you and how are you today? Sarak?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm great, I'm doing great.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yeah. So everybody, please make sure you like this video.
Subscribe to the channel, hit the bell like on for notifications.
If you're listening in, give us five star rating and
a nice review. We'd really appreciate that, and please go
visit us at patreon dot com. Slash the seventh rule
once again, that's Patreon dot com. Slash the Seventh Rule
to support the show. Keep the lights on, as they say,
and uh, you know, we'd really appreciate that. So so Rock,

(01:13):
you've never watched Star Trek the Next Generation before. You've
never seen this episode before, I'm curious to know your thoughts.
Was it worth the weight?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
It's worth the weight. I was not waiting for this one, uh,
but you know, I wasn't sure what kind of episode
this was going to be just kind of when it started,
you know, I wasn't sure they because they got the

(01:47):
distress call from the transport ship and I'm thinking, Okay,
this is one of those, you know episodes where we're
going to get a guest star from the transport ship obviously,
and I wanted to know who this episode would essentially
be centered around as far as the main gas. And
then we saw that it was Troy. And from when
I saw that it was Troy, I was like, Okay,

(02:09):
that's good. We're gonna get a good Troy plays a
psychological mental gymnastics with another maybe half telepath or something
to that. Eff.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, we had one like that before.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Right, Yeah? And so I thought, is this like that episode?
Because it was another it reminded me of that episode
which was not which left like an unpleasant kind of
taste in my mouth after that episode because of I
think it was Troy being violated by this other telepath.

(02:43):
So it was like she was, you know, being forced
against her will to I guess, cooperate in a some
kind of sexual.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Way.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
But this, this I thought was almost too similar to that.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, it's actually pretty similar in a lot of ways.
I mean in both. I guess she kind of started
off curious. She even said curious in this one, and
then the guy does some weird magical whatever thing that
turned sexual. And I mean this guy flat out called
her a receptacle. I was like, that is the rudest thing.

(03:25):
I Am not even gonna take that any further, but
if you call someone a receptacle, byte down that was
he said receptacle, like, you might as well just damn.
I can't even I was like, did he really? Just
yeah he did, so, I'll be honest, I barely remember

(03:51):
this episode. The only thing I remember about this episode, surprisingly,
I you know, I must have seen it before. But
the only thing I remember was Troy looking like this,
you know, with the gray hair and the streaks are white,
and I'm like, she looks pretty cool like that. She
looks like some kind of like warlock or you know,

(04:14):
a magic sorceress, you know, like she looked pretty crazy
in that outfit and the white streaks, and how come
nobody was like, oh, Deanna Troy. I mean, data said,
you know, she's altered her appearance, but nobody said yeah,
and her face looks darker and her hair is white.

(04:37):
Everybody was like, oh, well, that's that's Troy being Troy,
which is completely different than the first one hundred and
twenty five episodes. I don't really care.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Again, yeah, I think it was weird to me too
that she was aging, and then people didn't recognize the
aging part. They're just like, oh, look at the output
she's got. I'm like, yeah, but she's also twenty years old,
so yeah, that was also a little thing. But no,
even the other episode, if I'm not mistaken, there were

(05:10):
two psychics in that episode, one who was like a
a more muchure.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Like, yeah, there were two older an older guy, and
the younger guy was kind of framing that older guy, right.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yes, right, And again in this situation, it felt I
felt like, are they would they setting us up with
the you know, because with the the supposed mom character
I was, I had the same kind of I'm getting
set up by these two psychics, you know. Yeah, somebody

(05:44):
they'll switch arough like who's telling the truth or what's
going on here? There's a mystery And so again, like
it was almost they recycled the same intro. We have
two telepaths. They come in, you know, several telepaths come
in and uh, they're doing a negotiation of some sort.

(06:04):
I think the other one was a they were there too.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
You're right, there are a lot of similarities. I didn't
even really think about that when I was watching it.
I just kind of like put it on and I
was expecting it to get good at some point. I
don't know if I'm allowed to say that, I'm gonna
say I have a question for you, sir Rock. Yeah,

(06:34):
don't Star Trek seasons or Star Trek producers like to
start a season off pretty strong, you know, like this
to me and I'm not saying this was a bad.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Episode, but but you're not not saying yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
But just because I'm not saying it doesn't mean it's good.
So what I am saying is this feeling like episode
twenty three or twenty four or twenty five.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Mid season filler episode too, yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Around Thanksgiving where they're just like, I don't just knocked
something out real quick, and I'm you know, no offense
to anybody, but like, hey, what the did I just watch?

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah again, I keep recalling the last episode because you know,
it just had a for I almost thought they were
going to recycle the almost identical plot where because it
felt like she was a receptacle to sub Korea another
not to quote his words, but it felt like a

(07:40):
sexual violation occurred when the stones touched and she started
to you know, clutch herself.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
And like you know yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
Like right when they did the stone touching, I was like, oh,
I think this dude just like got in her brain
somehow and basically hooked up with her. That's what I
was thinking. I forget about the whole emotional luggage, dropping
off all of the baggage and putting it off on somebody.
What it really felt was, and the way it was

(08:11):
played was like it was a sexual thing, like she
had been violated, you know, through a telepathically. And so
I didn't register for me right away that this whole thing,
like the emotion that she was playing when the touch,
when the rocks touched, Yeah, that the way she played

(08:34):
it was like in hindsight, now I can see Okay,
maybe that's what she was playing, was the flood of
emotions coming on her of horror and you know, all
of the stuff that he puts off to the side,
becaun't don't want to deal with it. He was in
his piece making money, so he gives you all those
bad thoughts, and so that was what she was playing

(08:55):
as an actor, like, oh my god, all the horror
and the bad thoughts in my head. But from from
my pov, it felt like it was a sexual thing.
And what made it feel that way was the mother
character saying, I know you want to hook up with him.
I know you want to hook up with him, right,
so they already they already set us up for a

(09:19):
sexual encounter with them, you know what I mean. So
that's why I felt like this was like that kind
of a violation when the rocks touch. And it kind
of took me a while to walk that back.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, a lot of interesting points there. One was I
remember writing in my notes like when they did that,
I'm like, is that like a pickup line where they're like, hey,
you want to pound rocks? You want my rock to
bump into your rock like rocks? That doesn't sound Oh no,
trust me, it's really really it doesn't sound oh no,

(09:52):
you'll love it well truck anyway. But the other thing is, yeah,
the uh, you're right how they set the table immediately
with the mom character. And of course I'm writing in
my notes her name and trying to figure it, but
it doesn't even matter. You know, she was just a
pod device. But the thing is with her is when

