3-08. Surrender

Data faces oblivion at the hands of his evil "brother," Lore.

Original Air Date: Apr. 6, 2023. Written by: Matt Okumura. Directed by: Deborah Kampmeier.


THE PLOT:

The Titan is now under the control of Capt. Vadic and the changelings. She immediately uses that control to cut off the Starfleet crew members' access to sensors and communications - which, as she observes, deprives them of both their eyes and their ears. She has a single demand: That Jack Crusher turn himself over to her. If he does not, then she will execute one member of the bridge crew every ten minutes, a threat she is positively giddy about enforcing.

There is only one way to wrest control back: Data, who remains locked in a battle for control against his brother, Lore. Only the partition between personalities is keeping Lore at bay. With no other options, Geordi reluctantly agrees to remove the partition. The hope is that Data will find the strength to prevail.

It quickly becomes apparent that the plan is failing. Lore begins taking Data's memories away, one by one. "I'm overpowering you, brother, as I always could. One lifeform replacing another. Evolution." And faced with his own extinction, Data doesn't even seem to be fighting back...


CHARACTERS:

Picard: Jack's instinct is to turn himself in, hoping that Vadic will spare the crew if she gets what she wants. Picard's conversation with her has left him knowing the exact opposite: That Vadic's hatred of solids is so all-consuming that once she has Jack, she is certain to kill everybody. He has a father's instinct to protect his newfound son; but as a commander, he understands that Jack can buy time for Data, and that ends up winning out.

Riker: Reunited with Deanna, Riker reveals one of the major reasons that he left: Deanna used her telepathic abilities to dampen his grief over his son. "Our son died, Deanna, and I needed to feel the grief! ...It was my last connection to him, and you tried to erase it." I like the way this is played. By this point, Riker has had the chance to deal with his own emotions. There's less overt anger in his voice and more a sense of lingering disappointment. He also listens to her point of view and reconciles with her fairly quickly.

Deanna: Her actions were in part motivated by self-defense. Riker was numbed by his own grief. Deanna was stuck feeling her grief, his grief, and their daughter's, all at the same time. Readers of my TNG reviews know that I wasn't the biggest fan of Deanna Troi - but Marina Sirtis is extremely good here. It helps that the script gives Deanna a sense of humor that was too often missing from TNG, particularly when she laments their house on Nepenthe: "We went there for Thad, but it's not really my cup of tea... That house, it's like it was designed by a cabal of retro prairie hipsters."

Seven of Nine: Everything about who she is makes it impossible for her to just stand by while Vadic prepares to execute crew members, but everything about the situation makes it impossible for her to actually do anything. She tries to direct Vadic's attention toward her instead of the crew - an effort doomed to failure, since it allows Vadic to be cruel to her as well as the bridge officers, all while demonstrating her own total control. Once the balance of power changes, Seven responds with a very Janeway-like ferocity.

Data/Lore: The episode's best moments belong to Brent Spiner in his familiar dual role. After Geordi lifts the partition, Lore is free to directly attack Data's very existence. He describes Data's memories as "meaningless memorabilia," while expressing resentment that he was abandoned while Data was showered with friendship, recognition, and respect. In the face of Lore's viciousness, Data seems to surrender and accept the inevitable - though I don't think it's a spoiler to say that there's more to it than that. The scenes between the two brothers are smartly written, with not only cleverness but some real emotional weight, and it's all wonderfully played by Spiner.

Jack Crusher: As he confessed last episode, he feels responsible for Riker's capture, and he does not want to be responsible for crew deaths. He attempts to use his newfound abilities to break Vadic's control by taking control of a bridge crew member to enter Picard's access code. The attempt fails, of course, or else this episode would be only about twenty minutes long, but it still shows Jack's resourcefulness. He wants to know what's happening to him and what that red door in his visions means. However, he admits to Troi that he's also terrified by what he might find.

Capt. Shaw: He and Seven are paired throughout the episode - again - and he comes across as the latest (and easily most cynical) of her series of mentors. This episode sees him continuing his season-long role of saying true things that the other characters don't want to hear. He's absolutely right when he tells Seven that she should have blown the turbolift when he and Vadic were inside it. When she protests that she's not willing to trade lives, he scoffs: "You are a Starfleet officer. You don't have the luxury to only make choices that feel hunky-dory."

