Dominion

 DVD, Picard S3 (Dominion)

From the relative heights of the previous episode to the depths of this one, although even the depths are relative - we still have scenes with Geordi talking to Data (and Lore), or Picard and Dr. Crusher, but good scenes are thin on the ground as there's a massive shift towards the weaker characters of the piece, and for every bit of good news (Raffi's not in it), there's bad (it's also Worf-less). Unquestionably one of the weaker episodes as we go back to some of the bad decisions of the season, and 'Picard' in general, that remind you the state of Trek underneath the glossy euphoria of our 'TNG' cast back together is not a healthy one. For one thing, most of them aren't, here - no Worf, only a momentary Changeling mockery to represent Riker, and it's sad to realise Troi only has three episodes of anything substantial since she doesn't appear here and her previous glimpses were fleeting. It is still lovely to see Data and how effortlessly Brent Spiner can switch between the two personas of he and Lore, but even in that side of the story it's much simplified, with the nuance and potential of his mixed brain excised by the kind of primitive 20th Century medical equipment we're meant to believe Starfleet used to experiment on Changelings - we're told there are four personas in Data's hybrid body, which is ignoring any connection to Lal they suggested in the previous episode, while also explaining that B4 and Altan Soong are only memory files, so it takes away a lot of the fascination to simplify things down to just good and bad sides with Data and Lore.

It was a relief that the good stuff between Lore and Data each seeking dominance of the joint mind (or not, as we'd see), was not in this episode because I was really hoping it wouldn't be wasted in such a weak story and kept wondering throughout if there was still time to fit it in. Fortunately, this is one of the shortest episodes of the season at just under forty-six and a half minutes (makes you realise how much they were able to pack in during the old forty-five-minutes-and-less days), but I was surprised how many things in it were a big step backward after so many instances of this getting Trek back on track. But it seems the whiff of past 'Picard' can't be fully expunged even with the joint 'TNG' cast's presence. And it began so well, too, with a surprise cameo from Tim Russ as Tuvok, now apparently (and rightly!), a Captain as can be observed from the four pips on his collar. This is exactly the kind of thing I want to see: a chance for these great Berman-era characters to reappear, and not just from 'TNG,' but 'DS9' and 'Voyager,' too. We never got anyone from 'DS9,' and sadly, Tuvok is only a minor blip who isn't even Tuvok himself, so it's another of those cruel moments, viewers left wondering if a favourite character has been done away with offscreen for no reason other than to provide a shock dramatic twist. At least Tuvok's wellbeing is eventually confirmed later in the season, and the Changeling posing as the Vulcan lets slip he's still alive since he says he'll regret it after they'd finished with him, but it's once again telling that Trek's most Vulcan of Vulcans (the first main character to be a full member of that race, don't forget), is smiling evilly before long.

Russ' performance is still recognisably Tuvok with none of the emotion so many Vulcan performers exhibit. Maybe the ears stick out a bit too much, and he really does look old, but on the whole it was a pleasure to see him play the character again, even though it was a facsimile and a bit of a disappointment we couldn't add Tuvok to the growing cast and see him alongside such greats as Worf or Riker (actually we did see him and Riker together when he was whisked into the Delta Quadrant by Q for 'Death Wish'), but this isn't the first time he'd played an alternate version of the character on another series since he had the distinction of appearing as Mirror Tuvok in a cameo of the second 'DS9' Mirror Universe episode, 'Through The Looking Glass' (the best MU story of all), not to mention appearing in both 'TNG' and 'Generations' as other characters so he has a long connection even to these actors! So Tuvok does have past connections with Trek outside his parent series, however obliquely, and it's a good move to continue that - he was also my favourite 'Voyager' character! It's also not the first time he's reprised the role post-'Voyager' as he was involved in fan films for a while, I think even spearheading one, so it's good to see that wasn't 'held against him' as there did seem to be some animosity between Paramount or CBS at the time, and independent productions using Trek characters and names. From a story perspective it made sense Seven should be talking to him, trying to get in touch with past allies, and they even throw in yet another reference to Admiral Janeway whom it's claimed is involved in preparations for Frontier Day, though another disappointment we'd never get to see her.

