Chain of Command, Part II

DVD, TNG S6 (Chain of Command, Part II)

Tom Paris, yes, Jadzia Dax, okay, even young Nog, but when did Commander Riker become famed for his piloting skills, I don't remember it ever coming up before? His butting of heads with Captain Jellico, though not on a par with the other big confrontation of the episode, showed his concern for his true captain, and that Jellico really wasn't much of a captain. He just wasn't a people person, although he had other qualities that meant he wouldn't back down and always put all his effort into what he did, while not being a respecter of persons. I expected some kind of development with his character, a key or a clue to his personality and how he'd managed to keep operating when the crews he commanded must have felt like mutiny.

Although he stands up to the Cardassians as much as in Part I, and also displays the ability to swallow his pride when he's forced to ask Riker to pilot the shuttle, which shows he could bend if he deemed it absolutely necessary, but at the same time didn't consider what people thought to be of great consequence to him, there was never a moment when his behaviour came to have some meaning and he finishes the two-part story in much the same way he started, breezily bidding goodbye and charging off to his next assignment. I pity those on his next ship! If this had been a 'DS9' episode - I hate to point this out, but I have to - he'd have learned something from his experiences on the Enterprise and gone away a better man for it. He may not have become the captain the crew wanted, but he might have seen things from their point of view, but he remains as stubborn and blinkered as when we first saw him and manages to rival many of the Admirals for his difficult behaviour, something captains rarely do.

In contrast, that other captain, Picard, changes dramatically through the course of the episode. He's degraded, stripped of his clothing and identity, left to rot, forced to answer questions he can't give an answer for, and then, in what I consider the nastiest scene on the series for a while, his captor allows him to eat a Taspar egg. I thought Madred was going to go on and say that as a child he'd eaten the egg and then been in terrible pain for weeks afterwards, almost dying in agony as the creature was poisoned or took up residence in his gut or some other such terrible thing, but it turned into a small victory for Picard who was able to get to Madred and throw him off balance a little. Garak would never have been surprised! It's no wonder I should think such a horrible turn might be about to happen as it's a disgusting thing to see this dull, grey/black creature slopping around, seen briefly inside the egg, then Picard so hungry that he swallows it anyway.

There was no mention of the Obsidian Order so this must have been a military operation, which would also explain why Gul Lemec can just walk in and demand Picard's release from Gul Madred, who doesn't even quibble about it. I was unsure about several points beyond Riker being a renowned pilot: Lemec gives up a bit easily and how would the Enterprise be able to enforce Picard's release once Lemec's ship had left? Did Picard really know the information Madred wanted? If he did, he was the type of man that would have held out to the end, as he did, the chilling final scene testament to how close he came to giving in and allowing his will to be bent by his torturer, who tries to the end.

There are some interesting moments aside from the torture, which puts Picard through at least as much humiliation and pain as his Borg trauma, though without so much of the aftereffects. We hear of the First Hebitian civilisation, an aspect of Cardassian history that wasn't really touched on in 'DS9' I recall, though Garak actor Andrew Robinson incorporated those details into his novel. We also see Madred's daughter, but unlike Jellico in Part I, this doesn't humanise his character, but rather makes him more chilling - he lies to her about human parents and their lack of love and has obviously poisoned her mind against his enemies and desensitised her to atrocity and violence.

I didn't get why Jellico relieved Riker after one outburst. I felt there needed to be more explored with that situation, but we simply see Data in red who has become First Officer, and of course he shows no emotion about the change, the only reaction coming in subtext from Geordi who clearly isn't happy with the situation, but there's no actual mention of all this and at the end Data's back at his usual post in his usual colour, Picard's back, Jellico leaves and there's no resolution to all that's happened. This is probably because the emphasis is heavily on Picard's time with Madred and those scenes are strong, his complete loss of strength and control in the moment of torture almost rivalling his loss of emotional restraint in 'Sarek,' but not quite. I also felt there wasn't quite the needed resolution for Picard either - a scene with Beverly seems called for rather than Troi, as though she's the counsellor, Crusher did leave her captain behind, and he chose to stay and take the pain even on the chance that she would have to endure what he'd been through.

I'd also question why there was no repeat of the handing over ceremony, which takes place quite abruptly. I can see why it was done that way as they were rushing to conclude the episode, but it was a story that needed more time for thoughtfulness after all that had happened. I'm not even going to go into the question of how they laid mines on all these Cardassian ships without being detected, but although there were all these blank spaces in terms of explanation, the episode was good thanks to Stewart's performance and succeeded in setting up the Cardassians as villains to rival any before them.

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