While I like certain scenes in this episode, and some of the themes it touches on are fairly intriguing, I don't much care for this episode as a whole. Thankfully, it is the last of the Lucas 'growing pains' episodes. Over the past four weeks we've now been subjected to two potential futures for Lucas, and I think that's enough for him to figure out he needs to be careful with his intelligence (more on this topic later). It is, however, a play on Jonathan Brandis' popularity among teenage girls at the time of the show. Not only is a show focusing on him a ploy to increase viewership, but in the episode he's almost idolized by all the kids at Node 3. But then it gets serious later on with an intriguing commentary on how life is not a game. This topic is even more relevant today than it was ten years ago. The other thing of note in this episode is the normalcy of the bridge scenes toward the beginning. It's nice to see that instead of always seeing the people there in a crisis situation.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:
INTERNEX - Obviously, this is their version of the internet. If I remember right, my parents finally broke down and bought their first computer around the end of the first season of seaQuest. (There was no connection between the two events.) That was my first real introduction to the internet, and like a lot of people, the first thing I searched for was seaQuest sites. My point, though thin, is that the internet has had an incredible impact on our society since its introduction, and it only looks to get bigger. What I find incredible is that the writers were able to kind of foresee this computer revolution back in '93. Things like chatting and gaming online and using the internet as a source of information, etc. are all things that were showing up on seaQuest ten years ago. And I don't remember any of those being anywhere near as commonplace back then as they are now.
Animation - I've brought this up before, but it's worth repeating. I know computer graphics weren't as advanced back then as they are now, and in fifteen years they'll be even better still. So it seems kind of funny that the 'Frankenstein' and 'Wolfman' graphics are so cheesy here. Especially since I know they could have done a better job -- just look at the exterior views of seaQuest herself and of Darwin swimming. Those are all done with computers and are damn good.
Node 3 - I don't know for sure, but I have a feeling something similar to this exists today. It's probably not undersea, nor is it run by genius teens (most of whom would be either skinny nerds or overweight slobs with bad eating habits in real life -- trust me, I know a number of computer people, and these are the only types who would willingly be cut off from society like that). But I could see routing all communications through a small handful of sights, kind of like servers. As far as Node 3 itself, Julianna comments that it's "a great place...to be on [one's] own for the first time." I could see how that would be true, but to me, that's what college was for -- a stepping stone between parents and living by yourself and paying all the bills yourself.
CHARACTERS:
"The way we affect other people is all we leave....It's the message we send forward into the future." This is one of my favorite lines from the series. It can be a sobering thought to think about dying and what you leave behind. It's tough to imagine how one small person could make an impact on much of anything. But how do you know your grandchild isn't the second coming of Jesus, and the way you raise your son or daughter will impact how they raise their child? Or maybe a kind word you had for a random person on the street inspired a whole chain of events that led to world peace? Our deeds and our possessions will not last long after we're gone, but our affect on others will.
But by far my favorite scene in this episode is the one with Westphalen. This week, because of the topic, she's the perfect person for Bridger to turn to for advice; she's the only person with similar experiences, who can relate to what he's going through. It's a wonderful discussion of parenting, which is another of the ongoing themes here. Bridger has become a surrogate father figure to Lucas, but he's different from true parents in that he talks to Lucas and treats him as an equal as opposed to his superior. Too often parents look at children as a subordinate to boss around. And even though Bridger has raised a son already and lived through the teenage years (though I have a feeling he may have been at sea for much of that time), that doesn't make it any easier this time around. Raising kids is tough and gets tougher each year. That's one of the things Kristin points out.
Mycroft:
As I mentioned above, Mycroft is another personification of one direction Lucas' life could take. Both were (computer) geniuses at a young age, and neither had much in the way of parents (Lucas' get rid of him at the first opportunity, and it's hard to be sure with Mycroft, but he spent at least 3 years in juvenile prison and I don't think there was much parental oversight going on otherwise). But where the Regulator was just a weird, slightly deluded man, Mycroft has gone off the deep end. He's so wrapped up in his guilt over the past that he can't see that what he's doing is wrong. Just because he can justify his actions doesn't mean that those actions are right. A couple weeks later Lucas uses the 'ends justify the means' argument with Bridger. In this case, the ends do not justify the means. Mycroft claims he's taking money that's "already stolen" and diverting it to where it makes the most difference. But what he forgets is that by doing that, he's no better than the people he's fighting against. Social engineering would be working within the system to affect change, not circumventing the system completely. I think Lucas comes to recognize that, which in a way shows how much he's grown and changed in just half a season. I don't think, had this happened a couple months earlier, that Lucas would have stopped Mycroft. The ideals and mores that the UEO was founded on are beginning to make an impression on a boy who came aboard seaQuest with no direction to his life. That and Bridger's influence will keep Lucas from becoming like Mycroft in the future.
QUICK QUESTIONS, QUERIES, QUANDRIES AND COMMENTS:
Though the original airing was two years before Voyager first aired, I still think of Tim Russ as his character Tuvok from there every time I watch this, and it's strange in a way to see him showing emotion. But he's a good actor. And of course there's Seth Green. Who can forget Scotty Evil? Another pair of excellent guest stars this week.
Mycroft tells Lucas he crashed the ARPANET. (Incidentally, based on the timeline I set out in an earlier review, this would happen in 2004.) The ARPANET is a real thing. It's the precursor to the internet, developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) quite a number of years back. It was more like an intranet, but the fundamentals are the same. I don't think, however, that crashing the ARPANET would "[bring] down the entire US defense system." I know for a fact the Navy and Air Force are not on the ARPANET (at least not totally), but rather trying to implement servicewide standard computer systems. And since this supposed 'crash' is only a year or so away, I don't think all the services will be on a common network by then. Heck, I doubt even the Navy will be fully transitioned to their common system by then.
Inevitably, computer geeks always seem to resort to games eventually. I wonder if there's some sort of psychological explanation for that?
A lot of times, the hacking in is what it's all about for the hackers. Once they've proven they can break into the system, hackers often lose interest and don't go much further. The thrill is all in finding the way in.
Lucas talks about the "Chinese border closing" (in roughly the 2009 timeframe), and how scared his parents were at the time. I was reminded of 9/11. A lot of people were scared the whole week. (Except my parents, of course, who went out to lunch after my mother got off of work. Nice to know where concern for my safety [which was not really in much question] ranks in their priorities.) It's kind of interesting how one event like that can have a ripple effect through all of society.
ALERTS FOR THE FUTURE:
Westphalen talks about how, at age 17, her daughter "shaved off half her hair and died the other half bright orange." She also has a daughter with a degree in nutritional biochemistry. It's not clear whether both refer to the same daughter or to separate daughters.
BOB BALLARD MOMENT:
Fiber optic cabling for the future is being laid underwater. It will revolutionize the way you work and learn and even entertain. The promise it holds is pretty great. (And I'd say we've begun realizing some of that promise already.)
