Family by: Ronald D. Moore and directed by: Les Landau

 

“Family” is written by: Ronald D. Moore, based in part on a premise by: Susanne Lambdin and Bryan Stewart, and is directed by: Les Landau.  It was produced under production code 178, was the 2^nd episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, the 76^th episode overall, and was broadcast on October 1, 1990.

 

“The Best of Both Worlds, Part II” has a final shot that by all conventions of television is the ending of that arc.  Picard has been saved, changed by the experience, and looks out upon the world below with uncertainty about where to continue.  The next episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation should be business as usual, that is how television works.  The writing room would have the awareness of how the characters have changed by the events of the previous episodes, but they are not continuing.  Showrunner Michael Piller decided, however, that there should actually be a follow up.  We shouldn’t go back to the status quo, The Best of Both Worlds was hell for our characters and they need to heal from a lot of that.  “Family” is the result of healing: not written under Piller’s pen but to Ronald D. Moore, though some material is adapted from an unused script from Susanne Lambdin and Bryan Stewart.  As an episode, this is a different beast for Star Trek as a franchise, playing out as a straightforward drama exploring three characters’ relationships with their families in the aftermath of “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”.  There is no big alien threat, the Enterprise is not malfunctioning, and the rest of the crew has shore leave.  There are some repairs occurring, but that is Moore’s excuse to keep the Enterprise on Earth for an extended period of time.  The conflict of the episode is entirely interpersonal tension, something that Gene Roddenberry would have absolutely hated as he fully believed that people would not have interpersonal conflict in the future.  Roddenberry by this point has been proven wrong, his outlook while utopian is not conductive to good drama.  Moore attempted to create a science fiction conflict in the episode, but was unsatisfied so kept it as 45 minutes of drama over anything else.

 

This is the third episode in a row where Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard is given the central and technically impressive performance of the episode.  Picard goes to his family’s vineyard to visit his brother Robert and his family, played by Jeremy Kemp, Samantha Eggar, and David Tristan Birkin.  Robert is the younger brother who never really managed to match up to Jean-Luc’s lofty ambitions, but he is also a man of the world, maintaining the vineyard and having a conservative attitude towards technological progress at odds with his brother.  Kemp and Stewart immediately read as brothers, the former caring for the latter though being unable to see exactly the trauma that Picard has gone through.  Stewart plays Picard in every scene as a broken man putting on a brave face, ready to run away from the Enterprise so he doesn’t have to face the unknown of space.  It’s mirrored with the potential unknown under the Earth, but Moore’s script is adamant that that isn’t actually the unknown.  There aren’t new civilizations under the ground, but the Borg aren’t there.  He would be safe, he wouldn’t have to face it.  “Family” is a masterclass in writing that implication, there’s only one line where Picard actually acknowledges he is broken at the climax of his arc in the episode.  It’s all in Stewart’s performance of a man who sees his nephew adore him and the idea of going into Starfleet while not being able to encourage him because of how broken he is.  “Family” also does not posit that Picard is fixed by the end, but he is on a road to healing.  Setting his arc at his family’s vineyard also gives the episode a distinct look, director Les Landau making full advantage of the location shooting.  The California vineyards being used to double for France is a visual representation of what the Borg took away from Picard, turning him into a sterile member of the collective.  It also just makes “Family” a gorgeous episode to watch after what’s been a series of largely studio bound episodes.

 

Picard’s story is only one family being explored here.  While it is the heaviest, Moore parallel’s Picard’s trauma with Worf’s ostracization from the Klingons in “Sins of the Father”, brining in his adoptive parents played by Theodore Bikel and Georgia Brown.  Michael Dorn as Worf has always been one of those layered performances in the show, and this episode is no exception.  Worf’s parents love him deeply.  Sure, they have a tendency to be a bit embarrassing and a little overbearing, Bikel and Brown give performances of doting parents.  They understand their son isn’t a human, respect whatever path he was going to take to embrace Klingon culture, and are deeply proud.  Worf doesn’t have to face his problems alone.  It’s this plotline that hits me in a very personal place because Moore’s script clearly understands the importance of independence from one’s parents but also keeping that support.  Worf didn’t want his parents to visit the Enterprise, but in the end he’s happy they are there because he doesn’t have to face his dishonor alone.  The conflict here is also coming with this slight wall that Worf puts up throughout his parents’ visit, though it’s not one where it comes to blows.  It’s there to explore a relationship and Moore’s script also acknowledges where Sergey and Helena, that is Worf’s parents, can actually be overbearing quite a bit and also need to take a step back.  The added nuance is nice for a show from the 1990s.

