S4E20 Qpid

[GMGERRYMANDER]

Well now.

We get an entertaining Q. The Enterprise Crew as Merry Men. Return of Vash. (Ugh. Still don;t get why Picard sees anything in this evil criminal)>

I do like that Picard could walk away, but he is ethical and will not abandon anyone, even Vash.

I would have liked to have seen more of the Crew as Merry Men, though Worf's reaction to Geordi's playing is great. (And we get to see the "everyone clowns on Worf in combat trope again - This is definitely something I need to introduce to a Narrative game - that the member of the warrior culture is always losing fights. At first I was puzzled by it, but I can see it as a running joke now and it's amusing.)

It would be fun to see Geordi take up a musical instrument after this episode. Or do a throwback to Deanna in the Holosuite practicing with a bow for fun. If this was a RPG campaign, there were a lot of good character hooks here that could be played upon later.

Crusher catching Vash and Picard...fun encounter. Definitely some sexual subtext between Crusher and Picard. And Bev handles it like a pro. I'm glad the writers didn't do the "jealous girlfriend playing on a misunderstanding" trope. Comedic, tense, and fun, without being horrible. Well done!

And Vash - WTF. She lies, she manipulates, she connives. She betrays Picard at a moment's notice. Normally, I would also be annoyed by the way she uses sex to manipulate others, but Sir Guy is just as horrible, so that's OK. And once again she gets away Scott free with no bad repercussions. I'm not sure what they were going for here. Vash reminds me of that GMNPC that gets forced on the party that they can't get rid of for Plot Reasons and the GM can't understand why everyone hates her... (I know, not everyone hates her. I'm not sure why.)

[JimLikesGames]

I have it on good authority that a significant portion of Vash's appeal is as proof of concept that an age-appropriate woman could totally score with Patrick Stewart if she was saucy enough. I personally find the idea that she's a modern role-reversal of the usual Kirk/alien hottie of the week, with Picard as the princess, to be charming.