Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season 3, Episode 18
Original Air Date: March 26, 1990
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| via Memory Alpha |
Merry Christmas!
Captain Picard is kidnapped and replaced with a doppleganger. The real Picard is imprisoned in a cell with three other seemingly random abductees. The doppleganger leads the Enterprise on an apparent suicide mission. He also confesses romantic feelings to Beverly.
It occurs to me that Star Trek contrives these situations a lot: something weird happens and our usually restrained heroes reveal their true natures. It strikes me as... lazy. And it goes all the way back. "The Naked Time" was only the fourth episode of the original series. The entire crew is intoxicated and we find out what each principal most desires. Job done, folks, we never need to delve too deeply into psyches again.
My griping aside, "Allegiance" has its moments. Patrick Stewart is stellar and the makeup work garnered an Emmy nomination.
Acting Notes
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| via Marvel Database |
Stephen Markle plays the role of Kova Tholl a Mazarian and one of Picard's fellow captives. Markle was born September 26, 1945 in Toronto. Other TV guest appearances include Crossing Jordan, The Practice and The West Wing.
He passed away November 6, 2018 from complications related to Parkinson's.
Later I found Fake Picard to be a kind of dry run for the real Picard’s journey in the final episode.
ReplyDeleteThey are the only two episodes in which he shows up at the poker game.
DeleteIt's unfortunate that writers so often do these contrived things to reveal something about a character. It is lazy, especially when in a TV series where you have plenty of time to do character development.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteI remember how disappointed I was at the end of this episode. But it wasn't as bad a "The Naked Time" which just didn't make any sense to me for various reasons.
ReplyDeleteNaked Time is really the only episode in which Sulu gets any meaningful development.
Delete