TNG: The Price
February 26th, 2004 at 11:16 am (Trek Talk)
The Price is an episode that is evocative of the later seasons of Next Generation where the Federation is not the all-powerful entity in charge and not everything goes their way. We get to see the effects of a not-as powerful civilization, the Barzan, having to manage negotiations with the Federation and other alliances as they leverage their natural resources to secure their place in the galaxy. The episode also shows the Ferengi in their new role as formidable business opponents and establishes the importance of wormholes for inter-stellar travel, both show concepts that will become important in the next Star Trek series, Deep Space 9. Matt McCoy does a great job as Devinoni Ral proving that Betazoids need not be annoying.
Diane Gibson said,
March 4, 2004 at 3:23 pm
Oh, were there any annoying Betazoids?
Leopoldo said,
March 4, 2004 at 3:42 pm
Oh yes. First season I could barely stand miss ‘Oh Captain, I can feel their pain!’ inter-stellar-cheerleader Troi. Sometime around season five they started to grant her character more depth and strength making her more palatable but by that point we had her mom Lwaxana to bear the title of annoying Betazoid. And who can forget the annoyingly melodramatic appearance of Tam Elbrun in the later season 3 episode Tin Man?
heathcliffe said,
March 5, 2004 at 8:29 am
Tam Elbrun was rather overly dramatic but I felt that the episode and character were redeemed by their intriguing premises.
Diane Gibson said,
March 12, 2004 at 3:01 pm
I liked Tam, and I liked first season Deanna, and I think Lwaxana is a lulu, so I like her too.
The thing with Deanna in the first season, is that she didn’t know exactly what she was supposed to do, any more than the writers did. The position of ship’s counselor was a new one; and Deanna was the first. I think we should keep this in mind, before hastening to label her ‘annoying’. I do hate labels.