mprev

A REVIEW: Alexandra Wilson as Dru Breslauer on Mercy Point

by Laurence C. Hatch

THE CHARACTER: Dru Breslauer, sister of the accomplished, respected, and very much together Dr. Haylen Breslauer is not immediately a likeable character. She has a past which is slowly and sometimes cleverly revealed over the course of the seven episodes. She was born in space and has encountered "spacism". (How lovely! Like we need another -ism to look forward too. As if we've handled all the old ones so well). Three of her more important influences abandoned her - mother, father, and lover CJ Jurado. The one stable, restraining influence (Haylen) gave up on her.

Dru rebelled and led a wild life with drugs (tripping on a curious and deadly microorganism called "crobes"), sex ("Sex...god the sex" she tells Rema), constant partying, and mental instability. CJ enjoyed her free spirit for a time (while in med school) but saw it getting out of control and didn't want to sink with her. Apparently rock bottom came for her when her girlfriend died of crobes, narrowly escaping the same fate. Taking together with all the abandonments she picked herself up by the cyber-bootstraps and got into medical school. The rest we have on tape.

The writers made sure we noticed how Dru used her background to overcome some of the problems in her past. She was skillful and kind to children - some of whom had parental issues too. Dru risked her career to save Val using an unauthorized treatment for the same Crobes that nearly ended her life. By the fourth or fifth episode her mental confusions seem to be on the decline - even if all her decisions are not yet perfect.

Dru Breslauer is an interesting character and she was written and directed with lots of texture. Many fans think Dru was one of the program's best characters.

APPEARANCE: Alexandra's fans will notice the rather orange color of her hair. It is not a bad choice with her complexion and I am told by leading authorities (any woman will do) that the makeup was well done. To me at least the hairstyle was a bit frumpy - more suitable for Homefront than for spacefront. It could be argued the style was just returning for the 22nd time by the year AD 2249. After all, Rema has a rather ordinary, mature hairstyle and Haylen sometimes looks like the Jennifer Aniston revisited. Very fortunately Dru and AW get a revised hairdo in time for the seventh episode, having visited the "Tricho Deck" or "Aestheticon". (Sorry, I just couldn't help making up some new words). They trimmed off the excess hair in back - making her more stylish without being as glamorous as the 90210 look. Perhaps it was all timed this way to signal her maturation and new found sophistication. Probably not but it sounds okay. She looks absolutely irresistable in the final scene with CJ.

In MP we do not SEE as much of the doctor's social lives as we would in other medical dramas. We mostly HEAR about them. You get a scene here and there and maybe something in a hallway or supply room. Of course doctors (in space or anywhere in trauma) have little free time - but still we need a little more entertainment. A party, bar, or cultural event with everyone dressed quite differently would have been nice. Flashbacks to the past would worked too. This deficiency might have been one flaw in the show if one is to wane hypercritical. Thus we mainly see Dru in her white jacket and non-flattering medical pants suit - which looks like some truly space age version of polyester. In one popular MP press photo the navy thing is limp and very dull - though admittedly some of the early photos and ads gave everyone a strange glowing white, super-hero look.

It's mostly serious, no-nonsense clothes for most of the episodes - except us being a video voyeur on Kim undressing while chatting with CJ. Unlike many other space shows we never much leg or skin on any of the female (or male) characters. For a show with so many great-looking, fit actors this was a missed opportunity. Would that have been a sellout to soaps? I say no. If Mercy Point was to succeed it had to be both scientific and sexy - especially on UPN and during primetime. Even if the show had been created as a G-rated family program it didn't have to stay that way. There were wonderful visual feasts in the realms of technology but the beauty of the actors was mainly enjoyed from the neck up.

