I promised more Trek, and here it is. I’m skipping the original series for a bit. Why? Well, the Next Generation was a bizarre experience for me. When was younger, I thought it was brilliant, but as I got older the show’s style, look and ideals began to age too badly.

Watching Next Generation now, it feels kinda dull. Everyone chilled out so much that at times it was slow paced, dull and overall a bit underwhelming.

Maybe I was spoiled with DS9. That show had story arcs, character development, rich and strong recurring characters and a whole heap of stuff drawing me in. On Picards ship, there was very little drama, very little development and what happened to the mission to boldly go where no one has gone before? They seemed to boldly go, for the most part, to very familiar places and were more on patrol than they were learning or discovering the wonders of space.

Data’s a prime example of this show boldly going nowhere. He had seven years to develop and it felt like he’s barely moved forward from the first episode to the last. Troi and Riker were still dancing around the will they/won’t they issues from her failed arranged marriage in the first season and it took a promotion and transfer to another show for Worf to actually get an opinion that mattered.

But, it had it’s moments…

Yer chibbed, mate.
Tapestry (season 6).
Written by one half of the team that brought BSG back to our screens, this episode has Picard dying due to his failed mechanical heart, Q pops up in the role of God, lets him correct a mistake in his youth that led to him having a heart replacement, gets a glimpse of his life without his rebellious risk taking in his early years and opts to go through the incident again.

This is a nice episode overall, showing how some mistakes aren’t as mistakey as you may think. By going back and avoiding starting a bar brawl and getting stabbed, that escalates into him avoiding risk as he gets older which means his life, when he returns to it, is dull and unfulfilled.

It’s also a nice episode for Q. He’s not all bad, y’see. Much like his appearance in TNG’s finale, Q’s mind games have positive results. He’s educating Picard and showing him what his life would be without risk. Which is nice of him.

When Picard realises he needs to face the risk and live his rebellious years to grow into the man he is, Q puts him back in that bar brawl and Jean-Luc merrily takes a knife through the chest. Laughing as he see’s the blade sticking through him.

Yes, Hugh are..
I, Borg (season 5)
The Borg are a big scary race who will capture you, strip you of all your uniqueness, not to mention some of your flesh, and turn you into a cybernetic drone. They’re a highly powerful race who are hard to resist and in this episode we saw what happens when one breaks free of the collective.

Completely cut off from the hive mind that connects all Borg, one drone began to grow and develop as an individual while cut off from the rest of his people inside an Enterprise holding cell. Learning to become an individual and given the name Hugh by Chief Engineer Geordie LaForge, it’s decided that he will be returned to his people carrying a virus that will infect and kill all Borg.

Some BSG fans may recognise this story being repeated in it’s re-imagining, and the story went the same way. On Galactica is was Karl Agathon, husband to a Cylon, who couldn’t face the consequence of genocide as he knew the enemy weren’t really the bad guys. Here, we had the same dilema and the same issues with those in charge facing it.

Picard is all too happy to use the Borg as a weapon, until Guinan convinces him to talk to Hugh. In a desperate bid to try and find some evil in the former drone, Picard realises that he can’t use an innocent as a means to kill an entire race. What if he could spread his individuality?

…
Family (season 4)
After becoming a Borg drone and being used as a weapon against his own people, Picard has a little down time with his estranged brother in France and with the Borgified events weighing heavily on his mind, is all too ready to quit the life of a Starship captain and stay behind on Earth.

There’s a comedy subplot with Worf’s step-parents and something with Weasley and Dr Milf, but those are easily and preferably forgotten as the heart of the story lies in the tale of the Picards.

Jean-Luc was a dreamer who left home, joined Starfleet and wooshed away in a big spaceship looking for adventure in the stars. His brother Robert stayed home, following in his fathers footsteps to carry on the family business, resenting his brother for buggering off.

