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Spoiler-free notes: Clever editing in the beginning. I love that they continue to reference old guest stars like Dr. Selar from "The Schizoid Man" and Kosinski from "Where No One Has Gone Before." The vortices remind me of Poltergeist. All she has to do is go through the light. Gates McFadden doesn't get nearly enough credit. Her acting in this episode is exceptional. This is the third time that Dr. Crusher has been rudely interrupted just before expressing her feelings to Picard, after "The Arsenal of Freedom" and "The High Ground." "Damn, I'm sorry Welsey," seems like an underreaction to the loss of Dr. Crusher. The computer says that Dr. Crusher is the only crewmember of the Enterprise who has ever existed. She should ask it who was piloting the ship during the entire second season. Agh! It's the Nothing! "If there's nothing wrong with me, maybe there's something wrong with the universe!" Man, if I had a nickel for every time I've said that... Dr. Crusher isn't wearing a lab coat when she goes into the warp bubble, but she's wearing one when she comes out of it. This implies that the alternate reality inside the bubble is as manifestly real as the reality outside the bubble; there is a concrete, persistent substance to it. "Remember Me" is best viewed as a sequel to "Where No One Has Gone Before." It contains a lot of the same ideas, not to mention the same guest star. It is uses the classic "something weird is going on" Star Trek template (I shall hereinafter refer to these types of episodes as "puzzle shows") to produce a trippy spin on narrative logic. In a relatively standard formula--one we've seen multiple times on this show--there's an opening scene that seems unrelated to the plot but which contains dialogue that gets at the story's theme; it's Fiction 101 type stuff. In this case, the theme is expressed when Dr. Quaice talks about getting old and having everybody disappear. What makes this episode unique is that there is a reason why the narrative goes on to adopt that idea, turning a philosophical thought into a physical reality. If you meditate on this, it's a little profound, a reflection on what it means to tell stories. I can't get enough of episodes that tickle my mind like that. | |||||||||||
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Copyright ©2011 e. magill. All rights reserved.
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