 

The third plot is the smallest, it’s Crusher finding possessions she left on Earth including a message from Wesley’s father for him made when he was a baby.  Gates McFadden and Wil Wheaton in this episode are given perhaps the smallest subplot, but it’s also one with the biggest impact.  Wheaton in particular has gone down in history as playing one of the most annoying characters on television, but that’s just not true.  Wesley here is allowed to be a full person, struggling with the decision to view the message and so much of Wheaton’s body language in his final scene is perfect.  McFadden for her part is clearly relishing the material for the third episode in a row allowing Crusher a more proactive role, even if this proactive role is as a concerned mother.  The show is finally allowing Wesley to have his own development and come to his own independence as a parallel to both Worf and Picard’s plots.  These three plots work because they are fully parallel, there is no crossover here.  This is an episode of television that could not be made in today’s production landscape, taking 45 minutes just to look at where our characters are after the last two episodes changed the status quo.

 

Overall, “Family” is the third episode in a row to really take a risk, going against every rule that Gene Roddenberry would set out for Star Trek.  It should be unsurprising that this is a risk that paid off completely, because “Family” is one of those episodes that works because it sits with its emotions.  Were it made today it would be decried as woke propaganda, emasculating our male characters, and that’s why it works so well.  It examines the idea of family and returning to family after experiencing a trauma that you can never truly share with them.  10/10.

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by: L. Frank Baum

 

L. Frank Baum introduces Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz with a message lamenting the fact that children want to hear of more adventures in Oz despite the fact that he has several other stories to tell.  This book at its core was a response to all his readers and he clearly does not want to be writing yet another Oz book.  Like Ozma of Oz before it, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is a book where Oz is the destination and not the journey.  This structure is a double-edged sword for Baum, obviously it falls into the problem of being a formula and sticking so heavily to it making these books seem repetitive structurally.  Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz does feel like this, the structure is episodic with Dorothy, the Wizard of Oz, her cousin Zeb, her cat Eureka, and Zeb’s horse Jim going from danger to danger until Baum decides it’s time to have Ozma bring them all to the Emerald City in Oz for one last adventure involving the justice system and a missing, presumably eaten, piglet before sending Dorothy and Zeb back home.  On the other edge of the sword, it does mean Baum can explore different worlds and things that wouldn’t necessarily fit right within the bounds of Oz that have been set.  The first adventure of Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz especially doesn’t quite fit in the idea of Oz, instead being more a subversion for the audience, Baum playing with when the Wizard comes back into the narrative.  It’s notable that this is the strongest sequence in the book as well.  It’s where Baum ties into recent American history, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was fresh in his mind.

 

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is one of those books that fits well into literature at the time.  The earthquake influence has Dorothy and company sent underneath the Earth following clear inspiration from the work of Jules Verne and Lewis Carroll, under the Earth lying the Mangaboos.  Stylistically the falling is A Journey to the Centre of the Earth while it follows the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass logic of talking vegetable people ruling their own society.  Baum does some self-parody here as well with the Sorcerer of the Mangaboos being a humbug like the Wizard, only for the Wizard to appear to live up to the philosophy of being a very good man, but a very bad wizard.  Obviously, there is that retcon of him not having overthrown the original government of Oz and given Ozma to Mombi.  This portrayal of the Wizard is far more jolly, he is kind and does get rewarded in the end for helping Dorothy through her many perils with the chance to be an official court wizard for Ozma.  That is jolly except for when the slices the Sorcerer in half for the reveal that the Mangaboos are vegetable people, a particularly dark twist again coming from the Carroll influence but in a very Baum way.  Baum does not do the typical picking up new companions throughout the novel, instead introducing Dorothy’s cousin Zeb as almost a proto-Eustace Clarence Scrubb.  While I do not know if C.S. Lewis ever read Baum as a child, you can trace a direct line between the characters (Jim the horse also feels like a proto-Strawberry from The Magician’s Nephew).  Zeb isn’t annoying or in need of his eyes being open to the world of magic around him, but he is the normal foil to Dorothy and the Wizard.  The disappointment is that Baum does often forget about him, he is the least interesting character however.  Baum also is excellent at writing a cat.  While the sequence in Oz where Eureka is put on trial could be described as tacked on to make this an Oz book, it is incredibly funny with how Eureka isn’t so much evil, but indifferent, selfish, and caring all at the same time.  Sadly the ending just kind of runs to a word count and Baum wraps things up.

