FULL DISCUSSION - Star Trek TNG S2E5 - Loud as a Whisper

Someone in the writers' room says "I have this cool idea for a scene. Someone shoots someone and we see them disintegrate. Now we just need to come up with 45 minutes of stuff to surround it."

Another "filler" episode

In terms of why Reeva went into so much frustration after the loss of his chorus, I never understood it to be angry at the species (although would be fair) My take on it was he was angry at himself for letting the situation happen and he blamed himself and lost confidence in his own judgment and the story for troi was to help him see past that

I was never sure if Troi was actually interested in Riva or just humoring him. Maybe it’s just because I was put off by his furry orange face.

While, I am an exception to the rule that season 2 sucks. But, I have often been the lone defender of this episode. Cool to see so many positive responses connected to having rewatched and episode forgotten or ignored for a significant period of time. It is not to say there are not flaws but time and perspective often lead to new insight. it is fascinating.

There have been worse but this was a tension-free, not quite a compelling story where there was not enough story and too many minutes. Not to be too dismissive, but this was basically a more serious episode of the Brady Bunch. There a kid would have a problem, the father gives them a speech and then they say "Gee dad, I never thought about it like that", behavior changed, problem solved. Here they took 40 minutes plus to do what the Bradys did in 20, only it was Troi giving the speech. It would be interesting to talk with whoever wrote this and ask them what they saw as the virtues of a story with no villain, and no problem introduced until minute 25 of 40, and why they thought this was entertaining.

That scene when Riva and Troi were having dinner would have been more cool if they cut back and she was sitting on the edge of the bed pulling her boots on...AKA Kirk..

"Don't look at them; look at me!" Riva is Riva. The thoughts and words are his own, expressed through the voices and emotions of the Chorus. Even though it is the Chorus speaking, it is rude and diminishing to Riva to have any response directed to the Chorus. This is analogous to a deaf person being ignored while using an interpreter. The instinct of most hearing people is to respond directly to the interpreter, since they were the one who spoke, but it can be offensive and exclusionary to the deaf person who is actually expressing themself. That's why the tone was sharp in that instance.

The meeting room you were trying to name is called the Observation Lounge.

A lot of deaf people do find it offensive when people ignore them and speak to their translator instead.

By the way, I find it amusing that so far....it seems like Josh and Alex feel about S2 the way everyone else feels about S1 LOL! I think (hope) that will change as we get deeper into the season.

"No aggression, even if provoked" , cut to Riker looking over at Worf, and Worf is like "...what?! I am TOTALLY under control, you son of a--" LOL

It's a perfectly decent episode. It's just that it desperately needed a B plot to compensate for the A plot not having enough going on to fill a full episode.

Did you notice the continuing development of Pulaski?

Yeah, this one is one of those forgetable ones. I watched just to kill time this afternoon. Good reaction though.

19:38 Yeah, but he could have seen the shadows in the room changing. That would tell me someone was walking up to me.

7:40 I presumed that Troi was being polite towards Riva but had no real interest in him romantically. Riva was into her in all sorts of ways... professionally, personally, and lustily.

7:00 That's a very astute point, Josh. I have been around numerous sight and hearing impaired people in my life. My father was blind since about age 6, and I had a deaf distant uncle. One thing I quickly learned is that such disabled people have a choice: they can accept themselves, or they can resent the "normies." I've been around several such people who choose the route of resentment and are bitter towards "the hearies" or the "the sighties," and it's really rather sad. I guess I am lucky that my father was not one of those people. He was very well adjusted, pretty independent, and had no big chips on his shoulder for being blind. I just wish some of the people he circulated with could have learned from him.

Yeah Ten Forward backdrop boys! Love it!!

Literally, I have no memory of this one at all. I know i've seen it. I just... Nope.

Guys, unless I'm phasing in and out of this universe (The Tholian Web) you didn't discuss Riker, after indicating you would.

Apologies if someone has mentioned this before (it’s hard to keep track) but Roddenberry named Geordi La Forge after an actual ST fan, George La Forge, who was a paraplegic. I’m glad TNG didn’t go the whole “no one has any disability, this is the future, everything is perfect” route.