Capt. Vadic: With Vadic in full control, actress Amanda Plummer gets to properly chew some scenery. Vadic is practically a child at play as she takes the bridge. She waves her hands in a ghastly mimic of an orchestra conductor as she pipes in the sounds of the crew screaming. She treats her execution threat as a game, demanding names and then personal details from her potential victims before finding a way to inflict as much cruelty as she can to as many people as possible in a single action. Bizarrely, though, when she's face-to-face with Jack, she seems genuine in saying that she wants to help him... though I'm quite certain that her definition of "help" is something no sane person would want. Oh, and her final line is particularly memorable.


THOUGHTS:

The previous episode was mostly setup, maneuvering the characters into position. Well, Surrender pays it off with a tense and well-paced hour of television.

This is structured around a time-honored TV format: The hostage episode. Vadic has control of the ship, holding the bridge crew literally at gunpoint. A nice variation on the usual setup, though, is that there's no negotiation. Vadic despises solids and has no interest in talking to them. She announces to the ship that she wants Jack, and she announces that she'll kill crew members every ten minutes until she gets him - all one-way communication. The only response that can be given is for Jack to appear in the turbolift.

Amanda Plummer is terrific here. Vadic has fully embraced her mania, reveling in her own sadism, but she's still calculating. She attacks Jack's conscience by making the hostages reveal personal details, pushing Jack into turning himself in. Then, once Jack comes to her, she's suddenly sincere, and it doesn't come across as an act. A weak performance would make all of this feel fractured, but Plummer keeps it unified. Vadic is as smart as she is damaged, a one-time victim who has become a monster.

As good as Plummer is, Brent Spiner is even better. At his worst, Spiner has sometimes leaned into ham. That doesn't happen here. Lore may sneer archly, but - much like Vadic - script and performer show us the emotional pain at his core. TNG viewers understand that Lore was deactivated because he became dangerous. To Lore, however, he was rejected in favor of an inferior clone, one who was more obviously robotic than him. Meanwhile, Data just accepts Lore's anger, something that seems meek until the final pieces fall into place. Spiner gives us, to all intents, three different performances within the episode, keeping all three variations distinct and at the same time related to each other. It's impressive work that I would rank among his best in the franchise.

Matt Okumura's script is very good at tying both threads together. There are the obvious plot links: Vadic's control of the ship prompts Picard and Geordi to risk lowering the partition between Data and Lore. There is also the thematic link, that Vadic and Lore are both motivated by resentment against those they believe wronged them. There's even an echo of this in the Riker/Deanna scenes, with Riker having been legitimately wronged by his wife. Unlike Lore and Vadic, however, Riker listens to Deanna's explanation and forgives, making their interactions a healthier counterpoint to the villains.

As was true of No-Win Situation, this episode offers viewers a proper ending. The situation set up last episode, that dominates this episode, is resolved. The ending teases what's coming in the final two installments - but this scenario is closed out in a way that is (again) entirely satisfying. The willingness of Season Three to resolve its threads is one of the biggest ways in which I think this season has improved on Season Two.


OVERALL:

Surrender juggles multiple threads while still finding something for every member of the cast to do. It's tense, it moves along nicely, and it even offers some strong emotional scenes in the exchanges between Data and Lore. Overall, this stands as a strong episode in a very strong season.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Dominion
Next Episode: Võx

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3-03. Seventeen Seconds.

Riker (Jonathan Frakes) clashes with Picard.

Original Air Date: Mar. 2, 2023. Written by: Jane Maggs, Cindy Appel. Directed by: Jonathan Frakes.


THE PLOT:

The Titan flees into the nebula, with Vadic's massive Shrike on its tail. Capt. Shaw's plan is to hide inside the nebula until Engineering is able to repair the warp engines. Before that can happen, Vadic finds them. Shaw is injured in the ensuing attack, and he places Riker in command before being taken to sickbay.