(10:14):
she said, and this is a psychological thing, when she said,
I know you want to have sex with her or
whatever with him, and blah blah blah, you know, psychologically speaking,
when I saw that, I felt like the first thing
that Deanna Troy or any human would do is no.
But now that you mentioned it, I don't know, let

(10:37):
me see, you know what I mean, Like it amost
It almost just kind of you can't help. But I
feel like that kind of reverse psychology of I know,
you want to have sex with him, but you better not.
A person might be like, well, I don't know, maybe
I will. Then, you know, like you can't tell me
what to do. I don't know, Well yeah, yeah, yeah,
maybe I will. It really just kind of plants it

(11:01):
in that character in our character's head, but it also
plants it in the in our heads of like, Okay,
so this is gonna be a sexual episode from the top. Yeah,
that's it at the very beginning. You're right.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, and that is, by the way, that what the
mom character doing this. That's what a wingman needs to
do when you're out the boy. Yeah, that's the wingman line.
Just for everybody out there. You got to walk up
to the person and say, I know, you're trying to
hook up with my friend. It's not going to happen.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
You do better, you better not. No woman can crack him.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
He's he's just he's.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
So hard to get and you there's no way you
can get him.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
But here's his number though, Yes, and he's waiting for you.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah he's over there, and yeah he's a lonely but
don't you try it, you b boy. I mean it.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah, it worked on me too. I was like, I
was like, uh, I was like, this is actually a
perfect psychological way to make somebody want to hook up
with somebody. Like if you didn't say anything at all,
I would have been like, oh whatever, But the fact
that you said that, you know, and and then the
way she played it too, because the other lady's a

(12:18):
telepath right, or she has some type of telepathy. So
the way Troy played it was, oh, you got me,
you read my thoughts and I didn't. I didn't reveal
I was revealing that as a thought out there, and
she didn't. Really it was like, no, what are you
talking about? Like, no, I don't even know this guy,
and get that weird thing on your forehead. It's not
really unstracted to me.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
Yeah that's a way, but.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
But yeah, So again the writing set me up again
for the for the mental gymnastics of believing that this
episode was going to be almost an identical repeat of
the last episode. And then it started to make me think,
why when Troy finally gets an episode that's centered around her,

(13:09):
it's always some kind of violation happening to her. Right.
It's never just oh, you're a really good counselor and
great detective work or something like that. We got a
little bit of that with bar with Barkley's character, you know,
but for the most part, it's always, this is a
Troy episode. Some dude wants her, you know, to use

(13:32):
her for some reason that's nefarious or whatever.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
But you never know.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Wiker worked cheering for but everybody else like, you stay away?
What are you trying to do?

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Although, can I say that there was a moment there
where I really liked New Troy. I really I was like,
let's keep Troy. And that was when she was in
the counseling session and it's like, hey, maybe he's just
tired of all your complaining. I've been only sitting here

(14:09):
for ten minutes and I'm already sick of your voice.
Maybe you should think about that. And then she threatens her.
She's like, well, you better clean up your act or
you're gonna get transferred. You better stop complaining. I'm like, man,
they're like eighty percent of the people that saw that
were like, can you come to work with me for

(14:31):
one day? Please? Can you tell him? Just one day?
Fifteen minutes?

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Let me?

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Can I borrow your services? We'll call it HR or something,
whatever you want to call it. That's pretty good. I
really like New Deanna.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, yeah, I have to say I want New Deanna
to because the way she looked at that cadet in
the elevator, I was like, can you look at me
like that? Troy?

Speaker 1 (14:55):
I was like, okay, so here is the dichotomy. Here,
here's here's again. In the yang Is. Part of me
is like, damn, poor Marina. They're doing her dirty where
every time they give her an episode, it has to
be something like this, which is terrible and ridiculous and
I'm sure nowadays would not happen hopefully. But on the

(15:16):
other side of things, I'm like, but she clearly didn't
half ass it. The actress still knocked it out of
the park. For her part. She's like, Okay, well this
is this is the episode. And she could have very
easily been like I don't want to wear that, I

(15:37):
don't wanna you know, or whatever, or just been like
this looks dumb. But the way she looked at that ensign,
she was not half assing it. I was like, wow,
that's pretty good. She looked at him like that one
guy looks at hot dogs in the hot Dogger contest,

(15:57):
that New Jersey guy. He's like, you guys that you're
all all of it.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, I love that look. In the elevator, I thought
she was like that was enough set. I was like,
this guy's getting, he's getting. He's scoring for sure. I
was like, and poor Jordy, where where is he when
somebody is super horny? He's never around.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
That's what he's That's what when Ensign, When Ensign Charming
or whatever talks to Jordie, Jordie's like this, I'm giving
you a direct order. The next time somebody looks at
you like that, you tag me in. You've had You've
had your share, bro, this is not fair anymore. You know,

(16:44):
I like Troy and he's like, I know you, Like
everybody knows.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
I like Troy.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, poor poor Jeordie.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Everybody scoring before he that guy looked like it was
his first day at the job.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
He's waste extra action and he's like, I'm gonna and
it's like I'm gonna like it here.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
She looked at him like do I look like a receptacle?
And he was like, well, it.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Was a good she She really looked at him, though.
I was like, that was I can't do that. If
somebody said, okay, so in this scene you lean back
and you just look at her like you want to
eat her for lunch, and I wouldn't be I'd be
like terrible. But when she did, I was like, damn,

(17:36):
that's some solid ad. I mean really honestly, it was
good acting. I was like, that was very good, and
she sold it and she did a lot when when
she showed up wearing you, you know, parchment paper or
whatever that outfit was. I did think of you there,
and I wonder how many people's VHS tapes got fuzzy

(17:57):
during that part. But how do you, by the way, struck,
what did you think when she opened the door and
she was just wearing the hardly anything outfit?

Speaker 2 (18:11):
I mean, I had no objections to her all fits choices.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, you're the wardrobe guy, that's true.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
The wardrobe guy was killing it this episode, and so yeah,
I had no problem with that. And it's funny that
could deet He walked into the turbo lift and he
said deck four and she turned out and said, I'll
show you what it deck's for?

