7-25, 7-26. All Good Things...

Picard is jumping back and forth through time...

THE PLOT

Jean-Luc Picard has become unstuck in time.

He is jumping between three time periods: The present; the past, at the very point when he first took command of theEnterprise; and more than 25 years in the future, when he is an old man who has been diagnosed with Irumodic Syndrome, a degenerative neurological disorder. The time jumps happen at seemingly random intervals; and after a moment of disorientation, Picard feels completely of that time period, with all the memories and characteristics that suit him in that time and place.

In both past and present, a large spatial anomaly has appeared, with the Enterprise sent to investigate. Convinced that the same anomaly must exist in the future, Picard convinces his old shipmates to join him in traveling to the Devron System - a region of space that, in this future, is controlled by a now-hostile Klingon Empire.

That's when Q appears, returning Picard to the Trial of Humanity that was their first meeting, and informing the captain that humanity has been found guilty. [I]"You are to be denied existence. Humanity's fate has been sealed. You will be destroyed." He adds that it is not the Q who will cause humanity's destruction.

The human race will end because of one man: Jean-Luc Picard!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: This story's Picard isn't "present" Picard transported to other time periods; as is spelled out early on, we are jumping between three Picards: the Picard of the present; the younger, less experienced pre-series Picard; and an elderly and infirm Picard. Stewart's performance differentiates these three incarnations. Past Picard was already a seasoned officer, so differences between him and "our" Picard are small and subtle, but there isn't quite the same sense of confidence to him. Future Picard is noticeably different, and it's here that Patrick Stewart gets his most memorable moments. He has the knowledge from the other two time periods, but his mind struggles through the fog of age and illness to make the connections. He sometimes stammers while trying to force out some kind of clear explanation, and he can't quite keep his temper when he sees the others doubting him. It is a great performance, equal to Family and The Inner Light as Stewart's very best.

Riker: The Riker of the future has risen to the rank of Commodore. He first seen dismissing the elderly Picard's pleas to investigate the Devron System. By initial appearances, he's become the "pompous bureaucrat" figure. When he re-enters the story in the second half, however, we get a fuller picture. He has made the Enterprise his flagship, saving the old ship from being decommissioned because of his great fondness for it. He may have appeared to have dismissed Picard, but he did investigate - He just didn't want to make public knowledge of a crossing into Klingon territory. He carries bitterness over a feud with Worf, an argument based around the bizarre triangle their present-day counterparts have formed with Troi, but it's clear that he is very ready to make peace with his old friend. Jonathan Frakes is very good in these "future" scenes, reminding us for the first time since The Pegasus how good he can be when given strong material.

Geordi: The "future plot" is kicked off when Geordi visits the elderly Picard. Their banter reveals that Geordi ended up marrying Leah Brahms, and we can see that his visor has been replaced by implants in his eyes, presumably allowing him more normal vision. Even after connecting with Data and Dr. Crusher, Geordi continues to feature prominently throughout the "future" scenes, which goes a long way toward making up for the sparse material he's been afforded the past two seasons (this season especially).

Dr./Capt. Crusher: The future timeline that we see is one in which Picard and Crusher married... and then divorced. Beverly continues to have fondness for her ex-husband, though, keeping the Picard name and agreeing to transport him to the restricted sector. When Geordi admits to her that he's not certain this isn't just a delusion, a result of Picard's neurological disease, she replies that it doesn't really matter. "He's Jean-Luc Picard. And if he wants to go on one more mission, that's what we're going to do."

Tasha: The "past" Enterprise timeline is immediately pre-series, which means Tasha is the Security Chief. With no Riker or Geordi, and with Data still in his early, overly literal stage, this leaves her effectively acting as Picard's First Officer. Denise Crosby gives a much better performance here than was her average, showing her concern over Picard's increasingly strange orders without overplaying it. The moment in which she finally questions Picard, insisting that while they have followed his every order no matter how strange, they need something more from him before putting the ship at risk, is one of the best moments given to a character who got far too few such moments back when she was a regular.

Q: First appears much as he had in Encounter at Farpoint, sitting in scarlet robes on a throne that hovers in the air, mocking Picard while pronouncing judgment against humanity. Unlike in the series' premiere, this is an act he's putting on, keeping up appearances for the Q Continuum. Q is strictly an ally in this episode. He only appears a handful of times; but every time he shows up, he gives Picard some vital clue to push him toward the solution. It's his intervention that allows Picard awareness of the time jumps, giving him a fighting chance to put all the pieces of this temporally fragmented puzzle together. Q reappears at the end, giving Picard congratulations as well as a mix of warning and promise: That the challenge to prove that humanity deserves its place is a "trial (that) never ends." Which is as much a statement of the franchise's own philosophy as a question of this one episode's plot.


THOUGHTS

Coming up with a suitable finale to Star Trek: The Next Generation had to have been a daunting task. By the end of its run, TNG had already become an iconic series - at the time, even overshadowing the original Star Trek (an imbalance that would slowly correct itself in the following decades). It was a rare genre show whose appeal had extended into the mainstream. Even if its final season had fallen short of the quality that viewers had come to expect, its final bow was not just a television show; it was an Event.

Writers Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga turned to literature for inspiration: To Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut's best-known science fiction novel. In that novel, Billy Pilgrim is a World War II soldier who becomes "unstuck in time" after being taken prisoner by the Germans and transported to a labor camp in Dresden. Throughout the novel, Billy jumps forward and backward between various points in his life, including his own death. There is even a central cataclysmic event: The infamous bombing of Dresden.

The form may be borrowed from Vonnegut, but the spirit is uniquely TNG. Whereas Billy Pilgrim is a very passive protagonist, doing little to affect his situation, Picard insists on acting on his bizarre predicament - with the actions he takes actually creating the very problem he's trying to solve! A common interpretation of Billy's time-jumps is that he's suffering from PTSD and not time-jumping at all.  Picard's time jumps are definitely real, with Dr. Crusher medically verifying his story early in the episode, and we learn exactly what (or who) is causing them.  It's all part of a puzzle to be solved, with everything made clear once the pieces are put together. 

The time jumps allow the finale to look backward at the series' origins while simultaneously giving viewers a look at one possible future for the characters. The series opened with Picard having only recently taken command of the Enterprise before being captured and put on trial by Q. This episode's "past" plot flashes back to immediately before that, with Tasha giving the new captain his first look at the vessel he will come to call home. The present plot shows a crew that trusts Picard without question. The future plot shows a crew that desperately wants to trust him, and at the very least indulges him because of the man he used to be. Meanwhile, the crew of the past isn't quite sure what to make of him, his bizarre orders leaving them quietly wondering if they are now in the care of a madman.

The ending sees Picard finally joining the crew's regular poker game. His presence makes things awkward for a moment. But everyone quickly relaxes as he takes his seat and begins dealing, observing that he should have joined them in this a long time ago even as Troi replies, "You were always welcome." The camera rotates as it pulls back from the poker game, showing the captain and his crew gathered at a round table, like a futuristic court of Camelot. The rotation of the camera move transitions perfectly into the pull-back from the Enterprise itself, making the final fade to black almost cinematic.