Jack and Seven are able to discover how the Shrike keeps finding them, which leads to a disagreement between Picard and Riker. Riker wants to create a false trail to buy time for them to run for safety. Picard thinks they should lay the same trail - but use it to lure Vadic's ship into an ambush, something Riker believes would amount to suicide!

Meanwhile, Raffi meets her secretive handler: Worf (Michael Dorn). He tells her that he isn't with Starfleet but is instead "freelance." He believes that the terrorist attack on Starfleet was a prelude for something even more devastating. Fortunately, he has a lead - and following it leads him and Raffi to a startling discovery!


CHARACTERS:

Picard: Though he tells Riker to start calling him "Number One," he refuses to accept that he's not in command. The problem is not that he argues with Riker about the correct approach. As Decker pointed out to Kirk in The Motion Picture, presenting alternatives is part of a First Officer's role, and there is strategic merit in his suggested course. But he openly bickers with Riker in front of the crew even after Riker has made his decision, and he doesn't seem to recognize how wildly inappropriate that is.

Riker: So far this season I've been more impressed with Jonathan Frakes's Riker than I have been with Picard himself, and this episode is his best showcase so far. Frakes dominates every scene he's in, balancing the character's humor and caution to good effect. He also plays a new note here: anger. After half an episode of being browbeaten by Picard, he flares up and reminds his old friend that he is the one in charge. This is effective - and his cold anger a little later is even more so.

Worf: "I am Worf: son of Mogh, House of Martok; son of Sergey, House of Rozhenko; bane to the Duras family; slayer of Gowron. I have made some chamomile tea. Do you take sugar?" The end of Disengage revealed Raffi's handler to be none other than Worf. This signals an important shift for the season - mainly, that I will no longer mind so much when the action cuts away to the Raffi subplot. Michael Dorn slips seemingly effortlessly back into the role, and his dry line deliveries are enormously entertaining. Critically, Worf has changed in the intervening years (which actually checks off one of my wishlist items). He's still ready for action, but he now prefers to think before acting. "A fight is rarely worth dying for," he proclaims - which marks a pretty big shift from, "Today is a good day to die!"

Raffi: She is experiencing withdrawal after taking a narcotic in front of the Ferengi gangster. This puts her even more on edge than usual, and I'll give actress Michelle Hurd credit in that there is actually a difference between "withdrawal Raffi" and normal Raffi. It's amusing to see her bicker with Worf, with him now having to be the voice of restraint for a hothead. Worf compliments her by telling her that she has the heart of a warrior - though I half expected him to add something about also having the brain of a Pakled.

Dr. Crusher: She doesn't flinch when the ship's doctor is dismissive toward her, ignoring the disrespect - right up until the doctor's lack of experience almost costs Shaw his life. When that happens, she all but elbows the younger woman out of the way to take over the captain's care. She meant to tell Picard about Jack, but multiple attempts on Picard's life convinced her not to. As she says, being Picard's son would have put a target on Jack. "As a mother, your whole being is about protecting your child. I thought I could protect mine. I didn't know if I could protect yours."

Capt. Shaw: I really wish his belligerence hadn't been so overdone in the first episode, because he's been nothing but well-written ever since. Once they have a temporary respite from the Shrike's assault, he tells the officers who have spent too many hours on duty to rest while they can, indicating that his concern for his crew's welfare is no act. After he's injured, he doesn't hesitate to put Riker in command. Even in sickbay, he still is thinking about his ship and the situation, asking Jack exactly how Vadic keeps finding them inside this nebula.

Jack Crusher: Shaw's question sets him to thinking. He looks at the bloody footprints on the floor of sickbay, and he reaches a realization: Vadic is finding them because they are leaving traces behind them. When he's denied access to the bridge, he goes to Seven with his suspicions, which leads directly to the episode's major revelation.


SEVENTEEN SECONDS AND THE VISUAL ELEMENT:

Seventeen Seconds returns Jonathan Frakes to the director's chair. Can he direct the rest of the season? He doesn't change the lighting style, but he makes it work. In this episode, the frame isn't just dark - Attention is given to where the light in a given shot is coming from, and the light sources are used in such a way that the focus of each scene is clearly visible even when the bulk of the frame is in shadow. The tone created by the darkness is maintained, but in a way that grants importance to whatever on screen isn't in darkness.