Speaker 1 (18:38):
Yes, and she did, she absolutely did. So Yeah, I
thought she looked great in her outfits. I thought she
acted well in all of her scenes. So as much
as I don't like the overall intention of like, okay,

(18:59):
you know, we need to let's use Troy for another
sexual episode where she gets used, and in this one
she had even less free will other than the other.
She didn't she didn't fight back, she didn't save herself,
she didn't solve the mystery. She was just like the
symptom or whatever. She was the receptacle. Yet the actress

(19:23):
again on the other side of that, was like whatever,
I'm gonna get a lot of screen time, so I'm
gonna kill it. And so I really think that she
gets a lot of kudos because I feel like a
lot of people rightly so would be like they'd kind
of phone it in because this isn't the most exciting
kind of episode to do.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
I don't think, Yeah, it wasn't that exciting. No, but
there were moments there that worked, and I'll tell you,
I'll give you one of the moments that worked for me.
What I really liked was the moment after the turbo
lift scene with the youngka dead in there, when Riker
comes walking up to her quarters and he see he

(20:03):
walks in. She she invites a man obviously, and then
he sees the cadet. Then they're like, oh shit, Like
I scut busted.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
He did, because he was like, he looked really guilty
because he's thinking. I don't know if he's thinking, uh oh,
Riker and Deanna are kind of a thing, or if
he's like, uh oh, that's my superior offer. Sir, am
I supposed to be doing this or you like, yeah,
he looked kind of guilty.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
He looked guilty. I mean, there goes the number two
guy on the ship, right, the one right under the captain.
He walks right in on you while you're having, you know,
a hanky panky moment, and basically everybody in that room
outranks you, so Troy is your superior and right, so
he's he's like, oh man, this, I don't know how

(20:48):
this is going to go. And I think it went
well for him. It would have been nice actually if
Riker kind of gave him one of those legs. Yeah, no,
not so much, Batmar. But I don't worry about it.
I know it's you know, this is not on you
type stuff like I'm not yeah, you know whatever.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
But but at that point he didn't he didn't know
it yet. But what I was thinking was the worst
part of that is he's doing this right when they
are meeting for crew evaluations, the worst possible. So the
writers like, hmm, what's your name? Ensign Jeremy okaysign Germany,

(21:31):
where's my red marker?

Speaker 3 (21:35):
There?

Speaker 1 (21:35):
It is F minus underlined, and he just tapes it
to the guy's forehead, Like if somebody gets a c
in the what's the food restaurant?

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah? Yeah, those letters, but what's the name is the
star Base eighty where they say people who do bad
that they should cut to, you know, And here the
over in Star Pas eighty just doing.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yeah with other degenerates and they're like, hey, hey, hey,
and so Jeremy tell us again about that time. What time?
You know the time? Oh yeah, yeah, I know what
you dine at the time.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Man.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Uh so, let me tell you. I've been I've been
feeling like something was gonna happen for months. She'd been
she'd been looking at me, and you know.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
You just just goes on and on. That was hitting
the gym, starting to look real good.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, new cologne. We heard that she was like possessed
by some rocks. And then then that's just Riiker saying
that because he's jealous of my.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
I was her rock. But no, that's that moment was
good because and the reason I like that moment is
because it played well for me in one note, and
the note was uh equity, And what I mean by

(23:09):
that is Riker has had his fair share of hookups,
and she's been aware of those, and she has been
very adult and nonchalant about those relationships and not made
a big fuss about him. She's you know, said, Riker,
you're a big boy. You can have herself, and so

(23:30):
whatever decisions you make, I can respect and support. And
so that shows her maturity throughout this show. And it's
also the nature of their relationship being kind of, you know,
one foot in, one foot out. You're not you know,
you're kind of cheering for them, You're cheering for them

(23:50):
to get to kind of be together, but they're exploring
other options because that's just the nature of you know,
Riker's character and personality and so and so she gets
her get back a little bit. And this is not
the first time, but she's also had it before when
guy came to propose to her and Ryker got it
real jealous and was like that was really weird.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
That was where he started are you okay?

Speaker 4 (24:15):
Man?

Speaker 2 (24:17):
But this was more this was more indicative of how
I expect their relationship to be, which is like, you know,
he walks in, he's like, you know, I'm not going
to even ask any questions, you know, I know what's
gone on here, and and it doesn't bother me. It
doesn't bother well, bothers me is how she was acting,

(24:40):
but not the fact that she hooked up with this guy.
So I thought that was a good thing.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yes, and you are hitting. Uh, what I thought personally
was the best part of the episode. And I want
to talk all about that right after the break because
I have some thoughts on that, and I thought that
Riker's reaction was actually the best part of this episode.

(25:06):
I think, Uh, there's one other, there's one other, you know,
good part. But we'll be right back on the Seventh Rule. Hey, everybody,
Welcome back to the Seventh Rule. With Sirok lofton yellow.
Here are the trivioids of the week. Hostilities between the

(25:28):
two factions in Raycog's Sarona have intensified recently. Lumerians are
empathically with themselves. Ves Alkers got a helicopter. Mom turned
out to not be his mom. It's time for Riker
and Troy to do the Dreaded Crew evaluation reports. Troy
wants to reward herself with two ice cream Sundays. Counselor

(25:48):
Troy in vest Alcar Touched Rocks. Counselor Troy has a
counseling session with Ensign Jane Way. That was weird. Troy
cancels all her appointments until after lunch, and Deanna claused
the hell out of Riker's neck.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
So that was Jane Way.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Yeah, she said, Ensign Janeway, that was pretty cool. She said, like,
isn't that?

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Isn't that the next captain to come a couple of
shows from.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
It could be if she's skyrocketed in five years, five years,
we'll call it three years or two anyway, So what
I thought was the best thing, and the two best
things are kind of related. One was I thought the
way Riker reacted was great because he didn't act angry,

(26:45):
he didn't act jealous. He just kept a professional, kept
it friendly, kept a professional, kept it caring. And then
when she tries to come on to him, he didn't act,
you know, in kind. He was just he was friendly,

(27:07):
he was professional, and he cared about her. He didn't
take anything personally, didn't take anything, you know, to heart.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
I feel like maybe there could be different ways to
react to it, but I was like, thank god, at
least we have this one island of goodness happening in
a sea of not great stuff. And he was also
funny when she opens the door wearing that, the look

(27:41):
he had was like, yeah, coming in for the hill,
Yeah you missed me, he did. Ah here and then
he sees the other guy's like, oh, oh all right,
cool whatever, that's fine, that's cool. I didn't. I wasn't.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
I didn't.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
I didn't think anything.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
No, I wasn't excited about. But yeah, that was funny too,
because I did notice that because when he walked across
the threshold, he was totally like, oh, this kind of
evaluation you want to do. Yeah, I remember these so
and you know, we're really what he should have been

(28:20):
concerned about, if he was really worried about her, was
the temperature inside of her cab, because clearly it was cold.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Yeah, because the ensign was shivering. I'm thinking that's I'm
pretty sure that's what you mean by that he was.
But she was warm because of the rock touching and
stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
So yeah, no, it was. It was very nippoly outside
and he walked right into it.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Space is cold. Space is cold. So the other thing
and you kind of touched on this too, that I
thought was really good and it's all kind of connected.
Was what a special and interesting and ahead of their
time relationship Riiker and Troy have. At the end there,
he's like, hey, you know here I am. I'll take

(29:08):
care of you anytime, and she says, thanks for sticking
by me, and he says, I always will, even when
you're old and gray TIHI and they were happy together,
and it's like, what a great open relationship they have
or whatever they want to label it. I don't know
exactly what it's labeled, but I know a lot of
people think they have an open relationship, or you know,

(29:31):
they're more than off and on again. It feels like
they just, you know, they care about each other and
they're just kind of like, you know, you do you,
I'll do me sometimes, I'll do you, you do you me.
I don't know, but it was a very mature way
for both of them. You know, what is it called whatever?

