I've been heavily critical of season 3 so far, in many ways not really seeing it as a meaningful improvement on seasons 1-2 despite the spacebound setting and roster of familiar faces. Too much bad dialog, bad plotting and poor characterization got in the way.
This episode is a triumph. It's intelligently written with smart, emotionally weighty dialog that rings true to the characters and the situation. It's an episode about consequences, one that takes time to look at everything that has happened in the past four episodes, what it meant and what it augurs. Picard, Riker and Seven hijacking the Titan has consequences, Worf decapitating Sneed has consequences, and the fallout from TNG's "Preemptive Strike" - which this episode is a completely unexpected yet shockingly skilful sequel to - has consequences. It's a very accomplished hour.
No, not everything is perfect; I'm slightly frustrated that Ro was killed off at the end of the episode when it would have made more sense for her to stay on the Titan and flee with them. But I think this episode is the best marriage of plot and characterization that a NuTrek script has ever achieved, getting both so right in a way that drives the plot forward in logical, credible and thrilling ways while being deeply true to character for pretty much all players and functioning as a character study that deeply understands and cares about its players. The dumbed-down repetitive dialog of just two episodes ago feels light years away.
Huge credit to the writers of this episode. The script truly understands the events of Preemptive Strike from both Ro's and Picard's perspective and how much it cost both of them. There were many lines of dialog I was impressed with, and not just in the Picard/Ro storyline. It's clear the actors connect with the material just as much as the writers did, and it's wonderful to see Picard and Ro truly hash it out in a meaningful, realistic way that's informed by both characters' histories, before achieving resolution, healing and trust in a way that feels real and truly earned - Picard possibly truly understanding Ro, her choices and why she made them for the first time.
On other fronts, Michael Dorn is wonderful, and the changeling plot is here progressed in ways that I find logical, credible and grounded. Is it realistic that there would be a breakaway group of changelings who don't want peace with the Federation? Yes, absolutely, because the swiftness and oversimplicity with which the Dominion War plot was wrapped up was one of the weaknesses of DS9's ending. Is it realistic that changelings would evolve and become better able to mimic humans? Yes, especially as we already see indications during DS9 that changelings are learning to pass the blood test. I was also happy to hear that Starfleet has indeed kept up anti-changeling measures on board ships and facilities ever since the end of the war, something we find out from Seven in a dialog scene that brings us up to speed but doesn't remotely feel like the clunky exposition of previous episodes.
Everyone here feels like themselves. I love that the episode remembers that Shaw is in the right and allows him to be so, that what Picard, Riker and Seven did was by no means OK. His decision at the end, which brings him over onto their "side", again feels earned, realistic and non-forced - he's a pragmatic man responding practically to a rapidly changing situation.
This episode really works, right down to the direction (one of the only things to have been consistently good this season), the pacing and the structure. This is why I was so tough on the previous four episodes, which despite a few overtures in the right direction were still riddled with quippy wannabe-MCU dialog, huge logical oversights and soap-opera characterization. This is why I was so tough on them, because then when the show truly steps up its game, when it truly delivers an episode that excels on all fronts, that doesn't rely on appeals to nostalgia and superficial call-backs but treats Star Trek as literature and functions as a literary response to and continuation of a gritty TNG episode that no-one expected it would ever attempt let alone pull off, then I can dish out the praise it truly deserves.
This episode is a triumph. It's intelligently written with smart, emotionally weighty dialog that rings true to the characters and the situation. It's an episode about consequences, one that takes time to look at everything that has happened in the past four episodes, what it meant and what it augurs. Picard, Riker and Seven hijacking the Titan has consequences, Worf decapitating Sneed has consequences, and the fallout from TNG's "Preemptive Strike" - which this episode is a completely unexpected yet shockingly skilful sequel to - has consequences. It's a very accomplished hour.
No, not everything is perfect; I'm slightly frustrated that Ro was killed off at the end of the episode when it would have made more sense for her to stay on the Titan and flee with them. But I think this episode is the best marriage of plot and characterization that a NuTrek script has ever achieved, getting both so right in a way that drives the plot forward in logical, credible and thrilling ways while being deeply true to character for pretty much all players and functioning as a character study that deeply understands and cares about its players. The dumbed-down repetitive dialog of just two episodes ago feels light years away.
Huge credit to the writers of this episode. The script truly understands the events of Preemptive Strike from both Ro's and Picard's perspective and how much it cost both of them. There were many lines of dialog I was impressed with, and not just in the Picard/Ro storyline. It's clear the actors connect with the material just as much as the writers did, and it's wonderful to see Picard and Ro truly hash it out in a meaningful, realistic way that's informed by both characters' histories, before achieving resolution, healing and trust in a way that feels real and truly earned - Picard possibly truly understanding Ro, her choices and why she made them for the first time.
On other fronts, Michael Dorn is wonderful, and the changeling plot is here progressed in ways that I find logical, credible and grounded. Is it realistic that there would be a breakaway group of changelings who don't want peace with the Federation? Yes, absolutely, because the swiftness and oversimplicity with which the Dominion War plot was wrapped up was one of the weaknesses of DS9's ending. Is it realistic that changelings would evolve and become better able to mimic humans? Yes, especially as we already see indications during DS9 that changelings are learning to pass the blood test. I was also happy to hear that Starfleet has indeed kept up anti-changeling measures on board ships and facilities ever since the end of the war, something we find out from Seven in a dialog scene that brings us up to speed but doesn't remotely feel like the clunky exposition of previous episodes.
Everyone here feels like themselves. I love that the episode remembers that Shaw is in the right and allows him to be so, that what Picard, Riker and Seven did was by no means OK. His decision at the end, which brings him over onto their "side", again feels earned, realistic and non-forced - he's a pragmatic man responding practically to a rapidly changing situation.
This episode really works, right down to the direction (one of the only things to have been consistently good this season), the pacing and the structure. This is why I was so tough on the previous four episodes, which despite a few overtures in the right direction were still riddled with quippy wannabe-MCU dialog, huge logical oversights and soap-opera characterization. This is why I was so tough on them, because then when the show truly steps up its game, when it truly delivers an episode that excels on all fronts, that doesn't rely on appeals to nostalgia and superficial call-backs but treats Star Trek as literature and functions as a literary response to and continuation of a gritty TNG episode that no-one expected it would ever attempt let alone pull off, then I can dish out the praise it truly deserves.