UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek TNG S2E5 - Loud as a Whisper
Comments (30)
This episode I'm kind of mixed on. It's certainly a strange one, and it's not IMO to the episode's credit that the most memorable part was the unique disintegration effect. However Seago gives a passionate performance, and the actors for his chorus do a great job as well considering the 4 of them are in a sense playing the same character in the scene, which is a unique acting challenge. I've never been one to glorify disability. I mean I get that you'll sometimes hear people with disabilities say they wouldn't change it if they could, but to me that's always seemed like cope. I mean they know they CAN'T change it, so it's easier to convince yourself you don't want to. How many people say "I wish I was blind/deaf/crippled"? If gene therapy could prevent disabilities before children are born, or we had treatments to compensate for them, why wouldn't we do it? Why would anyone choose to limit themselves? The go to a lot of effort to "medibabble" away why Riva can't be helped like Geordi, but really deafness should be a lot easier to fix than blindness. I know Riva said don't respond if provoked, but that one guy gave like a good 5 seconds warning he had gone rogue before he fired. Riker had time to tackle Riva out of the way, but not to draw his already set to stun phaser and knock him out? As a "disability awareness" episode, it does a good job. As a Trek episode, it's a'ight.
This is one of my favorites in S2, actually. I get why people might think it's slow or forgettable, but I just honestly love the idea. Love the idea of the chorus and as sad as his chorus dying was, it made the episode even more interesting. It's an episode that's stuck with me for decades since I first saw it when I was around 12 or 13.
I think Dr. Pulaski’s silent approval of Data in this episode shows that she’s grown to appreciate him, and that growth took place during “Elementary, Dear Data.”
I’ve always liked this episode. It’s kinda a simple story Rivas Chorus is neat. And the mystique built up around this great mediator makes him seem important.
The release order of this episode and the next was the reverse of their production order. Unlike “Symbiosis” and “Skin of Evil” last season, the order of these episodes has no narrative significance. Anomalies of this kind will become increasingly rare across the next decade and a half of the Star Trek franchise, while never ceasing completely. Howie Seago (Riva) is Deaf in real life and approached TNG during the writers’ strike with the idea to make an episode featuring a Deaf character to combat stereotypes. One particularly authentic detail in the episode is that the ruling family of Riva’s planet (not the entire species) are genetically Deaf; certain real-life royal families on Earth, including that of Saudi Arabia, carry the Deaf gene. The script specified that Riva is unable to read and write, but the finished episode does not state this explicitly. As Alex and Josh recognized, Riva’s gestural language is modern-day American Sign Language (ASL). This was convenient in terms of production, since Howie Seago speaks that language, and made the episode especially enjoyable for viewers who know ASL, who could understand Riva’s unsubtitled rants after the deaths of the Chorus. Opinions differ, however, on whether Riva’s use of ASL is in accordance with Star Trek’s usual convention of assuming the Universal Translator is always in operation for the audience, since in this case the UT appears to translate Riva’s alien gesture language into a language (ASL) which some, but not all, of the audience understands. The three members of Riva’s Chorus correspond to Sigmund Freud's concept of the Id, Ego, and Superego. The episode’s script had Riva learn to speak overnight after the deaths of the Chorus, but Howie Seago objected that this would perpetuate the practice of forcing Deaf children to speak in real life. Seago suggested the ending in the aired episode only the day before it was filmed. Colm Meaney yet again plays the Enterprise transporter operator. It is likely that regular viewers, like Alex and Josh, were beginning to recognize him by this point and to regard the transporter chief as a recurring (albeit unnamed) character. Unfortunately, the surname of Meaney’s character once again appears prematurely in this episode’s closed captions, despite the end credits listing him simply as “Transporter Chief.”
When Picard handed the bridge over to Data, you said that it would normally be LaForge. It wouldn't. Lt Cmdr Data is the ship's second officer and is the third in command after the captain and the first officer. LaForge was left in charge in Arsenal of Freedon because Picard, Riker and Data were all on the planet.
And as the new Chief Engineer, LaForge has to run Engineering. He's no longer a bridge officer.