 

Overall, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz sadly lacks a lot of the thematic depth that the three previous Oz books really had.  The middle sequences with the gargoyles, the dragonettes, and the invisible people are all good but they are often just standard children’s adventures.  The most interesting parts of the book are that potential direct line between Verne and Carroll to Lewis, though there isn’t quite enough to say of a direct inspiration.  It’s an easy read and continues the general fairy tale nature of the Oz books, but there is a clear sense of Baum rushing to get things on the page because readers demanded it without quite enough ideas to sustain the novel as well as he could.  7/10.

Follow That TARDIS! by: John Carnell with art by: Andy Lanning, John Higgins, Kev Hopgood, Dougie Braithwaite, and Dave Elliott and lettering by: Bambos

 

“Follow That TARDIS!” is written by: John Carnell with art by: Andy Lanning, John Higgins, Kev Hopgood, Dougie Braithwaite, and Dave Elliott, and lettering by: Bambos.  It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issue 147 (March 1989) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: A Cold Day in Hell! by Panini Books.

 

“Follow That TARDIS!” is best described as giving readers absolutely nothing.  John Carnell brings back the Meddling Monk and he runs through time while the Doctor follows with the Sleeze Brothers in tow.  The Sleeze Brothers are meant to spin-off into their own miniseries later in 1998.  To put it in fanfiction lingo, they are John Carnell’s OCs.  This story exists for spin-off potential by grabbing the readers of Doctor Who Magazine, and reflecting that there is no story here.  Sure, it’s only seven pages long, but there have been seven page stories that could at least do something with a premise.  Instead we catapult through time and space for wacky hijinks wrapped around historical tragedies which makes it feel quite mean-spirited.  On the strip are five very good artists bringing at the very least in brief panels a vivid future to life.  Carnell does establish this satirical future that is clearly in line with the ethos of where comics and Doctor Who at the time were going.  It’s cyberpunk by way of tacky consumerism which would be a fantastic setting to slap the Meddling Monk of all characters in.  We just don’t do it, instead this thing has the tone of a farce: the Monk’s TARDIS is a toilet which is self-parody of the lowest common denominator.  The Doctor is barely a presence in the story itself, while the Sleeze Brothers get to do wacky comedy.

 

Overall, “Follow That TARDIS!” is nothing.  It’s barely even a story, and it feels like John Carnell was told you need to fill seven pages with anything.  We aren’t going to check.  Lanning, Higgins, Hopgood, Braithwaite, and Elliott are all underused because these are talented artists drawing to a nothing script.  2/10.

Time and Tide by: Richard Alan and John Carnell with art by: Dougie Braithwaite and Dave Elliott and letters by: Tom Orzechowski

 

“Time and Tide” is written by: Richard Alan (a pseudonym for Richard Starkings) and John Carnell with art by: Dougie Braithwaite and Dave Elliott, and lettering by: Tom Orzechowski.  It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issues 145-146 (January-February 1989) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: A Cold Day in Hell! by Panini Books.

 

Richard Starkings’ voice has been the main constant on the Seventh Doctor Doctor Who Magazine comic strip.  He had been the primary editor on the strip and is responsible for the rotating of writers which while successful for the Sixth Doctor has been less so for the Seventh.  “Time and Tide” is the first time Starkings tried his hand at writing the strip for two issues under the pseudonym Richard Alan with John Carnell.  Carnell for his part is not a writer of note.  He gets a co-writer credit for this story and writes the following story, the one issue “Follow that TARDIS!” on his own.  Outside of Doctor Who Magazine Carnell seems to be a staff writer for Marvel UK during this period, but biographical information is scarce.  He shares his name with a science fiction writer and editor who passed away in 1972 and seems to be of less note, now working in his own independent sphere overshadowed by the editor.  In terms of the art, “Time and Tide” is odd not for its artists, Dougie Braithwaite and Dave Elliott are no slouches of course the former doing the art for Garth Ennis’s Punisher MAX issues #13-18 and the latter having his own career with Marvel and DC, but this story has a guest letterer.  Tom Orzechowski is a letterer about as notable for his lettering as Starkings was, only taking these two issues because he was a fan of Doctor Who.  The lettering in this story is different, it’s clearly not the house style in terms of formatting and how Orzechowski portrays dialogue coming from far away which is a very nice touch.

 

It's a shame then, that despite the massive talent behind this story, “Time and Tide” does not really work.  The plot is the Doctor once again stumbling into a situation which is essentially the standard for this period, though this one has the nice little drama of being separated from the TARDIS as it’s swept away in the tide.  This is the planet Tojana which is having all of its land swept away in the tide, the natives don’t have a solution and are resigned to their fate.  That is except one, the Worrier, who at least is willing to entertain the Doctor’s idea to build a boat.  Sadly, that’s where the story ends, with the Doctor allowing this one last person hope on a raft in the ocean.  It’s an ending that Starkings and Carnell want the reader to believe is hopeful, but the art gives something different.  The reader has seen an extinction event and the Doctor just shrugs.  Add that to the natives being aliens while not visually but in terms of characterization are indigenous savages: they want to eat the Doctor and don’t have any technology of necessity while just not looking as the tide is encroaching.  It’s the major event for much of the two parts of the story, outside of some gorgeous art of space and that’s really a problem here.  This race of aliens is very much rooted in colonialist stereotypes of savagery.  It takes up so much of the story that the more interesting idea of a society already past the point of collapse due to a changing climate is just ignored.

 

Overall, at the very least “Time and Tide” has some very pretty art and the talent behind it is genuinely great.  Richard Starkings and John Carnell have at least an idea for a story here, even if what’s on the page doesn’t really work.  We’re leaving the period where they did not have much for the Seventh Doctor and moments have that peak through, though we’re still a few months away from where the Seventh Doctor’s Season 25 characterization can really make it over into the strip.  There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re still in the darkness of a directionless strip.  4/10.

The Best of Both Worlds Part II by: Michael Piller and directed by: Cliff Bole

 

“The Best of Both Worlds, Part II” is written by: Michael Piller and is directed by: Cliff Bole.  It was produced under production code 175, was the 1^st episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, the 75^th episode overall, and was broadcast on September 24, 1990.

 

The Best of Both Worlds was a gamble.  American television generally only became a serialized affair with the rise of services like HBO.  Star Trek is a franchise that thrived particularly on a different type of science fiction, speculative and working around ideas, but Star Trek: The Next Generation only began to work when it embraced the television conventions of the late 1980s.  Still, ending a season on a cliffhanger, only to resolve it in the next season’s premiere episode, is a gamble.  The show was already renewed for a fourth season when “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I” entered production, but there was no guarantee that the audience would take to the cliffhanger ending and come back for the thrilling conclusion.  Though from a production standpoint, there was an understanding that a recap would be necessary, that’s how “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II” opens.  Ultimately, it’s a gamble that paid off: more people tuned into this episode than the previous one.  Despite the obvious tension and frustration of having to wait between episodes, people were willing to let a cliffhanger hang for far longer than other audiences would wait.  “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I” is groundbreaking.  So where does that leave “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”?

 

“The Best of Both Worlds, Part II” has a script that is structured entirely as the falling action and resolution to the rising action and climax of “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I”.  In writing television, two-part episodes are at their best when this structure is followed.  It’s a specifically American way of structuring television, the cut was at the point of highest tension and the cliffhanger resolution is a failure on the side of the Enterprise.  It’s enough to get the ship away, of course, but it does not change the direction of the story.  Michael Piller ended the first part with the big, jaw dropping twist, so “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II” is an episode that is the second half to everything that the setup established.  Emotionally this means the episode is a release, which can feel just a little odd after the extreme tension of the previous episode.  This also has a knock on effect that it is the conclusions to the character arcs that have begun.  The climax being the cliffhanger means that essentially Riker’s character arc is concluded immediately: his decision to fire on Picard and the Borg is the man taking proper command of the Enterprise and putting the Federation above the captain he cares for.  There is an argument to be made that this episode then leaves nothing for Riker to grow, but that’s largely untrue.  This is more an example of people expecting further twists with “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II” when there aren’t any.

 

Piller sticks to his guns and keeps the episode on a track as the Enterprise works directly to stop the Borg, still wishing to save Picard but being understanding of the necessity to sacrifice him if the Borg make it to Earth.  The tension is still there, the chase to Earth and the destruction at the Battle of Wolf 359 continue to escalate the threat of the Borg.  The model work of the destroyed starships is particularly chilling, probably the most impressive model work of the show so far outside of reuse of models used for the films.  Jonathan Frakes as Riker may be leading the episode as captain, he is promoted, but Piller keeps Shelby, played by Elizabeth Dennehy, as part of the action.  She’s the one taking Riker’s role in this episode and Piller keeps writing her as her own character, Riker’s subordinate but not a love interest as a lesser writer might be tempted to do.  Frakes can play the Captain well, Riker deciding to stay on the ship on the end is almost a renewed life, though it’s also clearly signaling the end of his character arc in general.  He has reached a place of satisfaction.  While there are less moments in this episode for the rest of the crew as we are focusing on the falling action, Piller doesn’t neglect them.  The dialogue still is the strongest the supporting cast has been.  This extends beyond the dialogue, there are moments where in particular Michael Dorn and Gates McFadden are giving particularly physical performances that understand how to convey exactly where their characters are going despite Worf and Crusher staying squarely in the support role.  Colm Meany as O’Brien is also given a slightly larger role here, continuing the trend of pulling him slightly out of the background.

 

The performance on which “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II” hinges is actually Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan.  In the previous episode while she had a scene with Picard on the eve of battle, she is given a parallel scene with Riker about how far he must be willing to go to win.  It’s one of the episode’s few quiet moments as this is an episode where everything is constantly moving towards the obvious conclusion: separate Picard from Locutus of Borg first by getting him off the cube, and then by disconnecting his mind from the Borg.  There is a small scene early in the episode where we see part of the assimilation process, likely because they hadn’t quite designed the full costume when filming the first episode, but it’s a nice addition to show how little is actually needed from the Borg to assimilate someone.  The updates to the design also highlight subtly more of the body horror and Patrick Stewart’s performance in the episode as Locutus is far more sinister than the taste of the first episode.  Locutus is not a raving and ranting villain, it is instead an incredibly measured performance of this subtle confidence.  The Borg as a collective are an unstoppable force, “Q Who” already established that they are from incredibly far away and work as a collective.  This is cosmic horror and Stewart knows exactly how to play that horror.  Piller’s script is also excellent at knowing when Locutus needs to be quiet: after the kidnapping there’s very little dialogue from Stewart, instead giving his all to a physical performance.  It’s especially difficult as Stewart has to play opposite Brent Spiner who has mastered this type of physical performance.  The way Stewart cracks ever so slightly in the performance is fantastic.  Jean-Luc Picard as a character is hardly defined by his warmth and humanity before this point, but “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II” works because in taking away Picard’s humanity it reveals just how much was there underneath.  The few things Locutus says on the Enterprise cuts deep, especially towards Data as a lesser synthetic life form in the eyes of the Borg.

 

While it is impossible to watch this episode without knowing that Picard is going to be fine.  On broadcast, in a time without the Internet leaking plot developments during production, it is presented as a real possibility that Stewart is leaving the show and Frakes is taking over the role with Riker as captain.  What further elevates it is the decision in the end to keep some of the Borg implants for the final scene, adding this commitment from Star Trek: The Next Generation to having lasting consequences for plot developments like this.  The final scene of the episode keeps some of the Borg implants on Picard.  It is almost certain that the next episode will have them removed, but the rhetorical choice is there to not fully remove them.  Cliff Bole’s blocking of this final scene is all building to a final shot that does not read as victory.  The Enterprise crew got lucky, it was Data’s quick thinking and Picard’s humanity that took advantage of a loophole in Borg programming to cause the cube to self-destruct.  Picard is still suffering from his ordeal, that final shot communicates that he was just as much on the precipice as the planet Earth was.  Bole’s direction continues to be excellent as it was in “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I”, but it really is that final shot that is a perfect capstone to the episode.