A perfectly-judged ending to an ideal series finale.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: Preemptive Strike

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5-07, 5-08. Unification

Picard and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) are caught in a Romulan trap.

THE PLOT

Picard is given a top-secret mission from Starfleet Command. Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) has disappeared from Vulcan, only to reappear on Romulus! Starfleet suspects Spock has defected. Spock's dying father, Sarek (Mark Lenard), thinks otherwise. Sarek suggests Spock has made a rendezvous with Pardek (Malachi Throne), a former Romulan senator who has been a voice for peace and moderation within the Empire. Picard calls in a favor owed by the Klingons to secure a cloaked ship for travel across the Neutral Zone.

Picard is able to find Spock fairly quickly and discovers that Sarek was right. Spock has not defected to Romulus, but is instead working with Senator Pardek and a Romulan underground movement. Through Pardek, Spock is trying to appeal to a new Romulan proconsul to work toward the reunification of Vulcan and Romulus. But when the proconsul appears a bit too eager to help Spock achieve this dream, Picard suspects they have all walked into a carefully-laid trap!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: It is now difficult to remember how weakly Picard came across in the early days of the series. Between the ever-improving character writing and the performance of Patrick Stewart, Picard has grown from the tedious grumpy old windbag of early Season One into a genuinely complex and formidable figure. We get to see multiple sides to him, even within the first twenty minutes. He is gentle and compassionate in dealing with Sarek, even as he keeps firmly on topic in getting what information the old Vulcan can give.  In contrst, he is all tough shrewdness in dealing with the Klingons, selecting his words with care to convey just enough of a threat to remind Gowron of how much he owes to Picard and Starfleet. These two scenes, coming one right after another, are masterful demonstrations of Picard's skill as a commander, and Patrick Stewart seems to revel in them.

Spock: Leonard Nimoy's special guest appearance as Spock was heavily advertised at the time... which probably left a lot of viewers of Part One frustrated, as Spock barely appears in that episode. Part Two makes up for that, giving him a very large role that respects the character's place within the franchise without marginalizing Picard in any way. Spock's interactions with Picard are vastly different than his interactions with Kirk. There, Spock was usually the voice of caution. Here, Picard fulfills that function, cautioning Spock about the likelihood of a trap and trying to make the Vulcan slow down and think. Effectively, Picard becomes Spock's version of Mr. Spock - adding to the humor of Spock's observation of how "analytical and detached" Picard is. It's actually a very interesting partnership, and I'm actively sorry that Spock wasn't seen again in TNG - either in the show or the movies.

Riker: The "B" plot puts Riker back in command of the Enterprise. It's a role that continues to suit him, which only reinforces how insupportable it is for him not to be transferring to his own command by this point. We do see some of the differences between Riker and Picard in command. Where Picard tends to be analytical, Riker is more instinctive. His handling of the Ferengi in the smugglers' bar is certainly more Kirk than Picard, as he does not hesitate to get physical and intimidating in order to get the information he needs.

Sela: Denise Crosby makes a return appearance as the half-Romulan Sela. I think she's better here than she was in Redemption, with her stiffness well-suited to a character whose only real emotion is thinly suppressed anger. Still, save for a single reference to Redemption, there's nothing here to really use the character's backstory. You could easily replace her with Tomalak for the same effect - and I'd actually have preferred that, as the thought of Patrick Stewart, Leonard Nimoy, and Andreas Katsulas all acting up a storm is genuinely irresistible. Ah, well. Crosby's not bad here, and I actually think it's a shame that the character never recurs again.

Sarek: Mark Lenard only has a single scene, but it's a powerful one. Sarek is reduced to near-incoherence, lying on his bed, shaking and moaning. We are told this has become an almost constant state, save for brief periods of lucidity. Picard's presence manages to spark one of these lucid moments, but it's not the old Sarek - not even the declined Sarek of the late Season Three episode - that we see. It's an old man who can, in his most lucid moments, remember being that man. A double torture, and he's unable to even cling to that for more than a couple of minutes. Lenard's performance is striking, and it's difficult to shake that this ignoble agony is the ultimate fate of such a dignified figure.  This, coupled with the standout performances of both Patrick Stewart and Mark Lenard, make this scene by far the best of the entire 2-parter.


THOUGHTS

This highly touted 2-parter opens with a dedication to the recently-passed Gene Roddenberry. Though The Game was the first episode broadcast after his death, this is an infinitely more appropriate story for the dedication. It's a big episode: the return of both Spock and Sarek, and the final appearance (chronologically, at least) of the latter character.

It's a story that pulls together many different running threads of the series. We touch on the Klingons again, and learn that Gowron is rewriting Klingon history to eliminate the Federation's role in his succession. We see more of Romulan society, with a culture that seems modeled on life in East Berlin before the Wall came down. There are informants everywhere, and Picard and Data are initially taken for being secret police. Meanwhile, we see that Romulan society isn't monolithic, with a growing group of younger Romulans clearly yearning for something more. In this way, both the Romulan and Klingon strands that have run through this series since Season Three are developed further.

It's interesting that this 2-parter has different writers for each episode. Jeri Taylor, the credited writer for Part One, is generally weak on plot but good with character scenes (at least, when not allowed to dip into soap opera melodrama). Part One is fairly light on plot, just putting some story pieces into play around several strong character scenes. Most of the story happens in Part Two - which is written by Michael Piller, arguably the series' best writer in pure plot terms. By tailoring the nature of each part to the strengths of the two writers, both are allowed to do good work. Even better, both halves fit together as a single piece. I watched both parts in one sitting, essentially as a "movie," and it played quite well.

Quite well, but not perfectly. It is clear that there isn't quite enough story to support 90 minutes. Part One has a blatant scene of padding in which Picard attempts to sleep on the Klingon ship, but is unable to relax because of Data's presence. The scene gropes about for laughs that it utterly fails to find, and the only reason for it to have remained in the episode was to stretch the running time. In Part Two, we get yet more padding, with endless scenes involving a four-armed piano player in a smugglers' bar that's basically a poor man's Mos Eisley. Despite all the padding, the resolution feels rushed, the defeat of the Romulans' trap accomplished all too easily.  It's not an awful ending, but neither is it entirely satisfying.

Despite the padding and the flaws, Unification is still a strong episode. Not only is it wonderful to see Leonard Nimoy's Spock again in a way that ties the full franchise more closely together, this is a good story, one that is mostly well-told. It's not the great episode that I'd have liked from TNG's sole Spock story. But it's still well above the series' average.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: The Game

Next Episode: A Matter of Time

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4-26, 5-01. Redemption

The crew honors Lt. Worf.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise returns to the Klingon homeworld, so that Picard can complete his role as arbiter of the Klingon succession by installing Gowron (Robert O'Reilly) as the new chancellor. No sooner has the ship entered Klingon space than Gowron hails them. Officially, his ship is acting as an escort. Unofficially, he needs to meet with Picard to discuss a grave matter: The threat of a Klingon Civil War!