The actor was deaf who played riva
When I first saw this at 17, I was honestly bored and tuned out. Watching it again with much time having passed, I found the actor playing Reva kind of moving when he and Geordi had their bro moment. The dude is very expressive in certain scenes. The plot was still meh. But I liked it more than the first time.
No update on the SCORE-board but Troi would have scored but Picard once again interrupts calling them to the bridge. Did Picard play offensive line in football because his blocking is hall of fame level.
45:15 It's not the whole species that can't hear, just a family line. He obviously was taught sign language already, too. Were you even watching, Alex? :-O
Alex is going to physically attack you.
44:10 It's kinda a shame they didn't leave Riva a subspace radio with which to contact someone when he's ready to go home...
28:30 I figured you guys would like that 'twist' :-)
Guys, let me just say before I get to the discussion video, watching this one with you was a great experience. Not only was the episode very strong imo, but I could absolutely see the effort you guys put into not stepping on the dialogue, while still being able to make me laugh out loud several times throughout the watch. Huge props. I figured you guys would like this one, but I get the take that it falls on the slow side a bit. But hey, that's TNG. Some episodes are just real talky but that's what's great about it. At least 3 people (wait, 4) got turned into skeletons lol
Speaking as A completely blind individual, The nerves that make up the optic nerve are millions of microfibers, individual dead fibers make the equivalent of dead pixels in the image, but can also be attributed to damaged retinal cells. I was born with a condition called congenital x-link retinoschisis IN WHICH a protein code was corrupted during the formation of my retina. It formed improperly and deteriorated over 40 years. I was supposed to be totally blind by the age of 5. I had the first surgery on my eyes 2 days before I was 2 years old. Many issues with eyes can be solved if the problem is in the front end of the eye, but retinal and optic nerves issues are beyond current technology I try to explain it when I could see as If you have a camera and you have bad film in the camera you will never get a good picture. No matter how many lenses you put in front of the film. Glasses are just lenses, if you have bad retinal or optic nerve then the film of your eye is bad and no glasses will ever correct the issue. Our biggest problem in that area is bridging the gap between the hard wire of tech, versus the wet wired biology provides little functional translation between the manmade tech and Man-made body So, no matter how you slice it Dr. Pulaski even with the imaginary tech of Star Trek is highly unlikely and the human part of the equation is always tgoing to present limitations.
Thank you for sharing this
Dr. Pulaski just nodding at the VISOR-less Geordi when he asked if she was done examining him was kinda funny
The actor who plays Reeva is deaf IRL. Edit: nevermind everyone already knows.
The scene where the chorus was killed was not as graphic as the scene in “Conspiracy”. But it was working on getting to that level of graphic
Is it just me, or does S2 have a 'grainy' look to it? I haven't seen the remastered versions, but there is something about S2 that looks both unique to TNG and also a little.....I'm not sure of what word to use....It's not cheap. It's not ugly. But there is something not quite right about it either.
CBS Digital originally planned to remaster the series by doing odd-numbered seasons in-house, and outsourcing even-numbered seasons. However, season 2, remastered by HTV Illuminate, was very poorly done, and as a result, CBS Digital decided to remaster all the remaining seasons themselves in-house. As for why S2 would look grainier even pre-remaster, the Director of Photograph (responsible for camera and lighting) for S1/S2 was let go and S3 had a different person. This change also got rid of the infamous black cardboard cutouts on display panels (used by the S1/S2 DP to hide reflections). My guess is that the change in DP coincides with the change in the look you're describing.
Nice tee shirt, Josh!
I think I made mention that the woman in the "chorus" is married to John de Lancie, the actor who plays Q.
Yeah a few people mentioned that in the takes. Neat!
A pretty solid episode. Not one of my favorites by any means, but it makes good use of Troi. The idea of a telepathic “chorus” is clever, and I appreciate they cast an actual deaf actor, but mostly a “filler” episode for me.
There’s no filler episodes on episodic tv
Oooooo loved this one. As a kid I thought it was awesome that they got a deaf actor and brought up the limitations and struggles.
Most of my friends did not like this episode 35 years ago. However, I always liked this one it had some realistic ideas of dealing with disability and loss
I thought it was pretty good. But I might be biased, my father was blind.