(29:53):
Ethical non monogamy I believe is what it is. But yeah,
they were great. I thought it was very sure, and
I really loved the way they ended up just being
happy and friendly and caring about each other and saying, hey,
I'm with you forever in whatever capacity it happens to be.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, and you know, that's you know, I think that
at the end when they kind of it looks like
they go in to hook up at the end, because
the way they left it, it looked like, you know,
they they made up in a nice intimate way. But

(30:34):
you know, I think Riker was turned on by seeing
a reverse age. There's nothing like saying, uh, you know,
somebody in love, go get younger all of a sudden
in front of your eyes. That's turned on.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Yeah. What if he was like, she's going to look
pretty hot when she's old? Is it all right? All right,
let's maybe I should give this a second look.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Exactly. You got to sneak previously, like you know what,
that's all right, I can work with that. Yeah. So no,
I think that was really the highlight of the episode,
their moments together. As far as you know, the performance
that Marina gave. I enjoyed that. It was a three

(31:16):
minutes where there were no words and it was just
her dancing in front of that mirror. Oh yeah, reflection here.
And you need to really give a performance in that
moment to be able to fill in space with no words.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Right, it has to be believable. That is very hard
to do and make it believable, you know, like you're
reading on the script right, and it's just like, okay,
she's doing tai chi or whatever with wharf who by
the way, I saw Ensign Gates, our buddy ens and Gates.
That's usually the red shirt in the you know, at

(31:52):
the helm with the cropped hair. I saw Ensign Gates
in the tai chi class with warf or whatever, cling
on tai chih But anyway, so she reads the script
and it's like, you know, she's doing her meditative martial
arts and then what does it say? Then she starts
touching herself erotically. She's like, okay, so like this or

(32:18):
like that or what you know I mean. And this
is again something that seems like it would be very difficult,
but you gotta go all in or it's not gonna work,
it's not gonna believable. And she went for it. She
just said, all right, well, I'm an actor, I'm going
to go for it. And she gets like major kudos
because that also, you also got to be brave to

(32:39):
do that, you know what I mean, Like, honestly, you
got to you gotta commit.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah, it's not an easy thing to do to just
like you know, and it was weird again, you know,
I guess my mind was stuck in that last episode
because even in that scene where she's wearing the tai
chi thing, am I did I imagine it? Or did she?

(33:07):
Was she like touching herself and it felt sexual?

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Oh yeah, right?

Speaker 2 (33:15):
To me, that moment felt sexual. She was literally about
the disc robe and at one point she started to
open her top up. So then I'm thinking to myself,
the weird thing is, here's where the logic doesn't connect
for me. So the guy and they touched rocks, and

(33:35):
through his telepathy, he unloads all his negative stuff on you, right,
his whatever, his worries, his fears, his sins or whatever
he's done, I don't know. Okay, he loves age somehow, Yeah,
his age. Yeah. So you know, well, I guess they're
saying that stress and holding onto these things ages of us. Right.

(33:59):
So if you had way too completely offload any negative thoughts,
are you know, you would probably age slower. And I
would pretty much agree that's possible, you know. So okay,
but then where does the sexual element come into play?

(34:20):
That's the part where I am confused because I can
understand her feeling horror feeling terror because she has been
now downloading all of these negative thoughts from this guy.
But how does that translate into a sexual moment and
you're grabbing yourself and touch yourself in that mirror room

(34:41):
by yourself.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Yeah, there was no explanation there to that. I think
they were just like, that's just part of the magic rock,
I guess. And the magic rock makes you age and
take on his stuff and also get really horny. What
it's a magic rock. You can do anything. Sci Fi
nerds will eat anything else up, they say. As they write,
they go, yeah, yeah, yeah, sci fi guys, the geeks

(35:04):
will love this. And then should we make her grow?
That's too much. Let's just put all this stuff together.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Call them the Marians.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yeah yeah, lumarans. No where have I heard that before?

Speaker 2 (35:20):
But yeah, no, I just felt like that's what threw
me off. Uh how does that translate to the sexual proclivity?
And that's what that's the part that I don't understand.
I can I get maybe if she already had a
sense of because they'll letting the older woman sense that

(35:41):
maybe she thought he was attractive. Maybe she looks at
him and she thinks he's attractive, like you know, you
have the thought in your head when you see an
attractive person. Okay, that's one thing, but how does that
develop into the whole touch myself and then I want
to sleep with the ensign and then I want to
sleep with Riker, and then I want to sleep you know,
like I didn't get that part of it where the

(36:06):
sexual devian part of it. Are those also part of
his negative thoughts? Where he you know, does he consider
that negative thoughts like hyges?

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Maybe? Yeah, But it wasn't just like thoughts that well,
I don't know. Again, it's just magic rock a man.
They're like whatever, they can have it, do anything. But
I agree that it was we don't necessarily connect you know,
old age and withering and unhappiness and bitterness with you know, sexuality,

(36:41):
like it doesn't you know, it didn't seem like that
needed to be there. But then they probably just were like,
we need another element to the story for it to work.
There wasn't even I guess there was a B plot.
I couldn't even really follow the B plot either, to
be honest. But let me say something else. I did, like, though,
here's something I liked, and I don't I still to

(37:01):
this day. Don't know why I like this so much,
but when when we see or hear Nurse Ogawa, the
second we hear her voice or the second I see
her face, for some reason, it makes me feel good,
Like it makes me feel like this is this is

(37:23):
good Star Trek. It just I don't know why. I
don't know why I make that connection, and I don't
know where it came from. But when there's Alissa Ogawa
in an episode, it it just makes it just feels
more wholesome, It feels more filled out. It feels filled
out the same, you know, in a similar way to

(37:44):
when there's Barkley, or when there's Gaynan in a similar way,
but definitely in her own way, but in that way
of like it's filling out the crew because otherwise those
seven main characters are great, but I love seeing more
of those secondary people coming in and it just makes
it feel like a fuller crew and a better crew,

(38:06):
and a it feels like a better episode when they're there.
Or O'Brien, you know, when he's there, but now he's
off on Deep Space nine with you.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Yeah, but you know one thing Nurso Gallo really allows
for this for with Crush or is somebody to go
back and forth with with her doctor stuff. You know,
It's just like otherwise she would be doing exposition to
the other crew saying, I'm going to give him fifty
ccs of hyper spray of div What it should do

