In this issue, Robert Heyman continues to look back over Next Generation’s seventh and final year. Each issue of LogBook examines two more episodes under his microscope (a study which began in the October issue).

Interface
“Sometimes, stopping by is just stopping by.”
- Geordi, to Data

While experimenting with a new interface device, Geordi learns that his mother and her ship, the USS Hera, are missing. Geordi believes her to be alive after encountering her image on a damaged starship trapped in a planet’s atmosphere.

Although Geordi finally gets some much-needed backstory, any emotional impact is lost thanks to a silly and contrived B-story in which subspace aliens assume his mother’s form to help rescue them from imminent death in the planet’s atmosphere, serving as an inane catalyst for a final reconciliation between Geordi and his distant mother.

LeVar Burton does the best he can with a script that offers little in the way of excitement or character surprises. Why is it that nearly every regular on the Enterprise has an estranged parent who has communication problems with their child? First Riker and his dad, then Troi and her mom, and now Geordi and his mom. It’s an old and artificial way to manufacture conflict among characters, more suited to a soap opera than a space adventure, and in this particular episode the effectiveness is nil. If you’re going to say something about a character, say something new. The only redeeming qualities are an interesting interface experiment and a cameo by Ben Vereen as Geordi’s father. Too bad it was wasted on this episode.

Gambit Part I
“That’s my sister. She’s angry. She’s got a vicious temper. I wouldn’t cross her.”
- Riker, speaking of the incognito Beverly

In a rare action-adventure romp, the Enterprise crew is investigating the apparent murder of Picard when it is discovered he’s posing as a smuggler aboard an alien ship in search of valuable artifacts.

It may not be your typical Trek-ian morality tale, but does it need to be? It’s fun to see Riker dodging phaser blasts and the crew getting slapped around by greedy villains. They should have done this stuff more often. Location photography provides some much needed scope and Peter Lauritson’s sophomore turn at directing is particularly effective, especially a wonderfully staged phaser fight on the planet’s surface (although all that Starfleet training never included a course in how to aim your phaser).

The only weaknesses are some plastic characterization of the villains and forced conflict between Worf and Data, who assumes command of the Enterprise after Riker is captured. This episode nicely builds on the father/son relationship between Picard and Riker as the two try to outwit Baran, played by gruff Richard Lynch. And for those who really want to know, Sabrina LaBeauf pops up in a who-cares cameo as the Ops office who helps Data chase down Baran’s ship. It’s an exciting, special effects-laden installment with a cliffhanger that could successfully pass for a season finale.

Maybe the years softened the rougher edges of a beloved show. Maybe it was expectations set too high. Whatever the case, Alien Nation: Dark Horizon was a bit disappointing.

Last month, I discussed how the series tackled the topics of racism and intolerance. Perhaps I should have also mentioned that at time the series used a hammer when a screwdriver would have done the job better. It was not the most subtle of programs.

Even though Dark Horizon was enjoyable, it was hampered by that same lack of subtlety. The Purists were evil; human Matt Sykes and Newcomer George Francisco were good, with only hints of frailties. Only Ahpossno showed real signs of learning from his experiences.

A member of an elite military caste, Ahpossno was sent to Earth by the Tenctonese leadership in order to recover the missing slaves. In order to return them, though, he must help find the cure to the virus created by the Purists in the cliffhanger three years ago. After all, dead slaves serve no purpose. In addition, the humans could be taken in as domestic servants. Even though he is beginning to waver, he has his duty. Like so many soldiers before him, Ahpossno is doing what he is ordered to do, good, bad, or indifferent.

Ahpossno’s redemption is hampered, not by the script, but by the ham-fisted direction of executive producer Kenneth Johnson. The nuances of character are there, and Scott Patterson fleshes out those nuances as best he can, but Johnson maintains Ahpossno’s stony edge until near the end of the movie.

Oddly enough, Johnson’s heavy direction actually creates on of the best single scenes I’ve watched all year. You can really feel the panic, anxiety, fear and anger of George Francisco when he realizes that “they’re coming to enslave us again!”

Despite all this, Alien Nation: Dark Horizon was still rather enjoyable. It brought a satisfactory conclusion to the cliffhanger, and told a second compelling story. But best of all, it reunited us with some of our favorite characters from a favorite TV show, without falling into the “see, we’re back!” cuteness trap. This was a better-than-average sci-fi TV movie, especially when you consider the few bright spots TV sci-fi has had in the past year.

Reaction to Dark Horizon could spark Alien Nation’s return, either as several made-for-TV movies, or possibly even as a regular series. The strength of Dark Horizon leads me to believe that whichever direction Fox takes, they can’t go wrong butting Matt and George back on the beat.

How am I supposed to teach my children to be discriminating TV viewers when obnoxiously dull programs such as SeaQuest DSV are being palmed off as family shows? “Family oriented” does not have to mean a show is written weakly.

Last year, the stories were interesting, although they tended to be rather dull. Captain Bridger and his crew more often than not seemed to be chess pieces being pushed around by the writers. But the science was usually solid.

