Just when I feel like giving up on Trek forever and moving on (yeah, not actually going to happen, but I can feel can't I?) a surprising good episode sneaks into the what is otherwise a mostly train wreck of a season. Loud As a Whisper is both well written and well acted and interweaves it's A and B stories in a way that works despite involving Troi in both. After Okana last night I am shocked that they managed to cast such an amazingly talented actor for the role of the deaf negotiator. Despite not saying a word you can always tell what he is feeling and the chorus of interpreters do a good job with the actual talking.
The episode opens with the Enterprise arriving to bring a talented negotiator to try and end a war on a planet that has been fighting for centuries. The Enterprise is supposed to not get involved other than transporting the negotiator, but they aren't great at following orders like that. Picard beams down with Worf and Troi and after being examined by the negotiator Riva his chorus appears. He is deaf and has three people who talk for him, one for scholarly matters, one for passion and one for balance. He is clearly taken with Troi and makes no attempts to hide his advances. On the ship Riva blows off a briefing on the war situation, to him all wars are the same, it isn't about the details and instead meets Troi for a date in her quarters. At first he uses his passion interpreter, but has him leave so he can be alone with her. She seems to be into it, but they arrive and Picard messes things up by calling down to the planet and demanding they stop shooting to Riva has to rush to the bridge and calm them down.
After examining a map of the area Riva picks a high plateau to be the negotiating grounds and beams down with Worf and Riker. They get things set up but when the delegates arrive one of their guards freaks out and tries to kill Riva. Riker saves him but the chorus are killed and they all flee back to the ship. Riva is devastated and no longer has anyone who understands his signs. Data learns his style of sign language, but Riva insists that without his chorus negotiating will be impossible. Eventually Troi meets him in his quarters and tells him she is going to try since he won't. He tries to explain some things to help her and gets to his main strategy, turning peoples weaknesses into their strengths. That is when he realizes that he can do it! He will teach the delegates his sign language and in the process teach them to communicate with each other and find peace. They leave him there to work things out and get on with ship stuff.
There is also a quick C story about Geordi being offered replacement eyes by Pulaski. He had always thought that wasn't possible for since she is the worst of course she has done it twice before. However Geordi understands that his enhanced visor vision is actually one of the things that makes him a good ships engineer and opts to keep his visor.
Review: While not quite perfect this episode is both enjoyable and thought provoking. By not having Wesley save the day or Pulaski get anywhere near Data it also avoids many of the pitfalls of early TNG. It even involves the unique talents of the TNG crew in a way that would have made it hard to adapt from an TOS storyline. If you haven't seen this one you owe yourself a watch!
8 out of 10
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