Frakes also uses the space between characters to good effect. When Picard talks to Beverly about Jack, they are on opposite sides of the frame, with the bulk of the shot being the empty space between them. Picard and Riker are also distanced within shots during their disagreements, this time less by proximity than focus. The focus shifts from one to the other, not only according to who is speaking but also to showcase their (particularly Riker's) reactions. Eventually, Riker loses his temper (not without reason) - at which point he is left alone in the frame in lighting that's both cold and diminishing as the shot ends.

All of this is highly effective, the visuals maintaining the style and tone of the season while also connecting to the characters and their relationships. The result is that a visual palette that I've been fairly vocal in disliking is suddenly made to work - though there's no saving the heavy-handed Blade Runner planet of the Raffi subplot. At least this episode ends with an indication that she's finally going to leave for a hopefully less derivative setting.


OTHER MUSINGS:

Beyond the excellent directing, Seventeen Seconds finally delivers a Season Three episode that I thoroughly enjoyed! The episode benefits from a good script that delivers strong character moments even as it moves the plot forward. The Raffi/Worf thread gets connected to the main story, mainly in that Worf and Raffi reach the same realization that the Titan crew do about the nature of the threat. This revelation also raises the potential for new directions.

It's well structured. The first Act allows the characters room to breathe as the Titan hides from the Shrike. Then the enemy ship finds them, Shaw is injured, and Riker is put in charge. Further complications ensue: The nebula is more than it seems, making it "ill-advised" to just try flying through it. Vadic seems prepared for their every move, even though it should be impossible for her to track them. Picard and Riker are at odds over strategy; critically, both present valid arguments, making the viewer uncertain which of them is right (though there's little question that Picard's behavior is inappropriate).

These and additional complications build and combine to strong effect. The reason Vadic can find them is linked to episode's major revelation, which itself feeds the Picard/Riker conflict. This is intercut with Worf and Raffi reaching the same realization, connecting the two strands even though they have yet to fully converge. Most importantly, every new development puts the heroes in a weaker and more perilous position, which makes for a gripping hour of television.


OVERALL:

Seventeen Seconds is easily the best episode yet of Picard's third season. Up to this point, I haven't been particularly gripped by Season Three. This episode changes that, and it does so right out the gate. For the first time this season, I find myself fully looking forward to the next installment.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Disengage
Next Episode: No-Win Scenario

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3-02. Disengage.

Picard meets his adversary: grinning, soft-spoken Capt. Vadic (Amanda Plummer).

Original Air Date: Feb. 23, 2023. Written by: Christopher Monfette, Sean Tretta. Directed by: Douglas Aarniokoski.


THE PLOT:

Picard and Riker have found Beverly - unconscious, being kept alive inside a medical pod overseen by the only other person on the ship: Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), her twenty-year-old son (who doesn't look a day over thirty). Jack tells them that they've been dodging their pursuers for two weeks. He denies any knowledge of who is chasing them or what they might want.

One thing is clear: The Crushers' small ship lacks the resources to fend off the enemy. They are saved only by the intervention of the Titan, with Capt. Shaw coming to their rescue against his better instincts.

After Shaw beams them aboard the starship, he receives a transmission that puts a face to their adversary: the genial, smiling Capt. Vadic (Amanda Plummer). Vadic claims to be a bounty hunter, informing them that Jack Crusher is a wanted criminal.

The Titan had to cross out of Federation space to rescue Picard, and the nebula Jack and Beverly were hiding in has made it impossible to simply call Starfleet for reinforcements. In addition, Vadic's weaponry is such that she's basically flying a single-ship armada. She gives Picard and Shaw one hour to either surrender Jack Crusher or be destroyed!


CHARACTERS:

Picard: He's clever enough to recognize that Jack is the enemy's target. He plants transport inhibitors that save the young man... but he also forgets to deactivate them when the Titan comes to the rescue. He's in a position of weakness with Capt. Shaw, who is determined to be as unimpressed with him as possible. Still, he feigns being in charge to both Jack and Vadic. In the end, he comes up with a tactic to shake Vadic, one which Shaw goes along with - but it feels less like a victory than like something that just buys the Titan a little more time.

