From: mwasserm@diana.cair.du.edu (MARC Y. WASSERMAN)
Subject: Re: Chain Of Command Part II -- review
Organization: University of Denver, Denver, Colorado
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 92 06:13:03 GMT

In article <Bzxt23.L31@world.std.com> tob@world.std.com (Tom O Breton) writes:
>Spoilers ahead - Summary: A+
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Are you kidding?  Follow me.
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>Chain of Command Part II was great. They just did everything right and gave
>us a powerful, inspired episode.

It was OK.  They didn't do anything right, and it was an occasionally
powerful and inspired episode.  At least that's my opinion.  Let's see..
 
>The lesser story first:
>
>They handled Jellico very nicely. If they'd changed his character much, it
>would have felt phony.

Agreed; though his scenes with Riker were, well, stilted.  It seemed
that Riker was being overarrogant.  I did like the scene where they
both said that they didn't like each other; but the dialogue seemed
unrealsistic.  Jellico was a neat character though.
 
>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.

Yep.

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

He didn't exactly refuse; just seemed to; this would have been a big
conflict except he immediately asked for Picard's return at the end
which seemd to me to be a jump in character.


>But the real meat was in the torture story.

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

Eh; this didn't hit me very hard.  Predictable.
 
>Picard's later comments on the daughter, and how learning to devalue one
>teaches her to devalue all, even the one that taught her...

But it was so short!  This scene really didn't hit either.
 
>Picard's comments that torture wasn't a particularly reliable means of
>extracting information...

Do they explain what IS?  No.  Nordo they explain why it DID affect
himn in the long run.
 

>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.

I was.  Madred didn't really weaken; he still had the device.  And
besides, was it really that powerful a story?  He was 6, and the older
kid had to break his arm to get the egg.  
 
>The four lights was a brilliant device. (No pun intended). In one simple
>visual metaphor, it encapsulated the whole struggle going on.

Straight from 1984 by George Orewll and a million WWII movies.
 
>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.

THIS IS MY BIGGEST PROBLEM!  When I see TNG I want sci-fi.  Not
human stories.  Because they concentrated so hard on human story,
they missed any plot device.  No attacks.  No burning ships.  No
conflict!  And very little explination of what they heck they were
doing at MInos III or how they could so easily plant mines on the
ship.  At least the old show concentrated on the sci-fi.  TNG
is becomeing  a space drama...this doesn't work if the plot falls
apart, which is happening over and over and over.
 
>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!!!!"

Unless it was all psychological and there really wasn't a device?  :)
 
>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.

Oh, I don't know, that seemed OK to me.

>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+.
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It was OK.  I give it a C.  I wasn't inspired.  I admire the acting,
but it wasn't sci-fi.  I miss that.
 

-- 
"So you're choosing to run from your own people in a rackety old TARDIS?"
		     D  O  C  T  O  R     W  H  O
				30 Years
           "Why not?  After all, that's how it all started!"