Phew! Looks like Stewart didn't leave the show after all! Amusing bit of trivia - the guy who wrote the first part thought it would be his last script and when Roddenberry asked him to stay he had to write his way out of all the knots he'd made in the first part.
Of course, it seems very easy to make sense of why the deflector shield weapon doesn't work. Once they assimilated Picard they also assimilated knowledge of any preparations for battle that the Enterprise crew had been working on hitherto. The Borg then break off the engagement and resume their course towards Earth. They quickly inform Admiral Hanson who declares Picard to be a casualty of war implying that there should be no further attempts to recover him. Riker is officially promoted and they continue to try to find a way to neutralize the Borg in which the Borg can't adapt to. Meanwhile the Admiral is preparing for battle at Wolf 359. This story was originally supposed to be a three episode arc with this battle at Wolf 359 being shown. However, budget constraints made it impossible and although I think it would've been very cool, I also think it would've probably been too big of a bite at the time. They were only just getting to the point of fine tuning the pace of the shows. Wolf 359 was also a bridging point between TNG and DS9, when it is later written as the incident that results in the death of Commander Sisko's wife causing tension between Sisko and Picard at the beginning of that show.
And all of our hearts collectively break as we see Locutus being further worked on inside the Borg cube with but a single tear rolling down his face to show the audience that Picard was still inside there somewhere. I'd like to think that's why the Borg chose to move onto Earth without destroying the Enterprise first which would've been a better strategy for them since this Enterprise has been nothing but trouble since their first encounter. Riker reluctantly promotes Shelby to first officer because of her Borg expertise and they put aside their childish feuding for now. You can tell that this wasn't what Shelby had in mind for landing the spot of first officer of the Enterprise and her character grows up a little.
Then Riker, at the suggestion of Guinan, has to start thinking of how to form his own strategies that Picard wouldn't be able to anticipate. It's a good scene that I can't really describe well. It's filler space for what is the second part of an essentially hour long episode, but it's necessary. I got confused yesterday and slipped in that picture of the aftermath of the battle of Wolf 359. Riker's instincts are validated as one of the destroyed vessels they pass is the ship that he was being offered command of in the first part. This is the devastation of war. This is something they wouldn't touch with a 50 foot pole in the first season. Instead they tried to make every conflict about an outbreak of disease or saving a planet from natural disasters or always being able to reach an accord with diplomacy because they so desperately wanted the Star Trek universe to be a utopia without war. It's something that can't happen in real life on Earth, so it wouldn't happen in this science fiction universe either, and it was high time a little reality was faced. The result raises the bar of quality for all the storylines and gives the fans something to really commit to on behalf of their beloved characters.
But, of course, the Enterprise still wants Picard back whether or not Starfleet will approve so Riker tweaks a plan that Picard had knowledge of before his capture. They separate the saucer for the last time in the series. I guess they feel they'd overused it, but this was definitely the best use of it... much more like what it was intended to be used for, I'm sure. Picard watches on, ignoring the saucer section while they make a distraction to send out a shuttle pod.
It shows once again how the biggest weakness of the Borg is how they underestimate individual beings. Worf and Data are able to sneak in and steal Picard back. Then we get to see Picard walking around acting like a Borg. It's so wonderfully terrible. The phrase, "you will be assimilated" is first used in this episode and married forever to "resistance is futile" making it the most popular catchphrase since Peace and Long Life/ Live Long and Prosper. This is such a great episode. They shut Locutus down but are afraid that severing the link between he and the Collective will kill Picard. It's Data that wants to reverse the process and try to establish a link with the Collective via Locutus. In the original draft, both Picard and Data were supposed to be assimilated and I think the writer is glad he didn't go with that now after all. This is a smart, fast paced script.
And they run it right down to the end. You see the Borg cube passing Saturn and headed for Earth in the heart pounding, breath holding climax. It's just such a nice touch to add the threat to our home solar system in a science fictions show that's about exploring the unknown and being as far away from Earth as possible in most shows. The Borg are faster than the Enterprise and pass the Mars defense perimeter with no chance of them catching up.
As the clock is counting down they connect Data and Locutus with Troi standing by to sense if they are able to contact Picard's mind. It's a power struggle. They try to implant commands that will confuse the Borg, but they're all too complex or otherwise detrimental to their mission. And then we stand up and cheer when Picard reaches out to Data and tells him to implant the command "Sleep." All of this while the Enterprise is gearing up for its final Kamikaze maneuver to crash into the Borg cube. One of the most exciting endings ever. I can't even say that they ever effectively duplicated the intensity of a finally ever again.
It's a great commentary on how computers work. They implant the command just in time to shut the Borg cube down and put it in a state of hibernation. Once more, an away team is sent to confirm this and they discover that the command has caused a power feedback that will make the cube self destruct. Again, Riker makes the hard choice to allow that to happen even though their destruction will eliminate their opportunity to study their enemy and probably kill Picard. But, of course, it doesn't. Picard is left reeling, but out from under the Borg control. My guess is that the severing of their connection wasn't fatal because he was slowly starting to draw away from it on his own when he made contact with Data.
And his recovery involves those skin plates that were probably the idea behind the make up job of 7 of 9 in Star Trek Voyager when she's broken away from the Borg. And even though it's a happy ending they don't have Stewart playing it off as "all in a day's work" but rather with the dark weariness of someone who has been heinously traumatized. Very real; very relateable.
The other season finales were of equal excellence, but I think this one is still the best. It opened up a lot of avenues and cemented for TNG an original antagonist all of its own so that they could grow beyond the political tensions of TOS as Roddenberry envisioned. And it was done without discarding all of the old races in spite of that vision, giving it real depth. Five stars all the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment