Plot Synopsis: While investigating Picard’s apparent death, Riker is captured by pirates pillaging Romulan archaeological sites.
Plot A and B Analysis: The teaser starts with Troi in a dive bar, asking after someone who sounds a lot like Picard. We learn that Picard got into a fight with some aliens and was vaporized! Plot A is about Picard, there is no real plot B. Riker is mad and won’t rest until Picard’s killers are brought to justice. He gets permission from Starfleet to investigate. After leaning on the witness they head to the Berradas system, where they engage in the most expensive phaser fight of the series and Riker gets taken. Now Data’s in command of the Enterprise and tries to pursue, but the ship becomes invisible to their sensors. Riker finds himself on a mercenary ship, where the captain can inflict pain at will via an implant in everyone’s neck. While the crew debates whether to kill Riker or not, a surprising voice speaks up in favor of his death: Picard! After a malfunction endangering the ship that Riker averts, we head back to the Enterprise. On the planet Data puts together that there is a Romulan link to the ancient ruins and sets course to another close site. Back on the merc ship Picard explains things to Riker: he went to study an archaeological site only to find it had been ransacked. Tracing those responsible to a bar, Picard started asking questions but was captured and taken prisoner. Picard reveals that they are looking for specific ancient artifacts of Romulan origin, and we can’t have that! Baran plans to wipe out a small Starfleet outpost to get some more, but Picard convinces him to let Riker talk his way on to the outpost. Unfortunately it doesn’t work out, so Picard disables the outpost’s shields and transports some artifacts off. It’s not enough to get them all, so Baran orders him to destroy the base. The Enterprise arrives just in time, and Baran tells Riker to order his ship to back off or he’ll kill him. When Data doesn’t obey, Riker says he can shut down the shields of the Enterprise, and part one ends with Baran’s ship firing on them. This is a well-paced episode which has some twists and turns the audience doesn’t see coming. The fact that Picard is alive isn’t one of them, however.
Favorite Scenes: The scene in the mid-20th minutes is pretty clever. Picard creates a systems malfunction endangering the ship so Riker could solve it, giving the captain a reason to keep him alive. Since Picard’s “Galen” is actively voting for his death. No suspicion is thrown on Galen and Riker gets to live. It was pretty funny in the 33rd minute when Picard is explaining things to Riker and captain Baran comes in, he quickly backhands Riker across the face! I just loved it.
Use of Cast/Characters: Picard and Riker share this episode. Picard is really having to improvise and think on his feet here: pretending to be a smuggler, keeping Riker and himself alive, protecting a Federation outpost, and trying to get to the bottom of the bad guys’ goals. It’s ironic that the episode ends with Picard firing on his own ship! Riker isn’t able to prevent himself from being captured, but this works out well as he finds his captain and get to work with him. He comes across as thinking on his feet as well, and we look forward to seeing what they can do together. This is the first time Data has been in command since Redemption II and it’s nice to see. He takes over as captain and while he doesn’t do much, we can tell he is making the right decision at the end of the episode. Deanna has one scene, trying to talk some sense into Riker. Worf seems to complain a lot with Data in charge, which will come into play in part II. Beverly and Geordi just have a few lines each. Richard Lynch plays Arctus Baran and does a pretty good job. Bruce Gray as admiral Chekote does not do a good job.
Blu Ray Version: The bluish phaser-type beams from Baran’s people on the planet were made less bright and less solid in this version. There are four deleted scenes. In the first, Troi gives a couple more lines in the bar scene, not much there. In the second, Riker and Beverly have a brief scene in sick bay where she confirms Picard is dead. The producers just had Riker’s log do the same instead for the episode, which is fine. The third takes place when Riker is talking to the Yridian, and has a bit more content–a couple of lines were nice, the others were a waste, it’s a wash here. The fourth is the best of the bunch, and would’ve taken place in the 34th minute. In the episode Picard/Galen switches pretty quickly from wanting to kill Riker to wanting to use him, and these scenes fill in that gap by appealing to the crew to save their skins from danger of being killed or left behind. I would’ve kept it in if possible.
Nitpicks: The promo for this episode is pretty funny. “Has Captain Picard been murdered? Or has he turned traitor!?” It’s hard to sell he was killed when you show him in the very next scene. When the firefight commences in the 17th minute and Data asks if the away team can be transported up, we get the incredibly generic ‘there’s too much interference’ response. I mean c’mon, yes we need a plot reason why the team can’t be yanked out of danger, but try to give us something that shows the writers at least attempted to come up with a legitimate reason why! I have to admit, though Picard comes across really well I must say I’m not sure Patrick quite pulls off the performance of a low-life smuggler. It just doesn’t seem fit him that well.
Overall Impression: This episode is better than I remember it. It is really nice to see Picard and Riker working together in an undercover situation. They are Starfleet’s two finest officers, and we get to see another reason why, as they have to continually improvise. Having said that, it would be easy for this episode to come across as campy. It does have something of a Buck Rogers feel, which isn’t in its favor. One downside of an episode like this is when you say the captain’s dead nobody will ever buy it, so I wish there would’ve been a different way to get us into the plot. I’ll rate this episode 3 out of 5 stars.
Behind the Scenes/Trivia: Picard naming himself Galen is probably in reference to his mentor from The Chase. There is some TV and film history in this episode. Do you recognize the officer at ops? It’s Sondra from the Cosby Show! Sabrina LeBeauf was a fan and asked if she could have a guest role–she looks a little nervous. Richard Lynch (Baran) was known for being on the original Battlestar Galactica and is the older brother of Barry Lynch, who was in Face of the Enemy. You may not know that the set for Baran’s ship is a big redress of the bridge from the Enterprise C, from Yesterday’s Enterprise. If you watched Star Trek V or VI you’ll notice the command chairs were reused here. Meanwhile Robin Curtis, who plays the Romulan, played Saavik in Star Trek III and IV. Picard’s reference to Riker’s insubordination is actually what made Picard pick him as First Officer, which we’ll learn later in The Pegasus. Riker’s being relieved of duty is a reference to Chain of Command, Part II.
This episode would have been vetoed right away by Gene Roddenberry had he been alive, because he absolutely forbade any ‘space pirates’ on Star Trek. Rick Berman, aware of the taboo but willing to consider the proposal, tied a red bandanna around the bust of Gene Roddenberry on his desk while discussing the story. He explained, “I just blindfolded it as a joke one day. Whenever they come up with a story I don’t think Gene would like, I blindfold him when we discuss the story…I take it on and off, depending on who’s in here.”
Missable/Unmissable? It’s missable, but not bad. The next one is around the same quality.