(38:37):
is it should help open up this and then and
then it would constantly be her trying to explain it
to one of the other guys there, where she can
now bounce it back off of Nursagawa. And it sounds
like to people in the in the O R R.
The er just you know, working out what they would
work out in the natural course of things. So it

(38:58):
actually lets her balt is off with somebody and makes
her better as a doctor. It gives her that, you know,
authority as a doctor because doctors also are surrounded by nurses,
you know, of course, practitioners that helped them execute right
or else actually see the doctor. The nurse more than

(39:20):
you see the doctor for five minutes and says all right,
I looked at the chart and here you are and
everything is funny.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
Yeah, oh, they say everything's fine to you, lucky. But
like they also the thing that she used to do
before is just talk to a background actor, just be
like blah blah blah blah blah blah, and the background
would go like this and walk off, and then somebody
in a dr or whatever you know, would loop in
and go like yes, doctor or something like that. It's

(39:49):
just like, come on, let's put somebody else in there,
poor Beverly, give her something to work with. And anyway,
I just really I think a lot of it too
is I just really like Alyssa Gawa was demeanor. She
There's something about her that's very comforting, that's very soothing,
that seems nurturing and pleasant. Like I feel like she

(40:09):
would just have the best bedside manner, you know. So
there's something I just really like about her. Let us
know in the comments below, what do you like about Ogawa?
Am I tripping? What's going on? Why? Why do I
like her so much? It just it makes me feel
good to see her. I just really like like the character,
like the actress.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Yeah, yeah, you know. The other thing I thought about
was I've heard of moms like that, like the mom
that he like, you better not be into my kid
and stay away with my boy. There are moms that
are like that, and I thought, oh, this is one
of those episodes. This is basically you know Troy's mom

(40:58):
on crack, Like, you know Troy's mom was there to
talk to that mom. The two of them would have really.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
Just wow, that's something they would have added out.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
But no, that's what it reminded me of, like some
kind of overbearing moms. That's what I thought it was
going to be in the beginning. Of course you add
that little twist in it. But I don't know. I mean,
was this the first time we saw Wharf teaching the
tie chief class.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
I think it was the second. Maybe I feel like
we did see it once before and I don't remember.
I feel like he did it once before. But there
are more main characters in there. There are like three,
you know, main characters in there, not just Deanna and
Ensign Gates.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
But it's funny wharfs tiede chee because he's like the
the least at piece character that I can imagine. He's
so short tempered.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah, he's like, no, you must ground yourself.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
He's always wants to like jump to the course. I
think we should atteckt him now, so there's no peace
about it, Captain.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
We should destroy ourselves to teach them a lessons. That's
a terrible idea. But Captain I also wanted to point
out that two things. One was, oh, well, just let
Deanna Troy die and then resuscitate her. Whoa, that's uh,

(42:43):
that's quite a gamble number one. Number two. If you
could do that so easily and so assuredly, then how
come so many times they say, oh, he's dead, there's
no then I can do no, he's dead. Sorry. Oops. Like,
for example, when the bad guy dies, wharf just goes

(43:09):
captain you know whatever his name is, is dead, and
they're like all right, And nobody tried to resuscitate him.
They didn't check his balls, they didn't say are you
sure is there anything? They were just like, all right, whatever,
you know, let him rot, We're done with him. That
was kind of funny, I guess, yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
And the other part that was funny about that was
how long could she die?

Speaker 3 (43:35):
For?

Speaker 2 (43:35):
Thirty minutes? Right, and they're like so, then they bring
the guy out and they're like, how much time do
we have left? Three minutes and forty cents, Like, yo,
don't push the edge of my death to the last
sixty seconds.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Don't take it so close, I thought, And Reicho was
pretty chill about it too. He's like, oh, you could
do thirty three. She's tough. There might be brain damage,
eh whatever. I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah, I couldn't believe we're taking it. Like, how much
time left? We've got to hurry up. I'm like, no,
if you're gonna kill me, at least wait till little
guy walks in the door or something and then killed. Like, yeah,
get that clock started later, start that clock while transporting.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
They were way too sure of themselves with that entire process.
I thought. I thought that was pretty rough. However, I
think we're just about out of time. So it is
going to be time for a very fun thing that
we like to call where's my prop? Where's my prop?

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Go?

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Well, it's the Oh it's it's right there. I can't
reach it. It is time for the home run of
the episode, So Rock lofton who gets the home run
of Today's fabulous. I gotta be honest, I didn't like
this episode. I didn't know what the heck I was watching.
I can't. Yeah, all the things I said I liked,

(45:01):
I truly liked, But midway through the episode, I was like,
what am I watching and at the end, I was like,
what did I just This is terrible? Anyway? Sorry, home run? Yeah,
please continue.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
Well before I do that, I want to just give
a name out there, written by Frank Abate Marlowe, And
the first time I've seen his name. His name also
shows up as a supervising producer if I'm not mistaken
at some point during the opening credits.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
So is that right?

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Yeah? So, and first time I see his name as
a writer, and first time I see his name as
a producer. So I'm like, who's this guy? And where
did he come out? So somebody they brought on him.
Imagine in the sixth season.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Let's see if he gets any more episodes.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yeah, I don't know based on this one, but home
run of the episode. You know, an actor can only
deliver the material that's in the script, the page. And
I think that Marina Sertis, you know, did her job
of holding up this episode that really didn't have much
going for it, but she she acted the hell out

(46:10):
of it. You know. So I might not like the
episode that much, but I can't take away from the
performance that she gave.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Right, Yeah, I agree with you there, man, I just
looked up this guy. He has only two other episodes
that he's written, and I was surprised to see what
they are. They're coming up in the sixth season, okay,
because they're pretty pretty pretty darn good, like like iconic

(46:47):
level tnng good. Oh wow, kind of like if you're
talking about you know, iconic things like for d spased on,
like the Way of the Warrior or or the Visitor,
you know, like right right or best of both worlds
two parter. Like we're talking like like these are iconic episodes.

(47:11):
So I don't know. I guess. I guess sometimes you
can you can strike out in your next at bat,
you can hit a home run, I guess. Speaking of
home runs, the home run of today's episode, Yeah, to me,
it goes to Deanna Troy for rocking it, for just
going out there and you know what they say, there
are no small parts, only small actors in this situation.

