Title: Loud As A Whisper
Airdate: 01/23/1989
Plot Summary
The Enterprise picks up Riva, a deaf ambassador who nevertheless has been a brilliant peace negotiator for the federation to have a new peace treaty fn planet Solais V, where two tribes have been at war for centuries. Riva has three people that can hear and speak for him. Unfortunately they are killed and Riva is left helpless with the crew, and no confidence in himself.
Make It So
Picard has a nice moment grabbing Riva in his panicked state to get through to him that he is not alone and they are in this together. It really helps Riva calm down in the moment.
Number 1
Riker is able to quickly get Riva beamed up before more people get killed. He also is told by Riva that he won’t need his phaser, to which Riker replies “I’m sure we won’t.” They did, but still didn’t use them.
Fully Functional
Data becomes quite useful in learning sign language in minutes. He’s able to provide communications after the chrous is smoke.
Today Is A Good Day To Die
Worf really is uncomfortable with Riva, as he did some peace treaties with the Klingons and the Federation. He claims there was no such word as “peacemaker” in Klingon before Riva.
Phase Inducers
Laforge finds a bit of a kindred spirit in Riva, both connecting for a moment on their respective diabilites and ways they have to get around them.
Counselor Cleavage
Troi is not as taken with Riva as Riva is with her but she definitely sees possibilites. She also gives him a kick in the pants when he needs it at the end, giving him the idea and confidence to continue with the peace talks.
She has an excellent psychologist moment telling Picard that confidence in one’s self cannot easily be given by another. Pretty astute. She has her moments.
Doctor Not Bones
Pulaski can only tell Picard there is no medical way to help Riva’s deafness. She also offers Geordi an option to possibly grow new eyes. He says he’ll think about it but it’s never mentioned again.
Shut Up, Wesley
Wesley sits this one out.
Guinan?!
Not here this time.
Canon Maker
Riva continues the tradition of having ambassadors have absolute say on the mission, something that happened to Kirk a few times with… mixed results to say the least.
Canon Breaker
Riva, according to the script is around 30 years old, though his age is never mentioned in the episode. He also apparently worked the peace treaties between the Klingons and Federation. While the first one was 70 years ago in Kirk’s day, we do know it didn’t happen all at once. We’ll find out that probably the final one was done about 20 years ago, which Riva would’ve been about 10. What planet is he from, Naboo?
Worf says there was no word for “peacemaker” in Klingon before Riva. However in Star Trek III, Kruge specifically mentions that “Even as our emissaries negotiate for peace with the Federation, we will act for the preservation of our race! ” And in IV, the Klingon ambassador proclaims “There will be no peace as long as Kirk lives!” Meaning Klingons certainly understand the meaning of peace, hard to believe it would be such a stretch they wouldn’t haven’t a word with a similar meaning. As those movies were already both released at this point when these episodes were released, I’m not cutting the writers any slack on this one.
Why does the transporter beam the landing party down so close to the edge of a cliff? They beam up from the meeting place and beam down a table to the same place, so why put them several dozen feet over to the left and have them inches from the cliff edge?
It’s admirable the federation is trying to help this planet, but I have to wonder why the prime directive doesn’t apply. They aren’t a united planet and they don’t seem to have warp capabilities.
A Little Bloody Nose
Riva’s chorus is killed pretty shockingly and graphically, watching all their skin and meat burn away showing skeletons for a moment before those disappear too. A well done effect. The guy who did it also gets whacked.
Technobabble
This is the last time we’ll see the holographic projector from Picard’s desk.
Pulaski works with Geordi and mentions that she could give him implants to replace the VISOR. Later on in the movies, he would finally do just that, though its unclear if he lost any features that she mentioned here. It was 8 years later, maybe advances happened since then.
Please Repeat Your Communication
“Why can’t you do that? Why can’t you turn your disadvantage into an advantage?!”
after a pause “That is interesting. That would give them something in common.”
— Troi giving Riva a kick in the pants and Riva getting an idea on how to proceed.
Library Computer
Howis Seago was very adamant to not resorting to technobabble BS to make Riva be able to speak after the death of his chorus. The writers came up with the strategy of having him teach sign language instead. I think it was a good ending.
I Know That Guy:
Howie Seago plays Riva. He was actually deaf in real life and had a great deal of input on how his character should be portrayed.
Marnie Mosiman was the female of Riva’s Chorus. She hasn’t done a lot but she is married to Q himself, John DeLancie.
Thomas Oglesby plays the older dude in Riva’s Chorus. He will have a recurring guest role in Enterprise as well as DS9 and Voyager parts.
Leo Damian plays the younger guy in Riva’s Chorus.
Colm Meaney returns as O’Brien, not that we get his name yet.
Richard Lavin and Chip Heller played the warriors.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
While this is a better episode, it has the whiff of Too Short a Season. Riva pretty much has carte blanche to do what he wants leaving the crew of the Enterprise feeling like guest stars in their own show. But it still works a lot better than that one for a couple of reasons.
One is Riva is far more likable and interesting. He doesn’t bring anyone to talk with like Jameson did with his wife, so he’s forced to interact with the crew more in dealing with his problems which really helps. I know, he brought his chorus, but we never see him interact with them. They have as much personality as the universal translator.
They get killed and it’s kinda gruesome. You see their flesh burn away, then their skeletons for a moment, then nothing. Brr.
It’s pretty shocking when they get smoked and from there, the story really picks up. Until then, it’s a slow slog of exposition that really drags. This is Riva, this is his chorus. Let’s talk in depth about each of their purpose as aspects of Riva’s personality… blah blah blah. Oh yeah, he’s deaf. Now lets do a bunch of intros on the bridge. Again. It all feels really stretched out.
The direction isn’t helping. The opening pre-credits scene seems to forget to have a stinger. They mention about Riva, arrive in orbit, beam down and then seem to be wandering around a room when it fades out. All impact of a wet fart.
The ideas are neat, a deaf guy with this really elegant way of communicating, only to lose those people and be left helpless. He’s a man who clearly is used to being in control and this throws him into a tailspin. And even before that, he comes across immensely self-assured but not arrogant, a fine line that’s really hard to pull off.
Overall, there’s nothing really wrong with this episode but it really doesn’t make much of an impact either.
