Personally I wasn’t a fan of them, so was glad they didn’t continue on.
They led into Picard mowing down Borg with a Tommy gun in First Contact, so they’re a-okay with me!
Incidentally, I just watched The Big Hit, which came out in 1998, right around the time that In The Pale Moonlight aired, and it features Avery Brooks chewing scenery as a cartoonishly over-the-top mob boss, so I like to pretend that it’s a holosuite program he ran to loosen up after the events of the episode.
I hated them. I also hated the Chaotica/Captain Proton episodes on Voyager. I’m sure they were fun for the people involved, but I got second hand embarrassment trying to watch them.
I found his raspy, gravely voice unbearable. I can’t stand to hear him sing. I fast forward though it every time.
Ironically, I rather liked his acting and enjoyed his character otherwise— although I think the writers relied a bit too much on his character/the Vegas lounge program schtick, and “Mirror Vic” was an absurdity that should never have existed.
I liked seeing the actors get to play some different roles and I liked seeing the fantasy life of the characters whenever there was something off the beaten path. It helps round everybody out, in the same way that playing an instrument or having a pet does.
I had a hard time buying Jean-Luc Picard as a hard boiled PI, but I suppose that’s the point of a holodeck program- you get to fantasize about being something you aren’t if you want to.
Picard being a fan of the Dixon Hill novels, on the other hand… that seems out of character.
I know a guy who is a literature snob and is probably the last person I would have expected to really get into Raymond Chandler novels. Anyway, he was raving about those books so I read a few. It turns out that Chandler was a phenomenally weird wordsmith. Inventive, funny, and unexpected. If you’re looking at midcentury American writers, Chandler is hugely underrated. Maybe in a few centuries he’ll get his due.
Sure, it’s detective pulp. But it’s detective pulp that’s been given a strong hallucinogen and whacked over the head a few times before waking up in the desert.
Why what’s the novels?
If it’s not in sorts with philosophy or whatnot, could be his guilty pleasure.
Eh, I have to admit, I have a hard time buying it, too. This is a guy who reads Shakespeare in his spare time, not trashy, pulp detective novels from the early-mid 20th century. He even thought taking a trip on The Orient Express would be too indulgent. Picard liking Dixon Hill novels makes no sense. Just like off-roading in an ATV.
Patrick Stewart, on the other hand…
However much you enjoy fine dining, now and again, you just want a dodgy burger from the van parked outside the student union.
There’s a reason Dan Brown was so popular. Some times, you need a bit of trash in your life.
It was still infinitely better than Captain Proton