Duras' sisters, Lursa (Barbara March) and B'Etor (Gwynth Walsh) are challenging Gowron's claim to leadership by presenting their own candidate: Toral (J. D. Cullum), the illegitimate son of Duras. Toral is a mere boy, a clear puppet of the Duras Sisters - but he does provide them with an opportunity to split the council, turning Duras' old supporters against Gowron.

This is also an opportunity for Worf.  With Picard's blessing, he bands together with his brother Kurn (Tony Todd) to reclaim their family honor by fighting alongside Gowron. But as the conflict escalates, Worf finds that his service to the Empire may not be compatible with his role as a Starfleet officer...

CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: His ongoing support of Worf is apparent from the very beginning. The episode opens with Picard urging Worf to challenge his discommendation. With Duras dead and Gowron being confirmed as Chancellor, Picard feels the time has come. Worf's discommendation "is a lie," Picard tells him, "and lies must be challenged." Despite his personal feelings, Picard will not use Federation resources to interfere in Klingon matters. He does declassify the Federation information about the Khitomer massacre to help Worf, by making it available to anyone - but he also tells Worf that this is as far as he's willing to go.

Worf: Worf has become a sound strategist. When his brother urges action against the entire council, Worf refuses because such an act would be dishonorable. But he doesn't insist on immediately supporting Gowron. "We will wait," he tells Kurn, "until he feels the grasp of his enemies around his throat. Then we will offer him our support - and the price will be the restoration of our family name!" It's a plan that Kurn cannot ignore, both because Worf's goal is one he shares and because Worf's plan actually has a chance of succeeding.

Data: Part Two introduces a subplot in which Data takes command of one of the vessels in Picard's fleet. This gives the android his first proper command of a starship. Naturally, he must contend with a First Officer who does not believe an android can possibly be suited to command. It goes without saying that Data proves himself. That he does so by stepping outside the strict dictates of rules and regulations, applying his own judgment to a critical situation, is a good plot turn. It emphasizes the flipside of In Theory. While that episode showed that Data was too much of a machine to carry on a relationship with a human (at least, with an emotionally needy one), this episode reminds us that Data is still much more than just a machine.

Sela: Denise Crosby's official introduction as the half-Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar comes here, though she was previously heard as the voice of a figure in the shadows in The Mind's Eye. Though Crosby's acting limitations remain, the coldly guarded Sela's characterization is better-crafted to disguise her weaknesses than Tasha was. She gets a strong introduction, too, being shown to be tactically shrewd when she evades Picard's trap. Though her gambit fails, she judges Picard and his responses perfectly. She simply makes the mistake of underestimating Data, selecting him as the weak link in Picard's fleet when he's actually probably the strongest.

Klingons/Romulans: Seasons Three and Four have steadily built up the Klingon and Romulan arcs, and have gradually intertwined them. This two-parter pays off all that setup. We previously saw the Romulans attempt to drive a wedge between the Federation and the Klingons through a political assassination. Now they use their influence over the Duras clan to create a full-blown civil war. With Starfleet too "noble" to interfere, even to support their own interests, the Romulans are able to build up the Duras clan to the point that Gowron seems all but defeated. We also see yet again the corruption at the heart of the Klingon Empire, with the Klingon council effectively a tool of the Duras sisters.


THOUGHTS

Season Four comes to an end, and Season Five begins, with this 2-parter. Though it follows the precedent established by The Best of Both Worlds, ending the season on a cliffhanger, it is a vastly different episode. The Best of Both Worlds' first episode was a steady march to doom, with its second part forcing the characters (particularly Riker) havng to find it in themselves to face a massive external threat. This 2-parter is about corruption from within an empire: Civil Wars and alliances.

It lacks the spectacle of Best of Both Worlds, and it doesn't have anything as iconic as "Locutus of Borg." But in its way, this is almost as good - particularly the first part.

One major difference between these 2-parters lies in their episode structure. The previous two-parter was very much a single narrative, divided at the moment of greatest drama. Redemption instead is structured so that each part is very much its own unit, with its own focused narrative within the broader story of the Klingon Civil War.

The first part centers on Worf's struggle to regain his family name, with the emerging Klingon Civil War as a backdrop that makes this possible. This part features a lot of political maneuvering. The Duras Sisters introduce Duras' illegitimate son in order to split the council and lay claim to the throne. Worf presses his brother to enlist Klingon squadrons to support Gowron... but not until Gowron's moment of greatest weakness, to push for the restoration of their family name. Picard attempts to walk a tightrope between supporting Gowron in his role of arbiter and maintaining neutrality in his role of Starfleet captain.

There are some terrific scenes here, particularly on the Klingon homeworld. The best scene is probably the confrontation between Picard and the Duras sisters. They extend an invitation to him, attempting to influence his decision as arbiter. Picard observes their efforts for a few minutes, then shuts them down by giving a bluntly accurate assessment of their actions. He ends by telling them they have manipulated the situation "like a Romulan," simultaneously insulting them as Klingons and telling them that he knows whose interests they are truly serving. A terrific scene, brilliantly performed by Patrick Stewart.

Part 2 picks up some time after the events of Part 1. The war has been raging for weeks, and Gowron is losing. The focus here is more on Picard than Worf, as he attempts to block the Romulans from supplying the Duras forces. The emotional center is the revelation of Sela, with Picard having to wrestle with the thought that he (in another reality) was responsible for her. Worf's material is more of a subplot, with his scenes focusing on how his values differ from that of the other Klingons around him - all to set up his inevitable return to Enterprise.

It's all good drama, but there is a sense that the second part is stretched out a bit. The subplot involving Data's recalcitrant First Officer feels forced, and the entire arc of this subplot is extremely predictable. Meanwhile, the civil war is resolved too quickly and neatly to entirely convince. Civil wars are historically bloody affairs, rarely over quickly and never neatly. This is an inevitable consequence of a series that insists on resolving its plots within 1 - 2 episodes: Stories that cry out for additional development are cut off before there's time to do anything but hint at their potential complexity.

Still, if it falls short of full marks, this is nonetheless another very good piece. With Sela and the Duras Sisters still out there, and with Worf having chosen Enterprise and Starfleet over his Klingon heritage, there are any number of new dramatic possibilities for the series - and that can't be anything but good for a series that has now firmly found its voice.


Rating for Part 1: 10/10.
Rating for Part 2: 8/10.

Overall Rating: 9/10.


Previous Episode: In Theory
Next Episode: Darmok


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3-15. Yesterday's Enterprise

THE PLOT

When the Enterprise encounters a temporal phenomenon, Guinan is immediately disturbed. With good reason. As the bridge crew observe this space/time rift, Worf reads a ship coming through. The ship appears... and everything changes.

The Enterprise is much darker, with a command chair that stands alone rather than being surrounded by other chairs. Uniforms change, to reflect a more military style. And the crew changes. Gone are Worf and Troi. Wesley is a full officer. And the security chief is Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby).