Seven is quickly able to expose the Changeling for what he is, since knowledge is one thing they can't replicate if they don't have it. Even there it was a bit of a weird one where she lists his mistakes, saying a Vulcan would never go where there were anti-Kolinahr demonstrations, but I'm not sure any Vulcan would shy away from debating such things, and just who would be holding such demonstrations if not a subset of Vulcans themselves since why would anyone care? It's a discipline for removing all remaining emotion for complete logic, a personal thing, so people being opposed to such an idea didn't sound very realistic at all! She also says her neural pattern was stabilised on Voyager, rather than where she said it was, and by Tuvok himself, which I assume is a reference to a specific episode, possibly Season 5's 'Infinite Regress' where multiple past personalities from her Borg implants were taking over (one of Jeri Ryan's greatest performances). And lastly, the key fact that unmasks the traitor is that only the real Tuvok would know they played Kal-toh together, so he must know what's happened to him! Except that didn't make any sense because she'd just said they played it - the trick should've been when this Tuvok says she often beat him and she said it was a card game, when it's not a multiplayer game, it's one person trying to arrange metal sticks into a pattern: a puzzle, not a card game! So that was all a bit confusing (maybe they were thinking of Kadis-kot, a boardgame for two players?). Russ only gets Special Guest Star billing in the 'end' credits, as opposed to the main ones, so were they toying with the idea of the main credits coming early in the episodes and didn't want to ruin the surprise, or was it simply he only had a small role so couldn't be placed with the main stars?

According to Geordi, he's responsible for finding places to hide the Titan from pursuing Starfleet vessels, claiming, short of junkyards, he's running out of these, but it was a great 'DS9' reference to have them squatting in the Chin'toka Scrapyards, site of important battles in the Dominion War, and makes sense there would still be a big debris field there. What doesn't make sense to me is later on when they're trying to lure the Shrike in by playing dead after a battle with a Vulcan ship. Huh? Presumably they didn't really fight this vessel, so what was it doing floating in 'Open Space' as the onscreen title claims? That was bizarre, and it was disappointing we weren't afforded a good look at it since it's rare, if ever, that we've seen a specifically Vulcan ship in later centuries of the 24th or 25th kind. Even worse, one of Vadic's Changeling lackeys calls it a Vulcan warship - now this could be the context of their point of view, that any and all opposition races' ships were considered warships, but it seemed awfully specific and not in keeping with the Vulcan way. I know they retconned in 'DSC' that a 'Vulcan Hello' means to come in all guns blazing in response to their Klingon first contact, and ruthless logic makes some kind of sense there, but would they still have vessels built for war all this time later? Even the recording didn't sound very Vulcan to me, but perhaps I misunderstood and that was meant to be the Titan's, or even if it wasn't, they might have mocked it up to sell the story. But why would this Vulcan ship have remained unclaimed, left to float in space, it doesn't seem efficient or security-conscious?

They were able to tie in the two stories reasonably well in that experimenting to try and help Data regain control leads to Lore having access to the ship's systems at a critical moment (Spiner deliciously nasty as the errant android), which then leads to Vadic and her minions easily subduing the Bridge (where'd all those guys come from and what were they doing when their Captain was captured?), but everything about this plan was nonsensical! They managed to squeeze in another 'Star Trek II' Trekference with her lifesigns scanner beeping like the one in the film, but it couldn't distract from the silly premise. I understand they can't keep running and they want to lure in their pursuers to capture them in a reverse cat-and-mouse setup, but the plan was poorly executed: we'll have Jack and Sidney run down some corridors, then use the age-old tactic (admittedly, nice to see harking back to the old days with that), of dropping forcefields to trap the invaders. And of course the plan would've originally been to beam the pair out, but due to Lore they were prevented. But why fiddle about with Data at all at this crucial juncture even if he may know more about the enemy's plot, they know how dangerous Lore is and that he keeps getting control so it seemed the height of stupidity to be taking any risks with ship's systems like they did? Of course they couldn't have foreseen it, but it makes Geordi look a little shortsighted - I suppose we can say he was still suffering from the shock of having his best friend back, desperate to help him, and it was certainly a nice scene when he tells Data/Lore what Data's death did to him, which he didn't fully express in 'Nemesis,' but even so!