 

Overall, Star Trek: The Next Generation’s fourth season does not open with a surprise, but it does open with a perfect example of how to resolve a cliffhanger.  There is a tendency to think that not attempting to one-up twists is somehow a failing, because with “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II” you can see where the episode is going.  That’s the point of where the episode has been going and is why the episode works so well.  Michael Piller has crafted a perfect two-part story that ends a season with a bang while understanding that the next season needs to open with the resolution to that bang, despite an ending that indicates that things are not over in more ways than one.  It’s also the best that Star Trek: The Next Generation has looked, Cliff Bole cementing himself as one of the show’s best directors, keeping much of the blocking tight to keep the tension and disguise just how the episode is restricted to the Enterprise.  “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II” takes it’s place as one of the best season openers of the entire franchise and makes The Best of Both Worlds an instant classic piece of television.  10/10.

The Best of Both Worlds Part I by: Michael Piller and directed by: Cliff Bole

 

“The Best of Both Worlds, Part I” is written by: Michael Piller and is directed by: Cliff Bole.  It was produced under production code 174, was the 26^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 74^th episode overall, and was broadcast on June 18, 1990.

 

The pre-credits sequence for “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I” is fascinating.  Rhetorically it is there to put the viewer in a state of anxiety.  While it introduces the first intrigue of the episode: what happened to the colony of New Providence to turn it into a crater, the speed at which this happens is incredibly quick.  It only lasts one minute and 20 seconds.  The impact barely has enough time to process a colony being wiped out as the camera pans over the crater before an immediate cut to the opening credits.  That’s the point, of course.  The sense of dread as the first episode builds to the suspicion of and then confirmation that it is in fact the Borg responsible for the destruction of New Providence.  Much like the pre-credits sequence, this is done relatively quickly, the confirmation coming at about the one-third mark of the episode so the second and third acts can be the Enterprise actively chasing the Borg in a reversal of “Q Who”, a decision that by the end of the episode has grave consequences.  Michael Piller’s script is clear that the Enterprise (and by extension the Federation) choosing to go after the Borg is simultaneously an ignorant decision, but the correct decision.  Nobody else is going to save them and people are already dying.  The Enterprise is going into danger and it is reiterated that there is not enough time before they will find the Borg to upgrade even their defenses properly, much less the weapons.  People are dying.  Any possible advantage against the Borg is necessary.

 

Seeking any possible advantage is Lt. Cmdr. Shelby, played by Elizabeth Dennehy.  Shelby is introduced with Admiral Hanson, played by George Murdock, as one of two experts on the Borg, investigating since the reports back to Starfleet in “Q Who”.  She is introduced as cool, confident, and competent.  A candidate to take the position of first officer as Riker for the third time has been offered a commission as captain of a different ship.  He refuses to take it, his entire arc in this episode is grappling with that decision, but Shelby fully believes the position on the Enteprise is hers.  Despite her qualifications, she is the woman to run into danger, investigating the ruins with Data before the rest of the away team and against Riker’s orders.  This is the wrong decision, she is lucky to not have negative consequences outside of further tension with Riker (she outright tells him she is taking his position).  She still gets invited to the poker game, a game of bluff thematically furthering the idea that Riker is a man who knows exactly how to bluff.  Hanson, on the other hand, is the latest in a long line of Starfleet officials.  He is a representative of the authority behind the Enterprise’s actions.  Physically, he is only present on the Enterprise in the opening act, but his real impact is these periodic updates on where the rest of Starfleet is.  These are further used to build the tension and Murdock plays the roles with this little hint of humanity that the audience believes him to be a real person that cares about the people being sent into battle.  “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I” is still an episode of a television show and does not have the budget to actually show many of the updates, so Hanson as a character is integral for creating those stakes.  Murdock keeps the tone intense, the episode slowly spiraling out of the Enterprise’s control.

 

The tone is not only these details, but also the actual production.  Cliff Bole is not a director unfamiliar to Star Trek: The Next Generation.  His work is some that I have praised and with “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I” there is an intense tightness to the shots and the blocking.  Some of this is the smallness of the sets, when the action shifts to the Borg Cube it is clear there is a limited number of sets, but simple redresses disguise this and enhance the conformity aspect of the Borg.  Much of the action is on the Enterprise, but the real money shots from Bole is that opening crater and the model work of the Enterprise and Borg Cube is excellent.  There’s also clearly been so much work that has gone into remastering the series for high definition.  But Bole is also continuing the trend of moving the camera with the action, even if it’s a simple dialogue scene.  There’s also little character touches like Geordi La Forge evacuating engineering and staying behind ever so slightly, having to roll under the door to get out.  It’s small touches like these and Wesley learning how to play poker (and losing) that help bring a lot of this episode together.

