Forest of Illusions

So I wasn’t originally going to do the 1992 annual. It’s good, but it doesn’t quite hold up to the likes of “Thin Ice” and “The Gift”, or even some of the most recent serials in the monthly series. But it turned out, quite frankly, that I needed an extra essay here and this was an easy pick.

But I’m going to do more than just kill time and fill space with this one, as there’s still a fair amount of interesting things to say about “The Broken Moon”. The first thing to note is that, like the two previous annuals, this story is predominantly about one specific character. This isn’t too surprising, as since “The Gift” was about Captain Picard (and Q) and “Thin Ice” was about Commander Riker (and Captain Lyrinda Halk), it’s to be expected “The Broken Moon” would follow suit and predominantly feature another main character. What’s interesting is who that character ended up being: Given his crippling overexposure in the TV series, we would naturally assume the next character to get a prominent spotlight in an extra-length Annual issue would be Data. But no, Data is actually barely in this story. In fact, it’s actually Geordi La Forge! Which is good, because there’s a good deal more for us to say about Geordi La Forge.

My reading of Geordi should be fairly obvious and clear by now. Because of LeVar Burton’s presence on both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Reading Rainbow, and the comparative similarities of his performances on both shows (not to mention the fact D.C. Fontana essentially conceived of Geordi as being “LeVar Burton as himself” anyway), I see Geordi as filling the narrative role of a children’s educator or children’s television personality on a series that can be succinctly described as “children’s television for adults”. This is why he’s the chief engineer; the heart and soul of a starship. The problem is that, for whatever reason, very few writers who have jobbed for Star Trek: The Next Generation seem to have picked up that this is straightforwardly and self-evidently the correct way to conceptualize who Geordi is, what he does on the Enterprise and what his relationship with the rest of the crew is (especially Data, who is plainly a child analog).

I am reminded most of all of Ira Steven Behr’s assessment of Geordi while talking about his episode “Qpid” and the infamous mandolin scene in Star Trek: The Next Generation 365:

“Geordi was a very sweet character who was kind of underused. He didn’t have much of a dark side about him. He’s the kind of human that Klingons would have devoured. And Worf-you know, from a Klingon perspective-I was sure that Worf would lie in bed at night thinking, ‘Can’t they at least let me kill Geordi?’ So taking the mandolin and smashing it was the Klingon view of the Federation and the ‘perfect society’ the show portrayed.”

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Most Star Trek: The Next Generation stories would have ended by now. Packed things in after the Sztazzan and the Enterprise crew had achieved a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the crisis, maybe given us a nice little pat wrapping-up scene with Captain Picard and Commander Riker looking forward to a more peaceful future.

This series does not tell stories typical of what most Star Trek: The Next Generation looks like.

“Restoration” is every bit as low-stakes and low-key as “The Lesson”, and every bit as memorable to me. First of all it’s an absolute lyrical masterpiece: From Captain Picard’s opening rumination on Plato’s theory that humans and human longing were created when a singular flawless being was split into man and woman at some point in prehistory (and his belief the metaphor need not be gendered to be effective) to Doctor Crusher’s counsel to a shaken Terry Oliver distraught over her actions with the injured Sztazzan crewmember, this issue is crafted out of the sort of wordplay and turns of phrases so haunting they linger with me long, long after the story is done. And also like “The Lesson”, this is more or less an interlocking series of vignettes centred around a specific theme. This time, it’s, very fittingly, reunification and moving forward.

As the Enterprise slowly recovers and rebuilds after its pan-galactic adventures with the Sztazzan, Miles, Keiko and Molly O’Brien watch as their friends, a couple literally separated by the dividing ship sections, happily reunite with each other. Captain Picard checks in on a busy Doctor Crusher in sickbay, her team stretched taking care of the massive casualties sustained during the stardrive section’s numerous battles. Nevertheless, she expresses confidence that sickbay will be “empty again soon”, and they both look forward to a future with the Sztazzan that is “at the very least non-violent”. Geordi tells Data he’s glad to see the engine room again, and the two have a brief discussion about the nature of objective correlatives before Data accidentally tips Geordi off that he has some “unfinished business” to attend to.

Said unfinished business is not the billiards tournament with Miles O’Brien, however. If you will recall, Geordi was called away from the game at a crucial moment when the artificial moon relay station was first discovered, and Miles had subbed in Deanna Troi at the last second. Geordi and Miles decided it would have been unfair to ask for her help and then turn her away when it became convenient, so Miles kept Deanna on as his partner, despite her warning that “Betazoids do not play pool”, as a point of honour. Deanna then proceeds to shock everyone at the table by winning the game singlehandedly. It seems that while Betazoids do not play billiards, humans do, and she is, after all half-human.…

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Out of options, Commander Riker turns to the last one he has: Ask the pursuing Sztazzan ship if they would extend their shields, and thus their warp bubble, around the saucer section to get them both to the second relay station, which will hopefully bring them back to where they started from. The Sztazzan are predictably boisterous and recalcitrant, but Will reminds them that its his people who have the coordinates to the station, and he’s likely to erase them should the Sztazzan try to invade the saucer.