However Dru does get a couple of appealing looks. One is in her confessional monologue with Rema. She gets to wear a casual brown sweater that hints at cleavage and some odd (evidently modern) shoes. (I old enough to admit stupid looking things are popular probably modern). The most daring look is of course the dream scene when CJ performs a medical procedure only to shift into fantasy and fondle her black bra and left breast. It should come as a relief to most men that in 2249 A.D. you don't need an electronic ID card for this kind of access. Her scene in episode 1.7 with CJ gives her a slim casual look even though all her colleagues seem to be in professional attire. Like so many other times it is her radiant, sweet face that is most fetching.

ACTING PERFORMANCE: In the first three or four episodes I'd give AW a solid B+ for her acting. I tried hard to divorce my opinion from the extreme stress and slight "bad girl" unpleasantness to her character. Yet somehow she didn't feel at ease as both actor and character. Alexandra did her usually excellent job at presenting anxious professionalism, running about, resolving confrontations with a face full of emotion, and being a little more human than her serious colleagues. She exhibited realistic stress and overcoming skill with a delicate balance much of the time. I think she overplayed the facial terror, frustration, and anger a bit. Was it just overacting or the old silliness of soap training coming out?

Maybe if they'd been given unknown or alien curse words it would have helped? You could really tell they were trying very hard not to damn and f-word each other and events. Similar criticisms can be made of other actors, all of whom were undoubtedly testing out the emotion meter and sometimes erring a degree or two. If you go back and look at some of the dialogue these people were asked to say long, complex sentences full of jargon in two or three seconds. (Try reading the sentence you just read in three seconds while cutting open someone's chest).

Compared to the leisurely pace of some sci-fi shows the timing on MP was brutal. It was a rewarding and fascinating blast of information and drama but it is also much harder to get right. On a new show this is natural and it seems they softened some of the edges, learned moderation, and found their actor's comfort zone. In the later few episodes Alexandra earns a firm grade of A, having developed more sensible expressions and better coordinated her dialogue with others. I don't think her acting is genuinely remarkable until the scene with Rema in episode 1.4. Fortunatley she has several other fine moments in the remaining episodes and one is once again impressed with her talent.

Of course we'll never know just how good they all would have gotten and in some ways any grade of their performance is premature. Still we were treated to a rare team of highly skilled actors - even if few of them are household names. I look forward to following each and every one in their future endeavors. The Internet Movie Database , SALLI-RICHARDSON.COM, and Jordan Lund's Homepage are good places to check. If Mr. Decaprio can have 1300 websites (and more by the second) these folks deserve at least one each.

SEASON TWO & FUTURE DRU: I'm told there are some scripts out there for unshot episodes but for now I'd just prefer to think up my own. No doubt we might have a few convergences as some plot devices never fail to amuse. But we need to start with known facts from episode 1.7.

Obviously Dru and CJ go off with the others on the 13-week long "wild goose chase" to track down a new earth and other marvels. The dialogue about "transformation" is revealing. They are both transformed people and quite evidently their love is back on. The transformed crystal he shows her is at least a little suggestive of a diamond - and what that reveals and symbolizes about human relationships. Both Dru and CJ are people who have met death and won, becoming your highly motivated "second chance" kind of characters.

Let's imagine they do find a place so wonderful and magical they all decide to stay there. Both Dru and CJ become very accomplished doctors and pioneers in their own respective fields - particularly because they've retained most of their renegade, experiment-loving personalities. The outpost becomes the next frontier and a MP-like hospital is created there. Batung is recommended as their new Director of Medicine at the same time Haylen assumes the same role at MP. It also gains military value and Lt. Salisaw oversees a similar pioneering conquest, uniting the Dru-CJ-Kim triangle again. Coping with new found responsabilities and political interference, Dru has an addiction problem with "meds". Trying to commit suicide she takes a shuttle into deep, unknown space. Salisaw's troops detect the wandering shuttle and lay out an interception course. Kim finds Dru's life and future in her hands. The military mednauts save her in time. It is a secret they initially can keep from CJ and authorities.