(47:34):
There are no bad parts, only bad actors. And she
was like, whatever, I'm going to take this script, which
may or may not be good, and I'm going to
rock the hell out of it because I'm a professional.
And she totally did and I'm proud of her. I
think that's freaking awesome that she did that, and certainly
this episode was not bogged down by her. She did

(47:56):
her part in spades, so easy home run of the
episode for her.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
Also some other people that are easy to like are Yeah,
I was like that, didn't I better finish people. We'd
like to thank our friends, doctor Anne, Marie Siegel, Eve
England Out in Wales, you, Vet Black, Ben Tom d
J Jackson bay Out, Missoura, Titus Moeller, doctor Mohammed Nora

(48:25):
and Neil ou Platte, Joe Balceerati, Mike Goo and doctor
Stephanie Baker, Carrie Schwent, Faith Howe the Matt Boardman.

Speaker 5 (48:36):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
He also says you could call him a Matt boardman
if you'd like. Chris McGee, Jake Barrett, Henry Unger, Allison
Leech Hide, Julie Manasfi, Jed Thompson, doctor Susan V. Grooner,
Glenn Iverson, Dave Gregory, Chris Sternitt, greg Ka Wickstrom, Cassandra Gerard,

(48:58):
Chuck A, Chris Garrison, James Kerwin, and of course Jason
m Okin. All Right, everybody stick around, We've got the
Free for All coming up next. We will be right
back on the Seventh Rule. No more bad episodes please TG.

(49:21):
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Seventh Rule. With Sarack Lofton,
I'm bat Mohammed loves those guys. Yeah, yeah, this is
the free for all everybody with Melissa Longo. Hi. There
also Jason m Okin Hi everybody. Chuck a is the

(49:45):
TG fanatic. Hey Carry is Crafty Bear and you know it.
Faith Howl is on the bridge of the Enterprise. D
Eve England is out in Wales and the Dark. Chris
McGee is here for all of us. Here we go.
This is why I was giggling earlier. Jake Cisco, I

(50:07):
guess is the IMDb score?

Speaker 6 (50:12):
Wow, I'm gonna it's gonna be something that starts with
the number six.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
Yeah, I'm gonna say six two, six, six point two.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
Ouch ruthless. Does anybody else have any guesses that doesn't
already know?

Speaker 3 (50:36):
Five?

Speaker 4 (50:38):
Five, eight, he just I'll be a contrary and not
my personal opinion, but I'd go as high as six five.
I know it's a lofty.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
Charles Barkley, Carrie Schwent, you're guessing that it's a four
on IMDb today? Is that what I saw?

Speaker 3 (50:55):
No?

Speaker 1 (50:56):
I know what it is but I okay, okay, all
bets are in. The correct answer is Keith Jennings five
point seven. Wow, we have.

Speaker 7 (51:11):
Not had that's my height too.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
All right, see this is your episode.

Speaker 5 (51:24):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Did we get any nonparentstentions? I think Cat Jenny No, okay,
Chris McGee any some kinds of or some sort of
Is there anything we can enjoy about this episode?

Speaker 4 (51:35):
Yes?

Speaker 8 (51:35):
If you close two of them.

Speaker 5 (51:38):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (51:38):
First, for card says do you suspense expect that her
death poses some kind of threat to the enterprise? And
then later asks could Yanna have picked up some kind
of disease from her?

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Excellent? Thank you sir. All right, let's get start off
on the right track. Malise A Longa, please let us
know what you thought of the official malisse Alongo episode
No Away.

Speaker 7 (52:03):
You know, when I watched this episode, and I do
always watch these things twice, and I was dreading the
second time watching this, but it really ticked me off.
This episode ticked me off because one, why does Troy
always get stuck with these skeevy dues that want to

(52:26):
violate her? Why is she the target of everyone's violation?
I don't get it, because she's a smart woman and
very capable of doing other things than getting violated by creepy, horrible, fucky,
disgusting men. I am all for women owning their sexuality.

(52:50):
That's great. I'm all for women owning that they have appetites.
But in this case, she didn't get to consent to
this kind of reveal. She didn't get to consent to anything.
And I feeld that happening over and over and over
again in the TNG episodes is where they're stripping Troy

(53:14):
of her consent constantly all the time, and it drives
me insane. Yes, she's a beautiful woman, but again, like
I said, she's got more things and just her beauty.
She's got more gifts and attributes than just her beauty.

(53:36):
I will say, on a positive note, I did laugh
when she was counseling and s in Janeway that was
pretty hilarious. Then you should just quit. That was hilarious,
And I do. I do still enjoy her and Riker's relationship.

(54:00):
I this was the saving grace for me for this
episode is that Riker says that she's the closest person
that he's ever known. That's important, that's important information, and
I love I don't know, I just love their relationship.

(54:22):
That's all I have to say.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Great stuff as always, Melissa f Longo, all right, Jason,
m ok, what do you think of this one?

Speaker 4 (54:34):
Well, to put it bluntly, I've always disliked this episode.
I want to say intensely dislike. But maybe sometimes that's
the feeling I get. The main question I ask, and
certainly I ask now, is why are we seeing this?
I mean, there are obvious reasons. They had to come
up with a story, they had to do it quickly,

(54:55):
and it was I mean that explains everything. I mean,
they had to put an episode together, and this is
just what came out of it. I don't think, Frankly,
it's Rick Kolby's finest hour either. It's just, you know,
the only thing that perhaps is good here, as you know,

(55:16):
Marina's acting. I mean she was given sort of this
bad part to play and in a lot of the
sort of Troy centric episodes that, as Melissa said, have
been pretty bad. But you know she you know, she
holds her own pretty well, and that really is what
kind of drives this whole thing forward. Again, the story
is awkward. It doesn't Frankly, do anything or teaches anything.

(55:39):
There's sort of this little speech at the end or
a conversation at the end about the needs of the
many and the needs you know, not the way the
needs of the few over the one sort of the
Star Trek theme. But that's only sort of very very shallow.
There's no real purpose to this at all. There are
a lot of things that can pick apart here. I mean,
it was it is kind of a bottleshel you know, shot.

