From: "bernie wong" <bernie.wong@canrem.com>
Subject: saturday night review - "
Reply-To: "bernie wong" <bernie.wong@canrem.com>
Organization: Canada Remote Systems
Distribution: rec
Date: 22 Dec 92 00:27:57 EST

 Subject: Saturday Night Review - "Chain of Command Part I" SPOILERS!
 -=> Ph9991 Manfr babbled to All and look what he said! <=-

 PM> SPOILERS AHEAD FOR "CHAIN OF COMMAND" PART ONE



 PM> Obviously, Jellicoe and the Admiral are in league with the Cardassians
 PM> and plotted to get Picard captured.  The big road signs (too big) of
 PM> this are how they keep saying "our friends" in their sub-space
 PM> communication, how Jellicoe is turning the ship upside-down in order to
 PM> lessen her effectiveness in the battle they have coming, and how Troi
 PM> says he is unsure of himself: it isn't his little "diplomacy" ploy,
 PM> it's the fact that he's on the other side.

My god, I feel so stupid!  I had NEVER thought about that!  I just
assumed "our friends" meant Picard, Beverly and Worf...  I got this idea
because I remember hearing Picard and Jellicoe talking about radio
silence.  Jellicoe insists he keeps some sort of beeper just in case...
Now I wasn't sure if it was to track him or if it were to communicate
with the E but I'm sure it was one or the other -- I'll have to rewatch
the episode a 5th time.  (evil grin)


 PM> I am, however, again surprised by the consistency of the Cardassian
 PM> acting and design.  They are fast becoming a very effective alien race
 PM> and will make a good continuing adversary for Deep Space Nine.
 PM> Now if only they had a more exciting name... :)

Yes, I was extremely pleased with the Cardassians myself.  They haven't
yet changed into a cliched aliens like the Ferengi.  God, seeing the
Ferengi in CoC again was terrible!  Unbearable!  Also, Beverly's
seductive powers were somewhat unreal...

 PM> Again, solid, but nothing outstanding.  The only line that really
 PM> sticks out in my mind is "Get rid of that fish in the ready room."

Hey, I liked that line!  However, what really get me screaming
"Bastard!" at the TV set was when he said "...and forgive me for being
blunt, but the Enterprise is MINE now." and when he give the Shakespeare
book back to Picard as if it were poisoned or filthy.

 PM> Ah...this brought back memories of some really good "Doctor Who"
 PM> episodes.  Typically "Doctor Who"  strolls into a cave at least once a
 PM> season, and the cave walls (in the Seventies anyway) never quite
 PM> looked like rock, more like styrofoam with lots of ninety-degree angles
 PM> between the walls and the floors.  That's what this looked like, only
 PM> tinted in harsh blue as though that hides the shoddy construction.

I thought the caves looked very nice throughout the episode.  However,
the ROCKS got increasingly styrofoamic.  The rocks that Picard pushed
aside while crawling were clearly fake, and so were the ones that fell
on Beverly.

 PM> Another totally uninteresting score.   COME ON PARAMOUNT!  WE AREN'T
 PM> GOING TO BE OFFENDED BY GOOD MUSIC OR EXCITING OR INTERESTING MUSIC!
 PM> WAKE UP AND LET THE COMPOSER ACTUALLY COMPOSE SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The score was much more enjoyable and bearable, but only when compared
to the, ahem, "new" music that TNG is restricted to.  I especially liked
the tone of the minor chords that were played after Picard was captured
(when we cut back to the E and the Cardassians).

 PM> It took until the end of the episode for this to start to be of
 PM> note.  Until then the camerawork wasn't very inspired.  Come to think
 PM> of it, even the "circling the victim" bit in the office at the end was
 PM> more than a little cliched, but that's a cliche I don't really get
 PM> tired of. David Warner being in it doesn't hurt any either.  :)

Yes, the circling around the victim was pretty well cliched, but what I
REALLY hated was most of the cave scenes.  ESPECIALLY the shoot-out at
the end.  WAY too many close-ups!  It was probably because of the cheap
limited cave sets but with all the close-ups I just couldn't get a full
grasp on the environment.  The shoot-out at the end was so poorly done I
didn't know who was where or how far away Picard actually was from the
door...  I didn't even know there were spaces behind the three until a
Cardassian popped out and grabbed Worf...  I REALLY didn't like the
shoot-out when it came to directing.

 PM> What this whole episode seemed to lack was a "spark."  An inner fire
 PM> to give the story a life of its own.  As I said before, this may be
 PM> intentional in order to contrast against Part Two, and if this is so,
 PM> then this is a very good episode and it fills its function perfectly:
 PM> to set up the really good stuff in Part Two but not to overshadow Part
 PM> Two.  However, there is some past history working against this idea,
 PM> like "Unification" and "Time's Arrow."  I can easily see this story
 PM> falling like a rock into a pit of mediocrity, and even when I try to
 PM> think of what kind of weird twists could wait in store, I can't think
 PM> of much going on what we have so far.  And those I can think of (like
 PM> Jellicoe doing a double act) aren't such wild ideas.

This may not be true.  The main reason Time's Arrow lacked spark was
because Time's Arrow II hadn't even been thought up yet.  I agree with
Unification, mainly because the star of concern wasn't shown until the
last 2 minutes.  But in Chain of Command I was constantly interested.

From the very beginning some intrigue was brought up and at least it
wasn't until the last two minutes that the audience found out what was
happening.  Nothing built up in this episode, the whole episode already
built itself up from the beginning.  Nothing built up to the climax, the
entire episode was an escalating climax.  I loved it.

 PM> I have a terrible feeling this two-parter will go the way of its
 PM> predecessors, but until then, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt
 PM> and hope they've learned some lessons and are saving the best for
 PM> last. 

I hope not.  Even if you can explain the predicatable antagonists, what
about Picard?  That was one hell of a killer promo though...!  :-)

 PM> Scale of one to ten: 6
 PM> (subject to amendment after Part Two)

Ooh, sounds like a low rating...  If I bothered to get off my lazy a$$
and write a review, I'd probably give it an 8.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jason Wong
Calling from Markham, Ontario CANADA.  It's not cold though!  :-)
INTERNET E-MAIL: bernie.wong@canrem.com


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