Certainly, nothing would ever be the same after this one.
The Enterprise receives a distress call from an outlying colony but when they arrive they find the entire place obliterated with only a crater at the the center of what used to be the town. I realize that this isn't' the first time there's been a good use of scenery in the third season but I can't restrain myself from pointing out how much better everything looks by comparison to the first season when they were hand making the sets of desolate planets (second pic from The Last Outpost.) Also to remind you that if they'd introduced the Borg at the end of the first season like they'd planned, they would've had bad set work to overcome amongst other burdensome difficulties in developing them into the most menacing Star Trek antagonists ever. The timing for this was just right.The gaping crater is much more moving to the emotions than a fog machine.
They beam an admiral aboard to discuss the Borg and how unprepared they all are even after a year of having to prepare. This makes a lot of sense actually because even with running the kind of war games they were running in Peak Performance, they have no way of really knowing how to treat an enemy like the Borg except in theory. So they also bring on Lieutenant Commander Shelby who is a Borg expert and has been, presumably studying and strategizing on how to deal with the Borg since the first report of them after Q Who. Connecting the timeline with previous episodes is what makes stories like these great. The layers slowly build. And because it's a two part episode, there's a slow build up in this episode too. Riker is up for command again. They'd nearly worn this out in the previous seasons because it was always accompanied with a lot of whining self-reflection and everyone saying goodbye prematurely because, of course, you know it won't happen. Too many of those "false finishes" start to wear very thin and it may have this time too, but threatening Riker with a promotion in this episode took on a more business tone in this episode. This time there's an admiral pressing for it not only because it's for his own good, but because good captains are needed with the Borg threat looming ever closer. There's also the fact that the Enterprise is the place everyone wants to be. And Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehy, who I loved as the original Blake on Guiding Light) is young and ambitious and makes no secret of wanting to be the first officer of the Enterprise. Riker does do some self reflective speculating with Troi as to why he keeps putting it off, but it's eclipsed by the troubles he has with Shelby.
There's a great tension between them as she really is very qualified and
indeed as expert as she claims as a Borg tactician and she's tireless in her efforts to prepare the Enerprise for battle. But her attitude is
almost unbearable as she attempts to take command of the situation away from Riker without even so much as a blush. On the one hand you can see how Riker feels affronted, but on the other hand a person can see Shelby's view of how he's holding up progress as far as getting the ship as ready as it can be.
They don't mess around too long with all of this in fighting though. Soon enough they get called into action as the Admiral sends them a message that another ship has been engaged before his own signal goes bad. The Enterprise moves into the carnage to finally engage the Borg for the first time without Q to help. The atmosphere of the episode is so intense and heart pounding. The Borg not only attack but they hail Picard personally and it's a bit unnerving to everyone.
The attack is almost entirely one sided in favor of the Borg showing you just how dangerous they are and how hopeless the situation is. Shelby wastes no time in giving orders on how to counter the Borg's tractor beam hold on the Enterprise which buys them time to hide in a nebula. Star Trek II will forever be the turning point of the franchise. Not only is this a tried and true tactic via that movie, but the Paulson Nebula of this episode is the same visual of the Mutara Nebula from Wrath of Khan.
During this brief rest period they stop to consider why the Borg are interested in Picard and why they weren't just eliminated immediately. They consider options including another saucer separation, but this idea isn't seized upon as readily by Riker and even Picard as it would've been in previous seasons. They were finally starting to see that stuff like that had to be saved for very special occasions. They do manage to turn the deflector shield into a weapon powerful enough to destroy the Borg cube and it's their only hope. Picard also does a tour of the ship since the it's agreed that their chances of survival are very slim. It's a great Picard moment and it also reacquaints everyone with the story that Guinan's people were destroyed by the Borg as well.
Then we get to the nub of the Borg's intentions. They run the Enterprise out of the nebula and lock onto them sending drones over to neutralize the bridge crew and capture Picard. It all happens very fast. They explain to Picard that he is meant to be a liaison between humans and Borg. Of course, he refuses to cooperate, but this is a critical part of the entire Borg concept... Humans give the Borg so much trouble and make things so difficult for them that they need a liaison to help assimilation of our race to go smoother. They then speed away towards Earth and it's in this episode that Earth is first referred to as sector 001.
They make immediate arrangements to go get him, but suddenly Riker is captain and gets a taste of his own medicine with even Troi backing up the protocol that the Captain shouldn't be leading the away team to the Borg ship to recover Picard. I find this satisfying since his character was so snotty about this sort of thing in the first season, which I realize is the fault of the early writing, but it was a necessary dialogue and it made sense. Shelby leads the away team. They find Picard's uniform. They sabotage their warp drive. And then while they're defending against the Borg that are coming to neutralize them, they are shocked to see that Picard has been assimilated. I submit that nobody could've predicted this when the episode first started. It was a bold move on the part of Star Trek and made a magnificent cliffhanger.
They return and tell everyone the bad news and then they're hailed by Picard. His designation is now Locutus of Borg. "Locutus" is Latin for "one who speaks" which fits with the liaison role Picard has been given and it also fits doubly with the fact that Picard is the most diplomatic captain of the franchise. It's the first time that the phrase "resistance is futile" is used. And it's the first time that any Star Trek would end the season in a cliffhanger setting the precedent for the rest of this series and all the others to follow. It ends with Riker giving the order to fire the deflector weapon in spite of all the insinuation throughout the episode that Riker couldn't make the hard choices and that perhaps that's why he'd never taken a post as captain. This climax is one of the greatest ever in the series. How horrifying. The character of Picard was always written the best even in the weakest episodes and he was very beloved even at this point. If you can believe it, there was some question over whether or not Stewart would return to the series in the fourth season which is one of the reasons for this close brush with him being written out. Can you imagine? This episode and its second part are truly one of the best episodes of the series. They're in everyone's top ten favorite episodes including mine. Five stars, of course.
No comments:
Post a Comment