Episode #136-137: Chain of Command
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Episode #136-137: Chain of Command
CHAIN OF COMMAND, parts 1 & 2 (6th season; episodes #136,137)
Directed by Robert Scheerer, Les Landau
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Part One may have the shortest teaser of the series, at about 40 seconds: Vice-Admiral Nechayev comes aboard Enterprise-D, dismisses Riker from the room and tells Picard that he's been relieved of command. That's it. Wow. The swift teaser is emblematic of this surprisingly fast-paced 2-parter; there's a lot of material to cover and most of the double episode wastes no time in getting through it at a breakneck speed. As for Riker, he needs to get used to being dismissed in this episode; Picard is replaced by Captain Jellico (Ronny Cox), who swiftly determines that Riker is just not suitable first officer material. Wow, again; talk about eating humble pie, 24th-century style.
A different sense of style is what most of this episode is about. This offers a fascinating look at the still-organized Enterprise-D now operating in a more amped-up style. Picard, Crusher and Worf have been re-assigned to a special covert mission. Jellico has been selected as the new captain by Starfleet Command due to his experience in dealing with the Cardassians, who are plotting some possible incursion into Federation territory. It all could mean war and things are tense. Jellico makes things even more tense.
Cox gives a fantastic guest performance; always behaving like he's operating on several cups of coffee, he nearly gives the usually steady top officers of the ship nervous breakdowns. Jellico is as experienced & sure as Picard but where Picard inspired confidence in everyone, Jellico just makes everyone nervous. He demands huge changes to the ship's operations in a very short time and is very curt about it. He wants everything 'just so' and expects everyone else to be as perfectionist & rapid-fire as he is. Note how he tends to finish other people's sentences, perhaps showing off his knowledge and proving how in command he is; or, perhaps it's a sign of... insecurity?
The second theme and story in this 2-parter involves the subject of torture. At the end of part one, Picard's special mission turns out to be a trap set by the Cardassians and he is captured. During most of Part Two, Picard is tortured by a Cardassian interrogator (David Warner in another superb performance). The torture begins, ostensibly, to gain information from Picard, but it soon develops that the torturer is sadistically taking out all his internal anger on a helpless victim, wanting him to feel more pain than he's had during his own life. The torture revolves around the sadistic game of forcing the victim to say that there are five lights when there are clearly only four. A pain-inducing device was surgically placed in Picard's upper chest just before the interrogation began. By the end, Picard is a quivering mess; actor Stewart gives a raw, heartfelt performance here, very different from his usual starchy captain-in-command - it's quite startling.
The epilogue is likewise startling. Picard admits, to Troi, that though it seemed like he resisted breaking down, it was all just a matter of good timing of being removed from the torture chamber just at the moment that he was about to give in. This denouement is another sharp delineation between the sensibilities of TNG and the Original Series. We all believe, in the back of our minds, that Kirk would've resisted such torture, to the bitter end. But on TNG, the heroes are a bit more frail, more vulnerable, and Picard is anxious to purge his feelings to the on-board psychologist (Troi). I suppose it can be more heroic when one isn't superhuman. And, a little more disturbing. BoG's Score: 9 out of 10
TNG Trivia: Picard's serial #: SP-937-215. Riker graduated Starfleet Academy 8th in his class. This episode previewed the Cardassian-Bajoran conflict, spotlighted on Deep Space Nine, which premiered only a month after this. This episode also had permanent repercussions: Troi continued to wear her uniform which Jellico requested her to do.
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