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 3, 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.