None of the crew notice the change in their world. To them, this is their reality, fighting a decades-long war against the Klingons. But Guinan can sense that this reality is "wrong." When the ship that came through is revealed to be the Enterprise C, the predecessor to the current Enterprise, which disappeared when responding to an attack on a Klingon outpost just before the start of the war, Guinan reveals her intuition to Picard. The ship has to go back, Guinan tells him, in order to restore a timeline in which there is no war. There is some anecdotal evidence to support her claim, that if a Federation ship had fought to the death to protect a Klingon outpost, it might have been enough to help pave the way for peace. But if Picard does order the ship back, it will mean the certain deaths of every man and woman on board!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: One thing I appreciate about this episode is that, in either timeline, the characters are recognizably the same people. Picard is still a thoughtful individual, one who weighs the consequences of his decisions carefully before acting. Military Picard is a bit crisper in his deliveries than "our" Picard, and seems less inclined to digest everybody's input before making his decisions. Still, he deals just as fairly with his Enterprise C counterpart as one would expect "our" Picard to do, and is quite compassionate in his big scene with Tasha. Patrick Stewart seems to sense that the material here is just a bit richer than average, as he ups the ante on his already very good regular performance.

Riker: In either reality, Riker is always ready to play devil's advocate to Picard, arguing the other side of the captain's decisions. In the military reality, Riker seems to be the voice of compassion. When the Enterprise C comes through and the damage is detected, Riker insists that they render aid, though he agrees to withhold details about their time until Picard assesses the situation. As Picard wrestles with the decision to send the Enterprise C back to its battle with the Romulans, Riker argues against it, insisting that to do so would be to send more than 100 people to a certain death.

Tasha: More than a season and a half after Tasha was offhandedly slimed in one of the first season's crappiest episodes (itself an achievement), she finally gets a great character episode, complete with a proper sendoff. Despite a hairstyle that could diplomatically be dubbed "bizarre," Denise Crosby rises to the good script with her best performance in the series. It would have been a cute touch to have put her name on the main titles for this one episode, though I suppose carping about something that would have been contractually expensive (if not impossible) would be foolish.

Guinan: After her generic start in early Season Two, Q Who managed to make Guinan an intriguing character. That continued in Deja Q, and is raised to a new level here, with Guinan being the only person aboard Enterprise who is able to sense that something has changed. When she encounters Tasha, she can sense that Tasha "doesn't belong" on the ship, and her nonverbal reactions lead Tasha to seek her out and push her to a full explanation.


THOUGHTS

Yesterday's Enterprise wastes absolutely no time getting into the story. We are firmly in the alternate timeline by the end of the teaser, thrown into this new reality and left to catch up with an entirely new backstory very, very quickly. It works a treat, in part because the script is extremely economical.

The rules of the new reality are established quickly in a way that doesn't seem at all forced. When the Enterprise C is detected, Picard asks if it's an "enemy" ship - telling us that Starfleet is at war in this timeline. Mentions of the Klingons are sprinkled through the next Act, with everyone going on alert when a Klingon ship is detected moving in their general area - which tells us, through entirely natural dialogue and character reactions, that the Klingons are the enemy. All neatly established, with no ham-fisted expository speeches. Very good scriptwriting.

This is a terrific-looking episode. David Carson, who vies with Rob Bowman for the title of TNG's best director, effectively dims the lighting for the military reality, casting the bridge and other areas of the ship in shadows. This greatly elevates the drama as the two Enterprise captains must reach a decision. Frankly, "our" Enterprise could benefit from being lit this way more often.

Amusing in retrospect are references to "Archer IV," in which Starfleet delivered "a pasting" to the Klingons in the alternate timeline. I guess we know where the producers drew inspiration for naming the lead character on Enterprise.

Overall, an outstanding episode, one of the series' very best. Densely packed, more is conveyed in this single parter than most 2-parters manage. Performances are extremely good, the script largely holds together through the tangle of temporal complexities, and the climactic battle against the Klingons is among TNG's best action sequences. Terrific television, full-stop.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: A Matter of Perspective

Next Episode: The Offspring

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2-22. Shades of Gray

THE PLOT

Riker and Geordi are on an Away mission to an unexplored planet, when Riker is jabbed in the leg by something unknown. Dr. Pulaski determines that whatever stung Riker, "it left something behind." A microorganism, rapidly reproducing along Riker's nervous system, moving toward his brain.

Pulaski works tirelessly, but cannot find a way to neutralize the organism before it reaches Riker's brain. The only way she can keep him alive is to stimulate his brain directly with electrical impulses. This results in the unconscious Riker reliving images from his past - images which ultimately may prove to be the key to saving him!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Present.

Riker: His first reaction to being jabbed by an unknown entity on a swamplike alien world is to... shrug it off and insist he's fine? Apparently, he is unfamiliar with the word "infection," and needs a remedial course in basic health and safety protocols. He tries to set an example for the crew, even as he is dying, by making nonstop jokes. When Troi appears and starts babbling about his feelings and how he's her "Imzadi," he wisely collapses into unconsciousness.

Troi: Marina Sirtis deals with the horrible material she's given by overacting every line to its fullest camp potential. She stands by Riker's bedside, wailing like a banshee to take us in and out of every set of clips. Sirtis hasn't been this bad since early Season One, so I find myself blaming the material more than her for this lapse.

Dr. Pulaski: Any doubts that Diana Muldaur is a far better actress than Gates McFadden should be erased by an episode that puts clips of both of them side-by-side. Dr. Crusher is staggeringly bland and flat in her line readings, while the early scenes of this episode proper and the clips of some of Pulaski's appearances show Muldaur putting a lot more nonverbal beats and character tics into even very similarly-scripted scenes. Not that Muldaur comes out of this episode unscathed. Once the "clip show" phase of the episode begins, she allows Sirtis to carry her along into the overacting, resulting in some unintentional comedy... though not enough of it to redeem this mess.


THOUGHTS

An overspend on Q Who? combined with the writer's strike to leave the show with little money and minimal production time at the end of the season. The solution? A time-honored method of dealing with low funds: a clip show! To the best of my knowledge, the only traditional clip show ever seen in Star Trek.  I'd say The Menagerie doesn't count, as The Cage had not previously been broadcast and was therefore all new to viewers of the time.

In the late 1980's season finales were still basically "just another episode." There was the odd exception ("Who shot J. R.?"), but the tradition of the season finale being something BIG didn't really take hold until the 1990's. One of the key season enders in creating the tradition of the "big" season finale was actually this series' third season ender. "Locutus of Borg" is one of a handful of Star Trek: The Next Generation moments that the casual man on the street (at least, over the age of 30) is almost guaranteed to remember, because it did generate mainstream conversation.

But this is one year before that, when the last episode of the season was produced on the pocket change that Gene Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Maurice Hurley could find underneath their respective sofa cushions. The first season finale was weak.  This one is absolutely wretched.