 

Michael Piller’s script is also notable for being quite progressive.  “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I” may be an episode at its core that centers two male characters in Riker and Picard, but it is not one to forget other characters exist.  Through the first two seasons the female characters especially on Star Trek: The Next Generation had the tendency to be written with the same brush, often a sexual one even in scenarios where sexualization is not necessary.  What Piller has done here with Troi, Crusher, and Guinan is give each of them an individual scene, not so much to stand on their own, but at the very least make them people who are written as colleagues, and importantly, friends.  They are not carrying the invisible baggage of telling the two men what is wrong, they are there for advice and Troi and Guinan especially.  Whoopi Goldberg is clearly playing Guinan in conversation with her role in “Q Who”, though here there isn’t the antagonistic force of Q so she is opposite Picard.  Troi is opposite Riker, explicitly being a counselor so he can get to the bottom of his own needs and desires.

 

Riker is the centerpiece of the episode.  His plot, which has been alluded to already, is one of a man coming to terms with who he wants and needs to be.  There is such love and passion for the Enterprise that despite the blood, sweat, and tears shed to become first officer, specifically on this ship.  His ambitions are to become captain, but they have stalled.  This is not in a bad way, to reiterate William Riker is a man who loves the Enterprise and her crew.  He butts heads with Shelby because of that love and is willing to sacrifice himself to the Borg if necessary.  The tragedy of “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I” is that the situation has held him back.  That’s the big twist.  The Borg themselves, a collective that erases individuality to just become another cog in a machine that is ever expanding, but this time they need an individual.  They specifically want Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and after being unable to outrun or trick the Borg into a defeat, Picard is abducted.  Now, I do think discussing the Borg in depth should wait for next week and “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II” because the commentary of a collective needing an individual feels like post-Cold War commentary on the Soviet Union needing to accept capitalism in the context of a 1990 episode of television (though ironically could also very easily be a metaphor for the unsustainable nature of capitalism that was becoming rapidly apparent after Reagan and Thatcher).  This is because the Borg while ever present a threat and terrifying, they actually aren’t on-screen all that much.  When they are it becomes clear more budget has gone into the designs of the individual bodies of the borg, taking specific inspiration in places from Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, but this is a story about people.  Picard is given nearly as much time as Riker, representing a diplomat going into war and that slowly tearing him apart as it really is against his values.  Both Jonathan Frakes and Patrick Stewart play their characters as parallels to one another.

 

The episode builds their individual arcs to a climax, culminating in that ending.  The dread, tension, and suspense all boil until we get to the big twist: after being captured Captain Jean-Luc Picard has been assimilated into the Borg as Locutus.  This is a twist that somehow I was unaware of.  I knew about the Borg, I even knew that they were the villains of The Best of Both Worlds, but I did not know about the twist.  It is a twist a genre savvy viewer can see coming, the Borg are clearly inspired by Doctor Who’s Cybermen, a relationship that has become symbiotic.  It’s also a slight lie to say that this boils over, it’s just at a rolling boil after the away team where basically every main character who hasn’t had a moment to shine yet does so, including Crusher with a phaser, discovers this.  They are only saved by a perfectly timed transporter.  You would think that’s the end.  But no, that’s a twist.  The cliffhanger has to be the inflection point, the point where everything the episode builds to has to change.  There has been one plot thread I have left out.  The Borg continually advance their technology whenever attacked, so the Enterprise has been developing a Hail Mary weapon, something they hope not to use.  The inflection point is acting Captain William Riker deciding, after being begged not to because there’s still a slim chance for Crusher to save Picard if retrieved, to fire.  The music quotes Holst’s “Mars, Bringer of War”, and the episode cuts to a To Be Continued caption.  It physically dropped my jaw.  It is a brilliant climax that is the culmination of Riker needing to listen to himself and choose.  Did he choose correctly? That’s discussion for when I actually see “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”.

