2.05 – Loud as a Whisper
Loud as a Whisper is barely an above-average episode. The concept of Riva and his chorus, along with their untimely, and rather unexpected, demise are intriguing. As is Riva’s decision to make the learning of sign language as the entry point for peace negotiations. Unfortunately, the concepts look much better in summary than they do played out over an entire episode.
The character of Riva starts off as arrogant. This is necessary for us to see his change in character later on. However, his performance is such that we’re almost glad to see him knocked down a peg or two by the tragedy. So the mistake then is that instead of identifying with his character emotionally, his arrogance forces us to detach ourselves from it. And, therefore, his change has less of an effect on us.
Another issue of this episode is the pacing. It’s slow. Very slow. It takes a while to get to the point. You have exposition. You have dinner scenes. You have the chorus talking. You have Troi talking. You have Riva giving Troi creepy looks. It feels choppy.
… you get the idea …
The supporting cast does well enough, but unfortunately no one particularly shines through to help compensate for either the story or the character of Riva.
The most interesting angle, perhaps, comes from LaForge. Both LaForge and Riva are disabled in some way: Riva is deaf, LaForge is blind. The curious thing, however, is that I never saw LaForge has a handicapped person — until this episode. So instead of promoting equality, the episode does the opposite, and merely reinforces the differences.
This could have been a complete disaster, but it is averted by a very poignant response from LaForge, who points out: “I like who I am, so why would I resent being blind?” But if LaForge is already comfortable and happy with who he is, and we, as the audience, have seen that for over a season now, why should this episode have to make this an issue in the first place?
Loud as a Whisper is an uneven, inconsistent episode which attempts to convey a profound message and, ultimately, achieves very little success.
Filed under: TNG Reviews
I must confess, I had a completely different reaction to this episode. The character of Riva intrigued me, and I thought the actor who played him was very talented at expressing his thoughts and feelings with a deep, and emotive presence.
I can appreciate your point about his perceived arrogance – he sometimes comes off too strong, but surely that is understandable for a man who has *never* failed at achieving peace. His connection with the bridge crew, in particular LaForge, was for me one of the most memorable and “feel good” of the series thus far, and his dinner with Diana didn’t feel boring or expository at all. Far from it, the episode took the chance to slow things down and focus on sharing small but powerful feelings between two characters. I found Deanna Troi more engaging in this episode than any before.
I’ve really enjoyed your reviews, and seem to agree with them 90% of the time, but I found this episode to be more in the range of a B or even B+. I look forward to seeing how this series develops and takes greater risks with these fascinating characters and stories.