I'd question some of the clip choices. All right, even though it was a badly-shot scene in a terrible episode, obviously Tasha's death is going to go in there. But the Playboy Planet in Justice? The first-ever holodeck scene? Anything with Wesley, or anything at all from Angel One or The Last Outpost? These aren't exactly the series' highlights. They're recycling many of the blandest scenes from the weakest episodes! What are the producers trying to do, make the original material in Shades of Gray look good by comparison?

Oh, and apparently negative emotions, such as fear and anything that kicks in the survival instinct, will drive back the infection. So upon learning that he's dying, Riker throws off the infection instantly, right? I mean, surely his survival instinct would kick in and drive back the infection? No - apparently not. I guess when Troi comes in and starts lecturing him about what he's feeling, it saps his will to live. Actually, I can sort of see that.

An episode which starts off badly, and then gets worse as it goes. A clip show that insists on showing mostly bad clips from bad episodes. Bits from Angel One, The Last Outpost, and Up the Long Ladder? Check. Bits from Q Who? or The Measure of a Man? Strangely absent. That's not even mentioning that these clips are supposedly Riker's memories, which makes it odd that an extended clip from Heart of Glory is shown in which there are many cutaways to scenes Riker was not present for!

Meanwhile, in the main plot, stopping the infection's growth magically eradicates it instantly, with no lingering side effects. Yay!

To summarize: It's bad. A particularly bad capper to a mostly pretty bad final six episodes. I'm half-surprised the viewers returned for Season Three.


Rating: 2/10.

Previous Episode: Peak Performance

Next Episode: Evolution

Season Two Overview

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1-23. Skin of Evil

Tasha has a bad reaction to some oil on the planet Viagra.


THE PLOT

The Enterprise is awaiting the return of Counsellor Troi when it receives an emergency message from her shuttlecraft. The shuttle is being pulled down to the lifeless world of Vagra 2 (which will henceforth be known as Viagra, because I have to keep myself amused somehow). After Picard tries to create some fake urgency by forcing the Chief Engineer to go to warp when he's not ready, Riker, Data, Dr. Crusher, and Tasha beam down to help Troi and... ah, Ben. Don't worry about Ben - judging from the reactions of the regulars, none of them gives a crap about him anyway.

While trying to reach the shuttle, the Away Team are intercepted by an oil slick. The slick reveals itself to be an entity, calling itself Armus. It refuses to allow them to the shuttle. When Tasha tries to force her way, it kills her as an afterthought.  This is appropriate, since her characterization has often come across as an afterthought anyway. Faced with a being of incredible power, which is resistant to their weapons and is not open to any reasonable negotiation, the Enterprise crew now must find a way to get past Armus to retrieve their shuttle crew. Hopefully, without any further deaths!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: He refuses to allow his officers to linger on Tasha's death, reminding them that they are in the middle of an emergency and must focus on the task at hand. Once he realizes Armus' weakness, he beams down to the surface to deal with the entity one-on-one, and does so without even once compromising his strength.  Not bad, for the guy who offered an unconditional surrender twice in the series' pilot.

Riker: Has often behaved as if he thinks he's Han Solo.  Thus, it's somewhat appropriate that at the 25-minute mark, he gets encased in carbonite. All right, oil, but the visual is obviously a direct nod to The Empire Strikes Back. Aside from getting yanked into the oil, it's business as usual for Riker as he leads two Away Teams to the surface to deal with Armus and to try to retrieve the wounded shuttle crew. I suppose one thing which does stand out is Riker's restraint. When Armus is toying with Geordi, and later when Armus pulls Riker in, he orders Data and the rest not to intervene, to do nothing to provoke the being.

Data: His friendship with Geordi shows itself when he obeys Riker's command not to give Geordi back the visor Armus has knocked away, but still assists Geordi by trying to talk him to where his visor lies. Probably deals more effectively with Armus than any other member of the Away Team.  When Armus uses his powers to move the visor, Data stops trying to help Geordi. When Armus taunts him about that, Data flatly observes that Armus would just move it again, and that Data "will not help you hurt him." It's a rare standout moment in a disappointingly weak episode, given a lift by Brent Spiner's ability to convey a certain strength of character and feelings of friendship toward Geordi without actually infusing emotion in his line deliveries.

Troi: Troi gets some good scenes in the crashed shuttle, as she deals with Armus. Her probing gets Armus to reveal his background, and her experience as a counselor allows her to figure out a lot of the things Armus refuses to share. That information, in turn, is vital to Picard at the end.


ZAP THE REDSHIRT!

Redshirt count: Tasha. This is not only Tasha's final episode as a regular, it is also the first "permanent" regular character death in televised Star Trek.  As such, you would think Skin of Evil would either be centered around Tasha, or at least offer her a major role. You would be wrong. Tasha is a glorified redshirt, zapped early in the episode without making any contribution to the story at all. Her death scene is then gloriously overacted - not by Denise Crosby (who plays dead just fine), but by Gates McFadden, who milks Dr. Crusher's attempts to revive Tasha as if she thinks she's in a daytime soap. Patrick Stewart gets in on the act by gasping, "Gone?" in reaction to Crusher finally calling it... even though his facial expressions prior to the call make it clear that he's realized that already.

In any case, the tragedy of Tasha is not that she was killed off. That could have made for great drama. The tragedy is that her death has so little impact. After offering up an intriguing character background, most of the season has seen fit to reduce her to being a glorified extra. As a result, we are asked to mourn for a character we never got a chance to know. No matter how long the ending scene tries to milk out her funeral, there just aren't any tears to wring.


THE PICARD SLEDGE-HAMMER

The climax of the episode sees Picard talking Armus into submission. No, I'm not making that up. Picard delivers the Sledge-Hammer of the week, telling Armus that the entity is not true evil, because "true evil is when we give in to (evil)." After nattering on a bit about humanity's "indomitable spirit," Armus finally shrieks and lets Picard, Troi, and random shuttle pilot beam up, silence apparently being preferable to hearing more of Picard's platitudes.


THOUGHTS

Yes, it's the episode where Tasha gets (semi-) permanently inked out of the series, and Worf gets promoted to actually having a role in the show. For those reasons, Skin of Evil is an important episode in Next Generation's development.

Unfortunately, that doesn't make it a good episode. In its way, Skin of Evil is every bit as bad as Symbiosis was.

This is an episode with a reasonably intriguing core idea.  Its villain is the consolidated evil of an entire species, isolated from them and discarded so that they could move on to become beings of great beauty. This leaves the Enterprise crew to deal with a creature who is simply evil, with no redeeming features at all.

I also think it was somewhat clever, to have Picard and Riker approach Armus in very different ways. Riker approaches the creature from a position of weakness, trying to placate the creature to get what he needs (into the shuttle). Picard shows no weakness, demanding access to the shuttle before he will consider giving the creature what it needs. It's well-done, and shows why Picard is the captain and Riker still has a lot to learn.  It certainly stands in stark contrast to the early episodes, in which Riker was practically the lead.