The trouble with Jack is that he's a bit of a fantasy character, like he's strayed out of a superhero film, what with his apparent telepathic abilities (has he always had that or are they just manifesting themselves now?), reading Sidney's thoughts, to full-on taking control of her to fight her Changeling assailant, not to mention the continued blackouts, or 'red-outs' when his eyes blaze fire and he becomes SuperJack - even then he appears to have trouble dealing with the one Changeling in the corridor this time (the first time one of them spoke English), though ultimately doesn't hesitate to reduce him to ashes by Phaser. What is it with lethal use of Phasers, do they not believe in incapacitation any more? Then there're the usual Phaser bullets pounding away that always get my goat, another of those reminders of the legacy of the series' other seasons. And 'DSC.' And the Kelvin films... It was pretty good when Jack reveals his marionette power, acting out the moves Sidney needs to do to win her battle, but even that's been done before in Trek, and in a much cooler, more technological way rather than through mysterious fantasy powers: Worf controlled Quark's Bat'leth fight to win the heart of a Klingon woman, much to his disapproval, but 'Looking For Par'Mach In All The Wrong Places' had far more character, drama and stakes than this episode. Jack's statement that he likes a good fight when it's fair or when he's the one cheating, just about sums up why he's so irritating, and far from the many heroic, principled Trek characters we've known and loved. Clearly he's designed to appeal to a younger crowd who don't value fair play and good morals, and while his heart's in the right place he just keeps coming off as a rogue, the kind modern Trek prefers (unless they're superheroes with unfailing success and unerring judgement, like Michael Burnham!). He also has a short memory: feeling guilty about Riker's abduction, he claims he was good to him from the first moment, forgetting the elbow to the face when they first met! When he asks Picard if he's felt what it's like to know people are dying for you I expected him to recount his experiences of 'The Best of Both Worlds,' but he didn't. At least he's showing conscience, even if it still comes across as a bit self-absorbed.

Captain Shaw doesn't have enough time to be irritating, his main crime being that his idea of Phaser fighting is to run down the centre of the corridor firing as he goes, rather than taking cover! No wonder he has a chip on his shoulder when he comes up against great Captains or former Captains! He also has the distinction of being injured and flung onto the deck of the Bridge again, so is it another trip to Sickbay to patch him up? The character that really brings the episode down is Vadic: she's back to the forefront with all her musical line delivery and tottering madness. In some ways she's not so bad as she was earlier in the season, since things are getting out of her control, being threatened by 'The Face' who gives her her instructions, and feeling the tick of time running out. We get the Big Reveal this time on her and her cronies' motivation and it's a terrible destruction of Trek's Utopian ideals, or I should say yet another one! Now they're saying, or she is, that Starfleet refused to give the Changelings the cure to the virus that was killing them, claiming they had to steal it, but that's patently untrue since Bashir went into Sloan's head to recover the formula and Odo transferred it to the Link! She then recounts how she and others of her kind, her 'family,' were kept as prisoners of war aboard Daystrom Station and experimented on! We see images of syringes, bunsen burners and other outdated instruments of medical torture, perpetrated by lab-coat scientists happily whistling while they work, with the squeak of trolleys on castor wheels... I mean where do they come up with this stuff, why would Starfleet be using such ancient devices, it's ridiculous!

We're meant to feel some sympathy for her, but it's just a load of incoherent horror-infused creepiness. It's possible Starfleet weren't actually experimenting, or that they were, but didn't realise what they were doing (except it seems fairly cleat it was a specific plan called Project Proteus, all very comic book), rather like Dr. Mora Pol when he was trying to ascertain what kind of being Odo was, and whether he was sentient. Except Starfleet wouldn't have had that excuse because they knew a lot about Changelings by that point (couldn't we have seen a shot of James Sloyan advising them, is he still alive? Actually, I'm glad they didn't do that and ruin another great character). This was the perfect time to pin it on evil Section 31 being responsible for such heinous acts, but it seems the makers of modern Trek always want to make out that Starfleet, at base, is just as bad as any other group, worse when you realise they spout all this positive philosophy and are actually committing acts of atrocity! And what was all that about Starfleet voting not to give the Changelings the cure? Starfleet is the space fleet of the Federation, not some autonomous decision-making force by itself. If they'd said the Federation Council had voted that would have made some sense, though I don't believe they'd have refused to do that, going against all that it stands for. That was the whole point, that was how the war ended, they promised the cure, so to go back on their word would show the Federation no better than the Changelings who started it in the first place! They could easily have explained a lot of this away by Vadic misunderstanding the intentions, but instead this episode as a whole does a major disservice to the season, and while I found it interesting the first time round, this time I see how awful its messages are.

