Hot Take: TNG's Masks

Hot Take

TNG's Masks

Hot take: I actually like TNG's episode Masks.  The one with the ancient alien archive transforming the Enterprise into parts of its long dead civilization and Data taking on the personalities of people from the civilization.  People shit on this episode for the perceived campiness of Brent Spiner's acting and the characters he's portraying.  I disagree.  I think it really showed Brent Spiner's range as an actor and skill at playing different characters and rapidly switching between characters (Eehat, Masaka's father, Masaka, etc).  The overall concept of the episode, an alien archive from a long extinct civilization reveals it's contents by transforming the Enterprise (and Data) is neat, a sort of space "lost library of Alexandria" story.  An interesting, fun twist on learning about new civilizations, and a great chance to see Picard in full archaeologist mode.  The idea of Masaka and Korgano, the two rulers, the "sun" and the "moon" is a cool idea, and opens up other questions about the fate of the D'arsay civilization.  Also the use of symbols, iconography was fun and reminiscent of Mayan glyphs or Egyptian hieroglyphics.  Overall, a fun, interesting episode and one I personally enjoy watching.