(56:01):
There's there's another you know, there's one sort of locate
you know, say new set there that used these nineteen
eighties glass bricks or whatever you want to call them
in the background. That sort of took me out and said,
oh geez, this is the early nineteen nineties. But it's
just again it's it's cheap and more waste and one

(56:24):
there issues with the makeup on occasion other things. It's
just again, frankly, not Star Trek's finest.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
Hour, thank you very much. Jason m Oakin all right,
he calls it like he sees it, chuck A what
do you think about this one? You're a huge TNNG fanatic.
Was there good in this episode or just.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
Well? The Riker Troy coupled their scenes as Melissa mentioned,
we're good. I thought they gave Gate Beverly Crusher a
lot to do in the episodes. She doesn't always get
a lot to do. It's a shame they gave. I mean,

(57:10):
Marina obviously had a lot to do, but they didn't
give her a good episode. For Troy she takes I
was mentioned a lot of abuse, and they give her
a lot of stuff that she stories that she should
be given. She should not this. This episode should not

(57:33):
have been done. It should have been it should have
picked something else to do. I have a small list
of bad TNG episodes, and unfortunately this is one of them.
It's a shame that it comes after a few good
ones in a row that we had end of season five,

(57:54):
in the beginning of season six, I do have.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
It was good to.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
See like Dursa Gowa has had a few things in there,
to see her in there, and you know the transporter
chief you know, had a little help takedown scene at
the end there with and Pecar got got stabbed but
he said he was all right. So but I mean,

(58:23):
it's just there was very few decent good scenes in
the episode. It was, like I said, a very poor
episode for especially going into a good season like season six,
which is there's going to be so many good episodes.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
Good point. Remember we looked it up. Season six has
the highest overall IMDb score, so you know there's going
to be some bangers to counteract this guy. Thanks very much,
chuck A. All right, Carrie Schwentz your thoughts. Top fifteen episode.

Speaker 5 (59:01):
No more like another one to add to the we'll
never be able to watch again because unfortunately watching it
this time was like like like The Price a couple
of seasons ago, It's definitely a lot more triggering this
time around. A car reminded me far, far too much

(59:24):
of the X, especially at the end of the card
is confronting him and the way he bragged about the
way he the way he was you think, all all
of the all of his receptacles. It's exactly the way
my ex used to just have literally brag brag about stuff.

(59:47):
I did not care, did not care for him at all,
and he seemed almost familiar. But I looked him up
and the only thing I recognized him from was was
a Voider episode, And thanks, he's a lot less creepy
in in that in that episode. But that's that said,
Marina did a hell of a job with the material.

Speaker 3 (01:00:11):
She she she was, she was.

Speaker 5 (01:00:13):
Given most of her looks I very much enjoyed. I
really really love her in the blue dress behind Melissa,
the hair is fished at the touches of grape. She's
gorgeous in that dress. And we had seen that dress
before on one of the companions of the Fat Faringhi
and Beautification too in that that club club with the

(01:00:35):
woman with the four arms playing playing the piano Marie, Yeah, yeah,
and call me, call me morbid. But the the little
coffin shape box that Alkar kept the crystals, and I
thought that box was really really cool looking, just neat shape.

(01:00:56):
I loved the like the lining on the inside. I
don't know, I can't, I can't. I kind of dig
dig that sort of stuff. I'll keep coming back back
up and highlight the one the one guest thro that
I really recognized, the the assistant trying to figure out.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
How print Leva Leva.

Speaker 5 (01:01:19):
I think the one the woman at the at the
end that he tries to connect with.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
That doesn't that doesn't go very well.

Speaker 5 (01:01:27):
Stephanie Stephanie erb Is The is the actress's name. She's
of the guest star. She's the one still still current
currently acting. The one thing I did definitely recognize her
from was a couple of weeks a couple of years ago,
she pinched it for one of my favorite actresses on
General Hospital who had who had to have surgery filled

(01:01:49):
in failed in for her for a couple of weeks, and.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
Diet A did a fantastic job with it.

Speaker 5 (01:01:55):
This the role in this episode was her first acting credit,
and I thought she did pretty pretty well with the
little bits that the little bits that she that she
did have to do. And yeah, like like Chuck and Melissa,
I adore Riker, Riker and Troy, I picked this You're

(01:02:16):
not purpose because Riker is in this episode is.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
Her moral support.

Speaker 5 (01:02:21):
He's there for her even when she's acting all all
kinds of all kinds of weird and scratching the hell
out of his face. I mean, how but the scene
at the end when they're cuddling on the on the couch,
it just gives it gives me, It gives me the
warm fuzzies and reminds me of my my husband when

(01:02:41):
I'm going through or get getting through something. He's he's
he's there for the excellent snuggles as well. And I
may not have ice cream, but like like the Dark Alert,
I do have my my chalk, my chocolate wine. And
of course Riker and inspired the limerick for the episode

(01:03:02):
that I will finish with My anxiety is acting very strange.
Her behavior seems to have really changed. This man got
into her head a thought which fills me with dread.
But she knows I am here for her.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Always excellent stuff. Thank you very much, Morbid. All right,
I listened, Faith, howel is up next? What did you
think about this episode?

Speaker 9 (01:03:33):
Yeah, definitely we're out of season five because this is just.

Speaker 10 (01:03:37):
Terrible, and I felt like, haven't we seen this like before?
We've seen like this exact same storyline two or three
times now. It feels like between you know, we had
that one guy in what season one or two where
he was and deaging or whatever, and then we had

(01:03:58):
another episode where somebody was dumping on Troy like it.
It's not always exactly Troy, but it feels like we've
seen this before. I will say, you know, as you
guys have already commented, I think the saving grace is
split between getting to see Troy and r like or
really shine together in ways that is, you know, showing

(01:04:19):
the development of their relationship. And also Marina is just gorgeous,
Like I I have a.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Girl crushed on her.

Speaker 9 (01:04:26):
I'm sorry to say, not sorry to say, but she's
she's fabulous. Yeah, I just it's such a throwaway episode.
The only thing though, that chocolate Sunday. I'm gonna have
two chocolate how fudge Sundays?

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
Like, why not just.

Speaker 9 (01:04:44):
Have one large one? Why do the dishes for two?
That must be a new like a replicator thing. They
must only come in this size.

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
It's a good point, Thank you very much. Faith Howell
uh kind of liked it. Eve England is out now
out in Wales. Please let them know you actually this
is your first time watching this episode and you thought
this was.

Speaker 11 (01:05:12):
And this will be the last time. I watched it
once and I'm not ever going to watch that again.
It was just a horrible episode for all the reasons
that everyone has already said, so I'm not going to
reiterate all of that horrible stuff. In the way they
just treat Troy as just appalling. I mean, I kind
of got the sense that they were trying to do,

(01:05:33):
I don't know, a sort of take on say, the
picture of Dorian Gray that he had, you know, all
of his bad things were going into his receptacle and
he could go off and have his life that he wanted.
But I kind of it was kind of creepy for
all the wrong reasons, for all the reasons that everyone's
already just mentioned. But I kind of did get the

(01:05:54):
sense that there was this sort of gothic horror vibe
to it. I mean that picture behind reis, I mean that,
you know, it just kind of screams some kind of
Brider of Frankenstein or or Tisha Adams or something like that.
So I thought that's what I kind of got, those
sort of vibes, but it just was executed really badly,
and I just, yeah, to finish the comments, it's just

(01:06:16):
the fact Troy was just so passive as well, you know,
she had to be rescued at the end. She was
just a dying corpse on the table for the last scene,
and it was just really frustrating. And yeah, I just
I was kind of hoping that by this point in
TG we would actually start having some decent Troy episodes,
because I just feel like she's just a wasted character

(01:06:38):
and it's just incredibly frustrating.