Supposedly Starfleet were turning Vadic and these others into spies to be used against other races, presumably after the war. Starfleet doesn't sneak around, that was always a key message of Trek, and while 'DS9' got the cool cloaking device for the Defiant it was more of a useful tool for the time, they didn't then retrofit the Romulan technology to fit the entire fleet, even during the worst battles of the Dominion War where it would've been advantageous to do so. To suggest they would manipulate a race of people like this is absolutely disgusting and turns Trek on its head! It doesn't even make any sense since how can you control a former enemy so effectively as to force them to infiltrate other enemies, the Changelings wouldn't have gone along with it. And what good are spies that can be tracked! After all that, Beverly discovers a way to track them due to what was done to them meaning there was something detectable in their DNA, so once that got out they'd be pretty useless spies, wouldn't they! The whole concept is just so badly written, and then, as if to put the icing on top, we have Beverly and Picard standing in front of Vadic's forcefield debating whether they should execute her on the spot! It's flabbergasting, did the writers not know what they were doing? Did they ever even watch Trek before? Are they really that debased of mind that they want to dismantle the whole ethos? The writing is back to old 'Picard'/'DSC' levels with lines like Crusher's melodramatic assertion that the moment they allowed Vadic to board they invited death aboard. It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic.

Originally I assumed Picard and Crusher could be overheard by Vadic and knew that so were pulling a ruse to make her believe they were going to kill her only for the reveal to be... But no, it was left in a distressing, unpalatable state. Crusher admits she's compromised because of the love of her son and the need to protect him above all other concerns, and even says she's thinking of breaking her Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. It's just awful, and Patrick Stewart has none of the power he used to have, so comes across as an old man looking worried and just sort of going along with what she says. It's really quite scary as I can imagine the Picard of old forbidding Beverly from crossing the line, reminding her of her duty and warning her of what it will do to herself. But no, they just summarily decide to kill Vadic in cold blood, no trial, no appeal, it's just simpler and easier to remove her from the equation; to kill. Then when Lore intervenes and powers down the forcefield they quickly try to shoot her as she escapes and that's the only moment in the entire season when I felt even a modicum of sympathy for Vadic, but really only because I didn't want to see two beloved characters compromised by evil. I get the impression they thought this short debate on the ethics of killing was going to evoke memories of what Trek used to be, back when it examined the hard choices and morals encountered on a regular basis, but it's really only lip service, and shocking, too. Beverly even talks about genocide earlier in the episode, as if uncovering the Changelings' weakness and using it against them would be going that far, but it's all very weak stuff.

What a drop in quality, it really was surprising, and I didn't feel quite as strongly when I first saw it, but it's worse in the context of the season as a whole and shows that Trek has gone down a path, turned a corner, however you want to put it, that it will take far more than the addition of old faces to put right. It's a bit depressing because there have been some good things this season, the writing has generally improved and the style is reminiscent of good Trek. Perhaps the only good thing about this episode are the stakes that they could lose Data again, this time forever. Presumably there are no other backup copies of him (there are always backups, they can just 'find' another one in future if they need to!), so all that constitutes Data rests in this current body. It was nice to have Data 'wake up' and still think he's on the Enterprise, and mentions the threat of the Scimitar, with no explanation for those that don't remember what happened in 'Nemesis' - it's back to being part of that exclusive Trek club for those who have bothered to watch and keep track of everything, which made Trek so appealing in the past. Shame we have to be reminded of more recent events, like Picard saying Data asked him to set him free (years ago, apparently, but I thought this was supposed to be only two years later, which I suppose would make his statement factually correct, two years being 'years,' but isn't a natural way to put it!), the horrible euthanasia moment of Season 1. And as for the Shrike (back to foghorn announcements of its coming - ugh!), why would it just hang there while its Captain was captive, did they not have a contingency plan in case it was a trap, as suspected? There's such a horror theme to the episode with the imagery and the 'music' which sounds like a kettle coming to the boil, and even the great, reassuring theme is replaced for the end credits! Maybe the filming production itself was infiltrated by Changelings or Changeling sympathisers to give us such a twisted, miserable entry in the season?

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