I took a week of vacation and was able to write two more episode reviews! It was nice to play a bit of catch up in these uncertain times. I hope everyone is doing well, and staying healthy. This time it’s The Quality of Life and Chain of Command, Part I.
The Quality of Life is a forgettable episode about Data investigating a group of robots, the exocomps, that he believes may be a new life form. This is in the context of independent researchers developing a new form of mining technology they want Picard to recommend to Starfleet. That’s really all I have to say about it, it’s not that remarkable an episode IMO. My favorite part of the episode is the poker game at the beginning.
This episode features the return of Beardy, AKA Geordi sporting a beard, for the third and last time of the TV series. First seen in The Outcast, and continuing in the previous episode, it’s on display most prominently this episode, even though the producers were totally against it. How did he get away with it? LeVar gave them terms they couldn’t refuse: he needed it for his upcoming wedding! Check out this and other cool stuff by reading my full review.
The next episode, Chain of Command, Part I, is the last great two-parter on TNG. Things get going right in the teaser when Picard is relieved of command of the Enterprise and we get a new captain, Jellico, that nobody can stand. Meanwhile Picard, Beverly and Worf start training for a black ops mission like they are commandos. What’s up with these Cardassians that we saw in a couple of episodes last season? It’s a wonderful part one, and sets up the even-better part two!
Remember the Cardassians first appeared back in The Wounded, and we saw them again in Ensign Ro before appearing here. Brent Spiner has said this is his favorite two-parter of the series! You may not know Chain of Command was originally meant to be just one episode. Why did they change it? Check out my full review to read about it! There are also two funny stories the cast tells about this episode, read about them both in my review if you like.
That’s it for now. With luck I’ll get two more reviews out this next month. I hope everyone out there is staying healthy and taking good care of themselves!