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Thoughts on The White Iris (spoiler warning)

posted 10 years ago by bjlevine
3 replies | jump to latest

Okay, I don't like fanboy episodes (lots of references to past episodes), not keen on bringing in TNG staples like a ships's counselor or holodeck (yeah, I know the "rec room" originated in TAS).

But dang it...I'm a sucker for stories about the concept of forgiveness, and I found myself very moved by the final scene with his unborn child. And as usual, technically the episode was great. And Colin Baker to boot (lots of Doctors in this episode).

Speaking of which, if we have to have a ships's counselor, why couldn't we have had Helen Noel instead of a new "regular" character?

And please...can we have an original story that doesn't borrow heavily from past episodes next time?

Final thought: can't help feeling that Kirk's actions in this episode wouldn't make him unfit to serve as Captain of the Enterprise. What other psychological problems might he be hiding?

👷👳
Bob the Builder and Hadji walk into a bar...

[–] Rudd-12 10 years ago

I'll just camp on to your thoughts thread if you don't mind rather than do my own.

(more spoilers)

In general not a fan of so much reference to past episodes. Im ready to move on.
I enjoy a good forgiveness story as well but where this breaks down for me is the idea that Kirk is reconciling with himself, essentially, and where the story gets muddled is that it is played as if he's getting reconciliation from his past lovers instead of coming to terms with himself. The big payoff should have been the Edith Keeler scene which strangely fell flat and was trumped by the Miramanee scene which was better. The Farragut girl had double the screen time (it seemed) and Rayna was....huh? Wha?... I don't know a little uneven over all.

There definitely seemed to an effort bring out the triumvrate of Kirk-Spock-McCoy.

Technically the show is an achievement. It could use some thoughtful and fresh writing/dialogue.

The Rayna scene (at end), help me out here. What didnt I get?

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] BB-15 9 years ago

I have no problem with stories which reference earlier Trek. (And with a very limited budget, keeping the story mostly on the ship is the least expensive way to go).
- The most important thing imo is; does the story show depth and conflicts with the characters? With The White Iris, the answer is yes. And one way to do this is to reference problems that the crew has dealt with before (a common Trek plot device).

Since Star Trek Continues is suppossed to be Season 4 of TOS, I'm also fine with the addition of a ship's counselor and the beginning of a holodeck. I'm willing to see the tech grow from what was shown in Seasons 1-3.

I was impressed with the quality of The White Iris overall. The acting often approached the level of a network TV soap opera (and that's a compliment) and technically (lighting, camera work, sound, music) this episode was as good as a 60s network TV show.
- This is a very rare instance when an amateur production can cross the line to professional quality.

I particularly enjoyed that the story was built on the problems Kirk had in the 3rd season TOS episode, "Requiem for Methuselah".
In that story Kirk became pretty unhinged and Spock needed to do a mind meld technique to have Kirk experience amnesia.
It makes sense that later in The White Iris that Kirk would have a type of PTSD experience of his past troubles which he could not handle.

BB ;-)

it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