| Review : |
A very good episode, with top-notch writing and acting. Obviously, some of this harked back to "Journey to Babel", but here we had no external threat, but somehow Sarek's condition was more chilling. Old age can change people (Bendii Syndrome seems to have a parallel with Alzheimer's) and it's something we know will catch up with all of us. Right from the start, we had a sense that something was not right, then it developed into something we half-understood. As well as all the angry exchanges, we had several key confrontations, where Mendrossen lied through his teeth to Picard, where Data talked Sakkath round, and finally when Picard faced Sarek head-on. The scene where Picard has to deal with all of Sarek's emotions at once could only have been done by Patrick Stewart. With anyone else, it would have looked completely overacted, but he made it convincing (probably all those years on stage helped there). Mark Lenard was also entirely convincing, with Joanna Miles also doing well. Overall, good writing, good acting, good episode. |