A couple of clever elements don't make up for a lot of tedium, though. The script has an interesting core premise, and deals well with Picard and Riker. But it has no idea what to do with the in-between.  We're left with a lot of wheel-spinning. How many times can Armus taunt Riker and company before it becomes boring? How many times can he and Deanna have the exact same conversation before it loses all interest? The answer: not many.

A lifeless production does not help. Dark and moody lighting might have created some atmosphere, and helped disguise the "man in a black tarp" effect of Armus' humanoid form.  Instead, we get the series' usual flat lighting, giving us too good a look at the humanoid Armus and at the styrofoam rocks dressing the back of the soundstage. It's difficult to create tension when no one even casts a shadow.


Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: Symbiosis
Next Episode: We'll Always Have Paris


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1-22. Symbiosis

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is on-hand to witness and collect data as a sun undergoes magnetic changes, emitting flares. As they begin collecting their data, they receive a distress signal from inside the planetary system.

A freighter is losing its orbit. The Enterprise tractor beam is unable to lock on, because of interference from the flares. With few options left, Picard orders the ship's crew beamed onto Enterprise. But the crew beams over its cargo before beaming over themselves. The reason becomes clear: The cargo is medicine, desperately needed by the Omarans to treat a space plague that has been devastating them for the past 200 years. The Brekkians insist that the medicine does not belong to the Omarans. After all, the goods they were using to buy the medicine burned up with the shuttle.

The Prime Directive means that Picard cannot interfere. Then Dr. Crusher makes a horrifying discovery about the nature of both the plague and the medicine...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Picard is left to walk a tightrope between the morals of the situation and the demands of the Prime Directive. He is sympathetic to the Omarans early on, negotiating with the Brekkians for at least a single dose of the medicine for the two Omarans' immediate needs. Once he discovers the true nature of the medicine, he stops being sympathetic to either side. He insists on following the Prime Directive absolutely. Apparently, one race acting as a parasite on another race requires absolute adherence to the Prime Directive in the way that, say, the son of the pretty redheaded doctor being put on trial for walking on grass does not. In any event, Patrick Stewart delivers an excellent performance, acting on a level far above that of the material he is working with.

Riker: "I've never seen anything like this before. The violence of those eruptions is awesome." Said in the same tone of voice, with the same inflections, one might use to observe that, "Fred is walking to the store today." Riker has little to do in this episode, and Jonathan Frakes doesn't even bother to go onstage to deliver his lines. Unfortunately, Frakes' nonacting in this episode is more or less echoed by every member of the cast, leaving Patrick Stewart to carry this show alone.

Dr. Crusher: On the opposite extreme of nonacting is overacting, which is the extreme Gates McFadden opts for. Dr. Crusher is Morally Outraged with a capital "More."  Every line is shrill and trembling with indignation at the evil of the Brekkians. Needless to say, it gets very old, very fast.


SHUT UP, WESLEY!

"Why do people become dependent on drugs?" Wesley asks, prompting Tasha to deliver a Drugs For Dummies 101 lecture to him. "I guess I just don't understand," he says, with a smug, "punch-me-in-the-face-please" grin. The scene passes the Picard Sledgehammer to Tasha for her final full episode.  It's genuinely painful stuff, that is only missing the actors turning to the camera while a graphic whizzes by to spell, "The More You Know" on screen in order to become an official PSA.


THE PICARD SLEDGE-HAMMER

Picard is not content to let Tasha have all the fun, though.  While in the turbo-lift with Dr. Crusher, he halts the lift. Not for the usual reason (though all things considered, when others see him and her coming out of the delayed lift, every member of the crew will draw the obvious conclusion), but to give a speech about how interference with other cultures, even well-intentioned, inevitably results in disaster. Bludgeoned into submission by the power of the sledge-hammer, Dr. Crusher ceases all her whining. Doubtless, she is afraid that even one more word will result in another speech, sapping her will to live.


THOUGHTS

"Drugs are baaad, mm'kay?"

A truly dreadful episode, full of the kind of obvious, tedious preachiness and utter lack of subtelety which Star Trek's detractors seem to believe marks every episode. From about 15 minutes in, it is painfully obvious exactly where this story is heading. And sure enough, that is the exact path it follows, with no surprises or twists or variations at all.

No real conviction, either. The two races are monolithic in the extreme. All Brekkians are drug pushers. There isn't a single person on the planet who has devoted his or her life to anything other than drug refinement and drug sales, and there isn't a single person on the planet who has any kind of a problem with what they are doing. All Omarans are drug addicts, eternally coked out of their minds. Not a single Omaran has done anything over the past 200 years other than toke up, bliss out, and then whine when the withdrawal pains hit. Certainly, no one on Onarra has built up a resistance to the drug, or missed a couple of doses and survived detox.

In short, these are two civilizations that could not possibly exist unless the entire population of each world was smaller than that of a very tiny village.

Some minor interest is created near the end in watching Picard come up with a cold-blooded, but well thought-out solution (which, again, rests on not a single Brekkian having access to a shuttlecraft). These scenes are well-played by Patrick Stewart, the only member of the regular cast who seems to actually be trying. But even the effectiveness of Picard's final judgment is undercut by a simple, yet very logical, question:

Exactly how are our villains going to get back home?

Finally, look fast for Denise Crosby's "goodbye wave" in the background of her last scene of what was her last filmed episode. It may be the cutest breaking of the Fourth Wall you'll ever see, and it's almost worth giving this episode an extra point for that alone.


Rating: 2/10

Previous Episode: The Arsenal of Freedom
Next Episode: Skin of Evil


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1-21. The Arsenal of Freedom

THE PLOT

The Enterprise travels to the planet Menos to investigate the disappearance of the Drake, a ship that was sent to Menos to investigate the disappearances of the entire population (whew!). After Picard gets a funny answering machine message from the planet (which he figures out is a recorded message at some point after the average 5-year-old viewer will have pegged it as such), he sends an Away Team down to investigate: Riker, Tasha, and Data.

It isn't long before the Away Team inadverdantly triggers automated attacks from the dead planet. Riker is encased in a stasis field. Data manages to free him - just in time for all of them to come under fire from mechanical drones. Picard beams down to take a look at the situation himself, leaving Geordi in charge. No sooner is he gone than Geordi finds himself commanding a starship under attack by an unseen aggressor, whose bombardments threaten to destroy the ship!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Beams down to the planet for no readily apparent reason other than to give Geordi a chance to command the ship in a crisis. He does get some decent scenes opposite Dr. Crusher, then opposite Vincent Schiavelli as a murderously aggressive holographic salesman. As usual, though, there is only a minimal sense of there being a character where Picard is standing. Patrick Stewart is as good, but Picard as a character still isn't up to much. Here's hoping for some improvement in Picard's characterization, sooner rather than later.

Riker: Gave up a chance at his own command to serve as first officer on Enterprise. That's the only new thing we learn about Riker in this episode, though we do get to see a lot of him in "action man" mode, crawling around an unconvincing jungle set dodging what look like old props from the 1950's War of the Worlds movie.