Speaker 1 (01:06:42):
Yep, thanks very much, Eve England out in Wales. All right,
Chris McGee, let him have it. What do you think
of this one?

Speaker 8 (01:06:51):
Okay, you asked for Well, it didn't take long to
get our first mediocre episode of the season, did it. Unfortunately,
like so much any Troice centric episodes before, this one
just doesn't seem to work well. Of Course, I don't
blame Marina's artist at all. I think she did quite
well with what she was given. I'm just tired of
the Troy must suffer episodes and I'm glad I'm not

(01:07:13):
the only one. Uh Anyway, so it was nice to
see Susan French of this episode playing said Mailer and
ambassdar Callers mother. I remember her most from one of
the earliest horror films I ever saw, House from nineteen
eighty five. Her characters pose when she died was borderline frightening,

(01:07:36):
as though her passing was anything but peaceful. That's one
unfortunate image that is stuck in my memory from this episode.
When all Car doesn't show any grief over his mother's passing,
one could quite easily chalk it up to bad acting,
but of course it later becomes clear that he has
no emotional attachment to his receptacles, so his reaction, or

(01:08:01):
rather the lack thereof, makes sense. Still part of me
wants to say that he should have at least put
up a grieving front so no one would get suspicious.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
And if it.

Speaker 8 (01:08:13):
Hasn't been pointed out before, the knife that Troy threatens
Picard with is the same prop as Captain Dathon's if
I can find the correct image there, it is Captain
Daithon's knife in Darmock. I wonder why she stole it
from Picard's quarters. One thing I'm curious about is if

(01:08:35):
only a little bit curious, is if all Card has
ever had any receptacles of other genders. If not, one
could say he harbors maybe a hatred of women, kind
of liking the girl with a dragon tattoo. And the
memorable quote of the episode for me, strangely is Riker
saying it's that time again. The dreaded crew evaluation reports.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
Nice which made me think of lower decks. Thank you
very much, Chris McGee, great stuff as always, all right.
Jake's final take, Wait Rock Frozen, Jake's final take. Any

(01:09:20):
final thoughts on this episode? Strock. We were raving about
it the first hour or so.

Speaker 6 (01:09:26):
Uh yeah, final thoughts. Let's see one see Oh yeah,
Ambassador al car is that a rock in your pocket
or you're happy to see me?

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
Actually it's two rocks. We need them to touch. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:09:45):
No, anytime a guy pulls out some rocks out of
a box that's shaped like a coffin, I think the
coffin box thing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
It should be the giveaway. I saw that box and
it was a nice looking box, but I was like,
it's shaped like a coffin. I don't like good vibes. Yeah,
let's see what else we got here.

Speaker 12 (01:10:12):
Yeah, I still didn't get why why the sexual aspect
was there. I just didn't get that that why she
had to be sleeping with everybody and that I can
understand having a downloaded emotions, but that aspect of it
that just seemed out of place for me.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
Just but that woman in the beginning that he claimed
to be his mother reminded me of my mother. When
she doesn't want somebody that I'm talking to to mess
with me, she does everything she can to play defense
on that situation. So, yeah, so you know one of

(01:10:54):
those things like you need to stay away from him.
I thought, I was like, oh my god, Mom, please
kill it. And then I loved it when she said
have you made it with him yet?

Speaker 13 (01:11:06):
That made me laugh a little bit because that's just
it's such a rude question to see Troy's face, Like,
I don't even know what to say to you right now?

Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
What else do we have here? This was a terrible episode,
so you're really pulling for stuff when you have to
review this stuff. Here's the last thing I had to
I heard there was a lot of transporter activity going
on in this episode, right They wanted to transport him

(01:11:40):
out of the room, transport this, and I think at
one point Picard said transporter Chief, do this and that.
And when he said transporter Chief, I thought they were
going to see the real transporter Chief, you know, O'Brien himself,
But he wasn't in this episode, and I wish I
could have seen him.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
We had.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
We had a substitute transporter Chief, I forgot. I don't
know what her name is, but she was in there
in this episode. But every time I hear transporter Chief,
I want to see O'Brien. So I missed out on that.
But yeah, I mean, this is one of the biggest

(01:12:19):
critiques of this show. It's just like they just don't
know how to write appropriate stuff that doesn't look chauvinistic
and look like they don't have a clue about how
to tell stories for women. And this is an exact
number and the exact one like that. It's like, guys,
you don't have any.

Speaker 14 (01:12:37):
Sisters or mothers or something that you can like, there's
no stories that you have that seem more believable than
always this sexual exploitation, always this you know, objectification type
of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:12:52):
I mean, Marina serves is beautiful to look at. She's
able to keep our attention because of her performance and
because she's you know, beautiful to look at, so you know,
those things happen. Yeah, I mean, I mean, if you
remove that aspect of it, then this episode goes even

(01:13:13):
farther down the toilet as far as how bad it ranked.
She's literally saving it at a five point seven IMDb.
She's she's saving it with her performance, which is, you know,
it shows you how bad it is. But yeah, I
would have I would have liked to not seen this one.

(01:13:33):
They could have definitely saved this at least farther on
in the middle of the season where they could bury
it and kind of hide it in the in the shuffle,
but it starts the season. Also you're like, oh, it's
gonna be a good season. It's gonna be great. I
can't wait season six. I heard it's the best. And
then you're like, are we back to like season one
and two? Is this? You know? It was not good?

(01:13:57):
So and interesting, only enough, right, and I talked about it,
but the writer Frank Bate Marlow ends up writing some
good stuff according to what Ryan says in his research.
But this is not a good start start for him.
But somehow, somehow he gets a chance to redeem himself.

(01:14:21):
And I'm looking forward to the Redemption song.

Speaker 1 (01:14:24):
This was right, Redemption was last season, but no, awesome.
That's it for us, everybody. Thank you so much. Chris McGee,
Eve England out in Wales, Faith Howl, Carrie Schwent, Chuck A,
Jason m Oaken, Malisse Longo, for myself, Sirah Melissa, and

(01:14:46):
mister Aaron Eisberg. Thank you all very much for hanging
out with us. If you are on Patreon with us,
we'll see you on the other side of things left
unsaid where we are just Ah We cannot wait to
boy oh boy more of this episode, and if you're not,
join us at patreon dot com Slash the Seventh Rule
so you can get more of this goodness. We'll see

(01:15:06):
you next time, and until then, always remember the Seventh Rule.

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Marina's Acting | TNG 6.03, "Man Of The People" | T7R #359

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Marina's Acting | TNG 6.03, "Man Of The People" | T7R #359