TNG - The Emissary

[Poipoi]

I just watched this review again and something occurs to me about the scene between Troi and K'ehler bonding over being half human and half alien - the two are not comparable situations.

Troi 1) looks both completely human and completely Betazoid so she is able to pass in any room 2) there is no disadvantage to being half Betazoid besides cool superpowers and 3) her culture is matriarchal, so being a woman she has advantages of both the equal Federation and the woman-focused Betazed.

K'ehler on the other hand 1) like Torres, doesn't look human or Klingon enough to avoid racism, 2) she gains nothing from this situation except for a bad temper and 3) her culture is so patriarchal that she is barred from high office.

This reminds me of X-Men the Last Stand where Storm poo poo's the idea of a mutant cure to a blue Bigfoot and a girl who cannot touch another human being. Yeah, Storm. Being mutant is awesome FOR YOU.

Actually, those are good points. I wish I could upvote your post.

I can see why Odo is how he is. His abilities were treated as amusing tricks by the first people who helped shaped his life. While he used them as tools, he never really explored how far he could take them because he always wanted acceptance.

What kills me about Troi is her abilities should make her a better counselor than they do on the show. She got on the Enterprise for a reason. Her mom didn't use her influence to get here there, as she clearly acts as if Troi's career is just sewing her oats and not a life path. The problem is the writers are idiots when it comes to writing for her. This is what they thought an empath is like. So in the show, when she did give advice it would be horrible.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I liked how Troi's empathy was used in tactical situations.

The concept is there, but the writing is just too underpowered.

[stryke]

This reminds me of X-Men the Last Stand where Storm poo poo's the idea of a mutant cure to a blue Bigfoot and a girl who cannot touch another human being. Yeah, Storm. Being mutant is awesome FOR YOU.

Man Storm was treated badly in those films. One of the worse lines in scenematic history in film one, might as well have been an extra in film two, and well yeah that in film three.

[Fianna]

Maybe I'm misremembering, but aren't Troi's telepathic abilities significantly weaker than a full Betazoid's? At least, her mother seemed better at picking up actual thoughts from people instead of just vague feelings.

So while being half-Betazoid makes her superpowered while among humans, on Betazed her weakened telepathy would presumably be considered a disability.

[Thebestoftherest]

Maybe I'm misremembering, but aren't Troi's telepathic abilities significantly weaker than a full Betazoid's? At least, her mother seemed better at picking up actual thoughts from people instead of just vague feelings.

So while being half-Betazoid makes her superpowered while among humans, on Betazed her weakened telepathy would presumably be considered a disability.

Yeah, I think that even her powers mess with the plot.

[RobbyB1982]

I don't think that's quite right; it's admittedly been a while, but my recollection is that Season 1 used his morphing effects fairly often,

He was allowed exactly one use per episode. Maybe a little more for the pilot.

In contrast, Season 5 was probably cheaper in terms of Odo CGI, since it literally took away Odo's powers for the first half of the season. But you can't deny that the changelings are far more powerful then than they seemed at the beginning.

In universe explanation is pretty simple... they were fully trained changelings with thousands of years of experience while Odo was a basically a 10 year old.

Out of universe? THey're the badguys, they get to be more impressive.

See also how Worf fares compared to other Klingons most of the time. He gets his but kicked constantly to show how strong the monster of the week is, other Klingons rarely lose a physical fight.

[McAvoy]

Wasn't Laas discovered and thus aware a century before Odo was? Effectively still making him a much older and experienced Changeling and thus better at shapeshifting and such.

I think it was 200 years but I might be wrong about.

But yeah, though even Laas struggled with faces too it seems.

[CrypticMirror]

Maybe I'm misremembering, but aren't Troi's telepathic abilities significantly weaker than a full Betazoid's? At least, her mother seemed better at picking up actual thoughts from people instead of just vague feelings.

So while being half-Betazoid makes her superpowered while among humans, on Betazed her weakened telepathy would presumably be considered a disability.

Specifically, she is an empath and not a telepath. The only time we see her communicating telepathically are with her mother and with Riker. She can't do the casual mindtalking her mother can. Essentially she is the equivalent of a contemporary human having been born with severe visual or hearing impairments. But Geordi is blind, and he turned out to be actually competent at both piloting and engineering.

[Deledrius]

I wonder how much of the procedural space science was due to the writers growing up during the Space Race and seeing all of the attendant media. This was only a few years before the popularity of the Apollo 13 film, which went heavily on that sort of thing. Obviously, TNG didn't know how to make it work, but it feels like a (very dull) attempt to capture that sort of "documentary realism", but without the stakes that make it interesting to watch.

[cdrood]

I never quite got how Troi's abilities actually worked. For example, she could somehow sense emotions THROUGH THE VIEWSCREEN. She's in orbit. The other person is on the planet. She can somehow filter out the thousand people in close proximity and focus on one person out of millions or billions who is thousands of miles away, through an electronic device.