This year, after a promising start, SeaQuest has fallen into an even worse malaise than in the previous year. The new producer promised a greater emphasis on the science fiction elements of the series. Even though that promise has been kept, the scripts have been muddy, confusing, and in some cases, downright incomprehensible. The tension levels are so low they are almost imperceptible. This year, I wouldn’t even go so far as to call the characters chess pieces, they are more like checkers.

Hints of a dark, ugly world occasionally turn up in SeaQuest. The environment has been damaged to the degree that oxygen must be manufactured, genetic engineering is severely restricted due to some horrible mistakes (the Daggars), there are hints of global power blackouts, tiny republics have extraordinary power. There’s a wealth of material on this show to be explored. But they don’t want to examine this dark world. They lean instead toward bland stories of internal United Earth Organization crises, which in all honesty were told better in the first season.

Admittedly, there have been a few nice touches during this second season. The two hour season premiere dealing with the genetically engineered life forms, or GELFs, was a fairly dramatic story of a group of people seeking equality. Athough the tactics the Daggars used were not acceptable, the story adequately dealt with their frustrations. Darwin the dolphin, who is normally handled as a talking Flipper, was featured very well in the episode that brought the return of the aliens. But a few nice touches here and there cannot bring about a solid show. It needs consistently strong writing, which SeaQuest is not getting.

The weakness we see in SeaQuest is quite baffling. Steven Spielberg is a co-producer and it was created by Rockne S. O’Bannon. Both of these men know what it takes to make, if not good science fiction, at least watchable science fiction.

I really want to like SeaQuest DSV. It has a lot of dormant potential. But we really could have done without the much publicized reworking of the premise. SeaQuest needs to be torpedoed.

We interrupt this scheduled review of Earth 2 to bring you an important commentary Without Warning.

Several months ago on Comedy Central’s Politically Incorrect, host Bill Maher brought this question to the panel: “Are we a nation of idiots?” Based on the reaction to CBS’s Without Warning, I would have to answer “yes.”

As fictional news bulletins, Without Warning was a depiction of meteor strikes on Earth. Despite the advisories before the movie started, and following every commercial break, that this was a dramatization, panicked people were calling CBS affiliates nationwide about this horrible news event. In fact, one ABC affiliate reported that they received calls from some folks wanting to know why they weren’t covering the meteor strikes.

I talked with some people at KFSM TV-5 who said they also received a lot of calls from concerned viewers. So many, infact, they ended up running additional advisories during the show.

Why are we so gullible? We are taught as children to think, then act. But so many of us apparently forget this. All it would have taken would have been a couple button presses on the remote control to see if ABC, NBC or CNN were covering the meteor strikes. Furthermore, there were some subtle hints that this was not a real event. Even with the advances in technology, it would have been virtually impossible for any network to mobilize its new department to provide full audio and video at all locations depicted in such a short period of time. Lead anchor Sander Vanocur, playing himself, was almost too calm and collected throughout most of the crisis. Most of the coverage was too smooth for an actual breaking event.

This was a fun thriller. It was moderately scary. But a little thought on the part of the viewers would have ept the worries down to a minimum.

This is the same reason the term limits movement is so strong. People are unwilling to do their homework. They would rather have responsibilities legislated away than think for themselves.

There’s something inherently humorous about seeing superheroes bellying up to the couner at a greasy spoon, drinking coffee and nonchalantly talking about the crisis of the day.

That is a common scene in the inconsistent, but often outrageously funny, cartoon The Tick. Based on the comic book, the adventures of the “nigh invulnerable” hero air Saturday mornings on Fox. It’s quite possibly the funniest cartoon on broadcast TV, maybe even surpassing Animaniacs.

The Tick and his sidekick Arthur, a wanna-be hero also known as (but seldomly called) the Moth, protect The City from a rash of evil-doers. The City is also overpopulated with superheroes, so many I’ve lost count.

The Tick is huge, blue, as dense as a neutral star, has eyes as big as picture windows and is almost as smart as a rock. Property insurance rates must have gone up in The City since the Tick came to town, as he damages the rooftops while racing across town to his destination. Even simple statements are delivered by the Tick in a super-dramatic manner.

Even though I get at least on good laugh out of each week’s adventure, The Tick hasn’t had as high a laugh level as the premiere episode. In the opener, the Tick faced a group of bad guys whose masks muffled their words to the point of incomprehensibility, although they could understand each other. He also “ran out of roof” on his way to the hydroelectric power plant. The Tick puzzled over it until he hit on the brilliant idea to take a cab.

In another episode, the Tick, Arthur, and American Maid were grabbed by a steel cable. The Tick announced, “I’ll snap this cable!” and pumped up his muscles. But instead of the cable snapping, the other two were squished until their eyes bulged (I chuckled at that for about twenty minutes). But you haven’t lived until you’ve seen the Tick wrestle with a giant tongue…

Definitely worth a look, The Tick conveniently airs just before the nihilism of X-Men.