YOUTUBE - The Drumhead (TNG S4E21) | Star Trek Journey 202
Added 2024-11-11 13:34:18 +0000 UTC0:00 INTRO
0:12 REACTION
14:51 DISCUSSION
36:46 PATRON TAKES
Comments
Yeah, I never liked this episode either. Maybe I just consider it to be overrated. I think Seth MacFarlane considers this to be about his favorite episode. Michael Dorn considers this episode and The Offspring, also directed by Jonathan Frakes, to be his two favorite episodes. Jean Merilyn Simmons OBE (1929–2010) was an Academy Award-nominated actress for Hamlet in 1948. Her father won a medal in gymnastics at 1912 Olympics. "Jonathan Frakes had previously appeared with Jean Simmons on (the 1980s miniseries) North and South. He described being able to cast her in this episode as a dream come true. To Frakes' surprise, he learned that Simmons was a 'monstrous Trekkie'." "...several shots from the episode were 'stolen' from ... (the film) Judgment at Nuremberg ... starring William Shatner..." There is a photo of her with Gene Roddenberry, so I guess Gene was still at least somewhat active at this point. I guess they almost created another clip show instead of this episode as a way to save money. To me, 1967's "Court Martial" is the great Trek courtroom episode; I remember that I watched that episode a few times as it was on often in syndication, for some reason.
Chtphr Rrr
2024-11-11 20:20:24 +0000 UTCI never liked this one. I like the courtroom stuff, as almost all Star Trek courtroom stories are very engaging, but I have always found the rest of it to be too slow and plodding. It tries to be both a courtroom story and a mystery, which can often work, but in this case I think the mystery element is just not interesting largely because its rather vague. In fact, I think the entire episode is a bit too vague. Someone above said they thought it was too on the nose, but to me it's the opposite: it's as if they were trying to make a somewhat general point with the moral of the story and so it just winds up too broad to really mean much of anything. The admiral is obviously meant to be a hateable character - and she is, but the pre-eminent feeling I get for her is annoyance and frustration, and I don't watch television to be annoyed and frustrated.
Shane Coombs
2024-11-11 17:37:57 +0000 UTCIt sounds like I am probably somewhat of a political opposite to yourself and generally I consider the greatest failure and weakness of almost all modern media to be its heavy-handedness with its messaging. It's not an exaggeration in the slightest to say that so much of my moral outlook was shaped by television in the 1980s and 90s. It was through Star Trek TNG and other shows and films of the era that it got ingrained in me that racism was wrong, women could do things, violence is a last resort, etc. etc. Star Trek and other stuff really drove this home for me and I am sure for many others of my generation far, far better than school, family, etc. - but very rarely did any of this media really get in your face about it. Very rarely was it made explicit. Almost never did it seem like an episode of anything was written for no reason other than to send a message. Almost always stories stood on their own and felt like they just happened to have a moral, too. Put another way, I learned all kinds of morality from these shows without ever realizing I was learning it. Today's media is almost always so in your face and overt. It usually seems like they started with some message they wanted to get across and cobbled a loose plot around the edges. I think it's a tremendous failure of modern media and I honestly think it turns as many if not more people away from these ideas of morality than it actually teaches. With all of that as a preface, I don't really feel like The Drumhead is especially heavy-handed - or at least I never have. Maybe it depends a bit on the time when someone first saw it. I suppose it could come across as too on the nose if it were viewed with one or another specific real-world incidents fresh in mind, but overall it strikes me as maybe a bit more overt than some TNG episodes but not even nearly as direct as something like, say, Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.
Shane Coombs
2024-11-11 17:21:05 +0000 UTCClearly Tarsis left the hatch combing open on C deck near the weapon storage locker.
OmniRaider
2024-11-11 16:27:17 +0000 UTCRiker should have popped off Simon Tarces arm and knocked him out to prove he’s not a Romulan.
EnigmaticPenguin
2024-11-11 16:11:59 +0000 UTCPretty sure the phrase “Weaponised Picard Speech” started with this episode.
Chris Christison
2024-11-11 14:51:07 +0000 UTCGreat reaction that made me reconsider an episode that I remember simply disliking, and you know what? I know I'm probably in the minority, but... I still don't like it. Yes, Picard is great in this, Patrick Stewart knocks it home, and you guys remind me of that, but still... I'll preface this by saying that generally, politically, I lean left, progressive, whatever word you want to use. I say that because A LOT of my ideologically-similar friends who also like TREK hold this episode in SUCH high esteem, as in "top five TNG of all time" high esteem... and they always say stuff like "It's an important message that needs to be heard," all that. I feel utterly alone in this opinion: that for as great as some parts of this episode are (Patrick Stewart and Michael Dorn both in solo scenes and in that scene in which they interact), I just find this episode OVERWRITTEN. The drama is stilted, the message heavy-handed, and the secondary characters-- particulary Jean Simmons' character-- are so one-dimensional as to be sad. Simmons was in this episode because she loved TREK and wanted to be in it, and she deserved better than this. Sometimes when TREK swings for the fences with a message, they just end up doing what so many writers and artists do: they let the message overtake the story. I don't know if this one "could have been better or not." You guys liked it and I agree with so many of your points, but what I don't like about it-- the heavyhandedness-- just drags it down for me. I rate it C tier.
Max Shenk
2024-11-11 14:43:27 +0000 UTCWell you guys fooled me again.
Joe Ibrahim
2024-11-11 14:15:55 +0000 UTCI haven't watched yet, but the guys will like the courtroom part, but won't like the episode.
Joe Ibrahim
2024-11-11 13:36:17 +0000 UTC