Data: When Riker is encased in a force field, Data is able to analyze the force field and free him relatively quickly. As they are attacked by the mechanical flying killing devices, Data computes the interval between the devices' attacks. Finally, he is very useful to Picard in dealing with the machine at the climax - though not nearly as useful as Dr. Crusher's simple and practical solution ends up being.

Geordi: He is put in command of the Enterprise during the crisis, thanks to Picard's impulsive decision to beam down to the planet. He deals very well with command, struggling at first to counter the attacks from the planet, then getting the bulk of the crew out of harm's way before going back to fulfill his obligations to his captain. Along the way, he must deal with a laughably arrogant Chief of Engineering (a 24th century descendant of Frank Burns, it appears), and a cloying filler scene opposite Counsellor Troi. He gets the last word, too - but more importantly, he gets by far the best material of the episode.

Tasha: She gets a lot of face time, though her scenes mainly amount to dodging plastic models and then ordering Data and Riker to focus phaser fire on them. She shows good tactical awareness in a dangerous situation.  First she limits the size of the Away Team in order to reduce the number of crew members at risk, then she organizes their responses to the planet's defenses. Unfortunately, Denise Crosby has clearly given up by this point.  Almost every line reading she gives is flat and lifeless, making it hard to be sorry that she's not much longer for this show.

Hot Space Babe of the Week: Julia Nickson is Ensign T'su, who takes over Data's station during the crisis. Nickson is a very beautiful woman, as viewers of shows as distinct as Babylon 5 and (on the other qualitative extreme) Rambo 2 can attest. Unfortunately, here she is saddled with an unflattering green uniform and a horrible '80's hairstyle, both of which make her far less attractive than she's been in other roles. There is no characterization afforded her, and she makes absolutely no impression whatsoever. Still, if any B5 viewers want to know what Sinclair's fiancee got up to about 6 or 7 years prior, here you go...


THOUGHTS

The frustrating thing about The Arsenal of Freedom isn't that it's a weak episode. It is weak. But in terms of relative quality, it stands up pretty well against the likes of When the Bough Breaks, Justice, The Last Outpost, Too Short a Season... Well, against close to half the season, really. This episode is quite watchable, and after a poor start, gets better as it goes. It's an episode I have no memory of at all, and watching it now I'm not surprised I have no memory of it.  But it wasn't a chore to watch.

No, the frustrating thing is that there are some genuinely good ideas in this episode. The Away Team being threatened by a dead world's automated defenses, whose attacks adapt and improve with each new assault? A great idea for an action episode. A wounded Dr. Crusher, caved in with Picard, with no ability to call for help, having to talk Picard through treating her while they have a chance to interact without the chain of command to get in the way? That could be an excellent character-based episode, or even a pretty good "B" plot for an episode. Geordi, having to take command of a green crew of second-stringers during a crisis that threatens the ship? Also a pretty good idea for a show.

Blend all three ideas together, though, and the result is just too busy. The Picard/Crusher material could have been a breakthrough in the development of both characters. But after a couple decent scenes, the projection of the salesman has to be uncovered in order to tie the plot together. As a result, we get a couple decent scenes for two pretty good actors, but no substantial character development. The Away Team plot, which has a lot of potential for good "action Trek" fails to generate either tension or excitement.  This is thanks in part to uninspired "point-and-shoot" direction, and in part to a jungle set that makes 1960's Doctor Who look almost like Avatar by comparison.  Wooden performances by Jonathan Frakes and Denise Crosby don't help matters.

The Geordi scenes do work. Levar Burton clearly relishes his (overdue) moment in the spotlight, and makes the most of his subplot. The attacks are as blandly directed as the planetside action, but Burton brings energy and intensity to bear and actually makes us feel the desperation of the situation, even when the sneering Chief Engineer is brought onstage to play the part of a sitcom villain. If Geordi had been the focus of the episode, this may have ended up being a good show.

Unfortunately, there are just too many elements, further hobbled by uninspired direction and cheap sets. There's enough good here to keep this from being one of the many outright clunkers of TNG's first season. It's just a shame this couldn't have lived up to its potential.


Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: Heart of Glory
Next Episode: Symbiosis


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1-10. Hide and Q

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is rushing to the rescue of some miners on a distant colony world, all hands prepared for a medical emergency. Their rush is interrupted, however, by the arrival of Q, who was impressed by Riker on their previous meeting.  Now the superbeing has a new game in mind. He whisks Riker and the command crew to a generic planet, to do battle in Napoleonic style against some animalistic rivals, while offering Riker the chance to save his friends by granting him the power of the Q. Meanwhile, Q separately bargains with Picard over Riker's decision. If Riker accepts Q's offer, and joins the Q Continuum, then Picard will reliquish command of the Enterprise!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Patrick Stewart gets some excellent scenes in this, particularly opposite John de Lancie. A highlight of the episode's first half is the "Shakespeare quoting" scene. Q begins with the upper hand, idly reciting Shakespeare passages at an irritated Picard. But when Q successfully ropes Picard into the game, Picard one-ups him by taking an ironic passage from Hamlet and treating it literally, shaking Q by perhaps probing a bit too close to the immature superbeing's motivations. One can see the Shakespearian-trained Stewart relishing this scene, and the larger context within the episode works too, making it a genuinely memorable moment.

For a rare change, the backgrounding of Picard actually works in this episode. The set-up has Picard and Q effectively representing two possible paths, one of which Riker must choose. Picard's bargain with Q vaguely parallels God's bargain with Lucifer in The Book of Job, betting on the choices that will be made by one man. Picard takes a largely hands-off approach to trying to influence Riker's decision, right down to letting Riker give his "gifts" to the crew at the end. By allowing the crew to react to Riker's gifts (and the source of their power), Picard allows the situation to resolve itself. This is something I'm not sure Kirk (or Archer) could have done convincingly, and represents a good use of the more intellectual Picard.

Riker: A showcase episode for Riker, this unfortunately helps to show some of Jonathan Frakes' limitations as an actor. On the planet, he poses very self-consciously in several shots, sticking one leg up on the (unconvincing) papier-mache rocks as if he thinks he's posing for a GQ shoot or somesuch. He never convinces when Riker supposedly goes "power-mad," and as such there's very little drama in his choice.

Tasha: Though given some of the strongest character potential in the early episodes, Tasha has since sunk gradually into the background, where she still resides here.  She doesn't even get a "gift" at the end.  However, she does get a couple of nice character beats. When she's put into Q's "penalty box," we see her frustration at being left helpless to act, at being controlled by a stronger external force - which probably reminds her of her hellish childhood. It's a good moment for a character who seems to increasingly have been forgotten by the production team.

Q: His second appearance is stronger than his first. The production team seems to have realized that de Lancie's performance is not well-suited to generating fear, and have opted to play a bit more with Q's mischievous streak. Though the content of the episode insists that Q's interest is in Riker, de Lancie's best moments are all when playing opposite Patrick Stewart - which is likely why future Q episodes steered the focus to the Q/Picard rivalry.