Alexander is depressed and wants nothing except to be reunited with his father. Similarly Worf thinks only about getting his son back, to the point he puts it above his mission and the rest of his crewmates. It seems at first a perhaps shallow form of characterization, but it builds upon the turmoil both characters have been through over the past few stories. Alexander has already lost one parent and now faces the prospect of being completely orphaned, while Worf lost not only K’Heleyr as well, but almost lost his closest friend in Commander Riker in The Return of Okona. Mott comes to visit Alexander in his quarters and offers a suggestion. He’s come up with a tactical plan he thinks might help the crew, and asks if Alexander would like to come with him to tell Commander Riker about it, so long as he thinks it’s a good plan (Alexander of course being a superior tactician). Mott’s idea is to…Ask the pursuing Sztazzan ship if they would extend their shields, and thus their warp bubble, around the saucer section to get them both to the second relay station, which will hopefully bring them back to where they started from.

We cut to a scene on the Sztazzan ship, where we at last get to see a little more of their own cultures and beliefs. As Miles O’Brien guessed last month, the Sztazzan see humans as dangerous and untrustworthy with no set of morals or code of honour (a perhaps not unjustified assumption given what we’ve seen of how humans organise themselves in the 24th century at large). The Sztazzan are all ready to say no to the saucer crew, but one officer pleads the case that perhaps not all humans are as bad as all that, as he had personally witnessed the heroism of one human who went out of her way to rescue an injured Sztazzan when the two away teams had clashed on the planet’s surface earlier. Swayed by the story of Terry Oliver’s act of selflessness, the Sztazzan agree to Commander Riker’s plan, just before Alexander and Mott come to the bridge to tell him about it.

And it couldn’t have come at a better time too, as things aren’t looking so good for Captain Picard, Ro Laren and Deanna Troi back on the battle bridge. Outmanned and outgunned by the Sztazzan fleet and with multiple hull breaches to contend with, they’re about to be forced to abandon the saucer section to its fate and retreat with Geordi, Worf and Data.…

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“Second Chances” is perfect Star Trek: The Next Generation.

…Oh no, not the goofy episode from next season where the transporter retroactively cloned Commander Riker on his previous post that fucks up Will’s relationship with Deanna Troi and Mae Jemison is the best part of it. That’s ridiculous. I’m talking about this comic book that’s the fourth part of Separation Anxiety.

You know it’s going to be a good story, or at least noteworthy, when it opens with a “chief medical officer’s log”. And this one doesn’t disappoint, with a lengthy portion of its runtime dedicated to just letting us watch Beverly Crusher be awesome leading an away team mission. Any Beverly Crusher, Science Officer fan will be spoiled by scene after scene in this book of her being unflappably competent, whip-smart and quippy. And continuing a thread introduced in The Return of Okona, Bev is also portrayed as having a manifestly different style of leadership than Commander Riker, though still compelling in its own right: She’s far more involved in the nitty-gritty of the technical research, not issuing orders to her team but managing, delegating and actively working with them to help gather as much information as they can. Seeing how effortlessly and perfectly she slides into this role here only makes you wish all the harder that this had been her role on the TV show much, much more often than it really was.

But we barely have time to appreciate that before we’re treated to a scene so defining it could have come from “The Wounded”. Which, incidentally, is what it’s positioned as a sequel to. Miles O’Brien and Terry Oliver are investigating a computer room the away team discovered on the planet they beamed down to last issue. Doctor Crusher has learned there aren’t any sentient life-forms still around who could help, but figures the computer banks are probably still intact and could yield some clues. Terry expresses concern that time is of the essence as the Sztazzan no doubt know of their whereabouts and will probably send a team of their own down. What follows is an exchange between her and Chief O’Brien so priceless and air-pumping I had to repeat it in its entirety here.

“After all, it won’t take long for those Sztazzan filth to find our coordinates and beam down after us!” 

“’Filth’, eh?” 

“You’d call them that too, if they’d murdered your friends the way they murdered mine!” 

“I see. Funny…You sound the way I did not so long ago. Except it wasn’t the Sztazzan I had a hate for – It was the Cardassians! I’d witnessed the kind of slaughter they’re inclined towards – First hand!” 

“Then you know how I feel!” 

“Sure – But that doesn’t mean I approve of it! Not so long ago, we had some Cardassians on the Enterprise – Making some wild charges about my old captain.

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