 

Overall, “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I” at its core is a gamble.  It’s a season finale that ends on a cliffhanger and while CBS and Paramount Pictures had already started work on the fourth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, there still was that chance that it would not work.  It’s also currently riding this tightrope, as setup it’s brilliant.  Every aspect of the production slots into place to tell a story driven by where the characters have been going over the course of this entire season, and for Riker and Picard even earlier.  The script and direction both are building tension and every performance is on the top of their game, but it could all come crashing down with the potential for a poor second half.  Yet, it’s also the statement of a show that has fully found its identity and voice after the first two very rocky seasons and a third season that is very strong, but arguably lacking a mission statement as to its identity.  This is that mission statement and it is a perfect one.  10/10.

Bottom 5 Episodes of Season 3:

5. Booby Trap

4. A Matter of Perspective

3. Transfigurations

2. The High Ground

1. The Price

Bottom 10 Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation So Far:

10. The Price

9. The Schizoid Man

8. Too Short a Season

7. Shades of Gray

6. Home Soil

5. Justice

4. Up the Long Ladder

3. Angel One

2. The Child

1. Code of Honor

Top 5 Episodes of Season 3:

5. Deja Q

4. The Offspring

3. Yesterday's Enterprise

2. The Best of Both Worlds, Part I

1. Sarek

Top 10 Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation So Far...

10. The Survivors

9. The Enemy

8. Deja Q

7. Q Who

6. Elementary Dear Data

5.The Offspring

4. Yesterday's Enterprise

3. The Best of Both Worlds, Part I

2. Sarek

1. The Measure of a Man

Echoes of the Mogor! by: Dan Abnett with art by: John Ridgway and letters by: Annie Halfacree

 

“Echoes of the Mogor!” is written by: Dan Abnett with art by: John Ridgway, and lettering by: Annie Halfacree.  It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issues 143-144 (November-December 1988) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: A Cold Day in Hell! by Panini Books.

 

It’s incredibly refreshing to see John Ridgway return to the art for Doctor Who Magazine, entering the rotation of artists until 1992 which is quite surprising.  His use of shadows on “Echoes of the Mogor!” are of particular note, giving the strip back a lot of atmosphere and a tone that it had moved away from since he left the strip.  He is also doing his own inks for this story which is a particular interest because they are quite heavy.  This is a story taking place on a base that has been under siege for some time and from the first panel there really is a sense of isolation.  The shadows are closing on a lone survivor on the planet Mekrom.  Those first few pages are brilliant, the best material for the Seventh Doctor comic strip even sustaining it when the Doctor enters the narrative.  Dan Abnett’s script characterizes the Doctor as inherently curious about what he’s doing.  There’s a dead body and no signs of life, the reader also lacking information because we don’t quite see what kills this man, mostly.  Some of it is a bit too obvious of an almost reptilian monster, but it is a fantastic opening.  It builds until the emergency relief team arrives and the story immediately has this sense of being compressed.  Dan Abnett has two issues to tell his story, but is clearly framing it to be a typical four part Doctor Who story with the tone shifting at the halfway point from horror science fiction to military science fiction.

 

The genre shift of “Echoes of the Mogor!” becomes apparent that Abnett is using his influences, mainly Alien and Aliens on his sleeve, naming so many of his characters after actors, characters, and crew of those films that it almost becomes distracting.  While the relief team is in ¾ of the story, the biggest problem is the fact they are all references, not characters.  They are short hand for archetype and given no real understanding because we are moving at a breakneck pace to get to the big twist of the story.  The twist is in the title, the monsters are phantom echoes given form  because they are the dead native inhabitants, the sheer numbers and time since their deaths has amplified what they are.  It’s psychic warfare, which Abnett almost feels as if there’s going to be something more but he’s run out of time so the emergency team leaves since there wasn’t a murder and nobody to help.  The Doctor follows suit.  That’s where the story becomes a letdown because with even a third issue there could be a little more depth to the characters and a little more plot to explore to get something great.  Abnett does show promise, it is his early work and he does return to both the strip and to books and audio drama so it isn’t the last we’ll see of him.

 

Overall, “Echoes of the Mogor!” isn’t bad, it’s just a story that doesn’t quite reach its potential.  John Ridgway’s art does a lot of the heavy lifting to paste over how quickly the story actually goes which is the biggest problem.  The characters are weak while Dan Abnett is playing with some fantastic ideas, there just isn’t enough time to stop holding the story back from being great.  6/10.