BRATS IN SPAAACE!

Wesley dies!

Well, OK, he gets better almost immediately. Still, we do get to see him brutally stabbed, if only for a second or two. In the midst of an unusually decent episode, I will consider that as a personal gift.


THOUGHTS

Though not up to the standards of Where No One Has Gone Before, this episode is a rare, pretty good first-season TNG episode. The regulars all get something to do. Tasha gets that moment with Picard; Worf gets to demonstrate his abilities as a warrior by scouting the enemy camp and returning; Geordi, Worf, and Wesley get to reject Riker's "gifts." Even Dr. Crusher gets to act the role of a protective parent. The only person with no role is Troi, who we're told was dropped off for "family time." Too bad - she'd have been of great aid to the crew, by intoning "I sense hostility" when the animal-like Q creatures attack, or "I sense sorrow" when the girl's body is pulled from beneath wreckage on the mining colony. All told, the script uses the large cast very well, better than most of the show's episodes have managed.

Unfortunately, not all the news is good.  The lack of jeopardy and urgency that has marked most of TNG's run continues here. The first half of the episode sets up a dilemma. Riker is given Q's powers, but makes a promise not to use them. This is tested by Riker refraining from using his powers to save a third party who is a complete stranger, which then cues a third act in which... Picard sits back while Riker, Q, and the bridge crew chat for a while. This last works better than it should, because the characterization is mostly good... With the exception of Worf, whose anemic character development is shown in that the most Riker/the writers can think to give him is a Klingon sex slave.

Still, think how much more dramatic the situation could have been, had the Enterprise been placed in imminent danger, with Riker having the power to literally blink the ship out of danger but having to refrain from using it. Q could be the devil on Riker's shoulder, tempting him to use his powers not to "bring (his) friends happiness," but to save his friends. Picard could be acting as the captain, and Riker could be looking on, tortured, as the (mostly) human crew work with what would seem like agonizing slowness to pull the Enterprise out of danger by inches. I think that would have worked just as well as a test of Riker's resolve.  It would have further demonstrated that the Enterprise crew doesn't need a first officer with god-like abilities, and would have greatly enhanced the suspense of the third act.

Even so, the episode works quite passably on its own merits. Q's second appearance works much better than his first did, and the Enterprise crew all get their moments for a change. It might be slightly generous of me, but I think I'll give this episode a solid:


Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: The Battle
Next Episode: Haven


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1-5. The Last Outpost

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is pursuing a Ferengi ship that has stolen a Federation owned MacGuffin device. The Ferengi ship abruptly fires on Enterprise, then turns to face them... and then, suddenly, the power begins to drain. The Enterprise crew worry at first that the Ferengi are more technologically-advanced than they had believed. With power steadily failing, Picard prepares a surrender... only to find, when he contacts the Ferengi, that they believe he is demanding their surrender.

Turning their attention to the planet below, the crew soon discover that it is this planet that is the source of the power drain. Now they will need to cooperate with the untrustworthy Ferengi in order to free both ships from technology left by an ancient empire that was destroyed more than 100,000 years ago...


CHARACTERS

Picard: Abhors the idea of senseless, destructive violence. Faced with the prospect of the Ferengi actually laying claim to technology that can sap away a ship's power, he is willing to surrender - too willing, given that this makes three times in four episodes that Picard has offered or prepared to offer a surrender. He is not above a bit of deception, however, and waits to let the Ferengi know that Enterprise is not actually draining their power.

Riker: Studied Sun-Tzu's The Art of War at the Academy, and applies its lessons to good effect, both with the Ferengi and with the guardian of the titular outpost. Comes up with almost all the ideas in this episode - using the brief gap between acting and being stopped to try to escape, the facedown with the guardian - and leads the Away Team. Given that this is not the first time in four episodes that Riker has saved the day while Picard has sat around on his captain's chair, viewers could be forgiven for considering Riker the lead, and Picard comedy relief. Now if only Riker actually had a bit more characterization...

The Enterprise Crew: Geordi reveals a sarcastic streak in this episode... repeatedly, to the point where it becomes a bit tiresome. Data's divide between machine and human is exploited for comedy value with the Chinese finger puzzles (which, given the screen-time devoted to them, I was frankly surprised played no role in the climax. I figured Data would end up confounding the Ferengi with them). Worf is a Klingon, and he wants to fight, because he's a Klingon. In fairness, that's more than Worf has gotten in any preceding episode. Wesley is... MIA, meaning no "Brats in Space" entry this time. Finally, Tasha gets a strong entrance when she faces down the Ferengi with a phaser, and a great facial reaction to the Ferengi's disgust that she wears clothing.

Villain of the Week: This episode introduces the Ferengi, and makes the massive miscalculation of trying to make them in some way sinister. With their diminutive size and Dumbo-like ears, you'd have thought they were comedy creations from the start... but nope, this episode actually wants us to take them seriously (well, at least until the last five minutes). Thankfully, they were retooled for later appearances. They are decidedly ineffective as villains.


THOUGHTS

Ugh.

Perhaps a little better than Code of Honor. But that's hardly an accolade. This episode is painfully slow, for starters, and the entire Enterprise crew appear to have been given complimentary lobotomies prior to the episode's start. Why else does it take more than a quarter of the episode for anyone to suggest the obvious: that it just might be a good idea to see if the power failure has something to do with the planet below?

Oh, and is Counsellor Troi the most useless Trek character ever? "I sense an alien mind," she says in Encounter at Farpoint. "I sense drunkenness," she says in The Naked Now. "Tasha is very attractive," she helpfully informs the blind in Code of Honor. And here? "I sense nothing," followed by whining about the cold later on. I'm sure she improves as a character when the show improves... in what? Two, three more seasons? Right now, I'd rank her down there with Enterprise's Mayweather as an utterly useless character.

It all culminates in a confrontation between the regulars and the Ferengi for the favors of the Bridge Keeper from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, on an alien world that's possibly less convincingly realized than many of the alien worlds from TOS. But not before Geordi makes a dozen snarky asides, with no superior officer ever even hinting at reprimanding him for them, not before Data wastes minutes of screen time playing with Chinese finger puzzles, and not before the Ferengi leer at Tasha, saying that clothing females "invites others to unclothe them." Well, all right, that last was amusing - particularly when Tasha rather violently invites them to try it.

It all ends with a philosophical discussion between The Bridge Keeper and Riker, while the Ferengi - for no readily apparent reason - hop around like monkeys, complete with ape noises, in the background.

You know, I take it back. This was just as bad as Code of Honor. Maybe worse. The seriously flawed, but generally entertaining Enterprise was the franchise killer, while this show came to be revered in many quarters as "superior to the original?" From what I've re-experienced thus far, if the network had pulled the plug on this after 13 episodes, I'd have fully understood.


Rating: 2/10.

Previous Episode: Code of Honor
Next Episode: Where No One Has Gone Before


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