Riker: He gets a less robust role in this episode, mainly just acting as Picard's support. He does recognize the stalemate between Picard and Shaw, however, and he knows that something has to be done to break it. This leads him to take decisive action near the end.

Seven of Nine: When Shaw stops her from immediately flying to Picard's rescue, the bridge crew seems startled by this. Seven shifts tactics at this point, pointing out to Shaw that if he insists on following regulations to the letter, he'll be remembered as the man who let Picard and Riker die - an approach that proves effective in getting his attention.

Raffi: Still stuck in subplot-land, with her instincts unable to let her accept her handler's simple answer to the terrorist attack. She disobeys an order to "disengage" and instead follows a lead to Sneed (Aaron Stanford), a Ferengi crime lord. All of this is... fine. But the only moment in this strand that catches my eye is the very last part of her last scene. Outside of that, Raffi's strand is the least engaging part of the episode. Again.

Jack Crusher: After only appearing briefly in the premiere, Ed Speleers' Jack gets a much larger slice of the action. We open on him talking his way through an interaction with a Fenris Ranger (Robert G. Morgan) two weeks earlier. He seems to have the situation in hand... until the Ranger sends word to "the Marked Woman," and we realize that this kicked off the current chase. Jack has the manner of a con artist, but he's not unlikable, and Speleers does well with his expanded role. But why insist on him being twenty? The timeline would still line up if he was thirty, and... Sorry, Speleers looks great and all, but it's obvious that he's older than that.

Vadic: This episode gives the enemy a face: Amanda Plummer as Capt. Vadic. She speaks in a soft, somewhat exaggerated Southern drawl, seeming like she's almost settling in for a chat with Picard and Shaw even as she threatens them with destruction. Based on this appearance, I'm not yet sure whether she's going to end up being great or annoying. She works well enough here, but I hope she receives some more varied notes in later episodes.

Capt. Shaw: His characterization is vastly improved from the first episode. The thing is, Shaw isn't actually wrong about anything. Every one of his direct responses and objections to this situation, and to Picard and Seven having forced him into it, are valid. He's still pointlessly antagonistic, but the dial on that has mercifully been turned down a bit. He knows to present a unified front with Picard when talking to Vadic; and when Picard gives his final (predictable) reason for wanting to protect Jack, he stops arguing and gives in.


THOUGHTS:

I promise I'm not going to complain about this in every Season Three review, but I really don't like the visual look of this season. I don't like how dark the screen is, and I don't care for the heavy color grading in some scenes. I understand that the showrunners are trying to create a tense, oppressive mood... but it's overaggressive, and some touches (notably the direct visual references to Blade Runner in the Raffi subplot) feel hackneyed.

That aside, Disengage is a decent second episode. It benefits from improved characterization for Shaw, who's still an antagonist but who isn't actually in the wrong. In the premiere, he was a one-note pompous bureaucrat; in this episode, he actually works, mainly because the writers cut back on the pointless belligerence and make sure that we understand his perspective.

There's some tension inherent in the ticking clock of Vadic's deadline, which is enhanced by the unanswered question as to how trustworthy or not Jack might actually be. There's no question that Vadic is a villain, but she doesn't come across as someone who does things for no reason. This leaves open the question of how Jack managed to provoke this pursuit.

The episode does suffer from a common problem with streaming series: Its role is mainly to connect the first episode with the next, and it isn't even remotely a complete unit in itself. It remains entertaining throughout, though. This season doesn't have me fully on board yet - but I am feeling hopeful that it might as it goes along.


OVERALL:

Since Disengage comes across mainly as connective tissue, it's hard for me to fully judge it in its own right. It does its job. It builds up the story, adding complications while introducing new characters and new elements. Judged by itself, though, I don't think it's particularly better than OK.

At the same time, it's definitely no worse than OK - and by adding some layers to Shaw while giving several good moments to the more established characters, it raises hopes for the rest of the season to build on it.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: The Next Generation
Next Episode: Seventeen Seconds

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