I have to re-evaluate my episode scores. The way I’ve set the system up, I’m noticing that some really good episodes are scoring quite low, so I want to try something else. In addition to the scores already used, I’m now going to score them under these criteria:
Action: simple enough. Was this an episode filled with aliens, space battles, races against time, planetary searches, combat etc? Was it slow or did it move and flow well?
Drama : Was there drama in the episode?
Performance of lead character(s): Given who the episode was based around, did they use their role well, or did the story just revolve around them without them doing much?
Plot: Self-explanatory
Arc: Not so self-explanatory. Did the story add to or refer to elements which either occur later or have already occurred, in other words is this a thread that fits in to the overall pattern of the tapestry, is it a loose thread or is it not even in the sewing room?
Personal enjoyment: I surely need not explain this.
All the above criteria will be rated at from 10 to 100, 10 being the lowest and 100 the highest. So potentially an episode can score an additional 600, down to a lousy extra 60. These scores will then be added to the main scores to come up with a total score, and because this will obviously give episodes from here on in a clear advantage, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that I’ll be going back and rescoring all the previous episodes, which means that chart I posted will be useless now, and will be redone and reposted.
In this way I feel that an episode that is excellent but for some reason doesn’t score that high on the original criteria has a better chance of scoring high on these, plus my own personal approval, or not, of the episode will also be a factor, which will allow those I really like to have a better chance of being right up there.
Episode title: “11001001”
Season: 1
Basic plot: The
Enterprise is upgraded but all is not as it seems duh
Importance: 4 (First use of self-destruct code)
Crisis point(s) if any: Ship taken by Bynars
Original transmission date: February 1 1988
Writer(s): Maurice Hurley, Robert Lewin
Director: Paul Lynch
Stardate:* 41365.9
Destination: Starbase 74, Tarsis III
Mission (if any): Maintenance and upgrades
Main character(s) in Plot: Picard, Riker
Main character(s) in Subplot (if any):
Not appearing: Troi, O’Brien
Villain/Monster (if any): Bynars
Deaths: 0
Lives saved (episode): 0 ( I mean, the whole Bynar planet, but I said I wouldn’t count populations, as there’s no way to be sure of a count)
Lives saved (cumulative): 24
Locations:
Shipboard:
Bridge
Gangway I guess, as they’re getting off
Holodeck
Space:
Other:
Starbase 74
Ships/vessels (encountered): 0
Ships/vessels (mentioned only): USS
Wellington, USS
Trieste, USS
Melbourne
Space battles: 0
Bodycount
Historical
0
Incidental
0
Direct
0
Total: 0
Running total: 86
Make it so: 0
Engage! 1
Combat factor: 0
Planets visited: Bynus
Planets mentioned: Omicron Pascal , Pelius V, Bynus
Aliens: Bynars
Mysteries: Why the Bynars have stolen the
Enterprise
Patients in sickbay: 0
Meetings: 0
Data v humanity:
N/A; which is odd, given that this one revolves around what are essentially computers on legs, but there you go.
Data 3 - Humanity 6
Character scores:
Picard 570
RIker 700
Data 40
Troi 0
Bev 10
Geordi 10
Wesley 20
Worf 20
Yar 20
O’Brien 0
Earl Grey: 0
Shuttlecraft: 0
Admirals: 0
Starbases: 1 (Starbase 74)
First contact: 0
Humour: 0
Episode rating: 6/10
Episode score: 625 (Note: this is under the new system, as all future episodes will be)
Another mostly holodeck-centred episode, and again built more or less around Riker, as the previous one was, which might seem a little unbalanced, especially as this appears to be yet another Troiless one: she must have been worried every episode she wasn’t in. The Bynars are interesting creatures, but when Wesley says that there must be tremendous advantages to a race being so intermixed with computers, well, he hasn’t met the Borg yet has he? Bloody typical that the music has to be jazz though. Why is it always ****ing jazz? Damn oldies who write these things. And what is it with blondes and jazz don’t mix? Given that she’s only a hologram, it’s funny how pissed off Riker looks when Minuet invites Picard to join them. Reminds me of Homer: “But I was going to get lucky!” and Marge “No you weren’t.”
The Picard family reunions don't tend to be very lively affairs
I do find it hard to credit that Data says they have just over four minutes to evacuate the ship, and in that time all those people get off it? Apart from the fact that they’re, perhaps rather stupidly if by the book, not running but walking fast, the transporter can only take a few people at a time. Can the entire remaining complement be beamed off, and the ship get away from the Starbase to a safe distance in two hundred and forty seconds? Of course, I know and you know it’s a ruse, but they don’t, and if it’s real, can they expect any chance of everyone surviving? Would they not have been better to get the ship away and then start transports? And how come they never checked the holodeck? Wesley knew they were there; why doesn’t he speak up?
Pretty good idea really; using the
Enterprise as a huge mobile hard disk to back their civilisation up and then download themselves back down to the planet when the danger had passed. But who has the password? Better hope there’s no virus in the system!