Note: This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.
Just when you thought that the first season couldn’t get any worse,
“Angel One” comes along. You’re going to see me make a lot of complaints
that you’ll find elsewhere, including other reviews on this site. If
you’ve seen this episode, you’ll realize that all of the complaints are
valid. You’d make them, too, if you wrote a review.
The
Enterprise is looking for survivors from a freighter that was destroyed
many years ago. They find several male survivors on a female-dominated
planet called Angel One. If you read my review of Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, you’ll recall me complaining how uninspired “The Chosen One”
was. The leader of the planet has the title of Elected One. (How
pathetic is that?)
Commander Riker, Chief of Security Yar,
Counselor Troi and Lieutenant Commander Data beam down to the planet to
negotiate for the return of those survivors. Those in power aren’t
willing to give much up at first, but reveal that the survivors are,
indeed, somewhere on the planet. They’re considered renegades and the
government of Angel One is more than willing to be rid of them, assuming
that the Enterprise can find them. The trouble is that the survivors
have a life on the planet and don’t want to leave. Things change when
The Elected One announces that they’re to be put to death.
Simply beaming them up isn’t an option since this mystery virus simply
appears. Wesley Crusher and a friend of his are the first to come down
with it. It quickly spreads, infecting about 300 people on the
Enterprise. No one dies from it and the symptoms seem to be confined to
the cold-like variety, such as sneezing and coughing, but there’s no
point in deliberately infecting anyone. To make matters worse, the
Enterprise is supposed to deal with a problem in the Neutral Zone, which
gives them a deadline. Dr. Crusher is able to find a cure in time and
everything works out.
The biggest complaint I have is with the
writing. (Actually, I have two complaints with the writing; this is
just one of them.) Angel One’s female-dominated society seems to be like
a male-dominated society found on Earth, only with the genders
reversed. Women are bigger and stronger. They hold the positions of
power and are aggressive. The men are smaller and are considered
inferior by the women, who constantly comment on their lesser abilities.
It’s very stereotypical and not well written.
The other
complaint I had with the writing was the whole virus thing. No one
mentioned where it came from or exactly what it was. In fact, I don’t
get the impression that it was any worse than the common cold. For all
anyone knows, it would have eventually gone away. Of course, the thing
with the Neutral Zone did make finding a cure a priority, as did the
fact that any good doctor wouldn’t just wait to find out. However, I
don’t think it was mentioned if Dr. Crusher did any research. So far as I
can tell, the virus just popped into existence.
This episode
gets one star. Neither plot is really that good. The female-dominated
society is a thinly veiled attempt to show how ridiculous sexism is by
showing the reverse. It comes across as a caricature. The virus plot is
nothing more than a crisis-of-the-week type thing. A little more detail
would have made this a lot better. With no real story, everything else
falls flat. I’d recommend avoiding this episode.
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