Stardust City Rag
The fifth episode.
Certainly a mixed bag. The extraction of Icheb's implants at the
beginning didn't need to be so gory. It would have been as
emotionally moving without the gore. The way Seven reacts is very
believable. It is clear they had continued to be there for each other
after Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant. On the topic of
Icheb, maybe the Romulans came up with something similar to what the
Brunali did, and sacrificed the Shaenor as Icheb was? La
Sirena arrives at Freecloud, only to be greeted by, popup ads?
It
works. (While Rios has the holograms, he clearly hasn't got up to
date ad blockers.) Using Seven as bait? That works too. More on what
happens below. (Quarks and Mot franchising... Cool.) Also, an alien
that can smell lies is also an interesting concept. But the way the
group goes about infiltrating the bar to find Bruce Maddox was rather
good, even if some of it seems hokey. Elnor's line “Are we still
pretending?” makes it worthwhile. But someone is missing, Raffi.
She has her own reason for being on Freecloud.
She wants to
reconnect with her son, after she had left him to help Picard with
the evacuation. However, he wants nothing of it, despite her
protestations that she's recovering from her addictions. Of course
it's not just the addictions, but the conspiracy theories too. The
result of mixing them together was interesting, but well done. That
the relationship remains broken is believable. Talking of broken
relationships... Seven (or Annika) and Bjayzl. Certainly an
interesting match. And her telling Bjayzl of Icheb is what leads to
his demise.
Seven's motivation
for being on Freecloud becomes obvious rather quickly, and Picard
tries to talk her out of taking her vengenance out on Bjayzl. But to
no avail, despite their connecting over their recovery/reclaimation
from being captured by the Collective. (That scene was rather well
done, and there was a great use of a leitmotif from the Voyager
theme.) The end scene with Jurati killing Maddox just raises more
questions. The EMH would tell, surely. Overall, an interesting
episode. 7.5/10. (Would have been higher without the gore!)
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