From: tob@world.std.com (Tom O Breton)
Subject: Chain Of Command Part II -- review
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 21:30:02 GMT

Spoilers ahead - Summary: A+



















Chain of Command Part II was great. They just did everything right and gave
us a powerful, inspired episode.

The lesser story first:

They handled Jellico very nicely. If they'd changed his character much, it
would have felt phony.

The scene with Jellico & RIker in Riker's quarters was fairly good, but it
lacked the right feel. They both seemed to take the confrontation too
trivially. Remember, in the rest of the story each of these men thinks the
other has just made boneheadedly stupid/perverse decisions on very important
things.

And Jellico's character, especially in refusing to rescue JLP gave the story
a very good conflict.

Troi basically sat around uselessly moping "If I can't say 'what are you
feeeeeeling right now', what can I do?" }:)

But the real meat was in the torture story.

Of course, it gave Patrick Stewart a chance to show off, and he did fine with
no false notes.

But better, it gave them a chance to deal with some very powerful ideas that
fit perfectly into the plot:

The part where the torturer's daughter asks if humans have parents, and Gul
Madred replies by 'dehumanizing' humans...

Picard's later comments on the daughter, and how learning to devalue one
teaches her to devalue all, even the one that taught her...

Picard's comments that torture wasn't a particularly reliable means of
extracting information...


I don't think anyone could fail to be struck by Picard's comments on Gul
Madred's story of having his eggs swiped as a 6-year-old boy.

It was well set up by the earlier scene where Gul Madred makes the same sort
of complaint about the stolen treasures of Cardassia. IMO it worked *much*
better that way, 'cause we already had a glimpse into that part of Gul
Madred's psyche half an hour gone, and were ready to see what it meant.


The four lights was a brilliant device. (No pun intended). In one simple
visual metaphor, it encapsulated the whole struggle going on.

Again and again, it cut away what might have been complicated explanatory
dialogue "Tell me about the exact plans for the defense of Minos III. What
ships are to be deployed?.... " and focused us on the human story.

The implant device likewise simplified the explanatory stuff. Hope JLP has
since had it removed. Otherwise --- "Leiutenant Worf, open hailing
frequencies --- ARGHH! AAAAHHH! AOOOOOOO! Close them!!!!"



It did seem to me that Picard would have figured out that Gul Madred was
lying about Crusher being next. It was simply implausible, as if he couldn't
*possibly* torture them simultaneously. That was a bit weak.


I was very glad that I'd pretty much forgotten the Chain Of Command I gaffe,
where they send Picard, an important and knowledgeable StarFleet officer,
into enemy territory in wartime. There's just no explaining that away!

Gotta mention, sheesh, Picard has a truckload of life-altering experiences!
Captured by The Borg, then he lived a complete life in half an hour in Inner
Light, now this.

Any one of them would change someone's whole life. Wouldn't all that mess up
his mind something awful? He should probably go back to France and have his
brother beat him up again so that he feels OK. }:)


It was one of the two best episodes of the season so far (Fistful Of Datas
was the other, almost as good.) I give it perfect marks, A+.


        Tom

-- 
The Tom spreads its huge, scaly wings and soars into the wild sky...      
(tob@world.std.com)
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