Weekend Trek “We’ll Always Have Paris”

What kind of woman could haunt Captain Jean-Luc Picard as the one that got away?  You know, beyond maybe Dr. Crusher?  Jimmy and Tom get some ideas with an episode where, as many past episodes of the original series have shown, a member of the crew runs into an old flame.

“We’ll Always Have Paris”

The Enterprise rushes to help a scientist whose experiments threaten the galaxy and whose wife has a history with Picard!

jimmy:  And Beverly was NOT happy about that!

tomk:  She was busy with the scientist who went Where No One Was Meant To Go.

jimmy:  And it seemed out of place. There’s been little hints and innuendos throughout the season, but Crusher is straight up jealous here and even says at one point “I can’t compete”.  She wasn’t even really in the race based on episodes 1-23.

tomk:  Yeah, but one thing that I picked up on that you almost certainly didn’t is the old “the ship visits a world where a member of the crew encounters an old flame”.  That one happened so many times in TOS…

Heck, that was in the first episode that aired!

jimmy:  Hard not to with Kirk as Captain.

tomk:  Yeah, except the first time it happened, it was McCoy’s old flame.  Another time, it was Nurse Chapel’s.  Heck, one time it was (sort of) Spock’s.

jimmy:  Spock, you old dog.

tomk:  It was very one-sided.  Spock wasn’t interested because…you know, Vulcan.

Oh, and McCoy’s wasn’t really her but a salt-sucking monster in disguise.

jimmy:  Sure, Bones. We know what you get up to at closing time after too many Romulan Ales.

tomk:  By contrast, Picard just dated one of the Mamas and the Papas.

jimmy:  Ok, so this is where you tell me I should know more about Michelle Phillips.

tomk:  Um, she was one of the four members of the Mamas and the Papas singing quartet and she was a huge Trek fan.  There.  You now know what I know.

jimmy:  That is more than I knew.

And Picard is a sexy man, but she seemed way out of his league.

tomk:  Well, it didn’t work out, so yes.

jimmy:  Though he was a better catch than Doc Brown.

tomk:  Oh come on.  Yosemite Sam is a better catch than that Doc Brown.

jimmy:  Smart man.

tomk:  Otherwise, people just repeat themselves…after fencing.

jimmy:  How many conversations were had by the crew in Ten Forward after hours about Picard strutting around the bridge in his fencing attire?

tomk:  Well, probably as many as they had when Picard was strutting around in his Dixon Hill suit.

jimmy:  Heh.  True.

I did think that the time loops were well handled and not overused.

tomk:  Well, they were short and to-the-point, enough that everyone noticed.

jimmy:  And apparently they made Data quite emotional.

Ironically.

tomk:  Hey, he alone could tell which one was the real him.

It’s not like I could have done that.  I would have punched me in the face and accused myself of being a Watson trick.

jimmy:  Haha.

I just thought the 3 Data’s showed too much exuberance. My first thought is to blame Spiner, but I think in the end it falls on the director.

tomk:  Well, finally, Data met someone who would understand him.

jimmy:  Dr Manheim was pretty shocked Data was even on a starship.

tomk:  That’s because he’s an asshole.

jimmy:  But he got the girl?

tomk:  Well, Picard skipped a lunch date, so who’s the real asshole?

jimmy:  True.

And whoever stood up the hologirl.

tomk:  Amazing how much the holodeck got right Picard’s exact memories…

jimmy:  Did Picard tell the holodeck to have those girls play out that scenario?  Recreating Paris from 2 decades ago wouldn’t be hard, but that’s a pretty random storyline that is almost exactly what Picard needed to see.

tomk:  It’s like someone programmed it.  Someone who understand how the human mind works.  A diabolical individual who will stop at nothing to promote “healing”.

jimmy:  Good job, Sherlock!

tomk:  It was her or Crusher.

jimmy:  If it was Crusher that young one would have slapped Picard in the face before she went off to practice the harp for Riker’s visit later.

tomk:  Oh Riker…

So, all that said, I actually liked the scenes between Picard and his ex.  I mostly chalk that up to Patrick Stewart being good enough to put nuance into those lines.

jimmy:  Agreed on both counts.

tomk:  He’s just so classy when he’s acting clueless.

jimmy:  And most other times.

tomk:  Well, yes, but how often does Picard seem…shy?

jimmy:  People change. Maybe 20+ years ago, pre-Starfleet Captain was a bit more unsure of himself.

tomk:  Well, sure.  20+ years ago.  And here he is today.

jimmy:  Plus attractive women and/or commitment can have strange affects on the best of men.

tomk:  He had a career he couldn’t put aside.

So, naturally, she married a man whose career was so important, he moved to an isolated planet with a handful of his bros to advance his own.

I guess she has a type.

jimmy:  Indeed.

Completely useless knowledge trivia question, what is the age difference, if any, between Patrick Stewart and Michelle Phillips?

tomk:  Four years if Wikipedia is to be believed. Right now, he’s 80 and she’s 76.

jimmy:  I’m supposed to give the answer, Tom. Geez.

tomk:  Um…

I thought that was my job.

I mean, Michelle Phillips is older than Gates McFadden.

jimmy:  She’s a young 71.

tomk:  You get a gold star(fleet pin)!

jimmy:  Finally!

tomk:  Don’t use it all in one place.

By the by, did you notice they still have Denise Crosby listed in the opening credits?

jimmy:  You know what, I didn’t. I even made a mental note to watch for it but must have gotten distracted by a blue car or a dog with a puffy tail.

tomk:  Or a crewman in a mini-skirt.

jimmy:  They are very distracting.

tomk:  As distracting as a Parisian matre’d in a holodeck simulation of your favorite date spot?

jimmy:  Especially the Parisian matre’d. But especially the stood up young woman.

Between her and Phillips and Picard in a fencing outfit, this episode had a lot of eye candy.

tomk:  You do like your eye candy.

jimmy:  

tomk:  Well, it sure was steamy for Picard.  He probably sweated through the entire thing.

First from the fencing, then from the ex, and then from Crusher’s eventual punishment.

jimmy:  Being the Captain ain’t easy.

tomk:  It’s hard out there for a Cap.

jimmy:  I was going to make the same joke but couldn’t make it work. Bravo for nailing it.

tomk:  Well, if we were really good, we’d find some Mamas and Papas song to work into the dialogue.

jimmy:  I don’t know if I could even name one.

tomk:  Neither could I.  I’d say I felt bad, but…nah.

jimmy:  In another by the by moment, I don’t know what it’s like on Netflix, but on the Blu-Ray this episode came with a warning.  It seems that during the conversion process there were 2 seconds of footage that they could not find, so they had to upconvert it from a standard definition source.  I read a review saying something like “if you can spot the two seconds, I will be impressed”, but I found it was incredibly obvious.

tomk:  I don’t know anything about all that.

jimmy:  Now you do.

tomk:  OK, so, you impressed a stranger.  I think that’s worth something.

Should we be impressed if Jimmy said it was easy, judges?

jimmy:  One of these days I will impress that pig.

tomk:  Will he, judges?

jimmy:  D’oh!

tomk:  There are other judges.

jimmy:  So I thought this was the end of season one being the 24th episode but there TWO left. Wow. That’s a long season. Even for the time.

tomk:  Nah.  They gotta pull out the most memorable moment from all of season one, and then the Romulans come back.

jimmy:  Shall we found out what that most memorable moment that I don’t have any recollection of is?

tomk:  Oh trust me.  You’ll remember it when you see if you’ve seen it before.  And yes.

Next:  “Conspiracy”