The Old Man was a Younger Old Man Once

Patrick Stewart could have been a good action star twenty-nine years ago. There are a few moments in "Starship Mine", a 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation I watched last night, where he even gets to be quietly menacing. He casually delivers a "Then give them my regards" line almost like James Bond to the group of arms dealers he's trapped on the Enterprise with. But the episode's more usually seen as "Die Hard in space." It's clearly a lot cheaper than Die Hard, though, and was likely designed so to fill out the twenty-six episode season.

It makes almost exclusive use of pre-existing sets, the only exception being a reception at the space station where the Enterprise was dry docked for the procedure that necessitated her temporary evacuation.

And sure that's a cheap set. It almost makes Darth Vader's throne room on Obi-Wan Kenobi look good. They also couldn't afford extras so this reception involves only the command crew of the Enterprise and three guest stars--Commander Hutchenson, the Starfleet commander of the station, and the two alien guys who are about to betray them. Presumably the rest of Hutchenson's staff are off-screen somewhere but they're never mentioned, even when the aliens are keeping the Enterprise crew hostage. I suspect the production just forgot that it wouldn't be logical for a Starfleet commander to be all alone on this massive station.

Meanwhile, Picard has five arms dealers to handle on the Enterprise and for some reason he never attempts to contact anyone onboard the station, despite not knowing his crew had been taken hostage.

I guess, despite a few bright spots, TNG's heyday was over by this point. Still, it's a pleasure seeing Patrick Stewart in his prime, before he started to perform every role like he was constantly on the verge of tears. He's steely and badass, running around with Worf's crossbow (according to the Memory Alpha wiki, the prop was a real crossbow rented from a shop for 125 dollars). He also wins a fistfight with a woman.

I can't help feeling we were truly more progressive in the '90s.

This fight happened despite Stewart insisting in recent years that he'd always refused to do such a thing, no matter what the script said. As Ben Whishaw's Richard II said of Stewart's character in the Shakespeare play, "So much for that."

Star Trek: The Next Generation is still available on Netflix. Is Paramount+ ever going to lock down the good Star Trek shows before Disney buys Paramount?

Perception of True Detecting

Last night's True Detective pulled the rug out from under revelations the show made in previous episodes and held a few new surprises. Mostly I'm happy with the new twists but continue to enjoy the character development even more. The relationship between Wayne and Roland takes a more definite and interesting shape with this episode.

Spoilers after the screenshot

"I didn't realise how different we were," Wayne (Mahershala Ali) tells Roland (Stephen Dorff) in 2015 in apologising for his side of the argument in 1990. I'm not sure whether Wayne really means it; I think if he had it to do again, Wayne would've pushed just as hard for the investigation. In 2015, he basically has it to do again. Or does he?

In the final climax, Roland seems to realise that there really is a black sedan outside, staking out Wayne's home. Except Wayne suddenly finds himself alone, opening the possibility that Roland in 2015 might just be an illusory manifestation of Wayne's unresolved issues with his old friend, much like the phantom of Amelia (Carmen Ejogo) or the Vietnamese soldiers. I found myself thinking of the line from The Orville a couple weeks ago about how attraction between people is based on their projections on each other.

What does Wayne mean about he and Roland being different? There has been some suggestion that Tom (Scoot McNairy) may have been gay and we know Roland never married. It could be Roland and Tom were more than just friends? Though I suspect, if that's the case, neither one ever admitted it to himself.

I love the fact that the guy seemingly revealed as the villain last week, Harris James (Scott Shepherd), is killed by Roland during a botched interrogation, though I found it hard to believe Wayne would fall for Harris' ruse and uncuff him.

One of the really big things that happened quietly, of course, is the appearance of Rust Cole and Marty Hart on Elisa's (Sarah Gadon) laptop, confirming that season three, unlike season two, is set in the same universe as season one. Now the odds seem really good there's something supernatural involved. Whatever happens next week, I still have my fingers crossed, hoping the priest doesn't turn out to be the paedophile.