Jean-Luc tries to keep a stiff upper lip while he and his brother argue and eventually his brother starts pushing all the right buttons. Poking away at him about the Borg and his experience, his desire to run away from it all and work on Earth. Fisticuffs ensues and the two old men end up covered in mud in the vineyard, and thats when it happens.

The cool, collected Picard snaps. In a fit of tears, the captain of the Enterprise breaks down over the experience which leads to his emotional release over his capture by the Borg and paves the way to mending his relationship with his brother.

Imagine if Christian Bale was in his position.
Chain of Command, (season 6)
In this two parter, Picard hands the reigns to the uptight Captain Jellico while he takes Dr Milf and Worf on a secret mission. In this mission, Picard is captured and tortured by Cardassian Gul Madred, who tries to break him in order to gain information.

Madred is wonderfully portrayed by David Warner, who’s been in Star Trek a few times, most notably as Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI. His chemistry with Patrick Stewart was wonderful, and both played their roles to perfection.

Part of the torture was trying to convince Picard to say there are five lights when there are only four. It doesn’t sound as good as it looked on screen, but Madred was toying with Picard and once he said there are five lights, his life would get a whole lot less painful.

On the Enterprise, Jellico goes all uptight professional and cracks his part of the mission leading t Picard being released from Madred’s care. But just as he goes, the ready to snap Picard scream out “There are four lights!” in a way that spits in Madreds face confirming the good captain held his ground and his sanity.

The really revealing moment however is a chat with Troi in which Picard takes a brave move very few other heroes would at the time, when he admits if he wasn’t released… he would have broken.

Not a racist.
Measure of a man (season 2)
This is perhaps the most powerful episode of the lot for me and it has two great moments which are tied.

The episode features a scientist who comes aboard the Enterprise wanting to whisk Data away to a research lab, pull him apart, reverse engineer him and create a whole race of andriods from Dr Soong’s unique (almost) design. Data objects and it becomes a legal matter, with Picard defending Data’s rights an an individual, and Riker forced to argue that Data is a machine, and therefor property of the Federation to do as they like with him.

The big moment in the episode comes with Picards defense. In a rant he breaks down what it means to be an individual by listing the three major requirements to be labeled sentient and striking them off the list one by one, showing Data is a sentient life form despite being a machine.

It’s a very powerful scene that wins the case and assures the right for Data to say no. But the a quieter scene makes a far bigger impact.

Before his defense is given, Picard visits Guinan to discuss the morals of the case. And then we have the following conversation…

Guinan:
“Consider that in the history of many worlds, there have always been disposable creatures. They do the dirty work. They do the work that no one else wants to do because it’s too difficult or too hazardous. And an army of Datas, all disposable… You don’t have to think about their welfare, you don’t think about how they feel. Whole generations of disposable people.”

Picard:
“You’re talking about slavery.”

Guinan:
“Oh, I think that’s a little harsh.”

Picard:
“I don’t think that’s a little harsh, I think that’s the truth. But that’s a truth that we have obscured behind a… comfortable, easy euphemism: ‘Property’! But that’s not the issue at all, is it?”

…and the episode takes a much different shape. The idea of an android being a disposable person rings a few bells. It’s one of those scenes that has so much more emphasis with a Black actor involved. As much as he felt uncomfortable with the words, Brock Peter’s anti-Klingon rant in The Undiscovered Country had a lot more impact coming from a man who had fought against racial issues and Whoopie Goldberg as Guinan has a similar role in this moment.

It’s classic Star Trek, it’s Belle and Lokai. It’s talking about a very real subject in the realms of science fiction. All the pieces are different, but the roles are similar.

This is where TNG made a moral impact from my perspective, as well as channeled it’s predecessor without doing a goofy story about drugs.

Honorable mentions go to Q becoming human and revealing that fact to the crew as well as his self sacrifice, Data and Lore’s last scene together, Q’s final speech in All Good Things and Darmick among others. Feel free to share your thoughts and tell me if I’m wrong…

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