Back on the original MP Ani's human emotions get out of control and she has a nervous breakdown. Rema does some groundbreaking work to cure her mind and body. A very wild alien species invades and takes over MP, citing religious and cultural infractions. Haylen has to confront them physically when they give their own wounded priority over more critical patients. They threaten to flush Grote out a airlock unless she gives in. She does and eventually the station is rescued.

Batung also finds himself tolerating human culture better than before. He becomes the first Shenn Elder to take a human wife. That threatens his position at home, on the station, and with his family. CJ, Dru, and Kim find themselves getting along very well too. Following the new planet's polygamous culture they form a triadic marriage and struggle with prejudice from their human co-workers. Later CJ wishes to take a third wife from the beautiful, mesmerizing native people but Dru and Kim forbid it. The woman gets very ill along with her village. CJ takes a sabbatical and leaves them for her. Dru and Kim end up with only each other and the baby all three created together. (How 'bout it UPN - this would sell!).

The new planet has many dangerous, hostile regions but with valuable mineral and scientific treasures. A force of simbots and humans is sent to explore and settle the land. Raging storms savage the expeditionary force and several of the explorers are brought to New Mercy Point to be saved. One of the simbots defies all corrective repair and proves to be a hybrid human-simbot. I'll give one guess who his mother turns out to be...

Grote's brother turns up and has become a highly successful businessman and honors the family name with a large space corporation. The Maxwell name seems to be on every other shuttle. Grote is forced to confront him with his company's harsh treatment of alien employees and bad medical care. Rema risks her career by doing a psychic transplant procedure between a human and alien to save an old classmate. Demilla is asked to start a whole series of Mercy Point style hospitals throughout the Divide. Haylen turns down a big promotion Demilla offers her because she and Grote just got married in secret.

On the new hospital we become involved in the lives of some new residents. Overworked and overstressed, Batung has cardiac problems which his pride won't let him admit. Finally he has a major attack in public. Then a resident's error almost kills him. Batung returns to the ancient Shennic healing practices when modern technology fails him, forcing him to trust a human with precious secrets. Dru modifies a curious simbot nurse so she can experience the human orgasm. The nurse is caught with a series of new residents and willing patients, leading Demilla to launch a quiet investigation. A member of the earth media sneaks aboard a supply shuttle and does a not-so-flattering expose of life at the station. Dru is reprimanded for ignoring her routine supervisory responsabilities in order to care for her child and to focus on experimental research. She responds favorably and later makes a major breakthrough in emergency space medicine, isolating an overlooked chemical reaction that has killed dozens of patients. A young female Shenn resident falls for Batung and is crushed by her hero's harsh rebuke.

A new alien disease breaks out, leaving Grote and Haylen in a fight for their lives at old MP station. Ani's humanness now extends to a dramatic religious experience which she tries to share with others and every patient. Her zeal and efficiency are not entirely appreciated. With Grote and Haylen very ill Rema takes charge of the station, following a series of experimental but unsuccessful treatments. The staff of New MP must return to share their new found expertise with that disease's cure from the new planet. A powerful, tearful, and surprise-filled reunion at the older Mercy Point develops in this finale for season two.

Mamma Breslauer shows up when news of a grandchild turns up on a geneological database. Dru is shocked to discover who the old woman talking to her child turns out to be. Grote and Haylen are now beyond all hope. Just before dying together their union is revealed - and that Haylen is with child! All (especially Dru) struggle to save the child with an artificial womb. Dru (with her lover Kim), Mrs. Breslauer, and the Maxwells briefly debate the child's future home. The Maxwells disapprove of the once secret interracial marriage as well as the relationship between Dru and Kim on two grounds. Violent video news of the New Mercy Point's destruction by a solar flare (with CJ and Batung aboard?) provides a potent ending. One shuttle did get away but it has crashed in the dangerous region of the planet. Someone must find it. Season three ahead...

[Your ideas here]. I generally dislike "fan fiction" but MP offers such a secure foundation and lots of promise. Do write.

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