tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349653650482188023.post761784459553968989..comments2024-02-18T22:30:19.655-10:00Comments on Vaka Rangi: “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”: The Outrageous OkonaAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03828341842948036592noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349653650482188023.post-66134833218745668872014-12-11T22:37:11.743-10:002014-12-11T22:37:11.743-10:00I didn't mind this when I watched it last - a ...I didn't mind this when I watched it last - a lot of the time I am going to be going on memory with these episodes, as it has been some time since I saw them. <br /><br />It is odd the way that Okona is set up against the crew of the Enterprise, I didn't get it at the time. Maybe it was a device used to try to embed the feeling in the audience of the Enterprise crew's sense of permanence?<br /><br />I have to admit, I did enjoy the humour stuff with Data , as I generally loved witnessing his journey of discovery even when he met obstacles.Daruhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10870910268972702784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349653650482188023.post-51392615633273573822014-12-07T17:05:24.888-10:002014-12-07T17:05:24.888-10:00I love how Riker is used as a foil for Okona - alm...I love how Riker is used as a foil for Okona - almost as he's describing Okona's style to Wesley he's explaining that you don't have to take that lonely road - you can have your cake and eat it too, if you can become self-aware enough to know just where you want to be in life.<br /><br />But that's the thing about a foil - we see the twinkle in Riker's eye all the time and we know he's not so different from Okona - but he certainly reads as more mature. More self-aware. More centered. More interested in other people than himself. It's an important distinction - they are essentially the same archetypal character, but their primary motivations are polar opposite. Cavalier versus gallant. Charismatic versus genuine. Friendly versus a true friend.<br /><br />Riker, and particularly Frakes himself, really sells it as using Okona's presence as something of a teaching moment for Wesley, and the rest as well fall under this banner. It's a surprisingly good Picard episode. It furthers the continuing best-friendship between Worf and Riker in small but significant ways.<br /><br />And Guinan, yes Guinan. Part and parcel of the great regard I hold for TNG and DS9 is not just their superiority in concept, originality and well-roundedness but because of the emphasis on social gathering places, and bartenders in particular. Two of the great bartenders in all of fiction, actually. (Off-hand, it's kind of funny to think of Goldberg taking a role that's essentially a Sam Malone-type role during this time period as well.)<br /><br />Anyway, Guinan is so essential to this show not just for introducing a character who is essentially an "Immortal" (every fictional universe tends to feature a few of these archetypes), but Goldberg is so vital in every scene and brings everything home just right. Sometimes there's a perfect role, a perfect bit of casting for a niche that maybe nobody realized needed filling. This was an instance of that.<br /><br />The Comic stuff to me is unwatchably bad, though. It didn't even play that well for me as a kid where broader goofy comedy might have worked.Keith Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09191397165163257948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349653650482188023.post-50331901800629889632014-12-05T05:34:25.454-10:002014-12-05T05:34:25.454-10:00I think what it basically comes down to is whether...I think what it basically comes down to is whether you find Okona to be a charming rogue or a self-centered, arrogant ass. I fall firmly into the latter camp, which makes this episode endlessly painful. It's not anywhere near as bad as the one-two punch of The Naked Now and (*shudder*) Code of Honor, but it renders the episode extremely difficult to watch and makes the entire crew seem like terrible judges of character, which I think is probably where the "Mary Sue" allegations are coming from. (Or not, it's such an endlessly mutable term as to be basically meaningless.)<br /><br />Also, none of the jokes in the Data plot are actually funny. Sorry, but I have to agree with the fan consensus on this one, albeit for different reasons: it's a stinker.Froborrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08782366056731381450noreply@blogger.com